I started writing this a few days ago and didn’t get around to finishing it. Things have been busy, looking back over it, I don’t have any real odd or exciting stories to tell, more just some day-in-the-life stories that may be of interest to you. My big project I’m working on is coming along, preparing for a grant I’m hoping to get that will allow us to plant a lot of trees here in Dobrotvir. I have had meetings with students who are helping, several with the mayor and just had a meeting yesterday with a professor at a local forestry university in Lviv. There are times I feel as if it is almost getting out of my hands and taking on a life of its own, so I sure hope that it all works out and it happens, but it will be good for everyone involved to get better connected with each other and see what kind of work can be done in cooperation and compiling resources. If it happens, that is what I will view as my biggest success, not just the planting of trees in my town. So enjoy the collection of stories and as always, feel free to drop me an, email comment or sms through the Internet.
The past few weeks has been seen a flurry of activity here although at times I still have the feeling things don’t always move as fast as I like. A bit of older news I don’t know if I made real public is the fact that I now have Internet in my apartment. The installation process was a little interesting, since it involved running some network cable from my host family’s balcony where a router is stationed to my apartment and through my window. This involved coaxing the wire from the roof in order to get it to my apartment and didn’t end up being as difficult as one might expect. While it is run through a router I have my own account and will pay an amount each month, they (meaning someone) just haven’t decided exactly how much yet that amount will be. My Internet is allegedly unlimited, however. So you may see me online more often on MSN Messenger, AIM and Gmail, if you want to get in touch with me, leave me a comment or send me an email and I’ll forward that contact info to you.
It is already the 25th here, but since time just seems to always move so fast when it involves more than one day, Valentine’s Day wasn’t that long ago. That day found me running around getting the most recent edition of the student newspaper edited and printed that day so the students would be able to sell their Valentine’s Edition on Valentine’s Day. Later in the day I attended an English language program by younger students. It was a lot of fun to see how excited this country seems to get over Valentine’s Day; do Americans get this excited on Valentine’s Day? One thing that I noticed along with some other volunteers is it seemed as if everyone kind of got into the celebration of it and it wasn’t restricted quite as much to those who are in relationships. Students in sixth and seventh forms seemed just as excited. It was curious.
In case you hadn’t heard, Peace Corps Volunteers can occasionally be minor celebrities if they are in a small town. I am in a small town and had the opportunity to be a minor celebrity judge. Of a beauty contest. At the school. The contestants were in ninth or tenth grade. It was a little weird. It was funny. I had a good time, half of it joking with the other teacher/judges and when it came time to choose who should get which places what I said didn’t matter. I fought hard for one particular girl to be second; there wasn’t a complaint about who should be first. It didn’t matter what I said, although the next day talking to teachers they agreed with me. That felt like a little bit of satisfaction. So yes, here you have it; I was on the panel of judges to decide who would be “Miss School.” Next stop, a minor celebrity judge on Miss America or American Idol.
I also caught an act of opera last Sunday. Mind you it was in Russian and while there is similarities between Russian and Ukrainian and I can understand it a little bit sometimes, I was hopelessly lost when they start singing Russian in operatic style. I don’t know if I would be able to understand English all that well if they sang it in operatic style. I did read the program, in Ukrainian so I had a basic idea but all the dialogue didn’t happen. But, I saw the show with Ira and as she is Ukrainian and speaks Russian fluently, she did explain some of the jokes throughout the opera. The music was nice however. But about halfway through the second act we saw I started to get these images of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and instead of trying to actually listen to what they were saying was inserting my own dialogue. It was much funnier than what they were actually saying, I think, but I probably would have better paid attention. Oh well. It was fun.
After hearing stories of how freaking cold it was last winter, it was cold, this winter has been incredibly mild. There was some snow this week and it finally seemed to get around to seeming kind of cold, but I have yet really needed to pull out my warmest stuff or really layer up. I think it was kind of a bust and now it is time to start looking forward to the warm weather of summer.
