Skip to main content

The Holiday Season Part V: New Year's Retreat

We were invited to go on a retreat with Safe Haven to celebrate New Year's, and of course we said YES! It would be for two nights and we had to bring costumes to wear. It is rather interesting thinking about dressing up at the end of the year and not Halloween! I had a brilliant idea, so we weren't too worried about what we would wear. That's usually how it is. I supply the idea, and Daniel the engineer creates it! The retreat was great fun and I think pictures would be better than me trying to explain everything.
Making appetizers for the big night!
After we finished that, everyone left to dress up. And in some cases, get "dolled up." See below.
Dima, Vova, and I think her name's Kolya. She's cute.
Commodore Norrington and Captain Jack Sparrow. Daniel did good, huh?
Two Arabians that I love!
A cowgirl and a Scotsman. In other words, a perfect match!
Some traditional Ukranians...I think.
A soldier and his lovely wife and child. The child is kinda chubby.
This picture just makes me laugh and smile, and then smile and laugh.
Two skeletons we found in a closet.
I'm not sure what she's supposed to be, but she's beautiful nonetheless!
I challenge you to a duel.
I accept.
Anya and Bogdan, the house parents at Safe Haven, with their two kids Pasha and Danya.
The coolest family ever!
Captain Jack Sparrow and his reindeer friend Masha! Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate!
Playing Pirate Farkel!

The retreat flew by; we enjoyed playing tons of games (a good chance for us to learn Russian numbers), going to church, eating, playing ping-pong (Daniel), and talking to the kids, especially the ones that know some English. Notice I did not mention sleep. We didn't do much of that. 

My "Huh?" Moment
It was New Year's Eve, technically New Year's Day because it was around 2:00 a.m., but New Year's Eve sounds better. A group of us were gathered around a table playing Farkel, a dice game that is similar to Yahtzee. The kids were practicing English, and so I kept hearing numbers..."three hundred!" and "six hundred and fifty!" and the like. All of a sudden somebody turned on some music so people could dance. Like in the States, everyone's goal is to stay up all night. What did a bunch of  young adults choose to play on New Year's Eve? Oldies!!! I tell you, it was so funny to hear songs by Elvis, Simon and Garfunkel, The Drifters, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Mamas and the Papas! Best of all, the kids could dance! It was just like watching a sock hop! I thought to myself "where am I again?" I was playing American games, listening to the English language as well as American music, and watching sock hop style dancing!

Someone asked me what we will be next year. I said a rock. Seriously, how can you top a pirate in a pirate ship? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas in Ukraine Part VI: Nat and Tiffy come to Ukraine

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of hosting two sisters here in Kiev, Tiffany and Natalie. When they came to Ukraine from America, they brought 280 blankets to give out to children in need! The blankets were awesome! Natalie and Tiffany go to Liberty College, and they had decided to do something for kids in Ukraine. They chose to make blankets. With the help of many prayer groups at Liberty, they came up with 280 beautiful, colorful, warm and fuzzy blankets, and each one had cards inside with Bible verses and notes from the people who made them. What a wonderful idea! We spent three days going around to different places to hand out the blankets, and it was precious! First we went to our orphanage, Komarivka. The majority of the kids had gone home for the holidays, but about 30 kids remained. You should have seen their faces! Such big smiles all around! One of my favorite pictures ever of two giggling girls, Luda and Vita! Some of the older girls, Larissa, Natasha, J...
4 comments
Read more

The power of a hug

Three weeks ago at church, Masha sat next to me.   Masha is ten, has Downs Syndrome and is a fantastic hugger.  She just loves hugging.  So I try to always stop and hug her back.  During the service, she came in and sat between me and her dad, for a while she loved on her dad and then she leaned her head on my shoulder, so I leaned my head over onto hers, and she looked up at me with this big smile.  She reached around and gave me a shoulder hug, and then patted my head, and then rubbed my back for a few minutes.  I didn’t move the entire time because it just felt so good.  It was just simple, innocent affection, and it sent tingles up my spine.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about you need more hugs and back scratches. Human contact is so important.  That’s why I try and hug the kids when we go up to the orphanage.  These are just a few stories of some of the hugs I’ve given and gotten this past month, and why hugs are so imp...
4 comments
Read more

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain: Why shopping is a pain in Ukraine.

I used to like shopping. I thought it was fun. I love closure, and so nothing was more satisfying than crossing items off a list. I enjoyed the experience of checking out new stuff, looking for bargains, and of course everyone knows that buying stuff feels good.   That was then. This is now. Shopping here is a pain. Let me explain (hey, I’m a poet and I don’t even realize it)! First, we don’t have a car. That means we are at the mercy of public transportation, and so we have to keep that in mind when choosing what store to go to. Is it close to a bus or metro stop? Do we have to transfer metro lines? When we lived in the city center, we were really close to two metro lines. We like this store called MegaMarket, and it was only a few stops away on the metro. So, we would grab our backpacks, walk a block to the metro, go down a ridiculously long escalator, then hop on a metro and ride a couple stops down.   Then we would walk a few blocks and there it was..…Megamarket! Second re...
4 comments
Read more