Perpetual Change

Merry Christmas

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get to wish you all a merry Christmas, but better late than never. Here in Ukraine, it wasn't a holiday, I worked on Christmas Eve; the Greek catholic church (Orthodox customs, papal right) celebrate on January 7th. However, I have some very nice stories I want to share.

On Christmas Day, I arrived in Kyiv, because Jason Sando has come to visit me. I was extremely excited, but he was not coming in until the afternoon, and my train came in the morning, so I found an English speaking catholic mass. I found it all with no problems, but as I sat there listening to a songs that were familiar and a language that I understood finer details of, I was struck by two things. One how multi-cultural the group was. More so even than our Peace Corps folks. It reminded me of home; I certainly haven't been to a catholic Mass, an English service, or seen a crowd like that for the last 10 months. The feeling of being in familiar surroundings moved me. Then, I looked ahead to notice that there was a young family sitting a few rows ahead. They had an older and youngest son and a girl in the middle. They were sitting in just the same order that my family ALWAYS sat growing up (mostly because any other combinations would create fights - very unseemly in church).

I was struck with an extreme feeling of how lonely I felt. A tear drifted down my cheek. Although this was not my first holiday or Christmas away from family, it was my first completely alone, and I wasn't even going to be alone the whole day, but at that moment it didn't seem to matter.

After a short prayer for the well being of all of you reading now, I happened to look across the church and a familiar face smiled back at me. I was shocked. It was another Peace Corps friend that I had spoken with the week before. I knew his family was coming, but he lives on the other side of the country, and I didn't know they would be in Kyiv, and there they were. It was really nice.

After services, they invited me to breakfast at their hotel, and I had a wonderful time with them. It was one the nicest hotel I have yet seen in Ukraine. It was the first time, I later realized, that I had spoken with non-Peace Corps Americans in 10 months; I hope I haven't lost all my social graces. Thank you, Woolley's for making me part of your celebrations. It was wonderful getting to know you. I hope you had a fantastic rest of your trip.

Then, in the afternoon, I went to pick Sando up at the airport, fortunately without event, and we left on a fast train to celebrate Christmas in another town with other volunteers, but that is a story for another day, and perhaps a guest writer...

posted by jjs @ 12:00 AM