Probably the last thing you’ll see if you take a gander at my photos is our celebration of Mardi Gras Ukrainian style. Another volunteer here is from New Orleans so we had authentic foods and had a generally good time. Now it is Lent or “Pict” is the best I can transliterate it. To be honest, haven’t seen a real big change in people’s attitudes, but there is supposed to be less partying, and I have noticed at least that much.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Thursday, February 08, 2007
First of all, I need to make a clarification on my last post. I am, in-fact, an adult and can fully decide whether I wear a hat and am able take care of myself adequately. I at least haven’t died after more than 26 years; I am in fact quite healthy. The last post was meant tongue-in-cheek and wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously. The last thing I want to do is make people worry about my well-being. Ira has been an invaluable help to me in this country and has nothing but my best interests in mind.
It is kind of funny and completely unrelated, but another thing I was planning on writing about is the absurdity of life in this country, for those who don’t live here or experience it, it can sometimes be hard to explain. Another volunteer Robert Henderson visited me last weekend and this was one topic that came up. We recently lost several group members who decided for different reasons to go home before the service was finished. I didn’t hear all of their reasons so I wont’ try to go into them. But one thing Rob and I talked about is the ability to accept some absurdities in life as we spend time in this country and not allow them to affect us so much we lose the ability to function. At the same time I think it is healthy to keep noticing them, which helps keep us sane as well. These absurdities can stretch from the extreme daily like riding on buses that were built and have been in service since way before either us were born as far as well can tell, to students cheating in school and the complete lack of ability to do anything about it to at first seeing people starting to drink at eight in the morning and think it completely crazy to coming to accept it is part of the country here.
If we get too tied up in worrying about these absurdities of life here, we won’t be able to handle it. The best thing we can do is recognize them for what they are and just allow it to be part of our experience. It is important to remember that as PCVs we are supposed to learn from other cultures as well as impart our knowledge on them as well. One thing I have seen before in other volunteer blogs of those who have been here longer than me is that they run out of the crazy stories to tell after awhile because it all just seems normal anymore. That hasn’t happened to me yet completely, but there are plenty of things I don’t worry about quite as much anymore as I used to.
Case in point is marshrutkas, there is almost always room for at least one more person on them and riding a half-hour half bent over to get to my destination is just an accepted part of travel here. I still laugh about it occasionally. If people were to visit it might seem crazy and possibly even completely uncoordinated. I, however, love them because they can get me almost anywhere in this country even though I don’t have a car and are relatively cheap and fast. Revel in the absurdities you can’t control, manage the ones you can and remember another PC goal is to impart knowledge when you can and people are willing. Just remember things are often the way they are because they do work best that way. A lesson I learned long ago is don’t touch stuff just cause you think you can make it work better; there is a good chance it is the way for a reason.
This is where I say again I am speaking only for myself and all opinions are my alone and do not represent Peace Corps or the United States Government. It’s time talk a little about religion. Last time I was Kyiv for a meeting I picked up a book titled “The Journey of Desire” by John Eldridge. I was first introduced to the author when I read another book of his titled “Wild at Heart.” I don’t often see books on religion in the office, most of the books are basic fiction paperbacks, yet even they still get read, any halfway good books get snatched up pretty quick to go back to sites and get read, and my faith here has admittedly been a bit of a roller coaster. Part of me has hidden behind the idea that PC is governmental so I need to be careful with how I display my faith and also the time I have used to really explore what faith truly means to me. I’m still early in the book so I will have more later, but what has spoken to me so far is this idea that Christianity is all about desire. It’s a little more complicated than that, but there is a basic idea that humans know there is something more than the life we have at the moment and desire something more and better.
What I have read so far has me with some success and some places that need more work. I still have that desire for things, I am not that complacent or I don’t think I would have taken the rather big step in joining the Peace Corps and leaving everything that was familiar. I still don’t know exactly what I desire, but I’m definitely not without desire. But it also pointed out some potential fallacies in how I pray. Part of praying is me wanting or needing things and expressing them. I had fallen into this idea that I shouldn’t be asking for things, but rather for just guidance. I think that the truth lies somewhere in between. The tough part is not going overboard in the desires and wrong directions in desires. But having weak and non-existent desires is just as dangerous. I still have a ways to go in the book, so I’ll see if it continues the way it is, so far I have enjoyed it. I just know already that my experience here will not allow me to just accept faith and religion as it has been back in the states. There is more out there and it is a much more exciting life and world that our traditions and self-imposed laws don’t allow us to explore and enjoy.
