Half-Way Through!

I looked at the calendar today and I am half way through training! Hard to believe I have been here for 6 weeks. In the beginning it felt like the days were crawling…now they are speeding by like nobody's business and I say to that…THANK GOD!
We are so busy it's hard to think of anything in any sort of linear time. We are required to complete certain tasks and projects while posted here in Myronivca. The project we are working on is an electronic library of TEFL resources for the English teachers at the school where we teach. On top of this we have to create and implement a 3 day English camp at the school at the end of the semester. What do I know about camps? Or kids for that matter? I am leaving this one in the hands of my very capable colleagues who have kid experience and are not so far from the cradle themselves and remember all those fun kid's games and activities.

On an off-beat note:

I wanted to mention that I have never before lived in a town where there were no traffic lights. Until now. Mironivka is a one-horse town, because so far that is all that I have seen. Seriously folks. There are many stray dogs and cats, one horse, and no traffic lights.

Crossing the street is nice here. The cars always stop for you when you are in a crosswalk. Without exception. We could learn something from these people, I think. They don’t smile at you (unless they know you) and they don’t excuse themselves when they bump into you, nor do they thank you when you hold the door for them, but they always stop when you are in the crosswalk. If you decide not to use the crosswalk, you better hurry your butt across the street because it could amount to a nasty body slam into the side of a building.

A Day for Myself

It is a rare day indeed when a Peace Corps Trainee has any time off, and today has been such a day. It's been an awesome Sunday. I started my day early, as usual, doing some homework. Then my host mom and dad left early to go…someplace. (That mystery place they go to every day when they leave the house at 8am sharp, 7 days a week.) I finally found out where it is they go…more on this later.
So the day starts out as cold but sunny. In a little bit it starts to rain. Then it gets sunny again. A little bit later the winds pick up and it starts snowing. Then the sun comes back out after a few minutes. A little bit later and it begins to hail for about 2 minutes. Then…you guessed it. Sunny. Just where the heck am I anyway? New England?????  It was awesome. Yes, I was cheered by the "wait a minute and it will change" weather that is so reminiscent of my home.

I had plenty of time to do some long awaited chores so I thought it was a good time to do some laundry. Notice I say "some". In Ukraine you never wait until you run out of panties. No. No. And no again. It takes way too long to wash anything NEAR a full load because everything is washed by hand. Yup. I am a bona-fide pioneer woman here in Ukraine. In fact, from what I hear, most people…most FAMILIES (imagine the amount of laundry here now…) wash everything by hand. I did a small load a few weeks ago with help from my host mom and it took hours. After the washing, wringing, rinsing, and wringing again, my back was screaming. And I still had to hang everything up on the porch/balcony to dry. I will never again complain of having to go to the laundry mat ever again.

SO, laundry finished, I decided to study some more. Meantime my host parents come home and I decide to practiced some new vocabulary with Tanya (my host mom) while she is cooking, who is happy to help me as long as I read the words fast. Has anyone ever tried to read a Cyrillic language fast…with almost no knowledge of what you're looking at? It's a bit stressful, I can tell you. Most of the time she just yells out the word and I really can’t blame her a bit. I'd be impatient with me too.

So Tanya is a wonderful cook, but her and everyone else in Ukraine cooks with lots of butter. And salt. So much salt I can safely drink a gallon of water before bed and not have to get up to pee in the night. I think salt is the national food.

So, after lunch Tanya asks me to take a walk with her and I am happy to get out for a little bit in this weather. It's nice again, but even if it changes again I'm okay with it. I'm not sure where we are going, but one thing I am sure of is I am walking down the main street in town carrying a chair. Yes, you heard me right. I am thinking that perhaps we are going visiting and there aren't enough chairs to sit on where we're going. Of course, with the language barrier, we could be going to the bazaar to trade it for some dry goods. What do I know? So, here we are, strolling down the street with a chair and I am just laughing my head off because I think "I am doing some performance art" and it sure feels good to be making art again! It also feels good to laugh and be silly. I haven't done that since I left home. Anyway, Tanya took a great picture of me so you can see me with my chair in the photo below.

So, we walked for about ½ mile and where do you think we ended up? On a little farm, with a big huge friendly dog and 2 lovely sweet kitties and some chickens and a little field that has been freshly plowed. I find out this was Tanya's mom's house and she grew up here. Mystery solved! Tanya and her husband go to the farm everyday. Tanya will feed the animals and take whatever dry goods and vegetables they need home, and her husband toils in the earth. It was a beautiful little place with a little cottage and some outbuildings. I had heard that most families here in Ukraine have little farms or small fields of land where they grow their own fruits, veggies, and grains. Ukraine is known for its very fertile soil and is considered the breadbasket of Eastern Europe.

After Tanya feeds the animals and gathers a few things, I deposit the chair in the cottage, secretly relieved I won’t have to carry this back to our apartment. We then walk back home with the cold wind in our faces and I am thinking that it feels really good.

SO, that was my day. I enjoyed every aspect of having a little free time away from the classroom and Russian lessons. Tomorrow is Monday, and I start my third week of training. I will teach two classes of 11th grade English and afterwards, I have 4 hours of language training.

But that's tomorrow.Today, I am going to enjoy every moment that I have left. Good day all.



View from my Bedroom




Me and Mama Tanya



Performance Art with Chair

Castle next door to my Apartment Building

5 Days

Is it possible I have only been in cultural training for 5 days? I was thinking yesterday that it was 2 weeks! Impossible! My head is just about ready to explode. The language classes are really intense. We are learning to speak Russian 4-5 hours everyday. Afterwards and sometimes before, we have TEFL training and go on field trips. I get home from school and I have to study really hard to keep up…so far I have not done so well. It's too much information for my little brain to ingest all at once, I guess. I have been trying to learn to read and write Cyrillic while trying to memorize phrases at the same time. It's an incredible challenge.

Everything else here is okay. The weather is nice, my family wonderful, and the town is very nice. Tomorrow we will meet another cluster of volunteers in their town for cultural training.