I'm just trying to draw this out...and out...and out...

I really will wrap up all of the Ukraine pictures. Probably within the next two or three days. I'm about tired of having it on my to-do list everyday and never getting it checked off. Here are some of the 10 or 11 pictures that I snapped on our last day in Poltava. I wasn't thinking very photographically at the time, unfortunately.

Vova taught Alex, Juliana, and Julie to write their names in Ukrainian and Russian in between classes. The Ukrainian students found no end of entertainment from this.

Our evening program on the fourth night centered around discussion groups, using the game 'Soularium' (produced by Campus Crusade). Lots of great conversation was had, Vova shared, the girls on our team (minus Alex and me) sang, and we hung out for a looooong time afterward.

Amiee, Victoria, and I were missing Nataly. :(

Our sweet friend, Anya, who we got to see so infrequently but always loved spending time with. She came out to visit with us our last night.

Some of my favorites! Nastia, Yulia, and Olya.

Dasha. She's such a nut.

Our week in Poltava was truly blessed; we had tons of work to do, not too much sleep, and fantastic new friends.

I realize that last sentence sounds VERY lame. It's ok. I'm a professional wordsmith, guys.

Photojournalism...sort of...

...but not really. My bff, Kat, is actually trained in photojournalism, so she's going to laugh and potentially roll her eyes when she reads that title. Despite that, here are pictures of Day 3/Night 2:

Juliana (blonde hair, far left) and Matt (dark hair, far right) chatting with their groups. If you squint, you can see Vova's head bobbing over the top of everyone else's heads.

Switch to the other side of the room: Julie (dark clothes, back to the camera) and Alex (back table, blonde hair) doing the chatting on the other side of the room. This class was super great to talk to and spend time with.

Evening Program #2 was Game Night. Big hit! Ukrainians love a good game! We set the room up into stations. There were originally four...almost 90 people showed up that night, so we had to last-minute add another station! We had almost NO room, but everyone had a great time. This particular game requires the team to stand on the table cloth and then flip it over, using only their feet- and they're not allowed to step off of it.

Stas likes to "pose"

This game requires the entire team to travel from the start line to the finish line, but they have to have their feet touching at all times. If anyone loses foot contact, the whole team has to start over. Yikes!

I didn't get an action shot of this game, but the goal of the game was to keep a balloon in the air for a certain amount of time. However, after you've hit it with one hand, that hand goes behind your back and you can't use it again. After going through that round of the game, everyone has to hold hands and keep the balloon in the air. Sounds simple and basic, but this was always the rowdiest game to calm down when it was time to rotate stations...

In this game, the team has to get the dowel rod from standing to the ground without anyone losing contact with the dowel at any given time. It's actually quite tricky.

Friends: Alina and Dasha

Alex and her new little friend.

This was actually not staged. Completely candid.

Sweet (married!) friends: Maya and Vova. Check out Vova's shirt from last year's Union group!

Dasha and Celia: same spirit, different nationalities.

Night 2 went exceptionally well. Lots of great conversation was had, connections were made, and we hit a much larger number of attendees than we could ever have expected. SO good!

I WILL update soon.

Promise. I haven't had a chance to be with my computer (where the pictures are) and sit down and commit time to documenting. I WILL finish documenting Ukraine.

Just not tonight...sleepy...

And she updates...many days later...

Sorry for the delay...I've been beyond tired this week and couldn't even muster up the energy to blog the past few days. Isn't that pitiful? I thought so, too...

Anyway, our second day in Ukraine was also quite full of classes (I think Team A had 5 classes on Tuesday). We started our day at a different school than our primary focus school. Because we were working with a lower-level group of speakers, we had to tweak our lessons ever so slightly, but it worked out just fine. Matt was a huge hit with the female set, which was pretty funny to watch. The group really perfected their presentations of their pictures and life stories. I know they got SUPER tired of it before the end of the week, but the Ukrainian students absolutely LOVED getting to learn about their lives and see pictures of everything.

At the end of our day, we had a class to teach at the private school (it was the same school where we had worked with the little guys the day before). They divided us into two groups because there were two small classes of about 5.

*Semi-funny story: one of our teammates (she really will remain identity-less, so I'll call her Z) had a super upset stomach when we got to the private school. I helped her locate the bathroom... Let me paint a picture for you of our location; you know, to set the stage for this story. This private school is located in the bowels of a building that houses lots of offices for various and sundry businesses. However, like most Ukrainian work places, the hallways are pitch black (theory: flashback to the Soviet Union. Ukrainians really just don't turn on lights except in the room of immediate use, so hallways are almost always completely dark.). We were stumbling and tripping in the dark on the uneven floors. The bathroom was a floor up from where we were teaching, and I promise you that the walkway into the stairwell had prison bars. I kid you not.

