Congradulation

             First and foremost I need to welcome Tucker James Schlehuber into the world.  Tiffany had her baby a couple of weeks ago !  So congrats to Tiffany and Tom.  Adding to the list of things that I have missed since being here in Ukraine; 4 weddings and a baby.

            The rest of my blog I want to devote it to the 11^th grade graduation and the end of school.  Seems super weird but I am done with my first year of school here.  Pretty much at the half way point! 

           The question that I got asked the most the last few days was “is this similar to the graduation ceremony that you had in America.”  My general response was no.  While I can only speak for what I know in America I will boldly say that what I saw the last few days here doesn’t repeat itself many places in the States.  On Friday we had our “last bell” ceremony.  All the kids came together for the handing out of special rewards, celebrating the last day of school, saying goodbye to the 11^th formers, and welcoming in the new school leaders.  The ceremony was quick and quickly followed by an afternoon retreat of the teachers in the woods to celebrate the end of the year.  Sadly I had to miss this due to food poisoning.  Even worst I am the only one who has cooked for myself over the last week so pretty sure I gave it to myself.  Anyways if you were wondering what happens at a teachers retreat in Ukraine, pretty much summed up by drinking heavily and eating food.

                                                             

Our first formers ending their first year of school

               Saturday, was the real fun anyway.  Managed to suck it up and attend the day’s festivities.  Around 6 pm I headed off to school to print copies of our special newspaper edition entirely devoted to the 11^th formers.  It was really cool to see how quickly we were able to put together a newspaper staff that produced quality work.  This being our 5^th  and last edition of the year was quite remarkable in the time frame that we had.  After that the students from the 11^th grade all got together at school with their parents for one last run through of the upcoming ceremony and a few final speeches.  After that we headed to the center square of town for the graduation ceremony.  A large majority of the city came to watch dancing, singing, the handing out of diplomas and speeches.  Another large majority of the city was also at the center square Saturday night, however they were there for the circus and the zoopark.                                             

                                          

Students, Parents, teachers, and Lenin watch the ceremony  

      

                                                               First formers put on their dance routine dancing to Mambo #5

Zoopark and Circus- yes, this weekend also happened to be the same weekend the town administration invited the circus and their animals to Pryvillya.  Setting up in the center of town the circus had rides, game, bears, lions, tigers, and other animals.  A classic double booking, (I will avoid getting into the conspiracy stories over the double booking background) a graduation and a mini zoo all in one small town square in a village in Eastern Ukraine.  After a fair amount of complaining the circus moved over and gave up half of the square.  Side by side the ceremony went on, all was fine minus the inability to hear who was talking occasionally when the bear or lion or tiger gave out a loud roar. Hilarious.

Students release balloons in the sky for good luck (on the far right you can see the Circus trucks)

The ceremony was a lot of fun.  It was cool to see my students graduate, while I only had one year with them they were great friends and super nice to me.  It was really interesting to see all the people there, and was extra cool because the class mom was my good friend and English teacher Marina.  After the graduation ceremony was completed, pictures were taken, and congrats were given we all headed to a café down the street. 

 

Left to right: Mayor, 11th form students, me, Marina

This is the part that I am not accustomed to in America.  A café was rented out by the parents of the 11^th formers.  So 17, 17 year olds, parents, and maybe 10 teachers were invited for a night of dancing, eating and drinking.  Every table was loaded with wine, vodka, and champagne.  Yes even the 17 year olds table was loaded with champagne.

The teachers table at the dinner celebration

 I briefly want to touch on the drinking culture here in Ukraine.  They drink a lot.  The traditional way of drinking here in Ukraine is pretty much to sit around a table with a ton of food and vodka.  Try to mix that vodka with juice or soda and you’re a crazy person.  There is only one way to drink vodka, straight shots.  Shots followed by food food and more food.  Seriously I dare anyone out there to try to drink vodka in this country any other way and double dare you to try to drink any alcohol without chasing it with an insane amount of food.  This way of drinking actually makes way more sense, and while it takes some getting use to isn’t as painful as it sounds.

Nervously I  gave my toast to the 11^th formers and the parents (which may have been my first large dinner toast), and yes cheers-ing with 17 year olds legally drinking was rather strange and a lot of fun.  

Me and the 11th formers

The dancing, music, and games were a ton of fun too.  With the parents and students having every intent to see the sun rise that morning (a graduating tradition), still fighting off the stomach flu I headed home at 2 am.  It was definitely a memorable 24 hour period full of traditions, cultural exchanges, and of course lions and bears.

