vereniki party

for our farewell party, a bunch of ladies decided to teach us how to make one of my favorite ukrainian dishes, vereniki!

basically, its kind of like a dumpling that is filled with anything from potatoes to fruit. all you do is boil it in water for about 5 minutes and serve it with sour cream. it's a marvelous dish.

see all the pretty ones? those are mine.

our first batch was filled with mashed potatoes with sauteed onions.

the dough is egg, water and flour. pretty easy. although the kneading is definitely a learned skill.

any kind of berry or fresh fruit is delicious inside. especially with sugar on top.

we had mushrooms on top of the potato ones.

the experts made the blueberry ones, they're more difficult. 

although, i must say, i was kiiiiind of really good. maybe vereniki making is the hidden talent i've been searching for my whole life? also, this is not me. this was alyonna. she's a real expert.

put a lil sour cream on top. deeeeelicious.

yes, please.

look out, everyone. ukrainian cuisine is headed your way. i'm going to force feed this food to everyone i know.

well, we have one and a half more days here.

weird.

so this maaaaay be my last post while in ukraine. 

oh my. 

hopefully i'll be able to find some wifi in italy or germany or kiev and give an update on the post-trip debrief thing. aka, a sweet vaca. 

alright. that's all for now.

byeeeeee.

i have a blogger friend.

her name is hayden. she's the kewlest. everyone needs to read her blog and learn wonderful things from her heart. she's inspiring, passionate, creative and beautiful. and her blog rivals that of the rockstar diaries. (see: taza-and-husband.blogspot.com).

so read it. and yeah, she interviewed me. so honored. for realz, though.

http://ansleyhaydenhaslove.blogspot.com

that's all for now.

beekeeping.

Yup.

Today Barry, Krystallin, Rouslan, Pastor Peter and I went out to a village to Pastor Peter’s bee farm. We donned our netted hats and long sleeved shirts and learned the technique of, as Krystallin would say, “bee hunting.” Yeah, that’s not what we did. Okay maybe that’s what I did, just once though!

getting the smoke ready. nothing like a little poop to get those bees away.

barry took this one.

pastor peter's sister was there - she scraped off all the wax before we put it into the giant spinner thing.

after he takes out the slats with the honeycombs on them, we put them into this big spinner thing and cranked the handle and the honey flew out of the combs and drained down to the bottom.

So at one point, Pastor Peter walks up to Krystallin and I with a HANDFUL OF BEES and tries to hand them to us. I instantly am in tizzy mode and start backing up and pushing Krystallin in front of me. She’s actually allergic to bees though, so she wasn’t too into it either. Pastor Peter then tells us that these are boy bees and they don’t sting, so it’s fine. Nope. I couldn’t do it. Krystallin held a few in her hand at once. I was very proud of her.

And then Barry did it.

And then they wanted me to do it.

You don’t understand, I can’t do that. I don’t care what kind of bug it is, if it’s crawling and buzzing on me and I can’t get it off, I turn into uber-girl. It’s not okay.

Pastor Peter picked up a bee out of the bucket of water (hint: half dead) and handed it to me and I was like, “okay, its fine, its almost dead, I can do this.” And as he dropped it into my cupped hands, I pulled away and said, “nope.” It fell to the ground and died. That was my “bee hunting.”

So then Barry convinces Pastor Peter that I really want to hold A HANDFUL OF BEES (hint: I don’t). So he walks over and grabs some, unknowingly grabbing 5 or 6 girl bees too, which sting him five times on the palm of his hand. Sorry, Pastor Peter. He then hands me 1 bee, and I hold it on my hand for about 20 seconds before I start frantically and progressively louder saying, “okay get it off me, get it off, get it off.” So I shook it off and ran away. Really though, I almost cried.

There was another point in time that I screamed and ran away from a bee that I thought was trapped in my hat when I took it off. I thought it was on my face and I’m pretty sure I slapped my face and flailed my arms in the process. Yeah. Picture that. I’m 20 years old.

