Missionary POV: Shenanigans Ensue...
Welcome to my first real update for the Missionary Point of View trip to Ukraine. There's a lot to share, and I haven't even left yet!
I can't possibly begin to explain. Describe maybe, but explain? Here's the scenario. I'm trying to get to Dnepropetrovsk (Dnepro) in Ukraine, and I have had my flight booked at least three different ways. First we started on credit card points, but using points offers no flexibility. You book wrong, you're toast! And it turned out that the booking was going to get me in the early morning of the day after I absolutely needed to be there. So that wasn't going to work.
We proceeded to reserve a ticket with a well-known airline beginning with the letter 'L', and they're going through some sort of kaffufle with the Dnepro airport that might/should be resolved in the interim between when I reserved the ticket and when I was scheduled to leave. They wouldn't let us finalise the ticket until they knew whether the kaffufle was resolved, because they didn't want to be on the hook for getting me to Dnepro. Was a resolution reached? No. So I'd have to be re-routed to Kiev, and then find my own way down to Dnepro. The price started off reasonable, but the process wasn't. And then with the connection flights required, and the overnights incurred, it ended up being more expensive than option 3.
We'd originally asked about flying with another, better airline, but it turned out that it was going to be substiantailly more expensive (I'm talking more than double). But with everything else going on, and with a huge reduction in ticket price from initial inquiries (my guess is that they just want to sell-out this flight), the balance actually tipped the other way! So now I'm getting there when I need to, while leaving here a day later, and on my way back I get an overnight in Vienna. Vienna? For a whole night? It's enough to make my head spin. If everything's still working at that point, and I can find some toothpicks to prop my eyelids open, I hope Austrian film is cheap!
Most unique detail so far: I'm flying at least one leg of this trip in a Fokker. If that turns out to be a red triplane, you can definitely expect to see pictures here! :-)
If you are the praying kind, please pray for my health and safety, for the reliability of my gear, that it all stays on my person (it's not all mine), and most importantly that I can establish a rapport with the missionaries I'm there to support. There is a lot to compress into a week-and-a-half, and I'm feeling a ton of pressure to soak it all in, to capture it, and later share it, in a way that is meaningful.
I can't possibly begin to explain. Describe maybe, but explain? Here's the scenario. I'm trying to get to Dnepropetrovsk (Dnepro) in Ukraine, and I have had my flight booked at least three different ways. First we started on credit card points, but using points offers no flexibility. You book wrong, you're toast! And it turned out that the booking was going to get me in the early morning of the day after I absolutely needed to be there. So that wasn't going to work.
We proceeded to reserve a ticket with a well-known airline beginning with the letter 'L', and they're going through some sort of kaffufle with the Dnepro airport that might/should be resolved in the interim between when I reserved the ticket and when I was scheduled to leave. They wouldn't let us finalise the ticket until they knew whether the kaffufle was resolved, because they didn't want to be on the hook for getting me to Dnepro. Was a resolution reached? No. So I'd have to be re-routed to Kiev, and then find my own way down to Dnepro. The price started off reasonable, but the process wasn't. And then with the connection flights required, and the overnights incurred, it ended up being more expensive than option 3.
We'd originally asked about flying with another, better airline, but it turned out that it was going to be substiantailly more expensive (I'm talking more than double). But with everything else going on, and with a huge reduction in ticket price from initial inquiries (my guess is that they just want to sell-out this flight), the balance actually tipped the other way! So now I'm getting there when I need to, while leaving here a day later, and on my way back I get an overnight in Vienna. Vienna? For a whole night? It's enough to make my head spin. If everything's still working at that point, and I can find some toothpicks to prop my eyelids open, I hope Austrian film is cheap!
Most unique detail so far: I'm flying at least one leg of this trip in a Fokker. If that turns out to be a red triplane, you can definitely expect to see pictures here! :-)
If you are the praying kind, please pray for my health and safety, for the reliability of my gear, that it all stays on my person (it's not all mine), and most importantly that I can establish a rapport with the missionaries I'm there to support. There is a lot to compress into a week-and-a-half, and I'm feeling a ton of pressure to soak it all in, to capture it, and later share it, in a way that is meaningful.
Labels: inspiration
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