June 29, 2006
The week has been fairly eventful here with some items that had been on my to do list for too long finally finishing and other meetings going well. The first and what I see as my biggest success was finally putting out a student newspaper that had been about 2 weeks delayed past the date I wanted to have it published. A little lesson on how deadlines and other things can come up a lot. But now that it is out, I am feeling a lot better, it was a collaboration mainly student writers and mostly teacher editors, I basically tried to direct traffic of it all because for starters, I don't read Ukrainian all that swell and it would have taken me ages to try and edit it myself. But I did most of the layout with help from another older student and we printed it out. The highlight of the paper, according to others and not myself, is an article about me titled roughly translated "Dobrotvirir through the eyes of an American." Can't say I have read what I said yet, but sure there will be things I'll be embarrassed about later in there.
In addition I had some meeting in Lviv this week and things are looking good for getting a technology club with internet access set up at the local library here, which will open a lot of new opportunities and allow me to explore some other ideas. But I am very excited about it, along with the director of the library of the possibilities. Also met with a Vice-Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Ever since graduating from Gonzaga, Catholicism never seems to be too far away but can be a good thing. He is an American, but has spent several years here and was able to give me some advice on language (keep practicing) and had a nice lunch. The university has a lot of potential for me to work with me thinking of holding some conferences there.
One of the things I am still adapting to in this job, life, however you want to call it, is the lack of structure, at least at this point. It has its frustrations, there are some days I feel completely useless, which was the first part of the week, and then other times when the lack of structure means I can do and dream as big as I want. The only challenge now is to be able to come through on those dreams and deliver for people.
As for random thoughts, sorry to all of you who were rooting for the US in the World Cup, did anybody watch it there? In this football (soccer) crazy country, I have watched nearly every game and in case you didn't know, Ukraine is doing really well and made it through two rounds. It is also their first time at the Cup. When Ukraine beat Switzerland, the country went pretty wild that night. In a game that lasted over 120 minutes, regular games last 90; it finished at about two in the morning with Ukraine winning on penalty kicks. Cheers could be heard all over town as celebrations were going on, and this was in a small town. Scene of Kyiv and Lviv showed a lot more people going wild for Ukraine. It definitely has added a spice to life this summer.
This will be a busy month for me, with helping out at two different summer camps and training in Kyiv tossed is as well, it might be difficult for me to post a whole lot more, but I will do my best to get posts up when I get the opportunity.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Well, now that the history has been updated a little bit about what has been going on in my past I want to put a little more recent news up. I arrived at my permanent site at the end of last month and you may have been following some of the goings on through pictures, but that can't exactly tell the whole story.
It is impossible to entirely wrap up what has happened here in the past three weeks, but I have been bouncing around between organizations at this point trying to get a hold of different goals and hopes people have. The best way to describe it is through "ups and downs", a saying that has been repeated by other new volunteers I have talked with as well. You will have your good and bad days, but overall, it is hard to adjust to a new community where you do not understand everything said to you and often do not have any good outlets for expressing frustration or glee.
But I think what is always more enjoyable to read are little anecdotes from daily life and yesterday had several of them.
What yesterday day did was fulfill two of the stereotypes that are talked about in training, one of them I had prayed would never happen to me.
To set the scene it was early yesterday afternoon and the temperature had peaked at 30 degrees, centigrade, in the mid 80s for all of you in the states. I needed to go to an adjacent town for a meeting with the regional administration and help out at a summer camp a bit. That requires me getting on a mini bus crammed with people, already a bad situation with a bunch of sweaty people. But to make matters worse, there is a fear of having open windows on moving vehicles, the theory is: you will get cold, then sick, and finally die. So as we are getting started I am enjoying the bit of a breeze from a window that was already open, then two older women start complaining about the open window. So of course they get closed and I commence to sweat buckets. About 30 minutes later I finally get to my destination, walk off the bus in a rather poor mood being cooped up in there, but having to laugh at the same time. Summer is going to suck for transportation.
Second funny story revolves around how we are told to expect to be rock stars at some point during our time in country. My first experience was during victory day celebrations, where I was asked to speak 30 minutes before they wanted me to give a speak, in English to be translated. You may have seen those pictures. But the more recent incident happened when I was asked to speak at a summer camp, same day as my min-bus incident, only later. So I had a nice spirited discussion with the kids there in a combination of English and Ukrainian, they were early teens I think, or maybe 11-13. At the end of it, they (all of them) wanted my signature. I didn't really take it seriously until they brought out a piece of paper and I commenced to sign my name, 20 times. Then they all came back and wanted me to write out my name so they could actually read it. Can't say I had signed signatures before, but there are now 20 kids out there with a little slip of paper with my name on it. Strange.
