I have made it to Ukraine. Looked out the window while landing Kyiv, didn’t look too much of a foreign land. But once getting to their customs station in the airport and trying to make sense of all the letters that do not appear in our alphabet I soon realized I was far from home.
Dealing with customs wasn’t that much of a hassle. I was the last one threw and also the one with a missing bag. Dealing with the lost & found people probably took a whole hour but they were polite and helpful. Leaving the airport, I was one piece of luggage short but excited to be heading to the Ukraine Peace Corps Head Quarters office with the rest of the Turkmen rejects.
We got a lot of paper works, and shots out of the way. Signed my John Hancock as if someone thought I was famous and then took two shots in the left arm and one in the right. I had a few minutes to send out a few emails. Then we all headed back to the conference room for more info and dinner. Nothing like getting a chicken Hawaiian pizza in Ukraine, pretty good I must say.
Around 8pm, we headed to our hotel for the night. Let’s just say the lobby tricked us all by looking pretty sheek and then we got to our floor it seemed like an aged building from the movie “the shining.” (I’ll show you the photos some other time.) My roomie Kathleen and I settled in and got some much needed rest. In the morning, I want to say I conquered my first feat as a PCT, I managed to shower in a very interesting set up of a bathroom. Let’s just say there was a faucet that was used for both the shower and the sink. I almost fell from the elevated shower base buck-naked taking the shower curtain with me but somehow I managed to regain my balance.
After meeting up with the group in the lobby, we all headed back to the PC office to meet with a PCMO (Peace Corps medical officer) and TEFL director. In the four hours of information given to us I took away three main pieces of information: 1 visiting Ukrainian doctor for poops, it might end up as an unfortunate and unnecessary rectal exam so always call PC docs first, 2 using the hand gesture that suggests you are going to “pound” someone means sexual intercourse in Ukraine, and 3 serving as a Peace Corps Trainee/Volunteer means you are pretty much a “rock star without the benefits.”
We headed out at noon to get dropped at our PST (pre-service training) sites. I am in a small village of 2,000 people that is Northeast of Kyiv. I and three other PCTs headed out this way. The bus pulled alongside the road and next thing I was greeted by my host dad, grandmother and sister. They were friendly but very quiet. I could tell that the 10 year old little girl was pretty excited to have her family host me for the next two and half months. The parents, Kate and Valik are in their late 20s-early 30s, Deanna, the little girl is 10, Vala, the grandmother is 49, and young uncle Artom is 23. This is my new family.
We loaded up my stuff and drove what would have been only a 5 minute walk. Along the way, I could spot four Americans walking down the road. Not really having met them I gave them a little wave from the car. We actually only stopped a few houses pass them so they walked back to my house to introduce themselves. Tomorrow I will meet up with them in the afternoon and get the skinny on my new home and training.
Oh, did I mention that they speak not one word of English. Looks like I will give them hello but beyond that this experience is going to be a learning process for all of us. In the five hours of being here, I haven’t used a dictionary more in my life. It was sort of like playing charades with taboo because some words I wanted to use weren’t in my English to Ukrainian dictionary. All is good though. I had a lovely first dinner with the ladies of the house; chicken, potato-like salad, veggie salad, potatoes, and cookies for dessert. In some of our dinner conversation, I learned that they kill their own chickens. Vala showed me the chickens from my bedroom and looks like I might get to help pluck tomorrows dinner.
I shared my gifts I brought from the states. Deanna especially enjoyed the play-doh and yoyo I gave to her. Sat around played a few games of Uno and had some more conversations via the dictionary. Now I’m ready to head to bed to catch some much needed zzz’s.
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