So we harvested honey (not sure if that’s what its called, but I like it), and a lot of it. So kewl.

We then had a delicious lunch and visited a church/graveyard where Pastor Peter’s family was buried. He prayed for us and it was weirdly cool.

So yes. To sum it all up: I don’t think I’m made for “bee hunting” although I’d totally be down with sportin the hats around school sometime. Yeah?

second camp.

Okay. So the next thing I haven’t written about is the second camp. And here’s the thing: I’m not really sure if I’ve developed all of my thoughts about it. I feel like most things from this time are going to hit me at random points in time when I get home. This time was a lot different than the first camp. The campers were all older, like late teens to early thirties. So the dynamic was completely different. It wasn’t chaotic or crazy, it was chill and relaxing.

But there was something a little more…serious. These people know what their life is, they understand where they are. Some of them have been disabled since birth, and some recently in the past few years. But either way, these guys have lived their lives for years dealing with these not only physical or mental issues, but social, spiritual and financial issues as well. And not only them, but their parents as well, many of whom were at the camp with their child.

Being disabled in Ukraine is the lowest you can get. There are so many social stigmas and financial issues that come with it. The government helps in the absolute most minimal way, and families are left alone. Mothers are abandoned by their husbands and families, left to take care of her child alone. Many are told that their child’s disability is a result of something she did in her life. Can you believe that? Can you imagine? Living your life being told that your disabled child is a punishment for something that you did? Goodness gracious. I literally can’t comprehend what these women go through. The love they have for their children is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

So anyways, second camp was way different. And there was an (awesome) American team here from Grace Community Church. They ruled and added a whole other dimension to camp, bringing smiles and help and a willing and open heart to everything they saw and experienced.

I met a couple of new friends in some of the campers. Zhenya was assigned to a girl, and since she was my translator I got to spend some time with her as well. Natasha started out seeming bitter and bored as she sat through small groups, looking uninterested in anything that was being said. But by the end of the week, she was holding my hand, asking me to walk her around and sing to her, and smiling and laughing with me. It was incredible.

There was a day that we went through the group and played a tamer version of ‘never have I ever.’ Some people hadn’t flown in an airplane, or done this or that. Natasha had never seen an aquarium. Oleg from Romaniv had never swam. (I don’t know the correct past tense of that word). So our goal for the end of the week was to do something for our camper that he or she had never done before. Larisa took Oleg swimming. Zhenya and I created an aquarium for Natasha out of small water balloons, sand and beads (there was no way I was going to be able to catch a fish, let’s be honest). Other people did other things, and it was so cool. Helping people check things off their bucket list. I love it.

I taught my Bible lessons, and I must say they were a thousand times easier than last weeks. I felt like I could say what was on my heart. I actually enjoyed it. I don’t know if anyone else did, but that’s fine. Hah.

There were a couple times during small groups that are moments etched in my brain.

One was watching Roma and Andri. Neither can speak in actual words. They can make sounds and point and motion, but they don’t communicate through sentences. But they understand what is going on. They just can’t respond without the help of someone making a lot of effort to understand them. I can’t imagine their frustration. Well Andri has a really hard time communicating what he is saying to anyone. But he wanted to make a comment in small groups. So as our leader Natasha is trying to figure out what Andri is saying, Roma starts trying to get her attention, too. She can understand Roma better and he told her what Andri was saying. He understood him. And he was able to communicate that to Natasha for Andri. It was the coolest thing watching them interact, and them with another girl in our group who could understand them as well. They were all working together just so that Andri could make his comment in the discussion. They were looking out for each other.

this is roma.

and this is andri.

Some of the other things that I will remember were just stories I heard. One of my Bible lessons was on forgiveness. Good grief. So after I read some Scripture and made a few comments, I opened it up for people to talk about situations in their life in which they were given the option to forgive or get angry. The stories were unreal. Like things that you don’t think people would actually do to each other. Like with Viktor. He was in an accident when he was 18 that paralyzed him, restricting the use of his hands and his legs. Apparently none of his friends continued to talk to him after the accident. They ignored him, they wouldn’t even look at him as he waved to them on the street. They left him in his biggest time of need. They abandoned him when he needed help and support and love. And Viktor forgave them. He hasn’t allowed bitterness to crowd his life and choke out his spirit. He’s happy, he’s sweet and he’s been through some of the toughest stuff I could ever think of. If that isn’t God working visibly in and through someone’s heart, I don’t know what is.

