What can I say about Ukraine?

Ukraine, Ukraine... What can I possibly say about the trip that would successfully walk the line between trite and uninformative, and intolerably long?

It was challenging, eye-opening, thrilling, and most of all, life-changing. We spent nearly a month together as a choir, travelling all over the country, from the largest cities to the most remote villages, singing and interacting with the Ukrainian people in schools, churches, seminaries, and music colleges. We stayed in their homes, dove into their culture, learned their music, and saw the hearts of these amazing people. We raised money to partially fund a combined choir and orchestra seminar, and had a fantastic time making music together with the Ukrainian musicians. We could usually communicate only minimally at best, but there was still an instant connection there, despite language barriers and cultural differences. I left their country having had my eyes opened, and with several new perspectives and values. This has made returning, and trying to slide back into 'normal' life's usual grind, very difficult at times. I'm sure my experiences and memories will work their way into my writing (and certainly my day-to-day and even hour-to-hour thoughts) many times this summer, because they are so much a part of who I am now. I wish I could somehow impart all I saw, felt, and learned, to each of you reading this, because of the impact it has had on me! That being impossible, I'll do my best to share some stories from the trip on this blog, mixed in with the summer's events. (Yes, I can blog more regularly now that summer has arrived!)

Well, that paragraph does a fairly miserable job of capturing a snapshot of the month. It was all I could do to keep it brief, though, knowing I could carry on for far too long if I let myself! Pictures are of a Kiev street, the gorgeous church in Kiev where we held the seminar, and me, accompanying the choir at a performance at a large music college in Kirovograd, where we were honoured to share a concert with the college's fantastic choir.