Monday. The last day of language as a cluster. It went really fast. It is nice to know that I will be learning Ukrainian in a less structured environment. Yet at the same time, I worry that I’ll get to my site, be speaking English the majority of the time and not get the chance to learn Ukrainian as much as I want to. I’m planning on getting a tutor so I can continue to learn as well as practice with any Ukrainian that will chit chat with me about the weather and really any subject.
After class, Allison and I were hanging out at her house. Trying to decide what we were going to wear and how we are doing our hair for swearing in. This is when we became life size American Barbies for her host sister and mother. It was too funny. Check out face book for photos.
Returned to my house to find out that it was Katya Day, I believe it is a saint or something. Not quite sure but since my name is Kate which would be Katya here and so is my house mother’s we toasted to ourselves. My babusci also bought me a towel as a present. It is very customary to give very practical gifts. It was just strange that she got me it because that day I had been to the market and not found one that I wanted to buy. I swear she can read my mind.
Tuesday. Trip to Kiev. We went with our link to see an English Language Institute. This will be a place that we can borrow and get resources throughout our two years of service. We can borrow books for our students, teaching manuals as well as educational videos and dvds. At this meeting, there was also two other clusters from other areas. People who I had never met or seen before. One of them was a Turkmen reject. It was nice to get to chit chat with him and see how he adjusted coming to Ukrainian after also thinking he was headed to Turkmenistan. It will be nice to have mingling time in Kiev to get to know some more people.
We also stopped by the Peace Corps office, which meant MAIL. I starting to think my cluster is jealous of my amazing friends and family because I got seven letters this time (2 from my pops and 1 from KS, Ruthann, Bre, Meg Holland, and Mandy. With last week and this one being such an emotional roller coaster it was nice to be able to read about home and hear some funny stories. Again, Bre Parra wins with the most amusing and inappropriate stories. Are we really surprised though, love you Bre.
Wednesday. Met with mayor of our village. This is the woman who selected our host families and facilitated things between Peace Corps and the schools. We thanked her for her work and said we hope that the relationship between PC and the villages continue.
After that I had a little break before my last 1 on 1 tutoring session with my LCF. We did a mock LPI and tried to refine the little Ukrainian I know. After I decided to stick around, my house all afternoon and attempt to study while also starting to pack.
For dinner, there was a big feast to celebrate my host brother’s birthday. It was funny because he was around before we ate but then headed off with his friends before we actually started to eat. Regardless, we had a nice meal and enjoyed shooting the shit about the very few topics I can talk about in Ukrainian.
Thursday 8am was the time that my LPI was suppose to start, but it snowed probably 3 inches over night which slows down transport so the interviewer was 45 mins behind scheduled. The man who interviewed me was very nice but his very wide open questions caught me off guard. So I felt I stumbled because I did not know what topic to choose. I was able to understand what he was asking and throw together some Ukrainian in improper grammar to fill the time of the interview.
Allison’s interview was after mine. When she finished she came over to my house and we shaved our legs in celebration of making it through language training. OMG I forgot the feeling of soft legs in a pair of jeans. Hopefully this new state of my legs will increase my chances of finding a Ukrainian husband. ;) Just kidding mom. Then we headed about to our language house to have written exams over safety & security, health, and PC policies. They were open book. It was more just a way of reviewing the material than an actually quiz.
Allison and I think headed in to Chernivhiv to buy supplies for our community projects aka 4 kilos of candy. After we headed over to the internet café for a little enjoyment of technology before catching a marsuka back to our village.
Friday. English Fair (our community project). Allison came over in the morning and we finished coloring the signs for the UNO and Bingo tables. Around noon, we headed to the school to eat lunch and pay off our lunch charges. At lunch, Laura had told us that she went into the school to hang up signs to make sure students remember the fair was today and our English teacher told her that he was not sure if we could use the gym. We had also heard rumors through Jon’s little brother that some students got the impression that we were throwing a party for the teachers and not the students.
So from first getting to school and setting up, we weren’t too confident how the English Fair was going to come off. But at 3pm kids slowly started entering. They were shy and hesitant at first but then with our prizes of candy it didn’t take them too long to get involved. We had a decorating booth with a huge paper Christmas tree that students could make ornaments for, Uno table, bingo table, slide show on my pc of our own photos showing our families, hobbies, etc. about the states, raffle table and the biggest hit of the night a cake walk like game where two students would try to beat the other in calling out the item on a flashcard in English.
At one point, I counted in between 50-60 students. In a small community, this was a pretty great turnout. We also had teachers of other subjects participate as well. We had two of our link mates from the next small village over who helped us run it. We were all very happy with the turnout of the night. We also presented 2 resource books to the ENG teacher of the school. We made it out of our lesson plans we had conducted as well as ways to spice up teaching ENG with fun and interactive games. We also purchased a book of short stories that included exercises and compression activities for him to use with different level of students.
After cleaning up, the group of volunteers headed over to my house to have a celebratory drink of beer or wine. It was also nice time to kick back, enjoy each other’s company because we finally have everything completed and soon will be spread all across Ukraine at different sites. Our link mates had to leave around 7pm to get the last marsuka back to their village. My cluster stayed for probably another hour and half. We watched some episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philly” tv show. It has become a cluster favorite considering Allison owes all 4 seasons that are out on dvd. A song from one of the episodes “Day Man” has become the unofficially theme song of our cluster. People headed back around 9, Allison stuck around for a few games of UNO with my little host sister before calling it a night.
Saturday. This morning we had our last official cluster J meeting to debrief our community project as well as our technical training. Our TCF said she thought our English Fair went really well and that she had a good time helping us run some of the activities. She told us that we have a very positive group and warned that the first two weeks at our sites will be challenging and to keep our heads up. Overall, I think I ended up in a very gifted cluster. We are all very different yet similar in ways. I think we all have our own styles but none the less make great PCVs.
The rest of the day, I’m going to head into Chernivhiv to print some photos for a small album for my host family as a thank you gift. Also might buy each of the ladies in my family a flower. Then going to hang out with Team America (self given nickname for our cluster) and other trainees at the internet cafe.
Tomorrow. Will be a day of laundry, packing and enjoying the last hours with my host family. Monday morning we will be picked up at 9am and bused to Kiev. I’m sure it will be emotional yet very exciting. Then on Thursday I’ll head out to my site without my cluster to find my new home. During training there have been moments when I felt on top of the world while other moments I questioned my ability to be able to contribute to my future site.
A few words that really sum up training for me are perseverance, flexibility and sense of humor.
Perseverance to keep trying even when it feels like you don’t know how to speak the language or simple things such as catching the right marsuka home.
Flexibility to roll with it all. Training provides you with amazing resources yet at the same time strips you of your independence. There are moments that go completely opposite of how you “think” they should. Don’t fight it just go with the flow.
Last one and probably what I would say is the most important is maintaining a sense of humor. There have been so many situations where I have been frustrated but been able to flip frustration into laugh. Like having “poop” issues and instead of being embarrassed just make it into jokes and cry with laughter instead of just normal tears. As well as times I tried so hard to use my small Ukrainian knowledge and horribly messing it up. Like trying to tell the bus driver thank you after getting my change and confidently asking him how are you instead.
So that’s a lot for right now. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. It seems a lot more like Christmas time now that we have snow here in my little village. Dad wish we could snowmobile over here. I’m out for now, hopefully I will get to post while at the swearing in ceremonies. Later YOs!
Not enough time to proofread, don't judge.
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