I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Chicago. But I am too worn out to fill in the blanks, so expect it in the future. Enjoy what is here. I'll get more down later.
16 December
So while that name day is over it is high time for the next holiday this month, on the 18th-19th. Basically the Ukrainian St. Nicholas Day for those of you who celebrate it in the states. Otherwise commonly known as Santa Claus in many circles. The basic idea surrounding it is as I understand is you write a letter to St. Michael of what presents you want and it is a gift giving day. Christmas day itself in this country is Jan. 7 (which happens to be the day I get back in country) and is mostly a religious holiday and a day when people visit one another, other holidays surrounding it include the gift-giving aspect found in American Christmas. Like I said, Ukrainians just like to party!
This past Thursday I went with students from the eighth form to watch a play and look at a display of wax people. My Ukrainian language tutor invited me. While the wax museum was mildly interesting, it was the play I found more interesting, although I won’t dare say I understood all of it. From what I understood, it was a group from the Ivano Frankisk Oblast where the play was also set. Much of the language was also an older dialect familiar to the area, which probably contributed to the fact I wasn’t following it all, plus the fact a professional photographer with a really nice camera was there taking pictures, I was jealous.
The play centered around what I assumed was a small village and followed them as they celebrated several different celebrations, including Christmas, Easter and a marriage. The parts Although I didn’t always understand all of the language, it was well acted and I could follow along pretty well from just the actions. It was a really enjoyable night and I will put some photos I took on my Flickr site. I was seated in the front row plus (explanation: there was a front row of regular seats and then a row of chairs in front of that. I was seated in that row of chairs with other students, which meant I got a REAL good view of what was going on. But by the end of the night my head had about enough of Ukrainian and was ready for bed. Made for a long day.
But this past Friday found me in the old town of Zhovka where fellow PCV Shelley Swendiman works and was helping host an English Week capped with an English day. Four English speaking countries and Ukraine were presented during an “summit” for these different countries to explain a little about their cultures. Five of us volunteers made the trip to help her out and basically be the American guests for the summit. It’s always fun to see how Ukrainians view other cultures from their studies and is enlightening to me as well since I am sure we have some of the same stereotypes about other cultures that we try to study, but don’t always have a full idea of what is going on. One example was the American group dressed up in “cowboy” outfits that wouldn’t be very practical if they were actually out on the range. But it is how they view American culture, for better or worse, and put a lot of work into their presentation. Overall it was an interesting night and I learned more about other countries I hadn’t know very well before and other things I did. For instance Canada has a large automobile industry, I guess. But the kids seemed to have a good time at it and enjoyed having the Americans there. The highlight of the night was the Canada group’s choice of song. Each group had to perform a song from their country. Canada chose, wait for it, Celine Dione “My Heart Will Go On” and chose a guy to be the lead singer. Yes, a guy dressed up in a wig, short skirt and balloon boobs. It was extremely disturbing and hysterical at the same time. Oh, the performance was entirely performed by candlelight as well. Let’s just say it left all of us in shock, and awe of the guy who had guts to do that. He knew the words too. Team America’s representation of Britney Spears had nothing on him.
One of the places I have had the hardest time really adjusting is the lack of people my own age to hang out with in my own town. That is slowly adjusting as I’m meeting more people my own age and had the luck of meeting one guy early on in my service here playing basketball, but didn’t see for a while. A few weeks ago, maybe a month ago I ran into him again and he expressed an interest in playing again, we had stopped playing over the summer. I said I would try to find a place to play, but wasn’t having much luck so I guess he took matters into his own hands and called me saying he had arranged for the local professional school’s gym so we played last week and this week. It has also allowed me to meet about a half dozen other guys who are about my own age at least in that environment, haven’t really interacted much with them outside the gymnasium, but maybe that will happen later. Any way I look at it, it is an improvement and even fits into my role as a youth developer as far as I can tell. Just part of my 24 hour work day.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
(Note: I posted a partial packing list for potential Peace Corps Youth Development Volunteers in Ukraine in my supplemental materials section)
A couple unrelated stories for you:
I often say every day holds some new lesson for me in this country, whether it be cultural, professional or personal. Today one of those lessons was cultural, it is not entirely uncommon sight to see a funeral procession, but until today it had always been at a distance. I have always observed a lot of respect for the dead, cars will pull over and stop if they are going the opposite direction and we even stopped a football (soccer) game when one passed by at a distance. But today was the first day I was faced with one head on. Without a clue what exactly to do, I fell behind a woman who had also just gotten off a marshrutka. I observed her stop as the procession reached her.
(Quick description of a funeral procession – a banner bearer leads the procession while what I assume is the families follows immediately after accompanied by a priest. The coffin is what I have always seen to be an extremely old flatbed truck for viewing. The truck is followed by more mourners. I also assume that they all go from the church to the cemetery. All the assumptions are because I haven’t actually attended a funeral yet.)
