I was NAKED and FELL into SNOW!!

Ok, that didn’t really happen but that is what I felt like this morning. Let me explain…

Today, I woke up at my normal 6:45am. Fumbled my way into the bathroom, went to turn on the bath and nothing. Looks like the water pipes for the bathroom had frozen over night. We have had some pretty cold days here in Kivertsi but none that had threatened our use of water.

I came back to my room was like well shit. I made my bed, pulled out my clothes for the day, and packed up my school bag. I heard my host sister go to the kitchen to boil water for her morning tea. I could hear the water running in the kitchen. Thought to myself at least I get to go to school with food in my stomach (I love my morning oatmeal) despite being a little smelly and nappy headed.

Eventually it was time to brave the cold. My armor was the following: a tank top under cold weather long sleeve t-shirt, sweater, under armor spandex to the knee, pair of long under wear, pants, pair of sox under my heavy wool north face sox, north face boots, Marmot cold weather coat, scarf, hat and earmuffs.

I didn’t get more than two houses away and I felt like I had frost bite. I kept looking down at my legs to make sure I hadn’t forgotten to put pants on this morning. My walk is a 30-35min walk depending on how slick the snow/ice is. I would guess that I probably have a mile walk to school. My house is on the opposite side of the tracks; the school and my house are about equal distance from the center where the train station is.

Walking to school for my second period class means that I won’t normally cross paths with a lot of students because they are already at school. Just be-bopping along, I notice that under other peoples noses it is frosted over because of the moisture and figure I probably look the same. Get to the pedestrian bridge that goes over the train tracks and take my time because I don’t need to record fall number 4. I get pass the bread store, computer club, pass one of the bus stops and headed down the street toward the church. Get to the church hang a left (now I can physically see the school). A group of students are headed toward me. This is when I’m guessing that classes are canceled, but since students sometimes skip class to go to the nearby neighborhood store I think maybe not. Sure enough, classes were canceled.

I figure at this point going into the school to say hi to whoever is there and grab my books for tomorrows lessons wouldn’t be a bad idea. Plus, the thought of regaining feeling in my extremities didn’t sound bad either. I walk into school and make my way toward the teacher’s room. I opened the door. There is probably 15-20 teachers and soon as they see me they start laughing. Not until this point did I realize that the fuzzy scarf I was wearing had frozen. I had it so tightly up around my face and neck that the moisture from my breathing had frozen the front part of scarf. I looked into the mirror and understand why they burst into laughter. I looked like a frozen version of the little brother from the “Christmas Story” I was that bundled with bright red cheeks.

After everyone got a good laugh, I learned that the temperature was -30 below Celsius and when it is or surpasses -20 that is when school is canceled. One of the ENG teachers told me tomorrow that she will call me to let me know about classes. The weather is forecasted to be quite freezing the next few days.

I stayed in the teacher’s room long enough to get warm then headed back home. I made
pit stops at the bread store and post office more for the sake of getting warm. Don’t get me wrong I love fresh bread and checking for mail, but warming up felt so good.

After getting to Ukraine, I’ve heard from other volunteers that Ukraine PCVs often take heat from volunteers from other countries. There is the joke that PC Ukraine is Peace Corps Lite making the comparison to Coke Lite. I would argue with great passion that we may have internet (yet so does all most every PC Africa country) and are more developed country than others, but today I would state Peace Corps Freezing would be a more appropriate name for PC Ukraine.