Meeting Old Friends

I slept GREAT last night! I kept busy re-organizing our stuff until 9:10, then fell asleep to Jim Brickman and didn't get up until the alarm at 8 AM (because we had requested breakfast at 8:30 AM). John was up for an hour around 5 AM. I was aware he was checking the clock and later learned he was finding his iPod Touch to listen to some Russian lessons - but I was out!

Breakfast was comfortingly familiar: a plate with cheese and sliced cucumbers, a plate of bread, bananas, two eggs over easy and our choice of coffee or tea (coffee for both today). John went off to the underground shopping mall to retrieve the sim card left the night before and purchase more water and some tea. I caught a nap before we met with Vitaly, Lyra and 21-month-old Ivanka for lunch. Vitaly and Lyra are friends from prior GAiN mission trips. It was so good to see them again, and their little Ivanka is an absolutely adorable little charmer!

John caught his nap after lunch and then Oksana (also a friend since the earliest mission trips) took us on a walking tour of some of the newer attractions in Kyiv. We had our picture taken next to the new little monument for a classic Soviet-era cartoon character in “The Hedgehog in the Fog”.
check it out on Youtube. We ate sushi for supper at a very nice restaurant that Oksana was personally able to vouch for. We went to bed later - close to 11 PM, excited about the next morning.