- Jess Markley
- Jun 30, 2021
- 6 min read
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Day One: *panics in English*
This morning was surprisingly laid-back, I guess.
I woke up early, texted some friends good morning, and watched the city wake up. After breakfast, I lounged on the couch and wrote until lunch time while a new friend read aloud :)
Let me rephrase that:
I woke up around 4:45 when the sun rose, before slipping in and out of sleep until 7. I texted my mom and boyfriend, knowing full well they wouldn’t be up for another seven or eight hours.
Then I sat in the spare room of a little apartment, on the tenth floor of a 25-floor building, in Kyiv, Ukraine, listening to my host read a novel in Russian to her language teacher.
It *has* been pretty chill this morning. Just not in English.
It’s like the world’s been scrambled. Almost like looking at a word-search, but I don’t know what words I’m searching for, and the letters aren’t even familiar.
For example, last night, as I sat up at 2 am, jet-lagged and disoriented, I began to study this green sign outside my window:
Okay, it’s a little blurry.
But it looks like it says Nana Kapno, right? Kinda?
Well, it doesn’t.
It says Папа Карлo.
Which is Papa Karlo.
It’s a pizza place.
And that yellow sign?
That says Трі-Ніті Плюс, and underneath it reads Cтоматологічна Kлініка.
It's a dentist's office called Three Threads Plus.
(I don't get it either.)
So yeah. It’s been pretty exhausting.
After my host, Joy's, Russian lesson, we walked to a nearby mall and got lunch at a restaurant called Пузата Xата, or Fat Hut. Joy helped me order borscht, hrechka (buckwheat), and nalysnyky, which are like Ukrainian crepes. Kind of.
After lunch, we took a маршутка (it means marshrutka, or a little bus) to meet a friend of Joy's, who teaches at a nearby dual-language school. They teach both Ukrainian and English there. The woman there, who basically spearheaded the entire school, is awesome. Her love for Jesus and her students lights her up. It’s incredible.
Later, we went to a nearby store to pick up some tupperware and a blanket for Joy.
When we got home, I cried in the shower-- part of me simply exhausted and part of me aching for the familiar.
Eventually, I fell asleep around 1 or 2 in the morning.
•••
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Day Two: Пробачати… Я не розумію.
Today, I had my first Ukrainian language lesson. I’d learned a little of the language before leaving for Ukraine, but not enough to really. You know. Communicate.
So, from 9:30-11:30, I sat across the table from a grandmotherly Ukrainian babbling away in a foreign language, trying to make sense of the various ways to say “my”, attempting to pronounce the guttural “И,” and stumbling over my own name. (After all, they don’t have the /j/ sound in Ukrainian. So it’s more like /dz/.)
And let me tell you, if you thought doing math at the kitchen table with your dad was hard… try learning a new language from a babushka. Though honestly, my teacher is a gem. I’m going to try to ask her to adopt me next time we meet.
And she’s taught me a lot. I learned all my letters, and how to introduce myself, and most importantly how to say: Пробачати… Я не розумію. “Sorry… I don’t understand.”
After my language lesson, with my head still swimming with unfamiliar letters and new phrases, Joy and I went to a Georgian restaurant. The country, not the state. The food was amazing. Pork-filled dumpling things, grilled chicken and “fries”, and an egg-cheese-bread bowl kind of dish. Yes. It was as good as it sounds.
That evening, we met up with a couple other teammates and went to downtown Kyiv. And let me tell you: Ukrianians know how to build churches. Saint Sophia’s, Saint Andrew’s, and Saint Michael’s were-- in a word-- big.
No but seriously. I’m talking huge. Saint Sophia towered over the whole city, topped with a gold, onion-like dome. The towering bell tower had been carved with sworls and designs. Sophia’s church peered down at an old cobblestone square, staring across the city at Saint Andrew’s.
The apostle Andrew must have been a colorful guy. His church was bright, shocking teal. Seriously. Very blue.
See?
Teal.
Very teal.
And gold.
Pretty, right?
The inside is gorgeous, too. Dozens of paintings covering the wall and ceiling. Historical and Biblical portrayals of Peter’s crucifixion, Constantine preaching, and the Sermon on the Mount.
Not far from Andrew’s, St. Michael’s stood on the same street, ironically named Tithe Street. Here, we watched as Ukrainians crossed themselves before pictures of the saints and Mary, lit candles, and mouthed along to the liturgy being read by the assembly of priests.
