When I start getting comments that I haven’t updated in a while and it doesn’t feel like it was that long ago, I realize how time has flied, even if most of the time I don’t feel like I have accomplished all that much.
A big part of the reason for my rather tardy update is I have been at least a little bit busy, traveling to Kyiv last weekend to work on the Ukrainian Peace Corps newsletter that is sent to every volunteer in the country and other people in the country, not exactly sure all where it goes. There are three of us editors that met, although I didn’t write anything. It isn’t exactly as exciting as it sounds since we are little more than spell-checkers and page-designers, but it was a chance to do something different and feel as if I really do have at least a few skills in this country. The other big part of that was the meeting just happened to be convened on Thanksgiving. There was a flurry of SMSs between volunteers with the congratulations, but it definitely didn’t feel the same in this country, except all the staff at the Peace Corps office had the day off. We had our own little celebration by going out to TGI Friday’s and later that evening I went out with one of the other editors and we actually caught an American football game. The beers were ridiculously expensive, but watching Joey Harrington win a game on Thanksgiving was fun. We finished up by early that next afternoon and I took off for the weekend to visit my host family and get out of Kyiv, It is nice to visit, but I can’t stay there for very long because it is so prohibitively expensive on my budget. Plus it is much more fun to hang out with my host family.
While there I ended up in the church in town during a tour of the town I gave to the current LCF (Language and Cross-cultural Facilitator), who is teaching the new trainees in the town Ukrainian. I had seen the church plenty of times from the outside and I had just given her a pretty extensive tour of town. Inside felt Orthodox and I lit the first candles of my life in a church. While I tend to be hesitant of many of the traditions these follow, I found it to be a fulfilling experience. Understanding the traditions behind it and being able to worship in my own way while observing some of the Eastern traditions was good. These experiences will definitely influence my faith when I do return to the states. How and in what ways is hard to tell now, but I will be more aware of traditions and appreciate them. In some ways I wonder if America has tried to break away from some of these types of European traditions, it forgot the meaning behind them that can be so powerful. Not that I am going to endorse all the different parts, I am not all that comfortable with the amount of icons, but simple acts of lighting candles and the openness of the church that anyone can walk in during the day was appreciated. But in that same train of thought I will be looking forward to being able to have some of those deeper theological, religious and social discussions that I enjoyed back in the states, that is not a common occurrence for me here.
But my traveling brought me back to my site Monday morning, the overnight trains are a blessing and a curse, and we got to work trying to get the newspaper issue here ready to print. Things haven’t worked quite as smoothly and have reinforced my opinion that volunteers don’t always have good and bad days, but rather good and bad hours. How’s that for the ability to really screw with your head? Today was a combination of the two as I have been behind on the production, mainly because I’m allowing the students to do as much work as possible and that means things get done slower. At least it will be a lesson at the same time. At the English club I missed last week I was told when I arrived this week they missed me, but the same day I found out that the library containing all the files for the needed for the newspaper were locked away for the day. So is life here.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Saturday, November 11, 2006
8 November
Since the last time I sat down, I have been through a Halloween party and visited a different country. Also stopped by an English class for Forest Institute grad students, met them at a party a week later, had no email (so sorry if I haven’t replied to any) and met a bunch of volunteers from my group. Put it that way and my time seems to be fairly busy. If I could only convince myself of that on a daily basis that my life is busy, at least I go to bed exhausted every night.
To try and organize it in a chronological order lets back up to Monday, still back in last month, with the forestry institute. I got a call from a fellow volunteer that he had been invited to speak at this institutes English class, basically to just allow them to hear some other English speakers and he saw it as a way to expand the tree planting project that I have been working on. It worked out well because the teacher, a senior Fulbright scholar got not one, not two, but three additional Americans to come and speak at the class. Since Cameron, a guy who trained with me was in town. It was a major jump forward with my grant project, since I had heard that they money would be available and now I had volunteers to help me with more of the technical information, it was a pretty darn cool.
So that Halloween party, I will have pictures on my Flickr site soon, so you can see a first-hand account there, but the basic story is my younger English club in Dobrotvir wanted to have a Halloween party, so I helped them organize it, they did most of the work and I made sure to support them. We had games, like bobbing for apples, a mummy wrap, pictures from that are hilarious, food and a lot of candy. Think there is quite a bit of it left over, not sure. But it seemed to be a hit and everyone walked away happy that night, I had two other volunteers there too, and they had just as much fun. I can’t complain.
The next big event was Cameron’s and my trip to Poland. It was classic Ukraine travel experience. To start it off, we knew that the bus left at 11 a.m. in a different town and the only way we could get there was to catch a bus from my town at 7:30 a.m. The next left about 10:30 and wouldn’t get there in time. So we got to Chervonograd. A charming (not so much) city constructed around coal mining and isn’t the safest or cleanest place. I enjoy comparing the bus station we waited in to the spaceport Luke Skywalker went to in the first movie. A dingy place with a lot of shady characters. Thankfully the cold weather kept most of the beggars at home. To add the adventure we tried to buy tickets for this bus not knowing how many people might be going and were told that we needed to come back later. So we did and were told the same thing. The last time we asked was about 10:30 and was told the same thing, yet again. My personal philosophy, which has served me well in about 90 percent of cases, just get on the bus and pay the driver. That way I know I am at least going. So Cameron and I walk out to the bus and are securing his luggage under the bus when I get asked if I have any cigarettes. My only reply was I don’t smoke, but my buddy has some. As Cameron tried to offer him a cigarette, he completely ignored it and was eager for me to take a box of cigarettes across the border for him. Only I didn’t figure this out until about 5 minutes later after about three other people had asked me the same question. I was getting to meet the (in) famous cigarette smuggles I had been warned about. So after I said I had already promised another guy I would carry some they lost interest until they heard we were Americans living in Ukraine and single. It gave a group of middle-aged ladies something to talk about for the entire trip. Not that I paid too much attention, mostly just caught snatches of my town name, my name and American. Probably trying to think of a good woman for me. Common problem.
So we take off and the bus is not full, maybe half full, but the excitement was just getting underway. I’m seeing piles of cigarettes and alcohol when people are only allowed to take across two boxes and a little bit of alcohol. Taxes are a lot lower in Ukraine so it can be profitable to carry stuff across the border and sell it again. People are hiding cigarettes in nooks and crannies in the bus, stuffing them into black nylon stockings and hiding them under seats when smoke starts pouring into the bus. We are sort of looking around in disbelief as the cabin is filling with smoke when Cameron pipes up with, “I think we have a problem.” That brings the place down and as we pull over to the side of the road windows are being opened to try and vent out the smoke. Our bus caught fire. As the driver gets out, the problems stems from the heater. We had boarded the bus still being able to see our breath and the heater was a nice touch to warm up my cold feet. Unfortunately it was too good to last, of course, and after the heater was turned off we got back on our way, the smoke eventually cleared.
