By Sunday, I had reached the peak of my cold and to make matters worse we had a nine-hour bus ride in the heat – with no open windows due to Ukrainian superstitions about drafts – all the way to Rivne.

Some parts of the bus ride were fun though. We stopped at one spot in the mountains that was beautiful. I talked with Anna because she was one of the only teachers who could speak English. We also stopped in a big farmer’s field and had a picnic lunch.

I arrived at Sasha’s house at about 10 or 11 pm. Sasha is one of the youth workers in the Hope to People ministry center in Rivne. I played a little bit with their young daughter who apparently loves having visitors. We had supper and went to bed.