A Visit To The Ukraine

It Was A Busy Summer!

2011-10-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

What a busy, busy summer for me! I know, i know its been awhile..... I had so many camps including Russian language camp (for Americans), Soccer camp for younger boys, children's summer camp, then our Republic camp. I think I had mentioned this before but this was my first camp in which I directed with two friends of mine. Here is the link to get a better idea about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=713FkwJ2Ol0&feature=player_embedded

Also, I got to travel a lot this summer for some relaxation. I was able to go to Crimea for about 5 days with some Americans and then go to Istanbul and Greece for two weeks. Before my travels abroad my Mom and Aunt were able to visit Ukraine. See below for pictures!

Now I'm finally home in Ukraine after a wonderful summer. It's hard to even conceive how long I've been here. I only have 7.5 months left! It's crazy how fast time is going here. I'm sure it will not slow down as we are just beginning to start our school year schedule at my organization. Soon I will have English Club, Business Club, Soccer Club, Children's activities on the weekends and maybe some visits to the orphanage - not to mention my two active grants, a proposed HIV/Aids seminar, and all my Peace Corps activities. I am definitely looking forward to the next couple months, just not looking forward to once again a cold Ukrainian winter!

Photo labels:
#1 My mother and me in Independence Square
#2 Underground flower market
#3 Oldest road in Kiev

Summertime

2011-07-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

Summer is in full swing here and my schedule is already booked until mid-September. Can you believe that? Goodbye summer :(

However, I'm quite excited about everything I will be doing. This is what the schedule looks like so far: July 4th - July 19th I will be in Crimea, hiking/camping in the mountains and by the sea with my organization (same trip as last year). July 25th - 29th I will be attending a Peace Corps Russian language camp right outside of Kiev with a bunch of my American friends. July 30th - August 4th I will be at a Soccer camp with our women's team. August 10th - 16th is the English camp I am directing "Camp Republic". After this camp, the American volunteers and I will probably go back to Crimea for about 5 days to relax on the beach after such a busy summer :)

Finally, my Mom and Aunt come to Ukraine on the 28th of August!!!!! I'm so excited for them to come here and see my city, home and place of work. After about 3 days here we will go to Turkey and Greece for 10 days total. Then, as if this all couldn't get any better, my best friend from home will meet us in Greece and then come back to Ukraine for a week!

Life is good and busy, but I have to admit time is seriously going too fast for me to handle.... :) Can you believe I'm finished in 11 months? wow.

Here are some photos from the past couple of weeks:

1. Mega-Picnic - Kickoff of the summer event we do for children and teenagers in the forest; includes team building activities, fun games, and a BBQ.

2. My best friend here, Katya, got married! I was a bridesmaid and after the official ceremony we did a photo shoot in many different locations including the corn field. It was so beautiful and fun!

3. As some of you may know, I was in France for a week with a dear friend from the states. We spent about 3 days total in Paris, then drove through the wine country visiting Dijon, and ended up on the Mediterranean Sea for 2 days in Nice. Very beautiful country, I recommend!

Springtime

2011-05-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

This time of year is just awesome in Ukraine for many reasons.... First of all it marks my anniversary in this country. 1 year down!!! Whooooo hooooo!!! (Which is also proving to me how fast time flies)... Second of all the weather is just absolutely amazing. I think I had mentioned to some of you that I went about 3-4 weeks without ever seeing the sunshine? Yeah well now we are going on the 3rd week of nothing but sunshine. The climate here is strange like that - VERY wet, cold, dark cloudy fall/winters and VERY dry, sunny, hot, spring/summers. Cherry blossom trees are in full bloom, all the poppy flowers are out and the tulips are just coming up... Also, in preparation for the Prague Marathon in 2 weeks, I am now running every morning at 8AM. This picture shows the large river about 200 meters from my apartment. There is a small trail that runs along this river and it is sooo peaceful and beautiful in the morning. Every morning I run by farmers, fisherman, baby goats, cows, pigs, and many different types of birds. I really love this time of year in Ukraine. :)

Right now work is pretty busy. I finally have received the grant funds (about $2,500 - which is a lot of money here) for a project that I will conduct over the next few months. It's for running a Business Leadership Club, which actually I have sort of begun last November, but this will be an expansion and major improvement to the club. We were given a room in our organization to hold many of our events and with the funds we will refurbish almost everything. The list of tasks includes: buy a laptop for club use, buy new tables/white board/bookshelves, repair and paint all walls (including a large 20 foot map of the world on one wall), install Internet, and buy a long list of resource materials (books, software, etc.) to help us in teaching new and interesting topics. At this point in time, we are concentrating on purchasing all the materials and preparing for the painting event. My organization has agreed to use their own money and repair the whole ceiling and add new doors to this room.. so this project will be going well into the summer before it is finished.

Besides this grant, myself along with 14 other Peace Corps Volunteers, have decided to hold our own English Camp this summer in August. Even though it is only a week long, there is A LOT of planning that will go into this camp. It is called "The Republic" and here is a brief description:

"A camp that uses a role-playing game based loosely on the ancient Greek city-state of Athens from roughly the 6th-4th centuries BCE. 70 campers will participate in the game as Athenian citizens who make up the Athenian government, the Assembly. The government of the game is also based on the democratic process created in Athens during this time period. The campers will participate in this government by reacting to a series of daily crises that occurred during this period of Greek history in Athens. In their political factions (10 students), campers will have to create and present projects in response to these situations, deliberate them, and vote on them as official legislation. All their actions will have some type of consequence, however, affecting their factions and the city-state as a whole. They will be forced to compromise with different groups’ motivations / objectives / resources in order to achieve their goals. In addition, campers will have the opportunity to learn about the culture of ancient Greece, which is a large part of the foundation of modern civilization."

