An "Uncle Joey" Adventure...

Yesterday we had what I call an "Uncle Joey" adventure. Moe, Sergei, and I went looking for a place to have our "extreme leadership training camp" - without success. We met at Lita at 07:30 and caught a mini-bus to nearby Kostopol. From there, we walked to Listopol, a small town and started walking through the villages, asking locals and looking for a school that we could rent for next week's camp.

There wasn't a school in the first village, so we walked to the next one through a small, picturesque pine forest and found a small 3-room school. They were interested in renting it to us, but the teacher didn't have the authority to make the decision. So, we walked on to the next town (larger), Mashcha, and asked at that school. There it was the same story. However, they suggested that we inquire at the first house in the village, closest to the forest, which was owned by a church if we could rent their building. So, we walked back to a pretty, wooden building on the edge of a beautiful forest. However, there was no one there and when we finally met an old guy who seemed to have something to do w/ the place, he wasn't interested in talking to us or giving us the phone number of the person we needed to talk to. So, we walked into the forest and ate our lunch. During lunch we decided to camp in tents in the woods instead of trying to find a building to suit our needs. Then, we walked back to the main road a different way, probably about 10 km in total so far.

Then, we caught a mini-bus back toward the city and got off at the edge of a recreation area to wait for the right mini-bus to take us into the forested region. After about 30 minutes (during which I taught Sergei to make grass whistles) our mini-bus came and we rode it to the bitter end, Voloshky. We then proceeded to walk through the small village and on to the next one, several fish farm ponds away from where we got off. We met some old villagers and one old guy eagerly lead us around the fish ponds and showed us good places to camp. So, we took off up a steep hill and into the woods looking for a good spot close enough to a road a bus can travel (with all of our gear) and close enough to water. We didn't find a place on the top of the hill, so we walked back to the starting point and off in a different direction towards the meandering river. We found some nice places there, but couldn't get to the side of the river that had better trees. At first we thought it was an island, but after several more kilometers of walking, we realized it was the other bank of the meandering stream and there was no bridge anywhere nearby. It was a deep, wide river, so we couldn't just wade across. It was a great place to set up a rope swing into the river and even a zipline from one shore to the other.

Finally, we decided to try this spot later when the weather would be warmer, but not for next week's camp b/c it is too low and too close to the river so it would be too wet and damp for spring temperatures. So, we hiked back to the mini-bus stop and I took off my blister-inducing boots which were rubbing on my bruises from last week's football training (where I got stepped on several times during games). All in all, I think we wandered about 20-30 kilometers through woods and villages and along roads. It brought back fond memories of dad (aka Uncle Joey) and his famous "short" hikes through wilderness areas w/ a topo map where his promise of "it's only 5 minutes through the rhododendron" meant that it would be several hours of wandering through dense underbrush before we finally got to some recognizable trail or outcropping. Ah, those were the good old days! It was nice to have some familiar adventures for a change and especially to be out in the woods and fresh air, away from the noise and dirt of the city.

I'm a country gal and it's refreshing to my soul and body to breathe country air, hear nothing but birds, frogs, and crickets, and see nothing but God's beautiful creation again! I love the summer time when we're camping in the woods for our camps and I am reminded of my childhood and so many fun times with family and friends and "Uncle Joey" style adventures.

Today friends and I took a day-trip to Dubno, a nearby town with an old castle/fortress about 1.5 hours from our city. It wasn't the most interesting/exciting place, but what I enjoyed (besides the pretty river and trees on one side of the structure) was being able to ramble freely about the place and explore small passageways within the outer walls. It's been a long time since I've had the chance to do any exploring and I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of thoughts I wanted to share from the past few days and already forgot everything I remembered earlier today - haha! Tired!!

Anyway, the weather was great (warm and sunny) and after we arrived in the town, we ate a picnic-style lunch on the grass across the river from the castle. Then, we basked in the sun for a while before going and exploring the ruins.

Afterwards, people came over to eat shashlik (yum) and hang out for a while. I'm exhausted, but glad I spent the day in the fresh air and sunshine rather than cooped up in a cold flat in the city!

There's so much to do to get ready for the camp this coming weekend - I figure if I don't think about it, I won't get overwhelmed. We still have to hash out some details, I need to get stuff together to give Moe to take back w/ him and he still needs to give me stuff he brought over for me. I also need to figure out what to pack for a week of primitive camping in the woods in changeable spring weather. But, God can work out the details for me! :-)