Beautiful Snapshots

{Post originally shared here}

I was asked to share a story from my time at a camp in Ukraine, but I struggle with story writing.  So instead, let me share some of the beautiful things I witnessed.

I saw a young and sweet boy, whose mother left him, share his darts with a girl and teach her how to throw them just right.

I saw a group of girls help clean the dishes after a meal with smiles and laughter.

I saw forty-two children live together, laugh, play, and make new friends.

I heard the laughter of many amused kids as I did my best to talk and play with them in my broken Russian and Ukrainian.

I saw the many sweet notes that they sent each other every day through the camp mail box.

I heard the sorrow and grief of a young boy as he shared his thoughts about the war between Russia and Ukraine through a poem he wrote.

I saw a boy catch and release a lost bird that had flown into the building during lesson time.

I heard the overwhelming sound of the children thanking the kitchen women after each meal.

I heard a joyful noise as all of us raised our voices to God in praise through song.

I held a girl asleep in my lap as we traveled home over bumpy roads in a hot bus full of kids.

I opened my hands for an acorn that a child gave me as he left the bus.

Camp has so many more memories that I will never be able to put into words.  I love the children and the staff and I will always remember this week!

Memories of Ukraine – Arriving at the Airport

Now that I’m on break from school I’ve had a lot more time to think and process.  One thing that is on my mind all the time is Ukraine.  I’m constantly re-remembering memories of people, places, and events I encountered on my last two trips there.  Since I can’t return to Ukraine right now and you didn’t ever really get to hear all that much about Ukraine, I thought I’d share some of those memories as they pop back into my consciousness.  Occasionally I may even try to sort of draw them for you seeing as how I have a very visual memory.  Most of these memories come out of “snap-shots” I have in my brain.

One vivid memory I have is at the Ukrainian airport in Kiev last June during my arrival.  I had just spent the last day traveling alone half-way around the globe and I was exhausted (though not sick this time, thankfully!).  Because I had flown with a different air company than the first trip, I was allowed two checked bags plus my regular carry on bag (in other words I had 2 huge 50 lbs. bags + a 40 lbs. “carry”-on roll bag).  I’m pretty sure carry-ons aren’t supposed to weigh 40 lbs, but mine always end up about that heavy.  Two of the bags (1 large + carry on) were new and easy to push.  The other one was quite old and only rolled one way and was top-heavy.

I worked out a system of pulling the new suitcase behind me while using my other arm/hand to push the easy carry-on into the old suitcase.  I’m sure I looked funny, but hey, it worked (sorta).  🙂  I had been to this airport before (in 2012), so I knew generally how to find my way out once I got through customs and baggage claim.  Here’s where I wish I had drawn a picture for you so you can see what I saw.  I looked through this two-door width opening into a sea of people standing behind a glass knee-high partition.  I began to push my things out that way and as I made it through the doorway I was joyfully greeted by my friend’s parents.  I couldn’t remember much Russian at that point (too tired),  but it was wonderful seeing them again and seeing their smiling faces when they first saw me!  It went right through the language boundaries. 🙂

Chinatown (Chicago, IL)

I was looking for something to do at this ridiculous hour of the morning (4:50 am) and I remembered this travel and service blog.  And then it hit me.  I’m currently sent to Chicago to serve.  So, can I write about my ministry here on my “Travel” blog??  Yeah!  😀  So, without further ado, I present to you some of my adventures (and a multitude of pictures) in Chinatown.

Once a week I travel with four other MBI (Moody Bible Institute) students to a Chinese Christian school in Chinatown to help with their after school recreation and tuition program for children ages 4-12.  I get to work with the 4 year olds (or Pre-K students).  We don’t really do any tutoring, but rather we spend the entire time having fun!

Chinatown

Chinatown

These two photos show a couple of the buildings in this part of the city.  Every week when I arrive (the other four students go to help with the older kids) I’m greeted enthusiastically by these wonderful faces.  🙂

A.

J.

A.

G.

B.

There are on average 10-12 four-year-olds there every single week.  I don’t have pictures of everyone.  🙂  One of the first little girls to capture my heart was N.

“Ariel”

She introduced herself to me as Ariel.  The teacher later told me Ariel is her favorite princess.  Ariel loves to put on dresses and twirl around for me.  Always seeking attention and affirmation, N. can be a handful.  But at the heart of Ariel is a little girl who wants to be loved for who she is.  The teacher was bothered by her constant “attention getting” attitude, so I did my best to focus my energy on showing Ariel love and giving her attention.  I haven’t seen her since last semester, but I hope she’ll come back soon.

Next is a little boy named B.  He’s got this infectious grin along with a bucket full of energy, words, and ideas.

B.

This one is quite the handful!  He was always trying to climb up onto my chair so that I would “fall” off.  He also loves to fold and fly paper airplanes.  Along with that, he also enjoys sliding around in the gym on the scooters.  He pushes every rule to the limit just to see how far he can get away from the rules without getting in trouble.  He also loves building things and spinning different toys (such as fake food eggs, oranges, etc.) on the table and watching until they spin off and bounce all over the floor making quite the noise.

B. and E. building car tracks

B.

In this picture (above), B. and I are in the reading corner.  As you can see, I’m proudly wearing the bun that N. decked me with earlier that afternoon.  She loves doing hair, I forgot to mention that earlier.  🙂  Thankfully I had many siblings do my hair growing up, so all the knots and pulling weren’t so bad.

Here’s one of the other girls reading a book (also in the book corner).

The next one I’d like to introduce you to is A.

B. and A.

He’s on the right.  This kid never solves enough puzzles!  He spends the entire two hour time on them.  When I first met him I thought he only spoke and understood Chinese.  After a whole semester with him I now know that he knows some English but his pronunciation is so thickly accented that it’s hard to understand.  I learned a couple of words (such as blue, yellow, green, etc.) from him and the word, “teacher”.  老师.  (pronounced: l(ow)-shuh) We have solved many a puzzle together.

A. at the puzzle drawer

One funny thing I found myself doing was speaking to the children in Russian whenever they spoke to me in Chinese.  Since I was in Ukraine for a month, I think my brain automatically associates foreign languages and children with the Russian language.  They probably picked up a couple of words from me (such as “what? why? of course! yes. no.” etc.).

Building a tall tower

On occasion, the majority of children  worked together to create a tower out of stacking blocks.

The final creation

G., the little girl in the front is another friend of mine.  She is very quiet and reserved (most of the time) and she enjoys doing what the other girls do–i.e. making fake food, taking care of her “baby”, and dressing up.  Very good with crayons, G. has drawn me several pictures.  But sadly, I didn’t take any digital copies of them to share with you.  Maybe next time?

The Kitchen

The Kitchen

Most of the girls spend their time here, in the kitchen.

Food

A. and A. with their food

So, both of these girls have A. names and they both love to cook, play, and have fun together.

Having Fun Together

Well, that’s about all folks.  I think it’s time for me to try to sleep (now that it’s 5:39 am).  Maybe I can get an hour and a half in before my first class.  I hope you guys enjoyed my brief overview of my time in Chinatown.  🙂

Flight Photos (:

While I try to figure out what to share with you guys next, I thought I should at least upload a couple of the pictures I took out of different plane windows.