Once we got to the border the pace of hiding cigarettes got really frenzied. After we all skated through the Ukrainian side without issue. The only question I didn’t understand was if I had any books. Then the only sound I heard was the ripping of scotch tape and people hurrying around the bus stashing their last bit of contraband. I was also handed my package of cigarettes and booze to carry across the border. So once we had our passports stamped we all bundled out of the bus for the Polish authorities to play the who has too many cigarettes and alcohol game. There was a cursory check through our bags (they didn’t bother us Americans too much, probably not smart enough to try and smuggle something), and then got to the real game of hide-and-seek on the bus while we all watched on the outside. The officials then came back with a bag of their seized contraband and we all re-boarded the bus. In a moment Cameron and I didn’t really understand the smugglers immediately started looking in their hiding places to see what had made it through. Cigarettes that had been hidden around us didn’t seem to do too well although other people did better. What we didn’t understand was here we were still parked in the Polish border check and people are running all over the bus to see what they were successful in hiding. Amazing…
After a trip like that, Poland itself had a lot to live up to for entertainment. Our running joke was Peace Corps volunteers look forward to vacationing in more developed countries. Poland was definitely that. One of the first things we noticed was better roads and better taken care of buildings on the whole. Another difference took a little longer to notice, but Polish people don’t use plastic bags as much to cart their stuff around. In Ukraine if you don’t have your packet with “Hugo Boss” emblazoned on the side or some other bag of a random company you stand out. I stand out because I use a backpack to cart my stuff around. In Poland people used backpacks and suitcases to carry their stuff. I even saw a garment bag, it was amazing. The transportation system where we were was a bus system running on Natural Gas, amazing, although I prefer the Ukrainian system of waving down an oversized van and piling in, they are easier to figure out, and I don’t have to try and figure out a payment system based on distance when I don’t know exactly where I am going or how to say much more than thank you, yes and no in Polish.
The other predominant thing I noticed in Poland was it was cold, although it was and is cold in Ukraine as well, I was hoping to spend more time outside, not running from one place to another. From the pictures you can see we visited two different castles and it was snowing. The second one we saw was in a town called Lancut (sp?). It was more of a mansion, from my guidebook it once was owned by one of the wealthiest people in Poland, who fled before the soviets in 1944 or so with a huge amount art to Liechtenstein. But there was enough left over to make it a museum. We planned to go inside until we found out it was 21 zloty per person. Or about $7. A little much for my budget. So we looked at the snow covered grounds and called it a day.
The trip back to Ukraine wasn’t nearly as interesting, but wasn’t completely normal. Shortly before the border we stopped to pick up a guy who hauled a lot of bags of something heavy on board and started stuffing it behind the driver’s seat and in some hidden compartments. To Poland the driver didn’t seem as involved but this time the driver was fully involved, but this time around we hardly blinked an eye, just curious what it was they were hiding. Cameron thought it might be clothing or shoes. I just saw plastic bags. But this time going across the border into Ukraine the entire search of the bus was a couple of soldiers walking down the aisle stopping to ask one woman if she had any products and tapping on panels. We all got to stay in the bus. I wasn’t very scared.
So there you go, international travel Peace Corps style, much more exciting than normal and really not any more stressful.
Since the last time I sat down, I have been through a Halloween party and visited a different country. Also stopped by an English class for Forest Institute grad students, met them at a party a week later, had no email (so sorry if I haven’t replied to any) and met a bunch of volunteers from my group. Put it that way and my time seems to be fairly busy. If I could only convince myself of that on a daily basis that my life is busy, at least I go to bed exhausted every night.
To try and organize it in a chronological order lets back up to Monday, still back in last month, with the forestry institute. I got a call from a fellow volunteer that he had been invited to speak at this institutes English class, basically to just allow them to hear some other English speakers and he saw it as a way to expand the tree planting project that I have been working on. It worked out well because the teacher, a senior Fulbright scholar got not one, not two, but three additional Americans to come and speak at the class. Since Cameron, a guy who trained with me was in town. It was a major jump forward with my grant project, since I had heard that they money would be available and now I had volunteers to help me with more of the technical information, it was a pretty darn cool.
So that Halloween party, I will have pictures on my Flickr site soon, so you can see a first-hand account there, but the basic story is my younger English club in Dobrotvir wanted to have a Halloween party, so I helped them organize it, they did most of the work and I made sure to support them. We had games, like bobbing for apples, a mummy wrap, pictures from that are hilarious, food and a lot of candy. Think there is quite a bit of it left over, not sure. But it seemed to be a hit and everyone walked away happy that night, I had two other volunteers there too, and they had just as much fun. I can’t complain.
The next big event was Cameron’s and my trip to Poland. It was classic Ukraine travel experience. To start it off, we knew that the bus left at 11 a.m. in a different town and the only way we could get there was to catch a bus from my town at 7:30 a.m. The next left about 10:30 and wouldn’t get there in time. So we got to Chervonograd. A charming (not so much) city constructed around coal mining and isn’t the safest or cleanest place. I enjoy comparing the bus station we waited in to the spaceport Luke Skywalker went to in the first movie. A dingy place with a lot of shady characters. Thankfully the cold weather kept most of the beggars at home. To add the adventure we tried to buy tickets for this bus not knowing how many people might be going and were told that we needed to come back later. So we did and were told the same thing. The last time we asked was about 10:30 and was told the same thing, yet again. My personal philosophy, which has served me well in about 90 percent of cases, just get on the bus and pay the driver. That way I know I am at least going. So Cameron and I walk out to the bus and are securing his luggage under the bus when I get asked if I have any cigarettes. My only reply was I don’t smoke, but my buddy has some. As Cameron tried to offer him a cigarette, he completely ignored it and was eager for me to take a box of cigarettes across the border for him. Only I didn’t figure this out until about 5 minutes later after about three other people had asked me the same question. I was getting to meet the (in) famous cigarette smuggles I had been warned about. So after I said I had already promised another guy I would carry some they lost interest until they heard we were Americans living in Ukraine and single. It gave a group of middle-aged ladies something to talk about for the entire trip. Not that I paid too much attention, mostly just caught snatches of my town name, my name and American. Probably trying to think of a good woman for me. Common problem.
So we take off and the bus is not full, maybe half full, but the excitement was just getting underway. I’m seeing piles of cigarettes and alcohol when people are only allowed to take across two boxes and a little bit of alcohol. Taxes are a lot lower in Ukraine so it can be profitable to carry stuff across the border and sell it again. People are hiding cigarettes in nooks and crannies in the bus, stuffing them into black nylon stockings and hiding them under seats when smoke starts pouring into the bus. We are sort of looking around in disbelief as the cabin is filling with smoke when Cameron pipes up with, “I think we have a problem.” That brings the place down and as we pull over to the side of the road windows are being opened to try and vent out the smoke. Our bus caught fire. As the driver gets out, the problems stems from the heater. We had boarded the bus still being able to see our breath and the heater was a nice touch to warm up my cold feet. Unfortunately it was too good to last, of course, and after the heater was turned off we got back on our way, the smoke eventually cleared.