It's a New Year!

2011-02-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

New year, new friends, new work..... There has been a lot going on this month. I know I have not written yet about my trip to Egypt, about my first Christmas away from home, about my first Russian Christmas (January 7th), about New Years celebrated Ukrainian style, and all the other craziness in my life right now... but i promise I will get to all of this. :)

First off, I need to let everyone know that I will be coming home in 15 days!!!! I'm so excited for my visit home. I honestly never get much of a chance to rest here. Even when we went to Egypt we were constantly on the go. I'm looking forward to real, uninterrupted rest (and a lot of get-togethers and catching up with friends too).

So about my trip to Egypt... it was absolutely AMAZING! As you all might know there is a lot of protests taking place in the country as we speak, but I'm praying this ends quickly. There is so much beauty there and it is really such a shame. I'm guess it just shows us Americans that there is one more thing to be thankful for... no dictatorship! Anyway, my 8 day trip in this country was breathtaking... We began by flying into the resort city of Hurghada. This city, once a small fishing village on the Red Sea, is now a huge resort city with beaches, clubs, restaurants, shops, scuba diving, etc. For $500 we got round trip tickets from Kiev-Ukraine, transportation to hotel, 8 days/7 nights, and all-inclusive food and drink. You really can't beat these prices! One of the main reasons why it was so cheap was because we stayed at Russian resort. The English speaking resorts were probably about double the price... not really sure why, but we were thankful to know Russian. :) We spent the first day on the beach, lounging and relaxing. The second day we hopped on a flight to Cairo ($42) and stayed in the city for 2 days (Christmas eve and Christmas day). Christmas Eve day we rode camels around the pyramids for 1 hour then toured the Sphinx. Next, we ate the worlds best falafel, drank turkish coffee, went to little shops and toured the city. Christmas Day we strolled around the Egyptian Museum for about 4 hours. There was SO much to see here! All the treasures/jewelry/gold that were found in tombs across the country have been placed and preserved here now. I even got to see the famous King Tut mask... this was sooo cool. Christmas night we jumped on a overnight train all the way to the south of the country to the city of Luxor. Here there is the Valley of the Kings/Queens, a very cool temple, Mosques, Egyptian bazaar and of course the beautiful Nile River. After strolling around this city we jumped on a 6 hour bus back to our resort city of Hurghada. We spent 2 full days on the beach before we boarded our plane back to Ukraine. Please look on my Facebook for my favorite pics!

NYE was interesting as well. Upon getting back to Ukraine, my friend Kim and I went to the city of Lviv and met up with other Peace Corps Volunteers. We basically rented out our own Hostel, cooked food, and had a nice little American party. 30 minutes before midnight everyone comes into the main square and lights off their own fireworks... and I mean A LOT of fireworks... I was a bit concerned for my safety at one point... haha but it was really fun and very cold! But a big tradition on New Year's Eve is to serve hot wine in the square to help everyone stay warm.... You all need to make this... here is the recipe:

* 1 bottle sweet red or white wine (I think you can use semi-sweet wine, since most westerners - including myself - don't prefer sweet wine)

* 1 tablespoon cinnamin - about 1 stick

* 4 whole cloves

* 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg* orange slices (optional)Simply add the spices to the wine and slowly warm in a covered pot over a low heat. Add a slice of orange and other citrus and serve warm. ENJOY!

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

First off, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving this year! Mine was a bit out of tradition since I am living on another continent for the first time ever on this great American holiday. As expected, I was a bit homesick when I first woke up Thursday morning. I reminisced in my head about big parties we used to have on Thanksgiving Eve when all my childhood friends were back in town; then sleeping late all day only to wake up to large quantities of the best food ever. Next, all we were expected to do was sit back with family and friends while watching football. I also remember times in my childhood when we would go visit family in New York or New Jersey and would always end up in a late afternoon football/basketball game. I really have great memories of this holiday. :)

This year, as I expected, would be a bit different. I had the option of traveling to spend time with other American friends throughout Ukraine but decided on a different approach to celebrating. I really wanted to share this holiday with the wonderful people whom I have met in my city. I decided to stay local and threw Thanksgiving parties in my Beginner and Advanced English Club Thursday night. We began by sitting around a large table and talking about the history of this holiday. Next, we went all around the table and spoke about what we were thankful for. I was very impressed by the participation in this exercise. My friends were very pleased to learn about this holiday and even expressed a strong desire for such a holiday to exist in Ukraine. We concluded by completing some art projects which included what we were each thankful for and then watching the Thanksgiving "Friends" episode while eating cake and drinking tea. Afterward, while reading some of the projects, I noticed that my students said they were thankful for me; thankful that I came here, thankful that I want to teach them and hang out with them (and also learn about their own culture/language), thankful for God and thankful for our "Shelter Plus" organization. For the first time I realized, this holiday is not about the parties, the food, or the football games... its really about the people whom are placed in front of you throughout your life. I'm forever thankful for the people whom I have met here in Ukraine. Though I have only been here for 6 months now, I know that they are lifetime friends.