Anyway, we got upstairs and were both coughing and gagging from the overwhelming haze of cigarette smoke. The bathroom, surprisingly, did not contain squatty potties. However, once we started investigating, we realized it would have been better if it had...None of the toilets had seats and every single one was full of...stuff...ew. It smelled bad but not the worst ever. Z was feeling really bad, so I went back downstairs to give her some privacy.

Come to find out, she had an adventure. Ukrainian bathrooms notoriously are toilet paper deficient, so we always carry tissues in our bags. Unfortunately for Z, she'd forgotten to slip hers into her bag that morning, and guess what- no t.p. According to her retelling of the story, she went through a few options:

a) Don't wipe. NO.

b) Use hand. NOOOOOOO.

c) Ask lady in next stall. Um, no Russian...

d) Dig in bag and find notebook paper. Hmmm...

She went with option d, thank goodness. She actually ended up using a sheet of paper from her sketch pad. Oi...discomfort...At the end of the process, though, she won an "I've had a real missionary experience" award.

For our evening program, we made a virtual tour of Union. We set up the room to look kind of like an airplane, passed out Union bookmarks to be used as "tickets," had our flight attendants (Juliana and Kayleigh) give the pertinent instructions, and then we each narrated pictures of ourselves in our "natural habitats." The Ukrainian students really enjoyed seeing pictures of us at school, so all in all, I think it was a hit. Vova gave a short message, and then we spent a lot of time visiting and getting to know students. Julie, Matt, and Daniel got into some particularly great and meaningful discussions that carried over into the following days. Yea! I didn't actually get pictures of that night...I know...fail...but I hope you enjoyed the bathroom story!

Matt talking about the U.S.

Alex sharing about her family and friends.

Julie leading a game/making friends.

Me and the Mary Ellen look-alike, Masha!

So, someone had the idea a while back to create a bobble head that looks like our University president. Then, someone else had the idea to start taking pictures with him in different places, Flat Stanley-style. All of the teams that went out over Spring Break took one. Here's one of our pictures. I'm holding him, even though you can't see him very well. It's weird...we know.

On the electrical outlet and how Juliana will never hear the end of it

Remember this?

Electrical outlet in the Cooperative University

Some info about Ukrainian electricity:

1. The plugs are European (not including the UK), meaning that everything is round and has some different features from outlets/plugs in the US.

2. The voltage is 220 (as opposed to the American 110) and therefore emits a stronger current.

3. Electricity in Ukraine is very unstable. Anyone remember this?

4. Sticking fingers into any electrical outlet is a) what?! Did you read that right?? (yes, in fact, you did) and b) cause for a lifetime of ribbing.

Having said that, here goes the tale:

Once upon a time, there was a girl named...let me see...let's call her Luliana (you know, to protect the guilty). She was a spunky one with long golden hair and a penchant for exploring things that are best left unexplored. Whilst traveling abroad with a group of similarly-aged friends and teaching her third English class of the day, Lulu (as she will henceforth be called) became inquisitive about matters related to foreign affairs, namely electricity in Ukraine. She had never before seen such things as rounded electrical outlets and decided it would be best to lean in for a closer examination.

In the course of her examinations, she discovered a few differences in the outlets she had always known and the new outlets in Ukraine. Besides the obvious difference in shape, these new outlets also had metal protrusions that intrigued her. What could the metal possibly be used for? Why would there ever need to be metal attached to an electrical socket-ours do not include metal...? And, most importantly, if I stick my finger in and push on it, will it retract into the socket?

Meanwhile, the rest of Lulu's team were preparing for the lesson- unpacking supplies, discussing the layout of the room, and deciding how best to divide the students. Little did they know of the internal struggle happening just inches from their elbows (yes, inches. Those classrooms are small, dear readers). That is, until Erin saw Lulu jump halfway out of her skin.

"Lulu, are you ok??" she asked in concern.

"That outlet shocked me," Lulu replied, looking stunned and shaky.

"Oh my goodness...how did that happen? How close were you standing to it?" Erin had great concern over this development, thinking that Lulu had been shocked by sparks jumping out of the outlet, which would, incidentally, be a major fire hazard and reason to run away.

"I stuck my finger in there."

Erin stared in stunned silence. She also asked "why?" over and over. The answer? Lulu just wanted to see if the metal protrusions would retract or move.

