I've been without internet at the apartment for over a week, which means first thing in the morning and last thing at night, I must find my way to McDonald's to access wifi. Friday morning saw me do just that and then come back to the apartment to begin to pack. I sorted my stuff into two piles, what would come home with me and what would remain in Kiev. The clothing I will leave here will mean less that I have to pack when I return in September. I left around 12:30 to meet Brother Vladimir at Metro Zhitomirska station. From there, we met another Vladimir and went to the city of Zhitomir which is about 75 miles from Kiev. We were going to meet with a group there. We walked a fair distance from the Metro station and Vladimir stood with his hand stretch out to flag down a ride. It seems that it is common practice to pick up some extra money by functioning as an unofficial taxi service. So, in our case, a man going to Zhitomir or through Zhitomir can pick up riders. So we rode like a bat out of hell, weaving in and out of traffic and sometimes for long distances in the breakdown lane for the two hour trip for 75 Hrivnia - less than $10USD. Then we took a soviet era trolley bus, then we walked to the place we were meeting, with stops at two churches (when you travel with a monk, you stop at every church along the way!) The group we met with were great. It was an HIV/AIDS organization and the director was Maxim whom I had met before. There was good interest and a lot of questions about this new LGBT Christian movement that is being born. There is immense interest, and I already have meetings lined up for September when I return. I will then go to a town called Vilnitsa for one of my first stops.
There was a young man at the meeting who never opened his mouth, and seemed sad. I asked Brother Vladimir to translate for me so I could have a conversation with him. He works as a psychologist and I wanted to know about internalized homophobia in his clients. He shyly admitted that he himself has internalized homophobia and doesn't like himself and doesn't want to be gay. We talked for a while with him. I hope we helped him. When Brother V. and I left, we got on a bus. Turns out it was the correct busline but we were going in the wrong direction, so we got off and crossed the street to wait for one going in the right direction. While we were with a crowd waiting for a private car to stop to fill up, a Kiev bus came so we took that instead. Ironically the bus was more expensive than the private car. We sat in the far back where we got the benefit of every bump in the road. I fear that I would either crash into the roof of the bus, or get bounced right off my seat into the aisle. It was a very long bus ride. We arrived back at the Metro Station Zhitomirska and rode together to the center. I got off before Brother Vladimir and we said a sad "farewell" on the train. I switched lines and finally arrived at Kharkivska at 23:30. I stopped at McDonald's to eat something since I hadn't eaten since breakfast. I got to the aparment after midnight and crashed pretty much immediately.
This morning, I went to McDonald's for cappuccino at about 8 and to check email. It was so incredibly good to read that the NY State Senate passed Equal Marriage into law! What a great homecoming gift! I also had an email from Delta Airlines. I had no idea that they had changed my flights. I was supposed to fly Kiev-JFK directly. Now I'm flying Kiev-Paris, Paris-JFK, JFK-ROC arriving at 11:20pm Sunday night. It looks on paper like I'm traveling from 13:30 to 23:30, a mere 10 hours but you have to factor in the 7 hour time difference so I'll be traveling for 17 hours and will have been awake for 24. I am disappointed at the flight schedule change because I was supposed to spend my layover in NY with my good friend, Yuriy, a Ukrainian who lives in NY.
I am going to leave now to take the Metro into the center to have my final lunch for this trip at Glossary and say goodbye to the waiter and waitress who have become friends during my stay. Tonight I will have dinner with friends and tomorrow morning will be spent preparing to get to the airport.
My next blogging will probably be from an airport somewhere between here and home. Ah, I say "home" but here feels as much "home" as there does. Does that make me a citizen of the world? Here is my link to very few pics from Zhitomir: https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/Zhitomir?authkey=Gv1sRgCMr81ICF5__B9wE
There was a young man at the meeting who never opened his mouth, and seemed sad. I asked Brother Vladimir to translate for me so I could have a conversation with him. He works as a psychologist and I wanted to know about internalized homophobia in his clients. He shyly admitted that he himself has internalized homophobia and doesn't like himself and doesn't want to be gay. We talked for a while with him. I hope we helped him. When Brother V. and I left, we got on a bus. Turns out it was the correct busline but we were going in the wrong direction, so we got off and crossed the street to wait for one going in the right direction. While we were with a crowd waiting for a private car to stop to fill up, a Kiev bus came so we took that instead. Ironically the bus was more expensive than the private car. We sat in the far back where we got the benefit of every bump in the road. I fear that I would either crash into the roof of the bus, or get bounced right off my seat into the aisle. It was a very long bus ride. We arrived back at the Metro Station Zhitomirska and rode together to the center. I got off before Brother Vladimir and we said a sad "farewell" on the train. I switched lines and finally arrived at Kharkivska at 23:30. I stopped at McDonald's to eat something since I hadn't eaten since breakfast. I got to the aparment after midnight and crashed pretty much immediately.
This morning, I went to McDonald's for cappuccino at about 8 and to check email. It was so incredibly good to read that the NY State Senate passed Equal Marriage into law! What a great homecoming gift! I also had an email from Delta Airlines. I had no idea that they had changed my flights. I was supposed to fly Kiev-JFK directly. Now I'm flying Kiev-Paris, Paris-JFK, JFK-ROC arriving at 11:20pm Sunday night. It looks on paper like I'm traveling from 13:30 to 23:30, a mere 10 hours but you have to factor in the 7 hour time difference so I'll be traveling for 17 hours and will have been awake for 24. I am disappointed at the flight schedule change because I was supposed to spend my layover in NY with my good friend, Yuriy, a Ukrainian who lives in NY.
I am going to leave now to take the Metro into the center to have my final lunch for this trip at Glossary and say goodbye to the waiter and waitress who have become friends during my stay. Tonight I will have dinner with friends and tomorrow morning will be spent preparing to get to the airport.
My next blogging will probably be from an airport somewhere between here and home. Ah, I say "home" but here feels as much "home" as there does. Does that make me a citizen of the world? Here is my link to very few pics from Zhitomir: https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/Zhitomir?authkey=Gv1sRgCMr81ICF5__B9wE
I suppose you think that all of this means that you are destined to return to the Ukraine. I think it means that you were overdue to see Disney World, Paris.
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