So there is a brief update about me, Enjoy, leave comments and I hope to put more up soon.
It is impossible to entirely wrap up what has happened here in the past three weeks, but I have been bouncing around between organizations at this point trying to get a hold of different goals and hopes people have. The best way to describe it is through "ups and downs", a saying that has been repeated by other new volunteers I have talked with as well. You will have your good and bad days, but overall, it is hard to adjust to a new community where you do not understand everything said to you and often do not have any good outlets for expressing frustration or glee.
But I think what is always more enjoyable to read are little anecdotes from daily life and yesterday had several of them.
What yesterday day did was fulfill two of the stereotypes that are talked about in training, one of them I had prayed would never happen to me.
To set the scene it was early yesterday afternoon and the temperature had peaked at 30 degrees, centigrade, in the mid 80s for all of you in the states. I needed to go to an adjacent town for a meeting with the regional administration and help out at a summer camp a bit. That requires me getting on a mini bus crammed with people, already a bad situation with a bunch of sweaty people. But to make matters worse, there is a fear of having open windows on moving vehicles, the theory is: you will get cold, then sick, and finally die. So as we are getting started I am enjoying the bit of a breeze from a window that was already open, then two older women start complaining about the open window. So of course they get closed and I commence to sweat buckets. About 30 minutes later I finally get to my destination, walk off the bus in a rather poor mood being cooped up in there, but having to laugh at the same time. Summer is going to suck for transportation.
Second funny story revolves around how we are told to expect to be rock stars at some point during our time in country. My first experience was during victory day celebrations, where I was asked to speak 30 minutes before they wanted me to give a speak, in English to be translated. You may have seen those pictures. But the more recent incident happened when I was asked to speak at a summer camp, same day as my min-bus incident, only later. So I had a nice spirited discussion with the kids there in a combination of English and Ukrainian, they were early teens I think, or maybe 11-13. At the end of it, they (all of them) wanted my signature. I didn't really take it seriously until they brought out a piece of paper and I commenced to sign my name, 20 times. Then they all came back and wanted me to write out my name so they could actually read it. Can't say I had signed signatures before, but there are now 20 kids out there with a little slip of paper with my name on it. Strange.
So there is a brief update about me, Enjoy, leave comments and I hope to put more up soon.
After a first full day at what looks like will be my new site, I am enjoying it. In a change of pace, which I will only describe as different, I am now with a family that speaks only a little English. This is good for my learning of the Ukrainian language, my first family was helpful with the ability to speak either language, a big help since I was coming in with zero language and appreciated being able to get my point across. Now I am having to communicate fully in another language, which I am enjoying and able to get simple messages across, but also shows how much I still need to learn and study. I am still in the process of building blocks and cannot just hear a new word, remember it and be able to use it. But it is also comforting to hear that while the volunteers currently at this site can comprehend this I have no idea what was said, they are still learning new words all the time as well.
But as for my time exploring the community, thus far I have been talking a lot with one of the two current volunteers and hearing about how much he has done and where I may be able to pick up from where he and his wife are leaving off. The biggest lesson is that I can’t try and do just that, but rather take what they have prepared and make my own thing. A good lesson to hear and necessary to remember.
Two of the primary projects for me at least initially will be working on the school newspaper, an excellent starting point where a lot of work has been done, and co-teaching some technology classes. The idea of me being a general teacher does not seem to be a focus at this particular site, which I enjoy, but will be able to build from my primary site and what looks like a dynamic site at the local library to create some very interesting programs. The director of the school at my primary site is not wanting me to teach alone right now, which I am fine with, but does want to work with me on more specialized projects and help teach some of the technology classes. My initial impression of him was good as he is an energetic person, but also willing to speak his opinion of what he thinks will and will not work. It is a relationship that has already been crafted by the current volunteer and I think I can continue to build on it.
As for the English teachers at the school, I have already fallen in love with them and look forward to working with them more. They are also an energetic bunch and seem to enjoy the company of an American, which is good, but also don’t seem to be trying to impress me too much either. They have been very welcoming of me thus far and I look forward to more interaction with them.
So overall my impression of the site is I could not have gotten much luckier. It is a small site, yet is very compact and has a lot of facilities I think can be put to good use.
