Friday, December 16, 2011

So what happened to me?

I feel like I dropped off the side of the earth in relation to this blog (for those who don't know, I have another blog to help me track my family history research).  I had a lot of fun in the Ukraine, but I am struggling to finish blogging about it.  In my head I have the entries, pictures, etc. but I just can't get it down.  I think it is in part what I have been juggling since I got home as well as what the Ukraine is.  

Since I got home I have been appointed to two more positions (Secretary of the Children's Sunday School Program in our church and to the GPS Community Budget Committee).  While I feel ready for these opportunities in my life, getting sick and having sick kids is knocking me off my feet.

Then there is the way I feel about the Ukraine.  It is a beautiful and wonderful place and yet it is also a sad hopeless place.  There are so many museums dedicated to remember the travesties of communism/Russia domination (the Museum of the Starvation, etc) that helps you to understand how evil it is, and yet many of the country want to re-instill the former type of government.  It makes me think of the biblical story of the Hebrews being led out of Egypt begging Moses to take them back to Egypt to be slaves.  I mix that with what I see in our country today, and it greatly concerns me the mentality that government is suppose to take care of us, even if that means we become their slaves. 

Having said and felt all this, I would go back to the Ukraine if the right opportunity came up.  I would have a few requirements (like I would have to learn Russian first and I would have to have an opportunity to build up the current situation).  So with that I will leave the history part of this trip undone knowing that emotional part of this trip is completed.  I enjoyed having a week and a half with my sweetheart as well as spent a considerable amount of that time examining the perspective of another culture/society and letting that have sway in my heart.