A month already?!

(October 23, 2009)

Was it really just two weeks ago when I posted my last blog entry? Time really flies here and now I’m getting ready to celebrate my first month in Ukraine. I have more pieces of news in a two week span here in Ukraine than I would have in an entire season back in the States. The life of a Peace Corps Volunteer is extremely exciting and fast paced. I know that words cannot convey the complexity of this idea, but I must try. When I say that this is the most difficult think that I’ve ever done, I mean just that. I’m not exaggerating to make this narrative more interesting. Since my last post, I’ve spent a lot of time on the emotional roller coaster that I previously referenced. Sometimes my mood will go from depressed to elated two or three times in a day. But that’s normal and is all part of the cultural adaptation process. Last week was rough, but as I write this, I am well and am smiling. Each additional week brings more and more cultural success, which means that it’s easier and easier for me to live here. Culture shock and cultural adaptation are processes that do not happen overnight, not at all! The steps look something like this: 1) honeymoon stage (everything is new and wonderful), 2) cultural shock (it makes no sense why they do things that way), 3) cultural adjustments (well, it’s not better or worse, it’s simply different) and so one. I’m working through step three right now. :-)

Well, as you know, I have tons of news, tons of information, tons of stories to tell you, but the statistics say that your average attention span is seven minutes… I figure that I’ve already killed at least a minute and half of it! ;-) I’m going to start out by describing my daily routine, as a lot of people have asked about that. So, what does a Peace Corps Trainee really do all day?

I usually get up everyday around 7:30. Hot water is not a given here and so people shower less often. That doesn’t make them less hygienic, though. Our hot water tank has about two minutes worth of hot water and so I shower (Marine style) about twice a week. I do however wash my hair almost everyday. My host mother always makes breakfast for me, although I always assure her that she doesn’t need to prepare anything for breakfast. I can usually get away with yogurt, cheese, a banana and a nice cup of hot čaj (tea), although she always wants me to eat more.

We have lessons everyday except Sunday. We usually start around 9, although we’ll start earlier if we have any special activities planned for a specific day (like a field trip). Remember that PCTs are organized into “clusters” of about five trainees each. There are four other Americans in my cluster (which is Borova, the village I’m in). We have four hours of Ukrainian a day. These lessons are held at our LCF’s (Language and Cultural Facilitator) apartment. Besides the Ukrainian, we have security sessions (how to stay safe), medical sessions (how to stay healthy), cross cultural sessions (we learn about Ukrainian cultural under as many aspects as possible) and technical sessions (how to perform our PC job). We only have a half day of classes on Saturday and then the rest of the weekend is ours. What does this mean? This training period is busier for us than when we’ll be full fledged PCVs! So, I leave the house around 8:50am, have four hours of language, a two hour lunch break, another hour of something, maybe a field trip and then I’m home for dinner around 6 or 7pm. I eat with my family, chat with them over tea, watch the news with them, and then write in my journal, write letters and if I have time, work on my language homework. I don’t get into trouble for not doing it as long as I explain why in Ukrainian. The exercises in our language book are very elementary for my level of Ukrainian and it’s almost not worth my doing them – so I read books in Ukrainian, write letters in Ukrainian and try to converse as much as I can with whomever I encounter.

I have three specific pieces of news to tell: teaching, church and Kyiv.

So, I didn’t come to Ukraine just to learn the language and the culture. My primary mission is to teach English! Those technical sessions teach us about the Ukrainian school system and they furthermore teach us how to teach! I didn’t have time to talk about my experiences at school last time because I wrote my blog the night before I taught my first lesson. Listen to this:

“Good morning, teacher. We are very glad to see you!”

