From last Friday-

I have been having some blog problems and this is an entry that I wrote last Friday (July 22, 2011) and am just able to post today!

Happy Friday!! I have now been living at my site for 5 weeks, and I have been happily surprised with how quickly time has been moving! I still spend Monday-Friday from 8-5 at the library where most of my time is spent talking with people as they drink tea, holding English Clubs, or doing other odd activities around the library. When my brain gets tired trying to listen and understand Russian, I fall back to reading books. With my down-time in the library and free time in the evenings, I have been able to finish a few books a week. Now I am running into the problem that the library has a limited number of English books!

Everyone at the library is great, and every day something new is happening. Today the local second hand store got in a new shipment of clothes. Somehow all of the clothes found their way over to the library. Our office was turned into a changing room for the afternoon!

Next week on the 26th and 27th, the Crimea Director of Libraries and staff will be coming to review the Pervomais’ke Rayon Library (my work site) and all of the other libraries in our Rayon. Everyone has been working very hard to prepare for the inspection. Yesterday the library even got new curtains for some of the windows and some non-working light bulbs were replaced with new ones!

A while ago I was interviewed by the Rayon newspaper, and an article was written about the Peace Corps and what I am doing in Ukraine. The author of the article brought by tomorrow's (Saturdays) newspaper today (Friday) so I could look at the article. It's funny how tomorrow's news has already been printed!

On the 28th of next week, our town's gas will be turned off for maintenance. The maintenance may take as little as 3 days or as long as a month. It may not sound like a big deal, but I honestly do not know how some Ukrainians will function with out borsh at every meal! Everyone has a gas stove, and the vast majority of ovens are also gas - so, cooking is out of the question for residents. I am excited to have an excuse to buy cereal (which is much more expensive than kasha or oatmeal), and eat sandwiches and salads.

Cold food sounds great right now as the weather has gotten fairly hot in the last two weeks. We have been having weather in the mid-to-upper 90’s, and yesterday it was 104. The library stays pretty cool, but my apartment is another story! We have two more months of hot weather, and I am already ready for fall temperatures. I miss working out everyday, but it is hard to find the energy when everyday seems hotter than the last.

Thats all for this update. I think next I will take pictures of my apartment and maybe around town to post. Hope everyone who is reading this is doing well and staying out of the heat wave!!

Internet at last!

Hello all!

I have now been at my site for a little over three weeks, and I am loving it! The community is great. It's a fairly small community, but since it is the Rayon (district) Center, there are always people walking around.  I have my own apartment which has two rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen.  My landlords are wonderful and have even taken me to the Black Sea on multiple occasions!  

The library where I spend my days was recently redone - and is quite nice.  There are sixteen women that work at the library, and they all take good care of me. They make sure that I have everything that I need, and that I am buying all the right products from the right people.  The librarians are equally interested in what I do with my free time, what I eat at every meal of the day, how I've been sleeping -  and of course, my views on all things Ukraine.  It is great having so many people at work, because there is alway someone to practice my Russian with! 

For the first two weeks I didn’t have much to do at "the office."  They said that they were happy I had finally arrived, but they didn’t know what to do with me.  So, I sat through multiple coffee and tea breaks everyday just trying to get to know people and establish relationships.  The library has held two seminars in the last three weeks, and I have been able to attend.  

Library Seminars

This is the room my English Clubs will be held in.

This past week has been much busier.  I have been preparing for my three English Clubs that will begin next week.  I have two groups (kids 9-13 and 13-16) meeting once a week on Tuesday or Thursday, and then I have a group (students 17-20) who are home from University for the summer.  The older group will meet twice each week.  So, I plan, prep and lead four different club sessions each week.  I also received some documents to translate from English into Russian from the city government.  In addition, I will be helping in a two-day regional festival that will be happening in late August.  It will involve my town and many other villages close by.