**This is a picture of me and some of the girls on my soccer team!

Sorry I should be writing more but in my defense I’m doing a lot of living right now

2010-11-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

A few weekends ago I went to the city of Kirovograd to participate in a Baseball Tournament run by a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers living in that city. It was awesome! I left my city at like 7AM and jumped on a bus for 2.5 hours (with two local friends) and arrived to this lovely city in central Ukraine. It’s always nice to hang out with other fellow Americans who go through the same trials and tribulations of being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine. It sure makes for some awesome story telling and lots of laughs. Events and times like this just make me appreciate this organization so much more. The feeling of giving up your life for 2 (or more) years to move somewhere in the world all alone where you don't know anyone or speak the language, is a feeling that is just inexplicable. The similarities between all of us are astounding! Even though you have never met these people before, the chances of having mostly everything in common is pretty high and you’d be amazed how easy it is to hold a conversation for hours with this complete stranger.

Anyway we ended up playing baseball with the professional team from the city. Just so you know baseball is NOT popular in Ukraine (I actually tried teaching some kids - in Russian - a few weeks back). I never realized how difficult it is to teach about baseball, especially in another language. My team lost the first game and won the second. Overall it was simply a delightful weekend!

As for my work, the past few weeks have been filled with preparation for the next 6 months. Right now this is my schedule (beginning the week of Nov 8th): Tuesdays - Business Leadership Club - Lecture (2 hours), Wednesdays - Soccer Practice/Meeting, Thursday - Beginner and Advanced English Clubs, Friday - Business Leadership Club (activities), Saturday - Children's Project (all day)/soccer in the afternoon, Sunday - rest and more soccer, Mondays - FREEE! But I'm usually teaching at a school or university :) I'm enjoying being so busy though. When I finally do stop to smell the roses, they always smell sooooo much sweeter :)

Next up, I will be traveling for a week between Lviv, Ternopil, Kiev and my old training site St. Bilous. I'm thankful for the week of traveling, as I feel I need (and deserve) a little mini vacation!

*Attached are some pictures from one of our first events with Children last week. It was really fun and they all enjoy saying "Hello" and "Goodbye" to me a million times :)

You know you’ve been “Ukrained” when…

2010-11-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

“Ukrained” definition: Essentially, culture shock. More specifically, when a Peace Corps Volunteer, living in Ukraine, experiences a sort of cultural misunderstanding or incident resulting in awkwardness, discomfort, embarrassment and/or surprise.

You know you’ve been “Ukrained” when…

‎…you misinterpret what a man says and end up riding an hour on a marshrutka (bus) in the wrong direction.

‎…you shrug and get out to push the bus with the rest of the guys.

…you agree to help a man hold a chicken only to soon find out you’ve become an accomplice in its beheading.

…you’re told the mystery meat you just ate was nutria.

…when you finally go to rinse the soapy clothes you’ve been hand washing for an hour in the tub and the water goes out.

…your school director tells you you’ll have to deliver a speech – in Russian – about teaching healthy lifestyles to Ukrainian youth with only an hour notice.

…your counterpart drags you out of bed at 7 a.m. without telling you why (or to even dress appropriately) and takes you to the newspaper office, where a staff of reporters and a photographer are waiting.

…when any purchases of food or drink in the bazaar are accompanied with a “to your health” statement or prayer.

‎…when you know, personally, the cow where you get your milk; and have stepped in the (massive) piles of poop it has left in your yard.

…you go to get your haircut and you end up with a flattop. And when you ask for the woman to cut off some more, she simply tells you, “no.”

…you sign 40 autographs at a school with 35 students.

…you show up to give a 30 minute lesson for an 8:30 start and the director asks if you can teach until 10.

Здравствуйте, друзья… Hello, friends…

2010-09-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been a crazy past few weeks! They are definitely keeping me busy over here! Most of August was spent in various camps including a soccer camp (I have joined one of my cities women’s teams) where we had lots of practices, ran some 5k's and participated in various team-building activities. This was very fun! There was only about half of the women's team there though but there was also a men's team and a younger boy's team who participated. This was a good experience for me because I met a lot of very cool people from my city who, like me, LOVE soccer. Among other awesome activities, we played a huge game of capture the flag in the forest which spanned maybe a kilometer wide. I feel like a kid again in this country and I'm so thankful for that. Not to mention I'm in the best shape of my life after hiking mountains for two weeks, joining a soccer team, and cooking my own food for ever meal of the day (believe it or not Ukraine has not latched on to the restaurant business really, mostly because there is little to no tourism right now).

