12 September

It’s getting late here so I don’t want to sit here for too long, fighting a cold, it is better today, but I’m still not 100 percent.

A few updates, my original fear of the student government thing blowing up in my face was averted as the director wanted to hear a little bit more. This has given me time to lay out my positions a little more firmly and lay out some better guidelines of what we should do, and get some more people on board as well as smooth out some rough parts. So it will be happening tomorrow that we do a big presentation, we’ll see if it happens this time. Just looked at the Gumby on my desk, that’s why I have him there, cause I bend every which way, but I haven’t broken yet.

But my day also took a turn for the bizarre on Monday; it just happened that it was day of flower arrangements. Direct translation was along the lines of Celebration of flowers. I had found out about it on Friday, but got the treat of looking at all of them on Monday. They were all very pretty. Now all that is all and well, nothing bizarre, it got a little funny when they asked me to be on the jury to judge arrangements. Now, I told them I don’t have any experience, but I can sure tell them which ones I liked better, no professional reasons why. I have no idea which ones won, but there were some pretty nice ones. It also was a reminder of home, because Monday also happened to be September 11, even in Ukraine people hadn’t forgotten 2001 and there were several arrangements commemorating the event. It was touching sight on what was a somber day for me as an American. It also did make me feel a little less isolated on that day. It will be hard to tell what that day will mean in our future, but I am already comparing it to the day President Kennedy was shot in how the event has seared into our minds the memories of that day and remembering exactly where we were and what we were doing. But being the only American in town didn’t allow for a lot of reflection or discussion about the day, so that was something I missed.

Today found me in the regional seat of Kamyanka Buska. I had earlier promised to help students and teachers there in some way so today I went to do the “Hi, I’m an American” song and dance routine and talk to students a bit. It was fun to see a new group of students. One thing I have noticed in this and previous visits there is the difference that having previous volunteers makes. Where I am now there is almost jadedness to some of the things I do. People get a lot more excited with the smallest things I do there. So hopefully I won’t let them down. I met with a bunch of fourth formers first, the little guys are typically more fun, they didn’t disappoint me, we had a good time practicing simple English and talking a little bit in Ukrainian too. What surprised me were the older students. What was supposed to be just the 10th and 11th forms quickly turned into almost a free for all with students from I think 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th forms there. I had a big audience, probably too big since I could hardly hear students in the back when they asked me questions. But we had a nice question and answer period and the students were able to keep asking me questions up until the bell rang. What surprised me is they actually groaned when it was over. Sure, there are always some students who wish it could have gone longer, but this seemed like more of them than what I consider usual. I’m scheduling English clubs for next week there, so we will see how many show up.

I won’t have Internet for the next couple days, but I will get back to emails as soon as I can after that. Feel free to leave comments, I always appreciate the notes. I remember reading in another volunteers blog, “I don’t want to be the only one speaking here.”