I am sure I will find my frustrations, which I have been warned do occur daily, but my biggest and basically only frustration thus far has been the mosquitoes. They are already out in force here and as usual, I am a favorite target. If I am going to survive this summer, I will need plenty of bug spray from the central office in Kyiv. Otherwise I’ll end up shriveled up and dead, not a fun thought. But if I can avoid that, I think this site should work out pretty well.
But as for my time exploring the community, thus far I have been talking a lot with one of the two current volunteers and hearing about how much he has done and where I may be able to pick up from where he and his wife are leaving off. The biggest lesson is that I can’t try and do just that, but rather take what they have prepared and make my own thing. A good lesson to hear and necessary to remember.
Two of the primary projects for me at least initially will be working on the school newspaper, an excellent starting point where a lot of work has been done, and co-teaching some technology classes. The idea of me being a general teacher does not seem to be a focus at this particular site, which I enjoy, but will be able to build from my primary site and what looks like a dynamic site at the local library to create some very interesting programs. The director of the school at my primary site is not wanting me to teach alone right now, which I am fine with, but does want to work with me on more specialized projects and help teach some of the technology classes. My initial impression of him was good as he is an energetic person, but also willing to speak his opinion of what he thinks will and will not work. It is a relationship that has already been crafted by the current volunteer and I think I can continue to build on it.
As for the English teachers at the school, I have already fallen in love with them and look forward to working with them more. They are also an energetic bunch and seem to enjoy the company of an American, which is good, but also don’t seem to be trying to impress me too much either. They have been very welcoming of me thus far and I look forward to more interaction with them.
So overall my impression of the site is I could not have gotten much luckier. It is a small site, yet is very compact and has a lot of facilities I think can be put to good use.
I am sure I will find my frustrations, which I have been warned do occur daily, but my biggest and basically only frustration thus far has been the mosquitoes. They are already out in force here and as usual, I am a favorite target. If I am going to survive this summer, I will need plenty of bug spray from the central office in Kyiv. Otherwise I’ll end up shriveled up and dead, not a fun thought. But if I can avoid that, I think this site should work out pretty well.
6 April, 2006
When I started this blog, I definitely envisioned being able to post a little more often, here it is the beginning of April and I am writing my first entry without an idea of when IÂ’ll actually be able to publish it. I was on a computer with Internet last week for the first time since I arrived in country. Not real conducive to my writing. Maybe this will be the only way to do it is to just have it all pre-written out with a short window to actually publish it. But I digress.
In those last days of February I was in Washington DC at a pre-staging still figuring out the idea that I was going to Ukraine, the idea which is still just sinking in. On the first of March our group of about 68 flew out and landed in Kyiv, Ukraine March 2. For me, there was little sleep on the plane from DC to Frankfurt, and once we were on a flight to Kyiv itself, I only had to look around to know I was going someplace different. It was easy to tell other passengers were not American, except for our training group, although I couldn't really put a name to them.
Once we got on the ground and through customs, which was actually relatively painless, we were escorted by Peace Corps staff to what we fondly called the "wooded area" otherwise known and Prolisok. A former Soviet Sanitarium. Before you laugh too hard, that means resort over here, not a home for crazy people, although with the jet lag, we looked rather haggard.
After three days of a variety of trainings and an introduction to the Ukrainian Language, we were sent out to our training communities where we were to live with Ukrainian families, many who spoke no English. Might I mention that I was still figuring out the new alphabet, and could maybe say "good afternoon," "thank you," "I want...", "I love...," "My name is," along with a few nouns soup and bananna, they're cognates (look up the word if you don't know what it means). Although I didn't always know what the Ukrainian word for what I wanted was.
So I arrived in Rockitne (not sure the best way to spell it in English, many words here I only know in Ukrainian) and it was dark and I climbed in a car with a man and woman and we all raced off down the road. My first thought they look nice, my second was "this car has no seatbelts" One of my early cultural adjustments, I almost don"t even bother to look anymore, because whenever I do, I never find one anyway.
(side note) By the way, I love the host family I"m staying with, they"re some of the sweetest people I have ever met. In addition to the mother and father, they have two sons and a grandmother who live with them. So in some ways it feels a little like home.
We ate dinner and I understood not a word of what was being said. Much to my surprise, my host mother is an English teacher here in town so early on I was able to communicate a little bit with her and the sons in a cross between English and Ukrainian. Sasha, the father studied German, so I am just beginning to understand him now along with the grandmother.