After soccer camp, I came back to my city and participated in Camp LEAD. This is an English-only leadership camp, which two Peace Corps volunteers started in my city. Their names are Frank and Carol and they are in their mid-50's, married and live together in my city. They invite us younger volunteers over all the time and cook really good American food for us. Unfortunately, they are leaving in October to go back home (they've been here 2 years and are expecting their first grandchild!). Since I'm the only other volunteer living in the city now, they want me to continue this camp next summer. So I attended this camp in hopes that I would not be too overwhelmed and would agree to take on this enormous task next year. It was very cool because everyone spoke really good English and we had various debates and improv sessions. I met some awesome university students in my city who are going to help me with planning and implementation of this camp next summer. I'm really looking forward to this because... the best part is.... the whole camp is run by American Peace Corps Volunteers! Frank and Carol invited about 25 PCVs to work as teachers, directors, kitchen staff, etc. at the camp. This is something all volunteers like to do because it gives us an opportunity to get all of the American's together for a week and catch up on our crazy Ukrainian lives :)

Most recently, this past weekend we participated in another team building retreat with all the volunteers at my organization. We spent 3 days camping on an island in the city of Zaporizhia, this is one of the major historical landmarks of the Cossacks. Check out this link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khortytsia ... very cool and beautiful place! We went kayaking, rock climbing, hiking, visited an interesting museum and even found a gorgeous bridge famous for their bungee jumpers ;)

Anyway life continues to be really good for me here. My organization is pretty established (as you can see) so there is a lot to do. In October I will be starting two English Clubs: Beginner and Advanced. My advanced club is partnering up with a middle school class from Ridgefield, CT (this is a program within the PC that matches us up). We are going to start something like a pen pal program this fall. For now I am just communicating with this class and telling them about my experiences in Ukraine. Whenever I come home I will go visit the class and bring them souvenirs, etc. It’s just another way to open children's minds about the rest of the world. Another thing that I'm working on right now is project planning for this winter. I was given permission at my org to paint a huge map of the world on one of the walls in the building. I will use this to teach about geography and also show my students where all the English-speaking countries are located.

It seems there are no signs of life slowing down for me in this wonderful country! I’m soo thankful for this; though I miss the good old USA, I truly feel blessed to be working with such a great group of people J

A Very Crimean Adventure…

2010-08-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

Local advertisement: "During the Summer Shelter+ heads to the mountains with large groups of 30-40 people. Teens and young adults are disciples as they face many challenges during these unforgettable adventures. Team games, jokes, creative tasks, deep conversations about life, God and destiny around the campfires, mountaintop views of Crimea - all combined to teach youth to overcome their fears and confidently face life's difficulties."

This place was beautiful... more beauty than I have ever imagined would exist here. I feel very lucky as well because Crimea is only a hop, skip, 10 hour-overnight train ride and $.10 trolley-bus ride away. We boarded the train with 30 teenagers at 7pm and arrived in the city of Simferopol at about 5:30 AM. After a brief breakfast, we boarded the trolley bus for a 30 min ride to the base of the mountain ranges.

From the bus stop we began the first hike which is straight up for about 1 hour (with 40 lbs on our backs). It was tough. And not tough like going for a run after you took 5 years off but tough like we had to stop every 10-15 min to rest even with very energetic teenagers (and I consider myself still in pretty good shape). This is the "hardest" part of the whole hike, mostly because of the initial steep incline and we have lots of food on our backs (as each day goes by our bags get lighter and lighter obviously). After the first hour hike we found our spot to make camp next to a mountain stream which provided us fresh drinking water. This would be our "home" for two days as our group took day hikes up some of the closer smaller mountains and saw amazing views, fields of wildflowers and even some underground caves to explore.

The following days we hiked and camped in different places each night. These hikes were long and difficult as well. Some points were were walking sideways because it was sooo steep and others leaning against rock walls as we walked along cliff sides. I was just amazed at the difficulty of this terrain. All I can say is that this type of retreat would NEVER happen in America. There was at least 5 different moments where I was literally scared to death (maybe a little dramatized). I was just amazed because if any of these kids were to hurt themselves, in America it would be one major lawsuit and the whole operation would be terminated. Last year a boy fell and broke his arm, it was no big deal here and the rest of the campers continued. Parents never even called to question, in fact, the same boy came on the trip again this year. There were just way too many risks and liabilities for such an event to ever take place in the USA. But that's why I LOVE Ukraine! It's such a shame when you think about how our legal system has impacted the lives of kids in America today. I just feel that they are missing out on so many opportunities that we took for granted as kids ourselves...

Anyway, there was one day when we had such heavy rainfall and the rivers were overflowing and at one point in our hike we had to cross a river. With the flooding, we had to take our shoes off and simply walk through the craziest white-water rapids I have ever seen. One slip and you could possibly go cascading down the next waterfall and be pulled under. Fortunately, there was about one guy to every girl on the trip and we paired up and everyone made it safely across.

I will admit there was some extremely tough times for me including the 24/7 Russian conversations, torrential down pouring rain, 4 inch spiders, poison ivy (Ukrainian version, ouch!), sunburns, no toilet/shower for 14 days, walking through ice cold rivers, sleeping 5 people in a tent in 90 degree weather, exhaustion and LOTS of mosquitoes. But these hikes were easily my favorite times in Ukraine so far. Mostly because I really got to bond with a lot of the young adults/teens who attend my organization and made some really good friends.

