Blog
Ukrainian Orthodox Celebrations of the Epiphany Video
We went to check out the Ukrainian Orthodox celebrations of the Epiphany. On January 19th the Orthodox believe that all water is holy.
Our new FREE class
We taught our first classes today... Well, it was only a conversational club and a Bible reading and discussion group. We were excited about the Bible group... But in order for you to understand why, we need to give some background info...
We have been told about the current situation in Ukraine in regards to the relationship between Christianity and businesses. Although, Ukraine is a lot more open to Christianity now than 10 years ago, there are still restrictions. For example, Ukrainian businesses can not say that they are a Christian business - Even a Christian school here (which is not overtly called a Christian school) cannot pray with the kids (they were praying and an official from the ministry of Education came and wanted to close the school). So, our organization can't overtly say that they are a Christian business. BUT it is OK to do religious things here - it just can't be overtly involved in a business setting. It's all about the technicalities.
When we came there was a Friday night (free group) Bible study on at two of the campuses, but nothing at the campus we teach at. But we talked to our boss and it was decided that we would try a few Bible reading and discussion groups, one on Sunday and some during the week - being careful to say that it is FREE and not a part of the course. How we do it: We pick an interesting story from the Bible (e.g. Joseph the dreamer) and the students practice their English by reading it, finding out the meanings of new words, and discussing the plot. We also try to have a fun icebreaker game at the beginning that is linked to the story.
We had the first one today and it was cool!
Shock! Public Transport Actually Works!
Public transport actually works here in Kiev, Ukraine. It puts the Connex train network in Melbourne to shame! Actually, all public transport in Australia is hopeless in comparison! No more asking "Where's the train?" or waiting 20 minutes for the next train to come! In peak hour, a train will come every 30 seconds - 1 minute and when it's not peak, it's every 4 minutes. The system works and a lot of people, if not most, travel by Metro. The best part is that its cheap to travel on it, 2 hryvnia which basically converts to 40 cents Australian!