Sunday, October 31, 2010

Friday, October 29, 2010

so much better



This week was just what I needed. Thanks to the traditional school year, Ukrainian schools typically have three large breaks (at least a week) three times a year for fall, winter, and spring. This past week I enjoyed doing absolutely nothing along with getting some things done that I've pushed aside for way too long. I even lucked out with the weather, the first few days were rainy and miserable, leaving me with no other option other than staying in my room. It did finally get nice enough for some outdoor socializing. I really lucked out in that my host family went out of town for the week, leaving my landlady in charge of the store. I had the place all to myself during the day. I forgot what silence was.



Last weekend I had Adopt-a-Cluster, which is where current volunteers visit trainees and share experiences. My friend Whitney and I traveled to a decent sized town in the Kyiv region to meet with out trainees. I've got a lot of hope for them, I was really impressed with what they want to do as volunteers. It was fun to be in a position of power, telling about where I live and how I adjusted in order to be effective in my community. I like to comment when explaining to people that aren't on the "inside" (not that I'll ever be) that Peace Corps staff is so politically correct that they can't answer anything specific. Meaning, as trainees, we're dying to know anything about where we'll be living for the next two years. Because everyone's experience is different, Peace Corps refuses to generalize. With that, the staff has the responsibility of always being both professional and positively supportive so a person in training is left with questions that can't be answered by present company. Though my partner and I had planned activities, it ended up being nearly five hours of the two of us commenting about our experiences. Our trainees seemed perfectly happy to just listen to us, thankful to hear another side of the story.

Adopt-a-Cluster weekend felt like a completion of a circle for me. It's hard to believe it's been a year since I was in their situation. Currently Peace Corps Ukraine has a policy where we can close our service a month before the two-year mark. Because of this, the people that I had in Adopt-a-Cluster are preparing to leave and saying their final goodbyes. It's weird how many of them will be gone in less than two weeks, leaving the group I swore-in with as the "seniors" of TEFL.

I'm a little upset how quickly my service is, I've got so many project ideas that need more time.





I'm anxious about this week at school. I've said yes to too many little things and now I've got a series of tutoring sessions every day. Yes, it's my fault. I still have elective lessons with each class but they rarely work in the end because the schedule changing and the students refusing to stay (even though their day was just shortened by up to three less lessons). This means that I sprint around the school looking for keys to unoccupied rooms. Sometimes these lessons are effective, but they're often taken over by misbehaving boys. I hate yelling and being physically forceful, but this approach is one of my only remaining options with them. I'm so tired of being underappreciated by the students during class time. Instead, I now have to tutor a lot because of so much wasted time on discipline. I'm disappointed in how little they're progressing and tutoring at least lets me see some results. I'm also tired of seeing students on the street, gasping while loudly whispering my name (I can hear you!) and then giggling. Come on, it's been nearly a year. This game has got to be old by now.

With tutoring, there's a complete disconnect between me and the people I work with when it comes to time-management. As a generalization, I've discovered that if I'm not physically in the presence of someone in my village, they automatically assume I'm doing nothing (they certainly don't ever work from their homes). And, since I don't have a husband that I have to feed and water, I must be really, really bored. Therefore, they're saving me by telling me what to do. I've got to say no. I've got to say no many times in a row and with force. It's one of the things I hate most about this culture, the need to put on a show because otherwise I'm not taken seriously. Then again, everything is a show for my students.


Fear the Pumpkin

Courtesy of NPR

Scoop Up an Ice Cream Ball in Every Color



This evening I'm thinking of gift ideas for my host family and close friends that my parents can hand over to me when we meet up at Christmas.

Before looking through coffee table books on Ohio and the United States, I scrolled to the bottom of my Amazon page to find this thing to the left, a Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker. For some reason, this item really intrigues me as far as imagining it in Ukraine. There are two main arguments that I can think of as to whether this product would succeed in Ukraine. I wouldn't be surprised if the marketing team has considered Eastern Europe, as I'm sure there are warehouses full of them. Russian channels on satellite often feature As Seen on TV products, orders that weren't sold out for Christmas 2003, remember the sonic ab massaging belts?


Argument One: Ice Cream Ball will sell in Ukraine

This country is obsessed with everything being "domashny"(homemade) when it comes to food. It has been drilled into the mind of every citizen that homemade, chemical free, and organic is the way to go. Yes, it is nice that Ukraine is very forward thinking when it comes to the quality of food, but why this is is less expected. For one, the general public is truly afraid of genetically modified products because of the media. I sat through a school assembly where the students were told that if they had genetically modified tomatoes, they would grow pig tails. Everything is labeled "without GMOs" even the water. It's always a delicate blend here between what's actually good and healthy versus myth.
Second, home products are considered safer because some packaged products are known to cause illness. I'd rather get yelled at for wearing a light jacket on a chilly day than face the consequences of someone going through my trash to discover a sausage wrapper or some Kraft cookies. Therefore, Ukrainians would go crazy over the fact that it is "homemade."


Argument Two: Ice Cream Ball won't sell in Ukraine

It's so superfluous. We're talking about a public that hasn't changed much in their habits when it comes to food preparation for hundreds of years (when it comes to villagers). It looks like too much fun. The kids will break it by kicking it too hard. Ice cream, though delicious, is only edible for approximently two months of the year. If you eat it outside of July and August, you will indeed get a cold and possibly die.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Language shapes the way we see

This afternoon I skimmed the article "How does our language shape the way we think" by Lera Boroditsky at Edge. It's insightful and points to some topics I hadn't thought about that haven't been mentioned in other articles that have been published recently. I especially liked its focus on Russian and English.