One of the leaders and also one of my colleagues here at work, Roman, was our spiritual leader on this "Quest". He would explain to everyone how these hikes, though difficult, are only about 15% physical. The remaining is mental and spiritual strength. I couldn't agree with him more... :)

1 down, 100 to go

2010-07-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

So its official.. I have finally completed my first successful project as a real Peace Corps volunteer! Last week I participated in a summer camp which is hosted by my organization "Shelter Plus". This was a camp for ages 8-12. The theme was "You're Special" and I assisted by teaching a English/American Culture class each day to different groups of kids. I originally thought that children would dread to come to my class because the other classes consisted of playing with clay, playing games, swimming in pool, etc. But once they found out that my class consisted of a "real" native English speaker from America the children were practically knocking down my door.. LOL of course this is a little exaggeration but there was a lot of enthusiasm in my classroom. With the younger children I simply taught the song "I'm a little teapot" and then we put on a short show for their counselors. The older kids got to work on tongue twisters and there was some competition on who could say "Ten Tiny Trains Toot Ten Times" the fastest. It was really funny especially when the counselors got involved. The next lesson consisted of a short history lesson about the 4th of July and what the American flag represents. Next, they completed a 4th of July word search puzzle and were given prizes for the first kid to fully complete it. Lastly, each group had to give me a 5 minute presentation about Ukraine. Some kids sang Ukrainian songs, showed me the traditional dance, recited poems, drew pictures, talked about favorite foods and sang the national anthem. Even though they are young they were so excited to teach me more about their country... It was inspiring to see such talented and motivated kids.

As for me, it was my first time being completely submerged in Ukrainian culture. For 7 days I was in a forest with no internet, no cell phone, no native english speakers, and no Americans for miles. I heard Russian from the second I open my eyes in the morning to the moment I closed my eyes at night. I had to eat meat all week long because there was no substitute and I was starving! But I must say there were sooo many moments that I had to pinch myself because I was soo happy. My favorite moments were at night when we would sing with the band and there would be Karaoke in Russian... I really enjoyed the music and met some really cool people (and yes there were some people there who spoke really good English!). All in all it was a very successful first project and I'm looking forward to many more.

Fortunately, I do not have to look forward very far because tomorrow I'm leaving for a two week long hike through the mountains in Crimea... Please, if you know nothing about this place- Google it! It's Ukraine at its finest and probably the top tourist attraction here. It's a beautiful peninsula on the southern coast and stretches out in the Black Sea. We will take the train tomorrow night and arrive at the city of Simferopol Saturday morning. We will then hike from this city across the mountain range to another city on the coast. This is a team building event that my organization hosts each summer for about 40 teenagers. The whole idea is to try to use your mental strength to overcome physical weakness. This will not be easy as I will be without a toilet, shower, real food, internet, cell phone and carrying 50 lbs on my back for over 14 days. I'm just looking forward to the feeling of accomplishment at the finish line!

Charitable foundation called "Shelter Plus" – (Детский Шелтер)

2010-07-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

As some may know, Ukraine has many social problems. About 75% of teens 13+ drink or smoke. Also this country has the fastest growing population infected with the HIV virus in Europe. There is also a declining population (there are more people dying than giving birth). Sadly, the average lifespan of a man is 62 yrs, but for a woman it is 80 yrs old.

All of these statistics eventually led to the birth of “Shelton Plus” which is a charitable foundation originated by a woman named Ludmila. Eventually, she employed her two sons, daughters and their close friends to help create a place where youth, teens and young adults could have a safe place to come after school and during the summer. Their mission was to create a safe place for youth/teens and to help support their growth into a whole being person (emotional, physical, spiritual, etc).

Some of their events include Theatre Club, English Club, Music Club, arts & crafts, photography contests, marriage counseling, men’s/women’s soccer league and various seminars and trainings. In addition, the building has a computer room/WIFI, gym, washing machine (yay!), showers, beds, table tennis, TV’s, café, 2 kitchens, and many other amenities to keep the children (and me) occupied. About two years ago a couple from Canada were working at this organization together for about a year on a mission from their church. The man was a sound engineer and the woman was an art teacher. They applied for grants and eventually installed a large recording studio for the music club. After sitting in on a set, I was blown away by the talent of such young people. I sincerely cannot wait until I can be able to assist with future projects.

For starters, I am helping to prepare for a summer camp, which will take place next week. The theme of the camp is ‘Ten new experiences’. I will be working on one of the stations for one hour, appropriately titled “Meeting a foreigner”. I will teach them songs, tongue twisters and riddles and then will give a brief lesson about America’s Independence Day.

The other event in which we are preparing for is two weeklong hikes through the Crimean Mountains. We will be bringing about 40 teens totals on an excursion through the mountains while working on teambuilding and leadership skills. The first four days consist of hiking and the last two days we will arrive at the black sea and camp on the beach. Though it is not easy, I was told I could complete both hikes if I so chose to. I quickly agreed! In the meantime we have been drying breads, meats, vegetables and other items to bring with us. I’m still not sure how we will carry everything but they do this every summer so I’m sure they know best.

On August 18th - 28th our organization with host a soccer camp and I will be helping run this as well.Looks like it will be a busy summer for me!

Krivoy Rog, Ukraine!

2010-07-02T10:40:00.001-07:00

So last time I posted I was preparing for my departure from the lovely little village of Starry Bilous. It was very difficult when I started packing up my things and getting ready for whatever the future held for me. I ended up crying like a baby when I had to say goodbye to my host family. I truly believe that they were the reason for such a successful training over the past 3 months. Because of them I had very little homesickness and learned a lot about how to live the Ukrainian life. They taught me how to cook 3 different types of borsch, how to hand wash, how to take bucket showers, and really just how to live a simpler life. Looking back on this now, I think these are key aspects that will prepare you for life on your own.

