Practicing for Pregnancy

Not only do I get hardcore drugs, but a coloring book as well.

I get to practice the habit of consuming no alcohol for 9 months because of two letters… TB also known as Tuberculosis. I had a TB skit test done two weeks ago at language refresher. So this past week at my medical check-up, I got the drugs that will get rid of the TB in my body. Now don’t get to worried about me, I only have inactive TB which means I was exposed to a person with active and Peace Corps takes the health of volunteers pretty serious which means I get super preventive care.

So let me break down my week by the days for you.

Monday & Tuesday:
Normal days at school. They actually went pretty well, but it could have been me in a really good mood because I knew I had a 5 day weekend coming to me. Tuesday after school before getting on the overnight train, Val and I decided to make some authentic potato pancakes. We were successful and also successful of flooding my kitchen floor.

Finished the pancakes and then Val decided to rinse out a bowl before we started to feast on the meal. She rinsed turned off the water, then turned me and asked, “What is that noise?” Well somehow a pipe that brings the warm water to the sink from the bathroom broke which caused a Niagara Falls situation under my sink. The first think I yelled was “Oh my god, we need a Ukrainian!” Before running to the hall way, the thought of turning of the water came to mind. I went into my bathroom and switched it off. Not too much water came out, but enough to be mopped up and ringed out in a bucket.


Val and I cooking moments before flooding my kitchen.

I called my counterpart to let her know of the issue before headed to the train station at 8:30pm to catch the overnight train to Kiev. I got my train without any problems. Boarded, made my bed, and then climbed up into it to read for the rest of the night.

Wednesday:
Rolled up into Kiev around 6:05am. I got off and waited in the huge train station for one of my other PCV friends to show up. Ashley arrived by 6:30am which we decided was a perfect time to indulge ourselves with McDonald’s breakfast. A bacon egg and cheese has never tasted so good. Finished up and took the 10 minute walk to the Peace Corps office. I dropped my stuff off in the PCV lounge and then got a nice hot shower before my long day of medical checkups.

10am X-rays to make sure I don’t have active TB in my lungs. I got X-rays at Ukrainian clinic. Hmm…how to explain this interesting experience? Nerve racking to say the least in a normal situation and then when you add on top of that the language barrier even more stressful. They printed my X-rays and then a woman came into read them. She was super serious and unfriendly. With how she was concentrating in certain areas on, I was only imaging the worst things especially with how much she wrote down on paper for me to deliver to the PCMO doctor. Leaving the clinic, I was positive I had active TB and was going to get sent home from Peace Corps.


RM Oksana, Myself, Melissa and Ben (PCV newbee in a village only 30 mins away from Kivertsi).

I got back to the office with X-rays in hand to finally talk with the doctor about the TB issues as well as my normal check up. The PC doctor first told me my X-rays were fine and from then on I was a lot more relaxed. She had read the X-rays, took blood, urine sample, and conducted a full physical. Oh, good times. When that was over, I only had a little over an hour to navigate the marsukas of Kiev to get to my dentist appointment. By the time I got there, I was worn out to say the least. I almost feel asleep in the chair waiting for the dentist to come in. Overall, I’m glad to have my teeth cleaned, but it also was the most intense and bizarre cleaning I have ever had. It felt like my teeth were being sand blasted with salt water.

After the very long and intense day, I headed to the hostel with Allison, Aidan, Sam, and Ashley. It took us a little while to find the place, but eventually we got there and dropped our stuff. Then we headed just a block down the street to have Azerbaijani food. MMMM…nothing like having ethnic food at ever possible chance. I had a delicious soup and a great chicken dish. After, we found dive-y bar to have a few or possibly many drinks at to celebrate my diagnosis of inactive TB. Let’s just say there was me, some shots, classic Barry White and me putting on a show for all the Ukrainian patrons to see featuring Aidan and I’s slow dancing skills.


What can I say the Kivertsi Girls are goofs.

Thursday:
Thursday morning was definitely a slow one. We got back to the Peace Corps office around noon. There I pretty much hung out with other volunteers until they caught their train or bus out of town. I did get to watch Discovery Channel, National Geographic as well as other American shows since the office has cable TV. For dinner, Jon and I hit up a local Chinese restaurant oh was it so damn delicious. I wish ours in Lutsk was that authentic. I enjoyed one more hot shower before catching my overnight train back to Kivertsi which departed Kiev at 9:10pm. Finished the book I was reading before going to sleep and got cozy for a pretty comfortable night’s sleep.

Friday:
Got into Kivertsi at 6:05am. I walked back to my flat. Unpacked my bags, tried to clean up around the place. Later in the afternoon, I headed over to Melissa’s place in Lutsk. The Volyska crew (my local PCV friends) got together for a pasta dinner (Dominic, Jon, Melissa and myself). We pretty much just had a nice laid back night.


Out Melissa's flat's window at night.

Saturday:
We met our new regional manager at a local pizzeria for lunch. She seems super on top of things as well as nice. I’m looking forward to working with her in the future. After lunch, a group of us head back to Melissa’s to hangout for the afternoon. Laura and Andy (Rivne Oblast which is roughly 1 hour directly to the east of Lutsk) came to go out for dinner. Laura also found out she has TB like me at language training so this was our last hoorah for awhile with the group. We went out for a nice Ukrainian dinner and then chilled at Melissa’s flat for the second night in a row.

Sunday:
Woke up a little before 9 today. Melissa being the great hostess she is made everyone a very nice spread for breakfast. We all got moving around 11:30 to get back to our own sites. This afternoon, I have just been trying to relax and get some things done around my flat. For the most part, I have read and watched a movie (Finding Neverland with Jonny Deep and Kate Winslet; 2 thumbs up). I got a bit of a cold so just trying to have a low key Sunday before another crazy school week starts tomorrow.

Well I hope everyone has a great Super Bowl Sunday. I’m pretty sure you can guess which team I’m pulling for. Love and miss you all.

Kate