*Disclaimer: the contents, views & information presented in this website are my own and do not represent the Peace Corps, Peace Corps/Ukraine, the US Government, or the Government of Ukraine.
On 9 December 2010, 79 Peace Corps Trainees were sworn-in as Peace Corps Volunteers in Kyiv, Ukraine. I was lucky enough to be one of those 79. After Group 40 swears in this week, there will be over 400 Peace Corps Volunteers serving in Ukraine. So exciting! It’s hard to believe training is over and we are finally at our sites. It seems just recently that we were sitting in language class for four hours a day learning Ukrainian grammar. Though I will miss my cluster- and link-mates and other friends, I’m excited to officially start my service as a PC Volunteer.
The Swearing-In Conference was three whirlwind days of excitement, socializing, and informational meetings. We were given our permanent site placements, met our regional managers/region buddies/counterpart teachers, and learned about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine. Here are a few pictures:
Me with my friends Julie and James
Janira (far R) and I with our counterparts! My counterpart is Galyna, the tiny blond in the middle.
My cluster and our link cluster. From R, back row first: James, Phillip, Chris, Andy, Andrew, Andrew; Kate, Janira, me, Michelle
So where am I now, you may ask? I’ve ended up in the Ivano-Frankivska Oblast (an oblast is like a state) near the border of the Chernivets’ka Oblast in SW Ukraine. My town is a rayon (region) center of 15-20,000 people and I live in the center of town in a beautiful apartment. I’m the first PCV in my town. My counterpart, Galyna – the Ukrainian English teacher with whom I will primarily work – is 21 years old, recently married, and totally great. She and I are really enthusiastic about the next two years. The day I got to site I went to school and met the other English teachers – a range of ages and experiences, but all friendly, funny, and welcoming people. I’ll be observing classes for the next few weeks and will start teaching after the holidays. On Monday I was officially introduced and welcomed (in)to the school community – the English pupils of the 8th and 9th Forms gave presentations about Ukrainian places/traditions/food and their knowledge of the U.S. There were also some dance and song performances. I was presented with flowers, a traditional/ceremonial Ukrainian loaf of bread (Каравай), and a book about my town! The director of the school said some words of welcome and I attempted to respond and introduce myself briefly in Ukrainian. The pupils’ English was very strong.
Loot from presentation at school: book, flowers, Каравай bread, & of course leftover cookies & candy.
After the hour-long presentation the English teachers, school director, and vice principals swept me off to what will be “my” classroom – for another hour of wine/tea/fruit/cookies/sandwiches/candy and Ukrainian conversation. The director speaks no English and is proud of her status as Ukrainian – as she should be – so I am hopeful that my Ukrainian will continue to improve if I talk to her a lot. They are all wonderful people and I feel so lucky to be in such a community for the next two years.
Well, believe it or not, I’ve been in Ukraine for just under 10 weeks. We have one more week of pre-service training (PST) before shipping out to Kyiv for Swearing-In and then taking off for our permanent sites.
So what do we do in our last week (week 11) of PST? Well, the big event is our Language Proficiency Interview (LPI), that determines what our language level is after all the lessons we’ve had. We’re supposed to be at least “intermediate-mid,” but it’s also impossible to fail the interview. If we’re below par, the Peace Corps just tells us to get a language tutor when we get to site. Hopefully that won’t be necessary for me, but it’s nice to know that they can’t kick us out for a bad LPI. During week 11 we also have various written tests (open book!) on Peace Corps policies/procedures and health/safety practices. Other than that I think I’ll be spending a lot of time packing (again – ugh) and thinking about how to sufficiently thank my host parents for being wonderful hosts (any ideas? Let me know!).
We go to Kyiv on 6 December for the Swearing-In Conference, three days of meetings and sessions before we head off into the abyss. I’m most excited to get my site assignment on the afternoon of the 6th. And once I get to this as-yet-unknown site, I will finally get a mailing address at which I can receive more than just letters!
