Well, we made it to Ukraine. We landed in Budapest, with Greg's flight landing just after ours. Then we sped through Hungary at 130 - 140 km/h (about 85 - 90 mph). Hungary looks blurry. Carrie accidentally referred to Hungary as Romania a couple of times. Note: if you're ever at the Hungarian border, do not refer to Hungary as Romania.
By the time we crossed into Ukraine, it was dark. I remarked to George that with it being dark, and in our jet-lagged state, it was like looking at the country in a dream - can't quite make out anything. George explained that that is an excellent way to approach a cross-cultural experience like this. That it's all too easy to think that once you've been in a new culture for a short while that you understand it. For instance, Carrie, Lian, and I were in downtown Frankfurt for an hour or two on the way here, and almost said things like, "In Frankfurt, everyone [fill in the blank]." But what do we really know about Frankfurt? For you Haligonian friends of mine reading this, imagine two people dropped into Halifax - one spending an hour on Barrington street and the other spending an hour in Clayton Park. They'd have pretty different descriptions of Halifax, with neither of them being complete. Additionally, all their interpretive comments would be subject to their own perspective - for instance, I'm here in Ukraine and want to say things like, "It's strange how they [plug things in, design apartments, drive, etc]." But the words, "it's strange," come "from somewhere" - comes from my own experience.
So, culturally, we're in the dark in Ukraine, and that's to be expected.
The de Vuysts are awesome. Not only do they know Ukrainian, Russian, and Hungarian better than us, I think they know English better than us.
Well, we're about to walk to see their church building, stop by a music store so Greg can get new strings for Sarah's guitar, go out for coffee, and get to an ATM for some hryvna. We're beginning some wonderful liturgical and theological conversations.
God is good!
Dave
PS. My blogger dashboard is in cyrillic script, and I have no idea why. I'm pretty sure I'm posting a blog right now.
I had to smile about the cyrillic script problem: my groupwise mail did the same thing when I was there a number of years ago. It did the same thing in Hungary and Romania, but at least I could read those languages! Hope everything goes well; enjoy all the wonderful colourful buildings and the great food!
ReplyDeleteAnd greetings to George and Sarah, too!!
Glad to hear you've made it there safely!
ReplyDeleteNow head back to that music store and get me a kobza like a good fella :)
You just got there and my husband is buying guitar strings and coffee? He traveled halfway around the world to resume ordinary behavior, I see...
ReplyDeleteGreat blog posts, Dave! Keep 'em coming. It's cool to read about the things you're doing and your thoughts on them.
ReplyDelete