Once we got to the border the pace of hiding cigarettes got really frenzied. After we all skated through the Ukrainian side without issue. The only question I didn’t understand was if I had any books. Then the only sound I heard was the ripping of scotch tape and people hurrying around the bus stashing their last bit of contraband. I was also handed my package of cigarettes and booze to carry across the border. So once we had our passports stamped we all bundled out of the bus for the Polish authorities to play the who has too many cigarettes and alcohol game. There was a cursory check through our bags (they didn’t bother us Americans too much, probably not smart enough to try and smuggle something), and then got to the real game of hide-and-seek on the bus while we all watched on the outside. The officials then came back with a bag of their seized contraband and we all re-boarded the bus. In a moment Cameron and I didn’t really understand the smugglers immediately started looking in their hiding places to see what had made it through. Cigarettes that had been hidden around us didn’t seem to do too well although other people did better. What we didn’t understand was here we were still parked in the Polish border check and people are running all over the bus to see what they were successful in hiding. Amazing…
After a trip like that, Poland itself had a lot to live up to for entertainment. Our running joke was Peace Corps volunteers look forward to vacationing in more developed countries. Poland was definitely that. One of the first things we noticed was better roads and better taken care of buildings on the whole. Another difference took a little longer to notice, but Polish people don’t use plastic bags as much to cart their stuff around. In Ukraine if you don’t have your packet with “Hugo Boss” emblazoned on the side or some other bag of a random company you stand out. I stand out because I use a backpack to cart my stuff around. In Poland people used backpacks and suitcases to carry their stuff. I even saw a garment bag, it was amazing. The transportation system where we were was a bus system running on Natural Gas, amazing, although I prefer the Ukrainian system of waving down an oversized van and piling in, they are easier to figure out, and I don’t have to try and figure out a payment system based on distance when I don’t know exactly where I am going or how to say much more than thank you, yes and no in Polish.
The other predominant thing I noticed in Poland was it was cold, although it was and is cold in Ukraine as well, I was hoping to spend more time outside, not running from one place to another. From the pictures you can see we visited two different castles and it was snowing. The second one we saw was in a town called Lancut (sp?). It was more of a mansion, from my guidebook it once was owned by one of the wealthiest people in Poland, who fled before the soviets in 1944 or so with a huge amount art to Liechtenstein. But there was enough left over to make it a museum. We planned to go inside until we found out it was 21 zloty per person. Or about $7. A little much for my budget. So we looked at the snow covered grounds and called it a day.
The trip back to Ukraine wasn’t nearly as interesting, but wasn’t completely normal. Shortly before the border we stopped to pick up a guy who hauled a lot of bags of something heavy on board and started stuffing it behind the driver’s seat and in some hidden compartments. To Poland the driver didn’t seem as involved but this time the driver was fully involved, but this time around we hardly blinked an eye, just curious what it was they were hiding. Cameron thought it might be clothing or shoes. I just saw plastic bags. But this time going across the border into Ukraine the entire search of the bus was a couple of soldiers walking down the aisle stopping to ask one woman if she had any products and tapping on panels. We all got to stay in the bus. I wasn’t very scared.
So there you go, international travel Peace Corps style, much more exciting than normal and really not any more stressful.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
25 October
A second collection of thoughts rather than a cohesive train of thought.
Centralized hearing, part II: So you all heard about my complaints about centralized heating once already (if you haven’t, just scroll down and come back), but wait, there’s more! I have never once really fully understood the rationale and thought put into how the water is run around here, but one of my favorite times is when I have only hot water, no cold water. Let me tell you, life gets exciting then, I gotta be like the flash doing everything that includes water, whether it is washing dishes, brushing my teeth, washing my hands or dare to take a shower. The water heats up fast to a point where it is not wise to put your hands under it lest you get burned. Now I know I could let the water sit and do pretty much all of those tasks, but that does require planning ahead and I don’t typically know when the water is going to be on or off. I do get only cold water sometimes too, like this morning when I decided to forgo the shower and just wash my hair. I’ll let you know, I may not smell the best, but I still look darn good. Hair looked clean and I shaved. Speaking of which, I think I have hot water now, maybe I should take a shower… eh, then again, maybe I’ll just take my luck in the morning again, didn’t pay out so well today, but who do I have to impress around here?
And in the way of odd jobs, how about translating a physics text. For those of you who want to explain a bit more about Lenz’s law, I’d appreciate it, I have a text here including an experiment and I think if I had the opportunity to actually try it out, I’d probably get it, but it isn’t anything I have really studied and now I get to attempt to put it into Ukrainian, wow, I get be confused in two languages, welcome to my life. Of course the director, no less, wants it tomorrow, so any explanation will be too late for any translation, but it will maybe allow me to at least understand it a bit. At least I have the next week to look forward to where there will be no school, and my responsibility is only making sure a Halloween party goes off. Of course, just to make things interesting I am hoping to have other volunteers here, which adds more details to figure out, but may make things more interesting for the kids as well. Also planning a trip to Poland, should be a good time and I’m looking forward to getting out of the country, seeing something new, even if it may not be all that different. We’ll see.
28 October
Sometimes I think we (as Americans) just need to do things that will throw off and maybe confuse the locals. Case in point, this morning I woke up and needed to go to the bazaar, it is only open twice a week and I didn’t feel like getting dressed for the day before I took a shower. It hasn’t been that cold so I put on a pair of shorts, shirt and my jacket and headed out the door. It wasn’t that cold, but Ukrainians seem to have been conditioned to bundle up as much as possible, for whatever reason (my apartment is almost too hot). There is also the superstition you can never have to windows open or a window and a door open at the same time. You will catch cold, and die, pretty much. The worse place for this rule is on packed marshrutkas (mini-buses) when it is boiling inside but people complain about any cracked window. But anyway, I got plenty of strange looks from people I don’t know, a couple of comments from people I know and one guy congratulating me on defying winter (I think). It is pretty obvious to me, and most other people, that I will never fit in completely so why not occasionally have some fun with it. Part of the Peace Corps experience is to bring a little of America here as well and expose them to different experiences and ideas. I can interpret that to mean wearing shorts in weather that may not be the most conducive for it. Although I will insist it wasn’t that bad. Helped me wake up. All in all, I’m not too worried about catching a cold from a cold day or a draft, germs scare me more so I will keep washing my hands, cooking my food the best I can and trying to get rest the best I can. Medical staff says we will tend to get sick here a bit more than usual anyway because of the extra stress exerted on us and a new environment. So, bring it on (those are some infamous last words now…).