It will be sad to leave my cluster-mates and host family, but I’m ready for PST to end so I can start the next two years of my life as a full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteer.
Thanksgiving is a purely American holiday. But though we’re far away, my cluster decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday as we knew our families and friends would be feasting at home. The meal itself was a untraditional: Andy’s chicken curry; kasha (like cream of wheat) from Andrew’s host mom; cookies from Janira and a torte and mashed potatoes from her host mom; pizza and a torte from Kate’s host mom. We set up at our LCF’s house after language lessons and feasted! But the best part of it was taking the time to reflect on our last 10 weeks together – we went around the room and said what we’re thankful for this year (we’re all thankful for such a great PST cluster/experience and for the opportunity to be here in Ukraine) and then talked about what our families usually do on Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful bonding time, and our LCF, Natalia, said she greatly enjoyed her first Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving feast in Ukraine!
Best cluster ever. From left: Natalia (LCF), Kate, me, Janira, Andrew, Andy
It’s pretty interesting to be here in Ukraine while much of the U.S. is obsessed with eating locally &/or organically. Here, I probably eat as organic as it gets. Usually I don’t really care or think about where my food comes from – I mean, I love locally grown produce in the summers, but I don’t stress about it when it’s not local.
However, I gained a new appreciation for eating locally and organically this past week. I walked out the door on Monday morning to go to school, and what did I see hanging from the fence across the driveway? A chicken. That’s right, a recently-killed chicken (курка, “koorka” in Ukrainian) from my host family’s flock (what are groups of chickens called? A coop?). I went back inside to grab my camera for a picture – it’s not every day that you see a chicken hanging from its feet – but when I returned the chicken had been moved to a large bowl. So I snapped a shot of that. Let me know if you want to see it – I’ll spare my more sensitive readers by not posting it here.
My cluster-mates were kind of grossed-out when I showed them the picture, but somehow I wasn’t put out by the dead chicken. Even better? I came home after language class, went for a run, showered, and before I headed back to school I poked my head in the kitchen to say goodbye to my host mom. In her hands on the counter was…the chicken! Naked. (And by that I mean featherless.) “Добрий ден, курка,” (“good day, chicken”) I said cheerily. “До побачення, курка!” (“goodbye, chicken!”) corrected Anya, with a laugh.
As I walked back to school I contemplated the dead chicken and asked myself why I didn’t blink twice at seeing this dead chicken three times in a morning. “Well,” my inner voice answered, “it’s because – though you know you’re going to be eating parts of this chicken for the next two weeks – you know exactly where the chicken came from. You know just how it was raised – happily wandering the dacha every day with its fellow chickens – and you know Anya will use every single part of it in her cooking.” Every single part is not an understatement: I think I ate the heart and part of the liver in my soup that night. Now if that’s not eating locally and organically, I don’t know what is!
Every cluster takes a trip to Kyiv during Pre-Service Training. This past Saturday was our chance, as we just finished the travel and transportation unit in language lessons. The day started with a 1.75-hour bus ride and short Metro ride into the city. First stop was the train station, where we practiced asking how much trains cost and when they leave. From Kyiv, many trains go all over eastern and central Europe.
Next stop: Peace Corps Ukraine headquarters! Nice offices where we got to pick up mail and see the Volunteer lounge. Then our walking tour of the city began. First we ran into the Kyiv International University named after Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine’s most famous writer. The main building of the university is bright red:
Kyiv International University named after Taras Shevchenko. Love the red!
Next, we made our way to Вул Хрещатик (Khreshchatik St.), the main street of Kyiv with lots of expensive stores. As we wandered along, we came across what turned out to be a reenactment of the 7 November 1943 liberation of Kyiv from the Germans. Pretty interesting. Our LCF was excited, so we took lots of pictures.
Training cluster!
Happy b/c Khreshchatik St. is closed to cars this day!
Khreshchatik St. runs into Майдан Незалежності (Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or “freedom square”), in which stands a tall monument to Archangel Michael, the guardian/patron of Kyiv.