The first three weeks to a month were some of the most intense training I have ever been through. I went from not even knowing the Cyrillic alphabet to being able to communicate on a basic level in Ukrainian, although it wasn"t easy. Classes would go all day and often I did little more than study, attend class and sleep. It has slowed down a bit now.
We also were able to take our first trip to Kyiv last weekend. A whirlwind trip in which we saw the Peace Corps Office Ukraine, and some of the main sights. The office is kind of an odd thing because once you walk inside everything is in English which is odd after seeing only Russian and Ukrainian everywhere else, although plenty of advertisements often include English. Another funny incident was on the way to Kyiv in a Marshukah, basically a mini-bus, on the radio it would be a song I wouldn't undestand then an English language song would play next, kind of an odd experience.
As for the overall experience, in many ways it could almost be home, except people dress a little differently and when they open their mouths it is definitely not English coming out of it. But at the same time I can come home and play Counter-Strike and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas with my host brothers on the family computer. Some days the idea that I'm in Ukraine is at the far back of my head. Other days it can be at the forefront when I want to order something as tea. (true story) I had to go and get tea and cookies, so I walked into my friendly local magazine (store) and knew the word for tea "chai," unfortunately you can probably guess there was more than one box of tea on the shelf so I was reduced to confused pointing to a shelf and saying "L-I-P-T-O-N" there was a Lipton yellow label tea. Unfortunately I didn't know the color yellow at the time and finally got the point across, thankfully the store clerk was patient with me, I don't know how she has put up with me for so long. Although I am much better now.
A funny story, which partially got me thinking about this was the electricity has gone out twice now tonight, both times due to fuses being blown. The reaction when the electricity goes out suddenly here, exactly the same as in the states. "Ahh, what happened?" some frustration and fumbling around in the dark until the power is back on.
The other part of what has allowed me to get some of the all put down on the, well, computer was IÂ’ve been out of action the past two days. On Tuesday I came down pretty sick with a temperature of 102, I still went to school that day, probably not the best idea IÂ’ll admit but the on the advice of the Peace Corps doctors stayed home Wednesday and Thursday. After peaking at about 103 Wednesday, the temperature is pretty normal today(Thursday). If anything of everybody here, I was probably least worried about the whole affair. Yeah, I got sick big deal, everybody else saw it as more of a crisis than I did. But I listened and now IÂ’m on the up swing, and planning to head back to school tomorrow and teach my second class. More on that another time. Well, I think IÂ’m going to go get my shower, consisting of two buckets full of hot water, but with me being sick and all. It will be my first since what I can recollect was last Friday. Huah!
When I started this blog, I definitely envisioned being able to post a little more often, here it is the beginning of April and I am writing my first entry without an idea of when IÂ’ll actually be able to publish it. I was on a computer with Internet last week for the first time since I arrived in country. Not real conducive to my writing. Maybe this will be the only way to do it is to just have it all pre-written out with a short window to actually publish it. But I digress.
In those last days of February I was in Washington DC at a pre-staging still figuring out the idea that I was going to Ukraine, the idea which is still just sinking in. On the first of March our group of about 68 flew out and landed in Kyiv, Ukraine March 2. For me, there was little sleep on the plane from DC to Frankfurt, and once we were on a flight to Kyiv itself, I only had to look around to know I was going someplace different. It was easy to tell other passengers were not American, except for our training group, although I couldn't really put a name to them.
Once we got on the ground and through customs, which was actually relatively painless, we were escorted by Peace Corps staff to what we fondly called the "wooded area" otherwise known and Prolisok. A former Soviet Sanitarium. Before you laugh too hard, that means resort over here, not a home for crazy people, although with the jet lag, we looked rather haggard.
After three days of a variety of trainings and an introduction to the Ukrainian Language, we were sent out to our training communities where we were to live with Ukrainian families, many who spoke no English. Might I mention that I was still figuring out the new alphabet, and could maybe say "good afternoon," "thank you," "I want...", "I love...," "My name is," along with a few nouns soup and bananna, they're cognates (look up the word if you don't know what it means). Although I didn't always know what the Ukrainian word for what I wanted was.
So I arrived in Rockitne (not sure the best way to spell it in English, many words here I only know in Ukrainian) and it was dark and I climbed in a car with a man and woman and we all raced off down the road. My first thought they look nice, my second was "this car has no seatbelts" One of my early cultural adjustments, I almost don"t even bother to look anymore, because whenever I do, I never find one anyway.
(side note) By the way, I love the host family I"m staying with, they"re some of the sweetest people I have ever met. In addition to the mother and father, they have two sons and a grandmother who live with them. So in some ways it feels a little like home.
