The Lone Ranger

As of June 17th, I will officially be sworn in a Peace Corps Volunteer! This will be like our version of graduation from training. This conference is being held in the capital of Kiev at the most prestigious university in the country. There will be Politicians, news crew and journalist there to spread the news throughout the nation. Immediately following this ceremony, we will say goodbye to all of our new American friends and be off on our own to our new sites.These past few months were very difficult, but not for the usual reasons you would expect. Yes, it was hard adjusting to the culture, learning a new language and being away from home. However I do not think this was the hardest part. For me it was more difficult learning how I will help Ukraine in these 2 years. Even when asked in the states what I will be doing over here, I really had nothing solid to speak about.What is community development exactly? Well, as skillful business men/women this is our job to find out what this sort of development will mean to the region we are placed in. It is not cut and dry. We are not going to go to site and have a list of things to accomplish and begin them one by one. We are told to simply go to site, establish relationships, do a needs assessment on the community and try to help facilitate change whether it be for better health, better economy, more option's for teenagers, easier job searches, etc. It is really the most diverse job description I have ever had! I am not sure if it will be something that is easier or very difficult. So throughout training we have been given real life circumstances of Community Development Volunteers who have successfully implemented some development in their community. I'm learning that it will definitely take lots of patience, creativity and perseverance to accomplish tasks over the next 2 years. Volunteers here say that it takes at least 6 months to even begin to implement small projects. I am not too intimidated though and I'm still pretty confident that I can make something happen over here. I guess you will just have to stay tuned!

Peace Corps Ukraine Update:(Mega-growth is being implemented here, thanks to support from Obama! Ukraine has the most Peace Corps Volunteers than any other country in the world! Also in 2012, Peace Corps will be celebrating their 50th anniversary...)
72 trainees will swear-in on June 17.
September, there will be 175 trainees arriving a week apart: 85 Americans arrive on 9/19, and 90 Americans will arrive 9/26. 67 new training staff will be hired for September Trainees…