May

At the beginning of May I did water testing at our local hospital.  When I asked the director for permission he said,  “Yes, of course you can test the water, but I already know that the results are going to be bad.  So how are you going to help us get clean water?”  I am still working on that. 

For Cinco de Mayo a group of PCVs and Ukrainians spent the evening on a beach in Sudak.  It was a wonderful night and a beautiful location!

May 9th is Victory Day in Ukraine.  The day marks the victory for the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany.  I live in a part of Ukraine where most people associate with being Russian.  Everyone in my community speaks Russian and will tell me, “Oh yes, this song is popular in Russia.” Then, when I ask if they mean Russia or Ukraine they usually respond with “It’s all the same”.

Nice hat! 

April

April is the anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.  Every town in Ukraine has a “Town Meeting” to remember all people who were affected on the 26th of April, 1986.  

 

Most kids in Ukraine are taught to say “My happy birthday is on...” or “Today is my happy birthday!”  This is one of my favorite Ukrainian sayings.  In Pervomais'ke, one of my best friend's birthday is in April, and I was invited out to celebrate at a restaurant. 

Natasha and Igor

Pervomais’ke has one garbage truck/tractor, and this is what happens when it breaks.  The trash piled up, and it didn’t help that people decided to trim the trees then.  I think every stray dog and cat gained at least 5lbs over these few weeks!  The real problem was that people turned to trash burning even more than usual. It's awful for the environment. 

It finally was warmer in April, and the library took advantage of the weather! One sunny afternoon we had a cookout where we made soup and potatoes with salo over a fire at the library.   

  

March

 

In March I went around to some of the village libraries with my counterpart and a few other village administrators.  It was alarming to see the state of these smaller villages in Crimea and made me very grateful that I live in Pervomais’ke.  

  

Typical village library

In the communiy van

Twice a year PCVs in Crimea hold a Saturday dedicated to America, mostly university students come to these seminars.  This spring session was dedicated to American history. 

March ended with an amazing trip to see my parents in Paris.  It had been a year since I had seen them, we had great fun exploring the city and relaxing for a week. (More pictures on Facebook)

  

February

A long awaited update from Ukrainian Christmas through the beginning of August. Here are the highlights! 

In February a bunch of Peace Corps Volunteers spent a weekend in Seavastopol on the Black Sea.  We celebrated St. Patty’s Day and explored Greek ruins. 

Along with some other PCVs in Crimea we heald a GLOW (girls leading our world) Camp weekend.  We had about 30 girls from all over crimea.  

One of the librarians had their 50th birthday, here are a few pictures of the celebration from the library. 

Feburary was a very, very cold month. Ukraine had record lows as the Black Sea and the pipes in my apartment building froze.  The frozen pipes left me waterless for a few weeks; even though my neighbors thought they had insulated the pipes :)

A Ukrainian Christmas in Lviv

I spent the Ukrainian Christmas holiday in Lviv with a school group and some Ukrainian friends, here are some pictures from around the city...

Near the center of the city

Churches

Lots and lots of cobblestone streets

theater

Lona and Donald Duck

Check out all of those apartment buildings! They went on and on!

Me, Oksana and Tonya

narrow streets and bright cars

Ivan Franco

Greek Church at night

Church at night

Church at night

Tonya and Oksana

Down the aisle.

Lots of time to play cards on the two 24 hour train rides!

Christmas/New Year's Celerbration

The Christmas/New Year's celebration in Pervomais'ke was held by the Christmas tree. 

Father Frost is coming to town.

There was a Father Frost contest.

Kids and parents watching the contest

New Year's

New Year's is the big winter holiday in Ukraine.  In the Soviet Union era religion was not allowed so the Christmas traditions were moved to New Year's, and they have not switched back to Christmas.  This year I went to my friend Tonya's apartment for New Year's.

New Year's dinner and Lona in his holiday costume.  

The New Year's program from Moscow had karaoke lyrics so you could sing along at home! 

A group of us on New Year's.

After midnight we went to a few different apartments to celebrate.

The celebrations were not over, Monday night some of the ladies from the fitness class went to the bar!

A group of the Adult English Club wanted to have a New Year's Party.