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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Adventures in Public Transport

1. Hearing the kid behind me say "Hakuna Matata." He had a Disney DVD.

2. Hearing a little girl behind me practicing her English numbers 1-10.

3. While I waited for Sarah and Jodi at the metro, this guy stood near me talking on his phone in ENGLISH. Then later he told me, "Don't go with (cell provider) MTS. Their service goes--" and then made an up and down motion with his hands.

4. Observing all the unique outfits, like a thigh-length jacket with fur on the edges, paired with tights and plaid knee-length bermuda shorts

5. Things people do on the escalators at the metro stations:
a) Just stand there
b) Walk, so they get somewhere faster
c) Talk on cell phones
d) Drink beer

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Little steps, big steps?

Like so many other recent college grads, I'm trying to figure out what to do with my life (or rather, the life God's given me) and where to go.

The following is an excerpt from a Relevant magazine article.

Litton believes that what sets Christian radicals apart from the world is the commitment to take the teachings of Jesus seriously and to be known by humility and love. “I know a lot of people focus on the big steps—should I leave my job, should I move to Africa, what can I do? And we should be open to those things, but they can become a distraction because, really, what God is calling us to every day is to radically obey Him,” he says. “Radical followers of Christ, their chief characteristic will be love.”

Radical obedience to Christ. That is my calling. My primary calling. No matter where in the world I am. Even if it's difficult for me. Even if I have to sacrifice something of great value. Even when it won't please other people.

What am I to obey? Those "little" commands, that seem the most basic but yet are the most complex. Those "little" commands, that keep at the back of my mind. Those "little" commands that will show our faithfulness in small matters.

Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and love your neighbor as well as you do yourself (MSG).

Do I truly throw that much--ALL--of myself into loving God all the time?

Am I seeking ONLY to please God--and not other people?

Have I given ALL of me--my past, present, and future--to the unchanging and unfailing God who can use the broken me for His sacred purposes?

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Glimpses today...

*Rainy day while walking to the metro

*Following Victoria who was apparently following me to where we have Geometry...she was following me, but she knew where she was going! I guess I was just meandering...

*An Orthodox church-looking building with satellite dishes and green tube lighting on the side...Um...

*Giving the geometry students their chapter 4 test while sitting in someone's living room/hallway

*6th grade math with students who haven't quite gotten the hang of school-in-the-living-room--I am doing my best to give them some semblance of a routine/structure.

*Running into the mom of one of my students outside of Billa/McDonalds and chatting with her for a while

*Asterix electronic game in my Happy Meal

*reading Ted Dekker's book Green while riding the metro and marshrutka

*grading math homework at school. The goal right now is to finish with 6th grade, leave that teacher's guide here, and take the geometry one home to work on tonight.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Proof...of taking the scenic route home

Tonight we had a fun evening at Lisa and Sarah's, having dinner and dessert and talking with a mixture of teachers and a parent and students. What follows is the story of our journey home--what should've taken us around 45 minutes or so, but took much longer!

We left Lisa's around 9:30 or so, parted ways with Mark at just about 10pm, then rode marshrutka 24 to McDonald's.

Given: 4 possible bus routes from near school and Lisa's apartment
Prove: that we can actually make it home

Statements (Reasons)
1. Bus routes 18, 6, 6K, and marshrutka 18 that will all go back to Lukyanivska (given)
2. Choose bus 18 (first one that came along)
3. Bus driver yells something in Russian as we climb aboard and pay our fare (because he can)
4. We don't understand and sit down despite the bus having only 3 other passengers (because we don't speak Russian or Ukrainian)
5. Bus takes a turn sooner than we thought off of Frunze (we really don't know why)
6. Drive past Babiy Yar and Dorogozhychi metro stop (again, we really don't know why, but we were assuming the bus would eventually get back to Lukyanivska)
7. Bus pulls to the side of the road, driver yells at us, and opens the doors not at Lukyanivska (we figure it was the last run of the day, and he was done)
8. Walk back the way we came (we already knew the metro stop was nearby)
9. There is an overpass with trolleys running across it (we looked up and saw it)
10. That street, where those tracks are, is Degtyarivska (the sign said so)
11. We puzzled over how to get up to it, or to cross the street, without getting run over (no good sidewalks in sight)
12. We decided to walk back to Dorogozhychi metro (because we were goons who did not look at either map that we had with us, to realize there was another metro stop closer by--Shulyavska)
13. We walked past one under-pass for pedestrians (there was absolutely no light coming from below==uber sketchy)
14. Ride inbound metro (the next stop was Lukyanivska)
15. Walk from Lukyanivska down Degtyarivska, yes the very same one we'd seen earlier, to Dovnar-Zapolskogo (this is the way to go home)
16. Arrive at home at 11:23pm (we followed the way to go home).

QED!!! DONE my proof! Okay, it's not the greatest proof ever, but....you get the idea.

Here are the locations as seen on a map:

The green is the path we figured the bus was going to take. The blue is what it did take. The pink is our walking path, then we hopped on the metro (the orange path), then walked some more. How ridiculous is that. (I should've had my pedometer with me)

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Snowflakes and Swine Flu

Many of you have already heard about schools closing for 3 weeks in Ukraine due to the A/H1N1 epidemic. This includes KCA.

Originally, we planned for one week "off", but as a working vacation for our students. However, when it became highly unlikely that we would reopen after one week, we have made plans for 3 weeks of not being able to meet as a school.

The new plan is as follows.

On Thursday, 1oth-12th grade students will meet in Podil where we have 3 apartments close together. There will be a rotation of classes for English, math, and science courses. All math classes will be taught at the same time, since the students are grouped by ability level and not by age. This posed a slight problem for me, in that I cannot teach 2 classes in 2 separate places at the same time. Thankfully, a former KCA teacher has been willing to fill in for me and teach Algebra 2 while I teach Geometry.

Starting next week, we will be meeting over on the Left Bank for what I call "Left Bank School." There are 5 different apartments being used, and between each class "period," teachers will change locations. I've only been to the Left Bank (on the other side of the river) once, and I have no idea how to get to these apartments, but there will be "guides" sent to the metro to get us to the right place. As Dougie points out, this does seem to defeat the purpose of the "quarantine", but we cannot afford to miss 15 school days in a row like this.

The remaining days that need to be made up will be pulled from other calendar days, by New Year's/Christmas, so that once we are in January, everything will be back to normal (what IS normal, anyway?).

It has been quite confusing for me to figure out what I can give my students to do on their own, and what I need to actually teach them. They will have many questions, I'm sure! Not to mention, I will probably not have supplies that I am used to having, like a whiteboard, or overhead. I plan on listing "office hours" when the students can come by school and ask questions and turn in work if they would like (and if their parents allow them to travel).

Please pray for us as a school--staff and students--as we work within this new plan (that hopefully is the final version, unless version next happens to be that we can go back to school sooner). Pray for flexibility and patience.

In other news.....

It snowed yesterday and today!!! The snowflakes were bigger today, and it snowed longer, but none of the snow stuck to the ground. It was really fun to watch. :)