Thursday, February 11, 2010

Some Highlights from my First Few Months in Ukraine

• First days with the host family
       Today has been the hardest day so far. The honeymoon phase is wearing out and I’m realizing that this is my home for the next two years.
       I met my host parents, Anna and Victor. I walked into the house with basically a feast waiting for me. We had been warned that there would be more food than I could handle, but this exceeded my expectations. It was nice of Anna to go to all that work. It’s pretty hard moving in with strangers, especially strangers who speak a different language. Since I don’t speak Ukrainian yet and they don’t speak English, it’s pretty awkward. And I don’t really know house rules or norms yet. And our cluster doesn’t have a way of communicating with each other yet while we’re at the homes. It’s hard to communicate with people from the states because of the ten-hour time difference and money. God is the only one I have to really communicate with right now.
       I started to think about the comforts of home and what that was like just recently…..but really I don’t want to be anywhere but right here. I have dreamed about doing Peace Corps for a while and now it’s real life. God answered my prayers. I want to be here in my nicely decorated room writing about this experience. I want to learn new things about this place, help, get great experiences.
• School Discotecha! Friday December 4, 2009
        We had a discotecha tonight as our community project. At the dance, we had a lottery and charged admission. Our end goal of this project is to buy stereo and record dialogues of our voices as authentic English language onto CDs and give all these to the school. The discotecha was actually really fun. (To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it to go as smoothly as it did). A good amount of students showed up, danced and gave money. I even got in there and danced (which was probably funny to watch). It was really fun and all the students seemed to be having a really good time! Three of my five fifth-graders came. They are so precious!             They wanted to dance with me and they paid for pictures with me. I’ve only taught them a few times, and I’ll totally miss them. Peace Corps gave us 400 hariven for this project. With the money we raised, we were able to break even (with lottery gifts and CDs). And we were able to find a stereo for 400. All-in-all it was a success.
• Finally a PCV! Thursday December 17, 2009
       As of today, I’m an official Peace Corps volunteer serving in Ukraine! Part of me can’t believe it’s actually here. All those language classes, language tutoring, tech sessions…and it’s finally here! I’m so excited for this experience and to finally be a volunteer.
• School Friday December 18, 2009
       We had a teacher’s meeting in the morning. It was good meeting lots of the staff. They all seem really nice. Many of them even had stuff to say in English to me. They said stuff like “even though it’s colder than sunny California, we hope we can warm your heart.” It was really sweet. Bozhena said that every Friday the school has an assembly and announce birthdays for the week. My counterpart and another English teacher introduced me at the assembly, and the eleventh-graders held a sign saying “Welcome Ms. Elizabeth” and said some stuff in English to me. It was nice. Bozhena showed me around the school and it’s pretty nice. It’s an artsy school, and they have some sports, and are into music/dancing/etc. And I found out that the school has a computer room and the computers are really nice and they get internet.
• New Years Friday January 1, 2010
        For New Years, my counterpart invited me to her house. It was really nice of her to invite me to hang out with her and her family (husband and two sons). When I got there, I finished helping her prepare food. Then we sat down to a big meal, making a couple of toasts along the way. We then watched various Ukrainian shows, including Ukrainian-dubbed Aladdin, which made me really happy! Right before midnight, the current President gave a short speech. Then at midnight, people around the neighborhood did fireworks. We topped off the festivities with cake and tea (good end to a nice New Years).
       Looking back on 2009, I realized that it had been quite a year for me. I lived in four different cities (four very different living situations) and two countries. I was in three very different situations: being an active college student enjoying my last semester, living at home not exactly sure what I was doing, and being a Peace Corps volunteer. All in one year.

