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

Photos

 My students and I at our Ecology Festival April 23 
 Our school staff at a winery last Christmas 
 Animals made by my students out of fruit and vegetables 
 2nd formers at our schools New Years Party 

 More from our Ecology festival, recycling relays

 

 Went to Turkey with Mike (center) and Craig (right) 
 Me and Mike and a Turkish guy after an amazing Turkish Bath 
  
 In front of Sofia, once a Church, once a Mosque, Now a Museum 
 My kids and I at our schools New Years Celebration

Sorry these aren't in order and are all over the place, a year without fast or constant internet, my technological skills are slipping.  Hope everyone is doing well.

Bob

6 months later

It has been about 6 months since I last wrote, sounds quite crazy to think that much time has gone by in general.  Thought I would write real quick and give an update about my work, myself, Ukraine, and I guess life overall.

As for work everything continues to go well.  While at times I have been frustrated with the lack of things to do or the lack of speed, things continue to come together.  The last few weeks I have really been able to focus a lot of my energy on work, I really feel like I am starting to accomplish some things, of course at a small level in a small town in Eastern Ukraine but its where I am.  I continued to have my clubs on a regular basis, my sports clubs get the largest turnouts.  It is nice to have around 20 kids come twice a week to exercise, play basketball, and play ping pong.  My English clubs don’t get a whole lot of kids but the ones that do come are very motivated and great to work with.  The last time I wrote we had started the first steps to a school newspaper, we now have completed 4 editions, the latest of which being a double edition entirely written by our students.  It’s amazing how much students can do when they are given the basic resources.  We have also started an exchange program with students here and students in the Black/Latino Achievers Program at the local YMCA in Rockford.  I love working with my Mom, and program directors Antonio and Louis on this project, we are really able to cross cultures and kids through this work.  At night after my sports clubs I have started an adult English class, helping young professionals learn Basic English.  During school hours I have put in a lot of time helping with English classes, usually taking small groups and working with them during their English class.  I also have been lucky enough to find a great teacher to co-teach healthy lifestyles and ecology with.  Last week was Earth Day, we taught ecology classes all week and on Friday helped host an Ecology Festival in a nearby forest.

Away from my site I continue to work with the Small Projects Assistance grant review committee.  We met 3 weeks ago where we funded around 25 projects, allocating $60,000 dollars to different volunteers who will then implement civic projects in their communities.  I also am a part of the Environmental Working group, a collection of volunteers that focus on environmental issues within Ukraine.  My friend Rachel and I will be co-directors of a summer ecology camp that is put on through the working group.  I have a few other projects that are about to take off, but for now I will not jinx them.

Speaking of summer, I have quite a few plans as of now.  I will be planning and directing a camp at my school for the first week or two of summer.  I then am going to Umpire for the Ukrainian Little League tournament.  I am beyond excited to umpire again and get to spend a few weeks helping out and watching baseball.  After that I am not exactly sure, I will most likely work at my town’s local camp (same place I lived last year for the summer).  Toward the end of July I will take students to two Ecology camps and a few students to an English Camp.  When those camps are finished I will head to the capital to meet my mom.  I am beyond excited that she is able to visit.  So far we have planned to visit Kiev, Fastiv (where I trained and have the best Ukrainian family), the Black Sea, and then to my home here in Pryvillya for the first day of school. 

Ukrainian’s weather is finally coming around.  It has warmed up a lot but the cold breeze is still hanging on with all of its mite.  However the change of weather and the longer days have been a godsend.  The difference 4 more hours of light a day does for a person is amazing.  So yea, I have been enjoying the weather greatly.

 I also was able to travel to Istanbul about a month ago with my good friends Mike and Craig.  The trip there was great.  The city has 15 million people and tons of history to it.  The night life was a ton of fun and the people were great.  Istanbul was also where I got to watch the health care bill finally pass (nothing like staying up til 5 am with Mike and a bottle of wine watching CSPAN online)  I will post pictures next time I have real internet.  Not much else going on in my life, I am happy to say that I have quit smoking (yes the culture sucked me into its non healthy ways) but now that I can breathe again and am finally exercising again everyday, there is no going back.  I have also started to spend my free time much more productively, studying Russian again and reading just about anything I can get my hands on.  I recently finished two great books “Shock Doctrine” and “Game Change.”  I am currently reading “The World is Flat;” a somewhat dated account of globalization by N.Y. Times contributor Thomas Friedman. So personally that is what is going on, I have slowed my life way down which is somewhat boring but way better, learning and teaching on as much as possible.