Freedom Square, w/ statue of Archangel Michael.
Some of you classical music lovers may be just slightly familiar with Pictures at an Exhibition, one section of which is titled “the great gate of Kyiv.” Well, we saw that great gate, also called the golden gate, or золоті ворота (“zoloti vorota”). It used to be the main entrance to the city during Cossack times.
The great golden gate of Kyiv!
A short walk from the golden gate we found three cathedrals and a wonderful, old-Europe-like cobblestone street (Вул Андрівска, or Andreevska St., I believe). The St. Sophia’s, St. Michael’s, and St. Andrew’s cathedrals – and their golden domes – are images you may be familiar with if you’ve ever seen pictures of Kyiv. A city with a long and rich history, easily explored on foot or by metro, and easily navigable if you know enough Ukrainian or Russian to ask directions!
St. Sophia's Cathedral
St. Michael's Cathedral, and statue of Khmelnetsky, famous Cossack ruler.
On Saturday we tried out the Ukrainian train system for the first time, as our TCF took us and our link cluster to her home city of Nizhyn (Ніжин), a 1.5-hour train ride south of Chernihiv. The day started with us standing in the aisles of the very full "elektrichka" (short-distance train) – as time passed and stops went by, we were able to sit down.
Chernihiv trains station.
Chernihiv --> Nizhyn!
Upon arrival in Nizhyn, we walked to the Center for Children and Youth, where they teach math, English, and music to children ages 3-6. They also have some older students who study various things there, including traditional Cossack sword-fighting. Nizhyn was a largely-Cossack city in the early times. We watched some demo fighting and saw some other model weapons, including a little cannon and some Viking shields.
Cossack fighting.
Women of my cluster!
We went briefly to an old post-house and museum, which among other things had collections of stamps and letters written by famous Ukrainian and Russian writers. After lunch we walked to the Nizhyn Mykola Gogol State University, where our TCF, Kateryna, teaches when she’s not working for the Peace Corps. As you may know, Gogol is a famous writer who Ukrainians and Russians both claim as their own. A beautiful park adjoins the university buildings.
Gogol!
Best link ever.
Gorgeous fall trees.
It was fun to see a new city for a day – Nizhyn was wonderfully peaceful, and it was a beautiful fall day to explore a new place.
I never thought I’d be so pumped to see/smell/eat a fresh lemon, but boy was I when I saw my host mom cutting one for dinner on Thursday evening. I think I consumed half of that lemon, plain and sour and delicious, during the meal. That plus homemade apple-cherry compote = vitamin C powerhouse to pick me up when it gets dark so early!
Also, while we’re on the topic of food – as often seems to happen when I write these posts – I am now convinced that Ukrainians grateanything they can. What’s so weird to grate, you may ask? Carrots, cheese, okay. But on Friday evening, I helped Anya (my host mom) make an interesting and delicious dish: first she had me grate some soft cheese (kind of like cream cheese). Okay, normal. But then she handed me a hunk of frozen butter and pointed to the grater. “Whaaaat?” my brain said. But, like many experiences I’ve had here, all I could do was smile to myself and grate the butter. Next comes crushed garlic, and then the grater was back in action as Anya had me grate three hard-boiled eggs. Mix it all together, and you have a delicious spread for бутерброт (“booterbrot”, aka sandwich).
Grating so many foods actually saves knife usage and time. I may do it myself once I get to my site.