We ate dinner and I understood not a word of what was being said. Much to my surprise, my host mother is an English teacher here in town so early on I was able to communicate a little bit with her and the sons in a cross between English and Ukrainian. Sasha, the father studied German, so I am just beginning to understand him now along with the grandmother.
The first three weeks to a month were some of the most intense training I have ever been through. I went from not even knowing the Cyrillic alphabet to being able to communicate on a basic level in Ukrainian, although it wasn"t easy. Classes would go all day and often I did little more than study, attend class and sleep. It has slowed down a bit now.
We also were able to take our first trip to Kyiv last weekend. A whirlwind trip in which we saw the Peace Corps Office Ukraine, and some of the main sights. The office is kind of an odd thing because once you walk inside everything is in English which is odd after seeing only Russian and Ukrainian everywhere else, although plenty of advertisements often include English. Another funny incident was on the way to Kyiv in a Marshukah, basically a mini-bus, on the radio it would be a song I wouldn't undestand then an English language song would play next, kind of an odd experience.
As for the overall experience, in many ways it could almost be home, except people dress a little differently and when they open their mouths it is definitely not English coming out of it. But at the same time I can come home and play Counter-Strike and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas with my host brothers on the family computer. Some days the idea that I'm in Ukraine is at the far back of my head. Other days it can be at the forefront when I want to order something as tea. (true story) I had to go and get tea and cookies, so I walked into my friendly local magazine (store) and knew the word for tea "chai," unfortunately you can probably guess there was more than one box of tea on the shelf so I was reduced to confused pointing to a shelf and saying "L-I-P-T-O-N" there was a Lipton yellow label tea. Unfortunately I didn't know the color yellow at the time and finally got the point across, thankfully the store clerk was patient with me, I don't know how she has put up with me for so long. Although I am much better now.
A funny story, which partially got me thinking about this was the electricity has gone out twice now tonight, both times due to fuses being blown. The reaction when the electricity goes out suddenly here, exactly the same as in the states. "Ahh, what happened?" some frustration and fumbling around in the dark until the power is back on.
The other part of what has allowed me to get some of the all put down on the, well, computer was IÂ’ve been out of action the past two days. On Tuesday I came down pretty sick with a temperature of 102, I still went to school that day, probably not the best idea IÂ’ll admit but the on the advice of the Peace Corps doctors stayed home Wednesday and Thursday. After peaking at about 103 Wednesday, the temperature is pretty normal today(Thursday). If anything of everybody here, I was probably least worried about the whole affair. Yeah, I got sick big deal, everybody else saw it as more of a crisis than I did. But I listened and now IÂ’m on the up swing, and planning to head back to school tomorrow and teach my second class. More on that another time. Well, I think IÂ’m going to go get my shower, consisting of two buckets full of hot water, but with me being sick and all. It will be my first since what I can recollect was last Friday. Huah!
After finally having some time to sort out the bureaucracies of Peace Corps policies and am now able to start putting up some more interesting parts of life so you can have a more intimate look at what life is like here.
But to start it off with, I will include two older blogs I typed out on my computer, but didn't post. They are from relatively early, so enjoy a little blast from the past.
But to start it off with, I will include two older blogs I typed out on my computer, but didn't post. They are from relatively early, so enjoy a little blast from the past.
Friday, June 16, 2006
I yet again have pictures posted from my recent trip to the Carpathians.
Hope you enjoy them. Same weblink, I also have my mailing address now if you have anythign you want to send me.
If you are interested in it, please send me an email.
Also remember that it is a good idea when sending any items to use a cushioned envelope rather than a box and for customs write personal items on it and it will not require a estimated price, I think. And sending food is not allowed as well, so if you want to send me candy or anything like that (always appreciated) tag it as a gift and don’t write “candy”…
Hope you enjoy them. Same weblink, I also have my mailing address now if you have anythign you want to send me.
If you are interested in it, please send me an email.
Also remember that it is a good idea when sending any items to use a cushioned envelope rather than a box and for customs write personal items on it and it will not require a estimated price, I think. And sending food is not allowed as well, so if you want to send me candy or anything like that (always appreciated) tag it as a gift and don’t write “candy”…
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
There are new photos up at flickr. Enjoy, I'm hoping to get more in-depth information out soon on here, just need to sort out some logistical things, such as Peace Corps wanting to read everything I write before I post. That just doesn't seem real practical, but oh well. But here is the link to those photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/casteel/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/casteel/
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