Friday was my busiest day yet - in the morning I had an interview with the Rayon TV station about Peace Corps and myself.  I did have a translator with me, but I was able to speak in Russian for a while!  After the interview, they asked if I would help create a TV program to help young children learn English.  They can then submit the program and possibly win a grant for new cameras and equipment!  After the interview, the town's Russian Orthodox priest and his wife came over to my apartment  with an invitation to dinner and a refrigerator!  It had been a long three weeks with out a way to keep food cool and fresh, and I am so happy that I now don’t have to go to the store everyday!  I also was able to buy a internet modem (similar to the verizon thumb drives in the States) and so I now have internet!  There are a lot of things to catch up on when you don’t have internet for over a month!  The connection is pretty slow, but I have been able to ichat/skype with people, so if you ever want to chat just shoot me an email!   

Swearing in Conference

On Monday June 13th said our goodbyes to host families and loaded the bus heading to Kiev to begin the swearing-in conference.  The four day conference was held at a university in Kiev.  All of the soon-to-be-volunteers stayed in dorm rooms at the university.  The check-in process was a long and hot line, as 103 people were anxious for the happenings taking place that afternoon.  The first exciting piece of news that I received was our language exam results.  Every day for the last three months, we were immersed in the Russian language - from language class, to marshutka (bus) rides, to talking with our host families.  Our three month goal was to achieve the “intermediate-mid” level.  We were given white envelopes with our test results when standing in-line, and I was ecstatic and relieved when I read I had achieved the intermediate-mid level! After getting checked in, we headed to the cafeteria for lunch.  Everyone was talking about language results as well as the site announcements which were happening next.  We all gathered in the large conference room for site announcements.  Peace Corps had created a large map that they projected onto a screen.  The map broke the country into regions.  Each Regional Director announced the region and then named all of the people going to that region.  The second region was Crimea (крым).  It is a region that many volunteers hope for because it is in the south of Ukraine, has great summers, the Black Sea, the sea of Azov and mild winters (from a Ukrainian view).  When the Crimea region went on the screen, I thought to myself “I shouldn’t even pay attention right now; there is no chance I’m going to get Crimea...” BUT.... I did!!!  

Crimea Region Announced!

The map of Ukraine with all of PC Ukraine group 41 locations

After all of the other regions were announced, we meet with our regional managers, and we found out what town and organization we will be working with for the next two years!  I am going to Pearvomis’ke (первомайское) and working with the Rayon (раон), or district library. The Peace Corps' agreement with a volunteer's hosting organization is that as little as 40% of the PCV's time is spent with that organization if they are working with secondary organizations.  So, I will be talking with many people in the community my first few months on-site to try and get a good feel for what my community needs and wants. My town is located on the northern part of the Crimean peninsula, and it has about 10,000 people.  I am about 30 minutes away from the Black Sea, 2 hours from Simforopol (the capital), 3 hours away from Yalta, and 4 hours from Seavestopal.  Yalta and Seavestopal are coastal resort towns. The estimated travel times are about how long it takes to get there by a public bus - PCV's don't drive.  After the great test results and site placement, I didn’t think that the day could get any better, but walking home from dinner I saw a game of pickup being played - so I and other volunteers got to play for the first time in three months!  

My counterpart, Valia and I at the swearing in Ceremony 

Tuesday morning our counterparts (employees at the organization where we will be working) arrived in Kiev, and we were finally able to met. My counterpart is Valia, a very nice and funny woman who has two boys: Max is 21 and Andre is 18. We had a little time to introduce ourselves.  The rest of the conference was full of meetings focused on topics ranging from grants to Peace Corps Policy and an entire day was dedicated to awareness of HIV and AIDS in Ukraine.  

On Thursday, after the conference we all headed to the busy Kiev metro and headed down to the “Teachers' House” where the first Ukrainian Parliament was held.  This was the setting for our swearing-in conference.  It was a formal ceremony, and it was attended by the US ambassador and other Ukrainian figure heads.  After the ceremony my counterpart and I headed to the train station to catch our 15 hour overnight train ride to Crimea.  It was crazy saying goodbye to the people that I had spent everyday with for the last 3 months! I think that everyone was ready and anxious to get to site and to settle into their new environment and routines.  At this point there are still so many unknowns! 

бабушка

My Babushka (Mama Nadia) is an amazing women, and I think that she deserves her own blog post!