There were obviously hundreds of other stories at this camp. And the thing is this: while these stories are heartbreaking and unbelievable, they are all being told because God has brought them through it to see the other side. They are here because God’s love has been shown to them. He has transformed lives. He is alive and working through these people’s hearts. And its obvious. And we got to be the ones to remind them of this while they were here. How cool is that? It was crazy to see, not only in myself, but even through the team that was here that this was a two-way street. We may have been at the camp to help and serve these people, but they were doing it right back in a different way. We saw God in them just as much as we hope they saw God in us.

some of the Romaniv boys playing with the parachute.

Over and over and over again I see this beautiful picture of how God has organized and designed His body for these wonderful and unique purposes. It’s complex and its sometimes overwhelming, but God’s will and the way He has the body of Christ working is incredible. We are all alive and working for one purpose: to glorify Him. And we all saw that happen in a hundred ways during camp, right in front of our eyeballs.

Sometimes it gets dark and foggy, and I forget that God is alive. But since I’ve been here, I’ve had one specific truth stuck in my head: the light overcomes the darkness. And He is the Light. Whether we see it now, or later for all of eternity.

It was a good week. It was one that made me think, and that thinking will continue for awhile. I’m glad for that.

So yeah. I believe that’s all I have to update on from the past 20 days. Or at least all that I can formulate into a blog post. But that’s fine. I hope this is satisfactory.

Hm. One week from right now I will be in Italy. That’s psycho.

Also, I think I’m gonna keep this blog around for awhile. I feel like I might have more thoughts in the coming months. We’ll see.

Okay. I need to catch up on some reading or Barry will kill me.

Kbyeeeee.

i just love this lil guy.

first camp!

My my my it has been a longgg time. I think that makes me a bad blogger. Many apologiez. Can we just forget about it and move on? Thanks.

Okay. So what’s been going on over here? Many things. Well really only one thing: camp. There were two. So I shall tell about both. And I am overwhelmed to be attempting to describe the happenings of the past 20 days. But I will try.

First camp.

The campers were kids, like 4 or 5 to 12 ish. It was about half disabled kids and the other half were lifesavers kids (kids whose moms were going to have abortions but then came to MTU and decided not to. Basically all miracle children). There were also some siblings of both groups. And parents, mostly mothers. They had their own thing going on though.

I was assigned to a small group with Natasha, Larisa, Oksana and Maksim. And I had a translator, Zhenya. Our kids were 9-12 years old. Each person was supposed to be responsible for one kid. Zhenya and I watched after Nastia, a sweet 12 year old girl with cerebral palsy I believe. She was slightly difficult, and didn’t really listen, especially to me because I don’t speak her language. But she really is sweet and wonderful.

We had some other great kids in our group too. Vitalik was an angry little guy with muscular dystrophy. It was really cool to see him open up and get nicer as the week went on. At the beginning of the week, even though I couldn’t understand him, I knew he was saying snotty comments and making fun of people just by the look on his face. Every time I would smile at him, he’d scrunch up his nose and look down and ignore me. He’d always ask about my headset to hear the translator and would be so angry that he didn’t get one. By the end of the week, he’d respond to me and laugh when I said that all American’s have blue tongues (I had just eaten a blue jolly rancher). And he smiled and played with me when I let him use the flip video camera.

I know Maksim talked to him a lot and I think it helped. We just need to pray for him, he’s this bitter kid, obviously angry about his situation. But the Lord can change his heart. Apparently he doesn’t have very much longer, so keep him in your prayers. He really is a great kid.