It is kind of funny and completely unrelated, but another thing I was planning on writing about is the absurdity of life in this country, for those who don’t live here or experience it, it can sometimes be hard to explain. Another volunteer Robert Henderson visited me last weekend and this was one topic that came up. We recently lost several group members who decided for different reasons to go home before the service was finished. I didn’t hear all of their reasons so I wont’ try to go into them. But one thing Rob and I talked about is the ability to accept some absurdities in life as we spend time in this country and not allow them to affect us so much we lose the ability to function. At the same time I think it is healthy to keep noticing them, which helps keep us sane as well. These absurdities can stretch from the extreme daily like riding on buses that were built and have been in service since way before either us were born as far as well can tell, to students cheating in school and the complete lack of ability to do anything about it to at first seeing people starting to drink at eight in the morning and think it completely crazy to coming to accept it is part of the country here.
If we get too tied up in worrying about these absurdities of life here, we won’t be able to handle it. The best thing we can do is recognize them for what they are and just allow it to be part of our experience. It is important to remember that as PCVs we are supposed to learn from other cultures as well as impart our knowledge on them as well. One thing I have seen before in other volunteer blogs of those who have been here longer than me is that they run out of the crazy stories to tell after awhile because it all just seems normal anymore. That hasn’t happened to me yet completely, but there are plenty of things I don’t worry about quite as much anymore as I used to.
Case in point is marshrutkas, there is almost always room for at least one more person on them and riding a half-hour half bent over to get to my destination is just an accepted part of travel here. I still laugh about it occasionally. If people were to visit it might seem crazy and possibly even completely uncoordinated. I, however, love them because they can get me almost anywhere in this country even though I don’t have a car and are relatively cheap and fast. Revel in the absurdities you can’t control, manage the ones you can and remember another PC goal is to impart knowledge when you can and people are willing. Just remember things are often the way they are because they do work best that way. A lesson I learned long ago is don’t touch stuff just cause you think you can make it work better; there is a good chance it is the way for a reason.
This is where I say again I am speaking only for myself and all opinions are my alone and do not represent Peace Corps or the United States Government. It’s time talk a little about religion. Last time I was Kyiv for a meeting I picked up a book titled “The Journey of Desire” by John Eldridge. I was first introduced to the author when I read another book of his titled “Wild at Heart.” I don’t often see books on religion in the office, most of the books are basic fiction paperbacks, yet even they still get read, any halfway good books get snatched up pretty quick to go back to sites and get read, and my faith here has admittedly been a bit of a roller coaster. Part of me has hidden behind the idea that PC is governmental so I need to be careful with how I display my faith and also the time I have used to really explore what faith truly means to me. I’m still early in the book so I will have more later, but what has spoken to me so far is this idea that Christianity is all about desire. It’s a little more complicated than that, but there is a basic idea that humans know there is something more than the life we have at the moment and desire something more and better.
What I have read so far has me with some success and some places that need more work. I still have that desire for things, I am not that complacent or I don’t think I would have taken the rather big step in joining the Peace Corps and leaving everything that was familiar. I still don’t know exactly what I desire, but I’m definitely not without desire. But it also pointed out some potential fallacies in how I pray. Part of praying is me wanting or needing things and expressing them. I had fallen into this idea that I shouldn’t be asking for things, but rather for just guidance. I think that the truth lies somewhere in between. The tough part is not going overboard in the desires and wrong directions in desires. But having weak and non-existent desires is just as dangerous. I still have a ways to go in the book, so I’ll see if it continues the way it is, so far I have enjoyed it. I just know already that my experience here will not allow me to just accept faith and religion as it has been back in the states. There is more out there and it is a much more exciting life and world that our traditions and self-imposed laws don’t allow us to explore and enjoy.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Ice. One thing it does do is keep you honest. Don’t pay attention or respect it enough and you will fall. I fell.
Winter as I heard it described has finally started to descend on Ukraine. After an unusually warm start here I didn’t even need my heavier coat, snow has started to fall. My feelings on the topic are mixed; on one hand the now whitewashes just about everything and gives it a clean look. Ukraine isn’t known for its beauty in winter when there’s no snow. Summers are nice, but once most of the plants die off, the brown season isn’t all that pleasant. On the other hand it is cold and that makes travel a lot more treacherous. This is one time of year I am happy to let other people drive. I have no real desire to have to drive on ice-caked roads I know are not that good to start with.
