Hey all! I'm still awaiting my own wifi account on the base so you'll have to wait a little bit longer till I can start putting up pictures (and there are plenty already).
We just got back from a 3 day conference outside of Kyiv to celebrate the 50th anniversary of YWAM. All of the bases from Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Belarus) and the founders (we're talking Loren and Darlene Cunningham here) came together all in one place. Now, I'm still new, but I've been told by a lot of the staff that something like this rarely happens in YWAM (maybe just once every 50 years, haha), so I felt pretty privileged to be able to hear the leaders and founders speak their hearts. And speak they did!! Honestly, they probably could've talked a little less...but no one asked me. ;)
The only downside to the conference was the weather and the food. The weather took a sudden turn for the Arctic and I only had my sweatshirt for the 3 days. Big bummer. Some of our staff went back to Kyiv and brought back coffee to sell to support our outreach. Trust me, they made a killing (and they made great coffee too!) Also, the food was terrible! It's actually called Soviet food. Think cold potatoes (or rice, or noodles), cold meat (sometimes with cold onions mashed in), and cold tea to drink. One morning I thought we got lucky because they gave us cereal. At least when that was cold it would be the right! But, nope, the milk in the cereal was actual room tempurature! I wanted to gag. However, we're back now and some of the girls are making crepes for dinner. Yummy and warm.
Monday lectures start. We're gonig to be taught by Al Alikoff who pretty much founded the Eastern Europe YWAM. Pretty cool. I have no idea what he's going to say, but all these people have a million and two stories to tell. As long as you've had your coffee it's great.
I think, just maybe, I'm learning Russian! Maybe. At least, I'm able to communicate most of the time, though our conversations often consist of half English, half Russian, and a lot of grunts and pointing. I'll be really, really good at charades when I come back.
I want to make sure I let you know what's going on over here, so are there any questions people have? To me the answers are obvious, but then, I'm the one living this. What do you want to know?