Preparation

Good morning.  It seems odd to be up when everyone at home is either in bed or getting ready to go.  I regret that I don't have any pictures of my trip yet since yesterday was a transition day, but I will get some today.

So why do I have a blog called Ukraine Sojourn anyway?

While I was at general conference of MCC in Acapulco in late June, my friend, Florin, whom you met in last year's blog Roam Mania, mentioned a conference for LGBT Russian speaking Christians that would take place in Kiev (they spell it Kyiv here) over Labor Day weekend.  I told him that it sounded interesting and important.  As the summer proceeded,  the thought of participating would not go away.  My inner dialog threw up roadblocks: "September is too busy to travel."   "Ukraine is too far away to go for only one week."  "What, are you crazy? You don't speak one word of Ukrainian!" and many more such.  But the idea wouldn't let go and I decided to come.

The main organizers of the conference are Yury, from Moscow, whom I will meet today when he arrives by train, and Rostek, from Ukraine, who graciously said he'd meet me at the airport when I arrived.

Travel did not begin well.  My flight out of Rochester was delayed.  Fortunately there was a long layover at JFK in NY, so when I finally did arrive at JFK, I had two hours till flight time.  I had lunch at Chili's (Guiltless chicken salad and a beer) and then went to wait at the gate.  My plane was there and so were a waiting room FULL of people.  Every seat was sold and there were many on a waiting list.  My assigned seat was in the rear third of the plane.  There was a large contingent of Orthodox Jewish famlies on board.

The flight was long (10 hours) and I can't sleep on the plane; I can't even get comfortable.  My body is the wrong shape for the seats, or something.  The Jewish familes provided endless entertainment.  They were in constant motion.  I don't believe all of them were seated at the same time.  Seat belt signs and stern warnings from the cabin crew did nothing to deter their moving around and rooting through overhead bins.  When it became light again (flighting east, the night passes quickly), the men prepared for prayer with the prayer shawls and phylacteries.  It was fascinating to watch them prepare and then pray.  I was just a kid the first time I saw a man daven.   To daven is to pray with a rapid bowing movement, shallow bows.  One of the group, a rabbi, was intense. 

There was significant turbulence at times, and just when the crew was going to serve breakfast, we hit a one hour stretch of bouncing around.  Breakfast service was suspended, so I didn't get morning coffee.  In a brief respite, not long before landing, the crew rushed through the cabin tossing breakfast sandwiches and then coming around to give out glasses of water.  Did I mention the part about no coffee?

We landed in Kiev (Kyiv) on an overcast morning.  There were long lines to get through immigration but it was uneventful.  Since I had nothing to declare, customs was just about invisible.  I got into the green (nothing to declare) lane and just walked out of the area into the arrival hall.