A Wedding and a Birthday....all in one weekend

       This was the busiest, yet best, weekend I’ve had thus far in Ukraine. Saturday was my host brother’s wedding, Monday was my 24th birthday, and Sunday was a mix of wedding and birthday fun.
       I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the wedding. I was half excited to get this cultural experience and half scared that I was going to mess up and make a fool of myself. Prior to the wedding, I knew two taboos to stay away from. One: do not give an even number of flowers (especially four/six yellow flowers). And two: do not give gifts under a doorway. [Samantha and I learned this through experience at a tea party when we attempted to give the hostess gifts through a doorway. The gifts were rejected and we had to move out of the doorway for another try]. But the wedding was a blast! Ukrainians definitely know how to party. Saturday we went from 10am till 10pm and started back up again Sunday at 11am.
       So, in Ukrainian weddings, there are two “best friends.” They’re the American equivalent of the Maid of Honor and the Best Man. The first stop on Saturday was to the apartment of the female best friend Tanya (who’s also the bride’s younger sister). I went with a group of young people, including the groom/host brother Victor and his best friend/younger brother/my other host brother Vasia. One gal tried explaining to me that this first Ukrainian tradition was where a man buys a woman before the wedding. I was confused. What does he buy her? Flowers? Nope, he buys her. In this case, Vasia bought Tanya and gave her a lot of cash. After this interesting cultural exchange, we made our way inside. There I saw the bride Sonya all made up and gorgeous! In America, we have the tradition where the groom can’t see the bride until the ceremony. But I then realized that Ukraine doesn’t do that. They also busted out the alcohol and food at like 10:30am and we made a couple of toasts. We then made our way outside where we decorated cars. It was cool to see this similarity to American tradition (except we decorated four cars, instead of just one for the bride and groom). With the cars decorated and campaign in my system, we made our way to the wedding hall in Chernigiv. When we showed up, there were at least four other couples there to get married also. The bride, groom, and two best friends had a lesson on how to sign the official documents while we all waited outside. There were two rooms for weddings, the blue room and the pink room. When we found out we were placed in the pink room, we made our way upstairs for the ceremony. The bride and groom’s families stood on a rug on the right side of the alter, while everyone else stood on the left side. The ceremony lasted about 15 minutes and included Victor and Sonya signing the documents, drinking wine, and bowing to their families. After the ceremony, we headed out into the hall for lots of pictures, and then stood in line to congratulate the husband and wife.
       Afterwards, I experienced another Ukrainian tradition. The bride and groom, along with friends, are supposed to visit historical monuments around town. We only had time to visit one. It was a white statue of a woman holding a child that I was told represented freedom. Again, campaign and chocolates were opened and more toasts were made. I then experienced another Ukrainian tradition. Chernigiv has this place called “The Red Square.” It’s a big, open square in the center of town, surrounded by buildings, with a red brick ground. The tradition involves all the decorated cars driving around The Red Square three times while honking. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty cool driving around honking with the wedding party as pedestrians watched us.
       We then made our way to my house for the eight-hour reception, which included tons of food, alcohol, games, and dancing. There were three gals at the reception, including Tanya and her best friend, who spoke pretty fluent English. I really appreciated having them to talk with. I was thrown into all of the games. One game involved two teams of four. Each team was given three long ribbons and we had a race to braid them (my team lost). Another game involved three single guys who each sat on a stool and six single gals (two with each guy). In this game, the girls gave the guy our coats and a hat to put on; then we were given food and fed him; and lastly, we danced with him. The game started and I quickly put my coat on my teammate. Next thing I knew, Vasia came up to me holding his coat. “Cold; cold,” he told me, putting his coat on me. Precious host brother. My team rocked this game. That night, we had another activity specifically for the unmarried gals. Sonya sat on a chair as all the unmarried gals stood around her holding small lit candles. It was tradition for the groom’s mother (aka my host mom) to take off the bride’s veil and put a white cloth around her head. This was a sign of Sonya becoming like a daughter to Anna. Then Sonya went around to each of us, put her veil on us, danced with us, and blew out our candle. Then we put our candles on the ground and had to shape them in the form of a heart. This activity was followed by more dancing. An adorable old man and Vasia both wanted to dance with me. Vasia knew two English sentences that he kept repeating to me throughout the night. One, “I don’t speak English very well.” And two, “you are very beautiful girl.”
       The next morning was a semi-celebration. It’s tradition to have a small party for the two best friends, Vasia and Tanya. People joke about how the two best friends will be next to get married. Lots of food was still around from the wedding day. This party was much more laid back than the previous day. Afterwards, I went into Chernigiv with Shannon, Samantha, and Kelsey for my pre-birthday activities. We met up with some people and went to CafĂ© Cuba. I received a nice mug and flowers! Lots of laughter and good times was shared at that dinner. Afterwards, we villagers had to leave back to Kolychivka. The next morning on my actual birthday, my host mom gave me three pretty pink roses, a necklace, and nylons. That day, we met our rotation LCF, who greeted me with a decorated birthday sign and mug. Shannon also came to class with a big birthday cake (totally appreciate all the work she went to getting me that cake!).
       All-in-all, that weekend was fabulous! It was definitely an unforgettable Ukrainian weekend.

Arrival to Ukraine (09/28/2009)

       We arrived in Kyiv on Sunday afternoon around 1:30pm (10 hours ahead of California time). When we got out of the airport, Peace Corps Ukraine staff was waiting to escort us to busses and we were driven to an old Soviet camp. The buildings were pretty run-down and all the furniture looked like it was from the 1970’s. The land was gorgeous and the leaves were just starting to change for fall.
       On Monday, we got put in our clusters. These clusters are groups of five trainees that will be spending the next 10 ½ weeks together, studying the language (Ukrainian or Russian), getting technical training, and other fun stuff. I’m in a group with three gals and one guy. We’ll be learning Ukrainian, which I’m pretty excited about! I know that Russian is more wide-spread, but I figure if I’m gonna be living in Ukraine for two years it’d be fun to learn their national language. We have an LCF (Language Cross-Cultural Facilitator) Larisa, who will be teaching us the language and helping us adjust to Ukraine. She’s really nice and seems like she’ll be very helpful. Our cluster got placed in a village called Kolychivka in the Chernihiv oblast, in very northern Ukraine. It’s super close to a big city called Chernihiv, just a 15-minute bus ride. The only thing separating the village with Chernihiv is a river. Kolychivka is a village of about 1,300 people and the K-12 school has a total of 150 students. I was hoping it would be larger, but it should be easier to teach with the small classes. I’m overall excited about living in Kolychivka. And because it’s a village, they grow a lot of their own food….so it’ll probably be super good!