quick note, I have new photos up on flickr....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/casteel

I will get more on later.

Training is basically over and the group is getting ready to take off this evening out of Dulles on the flight to Frankfurt and on to Kiev.

This group of about 67 people is coming from a wide range of backgrounds so I'm looking forward to what impacts we may be able to change. At the moment, the full impact of what I'm facing hasn't fully sunk in yet. The job description of what I'll be doing is still just as vague, but it should definitely be interesting. My biggest fear is still the strange language I'll be facing, but I'm feeling just slightly more comfortable about it.

One of the more interesting parts was having the director of Peace Corps come in front of the trainees and talked. From what I understand, he doesn't speak to every group, so that was kind of cool.

Again, I'm not sure exactly when I'll be able to post again on here, so best of luck to all of you and I'll be updating this again as soon as possible. Take care and the next time I'm on here I'll be in Ukraine.

As always emails are great and thank you for all the support.

I feel bad that I haven't updated this sooner. My full intention was to updated after I quit work. That was on the third of this month. It's now the 22, so I am a little tardy. In my defense, I came down with a nasty bout of the flu on my last day of work, completely ruining plans for celebrating the occasion and ended up putting me basically flat on my back until about five days later. From there, I flew out to visit Tazeem, and then up to Spokane to say "goodbye" to the old college friends. With all the traveling, I feel as if I'm way behind on all of my preparations for leaving, which happens to be this Sunday, Feb. 26.

One of my biggest fears right now is I feel as if I haven't spent enough time studying the language I'll soon need to be speaking to communicate. Several links with information on the Ukrainian language were emailed to me a while back and I've hardly been able to scratch the surface. With any luck, I can get some of that down before I leave, squeezing it into finishing packing up my apartment and moving stuff back home, and also packing to ultimately leave. I'm looking forward to the travel itself, that's always exciting and I look forward to the new places I get to see. From the information I have, I will not be able to contact anybody when I first arrive in Ukraine, the trainees will be in an area on the outskirts of Kiev, or Kyyiv, I've seen it spelled both ways. Basically once I arrive there I'll be incommunicado for the first little bit. With any luck, an internet cafe or at least connection will become apparent and I will at least be able to send out a quick message.

I'll hope to get at least one more post up before I leave, but I cannot make any promises. So feel free to contact my via email or my mobile phone, which I'll have until I leave, the number, in case you lost it is: 509-954-4571.

I have a little more information as it trickles in. For one, I have an address mail can be sent to during my three month training period in Kyiv.

Ezra Casteel, PCT
c/o Peace Corps/Ukraine
PO Box 298
01030
Kyiv, Ukraine

Mail is not exceptionally fast, according to the information, so please allow plenty of time for me to receive letters and more time still to reply to them. I have little idea what exactly I'll be dealing with over there. For packages (always good) I guess both UPS and DHL deliver there, maybe FedEx too, but they weren't listed. But the Peace Corps recommends a service called MEEST, the website is www.meest.net, but I did not find it very intuitive.
For phone service, they recommend taking some time to familiarize myself with it before I promise anybody a call, so don't expect to hear from me immediately. Internet access is similar, I'm hoping to have some basic services for the Internet and with any luck, that may be something I work on to improve at my site, I'm taking some equipment with me, so we'll see what happens with that. But when I do get my computer up and running, (I am planning on taking it with me) I'll try to contact people and update this site with what I have. With any luck I will be posting photos as well. I know there are not any yet, but let's be honest, pictures of the United States isn't why you're reading this.

I will not know exactly where they want me in Ukraine until I arrive, so once I found that out, I'll pass that on as well. I look forward to hearing from everyone, and best wishes to you all.

So here's the official information as I have been informed. After originally finding out that there should be something in the mail, I received an email today from a placement assistant that while the invitation had been dated in this last week, but it would be mailed out today. Thankfully he did include some information about where and what I will be doing. The location will be somewhere in Ukraine. The specific town or city was not included, but I wonder if that hasn't even been decided yet. I will be working in a community development position working in a school or non-governmental organization with kids. Some of the focus areas will be possibly information technology, envinronmental protections, etc. I'm not going over there to just be an educated person, the information said. Those people exist already, so what they will most likely want me to do is help them integrate into the world economy better.

For the first little bit, I will be living with a host family, which will help my language, with an option to maybe stay there later or move into my own place. Just have to wait and see how that goes.

For the all-important question. My assignment starts Feb. 28, with me departing the country March 3. It's coming up fast and it is still sinking in that this is becoming a reality. There's still so much to do in order to prepare. I'll try to update this more later about more specifics as I find out. Until then, feel free to write or call.

Newsflash!

There has been another flurry of activity around my application status. After receiving a phone call from my placement officer, who asked me a several followup questions on Dec. 30, I was set on a buzz when he mentioned I should be hearing something within the next week to 10 days regarding my potential placement. That got me excited, but he refused to elaborate too much about specifics of where I would be going. Mainly saying the job would be in community development working with youth in what sounds like a non-traditional job. Unlike some volunteers who teach English on a regular schedule, this is sounding like it will be a more hands-on, on-call type of thing. That by itself is a little intimidating, but it is also exciting.

But the big news was when I checked my email the next day, Dec. 31, which also happened to be my birthday, there was a notification that my status had changed. With more than a little bit of curiosity, I logged onto the site while I was talking to a buddy of mine from high school to discover that an invitation had been mailed to me the day before. A rather surprising birthday present, but also an exciting one. I haven't been able to find out what country they have lined up for me or a departure date online. I'm guessing that type of information would be forthcoming in the information packet when I'll have to make a final decision if I want to go or not. Although there is little chance I'll be turning down any offer.

Unfortunately I'm unable to share any details or specifics, but I did want to inform everyone of this rather exciting development. And when I find out more, I'll be sure to share!

This whole process is starting to get expensive and at sometimes it seems almost ridiculous. Today I had a tooth filled. The odd thing about it is my dentist did not want to do it and the tooth was perfectly healthy. I had originally had some x-rays taken of my entire mouth, those were shipped back to Washington D.C. where somebody looked at them and decided I needed two fillings. When this information came in, my dentist took a second look at my mouth, decided he would absolutely refuse to fill one of the teeth and would relent on the other, but not without some rather harsh words for the "bureaucrat" or "janitor" who made the call I needed fillings. I guess there was some minor imperfections with those teeth the Peace Corps didn't like.

So what it basically came down to was I had a perfectly good tooth drilled out and filled, not a great way to start my week out, but hopefully this will placate the guys over in the halls of Peace Corps so they let me keep my other tooth. My dentist, bless his heart, said he is going to write a letter explaining what he found and his reasons for only filling one. Only I'll have to wait a couple days on that, he was too pissed off over having to drill out a good tooth to do it on the spot. At least it is good to know I have people like that looking out for me.

And the kicker to all of it is that this work has to come out of my pocket, the guy without any insurance, along with all the other bills I've racked up getting the physical and eye exam and original dental exam. So this whole thing is getting rather heavy on my pocketbook and the reimbursement is a mere pittance. So I'm hoping there will be not many more expenses and I do actually get assigned to go somewhere. The worst would be if I get this filling and there doesn't even end up being a place to send me, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

That's the news for now, so I'm hoping to hear more soon. Thanks for the time. And I apologize for not posting more. I'll try to do better in the future.