At last weekend’s Cross-Cultural Session – language teachers do these once a week for links – we learned about Ukrainian values and symbols. Really interesting session – we learned a lot about the importance of the symbols on the traditional Ukrainian embroidered towels (рушник). Following are the symbols and what they represent:
Tree (maybe the most important): growth, roots, 3-layer structure of the earth (underground, earth, sky / hell, earth, heaven), four seasons
Oak: after the pagan god “Perun” (Перун), symbolizes strength (I was particularly excited about this one because my name, Tammela, means “meadow of oak” in Finnish)
Branch: future, spring, green, beginning, new life
Flower: joy, gladness, future
Grapes: community, togetherness
Horse: tireless movement of the sun
Rooster: guardian of new day, new life
Fish: water = life; also, Christianity
Bird: freedom, connection between earth and sky/God
Sun: light, victory, God/all-seeing eye
Rake: associated with rain, connecting earth and sky
Church: faith, spirituality
Swirl: eternity, endless life
Cross: spirituality, 4 arms/sides of world
3 Horns: trinity, sacred fire (purity)
8-Angled Star: dawn, sky, mother of God, forerunner of sun/son
We also learned some Ukrainian proverbs – unfortunately I didn’t copy them down in Ukrainian, but here they are in English. Note some similarities to proverbs we as Americans know:
-“A life without love is a river without water.”
-“If a man has no father – he is a semi-orphan. If a man has no mother – he is an orphan.”
-“Freedom is dearer than life.”
-“Beauty is till your marriage – mind/wit is till the end.”
-“Among people he is Illya [a good name], at home – he is a swine.”
-“The one who seeks for dangers will die from them.”
-“Talk less, listen more.” (Except in language lessons, says our LCF!)
-“If you want to eat an omelet, crack an egg.”
-“A bee flies to a good flower.”
-“Don’t say ‘I can’t,’ say ‘I’ll learn.’” (Another good lesson for language-learning)
-“The one who has fear has God in his soul.”
-“Tell the truth and you’ll make an enemy.”
-“An ox associates with an ox, a horse with a horse.”
More pictures below!
Peace,
T.
My cluster with the "Sunflower Club" at our training school
4/5 of my cluster in Chernihiv's Red Square
Church in Chernihiv, ca. 1201
Street musicians on a lively Saturday in Chernihiv!
Rufus, one of the friendlier town stray dogs. Sometime he escorts Janira and me home. :)
Another birthday celebration with WAY too much food.
Some tidbits about riding the bus (aka “marshrutka,” aka маршрутка) in Ukraine:
1) Be aggressive when the bus arrives to make sure you get on it.
2) There is no limit to how many people are allowed on a given bus – you pack in until everyone who wants to get on is on. Sardines, anyone?
3) If the bus is too crowded for you to give your money directly to the driver/money collector, you simply hand it to the person in front of you and tell them where you’re going and how many people you’re paying for. Quite a handy system, actually. Allows for maximum sardine-packing.
My cluster left the city on the 5:45pm маршрутка back to our village one day this past week and experienced all three of the above. Fun times!
Pictures below, as usual. Above is a video of monks ringing bells in a bell-tower in Chernihiv. Surround sound!
Peace,
T.
Monument to the Chernobyl "explosion" in 1986.
"Eternal Flame" for WWII, here called the "Great Patriotic War"
This week we gained our “freedom” – now we’re allowed to travel from our training site without any PC staff member. For my cluster, this means we can take the bus to Chernihiv anytime we want! On Thursday we had a “field trip” that our LCF told us to take without her. Our task: go to the Базар (bazaar/market) in Chernihiv and check out food prices, pretending we’d have to shop for a week of food – a simulation of what we’ll have to do once we get to our permanent sites. So off we went! The Chernihiv bazaar is big and wonderful – it would be easy to spend a lot of гривня (UAH) there. Produce, sweets, nuts and dried fruit, tea and coffee, clothing, bags, books, kitchen-wear, toiletries... You can buy pretty much everything you need at the bazaar and never have to set foot in a grocery store – the bazaar is cheaper than the store, too. It was a fun excursion and we now feel prepared to shop successfully at our sites.
Busy week coming up: team-teaching three English classes (11th, 8th and 7th Forms) and acquiring a different LCF for the next three weeks. More pictures below!
Peace,
T.
My link! L to R: Philip, Janira, Chris, Michelle, Andrew, me, Andrew, Kate, James, Andrew. Wonderful group.
