Blessed...

I must say that I have been truly blessed with my family and friends. I just got the best news a few minutes ago. I am doing a camp this summer for youth teaching them about healthy lifestyles and strengthening their English language. Well someone near and dear to me funded the remaining amount of my grant! I am so happy. This person is so generous and I am grateful to have this person in my life. The feelings I have right now there are hardly words for. When things like this happen I feel like I can accomplish anything. That I can't believe I doubt myself along the way. There really is something to be said about the way things happen in one's life. The steps that it takes to get to the next part of your life are there for a reason.

I just spent the last two weeks traveling around Ukraine and Prague. I spent some time with my host family while meeting the new group of volunteers. Then I went to Beregova and ran a relay in the half marathon. While there I spent some time with numerous volunteers. Meeting some new people and just generally having a good ol time! Then off to Vinnitsa which wasn't a scheduled trip but I got to spend some time with some old friends I haven't seen in a while. Then back to Kiev and off to Prague.

Prague was absolutely beautiful! The city was amazing. And let's talk a minute about the food! Oh yeah...real food....black angus beef, bagels, fish, salads! Yum!!! Its funny what you take for granted when you live in the states. Now that I have been in Ukraine I take much joy in the little things this is for certain. Taking pictures of bagels and drueling over the menu we must have looked like crazy people to the other patrons. We were even "singing" the menu!

The energy at the marathon was something I hadn't felt since I raced cars with my BFF in 2008! I love that feeling. There were so many people gearing up to run their asses off! They had skydivers swoop down to the starting area and there were bands playing it was awesome. They had a band every other kilometer on the run. It was so cool to run with all those people.

Now I am back at site and we had an awesome day! Today we did a 527 campaign today with some kids from 4 of the schools in my town. My sitemates helped me work this project out thank goodness! In collaboration with IOM (International Organization of Migration) we are doing 527 campaigns all over Ukraine to keep the project going. It is a great project. If someone goes for a work or study program abroad they can call this number to find out more info about the organization for the work or study program and make sure that the organization is legit. Considering that this is one of the easiest ways to be trafficked it is a great idea. And the hotline number is free from any cell phone service in Ukraine. We did like a discussion club and then after the club we had all the kids stand around and say all these different things like "we stand to end slavery", "In Konotop, people are not for sale". The kids loved it. We took lots of pics and video of the event. It was so awesome I almost cried. The kids were so into it!

Now I will turn into bed. I must get up early and run since my new hobby is running in international marathons!