Ukraine may "technically" be a young country, but its roots go back many many centuries. Volodomyr converted to Christianity in 988 AD, and it is said that St. Andrew the apostle visited Kyiv on one of his missionary travels.
My first week consisted primarily of settling into the apartment and remembering my way around. I spent a day or two with Josh and Robyn, 2 of the Nazarene missionaries here, and also navigated the trams (something I didn't do last summer). I will have to blog about that experience, and public transport in general.
For the weekend, a handful of us went down to Odesa on the Black Sea. Our group consisted of Josh and Robyn, Dougie (a Scottish volunteer here working with children), and Zena (from the Kyiv church). We walked around the city a lot, and enjoyed the sites. One highlight for me was descending and then climbing the Potemkin stairs--which I wanted to see after watching the movie Everything is Illuminated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Potěmkinovy_schody.jpg
We also met up with Vasiya, one of the kids from Vapnyarka, and Pastor Oleg of Gorodkivka.
Today was my first day at KCA, with the teachers, for the start of the teacher work week. I met most of the other teachers, and am looking forward to getting to know them more! There is so much for me to do, and go through. I am sharing classrooms with 2 other teachers (one for my Bible class, and one for my math classes), so I don't have to do too much with room arranging and organizing. I've just got a lot of curriculum to sort through, and lessons to plan.
Tonight Dougie, Jodi, and I wandered downtown to try to watch fireworks for Independence Day--we did eventually succeed, after much walking! However, I am tired now, it is midnight and we are leaving here at 7:45am to catch the marshrutka to school!
Blog topics IOU:
~Riding the trams for the first time, other public transport, and people watching
~Weekend in Odesa
~Train travel to and from Odesa
~Teacher work week here at KCA
~Independence Day celebration
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