Back to civilization! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!

Hi all! I apalogize for the lack of updates... but it's hard when you are camping. For the last 3+ weeks we have been at 2 different camps... both pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The first camp was at the same place where Yura was baptized before we went to India. The nearest town is called Inkerman. There is a small river there, where you could swim if you didn't mind the mud or the water snakes. I swam there a few times, but not many. Anyway, the name of the first camp was, "You're Special!" or, "Ты особеннлы!" in russian. My team were leaders there. God's Horizon church was putting on this camp. That is Yura, Svieta, and Gyulia's home church from Sevastopol. We had roughly 150 kids between the ages of 8 and 16. There were 5 towns surrounding the place where we were and that is where the kids were from. Every morning at 8 a.m., we would go to different towns and pick up the kids. I was going to a place called,"Sugarhead." The place where the camp was is surrounded by the Sugar Mountains, named for the white sand that tops them. Sugarhead was a 45 minute walk one way. I would go each morning with Yura and Andrea to pick up the kids who lived there. When we would get back to the camp they would have a time of dramas, kids songs, and games. Then we would go with our teams, that were broken up by age. I had the 11-13 year olds. There was about 27 of them. I actually was an assistant leader with Gyulia and a woman from her church. We had lunch togeather and at 5 we would walk all the kids back home. Then we'd come back and have dinner. At 9 we would have a leaders meeting or movie or something. We didn't usually get to bed until around midnight. It was long days, full of stuff to do. I was exhausted by the end of every day. I made alot of friends there, and I miss them very much. One girl, Alyona (Helen), and I got very close. She was from a town called Grass. She was 13 and she spoke Enlgish very well. She and 5 of her friends really fell in love with me. They all had a million questions and I had a hard time keeping up with answering all of them. I understand Russian pretty well, but when 6 girls are all talking to me at once my brain feels like it's gonna explode. I'm sure those of you who have traveled out of the country know the feeling I'm talking about. They were all really sweet girls. I also met some People from Chirkosi, Ukraine, which is somewhere near Kyiv. I'm not really sure where exactly. I made friends with one guy named Nikita. He is 17 and he's a drummer in a band. He spoke really good English because his father is an immigrant in England. He was really cool and funny as anything. He orders all of his clothes from the States and has them shipped here becuase he doesn't like the clothes here. He looks very American. After the, "You're special!" camp, we had 1 free day that we spent in Sevastopol. Inkerman is maybe 30 minutes by electric train from there. we went to God's Horizon church, and then had a BBQ with all the leaders from the camp. Yura makes VERY good shish-kabobs (shesh-leek in russian). I got sick that night after the BBQ with the 48 hour bug. I slept almost all the next day. The next camp we went to was called, 'Real Camp." The name was in English. We came 1 week early to this camp to help with setup. There were 4o leaders here from 12 different parts of Ukraine. This camp was for youth between the ages of 16 and 25. There was something like 200 people that came. They all actually camped with us, so it was pretty crazy most of the time. We were also divided into teams at this camp. This time it was by city. I had the Simferopol girls with Andrea and Nina (a woman from Simferopol). We were the, "International," team. It was interesting becuase only 2 of our girls spoke a little English. I got ALOT of practice using my Russian. ALOT. Usually if Andrea and I were both paying very close attention we could understand what they were saying. Sometimes it's hard when they talk fast to catch everything. We did though. This camp was 2 minutes away from the Чорниа Мориа or Black Sea. All you had to do was go down a set of stairs (that I helped make :) and you were on the beach. I am REALLY tan and so is everyone else in my team. We spent most of our free time there on the beach. We had programs after dinner every night from 8 till midnight or 1 a.m. Also very draining. We could sleep until 9 which was nice, and we had rest time in the afternoons, usually for 2 hours. Camp was good overall. Sorry to cut this post short but I have to go. Love and miss all of you and I'll see you in 16 days!!! God bless! -Missy