There was Sasha, the most adorable little boy I’ve ever seen in my life with a giggle that will stay with me for all of eternity. He had muscular dystrophy as well, but had only been in a wheelchair for two years. When everyone went around saying what their biggest problem or concern was, he said he wished that he could walk on his own. I mean can you imagine being 9 years old, having that long to be a little boy and run around and play and then all of a sudden, getting all that taken from you? I just can’t comprehend that, I especially can’t even think about how his brain processes that. It breaks my heart.

I know I already talked about it, but it hit me over and over again this past week: it isn’t fair. As I looked around a room full of beautiful souls, kind hearts, loving smiles and bodies that just don’t work, I just couldn’t understand it. Why? Why them? Why not me? What did they do? Innocent, sweet, happy children. The most beautiful things in this world, unable to experience it to the fullest because of something completely out of their control. It is absolutely not fair. It’s honestly something that is really hard for me to deal with. It makes me angry. It makes me sad, and it hurts my heart. And the worst part is that there are no answers. There is no reason. Or at least that’s how it seems.

I don’t know.

But being around them, while at times is often dark and sad, is also wonderful and joyful. Sasha’s laugh. Nastia’s smile. Masha’s hugs (sometimes). There is nothing like being around these kids, and loving them, and being loved in return. It’s fulfilling, it’s warm, it’s sometimes frustrating but it is always a picture of God. It’s always a peek into his heart. And it’s beautiful.

I just long for the day when I can run around with Sasha. When he can play and jump and I can chase him and he can do his little “teehee” laugh. That’s the only thing that I can hold onto right now.

We had Tanya, who was 12 years old and I think she also had muscular dystrophy, but she could walk. There are so many misdiagnosis’ and issues that get overlooked, especially with both physical and mental disabilities. I’m pretty sure Tanya had something else that has gone untreated thus far. Her mom asked us not to let her go “off in her own world” because she didn’t think that was good for her. So we constantly had to call her name and ask her questions so she’d stay with us. She was so sweet, and so funny. I didn’t get any of the jokes, obviously, but Zhenya told me a lot of the goofy little girl things she said. She always talked about her two dolls and how they were so excited to be at camp this year. I love her imagination.

There was also Katya. Perhaps one of the most darling and gentle girls I’ve ever met in my life. She turned 12 at camp and had some sort of muscular problem as well. She was very thin and had trouble walking, but she walked around anyways. She loved to hold my hand. She had the most genuine smile and made me wish SO badly that I could speak her language. I was sometimes assigned to watch her and so we walked together a lot. And that’s really all we could do. She is very creative and quiet and sweet. There were a couple moments I had with her that will always stay with me.

There was one time that we were playing a game during small groups. This was in the first half of the week, so I didn’t know anyone especially well and everyone was still warming up to the weird girl that spoke English and creepily tried to smile at everyone (that was all I could do!). I was sitting next to Katya and the game consisted of passing a ball of string around and saying something nice to the person you passed it to. Katya was the last to get the string and she passed it to me and said, “Lauren is good.” Maybe the most simple and generic answer, but I almost lost it instantly. What? Good? She doesn’t know that. All she knows is that I walk around and hold her hand. But apparently to her, that’s good. It was ridiculously….humbling I think. I’m not really sure how to describe the emotion I feel from that. Maybe there is no point to this story because I actually cannot put into words how that made me feel. 

Geez, I’m sorry. Haha. Oops.

The other time I think I can put into words. A lot of words. It takes a little explaining. At the end of camp at one of the last services, Pastor Dima made something awesome happen. After his skit (about a son being reconciled to his mother), he spoke to the parents in the room. Most were mothers, but there were some fathers there too. He asked the parents to come to their child. He asked them to kneel in front of them, so they were eye to eye. He told the parents to tell their child how much they loved them, how proud they were, and to ask forgiveness if they’d offended them.

So for five minutes, each parent in the room went to their child. Whether they held them, or sat with them, or whatever, they were looking their child in his eye. They were acknowledging that, though the world may not see them or love them, this mother or father loved their child and believed in him. They shared their unconditional love.