She stood still until after the truck passed her by and started walking again. As she walked by me she told me to start walking again as well. With that I had my new lesson on how to hand a funeral procession I am not in.
Name Days
I swear it seems like there are constantly new holidays in this country, people laughed at me when I said it felt like every day is a holiday, but I swear every week must have some new holiday or celebration. There are what in English is called name days, Today is Andriy. Not sure of the exact origins of the celebrations, but most everyone in this country has names originating from the Bible (if they don’t, they’re weird) and holidays have been put aside to celebrate as far as I can tell, almost every name people are called here. It generally involves drinking and congratulating those with the same name as the day. For whatever reason, I noticed this one more; maybe because there is a little witchcraft thrown in I didn’t see in other ones. I had heard the holiday would be the next day but didn’t understand why girls were literally running around the school with pieces of paper and signatures on it. Still not sure of the exact reasons, but it has something to do with who their future husband will be. It looked close to chaos to me, plus boys seemed to be trying to steal these papers, for whatever reason that meant. I also heard of another bit of magic of throwing boots through doors and if it landed a certain way it would mean you were bound to get married that year. All of these were what girls did, don’t know if there is anything particular boys do on this day.
What I find funny, or at least interesting is how this country has in its own way combined old pagan traditions with the newer Christian traditions, yet still keeping them traditional and not completely overrun with commercialism. I say that because I know the west has fused pagan and Christian ideas as well, example, Christmas. But I love to see the two parts go together because there are the old traditions, jumping over fires last summer for Ivana Kampala and these superstitions of throwing boots. Funnily enough, they tend to include marriage in their plans.
A couple unrelated stories for you:
I often say every day holds some new lesson for me in this country, whether it be cultural, professional or personal. Today one of those lessons was cultural, it is not entirely uncommon sight to see a funeral procession, but until today it had always been at a distance. I have always observed a lot of respect for the dead, cars will pull over and stop if they are going the opposite direction and we even stopped a football (soccer) game when one passed by at a distance. But today was the first day I was faced with one head on. Without a clue what exactly to do, I fell behind a woman who had also just gotten off a marshrutka. I observed her stop as the procession reached her.
(Quick description of a funeral procession – a banner bearer leads the procession while what I assume is the families follows immediately after accompanied by a priest. The coffin is what I have always seen to be an extremely old flatbed truck for viewing. The truck is followed by more mourners. I also assume that they all go from the church to the cemetery. All the assumptions are because I haven’t actually attended a funeral yet.)
She stood still until after the truck passed her by and started walking again. As she walked by me she told me to start walking again as well. With that I had my new lesson on how to hand a funeral procession I am not in.
Name Days
I swear it seems like there are constantly new holidays in this country, people laughed at me when I said it felt like every day is a holiday, but I swear every week must have some new holiday or celebration. There are what in English is called name days, Today is Andriy. Not sure of the exact origins of the celebrations, but most everyone in this country has names originating from the Bible (if they don’t, they’re weird) and holidays have been put aside to celebrate as far as I can tell, almost every name people are called here. It generally involves drinking and congratulating those with the same name as the day. For whatever reason, I noticed this one more; maybe because there is a little witchcraft thrown in I didn’t see in other ones. I had heard the holiday would be the next day but didn’t understand why girls were literally running around the school with pieces of paper and signatures on it. Still not sure of the exact reasons, but it has something to do with who their future husband will be. It looked close to chaos to me, plus boys seemed to be trying to steal these papers, for whatever reason that meant. I also heard of another bit of magic of throwing boots through doors and if it landed a certain way it would mean you were bound to get married that year. All of these were what girls did, don’t know if there is anything particular boys do on this day.
What I find funny, or at least interesting is how this country has in its own way combined old pagan traditions with the newer Christian traditions, yet still keeping them traditional and not completely overrun with commercialism. I say that because I know the west has fused pagan and Christian ideas as well, example, Christmas. But I love to see the two parts go together because there are the old traditions, jumping over fires last summer for Ivana Kampala and these superstitions of throwing boots. Funnily enough, they tend to include marriage in their plans.
Friday, December 08, 2006
In religion and teaching I have never been a fan of preaching, sitting in front of the class or congregation and talking or sitting I the class and congregation and just listening. But at the same time in my work here I wonder if I am having any impact at all, or whether that impact is something I may just never be able to witness personally. In that same vein, is preaching more effective or just shows its results more quickly, whether they are lasting or not.
This past week has absolutely flown by and I don’t exactly know where it went, I know that I feel as if I have been busy, but maybe I’m being too impatient in wanting to see some sort of result from my work. That probably comes at least partially from working at a newspaper and being able to see my work in print every week. Or even when I was working in a warehouse where I could witness the boxes I packed multiple times every day. Teaching and development is a different beast I’m still figuring out how much I like or not. Results may be more profound but I may never actually see those results.
