It’s been one full week since I’ve been back in the United States and I still don’t know what I want to write. It’s been a busy week, so I haven’t had a whole lot of free time to just sit and decompress. The free time I did have I spent watching House M.D. I’m not a proud addict, but I am addicted…
At most I have a collection of random thoughts so I’ll put those down for lack of something better to write.
1. I’m going to be in big big trouble if I ever have a daughter. As attached as I got to a couple of the girls there in just a few short days, a daughter of my own will probably be too much to handle. Future suitors beware…
2. The orphans could really use a good financial education. They’re given about 600 Grivna a month from the Government and most of it is blown on payday. These kids don’t have a lot of out of pocket expense. Imagine what they could accomplish if they were to save half of what the Government pays them. 300 Grivna a month for the 36 months they are at the Orphanage leaves them with 10,800 Grivna, or about $1400 US at the current exchange rate. Not a lot by US standards, but not too bad for a Ukrainian orphan. (I don’t’ know what kind of investment tools they have in Ukraine, or if they are even stable, but I’ve got to believe that saving something is better than spending it on alcohol and candy.)
3. Ukrainian orphan boys could probably thrash US boys in athletic competition, and they don’t have fancy equipment or supplements to make them bigger, faster, stronger.
4. I’m definitely going to know at least a good handful of Russian by the time I go back.
5. I’m definitely going back.
6. Kiev is a really cool city, almost like if they put Chicago in the Great Smokey Mountains of North Carolina.
7. US culture is so obsessed with TV and the internet that we miss out on a lot of real life experiences.
8. I watch too much TV and spend too much time on the internet.
9. Ukrainian colds hold on for a lot longer than US colds.
10. I can’t spend too much time thinking about what the future may hold for the kids I got close too. If I was able, I would have taken a couple kids home to live with me, or even stayed to look after them, but I can’t (not yet anyway). So here I am, sitting comfortably in the US and feeling very helpless for their situation. This is when I have to realize, above all, that I can’t save the world. God is in control. He’s called me to this cause, and He’s called me to recruit others for this cause, but there is nothing worthwhile that I can accomplish outside of Him.
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