Here in Myronivka it is ridiculously hot. The weather here is more like July in RI, although thankfully it is not as humid. How hot will it get? Last year the temperatures reached an excruciating 107 degrees…a record high for this part of the world. Some of you may remember the news reports about the wild fires in Russia that kept popping up all over and all the folks who died from the heat. We never heard anything about Ukraine, but it's very close to Russia so they experienced some of the same.
About summer and summer camp. We are on the final day of our English language summer camp here at School 3. Thank goodness! It is just too hot to be running around. The kids are great but the teachers poop out! We are all expected to participate in summer camps around our region once we get to site. I think the best thing for me to do is to arrange a summer art camp…something indoors or outside in the shade.
I remember when I was a kid the elementary school I went to sponsored a day camp everyday during the week from 1-4. The girls did arts and crafts and the boys played baseball and things of that sort. We were in separate groups as well. Funny how things have changed. The boys never made anything out of gimp or wove cheesy potholders on tiny looms, and the girls were not allowed to play sports with the boys. (Not that any of us really wanted to anyway). On Fridays, together with all the participating schools in my city, the big yellow busses would pick us all up to go bowling.
Now, back to the present…
All of us are required to complete a self-directed learning project…something that has to do with language. I, of course, did some artwork. I gathered and sewed together some teabags (for a change…) and transcribed a poem on it I had written in Russian. It was incredible to be working again! I have really missed it. I can’t wait to get to site where I will have a little more time to work.
About projects…we had to do a community project as a group here as well. (The fun just never ends!) We decided to compile an electronic resource library for the English teachers at our school. We collected over 4 M of information! Incredible! We are very proud. The teachers here have little resources for teaching English…so we gathered TEFL and ESL activities and ideas for them. I am positive they will love it. We will present that today at the close of camp.
About summer and summer camp. We are on the final day of our English language summer camp here at School 3. Thank goodness! It is just too hot to be running around. The kids are great but the teachers poop out! We are all expected to participate in summer camps around our region once we get to site. I think the best thing for me to do is to arrange a summer art camp…something indoors or outside in the shade.
I remember when I was a kid the elementary school I went to sponsored a day camp everyday during the week from 1-4. The girls did arts and crafts and the boys played baseball and things of that sort. We were in separate groups as well. Funny how things have changed. The boys never made anything out of gimp or wove cheesy potholders on tiny looms, and the girls were not allowed to play sports with the boys. (Not that any of us really wanted to anyway). On Fridays, together with all the participating schools in my city, the big yellow busses would pick us all up to go bowling.
Now, back to the present…
All of us are required to complete a self-directed learning project…something that has to do with language. I, of course, did some artwork. I gathered and sewed together some teabags (for a change…) and transcribed a poem on it I had written in Russian. It was incredible to be working again! I have really missed it. I can’t wait to get to site where I will have a little more time to work.
About projects…we had to do a community project as a group here as well. (The fun just never ends!) We decided to compile an electronic resource library for the English teachers at our school. We collected over 4 M of information! Incredible! We are very proud. The teachers here have little resources for teaching English…so we gathered TEFL and ESL activities and ideas for them. I am positive they will love it. We will present that today at the close of camp.
SO…that being said, I have to report that in 12 short days I am packing up my bags and leaving Myroniva. I'll be in Kiev for about 3 days where I will participate in seminars and meetings, be sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer (I am a trainee at present), find out where I will be sent, and meet my counterpart (the English teacher at my new school), who will then travel with me to my new site and help me get settled. I can predict now that it will be a whirlwind. That's pretty much how things happen in the PC…everything is scheduled down to the minute and they squeeze every second out of everyday, filling your head with all sorts of information. Three days will pass in a blur and it will feel like 3 hours.