So until next time, keep up with the comments and emails, they are always helpful and encouraging.
A second collection of thoughts rather than a cohesive train of thought.
Centralized hearing, part II: So you all heard about my complaints about centralized heating once already (if you haven’t, just scroll down and come back), but wait, there’s more! I have never once really fully understood the rationale and thought put into how the water is run around here, but one of my favorite times is when I have only hot water, no cold water. Let me tell you, life gets exciting then, I gotta be like the flash doing everything that includes water, whether it is washing dishes, brushing my teeth, washing my hands or dare to take a shower. The water heats up fast to a point where it is not wise to put your hands under it lest you get burned. Now I know I could let the water sit and do pretty much all of those tasks, but that does require planning ahead and I don’t typically know when the water is going to be on or off. I do get only cold water sometimes too, like this morning when I decided to forgo the shower and just wash my hair. I’ll let you know, I may not smell the best, but I still look darn good. Hair looked clean and I shaved. Speaking of which, I think I have hot water now, maybe I should take a shower… eh, then again, maybe I’ll just take my luck in the morning again, didn’t pay out so well today, but who do I have to impress around here?
And in the way of odd jobs, how about translating a physics text. For those of you who want to explain a bit more about Lenz’s law, I’d appreciate it, I have a text here including an experiment and I think if I had the opportunity to actually try it out, I’d probably get it, but it isn’t anything I have really studied and now I get to attempt to put it into Ukrainian, wow, I get be confused in two languages, welcome to my life. Of course the director, no less, wants it tomorrow, so any explanation will be too late for any translation, but it will maybe allow me to at least understand it a bit. At least I have the next week to look forward to where there will be no school, and my responsibility is only making sure a Halloween party goes off. Of course, just to make things interesting I am hoping to have other volunteers here, which adds more details to figure out, but may make things more interesting for the kids as well. Also planning a trip to Poland, should be a good time and I’m looking forward to getting out of the country, seeing something new, even if it may not be all that different. We’ll see.
28 October
Sometimes I think we (as Americans) just need to do things that will throw off and maybe confuse the locals. Case in point, this morning I woke up and needed to go to the bazaar, it is only open twice a week and I didn’t feel like getting dressed for the day before I took a shower. It hasn’t been that cold so I put on a pair of shorts, shirt and my jacket and headed out the door. It wasn’t that cold, but Ukrainians seem to have been conditioned to bundle up as much as possible, for whatever reason (my apartment is almost too hot). There is also the superstition you can never have to windows open or a window and a door open at the same time. You will catch cold, and die, pretty much. The worse place for this rule is on packed marshrutkas (mini-buses) when it is boiling inside but people complain about any cracked window. But anyway, I got plenty of strange looks from people I don’t know, a couple of comments from people I know and one guy congratulating me on defying winter (I think). It is pretty obvious to me, and most other people, that I will never fit in completely so why not occasionally have some fun with it. Part of the Peace Corps experience is to bring a little of America here as well and expose them to different experiences and ideas. I can interpret that to mean wearing shorts in weather that may not be the most conducive for it. Although I will insist it wasn’t that bad. Helped me wake up. All in all, I’m not too worried about catching a cold from a cold day or a draft, germs scare me more so I will keep washing my hands, cooking my food the best I can and trying to get rest the best I can. Medical staff says we will tend to get sick here a bit more than usual anyway because of the extra stress exerted on us and a new environment. So, bring it on (those are some infamous last words now…).
So until next time, keep up with the comments and emails, they are always helpful and encouraging.
Friday, October 20, 2006
19.10
No central theme here, just a couple casual observations:
It is often the little things in life that can make one most happy, like heat. For example, life has been getting colder over the past couple days especially. There has been frost on the ground the past couple days, that means that winter is right around the corner and it is obviously getting colder outside (and inside). Yet in this place of centralized heating to the extreme, all I do is have some pipes running through my apartment that has what may be called a radiator attached to the pipes. It is basically some metal that extends from the pipes to better circulate the heat. I forget the proper technical word for it.
I had been sleeping comfortably until this change in the weather, when I started shivering under my covers each night. To fix that, I have been sleeping in my 15 degree Fahrenheit sleeping bag to keep warm. It worked, but it felt like I was almost camping in my own home, not that I’ll complain too much because at least I slept warmly. The rumor had been going around that the centralized heating would be turned on soon, sooner the better I thought.
So I woke up yesterday morning after a warm nights sleep in my cozy sleeping bag, breathing freezing cold air to hear pipes popping. Before you get alarmed, that is a good sound, which means that the pipes are warming up from the heating!
I am happy to inform you that while in my opinion they are a few days late, I do finally have heat in my apartment. I was just about ready to start sleeping in the bathroom in the bathtub, I did have hot water first and the presence of pipes warmed up the bathroom to a comfortable temperature. So at least I could either hide out in the bathroom or cook a lot in the kitchen, which warmed up things too. I didn’t think it wise to try and heat my entire apartment via the stove. So I am enjoying my newly warm(er) apartment and am praying I can sleep comfortably tonight. (note: I did sleep a lot better, amazing what a difference just a couple of degrees can make)
I am independent. I think most people who know me would probably attest to that. One thing that this country is helping teach me is a little humility, ok a lot and the idea of a bit more interdependence. I have that stubborn streak that I like to make my own way as much as possible and not need other people’s help. That doesn’t work in life in general I have learned time and again, the lesson doesn’t stick, and it especially doesn’t work in Ukraine.
When I first moved out on my own, my host family said to visit often and feel free to use their washing machine and borrow the vacuum cleaner when needed. They also have been very giving with their vegetables, I have healthy stocks of potatoes, carrots, onions, a couple beets and now cabbage too. They also supply me with my milk products when I ask. Probably part of the reason is I have the American mentality that people will often offer and then not truly expect people to take them up on it. In Ukraine people tend to be more honest about those things. I didn’t want to intrude on them so would rarely call them, letting them make the first contact, remember they live one floor below me. But I was expecting some guests and wanted to vacuum my place, had been thinking about buying one but they are expensive and I don’t have that much spare cash lying around so I hadn’t yet. Called them up and went down, ended up having dinner with them and they repeated their willingness to share with me what I needed. Including the washing machine, I had been doing it by hand. I think part of my problem is this conception that I would be imposing myself on them, while they don’t seem to see it the same way. So in the future I will take them up more often and use the washing machine and vacuum cleaner more often. And I will swallow a little more of my pride and realize a little bit more of the Peace Corps mission and learn a little more about life in general. No one can survive on their own, we are all interdependent. Still working on really putting it to heart.
