Return to the Tunnel of Love

This week we had a pretty down week actually, lots of stuff fell through, but we did have a sweet branch activity on Saturday. We just had a little sports day out in the park, but it was well-attended and fun. Of course everyone wanted to play soccer, but we also played a little spikeball and threw a football around, too. The weirdest thing was the fact that, when we got there, there were a ton of people out disc golfing with portable disc golf baskets. That was the first time I've ever seen disc golf in Ukraine, so we went up and talked to them and exchanged numbers to hopefully be able to play with them sometime. Today for p-day, we went to the Tunnel of Love. You might remember it from a couple winters ago when I went there once or twice. It's an old railroad with a bunch of trees that grow up and over the railroad. It looks pretty cool and you might have seen pics of it on Pinterest or Instagram. I've been twice before, but both of those times were in the winter and it's much, much cooler when there are leaves on the trees.  

We had to take a bus to get there, but we really didn't know where to go, so we kinda had to ask around. One very nice lady told us where to go, and then when she found out we were from America she invited us to come see her children's art school that she runs. She offered us tea and cookies and took a bunch of pictures of the Americans that came to visit them, haha. It's super interesting how differently we get treated out in the small towns than we do in the big cities when people find out that we're Americans. She even gave us painted Easter eggs to take home. After that we met up with the missionaries from Rivne and went to the Tunnel of Love. We got some sweet pictures, I hope you enjoy them cause each of those pictures probably cost me about a pint of blood. The mosquitoes were pretty unreal. We made some Ukrainian barbecue, called "shashlyk" over a fire we built. It was pretty tasty, but the best part was that the smoke kept away the mosquitoes. 

Glad to hear that everyone is doing well. Grandpa's got a nice beard going there. I was playing a good game of chess btw, but then I made a pretty dumb move and he's got me in a pretty tough spot now. I got some ok pictures but it was definitely one of those times I wish I had a nicer camera, haha. Have a good one and see you on Sunday.

 Alec