Whenever I play 2 truths and a lie, my lie has usually been, “I’ve gone  backpacking in Europe” usually, I can win with that, but now I need to come up with a new “go-to.” To spend a week living out of a backpack in a community of people where you don’t natively speak the same language is an incredibly difficult yet rewarding experience that is not for the faint of heart.

I spent a lot of time not knowing what was being said, smiling nodding, and taking a photo became my language.  However, there were gems of moments where I was able to have a genuine conversation, and share life with someone.  There were also the times where i was able to teach master classes, we did one on using a reflector, environmental portraits,  night time photography, and macro photography.

The folks on the trip were truly amazing and glad that i wanted to learn their language, i can now (slowly and problematically) count to 100, say the colors, and months of the year, as well as words like: blueberry, tent, spoon, and horse.

There were many adventures including: accidentally taking a nap on a blueberry bush and being covered in blueberry stains, waking up at 3am to hike to the summit the second tallest mountain in Ukraine (Petros, 2020m), and of course there was the fact that with 2 nights left on the trip, the zipper on our tent decided it didn’t want to function any more, so Katya showed off her seamstress skills every evening!

Atop Mt. Petros

In the midst of the trip, I was struggling with not knowing the language and not being able to communicate to the degree that i had desired.  I felt a little useless, and that I was only good for photography, and helping guide others into better photos.  I was reminded by 1cor13, “if I can speak in the tongues of men… But have not love, I am nothing” I suppose the opposite is true, even if I can’t speak, but have love, I have everything towards them.  It was rewarding to have the hugs, the “I’ll miss you’s” and the “come back to stay” requests.

you know, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the “i cant’s” but if we could focus on what we can do, maybe things would be different.  Is there an area in your life where you’re too focused on what you can’t do?