Weekend in Sumy

These are pictures from school Friday-- most of our classmates eating.

This room serves as our classroom from 9-11:30, our dining room from 11:30-noon. Alicia and I are on the right there and that's the director Howard Botterill in the foreground.



We rode the train to Sumy for the weekend. It was our first "solo" experience without Grady helping. We learned that 1- we need to leave more than an hour and half early to get there close to on time. 2- packing light is a good thing when you must drag your luggage through the streets of Kiev (and we are wondering how long the wheels are goin 3- that they actually put your seat number/car number on your ticket but they always write it in Russian!


I was reading in a book called CULTURE SHOCK UKRAINE by Meredith Dalton that said if you share a cabin with a Ukrainian, they will offer you food. Here is Brett and Luda eating some Ukrainian corn on the cob she offered us-- this was the second course after the chocolates, kleb (bread) and kilbasa (sausage).

I had never ridden in a train car like this before, but I have seen them in the Beatles movies.

IN SUMY:

Alicia, Lilly, Julia, Lena, and Nena in the guest room at the Sumy Church building where we stayed. They were vistiting us Saturday evening.

The Church was doing well; we had a good service conducted by brother Vova (right) and several of the ladies saw us off with tea and a snack before our Marshrutka ride back to Kiev. (This part Alicia DID NOT like. We both prefer the train now that we know the difference)

One of our lessons for the week was 1- not to buy a cutting board because it is cheapest and
2- do not try to wash said cheap cutting board in the dishwasher heat.

And lastly, our companion Lilly. She's been a point of contact for so many people-- and an added motivation to learn the language so we can talk to people! Alicia said at McDonald's tonight that the trash guy was trying to talk to Lilly-- and she said if she had known Russian, she would have sat him right down and started a conversation like, "Do you know who made this dog? ... well, he made you too..." and "I would have told him about Jesus!"

Lilly is fine... and so are we. Ya'll have a wonderful week-- thanks for checking in on us.