(Apologies for late posting - like previous bloggers, the travelling and busyness did for me!)
Getting to Ukraine turned out to be a marathon! London to
Kiev was straightforward. But the rest of the journey which involved an airport
transfer, another plane – after a long wait in the terminal building with
nothing to do but read a book (easy for me!). But, this had a bonus. We had
lots and lots of time to chat and get to know one-another. For example, two of
us at least need regular cups of coffee and even have a favourite coffee shop
back home. Several of us read for
England and some of us haven’t picked up a book in years! One of us has a baby
on the way and one of us is a grandparent.
Lots of us are aunties and we shared pics of our lovely nieces, nephews
or grandchildren.
Thankfully, one of the group is a Russian speaker which has
been invaluable almost from the word go.
Shamil was very excited about going to Ukraine as is very like his
country of origin, Kyrgyzstan, in that it too has a very Soviet look and feel.
As an added bonus we had Adam from YMCA Europe, who met us in Kiev and also
speaks Russian.
We finally arrived at our destination, very late and very
tired. Not having eaten a proper meal
all day we were pleased to go to a restaurant which served western food, pizza,
pasta etc., as well as Ukrainian food (very good!).
This meant that it was really, really late when we got to bed – but we
all had a room to ourselves which meant we could all settle down to a good
sleep before the final leg of the journey.
My impressions so far?
The English group, as always with YMCA groups, is a great bunch of
people. Regardless of our YMCA status, in terms of our job/volunteer role,
everyone is equal and treated with total respect. Everyone is looking out for each other and
very caring. This will be a good trip.
Fantastic Alexis, this is one post that really gives a sense of how it feels, which is excellent, Thank you.
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