Mesh Tanktops with Dragon Motifs

I've got 4 days to entertain myself at site this week. I'm struggling with this easy task. Part of the difficulty is my need for some sort of schedule, the other the weather. With the school year, it's obvious to see myself as a volunteer from 8 till 5 or 6 with a few more hours of prep thrown in. During summer, I'm thankful that I'm hopping from camp to camp because what I'm most capable of doing as a volunteer at this time is online work and I hate how this somehow always swallows the whole day and I can't distinguish between what I really got done and what was more in line with "personal business." Because I'm away from site most of the summer, it's hard to have a club or other organization going. I try to get out to the market in the morning before the heat is too bad, and then play basketball or football with the boys close to sun down. I need to work on my attitude during these outings, any public viewings really, because I'd rather hide than be pointed at. True, I do have some basic conversations with some people but for the most part I feel as though I'm in some sort of twisted Where's Waldo.

Last week I was north of Kyiv for Peace Corps' language refresher. It was great to see how other volunteers are developing both in language and site integration. We all have very different sites but the issues we come across are universal. By discussing what has worked and hasn't worked in these various communities gave me new ways of approaching my classroom and pinpointing direct action I'm capable of. It doesn't take long to realize that two years is not enough time to get to know a people and any shortcuts/advice towards what Peace Corps and my counterpart would consider results is a must. At the refresher I think my old training staff was amused by my language ability in part because of my southern accent and urge to use some Ukrainian word substitutes. Lately I've really been struggling with speaking because I've been using so much English and I've gone back to internally translating from English to whatever language suits the locality. I still have no idea what to speak at site. Everyone that I speak to at site says they are speaking Ukrainian though that is clearly not the case. For me, it's really hard to blend Russian and Ukrainian because I don't know what vocabulary to borrow from each. With that, speaking Ukrainian always causes me to bust out a Slovak word or two. It was great at the refresher to learn a more professional language for working with NGOs but at the same time I worry that that vocab is all a bit too esoteric for my surroundings.

After the refresher, I made a quick stop at Chernigov. About half of Peace Corps trainees train in this region but since I was near Kyiv this was my first time. It's famous in the history of Kievan Rus', the connection that makes Ukraine and Russia so intertwined as a people. I've included some pictures of the churches and monasteries.


Other news, during the refresher I read the airport read Three Cups of Tea. Sure, it isn't the best journalism but it still was an encouraging story. What I took away from the novel is exactly what I wanted out of it; in order to improve the quality of life of a people the change must come from its local capacity.

I also had a discussion with my landlady this week. It was very difficult for me to communicate what I'm feeling about living with her. She is a wonderful person and has great intentions. The disconnect I can currently sum up in two parts. First, what she was hoping for from me was more in line with that of receiving a foreign exchange student. I, though open to being a part of the family, helping out, and giving them language instruction do not want to be seen as a teenager without the capacity to care for herself. I'm here on a professional basis and do not request maternal nagging. Second, Ukrainian homes are different from what I'm used to. Perhaps because the US is an expansive country, Americans grow up used to a lot of space both personally and physically. Here, generations of families live together and depend on one another. It's okay for a family to share one bed. Therefore, though I'm extremely thankful for having a room to put my stuff in and a lot of modern amenities, not having a space to call my own is very hard psychologically.