To the land of the East, I want to go
To the East we flew, with an aircraft to Ukraine, on the mission given to us by our dear Lord, the Origin of Life. The words are inspired by an old Swedish psalm from 1696 “On You, our dear Lord”
December 20th 2016, we were on Arlanda airport, terminal five, carrying four full suitcases. Ukraine International Airlines had kindly given us permission to bring extra luggage, without an extra cost, in order to bring gifts to the kids of Ukraine. Computer issues at the airport made the boarding slow, and not until three hours later the plane left the ground. Back in Kyiv, we felt right at home. I use the Ukrainian word for the capital; Kyiv, while Kiev is the Russian version. No snow on the ground, the winter came and left we were told. But it will be back, January and February are usually the coldest months.
In Kyiv we met up with our friends from the Finnish branch of Childrens Embassy, Hannu and Oili Räsänen. Together with Sveta and Tanja, our great Kyiv team, we spent a full day in the big shopping mall. Not to buy Christmas gifts, as one might assume, there is no Christmas hurry here yet. Christmas isn’t celebrated in Ukraine until 6-7th of January. We rather bought groceries for young mothers and poor families that we help in Kyiv.
More will be told about our journey to the East. But that’s for next time.
Travel to the East, continuation
Hannu and Oili from Finland are assisting. The big day of gingerbread cookie baking in the Friend’s House are here. Everybody helps kneading the dough. Let’s make cookies! The kids from the village join us in Friend’s House to participate in the baking. It’s exciting to help pushing the metal moulds through the dough, and get the figures out. Look! A Christmas tree, a star, a snow man! To be part of a community; doing something together, is a lot of fun, for kids as well as for adults. The kids went back home, happy and tired after a good days work. Us, as adults, were also satisfied with the result, after doing all that dough.
Boas Adolphi