There was not a dry eye in the room. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever witnessed.

During this time, Katya was sitting by herself. Her parent had not come. So one of the camp leaders came over and as Katya leaned her head on my shoulder, I prayed for her and Yulia translated it. I got to be that person for her. A stand-in mother. I mean I’m not at all qualified for that or anything, but it was an honest privilege to be able to be the one to pray for her right then. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

Anyways.

There were a couple other kids in the group, like Bogdon. I’m not quite sure of his diagnosis, but he was completely adorable. He is such a good kid, always saying that he obeys his mom all the time without arguing. He told me he had to leave camp for a day but not to worry because, “I will return.” He was a precious soul.

There was also Masha. What a character. She is a darling girl, and she has Downs Syndrome. She looooooves to hug and touch and kiss everyone. Especially Maxim. Some of the funniest moments of this trip will be attributed to Masha. Whether it was her trying to attack Maxim during service and him jerking away from her, or just her yelling his name at random points in the day. She was sweet, and most definitely fun.

So anyways. First camp ruled. It was my first time at camp, too so I didn’t know what to expect. But I loved it, obviously.

So that’s the end of this. I’ll write another one about second camp probably.

Well its currently Monday and we leave in one week for Italy.

I can’t think about it.

BYEEE.

sorry in advance.

this is going to be really disappointing.

i have a day and a half break in between camps, so i'm on the internet now. but i haven't had time to formulate a complete camp update! so this is just to say that i'm alive and that everything is great!

i will tell one quick thing:

i had to recite the Lord's Prayer in Russian in front of the entire camp.
i did it.
then everyone applauded and voted that i stay in Ukraine.

it was the best.

anyways, i will give a complete update of the two camps when i get back, in like 10 days.

so sorry for a fake post.
woh wohhhh.

back from the mountains!

so i'm back from our mid-trip adventure and about ready to have another one in the next few weeks!


tuesday night we boarded a train that took us to a village about 2 1/2 hours outside of zhytomyr. there we waited for our big train which took us all the way to another village (i don't remember any of the names of the cities we were in except l'viv. apologiez) closer to the one we were staying at. ooh this is confusing and not fun. 


it was a night train, so we got to sleep on it! fun! i climbed up on the top bunk thing and the window was open right by my face the whole night sooo aside from the snores of the train and the bursting of my eardrums as we passed other trains, it was fairly nice. i didn't sleep sooo well, but it was pretty kewl. also, i realized that snoring completely grosses me out. no offense to anyone who snores, i'll just sleep in a different room. honestly it makes me want to gag. and then punch someone because it keeps me up worse than anything else.


anyways, so we got to this town and boarded a mashutka (yeah i dunno) which is like a mini charter bus a little bigger than a 16 passenger van. we rode that for a few hours to this beautiful log cabin in the foothills of the carpathian mountains. i wish i had pictures, but i used the ole canon all week so i'll have to wait to get those developed. it was completely beautiful. and it was rainy and cold the whole time, which sounds super lame, but it was actually so refreshing. 


the three days there consisted mainly of taking naps, reading, relaxing in general and eating. it was so great. highlights: we went souvenir shopping in this little market place near a suhweet waterfall. i got several pretty neat things for people. don't be offended if i didn't get you anything. kbyeee. also - i lead the way through a mountainside hike. well, like part of the time. but still. a)i went mountain hiking. in my sporty shoes, obviously. that was the most legit outdoorsy i've ever been i think. b)i embraced the role of fearless leader for a period of time. and no, there was no trail. i was very sacagewea. 


lets see...we also got lots of ice cream all the time and were loud americans very often. but it was okay because tanya liked it i think. she's the best.


alright so then saturday morning we loaded up on another mashutka at 6 a.m. to go to l'viv. imagine 65th and allisonville headed towards binford. you know how awful that road is? like you feel like your car is going to fall apart driving over it? that was my life for 3 hours. it was the most ooc road i've ever been on. like every time i started drifting off to sleep, i got whiplash and was jolted awake. i bet it was funny to watch. chris actually fell out of his seat and onto me at one point. the good news is that we thought it would take 6 hours and it actually took 3. soo someone was wayyy off.


