Flexibility

            Peace Corps has ten core expectations of their volunteers, which we are expected to follow over the 27 month service. The expectation that has become ingrained in my mind is,  “Serve where the Peace Corps asks you to go… with the flexibility needed for effective service.” Flexibility is the key word when living anywhere outside of America or Western Europeans countries.

            What particular things do I need to be flexible about? A micro example of that would be the emphasis on clean shoes. The women in Ukraine are not only beautiful and well dressed (fitting the stereotype of Eastern European women), they somehow keep their shoes spotless of dirt throughout the day. Every day I walk thirty minutes to my Russian school and when I arrive my shoes are caked with mud. Yet low and behold, the Ukrainian women on the street have somehow navigated around every puddle I apparently don’t see! People here look constantly at your shoes, and shoe polish has now become part of my daily life.

            Let’s not also forget the importance of flexibility when learning a new language. One night I tried to tell my host mom, “I write a letter to my family.” After saying my well planned sentence, she and my host sister Oksana started laughing! Once they calmed down Oksana explained that my sentence sounded like, “I pissed a letter,” to which I also started laughing. Learning a language is difficult, especially when I see daunting verbs with ten syllables written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Then it is important to take a step back, go with the flow and continue the language learning process.

            Currently Peace Corps keeps me and my fellow group mates working hard with four hours of Russian every day, technical training about Ukraine, teaching twice a week at school and a community English project for my current town Vasylkov. Whether the task is cleaning my shoes or somehow pronouncing Russian words, differences are only the tip of the iceberg of my Ukrainian experience. These are only a few examples of all the adjustments I am making in Ukraine and to a new language. At least I know early on that flexibility is a vital part of defining a successful volunteer in Ukraine.

First Entry, October 2010

How does one start a blog? I avoided this first entry for the last month because I felt unsure about how to actually go about writing a blog. Then (for anyone who knows me well,) I came to my senses and realized how much I want to fill everyone in on what has/will be my experiences in Peace Corps Ukraine.

I flew out of Washington Wednesday, September 22^nd, and since then have been thrown into a whirlwind of constant activity. After arrive in Ukraine, we where whisked off to an old Soviet resort located in a town called Desna. After an intense 24 hour introduction to Peace Corps Ukraine, I was brought to my host family in Vasylkiv, a small town 45 minutes south of Kyiv.

Peace Corps has a great system set up for pre service training. The program is decentralized; everyone lives with families in communities with four to five other Americans. We spend three months (from the end of September to beginning of December) in intensive training. Writing the word intensive is no understatement. Every day we have four hours of language, which include extensive new vocabulary and grammar. Every. Day. In the afternoons my group has technical tutoring, which helps us with techniques for teaching English. Last, but not least, we teach in pairs at a local school to practice before we go to our sites. (I will not know until December where I will be for the next two years, but I will post it as soon as I know!) There is also a community project that my group will put together to help either the local teachers/community in Vasylkiv. To say the least, Peace Corps keeps you busy.

I refer to this time right now as camp because it is an adjustment period between America and living in a village in Ukraine. Peace Corps does a great job at giving volunteers the materials we need to learn a language (I am learning Russian!) as well as understanding cross cultural issues.

Here are some the highlights/frustrations up to this point:

Food. Here food has an entirely different meaning than America. I have a lovely host mom (Tatiana) who continuously tells me to eat and that I am not eating enough. The food here is all fresh, sold at local bazaars from babuschkas (grandmothers) who most likely grow things in their gardens. They also have lots of cookies (called pechenya in Russian,) and my group eats an entire bag during our tea breaks in class.

I have a host sister Oksana, whom I refer to as my super-modal host sister! She is very nice, speaks fluent Ukrainian, Russian, English and Italian. It is nice having someone my age to talk to and she helps me a lot with Russian.

The hardest part for me personally up to this point is the language. Every day I sit in class and wonder how it was possible for me to learn German. Russian is really difficult. I get really frustrated because I study and try to speak but the words will not stay in my head! This is when I have to remind myself to take a breathe, remember why I am here and start over again.

Oh yes, and as all my friends could have guessed, I love to teach. It is so much fun to be in a class with kids and teach them English. There are good lessons and lessons that need improvement, but this is a learning experience and I want all the practice I can get before going to my site.

I have wanted to do Peace Corps for a long, long time. Today our group had an American girl visit who has already been here for a year. She reminded us that we wanted to Peace Corps because it was a challenge, not because we thought it would be easy. Even though I get tired, frustrated with the language and different cultural standards, there is no other place I could picture myself now.

On a last note, I have a Ukrainian cell phone. It is really expensive to call the states, but anyone at home can call my cell phone on Skype. The number is:

+38 0932660752

If you have any questions and comments for me please let me know! I will try to write updates as often as I can, although I do not have internet on my computer. 

In my picture to the left I have two important people in my life here. To the left I is Avital, a fellow volunteer and great friend who helps me with my Russian. To the right is Alyona, my wonderful and very kind Russian teacher.