Okay, I know I keep writing about the food here but a lot of home life revolves around it. My host mom makes me breakfast, and I often help her fix dinner in the evenings after class. Here are some descriptions of recent eating occasions: big Sunday lunch w/ my host family, birthday celebration for Andy, and cluster cooking day. Pictures below, too!
I experienced my first Ukrainian “Sunday Dinner” last weekend. Not sure if it’s tradition or was just for the special occasion (Teachers’ Day, the first Sunday in October) but friends of Anya and Serhiy came over and we proceeded to eat, toast with vodka/wine/juice, and socialize for four hours (2-6pm)! I think I consumed 2-3 meals’ worth of food over those four hours: fried fish (риба); more delicious beet/carrot/potato/onion/pickle salad; fresh farmers’ cheese (сир; SO good!); an excellent egg salad-type dish; boiled and buttered potatoes; varenyky (вареники) filled with cherries or cheese; homemade tomato juice (сік, or сок in Russian); homemade peach-cherry juice (компот); watermelon (кавун); chocolates (шоколад)… It was fun to meet more Ukrainians and show them some photos of my life and family. They all agreed that I look a lot like my dad! This is true. Taught them some new words in English (watermelon!) and learned some new Ukrainian words.
My cluster had our “cooking day” – mandatory for each cluster to do during PST – this Friday. We decided on an “American” dish and a Ukrainian dish, with Andy’s Spanish rice thrown in for flavor (and flavorful it was!). The “American” dish vote was for pizza, so we used Kate’s host mom’s incredible pizza dough to create deep-dish style pizzas – for lack of a baking sheet that fit in Natalya’s oven – with cheese (сир), sausage/pepperoni (ковбаса), peppers (перець), onions (цебуля), and parsley (петрушка). Natalya made Ukrainian пампушки (“pampooshky”), which are like fried dough with chocolate inside. YUM. We declared cooking day a success and decided to try and do one fun thing a week for cluster bonding!
Peace,
T.
"Sunday dinner" at my host family's house -- salad, varenyky, tomatoes, fish, egg salad stuff, compote, tomato juice...
Birthday food! Cream puffs, caviar/tomato on bread, cookies, apples, grapes...
Cluster cooking day: our recipe for pizza, in Ukrainian!
I taught my first TEFL class this week! 8th Form (grade), by myself for 45 minutes on the climate of Great Britain. Introduced some new words like “rainfall,” “sunshine,” “climate,” “wind,” “humid,” “mild,” “average.” I also tried to teach the pupils about comparatives and superlatives. Parts of the lesson worked – they loved the “word swatter” game – and parts were addressed to complete silence. Overall, it wasn’t too shabby for a first lesson but there is much room for improvement.
In Ukrainian language we’ve moved from the food unit to time and weather. Learning ordinal numerals; how to ask for/tell time; days of the week and months of the year; names for weather phenomena. Friday was a beautiful sunny (сонце) and warm (тепло) day! Also interesting is that in Ukrainian the months are named after things that happen in those months:
January (січень) loosely means “heavy snow”
February (лютий) means “angry month”
March (березень) is the bird month
April (квітень) is the month when flowers come out
May (травень) is when grass is green
June (червень) is when cherries blossom
in July (липень) the linden trees bloom
August (серпень) is harvest month
heather comes out in September (вересень)
October (жовтень) is the “yellow month”
November (листопад) is “falling leaves month”
December (гпудень) is “frozen ground month”
Language class is a fun mix of review from the previous day and new material practiced through games, dialogues, and repetition. As usual, more “daily life in Ukraine” pictures below.
My Cluster! L to R: Tammela, Kate, Andy, Janira, Andrew
Kate and I unconsciously dressed in opposite color schemes for our first day of teaching!
Beautiful fall day in Chernihiv.
My host family's garden and chickens!
Grapes in the late afternoon. Host dog, Dina, bottom left.
