30 August 2006

I am almost at a loss of where to start here, things have been moving at a quick clip here and a whole host of things has happened. So I will just try to go through my memory and write as it comes, no guarantees to anything extremely organized or chronological. My only worry is it will turn into a mini book, so I’ll try to break it up so you don’t have to read it all at once either.

First of all, let me start from the present. I am sitting in a location different from where I have written previous posts, mainly meaning that I have moved into my own place. I’ll try to get some pictures up for you all to get an idea what my living space looks like, but it is still a little messy from my moving in and I haven’t got things organized to a satisfactory point yet. When that gets done I’ll try to get some photos up. It is definitely no palace, but it does have two rooms, plus the kitchen, toilet and bath. Yet, because the previous residents moved out the day I moved in (they are moving to a larger apartment in town) I have the bare minimums of living here. Basically the second room has one, no now two, pieces of furniture in it right now. I moved a small coffee table in to accompany a small couch. That is also the larger of the two rooms, but the majority of furniture is in the smaller one, which includes my bed, desk, and storage for my clothes. Peace Corps gives us a list of the bare minimums of what should be in our apartments, that’s what I have in my apt. right now, with maybe a couple extra forks. I cooked dinner tonight and realized I had no storage containers to put the extra rice into. I put the pot in the fridge. It is a strange way to start off, with almost nothing, in all my previous moves I knew I brought a lot of stuff, but now see, especially in the kitchen, how all of that can make life so much easier. But the evening was better than the morning. I spent the second half of my yesterday helping the previous residents move out and move my stuff in, which meant it slipped my mind to actually buy some food to eat. This was after I had already dropped a good chunk of change the day before buying necessary things like toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Thankfully my former host mother took pity on me, she only lives one floor down from my current place and fed me breakfast and gave me a few kitchen items. Still need to get a hold of a spatula. Then I went and dropped another load of cash to buy just the basics to get me started around here; we’re talking as basic as salt and pepper. But I was able to cook myself dinner tonight so no one should worry about me starving. I still have a lot to learn about gas stoves, however. I get the feeling like there is no low setting like on electric stoves, just hot and really hot(update, this morning I have have found it, no guarantees). Made for an adventure trying to cook my rice, which is supposed to sit on low heat. Also trying to get chicken cooked without spraying oil all over the kitchen, I failed at that. And yes I know I could cover it, but didn’t have a lid of any sort to do that with. The other observation is how silent it is. Thankfully I got mail from the states so I spent some time reading through that, but this will be another part of my adjustment I’m sure. I was used to living with families and always someone around or something going on. I had been wanting to not feel like I had to put on a show of any sort, but it can be lonely at times to, I’ll admit.

Well, moving on, I want to preface the next part by saying today has been a sad day because I heard the news that a former volunteer that I had seen just this past weekend died Tuesday night. John Zvosec was a volunteer in Ukraine for six years before ending his service this past fall. He was a retired architect and stayed in the country with his Ukrainian wife. I first met him on a project I have been working on to plant trees in my community. He was a man that gave a lot of himself to this country and had an abundance of patience with a newbie like me in the country. For a man of his experience I never felt stupid in front of him and he seemed to generally care for the country and the work he did as a free-lance volunteer in the country. He undoubtedly had a profound impact on the country of Ukraine and his adopted city of Ternopil. I’m still in shock, as are many others who knew him.
A little of what him and I had been working on. My regional manager approached me with a potential grant to plant trees from an American organization and I said I would do my best to put together a grant, almost immediately feeling overwhelmed, you can read about it in a previous post of mine. But this past weekend I went to Ternopil, a few hours east of Lviv by train, and we finished this proposal, which I know I could not have done on my own. The city, by the way, is beautiful. I was told it is one of two cities in Europe formed around a lake, the other being Geneva, on further thought, that may be stretching it a bit, but the town itself was charming. I was there on a rainy day so I didn’t get to see as much as I would have liked, but liked the atmosphere there and definitely want to return and spend more time there. As for the prospects for the grant, I have no idea what to expect, mostly I’m just glad to have got it out of the way for the moment; I have plenty of other things occupying my time as well.

One of those other things you may have seen if you looked at my pictures recently. August 24 is Independence Day here and while I felt like Americans take their day a little more enthusiastically, I had my own part in the activities. The mayor had asked me to give a speech in front of the town, oh, in Ukrainian. Thankfully this time around I had time to prepare and practice, unlike the other time I got to give a speech to a town on Victory Day this past spring. With it threatening rain the entire ceremony, I was slated to be one of the last people to speak. To add to my pressure, people were getting tired and the ceremony was kind of dragging on, I heard people saying it was too long, with even more speakers to go. Thankfully I had prepared only a very short speech and it went rather well (to read the text, go to my supplemental materials). I started off a little nervous, but was able to settle down by the end and it went all right. The day went on to a concert featuring local musicians and some other group that at least none of the young kids had even heard. Then it was the outdoor disco that brings a lot of the town together and ended with fireworks, made for a long day.

That’s probably way too much reading for any one person, but I hope you make it through eventually. I’ll try to keep them shorter, and for better or worse, I know there was more I had wanted to write at one point or another. But I can save those stories for another time. It is 11 at night and I need some sleep, have English club tomorrow and no idea what to yet.