It also means I need to get serious about buying a hat. I brought a hat with me to Ukraine, but Ira recently vetoed it, saying it was completely unstylish. I would dare say I in general am unstylish, but I don’t think she wanted to be seen in public with me wearing that hat. That’s my personal conclusion, not her words, but she did veto it. She may just be trying to give me some style. However, my attempts at getting her to just buy me a hat has been rebuffed, something about the need for me to try it on.
While my bare head isn’t bothering me too much yet, it is the rest of the country, as I am asked why I don’t have a hat or told I need one. I can’t hold them off forever. I finally broke down today and bought one, but not before I was told by a man while I was looking at hats I needed to buy one, was mistaken for a Polish person and told by the woman selling hats I needed one. This follows last night a woman at the school basically commanding me to go to the bazaar today and buy a hat. I’m glad everyone cares so much about the condition of my head.
As for the day-to-day activities, I spent the entirety of last week either in Kyiv or close to it as I worked on the volunteer newspaper and attended additional language training. To read the newspaper, direct your browser to pcukraine.org and follow some links in volunteer life to download a PDF version of the entire newspaper.
The language training was also useful, but especially this time I felt stronger coming into it, but felt even more humbled as some of the basic grammar things I struggled with. It does give me some extra fire to go back and focus my studies more. The other fun part is seeing all the other volunteers who I don’t see too often, hear the gossip and see who has stuck it out so far.
But as with everything else in my service those times ended faster than I expected and I am back at site, but am now starting up an ecological club to plan a tree-planting project in the spring. I sure feel useless a lot of the time, but at least I tend to find something or another to keep me busy.
Winter as I heard it described has finally started to descend on Ukraine. After an unusually warm start here I didn’t even need my heavier coat, snow has started to fall. My feelings on the topic are mixed; on one hand the now whitewashes just about everything and gives it a clean look. Ukraine isn’t known for its beauty in winter when there’s no snow. Summers are nice, but once most of the plants die off, the brown season isn’t all that pleasant. On the other hand it is cold and that makes travel a lot more treacherous. This is one time of year I am happy to let other people drive. I have no real desire to have to drive on ice-caked roads I know are not that good to start with.
It also means I need to get serious about buying a hat. I brought a hat with me to Ukraine, but Ira recently vetoed it, saying it was completely unstylish. I would dare say I in general am unstylish, but I don’t think she wanted to be seen in public with me wearing that hat. That’s my personal conclusion, not her words, but she did veto it. She may just be trying to give me some style. However, my attempts at getting her to just buy me a hat has been rebuffed, something about the need for me to try it on.
While my bare head isn’t bothering me too much yet, it is the rest of the country, as I am asked why I don’t have a hat or told I need one. I can’t hold them off forever. I finally broke down today and bought one, but not before I was told by a man while I was looking at hats I needed to buy one, was mistaken for a Polish person and told by the woman selling hats I needed one. This follows last night a woman at the school basically commanding me to go to the bazaar today and buy a hat. I’m glad everyone cares so much about the condition of my head.
As for the day-to-day activities, I spent the entirety of last week either in Kyiv or close to it as I worked on the volunteer newspaper and attended additional language training. To read the newspaper, direct your browser to pcukraine.org and follow some links in volunteer life to download a PDF version of the entire newspaper.
The language training was also useful, but especially this time I felt stronger coming into it, but felt even more humbled as some of the basic grammar things I struggled with. It does give me some extra fire to go back and focus my studies more. The other fun part is seeing all the other volunteers who I don’t see too often, hear the gossip and see who has stuck it out so far.
But as with everything else in my service those times ended faster than I expected and I am back at site, but am now starting up an ecological club to plan a tree-planting project in the spring. I sure feel useless a lot of the time, but at least I tend to find something or another to keep me busy.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
I have been trying to get this typed up for weeks now and keep getting distracted, busy or a host of other rather lame excuses. But the basic idea is that Over about the past month I have been back in the states where I attended a wedding and visited home, came back to Ukraine and have had plenty of adventures along the way. What would have been digestible stories over time has basically merged into one massive tome I don’t want to dump on you all at once. So if you want to read anything more in depth, look into the supplemental materials section. Not that it isn’t a good story, I just think at the length it is now, it would be just too much.
