One of the few things that I actually want to bring back from Ukraine, but can't.
Howdy howdy all! This week brought spring, which I welcome with open arms. We have had a mixture of no scarf & gloves days as well as days were they both are desperately needed. There were a few days of on and off sunshine. I’m hoping this next week it, because more and more permanent. I think it was Wednesday I woke up to the ground covered in snow. I’m praying that those days are behind me.
From the first photo, you can see what the typical volunteer watches on TV. Most volunteers lack the opportunity to watch real TV. The only time I have watched TV was back in training with my host family which mostly consisted of Ukrainian Idol Competition and Pirates of the Caribbean (a million times). Since getting to site, I only really catch TV when I’m out at restaurants. It is very popular to either have football matches on or MTV like stations that play a mixture of American, Russian and Ukrainian pop videos. I do watch a lot of movies and TV shows on my own computer, but in the presence of a real TV I’m mesmerized and can’t seem to look away.
10 goofy Volynska Oblast volunteers (1 behind the camera) + 1 awesome regional manager + countless others past and present = 50 great years of Peace Corps
In the absence of TV (believe me I do miss my Grey’s Anatomy), I have come to really enjoy the ample amounts of time to read. This week I finished the 2nd book of the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series. I’m really excited to see what the movie will be like. I also read All New People about a woman who grew up in an interesting family outside of San Francisco. It is based on the writer’s life, but is classified as fiction. The following is one of my favorite parts.
“The sad thing for my mother was that she believed too that God shows up on earth as Christ, or Buddha, or Krishna, either to pass the word about love and peace and fellowship, or to inspect the damage that we the tenants were doing, and He or She most frequently showed up in the guise of the lost, hungry wayfaring stranger. Everything and everyone who cropped up in your life was part of the test, as of an emergency broadcast system. Did you handle it—or him or her – with grace and kindness and good humor? Did you love everyone as brother and sister? Even the winos and Russians? My mother really tired.”—All New People by Anne Lamott
Green food and beer as a Pre-Patty's Day Dinner.
What to share about the week. It was a routine week at school nothing too crazy going on. Classes behaved or didn’t behave as normal. On Thursday, I took the opportunity to share the wonderful Irish/American holiday, St. Patrick’s Day, with my classes. I created a word search puzzle for my younger classes and played some Irish music in class. What I enjoyed even more was playing last year’s St. Patrick’s Day episode of The Office for my 10th form class. I think they understood a decent amount for their personal levels, but regardless of level they all agreed that Dwight was a crazy and strange individual. They loved the MEGAdesk parts.
The night before Melissa, Val and I got together for dinner at my flat. We made pesto pasta, and apple carrot salad. It was really delicious as well as nice to just relax and chat. St. Patrick’s Day was always a big deal growing up as a kid. First reason it is my little brother Kevin’s birthday. It is crazy to think my baby brother is 22, but I guess that makes sense as I’m now slowly closing in on my 25th birthday. The second reason St. Patty’s Day was something to look forward to was Rescue 33 Doughnut Days. The volunteer ambulance service in Chillicothe makes super awesome delicious cake doughnuts as a fundraiser. What I would give for a box of sprinkle doughnuts…maybe next year.
Please notice the baba in her house gown across the street.
Scariest/interesting moment of the week: three of the janitors/grounds men trimming one of the trees right in front of the school on Friday. So imagine on guy on a wooden ladder that was so flimsy that it must have been from Soviet times. Two guys down below trying to catch the branch/pull it down. The man cutting was using a chainsaw that was light enough for him to reach out really far to cut while barely still balancing on the ladder. He went to cut through a pretty big branch that also happened to be tangled in the power line that ran into the school. It made me nervous just watching it, I quickly entered the school yard and went into the building. I was pleasantly surprised later in the day when I saw all three men doing some other in project in the school. I was sure that as the man cutting made it through the branch he was going to lose control of the chainsaw and then the men below would be sawed up as well as electrocuted as the branch finally broke from the tree would sure enough pull down the power line.
Saturday night, I spent the night at Melissa’s flat in Lutsk and Jon joined us as well. We made… I forgot the fancy name, but essentially cheese and bean hot pockets. There were super delicious and I used my last ranch dip mixing packet so we would have dip for chips, ritz like crackers as well as the hot pockets. Cooking meals with other volunteers has to be one of my favorite things to do on our down time. I don’t know about other oblasts, but I really feel like us Volynska volunteers have created a little family. I am really blessed with great people around me which saves me in moments of frustration and enhances the good moments.
Why not have an impromptu boy band photo shoot?
Sunday was community English club. Unfortunately, an old man named Slavic who often compares old soviet times to present day was not in attendance. Sometimes his statements are a little outrageous, but I think he adds a lot of color to the group and normally I am happy to see him. We alternate between discussions about different topics as well as watching films. This week we started “Catch Me If You Can” with Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. Ukrainians got a real kick out of DiCaprio when he pretended to be the substitute teacher, especially when he made the jock read French in front of the entire class. We will pick up the second half next time.
After English Club was over my clustermate Allison came to visit. We did some shopping around Lutsk, because she is looking to buy a CD player for her resource room and hung out with a couple of the Ukrainian kids who are close to our age and Jon. It was great to enjoy each other over a delicious cup of hot chocolate. After Allison and I headed back to Kivertsi, we enjoyed a not too crowded marsuka ride home. We got back to my place made some tea and then watched Social Network as well as The Fighter. I really enjoyed both films. Crazy to think of the world pre-facebook and Marky Mark without a shirt is always great to stare at. Two thumbs up!
Today, Allison headed home to the VV in the early afternoon and I’ve just been getting some spring cleaning down as well as trying to knock small tasks off my long to do list. I’m looking forward to doing a lot of relaxing, reading, cooking, and napping over this Spring Break. Hope all is well at home. Miss and love you all.
Kate
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