In the Peace Corps office, it is common for staff to speak in the language that they think best describes what they are trying to express, jumping in conversation from Ukrainian to English to Russian. Volunteers do it as well, but to a much smaller degree. Often I want to stress a word for its connotation; some examples being awkward, exciting, pathetic, and ignorant. I don't know the proper equivalents, the dictionary definitions don't do justice. I never want to be a translator. There's too much power in tone.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Nationalism Versus Citizenship



Democracy is not based on nationalism it is based on universal suffrage, Citizenship and representative governance.

The sooner the political debate in Ukraine can begin to focus on Citizenship the sooner Ukraine can put and end to division and move forward as one nation. one state with a reverence for human rights and democratic values.

From Ukraine Today

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Get Myself Into It

It's Sunday night already? I'm starting to think I stare off into space for exceptionally long periods of time unconsciously because there's no way I should feel this overwhelmed by my responsibilities for this upcoming week. I've just got to respond to a pile of correspondence, resubmit a grant, co-host a teaching workshop and teach and tutor this week before meeting some trainees while enjoying fall break. I'm looking forward to not doing anything for a few days but embroider and play with cows and goats.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

This Week's Highlights

This week has been rather slow in regard to metaphysical discovery:


Getting Heat
Ukraine has been hit by a cold wave which is unfortunate when one has central heating. With central heating, the heat comes on once a year and goes off once a year. Really efficient. Luckily, I have a stove at home so I'm not subjected to subfreezing temperatures at night, but up until Friday my school was really cold. I felt a tad ridiculous wearing two pairs of tights, long underwear, and my coat during lessons in early October. The rumor was that the government would turn on the gas October 15th. I don't know why our school broke this hearsay on Friday. I like how one PCV put it:

When I think about it, I imagine a crotchety old Russian man sipping from a vodka bottle and playing chess alone in a basement deep underground gets to decide when to lift the lever that supplies Ukraine with heat.


Being Surrounded by Fatalists

With the heat discussion, as usual, there was a lot of unbearably loud chitchat in the teachers' room, the mecca of my cultural integration. In response to someone saying that Kyiv has heat because it has to, it's the capital, an older teacher said, "Все равно, скоро конец света." (all the same, soon is the end of the world). For some reason, I found this really funny. I constantly feel like the bright eyed and healthy grinning female lead in a 70s Woody Allen film, a steady pessimistic commentary marking my every move. One thing that I'm worried about with my eventual return to the states is that I'll be less proactive when it comes to decision-making and problem-solving. Here, I''m surrounded by a mentality of predetermined fates that is slowly wearing away at my ability to demand and expect something to change.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Kreschatik After Dark



Strolling the main street in Kyiv on weekend evenings makes countless hours traveling worth it.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Teacher's Day


The first Sunday of October is Teacher's Day in Ukraine, another one of those holidays from Soviet times. It was interesting to see from Facebook status updates how different schools celebrate the day. From the looks of it, some schools really play up the Soviet aspect by dressing as Pioneers. I liked the one status update that said that the 11th form was teaching all of the classes for the day and that the teachers participated as students during the lessons; throwing airplanes, answering cell phones...

My school was really tame. A little too tame for my liking. Though there was talk of going to a bar in the evening, either it fell through or I was left behind. AND there were no cognac shots in the teachers' room, which I took as a given for such a day. I guess I should be thankful that my school is dry. In the morning, students greeted their teachers with flowers and chocolate, individually wishing us health and a good year. I'm constantly taken aback by the generosity of people in my community. There's this one group of boys, eleven and twelve years old, that make sure to present me flowers on any occasion. They make my heart melt.

At school, the classes were shortened. Older students taught younger students while the teachers hung out in the teachers' room. I kind of wished I could see what was going on during these classes but watching the satisfaction of the teachers sitting back and gossiping became my entertainment.

In the afternoon, there was a conference of teachers from the entire rayon. For about an hour and a half, there were some speeches by the administration and awards for new teachers and so forth. I didn't always understand what was going on, I have this problem that's gotten much worse in Ukraine of not paying attention when someone is speaking, especially when it's in Ukrainian. I did learn a lot though, the one speaker was very candid about the children in the rayon. I now know that there are about three thousand students in my rayon and roughly three hundred and fifty teachers. I now know where the dormitory/orphanage is for at risk youth (not in the rayon center where I live) and some of the work social services does (which I didn't think existed in my rayon). After the conference, a folk ensemble performed for an hour. I, and I think most people, had no idea this was going to happen. It was amazing, really good singing and dance moves that make me wonder if the origins of break dancing can be traced to sixteenth and seventeenth Hutstuls. It was a world class production.


Signs made by classes to celebrate Teacher's Day


Bukovynian folk group from Chernivsti entertaining the teachers of the rayon.


Yet another round of flowers attained this week! Don't make fun of me, I took this picture this morning after waking up. All of these flowers are from students' gardens.


Roses from my birthday in their final bloom. Love living in the south!


Delicious Dinner. Celebrated Teacher's Day with these, though I could barely finish them. There's definitely something different about American food and its calorie content.



Earlier this week each class was invited to make a exhibition of gifts from the harvest. The best part was that afterwords all the apples, pears, and grapes were put in the teacher's room.

Gifts of Autumn from the 4th Grade




Lastly I'd like to include some photos from an evening walk: