Orientation
The first week here in Ukraine was set up to be an orientation week with Dougle's plan that filled every day. There were two many purposes to this week. The first was to get the team acquainted with our new home, and the second was to keep us wake so we wouldn't fall victim to Jet Lag. Yes, "victim" is properly used here. The week started the first moment we touched done at the Kharkov Air port where we met with most of the team. The took us to the Hindman's place where we had a little get together of just Americans. Afterwards, they let us sleep off our first night in Kharkov. At that time, I had thought the it was around 6pm because the sun wasn't set yet but it was really 8pm. That first night we didn't really notice anything we just crash landed into our beds in the vary manner we were hoping our little plane wouldn't hours before.
Over the next few days, we attended a picnic with Ukrainians who were learning English. And a huge scavenger hunt where us AIMers were sectioned into two teams and then unleashed into the city to find several items, mostly major cultural sights. Of course, they sent us off alone without anyone who spoke Russian or Ukrainian. We attended church in Russian and couldn't read any of the words and went to a couple of the markets and stores. We went on a prayer walk with the missionaries and handed out flyers for the "Lets Start Talking" team that was coming and we didn't go ice skating at Karavan(even though it was on the schedule...)
Language Lessons
Now we could not survive living in Ukraine without learning the language, so Dougle arranged for us to go to one of the local universities. Because Ukraine has lots of Universities* there are many foreign students. For foreign students to attend school in the fall they must be able to speak Russian or Ukrainian and so that they don't miss a semester or more learning the universities are prepared to teach them during the summer. We are under such a similar arrangement. We go to school 5 days a week for 4 academic hours a day. Four hours a day in Russian is tough work, but it must be done!
Another part of the arrangement takes into account that the Summer months is break time for the teachers. Instead of making one teacher work all Summer with out a vacation, the teachers swap out with each other. The first two weeks we had a teacher named Elana and now we have an teacher named Valeria. In a week, we'll change teachers again and have each teacher for two weeks until we complete the course. This makes for some interesting learning! Elana spoke English fairly well, but Valeria doesn't speak English at all. They each have their own styles of teaching, talking and writing. And, this will be the same with each new teacher!
Other than that we haven't had a lot to do. Our main focus for these first months is learning the language, not evangelizing. For that reason, Dougle has asked us to stay a couple months longer than the amount required by the AIM program. Between studying our Russian and fixing our plumbing that likes to go on the fritz every now and then there hasn't been a lot of time for extra curricular. We attend church on Sunday with the Russian Assemble and we often go to the Nigerian assembly also. A group of people came with the Let's Start Talking and we handed out flyers for them and visited with them when they arrived. I've taken walks around the city both with my teammates and by myself and I've come to find that I'm very comfortable here.
I hope you are all doing well and having your own adventures! Thank you for all the love and support.
Godspeed, Dawna Denman