Anyway leading up to our "graduation" ceremony in Kiev, we were not informed of ANY information about our permanent site until we arrived at the University in Kiev for our 4 day retreat (June 14th-17th). During the first day we finally received basic information about the location where we will be living and the organization in whom we will work with. With all 72 nervous volunteers waiting patiently they slowly called out each group of volunteers by region (1-8). Mine is the last region #8 and it includes three Oblasts (or states) Dnipropetrovsk (my oblast), Donetsk (has the largest soccer stadium and where my friend Conor lives), and Zaporozhye which are all located in the south eastern part of the country. My city of Krivoy Rog is in the western most tip of the Dnipropetrosk Oblast. You can probably Google it to to get a better idea of the location.

So after we were informed of our regions we were given one piece of paper regarding our organization. My organization is a Charitable Foundation called "Shelter Plus". Their mission is to provide charitable aid to the target audience (kids, teenagers, youth) helping them to become self-sustainable personalities through building constructive relations, developing necessary soft and professional skills and organizing various events for the target audience. I was informed immediately that I would have my own apartment and that my working schedule is Tuesday through Saturdays. I was relived in many ways for all this information. Even though I knew no details, just the fact of knowing "something" was an amazing feeling.

The Lone Ranger

2010-06-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

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…

Community Development Project

2010-06-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

Last Friday my group successfully completed a "Healthy Lifestyles" seminar for the local children in our village. The topics were on Drugs & Alcohol, HIV/Aids, Stress and Fitness, and Nutrition. We were also successful at completing our first international grant application and we received the funding for our supplies. This is the exact process that we will be doing at our sites in a few weeks. After we establish some projects with our counterpart organizations, we will be completing long grant applications to fund these projects. There are two programs within Peace Corps that offer grants up to about $5,000. Outside of the Peace Corps, there are countless organizations to apply to for additional grants. These include other European organizations, other US organizations for Int'l development, US and Canadian Embassies in Ukraine, and also local businesses. Lastly there is a Partnership grant with the Peace Corps, which we can sign up for to advertise our project online and collect funds from family and friends. At our technical class last week, current volunteers came to speak to us to give a presentation on projects they are working on. These projects can range anywhere from renovating a school or soccer field to putting on seminars/business workshops. One volunteer has even applied to about 8 different grant programs for numerous projects over the past 2 years. These range in amounts from about $5,000 to a $200,000 grant with the European Union! Although Ukraine is not yet in the EU, they still support many developing nations with their community projects. It's these types of projects and efforts that help countries like Ukraine eventually apply for status in the European Union and other treaties abroad.

As for language.... I am officially switching over to speaking/thinking in Russian! I was speaking the other day to a fellow volunteer and for the life of me could not remember the English word for переводчик (pere-vod-cheek) which is the Russian word for translator. It was such a proud moment for myself! (I am also having trouble speaking and typing in English; if my grammar becomes confusing I apologize in advance) They say that when this starts to happen then you are really on your way to learning the language... :o)

**This is a picture of Independence Square this weekend in Kiev. There is a 4 story Shopping Mall beneath this square with lots of trendy shops. What you can't see in this picture behind me in a huge fountain that flows over lots of steps, which you are able to walk on and cool off (makes for some crazy water fights among the kids). Also there are lots of outside cafe's overlooking this square, which offer very good food, beer, and wine.

My name in Russian

2010-05-13T13:14:00.001-07:00

Just so you may see how different (and difficult) the Russian language is compared to English, I have spelled out my name below. My name gives a great sample of some of the unfamiliar Cyrillic letters and the sounds they make...

Cassandra Philp - Кассандра Филп

Community Development Project

2010-05-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

We have finally come to the conclusion on our first community development project! The Peace Corps uses these 3 months of training to teach us the formal way of conducting a project. One very important step is conducting a Need's Assessment. So we ended up creating a survey for potential projects in our village and then passed it out to numerous families and local community members. The list comprised of a Business Seminar, Healthy Lifestyles Seminar, English/American Culture Club and materials, and Tourism Seminar. After receiving back 42 of the 50 surveys, the majority was in favor of the English Club and materials.

We have found two teachers at the local school willing to work with us to come up with possible topics that are needed. They seem very appreciative for this because although English language is required in all Ukrainian schools, the materials they possess are very old and limited (not to mention most of the cultural resources are British). It was expressed that it is very important for children to learn not only about British Culture but American as well.

We are going to conduct a trial club this Friday to see how many children/teens will be involved. We are also hoping to find a few older students who have high English skills to consider running the club after we leave in June. If this is a success we will have touched on two major PC tasks: leadership training and sustainability. There will also be some sort of training session for these facilitators to introduce to them sample activities for the club and also how to come up with their own lesson plans/materials going forward. The PC has given us lots of resources for starting our own English Clubs when we reach our permanent site. A lot of these resources will be used throughout this community project.

Some people may think such a project sounds so easy because we are American and we speak English! But there is so much more to it when you have to actually teach it and come up with activities to make it entertaining. The grammar is what I'm scared about most because the English language has so many different rules but also so many unexplainable contexts. I will of course keep you updated on our progress!

**This is a picture of one of the most famous towers in Chernigiv. Years ago when this was built it was actually one floor taller. The leader of Ukraine made the builders remove the top floor after they found out it was taller than any of the towers in the capital city of Kiev. Since hierarchy is one of the most important characteristics in Ukraine, the city of Chernigiv quickly agreed and removed the top floor.

Food!