l'viv is sooo beautiful. it's really european (apparently) with tall buildings and cobblestone roads and balconies and all that. we walked around and saw some great churches, went to a marketplace, coffeeshops, mcdonald's, ect. 


another highlight: we got accosted on the tram. this is the picture. four americans and one ukrainian. we get on the tram with our money out, ready to pay like good citizens and tourists. in zhytomyr, the conductor person will come and take your money and give you a ticket. you just stand there and do nothing. so we assumed it was the same in l'viv. suddenly two women appear on either side of our group and start saying words to us that we obviously don't understand. i just look down or at tanya wide-eyed and oblivious, duh. she says that we are going to be fined because we didn't pay at the beginning. we had no idea that was the rule, it wasn't written anywhere and no one was there to tell us what to do. so tanya tells them that we're sorry and we'll pay our 1 gryvna (eh, spelling?). they say more things which i assume are "no no no, you're american so you'll pay us 20 each as a fine or we'll call the police." actually i don't assume, that is actually what they said. so instead of jumping off the tram at the next chance and running away, we ended up paying 100 gryvna for what should have been 4. welcome to l'viv! we hate tourists!


so that was fun.


the rest of the city was beautiful and fun and we saw some great never nudes, the grim from harry potter, and masha! she met us there. how fun!


so right before we're about to head to the train station, it is decided that chris is headed straight to the sea with haven, a part of last bell he's working with. so that was fun/stressful/exciting. also, we had a version of mexican food for tanya's birthday. it was really pretty good. 


okay so other best part of the trip: we may or may not have almost gotten deported. 


we're standing in the train station at 9:20 p.m. - our train leaves at 9:40. we're saying goodbye to chris, and figuring out where he's sleeping, ect. right as we turn to leave, two men in armed uniforms walk up to us and start saying things that we, again, don't understand. when they realize we can't understand, they just look at us and say 'passport.' 


uh oh. we don't have our passports with us. they're tucked away in a safe in zhytomyr.


so we're all like, 'heh....uh... what? we don't understand you...?"


tanya gets in feisty mode and starts talking with them, and by this time another police officer has walked up and people are looking. there is minimal translation going on, so we're all standing there dumbfounded.


all we hear is that they're going to kick us off our train that now leaves in 15 minutes and with no refund. and that we're going to get fined - later we find out for 340 gryvna. ouch.


we all get out our paper copies of our passports which is all we have and i hand it to one of the officers. he obviously isn't satisfied with that and says something about how he doesn't know what could be in our bags or if, who knows, we could be part of al-quaeda. we tell him that he can look through our bags if he wants but can he please hurry, because our train leaves in 10 minutes.


as more confusion ensues, masha hands the phone to one of the men - she called ira. duh duh duhhhhhh. it's going downnnnnnnnn. ira is THE MAN. 


she talks to one of them and like 5 minutes later he hangs up the phone and says that we can go this time, but next time you better have your passport and all your paperwork with you or you'll be in big trouble, mister. 


i'm still not quite sure what she said, but ira worked her magic. of course.


so all that to say, we need to carry our passports from now on. oopsies. 


it did make for a good story, though. and an interesting insight into the inner workings of that side of ukrainian culture/politics, ect. maybe i'll try to explore that later.


anways, i slept like a baby on the train until 3 a.m. when we had to switch trains, which is when i started feeling like i actually got hit by one. but then i took a nap in my bed at ira's and had a yummy breakfast and now i'm at the mall doing work before we leave for camp tonight! 


sheesh! it's craziness over here and i love it.


so anyways, i probably will have little to no internet until july 16, which is when the second camp ends. maybe i will in between camps, but i'm not counting on it. 


we'll keep pumping out articles, so keep a lookout for those!


sorry for the mass information overload! 


i don't really know how to end this....


talk to you in 3 weeks ish!


love you all byeeeeeeee.