Really??

Yep. That was the entire motivation behind STICKING HER FINGER INTO AN ELECTRICAL OUTLET!

The best part?

She. Did. It. Again. Later that night, in order to test whether or not all outlets in Ukraine would shock her the same way, she stuck her finger another one.

This is a true story.

Sorry, how many classes are we teaching today?

We had a SUPER busy week in Ukraine. It was a good busy, but it was very packed. Our team of 9 (me, Amiee, Alex, Juliana, Julie, Celia, Kayleigh, Matt, and Daniel) divided into two smaller teams for the week. That way, we could cover more ground in the classroom. Boy...did we cover ground! I estimate that each team (A and B) taught about 17-18 classes each last week.

Y'all, that's a lot. In four days. On top of jet-lag. I'm just saying...

My team (team A...stands for Team Awesome, of course) taught 6 classes our first day. Six, y'all. Because our group was at the school that had- generally speaking- some of the best English speakers, we were able to do a lot of discussion-based activities. Our Union students (Juliana, Julie, Alex, and Matt) brought pictures from home (I pretty much harangued the whole team before we left the States that they'd better bring pictures or I'd haunt them in their sleep) and became champs at telling their stories over and over and over while keeping a fresh, non-I-have-done-this-72-times-already-and-don't-want-to-say-it-ever-again approach (by the end of the week, Julie was reciting Juliana's entire life presentation without a single flaw because of hearing it so much!). The Ukrainian students loved it! We also took copies of our school paper (The Cardinal and Cream) and made it famous by leading the students in games using the paper as a resource. At the end of the day, we taught two classes of little, tiny, wee children at a private school. They were presh. Monday night was spent preparing for the week's upcoming evening programs. Ooooh...intrigue, right?

Team A(wesome): Matt, me, Alex, Julie, and Juliana

Alex leading a small group in a game about the US.

Vova, Juliana, and Matt doing the same thing on the other side of the room. Where does that St. Louis arch belong? Hm...

Matt and Julie (right side of the picture) leading a group in the newspaper "scavenger hunt." It was a hit.

Julie sharing about herself/learning about her new friends in a classroom. A very squished classroom...

This picture has a crazy story behind it. If someone will leave me a comment to prove you've read this post, I'll share the story. It's a humdinger.

I took this shot to sort of demonstrate the crowdedness of this classroom. This shot mistakenly makes the room look spacious. Drat camera angles...

Team helping the wee ones with spelling words.

Julie, enchanting and mesmerizing the tots with her fancy camera. She let them take some pictures and that totally stole their hearts. Kat, you'd have loved it!

More to come. Stay tuned...

Ukraine...still alive and kickin'!

Both Ukraine and our team are still alive and kickin', actually. I'm sort of feeling all foggy and hazy from the jet lag, but I'm alive despite that.

We had a really great week. I think I might do several posts about the trip so that y'all aren't stuck reading one really long one. We arrived in Kiev on Saturday evening (March 19), after a non-eventful trip. The best part was that Nastia met us at the airport! I got to spend the entire ride to Poltava catching up with her. I tried to keep the others awake for the ride to Poltava, but I only succeeded at keeping them awake until 9:00. I gave it a solid effort, but it was me against 8 sleepyheads. What's a girl to do?

Sunday was a great day at church; it was SO good to see friends and to worship together. Amiee was asked to sing (like, 30 minutes before the service), and she did a fantastic job last minute and a cappella. The jet lag was STRONG about halfway through the service, and I was having the hardest time with my eyes. I tried to keep them from shutting, but it ended up with them rolling around in my head because of the awkward fight to keep them open. Yeah. It was awesome.

Sunday evening, we finished working on lesson plans...and Victoria and Nastia came by to visit with me! I'm so thankful that they did because I wouldn't have had another opportunity to visit, and I just got more and more tired each day after that- making me not such a fantastic conversationalist. You can ask Amiee; the conversations got stranger and more incoherent as the days wore on. During the coherent(ish) visit, however, we talked about Victoria's classes, Nastia's work, and my upcoming wedding. It was kind of a flashback to hanging out on Friday nights when I lived there, which were some of my favorite times. I promise to update with more info and more pictures soon, but I'm just sooooo tired right now. Can't...hardly...keep...eyes...open... By the time I got into bed last night, I had been awake for about 27 hours. I couldn't even walk straight. To tide you over until I can upload more, here are a few pictures:

Nastia and me. SO glad I got to spend time with her! I've missed her.

We love each other.

More people I love: Maya and Victoria

And Ira!