She is always the first one up in the morning and the last one to sleep at night.  Not only does she feed me, my host dad, and herself but she also makes all of the animals' food every day (and the baby pigs eat all the time!).  She works countless hours outside in the gardens.  We have one small garden right outside of the house and another larger plot of land where the family grows their potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables.  I was able to help My Babushka plant the small garden, and now every day we eat onion, cucumber, and radish all freshly picked! 

A few weeks ago we were heading out to a family member's retirement party, and she asked to borrow a headband.  I came out with a few for her to select from, and she chose one with a bow on the top.  She went to put it on and left the ends in front of her ears.  With some gestures and a few words, I explained that you are supposed to wear a headband behind your ears.  We tried for another five minutes to get the correct placement before she gave up, put on some lipstick and called it good!  

Another good Babuska story is from last weekend when I told her that I was going into town with some of my group mates. We were going to the river to relax and hangout for the afternoon.  She told me that I could go, but only if I followed her rules:

1. I could not stay out in the sun for more that 30 minutes at a time,
2. I could not go into the water past my waist, and
3. I could not stay in the water for more than 5 minuets 

As soon as I returned to the house she asked if I was alright, if I felt ill, and if I had followed her rules...of course, to ease her mind, I told her yes! 

Those are just a few of my favorite stories from my Babuska... I am sure that there will be more to come!!

I hope everyone back home is doing well! I miss you all!

Only 2 Weeks Left of Training!

It is crazy to think that in two weeks we all will be boarding a bus and heading back to Kiev for the swearing in conference and ceremony!  At the conference, we will be finding out where we will be living for the next two years and the organization that we will be working with.  I am very excited and  of course - a little nervous. Training has been great! Living and working with people who understand my mixed-up, rudimentary Russian have really made the transition to life here easy...but, now I guess it is time to face the real world!

These past few weeks have gone so fast it does not seem like I have been living in Ukraine for 10 weeks! One reason time passes quickly is because Ukraine celebrates a lot of holidays. There were three weeks in a row where there was at least one national holiday.  For Veterans' Day our cluster went into the city to watch the parade and give tulips to veterans.  It was an amazing experience and it seemed like everyone in the town participated.

The following weekend my host family's old PC volunteer came back to visit.  Together, we cooked an American dinner of macaroni and cheese and salad.  My host family loved it after they got over the shock of realizing that soup would not be served. (I have not been served a dinner that has not started with a bowl of soup or borsch).

I also spent an afternoon walking around Chernigov with Amy, who is another volunteer from Portland, OR.  We were able to meet a few times before coming to Ukraine, and it has been great to have her close! Here are a few pictures of St. Catherine's Church in Chernigov and part of the Dnepr river from a foot bridge.

Last Friday our cluster went to the closing bell ceremony at the local school.  It is customary for the graduating girls to wear brown dresses with aprons and the boys to dress in suits.  The graduating students prepare a dance and sing a song.  Then all of the teachers are given flowers from their students. The following day was the school's formal graduation, but we did not attend that event and opted instead to watch the Champions League championship soccer game together in the city.

Easter!

EASTER WEEKEND (red egg styles)

Easter weekend came and went with lots of new experiences and memories! On Saturday our cluster went on a small tour of good cafes with internet in the city. It was the first really sunny and warm weekend. Some of my cluster meet up with other Peace Corps Trainees at the local football (soccer) game. The stadium was pretty empty, but we sat beside some energetic fans!  After the game we headed back to Staryi Belious to get ready for beginning of the Easter festivities! 

Easter morning festivities began a little before 3 am with a brisk walk to the Russian Orthodox Church.  It was pitch black, but it seemed that almost all of our community had made the trek with their Easter baskets over to the Church well before sunrise.  Everyone placed their baskets in a giant circle around the outside of the church and lit a candle.  Mama Nadia and I went into the church to get two candles to hold, and I have never seen so many people in such a small space! It put the marshutkas (small busses) to shame!  There was a Church service from 12 am - 3 am, and my host mom and I watched a little bit of the service which consisted of (at least what I saw) the priest reading scripture. 