No central theme here, just a couple casual observations:
It is often the little things in life that can make one most happy, like heat. For example, life has been getting colder over the past couple days especially. There has been frost on the ground the past couple days, that means that winter is right around the corner and it is obviously getting colder outside (and inside). Yet in this place of centralized heating to the extreme, all I do is have some pipes running through my apartment that has what may be called a radiator attached to the pipes. It is basically some metal that extends from the pipes to better circulate the heat. I forget the proper technical word for it.
I had been sleeping comfortably until this change in the weather, when I started shivering under my covers each night. To fix that, I have been sleeping in my 15 degree Fahrenheit sleeping bag to keep warm. It worked, but it felt like I was almost camping in my own home, not that I’ll complain too much because at least I slept warmly. The rumor had been going around that the centralized heating would be turned on soon, sooner the better I thought.
So I woke up yesterday morning after a warm nights sleep in my cozy sleeping bag, breathing freezing cold air to hear pipes popping. Before you get alarmed, that is a good sound, which means that the pipes are warming up from the heating!
I am happy to inform you that while in my opinion they are a few days late, I do finally have heat in my apartment. I was just about ready to start sleeping in the bathroom in the bathtub, I did have hot water first and the presence of pipes warmed up the bathroom to a comfortable temperature. So at least I could either hide out in the bathroom or cook a lot in the kitchen, which warmed up things too. I didn’t think it wise to try and heat my entire apartment via the stove. So I am enjoying my newly warm(er) apartment and am praying I can sleep comfortably tonight. (note: I did sleep a lot better, amazing what a difference just a couple of degrees can make)
I am independent. I think most people who know me would probably attest to that. One thing that this country is helping teach me is a little humility, ok a lot and the idea of a bit more interdependence. I have that stubborn streak that I like to make my own way as much as possible and not need other people’s help. That doesn’t work in life in general I have learned time and again, the lesson doesn’t stick, and it especially doesn’t work in Ukraine.
When I first moved out on my own, my host family said to visit often and feel free to use their washing machine and borrow the vacuum cleaner when needed. They also have been very giving with their vegetables, I have healthy stocks of potatoes, carrots, onions, a couple beets and now cabbage too. They also supply me with my milk products when I ask. Probably part of the reason is I have the American mentality that people will often offer and then not truly expect people to take them up on it. In Ukraine people tend to be more honest about those things. I didn’t want to intrude on them so would rarely call them, letting them make the first contact, remember they live one floor below me. But I was expecting some guests and wanted to vacuum my place, had been thinking about buying one but they are expensive and I don’t have that much spare cash lying around so I hadn’t yet. Called them up and went down, ended up having dinner with them and they repeated their willingness to share with me what I needed. Including the washing machine, I had been doing it by hand. I think part of my problem is this conception that I would be imposing myself on them, while they don’t seem to see it the same way. So in the future I will take them up more often and use the washing machine and vacuum cleaner more often. And I will swallow a little more of my pride and realize a little bit more of the Peace Corps mission and learn a little more about life in general. No one can survive on their own, we are all interdependent. Still working on really putting it to heart.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
16 October
Sometimes the things I think should be the easiest end up being by far the hardest. Take for instance the task I had today, which was to find a deck of cards. First of all, to complicate the task somewhere along the history of this country a game called Durok (fool) became popular and the game didn’t require any of the cards below six. Maybe other games are played this way as well, but many decks of cards come with the fewer number of cards. For my English club I was hoping to teach them some American cards games, all of the games I know require what I consider to be normal amount of cards at 52, not 36. I have also been told that the larger decks exist in the country. So I was hoping to purchase a couple of these decks to help with my class. Sounds easy enough, right?
Buying a deck of playing cards in the states is about as easy as buying a pack of gum. Most stores have cards of some sort or another. Not so here. I visited probably about eight different stores in the regional center looking for cards, asking at each store and then asking where I may be able to find them. Finally I got to a store that had cards, only to discover it was the smaller deck. At this point I didn’t care and was tired of people looking at me incredulously for asking to buy something as crazy as a deck of cards. I bought two decks and taught a class how to play B.S. Now don’t worry they never figured out what B.S. meant and ended up just saying true, or false. But they did enjoy the game. Took a little while to teach, but they did get the idea after a while.
As for other adventures, I had to go to the capitol Kyiv this past weekend for a meeting of the Environmental Working Group. It was my first meeting with that group and it was rather successful, after meeting the other members, there is promise for some future projects and am looking forward to trying to expand the reach of the group and adding more partnerships within Ukraine. I can’t say I bring any particular experience to the group, but want to look for ways I can be helpful. I’m always amazed at how much I can spend in Kyiv, so I try to keep away as much as I can, everything is just so frickin’ expensive.
So to reduce the amount of time I spent in the city itself I did a little tour and visited my first host family and met some of the new trainees from group 31, who are preparing to teach English. It is a different track from what I took as a Youth Developer, but it was refreshing to see where their language was and realize I was probably at that point too, not really understanding hardly a word of what people were saying and being completely in the dark a lot of the time. A conversation I had later with one of my cluster mates revolved around to how little we did know about our families during training. She (Kelsey) said she found out more about her family in the one day she went back and visited than the entire first three months with them. Can’t quite say the same about mine, they were a little easier to figure out, but they were happy to see me again.
My second trip took me to go visit Kelsey for the day. She allegedly lives about three hours from Kyiv in the adjacent oblast in a small town called Koruykivka, or something like that. My experience started with me catching my first marshrutka at 7 a.m. Sunday morning. I missed the bus in Chernihiv by five minutes and caught a later bus at about 9:45. This bus promptly (I use this word liberally because I don’t think the bus moved faster than about 20 mph) took me on a tour of a good chunk of the countryside and a trip I was told would take about two hours brought me to her town a little after one. Basically adding another hour on. I wasn’t aware I had caught a stone-age bus until it seemed like I wasn’t getting close. Kelsey then realized I was on a big, slow bus and not a fast new(er) marshrutka. I don’t know if any of them those fast ones were running to her town that day. Cause I caught a big slow bus back to Chernihiv at about 4:30 that afternoon that got me back there at about 7:30. My only consolation is I didn’t pay for either of those trips. My typical strategy is to sit down in a vehicle I want a ride in and pay the driver unless I am required to buy a ticket inside. The basic logic for this is drivers tend to be happier if you pay them directly and don’t pay someone else, I think it affects they cut, but am not confident of that. Anyway, I pay drivers, not someone sitting behind a desk when I can. The other thing is her oblast is full of a bunch of Russian speakers, which everyone says is almost the same as Ukrainian, but isn’t, so I was dealing with a new language and when I asked questions people just looked at me funny, sometimes giving me an answer. The bus driver just told me to sit down on the way there. I did. He never asked me for money so I just took in the extra long ride and got off at my destination. In my defense I use this same strategy whenever I go places locally and the driver always walks back and I pay him. It isn’t as if I am against paying. I was starting to get worried as 7:30 rolled around and I hadn’t gotten on a marshrutka to Kyiv yet. It is a popular destination on Sunday night I found out, all the students heading back. Luckily I clambered aboard a marshrutka about 7:40 and was in Kyiv a little before 10. My train left at 10:30. I got there in plenty of time.