After the churches, we looked over Independence Square, where one hundred Ukrainians lost their lives in the protests in 2014, after a rigged election.
Having hit 16,862 steps so far, my legs felt like twizzlers, and with the onslaught of language and history my brain felt like someone had taken a hand-held mixer to it.
•••
Thursday, June 24, 2021
Day Three: Talking Business
Today was Orientation day. Our team met and talked over the who, what, when, and whys:
Who we are and who we’re working with
What we’ll actually be doing
When that’s all gonna happen
Why we’re here and why we’re doing these things
Basically, it was a breakdown for the rest of the summer. Somehow both incredibly exciting and massively overwhelming.
Also, I ate rabbit ravioli for lunch. It does not taste like chicken. It’s more meaty.
Imagine if you were a English peasant, on the run from the authorities after being found with the recently-murdered duchess’s diamond necklace. You meet up with a band of thieves and outlaws, who laugh at your story and claim they, too, were framed. You sit in a circle around a spit with these obvious criminals, weighing the decision to flee that night, or stick it out for the sake of a warm fire. Just when you’ve opted to flee as soon as you can, one of the burly, scarred men to your left hands you a leg of something. It drips with grease and your stomach growls. And when you bite into it, a thick, smoky, taste fills your mouth, and you think, I guess I could stay for one night.
That’s what rabbit tastes like.
It’s pretty good.
•••
Friday, June 25, 2021
Day Four: And God said, “Let there be AC.”
Today, we got an air conditioner.
It’s been at a record high in Kyiv this week. I think the hottest was 36℃. Yeah, I didn’t know what that meant either. It was about 96℉.
Now take that, and go sit on the tenth floor of an apartment building. Joy and I opened windows and resisted the urge to fist-fight over our one fan. But when the air is just hot, a fan doesn’t do much other than move the hot air around. It’s like a child breathing on you really aggressively.
So we got an air conditioner.
There was an immediate improvement.
The birds started singing. Wilting flowers stood up and bloomed with color. Joy hummed and danced around the living room. I began to speak in fluent Ukrainian, praising the Lord in foreign tongues.
It was a miracle.
•••
Saturday, June 26, 2021
Day Five: I will be bathing in rivers from now on.
John the Baptist had it right.
Besides the whole crickets-and-honey for dinner thing, I’m a huge fan of his. Specifically his philosophy on river baptisms.
Who said, “Guys, let’s stop dunking our new Christians in the glorious rivers created by our Father God, adorned with swaying sea grass and majestics ducks and wonderfully squishy mud”?
Who looked at a giant bathtub and thought, “Yeah, that’s so much better than the Jordan River. Let’s celebrate loving Jesus by giving people baths.”
I would like to meet this person and drown him in the stupid baths he loves so much.
Because let me tell you: outdoor baptisms are where it’s at.
Think beach cookout meets family reunion plus Jesus.
After a time of worship and prayer and a short sermon, the five teens who were getting baptized (identifiable by their all-white clothes) joined the pastor by the edge of the river. One by one, they waded into the river after the pastor, where they professed their faith and were dunked under water to the cheers and applause of their friends and family.
Afterwards, we squished together for lunch, eleven or twelve to a park table, and began to eat. There was traditional pork and chicken shashlik (kind of like kebabs), fresh dill and arugula, homegrown cucumbers and peppers, tart cherries and juicy, dripping strawberries. They cooked potatoes wrapped in foil and tossed them in coals, until they were so hot you literally played hot potato with yourself to eat them. The women around me chattered back and forth, occasionally pausing to explain things to me in pieces of English. We reached across each other, grabbing pieces of chocolate and candies and slivers of cakes.
No, I didn’t understand a solid 95% of what they said. Yes, I said approximately eight words. But… I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Because as confusing and overwhelming as it was, fellowshipping with other Christians, even in a different language, is always a good time.
•••
All in all… this week felt like mayhem. I almost started crying in a grocery store. At least five people muttered, “Amerykanskyy” (American) while shaking their head at me. I couldn’t order my own food, water, or ask where the bathroom was. But it’s getting easier. I’m glad I’m here. God is good.
And the other day, during my grammar lesson, I told my teacher, “Tak, tak. Я розумію.” Yes, I did understand. And I meant it.
That felt like a win.