Around 4:30 am the alter boys as well as babushkas came around collecting red eggs for the Church.  The babuska in the red coat (in the above picture) is the local librarian that our cluster had met earlier!  Along with the egg gathering, there was a choir that circled the church singing hymns.  At 5 am the bells of the church started to chime, and the priest came around with a big brush and pail of water to bless all of the baskets as well as shower the individuals.  


Mama Nadia had prepared a basket which contained pieces of our Easter meal (and our meals for several days after, apparently).  Our basket had Pasca which is the bread (like a giant hot-crossed bun), eggs, salt, cheese, sausage, beef and butter.  Once we were home at 5:30 am, it was time to start the festivities! Breakfast was served with shots of Papa's home-distilled vodka! 

Some of the foods on our Easter table:

• Meat Jello - just like it sounds, unflavored jello with different types of meat (chicken, liver, pork...)
• Sala - animal fat with the skin still on it.
• Vodka - homemade by my host dad!

When I told my host family that it is an American custom for parents hide easter eggs around the house for kids, they thought it was hilarious, and they still refer back to it! The rest of the day was spent catching up on sleep and some more eating. It was great seeing different Easter traditions! 


P.S.  Here are our new piglets!

                                                                                               - Someday we will eat these??...

Maybe it is almost Spring time...

It's been about two weeks since my last update.  We have been very busy learning Russian, meeting with different community and governmental organizations both in Staryi Bilous as well as in Chernigiv, and becoming a little more acquainted with the Ukrainian life style.  The language training is pretty intense.  Wednesday we learned both the past tense and future tense for verbs, how to tell time, and a bunch of reflexive verbs - and the walls of our classroom are full of posters of things to memorize! :0 

The group of Peace Corps Volunteer Trainees that I came to Ukraine with is the largest group that Ukraine has received.  We were all together at the arrival retreat, but then were split up into groups called clusters.  In my cluster there are three other volunteers: Pete is 28 and grew up in Rhode Island, Brenton is 26 and grew up in Mississippi, and Jeanine (also 26) grew up in a suburb of Chicago.  Pete, Brenton and I all live on the same street, and Jeanine lives about a 10 minute walk away. They are all wonderful and make the training much more enjoyable! Here is a picture of the boys walking down our street (my gate is the blue and white one on the right hand side!).  We have two paved streets in our village.

Some of the organizations we have visited include the local village authority, the local school, the Staryi Bilous Library, as well as the Chernigiv Public Library.  We also were introduced to an NGO called ARATTA which targets at-risk families and youth.  Each organization has been different, and it has been very interesting to see how business is conducted in a different culture.  

We also have discovered what we like to call “the Babuska bench” (a Babushka is an older lady who wears a head scarf).  This bench is located on our street, and on sunny afternoons all of the Babuskas are out gossiping.  Here is a picture of our Babuskas last weekend, as well as a group shot that includes my cluster!

Even though it is still cold here (it snowed earlier this week) gardening has began. I planted vegetables with my host mom last week.  Another big job this time of year is canning the birch tree juice.  The trees are tapped like someone is taking a core sample; but once the hole is made, grass is stuck in the hole, and a bottle is hung to catch the sap.  My host dad goes out to the forest every morning and comes back with a five gallon bucket full of the runny sap.  Once the juice is collected, sugar and fruits are added and the concoction is boiled and canned. I helped my host family can over 40 jars last weekend.  

Martin the goat is getting much bigger, and I am sad to say he is no longer allowed in the house.  He is always getting into trouble - earlier this week he figured out how to get into the basket of my host dad’s motorcycle and almost tipped it over.   

 






This is one of the homes in our village that we found on a walk.  The owners have found an interesting use for plastic pop bottles as they get started with their spring gardening tasks.  They also will need to rebuild the steps if they ever want to use the blue doors.  Perhaps it is a dacha, or summer house, for some of the city's residents.












Russian Lesson #1:

меня зовут Анни я доъролец корпса мйра! 

That says, "my name is Anne and I am a Peace Corps Volunteer," and it is pronounced like this: men-ya / zu-vut / Anna / ya / do-bro-vol-ets / kor-pusa / me-ra.