As for Ukraine, the country continues to transition from its recent Presidential election.  The country recently elected a Yanukovich, a Pro Russia candidate who is from the Eastern Part of the country.  It was a big decision for Ukraine, to basically elect a President that wanted to rebuild relations with Russia, as opposed to the opposition who were strong pro West.  It will be interesting to see what all takes place over the next year, already the new ruling party extended Russia’s naval base lease on the Black Sea in exchange for a 30 percent discount on gas.  This ruling lead to egg throwing and fist fights in the Parliament yesterday (check NY Times front page for details.)  The country also is trying to work through budget reformatting, in order to get the rest of a 16.4 billion dollar IMF loan.  Handcuffed by huge economic problems they are being forced to borrow money, however this may lead to the privatization of the water system and telecommunications, as well as a decrease in the minimum wage for Ukrainian workers.  Needless to say big decisions ahead for the young country.

That is about all I have, not sure if that is 6 months worth but it will have to do.  On a last and most important note my mother ruined the surprise of what sex my sister’s baby will be the other day, so I am proud to say I will be an Uncle to the future Tucker James.  I am super excited for Tiffany and Tom, however I am not overly excited that Tom is a Packer fan and that I am going to have to battle for Tucker’s support.  Hope everyone is well, I will post pictures as soon as I can.

 

Bob

Update

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

Home

I haven’t wrote for my blog for some time now, but I felt tonight would be a good chance to catch up. Tonight is my first night in my apartment in Pryvillya. This is the apartment that I will live in for the next 22 months. Living at camp was great, was able to make some really good friends and meet a lot of the kids in my town as well as the surrounding area. Since the last time I wrote quite a bit has happened. Liz came and visited which was amazing. We went to L’viv in the East of Ukraine which was so beautiful, so far my favorite city in Ukraine. The next weekend we were in Kiev, the capital. It was great just hanging out and exploring. During the week we stayed with my host family in Fastiv, which is near Kiev. I got to take Liz to the sauna, to the forest and spend time with my amazing Ukrainian family. Was hard to say goodbye to her again, but now she is living and working near Paris, so it is great to have her closer, as well as only one time zone away opposed to the 8 hour difference we were dealing with.

              Last week I was in Kiev again for a volunteer conference in Kiev. I attended the conference with my counterpart, Marinna. She is the English teacher at school 7 where I will be working. She has been nothing but amazing! We plan on starting a city newspaper through the school. Our goal is to have it be completely run by volunteers in the school as well as the community. With the revenue from the paper and its ads we will donate the money to community projects. Right now Pryvillya does not have a paper, and there is a void for it. So that will be my big project over the next years. Tomorrow I will meet with the school directors to figure out what else I will be doing. I really want to have a chess club, English club, and a sports club. Not sure if it is possible to do all of these but that’s what I am going for. I also would love to teach a few lessons during the week either on environmental issues or healthy lifestyles, the rest of the time I will be hanging out with Marinna during her English lessons.  

             Besides that I have slowly been trying to piece together my apartment, slowly is key to that sentence. The workers remolded the whole place which was great, now I must buy all those random things that bring the apartment together. I live in a 6 unit building just off the main street of my town. I just went outside and it was crazy to see the surrounding area at night, so cool to see the age of the buildings, the street and the area near my apartment!  

 

               Also I must mention that my sister was married a few weeks ago, I can’t believe I was unable to attend. While in Kiev I was finally able to see pictures from the wedding, she looked absolutely beautiful! Pretty crazy I have a brother-in-law now, which I am super excited about, as well as a c ute little niece. 

  So yea during the next week I will get my apartment all set up, meet with the school directors to figure out what my work will be, and then in a week school will start. Kind of nervous to meet all the students at school, but at the same time super excited to do so. It should be interesting to say the least. Russian is coming along, try to stay focused on it but its hard sometimes not to get burnt out on it.  