Sleep, and eating, all kind of took a back seat the past weekend, but I survived and am here to recount the tale and for those of you who are worrying, I am eating and am healthy as always. Speaking of which, I’m hungry so I’m going to go get some food. Tune in later for more tales that hopefully won’t put you to sleep.
Sometimes the things I think should be the easiest end up being by far the hardest. Take for instance the task I had today, which was to find a deck of cards. First of all, to complicate the task somewhere along the history of this country a game called Durok (fool) became popular and the game didn’t require any of the cards below six. Maybe other games are played this way as well, but many decks of cards come with the fewer number of cards. For my English club I was hoping to teach them some American cards games, all of the games I know require what I consider to be normal amount of cards at 52, not 36. I have also been told that the larger decks exist in the country. So I was hoping to purchase a couple of these decks to help with my class. Sounds easy enough, right?
Buying a deck of playing cards in the states is about as easy as buying a pack of gum. Most stores have cards of some sort or another. Not so here. I visited probably about eight different stores in the regional center looking for cards, asking at each store and then asking where I may be able to find them. Finally I got to a store that had cards, only to discover it was the smaller deck. At this point I didn’t care and was tired of people looking at me incredulously for asking to buy something as crazy as a deck of cards. I bought two decks and taught a class how to play B.S. Now don’t worry they never figured out what B.S. meant and ended up just saying true, or false. But they did enjoy the game. Took a little while to teach, but they did get the idea after a while.
As for other adventures, I had to go to the capitol Kyiv this past weekend for a meeting of the Environmental Working Group. It was my first meeting with that group and it was rather successful, after meeting the other members, there is promise for some future projects and am looking forward to trying to expand the reach of the group and adding more partnerships within Ukraine. I can’t say I bring any particular experience to the group, but want to look for ways I can be helpful. I’m always amazed at how much I can spend in Kyiv, so I try to keep away as much as I can, everything is just so frickin’ expensive.
So to reduce the amount of time I spent in the city itself I did a little tour and visited my first host family and met some of the new trainees from group 31, who are preparing to teach English. It is a different track from what I took as a Youth Developer, but it was refreshing to see where their language was and realize I was probably at that point too, not really understanding hardly a word of what people were saying and being completely in the dark a lot of the time. A conversation I had later with one of my cluster mates revolved around to how little we did know about our families during training. She (Kelsey) said she found out more about her family in the one day she went back and visited than the entire first three months with them. Can’t quite say the same about mine, they were a little easier to figure out, but they were happy to see me again.
My second trip took me to go visit Kelsey for the day. She allegedly lives about three hours from Kyiv in the adjacent oblast in a small town called Koruykivka, or something like that. My experience started with me catching my first marshrutka at 7 a.m. Sunday morning. I missed the bus in Chernihiv by five minutes and caught a later bus at about 9:45. This bus promptly (I use this word liberally because I don’t think the bus moved faster than about 20 mph) took me on a tour of a good chunk of the countryside and a trip I was told would take about two hours brought me to her town a little after one. Basically adding another hour on. I wasn’t aware I had caught a stone-age bus until it seemed like I wasn’t getting close. Kelsey then realized I was on a big, slow bus and not a fast new(er) marshrutka. I don’t know if any of them those fast ones were running to her town that day. Cause I caught a big slow bus back to Chernihiv at about 4:30 that afternoon that got me back there at about 7:30. My only consolation is I didn’t pay for either of those trips. My typical strategy is to sit down in a vehicle I want a ride in and pay the driver unless I am required to buy a ticket inside. The basic logic for this is drivers tend to be happier if you pay them directly and don’t pay someone else, I think it affects they cut, but am not confident of that. Anyway, I pay drivers, not someone sitting behind a desk when I can. The other thing is her oblast is full of a bunch of Russian speakers, which everyone says is almost the same as Ukrainian, but isn’t, so I was dealing with a new language and when I asked questions people just looked at me funny, sometimes giving me an answer. The bus driver just told me to sit down on the way there. I did. He never asked me for money so I just took in the extra long ride and got off at my destination. In my defense I use this same strategy whenever I go places locally and the driver always walks back and I pay him. It isn’t as if I am against paying. I was starting to get worried as 7:30 rolled around and I hadn’t gotten on a marshrutka to Kyiv yet. It is a popular destination on Sunday night I found out, all the students heading back. Luckily I clambered aboard a marshrutka about 7:40 and was in Kyiv a little before 10. My train left at 10:30. I got there in plenty of time.
Sleep, and eating, all kind of took a back seat the past weekend, but I survived and am here to recount the tale and for those of you who are worrying, I am eating and am healthy as always. Speaking of which, I’m hungry so I’m going to go get some food. Tune in later for more tales that hopefully won’t put you to sleep.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
8 October
I’ve been told that I write too much by one girl who reads my blog, I guess the best I can do is apologize and say I will try to do better, although that can be rather hard to do. What I will try to do is split it up into more bite-size pieces so that you read a little bit at a time.
I need to back up quite a bit to talk about a couple of weekends ago that I haven’t had a chance to enter my own little bit of commentary about. The last weekend of September was Lviv’s 750 birthday, anniversary, whatever you feel like calling it. However you want to attach a label to it, it was a call for a gigantic celebration, massive concerts, fireworks, laser show, four million people in a city of one million. It was kind of a big deal. So I had plans to meet up with a couple of my Ukrainian friends,, one of them said she (Ira) thought I write too much, tough. So I met with them a little after noon, ran into a bunch of other PCVs where we hung out, drank beer and enjoyed a watching a heck-uv-a lot of people. Somehow as we headed to one concert we got separated, from the group, I split off with my Ukrainian friends and to make a long story short. I didn’t see any of the concerts, laser light show and only a nice red glow in the sky from the fireworks. One of the girls I was with came down with a really bad headache and that required talking our way into a dormitory where one of them lived and wasn’t supposed to host guests, drama enough with that and hide out there for the night until the shift changed. Because of that I didn’t exactly see a lot of the festivities Saturday night, although I did have a place to sleep better than the train station, sorry for those of you who did sleep there. But my oft-repeated line that night and my true belief is a person’s health is more important than any celebration, even if it only happens once every 750 years and has some of the biggest bands in Ukraine. Oh well, if I’m supposed to see them while I’m here, I’ll get another chance.