This is the chorus that I hear from my standing students as I enter the classroom and greet them. I have to admit, were it not for my students, I wouldn’t know what I’m doing here. They are my joy. My class is 11-v (v is the third letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, а б в), which is undeceivingly eleventh grade. They are some of the nicest kids that I’ve ever seen! The second week that I was here, we observed many English classes and this one was the one that was assigned to me. Borova is such a small community that I have my house cousin (host parents’ granddaughter) and my neighbor as students! They are eager to learn English from me and although quite shy at first, now they participate with much less reservation! I teach two classes a week (so far I’ve taught a total of four lessons) but that number will increase. The PC also wisely wants us to get experience with different grades, so the week after next I’ll also teach an 8th grade and a 3rd grade class! Most of my classes are observed and all of my lesson plans are approved ahead of time by our technical coordinator, which is great. She is so helpful and has really given us a lot of confidence to set foot in a classroom and teach! I have a long way to go before I teach a “perfect” lesson, but I’ve already seen that a lot of teaching is instinctual, feeling out the class, and I’ve been hitting a lot of nails on the head. :-) I’m really satisfied with my decision to become a TEFL teacher.

I didn’t go to church the first two Sundays that I was here. I have been reading the Bible, praying and listening to my Christian music, but that didn’t feel like enough. Finally, I got a sign. I ran into one of my students walking downtown and since we were walking the same way, we set off together. She was going to church for choir practice and I asked her which church she attended. Well, there are protestant churches in Borova! She showed me her church, which is very close to our LCF’s house! She told me that it was a Baptist church, and invited me to come on Sunday. I came and was in for a real treat. The service was very nice and I felt well there. That Sunday, two guests choirs from Kyiv had come to visit their brethren in Borova and their performances were inspiring. The service was very normal and included hymns, the choral numbers, poems, readings from the Bible and a sermon accompanied by some other talks. All in the all the service lasted from 10am until 12:30, which I found very long, but the point was that it was edifying to be there. I still need to visit the Orthodox church, but for now I think I’ve found my temporary Sunday home! It’s called Дім Молитви – Добра новина, or House of Prayer – Good news. I do really miss my Lutheran church, though… especially the music. I want to sing “Feast of Victory”, “Let the Vineyards be Fruitful”, “Lamb of God” and “Thank the Lord and Sing His Praise”… Too bad my hymnal wouldn’t fit in my luggage.

Yesterday was a monumental day. During the first three weeks, we weren’t allowed to travel, but that restriction has been lifted and yesterday my clustermates and I traveled in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine! We took the електричка (commuter train) into the heart of the city and from there we walked to Peace Corps headquarters, which is only about a ten minute walk from the station. What a city! I’m written nearly three pages about this trip in my journal and so you see it will be very difficult to describe this trip. I was very impressed with Kyiv. It is a modern city with beautiful classical architecture and many breathtaking churches. We walked around the city all day by foot and didn’t use any public transportation, so by the end of the day, I was exhausted. We visited a lot of churches, the main square (Майдан Незалежності = Independence Square), a huge bazaar and many other places. I guess the complaint that I hear about Kyiv is that there isn’t a lot of green there. It’s a busy, crowed city like so many other capital cities… I was surprised that I didn’t find a decent dictionary there, though. The one the PC gave us is massively insufficient for my grammatical needs (give me aspect!!!). And so after four weeks in a small village, a day in the big city was just what we needed.

I’m going to end this post with some housekeeping points. They’re very important, but I’m putting them at the end so as to not perturb the reading of my news.

-New password: First of all, the PC has asked me to put a password on my blog. This is because anyone in the world can read this blog and some of the things that I’ve said aren’t kosher enough for the PC. (Sentence removed). And so you will easily find out what my password is and continue reading my news!!! :-)

-My address: Please DO NOT write to me using the address in Kyiv. The US Embassy opens that mail and the PC takes at least two weeks to deliver it to us at our training sites. If you’d like to write me (you are more than welcome to :-), please use my home address at my host family’s. They are more than happy to allow me to receive mail here. The address has to be written in Cyrillic. If you don’t how to write in Cyrillic, just copy and paste the address, print it out and glue or tape it to an envelope. PS: So far, I’ve received letters at the Kyiv address ONLY from the following people – Natalka B., Solya, Olenka, Olya Kik and Dasha.

(address removed)

-PHOTOS!: I purposely saved this for last. I’d like to share some pictures with you both from Kyiv and from Borova. I put this last to thank those who have been patient enough to read my entire entry. I really appreciate your interest in my news and remember that I welcome your comments and I welcome your news, too! I definitely want to know what’s new with you all.

(photos links removed)

Well, that’s all for now. Take good care! Lots of love, Matthew