Basic summary of it is I flew out of Warsaw back on Dec. 22, made it home finally on the 24 after a few days in Chicago. Flew out to Aaron Wirick’s wedding the 26th, which happened on the 30. Made it back to Oregon the 31st and was headed back to Ukraine the 6th of January. Didn’t actually make it back into the country until the 8th.
So there was my trip home, I felt like I was hardly there, or at least was so busy I hardly had time to realize where I was and end up not wanting to come back (I did want to come back to Ukraine).
Once I was back in the country, things have slowed down a little bit, I made it back while school was still on break and was able to celebrate Old New Year’s with my former host family here in Dobrotvir. School has started again now and that has put a bit more of a schedule to my life, although I am also trying to rearrange that schedule and it is being complicated due to the fact I am headed to Kyiv for the entire next week. One of the things that always amazes me is how fast times passes here. It is hard to believe that it is 2007 and January and I had hardly found out where I was going at this time last year. Yet here I am and conversing in a language I hardly knew about last year.
This promises to be an exciting year with plenty of new surprises and I am not sure what exactly will happen, but my main goal is to grow from it and help the community here grow as well. It will be my first full year here and I am hoping to take advantage of that. So wish me luck.
One of the most common questions I have received since returning is if I wanted to come back, or was at least happy at the thought of it. I have been able to honestly answer each of them with, yeah, I did want to come back, I have a full sense that there is more here I want to accomplish in my time here, which is slipping away faster than I would like. I think I can honestly say I have been happy with my decision to come here. There are bad days of course, and everything that has happened hasn’t always been pleasant, but for the most part it has been a good growing experience for me and a necessary step too. We’ll see where it takes me at the end of my two years here. That is starting to be another question I deal with alot, I can’t tell people for sure yet. The third question I get is if there was any snow while I was home. Weather here has been strange as there is not snow on the ground now, which is unusual for this time of year. Many people are having a hard time remembering the last time there was a Christmas with no snow on the ground, which happened this past year. So Happy New Year to all of you and best wishes as the year begins. I’ll try to get up those other recollections up as soon as I can.
Basic summary of it is I flew out of Warsaw back on Dec. 22, made it home finally on the 24 after a few days in Chicago. Flew out to Aaron Wirick’s wedding the 26th, which happened on the 30. Made it back to Oregon the 31st and was headed back to Ukraine the 6th of January. Didn’t actually make it back into the country until the 8th.
So there was my trip home, I felt like I was hardly there, or at least was so busy I hardly had time to realize where I was and end up not wanting to come back (I did want to come back to Ukraine).
Once I was back in the country, things have slowed down a little bit, I made it back while school was still on break and was able to celebrate Old New Year’s with my former host family here in Dobrotvir. School has started again now and that has put a bit more of a schedule to my life, although I am also trying to rearrange that schedule and it is being complicated due to the fact I am headed to Kyiv for the entire next week. One of the things that always amazes me is how fast times passes here. It is hard to believe that it is 2007 and January and I had hardly found out where I was going at this time last year. Yet here I am and conversing in a language I hardly knew about last year.
This promises to be an exciting year with plenty of new surprises and I am not sure what exactly will happen, but my main goal is to grow from it and help the community here grow as well. It will be my first full year here and I am hoping to take advantage of that. So wish me luck.
One of the most common questions I have received since returning is if I wanted to come back, or was at least happy at the thought of it. I have been able to honestly answer each of them with, yeah, I did want to come back, I have a full sense that there is more here I want to accomplish in my time here, which is slipping away faster than I would like. I think I can honestly say I have been happy with my decision to come here. There are bad days of course, and everything that has happened hasn’t always been pleasant, but for the most part it has been a good growing experience for me and a necessary step too. We’ll see where it takes me at the end of my two years here. That is starting to be another question I deal with alot, I can’t tell people for sure yet. The third question I get is if there was any snow while I was home. Weather here has been strange as there is not snow on the ground now, which is unusual for this time of year. Many people are having a hard time remembering the last time there was a Christmas with no snow on the ground, which happened this past year. So Happy New Year to all of you and best wishes as the year begins. I’ll try to get up those other recollections up as soon as I can.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
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.
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.
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.
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