2010-04-27T09:11:00.001-07:00

For the most part, the food here in the Ukraine is amazing. In Ukrainian culture it is very important to try to eat everything we are given. This is of course next to impossible, but the one item that has no exception is the Bread. This is the heart of Ukrainian food. Contrasting with the mass famine in the 1930’s, there is now an abundance of food throughout the country. To reject or waste any is considered an insult to their culture. The best part is that it is all organic and straight from their gardens. Mix these foods with constant walking all day long and I have honestly never felt healthier (in relation to my diet anyway, air quality is a whole different story, unfortunately).

It is not uncommon though to be fed more than 3 times a day with way too many portions of bread, potato soup and cabbage salad. Unfortunately, in the Ukraine they can only eat the items that are available during the correct season. Right now there is mostly Borsch (stew with lots of veggies, potatoes, etc, which is vegetarian for me!) brown rice, eggs and bread, bread, bread. Luckily, there is a small market in our village which sells some fruit and yogurt which we all eat for lunch almost everyday. I also find it funny how they eat the same thing for every meal. If a pot of Borsch was made, this will be everyone’s breakfast, lunch and dinner until it runs out. It does seem a bit more efficient though. This way there is more time for farm maintenance, gardening, etc. Fortunately, I think my host mother understands that Americans cannot eat like this for long. Every few days I will have a fried egg with cheese and bread or a type of thin pancake (more like a crepe) with apple jam. I have also noticed that they commonly eat dessert and dinner at the same time. I'm sure every child in America would loooooove this!

My host mother is a great cook though, and I have really lucked out. I also am given a hard boiled egg at least once a day (if not twice a day). I’m hoping this won’t raise my cholesterol! I have never eaten this many eggs in my life… I think because I’m a vegetarian they think I will not survive without eating lots of eggs. Easter for me was great. There was a wide variety of food and even though I was offered to continue putting more food on my plate, my family let me serve myself. There were also lots of fruits for dessert and we were able to go outside and take a short walk after dinner….

The best part about the food situation in the Ukraine is that it is standard to drink tea at least 3-4 times a day and the chocolate in this country is AMAZING! They have so many types... varieties of fruits, nuts, cremes, pastries, etc... Somehow I have not gained a pound, let's hope it lasts! :)

*** Being the very agricultural nation that they are, Ukrainians nationwide plan different events to give back to the Earth every April. The picture is of the tree planting activity that we participated in with students in our village. I felt honored to be able to share this tradition with them...

Some type of Russian-Ukrainian-Spanglish…

2010-04-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

I figured it’d be appropriate to write a blog post about training. This is like a Peace Corps boot camp and has surely been living up to its name. First of all we are in 4 hours of language class a day, where we are learning all about the Russian language. Not only does the Russian language use the Cyrillic alphabet, which barely resembles our familiar Latin letters, it also has a very complex grammar system. Instead of having hundreds of words to describe feelings, emotions, genders, etc. (like English) the Russian language uses conjugations of verbs and adds specific endings onto nouns to give the speaker an idea of who the speaker is, who the subject is, if it’s formal or informal, and many other complex scenarios.

It is funny how the brain works. When we are learning new words, we play games or use visuals so that our minds have something to associate with. We have all been experiencing the same funny issue when we are forced to think quickly. Our minds are quickly trying to think of the Russian word, but then our mouths spit out a Spanish word. This has been happening multiple times a day to each of us. And then to make it even more comical, our language teacher Natasha is also a certified Spanish teacher, so she can laugh along with us as well! After long hours of language class we still have Cultural, Technical, Health/Safety, special field trips and many other events that we must fit into our schedule each week. When we finally retreat home each day we are greeted with words upon words of some kind of Ukrainian/Russian gibberish. Since the official country language is now Ukrainian (since 1992) and the old official language was Russian, almost every citizen speaks both or a mixture of the two (they call this mixed language: Soozhik). It just makes the whole process a bit more confusing because although our families understand our newly learned “proper Russian”, they all speak a mixture of the two languages, making it even more difficult to understand their conversations. Though you can eventually learn both, Peace Corps Trainees are chosen to learn one of these languages according to where our permanent sites will be. Since I was chosen for Russian, I will most likely be in the East, the South, or one of themajor cities.

These long stressful days have made for some really funny conversations of Russian, Ukrainian, English and Spanish. I am already feeling as though I’m forgetting English words and replacing them with Russian, Spanish or some mixture of the two because there is a point each day when it honestly hurts to think! I now know why volunteers consider this a “boot camp”, but can honestly say that there’s no place I’d rather be right now.

The picture is of all the volunteer's in my cluster and we all live in the same village. From left to right... Connor, Amy, Kim, me and John.

1st week in Ukraine

2010-04-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

After 19.5 hours of traveling we finally arrived at our Orientation center about 2 hours outside of Kiev. Here we were split up into small groups and met our Language/Cultural Trainer who will be living in the same village as me and my 4 other cluster mates. Our trainer is Natasha. She is from Eastern Ukraine, is young (probably 28 or so) and is very pretty and stylish. She speaks English very well and will be training us on everything like language, culture, food, pharmacies/grocery store products, health, safety, etc.