End of the night, I was apparently a traveling gypsy that could read palms and pretend to dance and look good wearing what ever it was that I was wearing 

Thats all I got, miss all of you.  Love to hear from you.  Especially from those who I haven't heard from in a while.  Write when you are ready and have some time.  Good luck to all.

Bob

The people of Ukraine

Another blog post and this time under 6 months.  Part of the Peace Corps mission is to learn about the culture that you live in.  After realizing that over the last 5 weeks I haven’t left my site or seen any other Americans, I realized how lucky I am to be a part of this town, country, and culture.  So I want to tell you about some of the people I have met here and how lucky I am to have all of these people.  2 years ago I would have never thought there were so many people in Ukraine let alone a tiny little village that would take me in, be good friends, and watch out for me. So thank you to the following.

First and always, my family here in Ukraine.  I am so lucky to have a second family here.  My super talented and smart Brother Bohdon, my caring Mama and Papa, and my beautiful and hilarious little sister Rita.  Sadly I live some 14 hours away by train from them and don’t get to see them nearly enough I am lucky enough to write to them and always know if I need anything I always have them.  Bohdon recently finished in the Top 3 in a music competition and will head to Lithuania in mid June! 

Next, the people that I work with here have allowed me to fit in at school; this has been beyond wonderful considering it is where I spend the majority of my time.  Marina Ivanava has been an angel to me.  I have needed plenty of help here with so many random things and she has always been there.  Natalia Olexavana, our schools’ vice principal, has also been wonderful- helping me plan projects, co teaching with me, and giving me things to do when I run out of ideas.  Nickola Nickolivch, our director has also been a great boss.  I hear stories from other volunteers that they never talk to their directors and feel awkward around them.  I am lucky to have a director that plays basketball with me, invites me to his parent’s sauna, and frequently checks up on me to make sure all is well.  Vika Vicktorivna has helped me with running and organizing my sports club.  While I only mentioned 4 people at my school the entire staff, the cooks, and cleaning ladies have all been super nice and helpful.

I am also lucky to have some really good friends here.  Sona, Roma, Dema, Mischa, Anton, Sasha, Andre, and Vitalik have been a ton of fun and keep me entertained.  We tend to see each other every day at night at school playing basketball or lifting weights, a couple of them have even started taking English classes with me. 

                                                              Anton, Roma, Dema, Sona

In the town next to mine I am lucky enough to have Marina and her husband Maxim and their kids.   I am invited there often to be their guests and just hang out.  I love visiting them and try to head there as much as possible.  They will be running a small organization that will receive a Peace Corps volunteer next month. 

Finally I want to briefly how awesome my students are at school.  For who knows why my kids are always super excited to talk to me and see me.  Special thanks for those who come to my clubs and are quiet when I am stumbling through a lesson in Russian.

                                                     Me and my kids outside of our school

So those are some of the people that I have been lucky enough to meet here.  I only mentioned some of the people but I think it proves my theory that if you go anywhere in this world you will find people just like you, people that will take care of you and offer their friendship.

As for past and future talk, last weekend was a huge holiday here, Victory Day, celebrating the end of WWII.  Last Sunday our town celebrated the completion of a brand new monument in memory of the victory, it is named “future hope.”  Our town was home to 2 battles between the USSR and Germany.  When they built the monument and dug into the earth a few months ago they actually found 36 bodies from the battles.  Pretty crazy to think about that.  On Sunday Sona, Dema, Anton, Roma and I went camping along the river.  It was a great time, I even introduced them to baseball.  Plenty of laughs watching them figure out how to put on the gloves and get the ball back and forth between themselves. 

                                            Me, Roma, and a solider at the monument ceremony

 Our new WWII monument

As for the future I just got done planning a 10 day camp that I will be putting on at my site.  Nothing to major just a few lessons a day and American games.  I am still working on the Ecology camp that I will be running.  I also signed up to work at an English camp where I will be doing art projects with the kids, I will be working with my friend Sean who I have not informed yet that I have no artistic skills.  That’s about all, 2 more weeks of school and then the summer I guess. 

Tiffany is due any day now with my nephew Tucker.  Looking forward to getting the good news, wish I could be there and really wish Tom could be there as well!  Wish everyone the best, love hearing from anyone.  Hope all is well.

Bob