But I did get to see a lot more on Sunday as you can witness from my pictures posted on Flickr. What made the least sense was the enormous cake that we stumbled upon at about 10:30 a.m. or so and gathered wouldn’t be cut until 1 p.m. I don’t have that much patience and I don’t know if I want to try and push my way to the front to get any cake that’s been melting in the sun for that long anyway. Instead I went with Ira to check out a medieval celebration and ended up running into a Canadian and American tour group. Funny who you run into when you speak English in public. One thing I have found out is that part of a PCV’s mission is to inform others about what we do and more about the program in general, there is really too little information about what exactly we do and where we do it. It’s just part of the PR of the job, and I was ok with it. Talked to them for a really long time and I was late for a football game I wanted to make, which happened to be the final, they lost anyway. The funniest part of it was it looked as if I was leading a tour for a while because we were standing in the busiest walkway in the park we were in and the two of us were surrounded by people and I was talking a lot of English, which attracts a crowd anyway, but I probably had at least 15 people (probably more) at one point listening to what I said, whether they all understood me or not, I don’t know.
My week itself wasn’t all that enlightening, it was a typical work of journalism classes, English clubs and trying to be creative in coming up with ideas. The best of those came from an American music lesson where I went into different styles of music and introduced students to some artists they had never heard of before. Any one heard of Johnny Cash, Ray Charles? They hadn’t.
Most recently I found myself in a neighboring town of Sokal again. I had done helped a volunteer who lives there with a summer camp and a project stemming from the summer camp was a sports day that was held this past weekend. Since I had been involved in some obtuse way in the development of the project, they wanted me to be there and I was happy to help out. Side note: they also had developed a film to combat drugs and alcohol during the summer camp. I got a credit at the end of the film, awesome…
Ended up I didn’t need to do a whole lot at the event, it was basically a sports day with different activities, sack race, standing long jump and tug-of-war to name a few. The most I had to do was walk around and take pictures, I can manage that much. Check those out on my Flickr account and I’m sure that Liz will have her own account on her own site.
Ok, she doesn't but maybe she will.
I’ve been told that I write too much by one girl who reads my blog, I guess the best I can do is apologize and say I will try to do better, although that can be rather hard to do. What I will try to do is split it up into more bite-size pieces so that you read a little bit at a time.
I need to back up quite a bit to talk about a couple of weekends ago that I haven’t had a chance to enter my own little bit of commentary about. The last weekend of September was Lviv’s 750 birthday, anniversary, whatever you feel like calling it. However you want to attach a label to it, it was a call for a gigantic celebration, massive concerts, fireworks, laser show, four million people in a city of one million. It was kind of a big deal. So I had plans to meet up with a couple of my Ukrainian friends,, one of them said she (Ira) thought I write too much, tough. So I met with them a little after noon, ran into a bunch of other PCVs where we hung out, drank beer and enjoyed a watching a heck-uv-a lot of people. Somehow as we headed to one concert we got separated, from the group, I split off with my Ukrainian friends and to make a long story short. I didn’t see any of the concerts, laser light show and only a nice red glow in the sky from the fireworks. One of the girls I was with came down with a really bad headache and that required talking our way into a dormitory where one of them lived and wasn’t supposed to host guests, drama enough with that and hide out there for the night until the shift changed. Because of that I didn’t exactly see a lot of the festivities Saturday night, although I did have a place to sleep better than the train station, sorry for those of you who did sleep there. But my oft-repeated line that night and my true belief is a person’s health is more important than any celebration, even if it only happens once every 750 years and has some of the biggest bands in Ukraine. Oh well, if I’m supposed to see them while I’m here, I’ll get another chance.
But I did get to see a lot more on Sunday as you can witness from my pictures posted on Flickr. What made the least sense was the enormous cake that we stumbled upon at about 10:30 a.m. or so and gathered wouldn’t be cut until 1 p.m. I don’t have that much patience and I don’t know if I want to try and push my way to the front to get any cake that’s been melting in the sun for that long anyway. Instead I went with Ira to check out a medieval celebration and ended up running into a Canadian and American tour group. Funny who you run into when you speak English in public. One thing I have found out is that part of a PCV’s mission is to inform others about what we do and more about the program in general, there is really too little information about what exactly we do and where we do it. It’s just part of the PR of the job, and I was ok with it. Talked to them for a really long time and I was late for a football game I wanted to make, which happened to be the final, they lost anyway. The funniest part of it was it looked as if I was leading a tour for a while because we were standing in the busiest walkway in the park we were in and the two of us were surrounded by people and I was talking a lot of English, which attracts a crowd anyway, but I probably had at least 15 people (probably more) at one point listening to what I said, whether they all understood me or not, I don’t know.
My week itself wasn’t all that enlightening, it was a typical work of journalism classes, English clubs and trying to be creative in coming up with ideas. The best of those came from an American music lesson where I went into different styles of music and introduced students to some artists they had never heard of before. Any one heard of Johnny Cash, Ray Charles? They hadn’t.
Most recently I found myself in a neighboring town of Sokal again. I had done helped a volunteer who lives there with a summer camp and a project stemming from the summer camp was a sports day that was held this past weekend. Since I had been involved in some obtuse way in the development of the project, they wanted me to be there and I was happy to help out. Side note: they also had developed a film to combat drugs and alcohol during the summer camp. I got a credit at the end of the film, awesome…
Ended up I didn’t need to do a whole lot at the event, it was basically a sports day with different activities, sack race, standing long jump and tug-of-war to name a few. The most I had to do was walk around and take pictures, I can manage that much. Check those out on my Flickr account and I’m sure that Liz will have her own account on her own site.
Ok, she doesn't but maybe she will.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Ok, it's a little old, but I haven't had time to write a new one or post this earlier. Hopefully a new one will be out in a few days.
28, September
As what seems like a usual occurrence, I am finding myself trying to catch up on my blog after an eventful week. Days can often feel as though they crawl by, but events seem to pile up. I guess I should start where I left off with a planned trip down through Muckachevo and visiting a fellow volunteer Robert in Irshava. My original plan was to get out of my site Friday afternoon, get a marshrutka in Lviv and be there that evening. Only problem I didn’t take full respect of was that there is about five or six different bus stations in Lviv and I hadn’t been to the one that his left from. To make a long story short, I ended up seeing three different stations, none of them what would give me a straight trip, it got late and I ended up going home and trying again on Saturday. Saturday didn’t end up a whole lot better and I took a marshrutka part of the way to a second town and waited for another bus to take me the rest of the way. The roundabout way ended up taking me a total of almost 12 hours to get to his site and left me exhausted. I took the train back and had a travel time of about six hours.
The most memorable part of the trip, other than riding a lot of marshrutkas around Lviv and standing around bus stations was entering into the Zacarpatska Oblast. They have what you call a checkpoint there where all people have their documents checked. As per the norm, the documents that Peace Corps instructs us to carry around get raised eyebrows and in this case got me asked to follow a nice young army boy to talk to his supervisor cause I didn’t have the normal passport. After a few moments and a rather quickly beating heart of mine the supervisor handed my documents back to me and waved me away. Probably I wasn't worth his dealing with. But I got plenty of strange looks from other passengers on the bus when I re-boarded. Driver asked if that was all and we took off. It was smooth sailing after that.
