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.