 

         

I will end here, love to hear from any of you! Take care. Side note, love to get some mail my address is

ВУЛ. ПАВЛИКА МОРОЗОВА 9 КВ 2
ПРИВiЛЛЯ, ЛИСИЧАНСЬКИЙ РН.
ЛУГАНСЬКА ОБЛ.
  Ukraine 93191
(Ukraine in English will get it to the country, the Ukrainian address will get it to my apartment here)
The street I live on is named after a young boy who during the creation of the Soviet Union ratted out his dad for hiding land and money from the Soviet government. The boy was a popular figure during the cold war, communism before family.  

all is well here still, get to see Liz today!!!! We will be hanging out at my host familys place for the week since its the only place I am allowed to travel to away from my actual site.  

All is well at my site, i am still living and kinda working at the summer camp.  The second group of kids (160) have been there the last few weeks and when I return there will be the third and final group.  I get a lot of time to talk with kids, read, and study.  Its been a great place to hang out at, I would be super bored if I was living in my apartment.  Speaking of which my apartment has a ton of work to be done in it so it is probably best I am not living there.

 Looking forward to September when I actually start working.  I plan on having a sports club/fitness club/healthy lifestyles club, an english club, and a chess club.  Not exactually sure what I will be doing during the school day itself but I will find that out soon.  People here continue to be great and helpful!

 Miss my second wedding last weekend, my cousin got married.  Can't wait to miss my sisters and another cousins as well.  Def is hard being away from home and missing these big family get togethers.  Attached is my favorite three pictures from my summer camp.  A lot of people say that Eastern Ukraine is not beautiful but I have enjoyed it.

Hello Everyone, 

Sure maybe a few of you are wondering where I have been.  I have moved (kinda) to my perminent site and today is the first time I have been able to get internet.  I will be living in the East of Ukraine, a 15 hour train ride from Kiev in a city called Pryvilla.  Well a small village would be more accurate, a town of 9,000 people.  People knock the East for being the industrial part of the country and not as beautiful but I love my area, there is a river at the edge of town and trees as far as you can see in every direction.  If you look for it on a map it is on the southern border of Harkiev and Lugansk Oblasts.  I am in the Eastern most oblast, I can see Russia from my house.  (stole that joke from an 80 year old lady, but I find it funny).  I mentioned kinda above because until August 25th I will be living in a summer camp on the outside of my town.  Its been a town of fun so far! I basically just hang out all day and do whatever I want.  I get to eat with the kids at the camp and have my own big room.  The camp is huge, right now there are 160 kids, and they stay for 3 weeks.  They will be followed by 2 more groups for 3 weeks each.  Most of my stuff is in an apartment in Pryvilla so its been kinda frustrating trying to get back and forth when I need stuff, but considering that I get to practice Russian with people a lot, don't have to cook, don't really have to do anything but play all day- I will take it.

  Russian language is coming along, I tested at an intermidate high level when I was in Fastiv 2 weeks ago, which was really excited about.  However that apparently doesn't mean much because I feel like I don't understand anything now.  I keep studying everyday, but its hard battling with accents, fast talkers, unfamiliar topics, and the stress of wanting to understand.  The people at the camp have been great but I really wish I could be more of a help, its amazing how big of a language plays in culture.

  Pryvilla seems pretty nice so far, only having been here a little bit. I got to spend time with the mayor which was fun, and my co workers and director at my school all seem wonderful.  

  Liz is coming to visit in 3 weeks which I am beyond excited about.  We will head back to Kiev and to Fastiv for a few days to spend time with my host family there.  I am slowly making a list of things that will be requested from America, top of my list is 2 baseball gloves and a baseballs.  If there is anything else that you want me to have please contact Liz ha.

  I got a second phone with a new number if you need to get a hold of me +380 99 2618604.

Well I think thats all I got now, its been pretty interesting being unconnected from the internet for several weeks.  I never understood how people could go with out the news everyday but once you go cold turkey you quickly realize how none of it really matters.  Well I miss you all, hope all is well.

Peace

Bob