My host family is an older couple (Mama (Nadya) and Papa) probably in their 50’s-60’s who live in a small village called Starte Belous and speak NO english. They have a pretty large house for just two people with 3 bedrooms, large living room, descent size kitchen, nice bathroom, and a family room. There are also many animals including 1 dog, 2 cats, 2 adult goats, 3 baby goats (2 weeks old!), many chickens/hens, and a few baby pigs. Also, my host family is completely OKAY with me being a vegetarian. There are plenty of dishes I can eat and also lots of types of cooked fish. I’m very happy about this because I learned those cute little pigs that I was playing with will soon be their dinner (this made me very sad, but at least I don’t have to eat it!). I must admit though, these animals have the life! They have their own little houses, get to eat all our scraps and get to play around in a large backyard. Everyone’s yards are fenced in so animals can run freely. I guess if I were to be a pig, I would want to live here.

Easter was great. My host parents have a son, Sasha, and he and his wife, Lina came over for dinner. This was the highlight of my weekend because she is an English tutor in Chernigiv, which is a city about 15 minutes away. She translated all the dinner conversations and also helped me get a few answers to my host family about myself and also helped me answer some of my own questions about them. She gave me her cell phone number/email so that we can meet up in the city and bring me to her study group to meet her students. Anyway we had great conversations and drank some good Ukrainian wine. I feel lucky to be with such a family. They are VERY hospitable and never let me go hungry.

Departure

2010-03-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

About 36 hours left until my departure and I have finally finished packing; it ONLY took me 6 attempts of repacking to get it just right :o). I have learned that there is clearly an art to packing and hopefully over time I will master it.

Throughout the past few days I have had quite the ups and downs while deciding what items I can absolutely not live without. After a few words with a fellow volunteer yesterday, I finally understood that this process is all about the first lesson: Learning To Let Go. As Americans, we have been brainwashed with this fascination of material possessions. I am the first to admit that I am definitely one of them! I do remember my boyfriend telling me about his first trip to the US from Poland though. He came over with a single suitcase and look at everything he has accomplished! I hope I can be more like that overtime... just simply making due with less.

I am certainly looking forward to the years to come and sharing all of my adventures! Goodbye America (only for now)…. Hello Ukraine!!!

Almost Ready

2010-03-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

In less than 12 days I will be Washington D.C. bound! This is where I will meet my group (which is now only about 75 people or so) for the first time and we will then fly to Ukraine as a group. Our journey will begin in the capital city of Kiev. During these first few days we will all be assigned a cluster (about 4 or 5 volunteers) based on our current language and technical experience. Each cluster will then be assigned a specific region outside the capital and this is where we will be living with our host families and begin training for roughly 10 weeks.
As you may notice, we will be arriving to our host family’s house right before EASTER! If you need to know anything about Ukrainians it is that this is their #1 most important holiday of the year. After being at our host's house for no more than 48 hours, this should be quite interesting; hopefully not too much culture shock at once. On the bright side, they celebrate this holiday mainly with music, dancing and lots and lots of food.

Packing and Preparation

2010-03-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

I'm now trying to complete one of the most difficult tasks a Peace Corps volunteer must endure... packing up my life in two suitcases for two years! Now granted I am leaving a few items at home for my mom to ship to me, such items include: Kitchen supplies, heavy winter clothes and boots and some other miscellaneous items for my apartment living.

There are also a lot of resources available from past/current volunteers who inform us of items in which they wish they brought or wish they left home because it is available cheap in country. However these lists are very contradicting considering they all live in different parts of the country such as the north, south, city, village, mountains or coastline. Regardless, there will be things I will have forgotten and things I could have left at home...... but as we know it’s all just part of the process!

As I sit here and go through my lists of suggested items to bring, I am already beginning to feel the effects of the Peace Corps. There are so many things that Americans take for granted. Things NOT offered (or extremely hard to find) in Ukraine: Peanut butter, Taco seasoning, Soy Sauce, Butter Popcorn, HOT water, good tap water, Spices like Cumin or Thyme, Coffee maker and ground coffee, hot sauce and many more items I can’t quite remember at the moment (I promise to update more on this topic as I see fit).

One thing that you may be curious on is the lack of coffee in this country. Unfortunately when the Ukraine was under Soviet Rule, coffee was not allowed into the country or if so, was only found in the form of instant coffee. Today, companies such as Nestle and McDonalds are trying to make it more popular throughout the larger cities. As an avid coffee drinker, one of the first things I went out and bought was my first French Press. I plan to bring a few pounds of grounded coffee and make my own homemade coffee each day. :)

Before I Leave...

2010-03-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to my Peace Corps Blog. On March 29th, I will traveling to Ukraine on a mission to promote the three Peace Corps goals: Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women, Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served, and Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

In brief, the program is 27 months and begins with three months of training (language, culture, job specifics, etc.). During this period we will live with a local family while we adapt to our new lifestyles. Upon completion, we then transfer to our assigned posts throughout the country. My specific group consists of about 100 Americans ranging in possible ages of 18 to 60+. Though, I won’t know specifics until I complete my training sessions, the community development program typically consists of local and national projects conducting community outreach and needs assessments. Community development projects typically focus on both formal and non-formal education, youth development, health and HIV/AIDS, the environment, and business. It is our main responsibility to act as catalysts for change and continually engaged in defining the role in response to our host communities.

As a local from Shelton, I am a current volunteer for the HBL and Plumb library systems assisting in web advertisements. I will now be sharing my Peace Corps experiences via this blog for all of you to follow.