One remark I can make right off is the people in that Oblast have one of the best placements in this country, it was just gorgeous there, mountains, streams, rivers, wow. I’m jealous of him and I like my site, although the coal power plant isn’t much of a tourist attraction. My time there was short, we hung out, caught up a bit and before I knew it I was back on my way to Muckachevo the next day. Just to make things interesting, we found out the only marshrutka straight to Lviv from his site left at about 7 that morning, I didn’t wake up until 9, nor did we bother to check. So I headed back to the aforementioned city and in the process met a girl who was my guide for the day, Anya. She made sure I had my train ticket (I took a train back, it was just as fast and less hassle) and even ended up in church, first time in this country. Back-story on her was Rob and I were talking in the bus station, she overheard us speaking English, and inquired about it, she has been studying English for about six months, she said, and was eager to talk more. So we struck up a quick friendship. She had been learning English from an American missionary from the Reformed Church, I am not sure about their particular doctrine, but she was eager for me to come to church, even for a little bit, and I confess to being interested in meeting the missionaries. A lot of the service was in Russian from what I could understand, at least the song lyrics were, but I had to boogie out early and catch a cab back to the train station and end up crashing at another volunteer’s place because I didn’t get into Lviv until late. So there is a very brief and cursory glance at that weekend. Other stories I’m sure have been left out, such as an extended explanation of Rob, myself and another volunteer at a disco and talking to school students about studying music in the U.S. But I did warn that plenty has happened and I want to give you the best overall view possible.
Monday had me returning by the first marshrutka home and then preparing for English clubs the same day and trying to wipe the sleep out of my eyes the best I could. Nothing to comment on too much here except I started held a grand total of six different clubs in English this week in two different locations. They met different levels of success, with me still trying to find a balance in one of the clubs to manage the classroom most efficiently and another that they were asking for more. A group of really little kids made cute cards for their favorite teacher, even though they had just met me, somehow they ended up in my box of markers, it was sweet. Journalism club showed more progress and there is a deadline set for publication of the first paper of this year. I had my first pangs of missing writing and running around as a journalist today, for all of the pains, I did enjoy being in the mix of news and running around, it just got to be too much in the job I had. But it is fun getting back to the basics of journalism again.
This Saturday will be Lviv’s 750 birthday so I will plan to be there for that and take pictures if I remember, I forgot to take them when I was down south visiting. I also won’t get a chance to post this before hand so I will have this and probably the post about the anniversary at the same time. Meaning you probably already read the post about that and are just getting to this now. Thank you to those who have sent me slang words, all of them have been helpful and keep them coming.
28, September
As what seems like a usual occurrence, I am finding myself trying to catch up on my blog after an eventful week. Days can often feel as though they crawl by, but events seem to pile up. I guess I should start where I left off with a planned trip down through Muckachevo and visiting a fellow volunteer Robert in Irshava. My original plan was to get out of my site Friday afternoon, get a marshrutka in Lviv and be there that evening. Only problem I didn’t take full respect of was that there is about five or six different bus stations in Lviv and I hadn’t been to the one that his left from. To make a long story short, I ended up seeing three different stations, none of them what would give me a straight trip, it got late and I ended up going home and trying again on Saturday. Saturday didn’t end up a whole lot better and I took a marshrutka part of the way to a second town and waited for another bus to take me the rest of the way. The roundabout way ended up taking me a total of almost 12 hours to get to his site and left me exhausted. I took the train back and had a travel time of about six hours.
The most memorable part of the trip, other than riding a lot of marshrutkas around Lviv and standing around bus stations was entering into the Zacarpatska Oblast. They have what you call a checkpoint there where all people have their documents checked. As per the norm, the documents that Peace Corps instructs us to carry around get raised eyebrows and in this case got me asked to follow a nice young army boy to talk to his supervisor cause I didn’t have the normal passport. After a few moments and a rather quickly beating heart of mine the supervisor handed my documents back to me and waved me away. Probably I wasn't worth his dealing with. But I got plenty of strange looks from other passengers on the bus when I re-boarded. Driver asked if that was all and we took off. It was smooth sailing after that.
One remark I can make right off is the people in that Oblast have one of the best placements in this country, it was just gorgeous there, mountains, streams, rivers, wow. I’m jealous of him and I like my site, although the coal power plant isn’t much of a tourist attraction. My time there was short, we hung out, caught up a bit and before I knew it I was back on my way to Muckachevo the next day. Just to make things interesting, we found out the only marshrutka straight to Lviv from his site left at about 7 that morning, I didn’t wake up until 9, nor did we bother to check. So I headed back to the aforementioned city and in the process met a girl who was my guide for the day, Anya. She made sure I had my train ticket (I took a train back, it was just as fast and less hassle) and even ended up in church, first time in this country. Back-story on her was Rob and I were talking in the bus station, she overheard us speaking English, and inquired about it, she has been studying English for about six months, she said, and was eager to talk more. So we struck up a quick friendship. She had been learning English from an American missionary from the Reformed Church, I am not sure about their particular doctrine, but she was eager for me to come to church, even for a little bit, and I confess to being interested in meeting the missionaries. A lot of the service was in Russian from what I could understand, at least the song lyrics were, but I had to boogie out early and catch a cab back to the train station and end up crashing at another volunteer’s place because I didn’t get into Lviv until late. So there is a very brief and cursory glance at that weekend. Other stories I’m sure have been left out, such as an extended explanation of Rob, myself and another volunteer at a disco and talking to school students about studying music in the U.S. But I did warn that plenty has happened and I want to give you the best overall view possible.
Monday had me returning by the first marshrutka home and then preparing for English clubs the same day and trying to wipe the sleep out of my eyes the best I could. Nothing to comment on too much here except I started held a grand total of six different clubs in English this week in two different locations. They met different levels of success, with me still trying to find a balance in one of the clubs to manage the classroom most efficiently and another that they were asking for more. A group of really little kids made cute cards for their favorite teacher, even though they had just met me, somehow they ended up in my box of markers, it was sweet. Journalism club showed more progress and there is a deadline set for publication of the first paper of this year. I had my first pangs of missing writing and running around as a journalist today, for all of the pains, I did enjoy being in the mix of news and running around, it just got to be too much in the job I had. But it is fun getting back to the basics of journalism again.
This Saturday will be Lviv’s 750 birthday so I will plan to be there for that and take pictures if I remember, I forgot to take them when I was down south visiting. I also won’t get a chance to post this before hand so I will have this and probably the post about the anniversary at the same time. Meaning you probably already read the post about that and are just getting to this now. Thank you to those who have sent me slang words, all of them have been helpful and keep them coming.
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