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

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?

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.

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)

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. :)

Swine Flu epidemic arrives in Ukraine...

At the bottom of this post is an email we received today regarding the recent declarations about H1N1 flu here in Ukraine. Most cases have been in the western part of the country. Yesterday, they declared that all schools in the country would be closed for the next 3 weeks. I didn't think the decision would actually affect KCA, being as we are an international school, but once it moved to the Kyiv city level, it affected KCA, Kyiv International School, and Pechersk School International.

We are taking this one step at a time...

I'm not frustrated like a teacher in the States would be -- "We have to cover all this content by the time of standardized tests!!!!" I'm not exactly looking for a week of not teaching, of not seeing my students regularly, of not being able to help them learn together, and show them examples. I am willing to have my high school classes over to my apartment, or to meet at school, or even to meet over Skype. I'm not sure how some of my 6th graders will do, but I hope that their parents will be able to teach them.

Right now I'm frustrated primarily because I'm not being FLEXIBLE. I'm willing to be flexible, but I didn't exactly expect this. What exactly am I going to do in the meantime? (Okay, never mind, I can think of plenty of things to do like pay bills, clean, cook, etc.) Most of this comes with how we are making up the days we miss -- ideas mentioned have been to take away days from extended vacations. However, I am flying back to the States for Christmas -- I'm willing to just add a week at the end of the school year, which seems easiest, since I haven't booked my return flight yet, but not many other people are. I know of a teacher that might possibly be in Kiev that could cover my classes, besides anyone else at the school.

All that I can do right now is to trust God, that this will work out according to his plan and will, and not according to my preferences. Gotta leave it all up to Him.

Please pray for....

*Those making the "big" decisions regarding the schools

*Those already affected by swine flu

*Patience and creativity in creating "plan b" or "plan c"....or even up to "plan z"

*Health of our students and teachers

Praise God for...

*Two KCA parents who are doctors who are giving the (regular) flu vaccine to KCA families

*Delicious juice that I can buy at the store (so yummy--especially the strawberry-apple)

*****************************************

Dear KCA Parents,

Because of the Ukrainian government decision to close all educational facilities for three weeks, KCA will be closed to students next week.

Teachers will come to work on Monday at 9 am in order to plan for the week. We would like to send students assignments via email or Sycamore as much as possible. On Monday teachers will organize their classes and then communicate with you regarding assignments which students will be asked to do at home. We are considering organizing high school classes to meet “off site” a few times next week.

If you need to collect textbooks or materials, KCA will be open and administrators will be on site in the mornings. Guards will be at the school at all times.

We will decide what we will do the following two weeks next weekend, as the situation unfolds.

We encourage you to communicate with teachers and administrators via Sycamore, email, or by phoning the school. If you need help using Sycamore, call Cathy on Monday morning.

We will be in touch with you on Monday. Let’s be thankful for this situation and trust that God has all this in His hand.

A Day In the Life

To all my supporters and prayer partners,

Hello from Kiev, Ukraine!

First, I want to thank you for your continued prayers throughout my time here in Ukraine. I also enjoy hearing from you, whether it is a card in the mail, an email, or a simple Facebook message.

In this update, I thought I would give you a glimpse of what my day to day life looks like.

Each morning I wake up around 6 am and prepare to leave for school. After riding the bus for 20-25 minutes, I get there around 7:30am, which gives me plenty of time to do last minute preparations for my classes. My first class isn't until around 9:15am (2nd period), so I spend that time looking over notes and lesson plans, and making photocopies if necessary. Sometimes I consult other teachers on instructional ideas or ways to help particular students.

I teach 3 classes in a row, and they are all math classes. My students come from America, Korea, Holland, Canada, and Taiwan, and a number of them have been adopted from Ukraine or Russia. During second period, I teach all the 6th graders. This class has 14 students. After a short break, I teach geometry to 13 ninth and tenth grade students. This class is the most challenging for me, because I have never been very good at proofs and my lowest grade in high school math was in geometry; I also must make a lot of accommodations in this class for various kinds of learners. My last "real" class of the day is Algebra 2, during 4th period, just before lunch. This class has 12 students, mostly 11th graders, but there are some sophomores and seniors.

Teaching a lesson to Algebra 2

My lunches typically are leftovers (yum!), sandwiches, or hot Ukrainian meals prepared by a woman named Zoya.

During 5th and 6th periods, I generally plan for the next day(s), create overhead transparencies, grade homework, or make photocopies. The past two weeks I have begun Russian language lessons during 5th period on Wednesdays with another teacher. During 7th period, I supervise some high school students during their study hall, and often end up answering math questions.

When the students are dismissed, I continue working on more grading and preparation (the work never seems to be finished!) until I am ready to go back to my apartment. Once there, I prepare dinner, do a little more schoolwork, watch TV episodes online, and/or clean and do laundry.

My weekends generally consist of attending KCA soccer games, relaxing at home, visiting friends, going to church, and catching up on school work. This weekend I was at Evie's for a sleepover with most of the 9th grade girls--our lunchtime discipleship group. I enjoyed hanging out with them, seeing them outside of school, and watching Pride and Prejudice with them.

Most of the middle/high school students at Fall Retreat

If you would like to see photos of some of my students, my surroundings, and the school, feel free to visit my Facebook page, including the photo links that are on the right of this blog page.

Prayer Requests

*That I would continue to learn to "Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always." (Psalm 105)

*Upcoming medical relief/evangelism trip to the Philippines--the team consists of 12 from Ukraine (missionaries, Ukrainians, and doctors), along with a group from Susanville, CA

*Provision of the last bit of my funds--the most recent total is $8,647.29.

Praises

*Safe return to Ukraine for missionaries Cliff and Heike

*A wonderful sleepover at the Keatings with most of the 9th grade girls

*A working kolonka (hot water heater that also heats our apartment)!

Thank you again for all your support!

In Christ,

Jessica