How did we get here?

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
- Gandhi

About a year and a half ago, I made one of the best decisions of my life: I sat down at the same dinner table as some of the most amazing and inspiring people that I know and have been blessed with their friendship. One of those students, Ethan Gensler, spent one month of his summer in 2010 serving The Way Home orphanage in Ukraine and continues to work tirelessly in Alma to spread the word about the situation and to raise money for their cause. His stories and photos inspired me to become more involved. Over the past semester, I worked with an organization on campus called The Forgotten Children of Eastern Europe (FCEE) to plan fundraisers for the children of Ukraine.This organization was started by a former Alma College student from Ukraine. Some of these fundraisers included a partnership with Pizza One where we received a percentage of the profit for one day of pizza sales, a raffle for a Valentine's Day basket, Orphanpalooza, an event where campus musicians performed and an entrance fee was charged, and several others throughout the school year.

Every year, this organization seeks to send one or two students to Ukraine in an effort to do hands-on service and also to provide an update to FCEE and see if there is anything the organization can sponsor. A wealthy alumni couple of Alma College, Lee and Sally Posey, left a large scholarship fund for Alma students to have international experiences and build leadership skills every summer. Alejandro (Alex) Orellana and I applied for one of these P-Global scholarships through FCEE and were selected to go to Ukraine this year! We leave June 1 and will get back on June 29. We're both a little nervous to go out of the country alone, but also excited to be able to help in any way that we can.We named this blog "Ukraine:  The Never Ending Journey" because students from Alma are sent to Ukraine each summer and each student comes back with new stories, perspectives, and pictures of the situation. Each summer is a new journey, and we hope to continue that journey for Alma students in the years to come.

Right now, we're both relaxing at my house and trying to prepare for our trip as much as possible! One of the biggest challenges we expect to face is the language barrier. Both of us speak very little Russian so this will definitely be an adventure. Some personal goals I have for this trip are to have more faith in myself than I did in Peru, where I spent my last spring term, and to follow my heart in helping others as much as I can. I also hope to remember not to have expectations. This is a different life and a different culture, and I have to go into the situation with no hopes of how it should be. I don't know where this trip will take me and how it will change me, but a personal goal of mine is to continue the FCEE legacy at Alma with some tangible results of the trip, such as a scrapbook of the children that we worked with.

Here is our itinerary for the trip:

June 3: Arrive to Kyiv, I meet you at the airport at 1: 35 PM. Overnight train from Kyiv to Odesa.
June 4-5: Days to “recover” from the journey and to get acquainted with the city and The Way Home.
June 6-11: Odesa work with “The Way home”
June 12: Free day in Odesa – for sightseeing, museums, theatre, etc. An overnight train from Odesa to Lviv.
June 13-26: Orphanage of family type in Lviv (children from 8 till 15: one – 8, three 8,5, one – 9 one- 10, two 11, one 12, one 15) Dubliany, Lviv oblast. The family has their own two sons (21 and 23 years old) and have adopted 10 orphans.
During those two weeks they will have few meetings with non-profit organizations dealing with orphans, they will also have few free days. It depends on time, weather and possibilities.
June 26: An overnight train from Lviv to Kyiv
June 27-29: Sightseeing in Kyiv
June 30: Leave for the airport for the flight to the US

If you want any more information, please check out our website:   fcee.weebly.com. 

Please wish us luck as we leave for Eastern Europe! We will try to keep you updated as much as possible to what is going on. If you have any questions, please send them to this blog account or e-mail us:  duff1cm@alma.edu or orellana1aj@alma.edu. 

Love,

Chels :)