Snowventure

Today marks the second time I’ve tried to go to New Hope Church and failed. Last Sunday I embarked on my journey with the very specific instructions “get on the marshrutka (bus) by your apartment and ride it until it goes down a hill and then up a hill and then walk for 15 minutes.” When these directions didn’t turn out quite right I ended up going to Vova’s church with him. Despite having to sit in the back with a translator at every service, I’ve really enjoyed all of the church events I’ve been to here. There's something unique about the Christian communities in Zap. The service at Vova’s church was particularly interesting because it was held in an old Soviet government building. When Ukraine was still part of the USSR it used to be a building where government officials would hold their meetings. They used to invite Christians there to speak in front of the group with the express purpose of ridiculing and belittling them. Since the fall of the USSR, the meeting rooms have been rented out. It seems like a matter of poetic justice that this is now home to one of the biggest Evangelical churches in Zaporozhye. All of the churches in Zap are held in rented spaces because of a law that Lenin instated against any religious buildings being built within city limits (that is, of course, with the exception of one Orthodox church currently being built-presumably as the result of a substantial bribe to the government to overlook the law). 

This week I got much better directions to New Hope but still ended up walking around in the fresh snow on un-shoveled sidewalks (plowing/shoveling/salting is really not a priority here—although store owners do occasionally throw some dirt down on top of the snow for traction). This escapade lasted a little over an hour. This was the first time I was able to really test my new snow boots and I must confess--the endorsement from the US Ski Team seems legitimate. I think next week I’ll stop trying to get directions on how to get there by myself and just attach myself to Steve & Jo. Overall it’s still been a great morning because my failure landed me in my favorite Coffee Life. I like this particular Coffee Life for three main reasons. 1) It has internet. 2) The soundtrack is all smooth jazz all the time, which reminds me of Derek West. 3) There’s a very nice girl here who speaks English. I’ve only been here while she was working one other time but as soon as I walked in today she recognized me and greeted me with "good morning" instead of "dobraye ootra". Perhaps that's merely a testament to how much I stick out, but it was a sweet gesture nonetheless.

Looks like snow all week. :)

Work with my internship has really picked up since my last post. I’ve been primarily working from my apartment, which is difficult given most of the work I need to do right now is internet based research. So my daily routine has included getting up, spending a couple hours reading through articles I downloaded the day before, then going to Fresh Zone to open a billion tabs in Mozilla and download whatever new articles I find so that I’ll have material to work from home the next day. When this routine gets lonely or boring or unproductive, I’ve been hopping on a bus into the city, getting off at a random stop and walking until I find a coffee shop to work from. I really love the way the public transportation works here. Zap is a little different from most cities because it isn't a grid or a cluster of development--it's just a line. There’s one main road, Lenin Street, and it runs for miles and for the most part anything of interest is on that same street. 

A government building on Lenin Street

On Wednesday I got to start meeting HOPE clients. There are two people who work in the client office (which is in the main part of the city, unlike the HOPE Ukraine administrative office, which is close to my apartment). There’s a loan officer named Ghena who spends most of his time in the field meeting clients at their businesses, and a secretary named Toma who runs the office and handles all of the payments and loan disbursements. With Katya (Max's daughter) translating for me, I interviewed 4 of the clients that came in for their monthly payments. I was surprised by how willing they were to talk to us.  Ghena and Toma had laughed and warned Katya and I that none of the people coming in that day might feel like talking to us. Luckily all four of them were feeling talkative enough to sit with us for a couple minutes.

It was really illuminating to meet with the clients. I spent a lot of my internship last summer feeling like I didn’t quite have a grasp on what HOPE is all about because I was learning everything secondhand in the not so exotic land of Lancaster, Pa. It’s one thing to read personal stories from clients in different countries, it’s another thing entirely to meet these people myself. I guess I'm a little bit of a doubting Thomas in that regard. I’ll be meeting new clients every week here and eventually, when the snow all melts and the roads are a little easier for travelers, I’ll be going with Ghena and Natasha to go see clients at their businesses.

On Thursday I met with Max in the admin office near my apartment and he offered the guest desk for me to work at if I so desired. I stayed there the rest of the day and worked beside Natasha. She speaks little English but she’s still so fun to work with. I expected the office to be cold—I’ve been told that some days it gets tolerably warm but most days it doesn't feel much different inside than it does outside. I wore the thickest sweater I had on top of several other layers but when I sat there shivering all day I still got told that I need to bring more layers. My hands were slightly purple and typing was a challenge, but I still got more done there in the office environment than I’d been getting done at home. Probably the worst part is that the sink water isn’t heated at all. Luckily they at least have an electric kettle. I can’t think of a time when I was more thankful for hot tea and I will admit that after a few hours I was desperate enough to hug the electric kettle for warmth--just a few moments.

The outside of the HOPE Ukraine admin office  

The outside of my apartment complex

On a closing note, I've never felt more American than I did watching President Obama's inauguration speech in the middle of a Ukrainian mall.