The Country Mouse Goes to Kiev

This morning I had my first solo bus ride in Ukraine (or ever). It was a big deal for a girl who has never even ridden public transportation in her home town before (not that there actually is any :) There really wasn't anything to it, because Nadya's mom did all the hard part for me, down to asking the bus driver to please be sure he stopped at the market in Rzhishchiv instead of the nearby technicum.

Nadya is the daughter of Bruce's friend Andrei who helped the Crowes get connected here, and I've met her before when she was in the states visiting (some you probably met their family when they visited Crossroads back in July.) Anyway, Nadya is close to my age, and she's been trying to get me to come visit her these past three months or so...so I finally got to go!

The Murzins got circus tickets for the Crowes and me, so we went on Saturday, and then I stayed overnight wiht Nadya. And then another night. And I came back by bus this morning in the greyish puddly weather. It was delicious. My sense of independence was probably an illusion, since Mrs. Murzin said they used to send Nadya to her granparents' by bus when she was just six years old...but oh well :) It was a big step to me!

But the bus ride was only the cherry on top. I so enjoyed hanging out with Nadya. She wanted to show me her favorite places in Kiev, so she took me down by the Dneiper river where there's an huge arched bridge all lit up, and we walked along the cobblestone riverside and sidewalks, enjoying the lights on the water and chattering like squirrels. It was damp and just slightly rainy, but not unbearably cold. Good conversation is so refreshing! I can't convey just how much a wholesome conversation restores me. Ahh.

Nadya is Ukrainian, but she speaks very good English, and she's read classics in English that I haven't ventured to read, so it was kind of fuuny to have my English challenged by someone who's not only a year younger than me, but has a different mother tongue!

She told me interesting history about Kiev, explained some school customs, and helped me some with Russian. We quickly figured out that neither of us have a head for directions, especially when we're engrossed in conversation, and we went into one metro station and out and in and out and all about...but it was great fun. Nadya said there's a Russian proverb that says that some people "can get lost between three pine trees." So I'm keeping that one tucked away...it definitely applies to me! I was just impressed that she could get around Kiev at all. It's a big city-- I think about 3.5 million people, population-wise.

All the bus catching and on-the-metro-off-the-metro-up-these-stairs-down-those-stairs-across this-street-on-that-bus-run-to-catch-the-next-bus had the country mouse pretty baffled and a little overwhelmed. I'm used to Rzhishchiv, with its little three-day-per-week bazaar and main street, complete with a post office. That's pretty much all I need at this point. But I had so much fun seeing Kiev. We were in a really fancy part of town where they had built a beautiful mall, so we went there and had a baked potato and a milkshake, and then looked in a few stores.

I've can't say that shopping does much for me, but for some reason just walking into a Levi's store and seeing and feeling those American clothes really did something to me. Homesickness is such a sneaky beast...it creeps up behind you and suddenly socks you in the gut even in your happiest, most well-adjusted moments.

All the newness of Kiev and some little things like the Levi's store and the sight of Nadya's six year old brother just Ethan's height playing dinosaurs caught me off guard and I actually started crying on the metro, much to my embarressment and Nadya's dismay. She was really gentle though, and felt terrible that I felt that way and I felt terrible that she felt terrible...you know how girls are. And then she took me to her youth group and I cried again...I can't believe myself. There were a lot of girls all eager to help, five hands offering chocolate cookies, a kolbasa sandwich, a cup of tea, anything to console me. "Don't worry! Chocolate will fix EVERYTHING! We are doctors and we will fix you!"they gushed dramatically, in somewhat broken English. I couldn't help laughing through my tears. I was in a ridiculous state, but since I couldn't even explain very well why I was crying (I wasn't sure I knew, myself!) it was best just to laugh and gulp down chocolate cookies until the storm blew over.

I continually find myself thinking, when I get homesick or overwhelmed, that I'm getting my just desserts for moving to a foreign country when I could hardly handle leaving my front doorstep in my own country. Then I remember that God really did bring me here, and I ask, "Doesn't it seem like a waste, God, to give such an opportunity to a girl with the brain of Pooh Bear and the heart of Piglet? Sure, I wanted to come, but you could have picked somebody a lot stronger, smarter, more compassionate, and more energetic than this basket case!" But He seems to be divinely winking at me :)

More than anything, I want to have faith to go anywhere and do anything God asks, but I'm so weak in just about everything that it will be interesting to see what my life actually turns out like. Boy am I glad that the Bible says He uses the weak things of this world...haha, it looks like I'm in!

Despite the little meltdowns, the weekend was a blast, and it went by so quickly. I wanted to assure Nadya that it was in no way her fault that I broke down, because I really enjoyed being with her, and she did a great job taking care of me. I really felt welcomed and comfortable with the Murzins, and my language learning enthusiasm is revived after getting to practice with them. Since they speak English and have lived in the states some, we could understand each other well and they were really good at helping me with Russian.

After youth group, or molodyozhka Sunday night, we went "gylyat"ing with two of Nadya's girl friends from youth group. "Gylyat" is my new favorite Russian word (although correct pronunciation is still a work in progress), because it describes one of my favorite things in the world, and there's no equivalent for it in English. (Another benefit of learning a language- you get new words to describe things you've never been able to exactly describe before.) The word means something between "to walk" and "to play," so it's like walking for pleasure, wandering around outside...that sort of thing. So we did that. We wandered arm in arm to McDonald's and had ice cream and just enjoyed each other's company.

It's very humbling to have people go out of their way to speak a different language just for your sake. I know lots of people want to speak English just because they want practice, but last night it was obvious that it would have been a lot easier for the girls just to speak in Russian to each other and let me fumble along the best I could. After all, I'm the one who chose to come here, so I feel like I should be the one speaking Russian. Over and over they kept saying, "Ok, let's speak English" so that I could be part of the conversation. So we helped each other speak each others' languages, and it was so fun.

So we got up when it was still dark this morning and a little bit drizzly, and Nadya's mom helped me get to the bus station and on the Marshrutka, and I went home so happy and refreshed and thankful.