When I joined the Peace Corps, I tried to keep the mindset that if I was able to change one person’s life for the better I could count my service a success. Along the way, my expectations seemed to have inflated. I still try to convince myself of the goal of helping just one person, while at the same time trying to involve myself in as many people’s lives as I can. Is it because I am feeling insignificant, am I applying a scattergun philosophy to my original idea because I don’t know who I may end up influencing, or is this simply how working is ending up for me? Maybe somewhere along the way I got the crazy idea from looking at super volunteers and witnessing what wonderful projects other people were accomplishing I made the fatal mistake of trying to measure my success against other peoples’. I can’t become complacent in the work I’m doing, but at the same time, how far should I push myself and when are the standards too high, or not high enough?
In maybe a partially related subject, but not entirely, a volunteer who recently completed her service, she’s been referenced before in my blog, Liz Baltaro, had her grandmother (she’s 82 and came to Ukraine) visit her in the last two weeks of her service. I had the honor of being able to meet the genuinely interesting woman. She had been to Kyiv once before when it was still communist along with being a lot of other places in world, like I said, an amazing woman. But what she did help me do was start to crystallize what I may be interested in doing after service. I’m still holding that my experiences here will help mold what my future will hold, but suggestions she had, such as the Foreign Service rung true with previous ideas I had held, and helped with some positive reinforcement. So who knows exactly where I will end up at the end of these two years and doing what, but I’m sure she will have an impact on it even if it is just from the one meeting.
In completely unrelated news, in case you hadn’t heard, I will be making a trip back to the U.S. this month into early next month. I have tickets into Portland on the 22nd and back to Ukraine on the 6th of January. The main reason being Aaron Wirick is getting married. I told him to wait until I got back, but I guess he couldn’t wait, didn’t listen or just knew I would come back anyway (smiling yet Aaron?). So I will be in California from Dec 26 to Dec 31 for the wedding and the rest of the time in Oregon. What exactly I will be doing in Oregon is still up in the air, but if you’re around, I’d love to meet up with you. I want to celebrate well on my birthday too; it’s on Dec. 31, in case you forgot. So drop me an email, comment or call me at home if you know that number, I have a mobile phone in Ukraine, but will go back to no phone in the states, strange… So until next time, take care.
This past week has absolutely flown by and I don’t exactly know where it went, I know that I feel as if I have been busy, but maybe I’m being too impatient in wanting to see some sort of result from my work. That probably comes at least partially from working at a newspaper and being able to see my work in print every week. Or even when I was working in a warehouse where I could witness the boxes I packed multiple times every day. Teaching and development is a different beast I’m still figuring out how much I like or not. Results may be more profound but I may never actually see those results.
When I joined the Peace Corps, I tried to keep the mindset that if I was able to change one person’s life for the better I could count my service a success. Along the way, my expectations seemed to have inflated. I still try to convince myself of the goal of helping just one person, while at the same time trying to involve myself in as many people’s lives as I can. Is it because I am feeling insignificant, am I applying a scattergun philosophy to my original idea because I don’t know who I may end up influencing, or is this simply how working is ending up for me? Maybe somewhere along the way I got the crazy idea from looking at super volunteers and witnessing what wonderful projects other people were accomplishing I made the fatal mistake of trying to measure my success against other peoples’. I can’t become complacent in the work I’m doing, but at the same time, how far should I push myself and when are the standards too high, or not high enough?
In maybe a partially related subject, but not entirely, a volunteer who recently completed her service, she’s been referenced before in my blog, Liz Baltaro, had her grandmother (she’s 82 and came to Ukraine) visit her in the last two weeks of her service. I had the honor of being able to meet the genuinely interesting woman. She had been to Kyiv once before when it was still communist along with being a lot of other places in world, like I said, an amazing woman. But what she did help me do was start to crystallize what I may be interested in doing after service. I’m still holding that my experiences here will help mold what my future will hold, but suggestions she had, such as the Foreign Service rung true with previous ideas I had held, and helped with some positive reinforcement. So who knows exactly where I will end up at the end of these two years and doing what, but I’m sure she will have an impact on it even if it is just from the one meeting.
In completely unrelated news, in case you hadn’t heard, I will be making a trip back to the U.S. this month into early next month. I have tickets into Portland on the 22nd and back to Ukraine on the 6th of January. The main reason being Aaron Wirick is getting married. I told him to wait until I got back, but I guess he couldn’t wait, didn’t listen or just knew I would come back anyway (smiling yet Aaron?). So I will be in California from Dec 26 to Dec 31 for the wedding and the rest of the time in Oregon. What exactly I will be doing in Oregon is still up in the air, but if you’re around, I’d love to meet up with you. I want to celebrate well on my birthday too; it’s on Dec. 31, in case you forgot. So drop me an email, comment or call me at home if you know that number, I have a mobile phone in Ukraine, but will go back to no phone in the states, strange… So until next time, take care.
Friday, December 01, 2006
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.
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.
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.
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