Okay so in case any one is still reading, I apologize for only posting once a month, well less than that at this point. Anyways I will catch you up with whats new at school first. School started ha, so far so good. The kids are great. My school has 300 kids and a weight room and an office for me. I feel kinda ridic having my own office when the teachers all share one big one. I have it made. The office is at a busy part of school so I have kids coming in to say hi and ramble on in Russian, its enjoyable. I have had 3 weeks of clubs now. I have a chess/checkers club that meets twice a week, I have two English clubs (one for younger kids, one for older). I also have a sports club for boys one day and girls the other. And we have set up our newspaper group, 13 students will be developing a monthly newsletter and running a website to go along with it. I am pretty excited for the project, if all goes well we will recieve grant funding for a printer, computer, and camera. My uncle came through big helping us get a great computer program to help us with the design and layout of it all. Besides that I am continuing to work on developing my exchange program with my mom and am in the inital steps of trying to find a sister city for Pryvillya.
Outside of school, I was in Kyiv a few weeks ago for a grant writing conference and an Environmental working group. The Environmental working group is a bunch of PC volunteers that run summer camps, provide resources for other volunteers, and get the ball rolling on big environmental projects done by Peace Corps here in Ukraine. It will be great to work with them. I will do that and work with the Small Project Assistance Grant Review Committee. USAID gives Peace Corps grant money to help fund projects run by volunteers. The SPA committee goes over the grants, offers feedback, and helps prepare them to be sent to Washington to be read by USAID. I will be apart of that team, it will be great to get grant writing and editing experience.
Outside of work now... all is going well here. Went for a run today and not often do I really feel like I am outside of what I know and feel like I am in Ukraine or abroad, but I ran past a flock of chickens (flock?) then 4 goats and a cow and when I looked to my left I saw endless trees with 3 cities spread amongst them. One of which is Ceverdontsk , which has huge smoke stacks (the bread and butter of the old Soviet Industrail complex) and to my right there was the giant prymaid created by mine debris. Did a double check of it all and quickly found myself back in reality having to walk before the stray dog near by, who didn't appreciate my need for running, got to me. Love it. The best for last, I will be heading to Paris in 3 weeks to spend time with Liz over my school's fall break. I am beyond excited to see her! She continues to enjoy France and started French lessons this week. So yea can't wait to go there and visit! Hopefully this satisfied whoever may read. Hope all is well hope to hear from you soon.
Bob
