Comparing

Well, I'm late, but I was asked to compare life here to life over in the Ukraine. As a reminder to any readers who may not know me, I live in Ontario, Canada.

I will begin with What I expect/intend to get done in life:
-I expect to grow up
-I expected to finish elementary
-I expect to graduate High school
-I expect to go to College and or university
-I expect to get a good job
-I expect to be able to woo a girl (well, okay, I have that done)
-I expect to get married and be able to support a family off my job
-I expect to be able to travel to work everyday in a vehicle on smooth roads and with nice music
-I expect to get all the newest technology
-I expect to be strong and eat well
-I expect to be independent
-I expect to retire
-I expect a safe place to call home
-I expect a clean environment

Now... I think that's fair to say. I also think it fair to say that society here expects the same from anyone here. Yet out of these not all are realities even here. How much more so then for the poorer villages such as Stepanovka? I could say these for them (mind you this is from what I know):
-Grow up
-Go to and finish elementary?
-Get a job, or at least a way to live
-Be able to woo a girl (they might be better than us at that, I don't know :P )
-Get married and have a family
-Get to work every day
-Try to keep healthy and strong
-Be independent
-Have a home

Out of the ones I had for myself, these are the ones I think they are able to get,  and notice the difference in wording. I purposefully did not copy-paste. Anyways, that is brief and easy. For more details, click on "want to know more"

Trouble

This is about the trip. I must Say we were so blessed.

Alright Anyone who has traveled will probably know that when in a foreign country, you should always keep your papers on you. That makes sense right? Even in touristic areas. Well, I can't say for sure, but from what I remember, we almost NEVER had our papers on us. We strangers in a non-touristic area hosting a VBS with kids that are vulnerable. We we also right on the border and in a village where the military had a base and a patrol, or at least uniformed men walking by two's what ever you want to call that. They had every reason to come ask us for our papers. They had every reason to demand identification. We would have, on many occasions, been in trouble since we did not have our papers on our persons.

Not a single time were we stopped, talked to or even watched. I passed a what I assume to be a patrol while running with Anya, speaking English, a foreign language they most likely did not understand. they simply walked on by. I didn't watch them, since that seemed like it might not be a good idea, but it appeared as though they didn't even glance my way. or really consider me. I have to say. God was good to us.

This was a simple but sweet post. Hope you see just how protected we were, because I still take it for granted on many occasions...

Subjects?

Once again, I forgot to post yesterday, sorry. :P 


I don't know, what should I talk about? Multiple idea's preferable. What would you like to know? I know there are people reading some posts, what do you want to hear about? I'm simply running slightly low on motivation to write something, since I'm not sure any of my posts are interesting.


Please leave a comment stating a desired topic, or e-mail me. And comments on other posts are encouraged, please.


--Scott

Travel in the town

Travelling in the village of Stepanovka was not an issue. Everything was close together, we could walk anywhere. However, transporting supplies, luggage, and equipment was more difficult. We were blessed through Vladmir, the local pastor, who drove us around and helped us find places when we were new and unfamiliar to the area. I know most of the area by heart by now, or at least the area where we ate, ran the program, where the churches are and the stores. I suppose that's about half the overall area. Perhaps. Being the main roads. Oh well, lol. Pastor Vlad was a great help to us all, helping us bring supplies to and from the camp every day, as well as much needed water. Without him, we would have been very much more tired and tied down; we would have been less useful and energetic.

Memories

I'll keep this short for now.

I keep seeing people that remind me of people I met in the Ukraine. Most of these reminders are physical, appearance. This just showed me how materialistic we really are here; I remembered my friends by someone's appearances, therefore I distinguished my friends by appearance. Why not recognize them by how they laugh, they talk, they joke, they walk, they sing? Why do we, or at least I, notice people by their appearances? Is that fair? Am I the only one? I have a strong feeling I am not. If you are like me, please let me, and yourself know it. We aren't being fair by noticing the outside first before the inside. If it's a stranger that we have only just met, it might be the ONLY thing to compare, but what about your friends? Many probably are very similar to each other, but did you ever notice it? Putting it out there.

I remember these people by appearance mostly, but actions also, far a handful.

Try thinking on this.

--Scott

Break time

This title has a double meaning. One, the post. Two, I'm going to take a break to let people catch up if they would like and to see how much interest there really is.

So, break time. The time between. This can be viewed as the time between activities, between groups, after the camp, the meals together, the night's rest. Break time is what you make of it. But the time between groups gave Michelle and I a second to breathe and to think, "what were we doing again?". I really got lost while playing. The kids are just like here: hard core players, ready to take the win! :D Makes me glad. While the groups arrived, we would try to remember faces and names. If the name was Tanya, Anya, Sergiy, or Sasha, you were likely to remember, as these are VERY popular names over in the Ukraine. Breaks weren't there to sit back and relax, but to do unplanned things, like talk to the kids, toss a frisby, prepare our thoughts, get materials, get to know each other, and so much more. I really learnt something there.

