Thu pm & Fri am

Thursday afternoon saw the international team taking their excursion into Kerch. Now just as we were finishing dinner it started to patter down with rain. Despite the fact that Babs had just put out a load of washing, this was not a big deal. However as we were getting ready to leave the heavens opened and the rain poured down, and down and down. There were soon rivers running along the paths of the hope centre and waterfalls running off the roofs. Flash flood is a very apt name, because in a few minutes we started to be extremely grateful that the minibuses that finally arrived to pick us up were diesel as the water was covering the wheels of the smaller vehicles and every time something drove past waves would wash over the minibus- coming over the bonnet or splashing against the side. The latter was the more entertaining in the end because our minibus had a small window with no glass in it! The amount of water coming in meant that the first two rows ended up sitting there with their umbrellas up! The poor tour guide was trying hard to tell us all the history of Kerch, which was very interesting but unfortunately not as entertaining as the rain and the umbrellas.
Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time we got to our first tourist stop. It was an old tomb from Greek times, like of which apparently can't be found anywhere. It was a structure of limestone with a triangular entrance tunnel leading to a tomb room. The tomb was for a king and the tour guide was explaining the whole burial process to us. The need to go through a translator made the whole process more entertaining because we were all watching Anya for the translator and just saw her face crease up in disgust at the whole thing. When the king died the tradition (which I am informed by Rachel is fairly common place in many areas of the ancient world) was to kill one of his wives- possibly his favorite wife, and her children along with many members of his household. These people were buried with food drink and riches and then holed up for a year. The belief was that the king's spirit would hang around for the year before heading of to the afterlife. So the needed to give his spirit an armed guard. So the took 50 of the best horses, 50 of the best soldiers and made soldier kebabs of them, with a pole through the middle, holding them onto a kind of wagon base. They then stacked the soldiers up so they filled the space from the king and entourage to the ceiling of the tomb… eeew.
After the kebab house we went on to see the remains of an old fort. Kerch has always been a fought over city because it has control over the black sea by means of the Kerch straight (also called the Azer straight) and during the Ottaman empire the Turkish built a huge hilltop fort overlooking the straight. We were only about 4km from Russia at that point. The sun at this point was immensely hot again and most of us were dressed for the rain, not the sun, so were melting just a bit. However we had enough energy to scramble round a bit and take a few dozen more photos of Sola posing.
Finally we met up with the second group who had been on quite a different trip…..

### Narrative provided by Lydia
The first comers to the Hope Camp went to the Cave which was used by Ukrainian when German invaded the land at the Second World War. It was quite an experience to see the Cave so well kept with equipments and mass grave for people and soldiers. Yinka and Susanne didn’t want to join the tour after knowing that it lasts for an hour, so they waited in the bus having some ice-cream and drinks. Inside the cave, it was very dark and well air-conditioned(!) They had generators for electricity, hospital facility, a well, kitchen and place to hide when chemical fumes were pumped in to the Cave. We had a minute silence without light in front of the grave and Bukky turned the lights on not knowing what is going on then our quiet Yaraslav shouted for the first time, shouting “turn it off!” After historic experience of the cave, Yinka directed us a shop near the bus and knowing that she had some ice-cream, we had to have some!
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After meeting up we all walked down a flight of over 400 steps and then through a few back streets to the Pizza parlor where we were having dinner. With not a blob of mayonnaise in sight (the Ukrainians are prone to put mayonnaise in everything, including pizza) we all had a fabulous time, chatting, eating and just generally relaxing.

While we had been away the trip the children had been watching Narnia, and so while the film was finishing the team sat and had a good old worship. The day was then rounded up with bedtime stories.

Friday's bible lesson was "I'm united" and was lead by Tim and Yinka. They used the cross as an illustration of how we need to be united- Horizontality with each other, and vertically with God. The did it very well and at the end Tim lead the beleivers pray for those who wanted to say it.
### Narrative provided by Timothy
You will have read how yesterday it rained a lot and flooded the road’s in Kerch. The rain soaked the ‘Hill of Death’ making in very slippery and so it was not safe to take the children to the beach. So we played a wide game called the ‘Tail Game’. This involved each team having ‘treasure’ which they tried to protect from their opponent. Each child had a string tail which they had to have to be able to play the game; if they lost their tail, they had to go back to base and get a new one. Not all of the children realized they had to keep their treasure safe so they focused on the tails. As a result the game became quite crazy with a lot of running around! We were pleased that the children tired themselves out! Now, after rest we will have a talent competition.
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