Ukraine

It has been about 5 days since I arrived in Ukraine. I boarded the Lot Polish Airline from Heathrow to Kiev Borispol Airport in Ukraine, with a short transit in Warsaw, Poland.

I have been introduced by the International Relations officer, Ms Lyubov shortly after arrving in Ivano-Frankivsk train station. She brought me straight to the student hostel which is about 10 minutes drive from the station. Apparently, she told me, that all international students will have our own interpretors to help us throughout our stay in Ukraine. At about 2pm, a Ukrainian lady arrived in my apartment. She introduced herself as Tanya, and she’ll be my interpreter. We had a walk throughout the city and I was showed on the university (National Technical University of Oil & Gas, Ivano-Frankivsk), the main roads, historical buildings and several cathedrals. I then came to know that most Ukrainians, about 95% of ‘em, are Orthodox Greek Catholics Christians. The remainings were Protestants and Evangelists. Muslims are in minute numbers.

The 28th of June was their Constitution Day. Few men wore the Ukrainians traditional costumes and sang their national anthem and other patriotic songs.

There’s no internet connection in my room, and the internet cafe is quite a distance! People here rarely speaks English and there’s hardly any Asians around! A brand new experience, I guess. Well, I guess this might be the right time to put all my ‘usrah’ and ‘tarbiyah’ knowledge into practice. Honestly, friends, life here is very challenging. There’s no other Muslims around, and very few people ever heard about Islam. To make things worst, it’s summer (I hope you’re clever enough to guess what I’m trying to say).

All prayers needed.