--Scott

(I'll still be checking, not sure how long a break though)

Shyness

This should be short as it is late at night and I'm tired. The kids and the towns people were relatively shy in our regards, not really daring to look at us in the eye or we in theirs. We weren't sure how to act or were expected to act. A few of the villagers were very glad to see us, so a little less shyness, but those were mostly from the Church. The children were very timid and did as told (except the little boys who wanted to play soccer). It was not noticeable to me, but even in the first day of camp, people simply flourished with forwardness and trying to play with you (mainly the kids) and grab a translator/interpreter. By the end of the week, I felt a kindred to them as to my youth group, Unashamed, that I have been attending for nearly seven years with people who went to kids club, Pioneers, with me, another three/four years. We felt, or at least, I did, felt like we had known each other for far longer than five simple little days. It felt like weeks, months, even years or friendship in some cases.

Food -- Part Three --

So like, I like food... Whatever! XD

So, this one is more about lunch with the kids. Most of the kids came and ate with us at what they called the local Church, though it was not much; they are in the midst of building a new one by hand. Anyways, most of the kids cam and ate with us, and for a number of them, it was their only meal. when some dry food came around, some of the kids would start stuffing them away and other kids would join in making it a contest. It was funny to see, as they usually were smiling or teasing each other, but sad if you really thought about it... Also, what we ate was considered a feast to many in the village. Perhaps even to most. but to us, it was a satisfying meal, just enough to keep us very happy and from being hungry until the next meal.

--Scott

Food -- Part Two --

Alright. So here is part two. This is about Our AMAZING cook, Nina, and her family. This family allowed five of the Canadians and on interpreter to stay at their home. Nina herself was up at the crack of dawn, which was like 5-6 AM to make us breakfast. She then got her family fed and then a bit of house work? We were at the camp. but Shortly after, she was preparing lunch, and not for twenty people, but for the volunteers, our team, her family, the kids. This counted in at around, say 60 on the first day and 125 on the last. She had help from her daughters at some meals and some other volunteers, but she was the head chef. dishes washed, time to do something else and shortly afterwards, make supper... A long five day week it must have been! it was amazing to see such people giving their time to help people they barely know! God bless them. Of course, they were payed, but that goes without saying since they provided most of the food and the such.

God see to our needs

Sorry for not posting yesterday.

--Scott

Food -- Part one --

As the title clearly states, I love food. and that is why I will take a few posts to cover it. they will be short posts for the days I'm behind and/or tired.
I'm a teenage boy, and as goes without saying, I love to eat... I even ate allot for a teenager some days. This was partly due to an active life style and to a slightly higher metabolism. Lately, my metabolism has decreased to to a lack of physical activity in my life, but that's unimportant. Before leaving, I loved to eat ALL the time. I could seriously go to Timmy's and get a half dozen doughnuts and eat them all in one sitting, usually a half hour sitting though. So you get the point; I like to eat. I feel a snacking feeling often. I like to eat. Yet I was never hungry over there, over in the Ukraine. I was always satisfied and I was bouncy at every meal (usually meaning I have eaten to my content and that my body was dealing with the food :P ). I never had an urge to eat something from home, or to have a snack, except a couple of times when I saw full grapes, but they really weren't ready and that changed my mind :P God provided us with a healthy diet and a great cook. We did not get hungry or have to worry about it.

God is amazing! :D

--Scott

Planned schedule

Yeah, we had a planned schedule. It was relatively simple though. We got up and ate around 6:30 at Nina's, then went out to the Rec center for 7:00, perhaps they were both delayed by one hour... but I'm pretty sure it was for 7:00. We had our sessions... at one hour each, until 11:00 delay would make it 12:00, so I'm pretty sure we started at 7:00. Ate lunch with the kids... Free time, have supper when it was ready, I'm not sure when that was, because I was never waiting on supper. We were sometimes forced to go back to supper, because we were having a great time with something. It was fun. I really enjoyed the food, but that is for another time. we would then sing, after breakfast as well, and then hang out and talk and joke in both Russian and English. Thank God for the great translators :D We would then head out, get ready, and eventually go to bed. that was the planned schedule, not too full :D

Plans

This will be simple. Yes there was lots of effort going into planning and organizing, but was it really worth it? I'm not sure, and here is why: Almost everything we planned was changed, postponed, canceled, replaced. However, without the planning, would we have felt prepared at all? Would we have been ready? Who knows, aside from God?

So this is one of my debate posts. You can comment on it, or simply discuss with yourself.

--Scott

Climate

Short post: The plants and weather: If you are reading this and are from southern Canada or Northern United-States, you will have a very simple picture to draw: Take the plants we have, and voila. A few changes, near the southern Ukraine since it is close to the Black sea. Therefore the weather is more like Northern United-States. There are a few apple trees, walnut trees, full sized grape vines (not the wimpy little bitter things we get around Ottawa), pear trees, so-on so-forth. The weather, is like here, seasonal and therefore goes through "fazes" of rain, cloudy, dry, a bit of snow, and so-forth. Real simple picture to paint isn't it? Have fun :P

--Scott

Hope House first impression

My first impression walking into Hope House was that the place was a well kept building with some work to be done perhaps in a few places, but better off then many of the neighboring houses. I was also surprised at how many people could comfortably live in such a small looking building (much less small when inside). I also saw few of the girls as it appears many were out for various reasons when we arrived and others were helping in the gardens and the such. They also seemed shy and reserved, and amazingly polite. I felt useless as I was not physically permitted to do anything to help :P Not even bring my dishes over to the sink on the first day :D So that was my first impression, I will write more in another further post. Trying to keep this short ;)