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Shane and Marilyn with one of the ever present children glued to Shane. |
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the corner where we hung our towels and had cubbies for our stuff |
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our beds...mine is to the left and deanna's straight ahead. |
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flagpole and calisthenics |
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crafts in the cafeteria |
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marijuana grows freely in the fields outside of camp on the way to the village. They call it the American drug. |
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the store in the village where they have COLD water in a cooler |
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the abacus |
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Shane and Marilyn's house in the village |
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one of many wells that the village residents draw their water from |
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Dasha and the goats that graze in the grass between the road |
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the school |
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lace curtains are seen in the windows of many of the houses |
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grazing on fruit from the many trees and bushes |
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a garden behind someone's house. We saw a lot of these. |
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a world war II bunker in the side of the hill. |
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lunch...see description below |
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steve(left) and jay(right)..the leaders of our group |
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Deanna and I with Joanne, one of our roomies |
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Deanna and I with Evelyn, our other roomie |
We were up early again today at 6:30 a.m. I think that this will become our norm while we are here. I am not known to be an early bird, but that bright sunshine sure makes it easier. We really enjoy our roommates, Evelyn and Joanne. They have been here many times before and have been so helpful to get us settled in and used to the routine. This was our first morning at the flagpole. Calisthenics are really helpful this early in the morning to stretch out the kinks from sleeping on the hard beds. Unfortunately, my air mattress is rather deflated in the morning. Breakfast was a sweet porridge that had the flavor of flan, but not the texture. Deanna liked it, but I didn't care much for it. Bread and butter for me this morning. Today's craft was painting tote bags. This turned out to be rather messy and the kids LOVED the paint. We had VBS cowboy stamps and stencils for them to use. The most popular color of bags were green and orange among the boys, and pink and yellow among the girls. I was surprised that some of the boys actually chose pink too. Doing crafts in the cafeteria this morning was tough for me because the smell of lunch cooking made me a little sick. As a result, lunch didn't look very appetizing but tasted good. It was a hash made of potato, squash, and bits of meat. We also had a soup with potato in it. This is Ukrainian peasant food and Shane says it's some of the best they have had. Thank goodness! Today has been Sanitation inspection day which is very stressful for Shane and Marilyn, our camp operators and missionaries. Sanitation inspects everything and has very strange rules and expectations. Everything has to be unplugged, very clean and organized and all dorm food hidden away. If the camp doesn't pass inspection, it could be shut down so everyone has to do their part. I spent the afternoon crafts period on the computer with Expedia trying to rebook our flight back to Kiev from Lugansk. Expedia sold us tickets for flights that were too close together. Of course, they claim they are not responsible so the expense becomes our own. Deanna said we had about 40 in afternoon crafts. After crafts, we went to the village with Evelyn, Joanne, Dasha (married to Brian), and Angel (married to Sam). We bought ice cream at the store in the village. It's the only building besides homes, a local bar, and a school. The lady in the store computes with an abacus. She said it is easier for her than a calculator. It was fascinating. We then walked through the village, saw the home Angel and her husband rented last year, and tasted fruit off of every tree and bush we came to. It was a very interesting afternoon. We came back to camp just in time for dinner. Dinner was noodles with a little beef and a salad with cabbage and cucumbers. There were also big rolls with apple butter in them. It was pretty good. The evening message was brought to us by the youth leader of the Birmingham group, Wes. It was a great message. After that, there were acting competitions and then Disco again for the big kids. Our experience here has been very different from Mitch and Danny's of last year's youth camp. We have so many people in crafts, that we are unable to connect to anyone in particular. Most of the relationships we are building are with our interpreters and other camp staff. We have also enjoyed getting to know the North Monroe group better. They have a real heart for ministry in this camp and the young people they have brought are amazing juniors and seniors. Some of the youth have come back from a previous year. Well, the night is getting late and morning comes early.
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