I love this photo.

My brother is in the red helmet.

Playlist

This week I've been thinking about creating an Ohio-themed playlist. This is what I've gathered so far, I'll give it a listen over the weekend to see if it works.

The National, “Bloodbuzz Ohio”

Sun Kil Moon, “Carry me Ohio”

Loretta Lynn, “Van Lear Rose”

James Brown, “Get up Offa that Thing”

Scissor Sisters, “Laura

The Pretenders, “My City Was Gone”

Kid Cudi, “Cleveland Is The Reason”

Modest Mouse, "Ohio"

Gillian Welch, “Look at Miss Ohio”

Ohio Players, "Love Roller Coaster"

The Black Keys, "Ohio"

The Breeders, "Tipp City"

Jayhawks, "Somewhere in Ohio"

Guided by Voices -- "Dayton, Ohio 19-something- and 5"

Likely to be dropped:

Talib Kweli, "The Blast"

Distillers, "Cincinnati"

Clouddead, "Rhymer's Only Room"

Super Furry Animals, "Ohio Heat"

First Paska of the Week

Cathartic Blogging

First, thank you! Thanks for helping us fully fund ABC 2011. The promise of ABC, the creativity and positive enthusiasm generated is partially what's gotten me through these past cold and cloudy months.

Last weekend we had a quick training for ABC in Kharkiv. It was great to see "old" friends and share ideas. Outside of ABC prep, I had some memorable sightings in Kharkiv. The first was the Kyiv Jets, a junior American football team at the train station. I've never seen football gear in Ukraine and the well-built young men caught me off guard. On my wagon, it came to my attention that all the women around me were sporting heavy blue eyeliner, perfume, and pink polka-dotted black purses. It was by far the largest concentration of Mary Kay consultants I've ever witnessed. Lastly, before heading to the train station my friends and I were accosted by a woman for not speaking Russian in her land. I apologized to her in Ukrainian. She didn't find this response all that funny. This interaction made my chest a little heavier. I can understand her position but I can't agree with it. So many times I hear negative comments about the United States that don't make much sense. These comments just make it more apparent that some people need an enemy to block what's really going on around them, even if they don't know who their enemy is. In these situations I sometimes try to explain the lies but I find that this type of person likes his or her reality and so I can only go forth as an example of what I want to represent the West as.

Yet another change has occurred to the national curriculum. This year the administration is mandating testing in various subjects to the 5th-8th forms. I assume this is the first time for proficiency tests in these forms. Students were forced to buy books of test forms and answers which were quite expensive. The rest of April and May stressed teachers will do

their best to make sure their pupils memorize the answers. It's a tad uncomfortable. Thankfully, I'll be out of the country when the testing takes place, thus avoiding the cheating and what not. I have to admit though, I teach to the tests now too. I'm ashamed.

This Friday is Earth Day! Unfortunately, it's also Holy Friday, a day when, according to the local interpretations of the Orthodox faith, no work can be done. Sadly, I can't have any cleanups or special events this week because of Easter, second to New Years in importance. In fact, this week is kind of a joke when it comes to lessons because Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are devoted to cleaning. I overheard in the teachers' room today that there might not be school on Friday since this constitutes as work. The line between the state, religion, and personal need is very difficult to keep consistent.

Lastly, today there was a eyeglass salesmen in the teachers' room today which reminded me of a Freakonomics podcast I listened to on my 18+ hour train ride to Kharkiv this weekend. In the podcast, eyeglasses where handed out to rural Chinese children. In the study, either 30 or 40 percent of the families refused to participate. Reasons cited included that studying wasn't important to the parents, wearing glasses wasn't fashionable, and that wearing glasses weakened vision. Listening to this I could see connections to my own village. Thankfully people like this salesman exist, even if he has limited knowledge, he can still provide a much needed service. I'd say in every class at least 3 or 4 students are squinting all the time. Some of the girls have told me they refuse to wear their glasses, even although they can't see the blackboard, because of image. The argument that relying on glasses to correct one's vision can weaken the eyes (so what's the point?) is often used too. It might sound ridiculous from the outside, but listening to such logic over the past year has made me very careful in any discussion about health.

Happy Easter!

My landlady has become quite obsessed with embroidery since November or so, she's got me beat when it comes to needle addiction.

Concept of Time

I’m hoping that this typical Sunday is the last of its kind for quite some time. It’s rather windy, with perfectly scattered rain clouds that taunt me; not so frequent that there isn’t sunshine but it doesn’t last long enough for a walk or basketball. I’ve got a to-do list that stretches ad-infinitum but none of it has to be done today and I lack the support to try something outside my experiences of what works. I like reading, researching, embroidering, and playing the “my future” game but I feel guilty taking time on these things before the sun sets.

One of the changes I see in myself since coming to Ukraine is my relationship to time. I still don’t fully comprehend or react the same way that the people I live and work with do, but I’ve certainly adapted to it and it affects how I go about implementing anything new at site.

There’s a mid-career teacher at my school that has a calendar inside her drawer. Every day she crosses off the day with a big red x, voicing a “thank god” or “oh god”, depending on her mood. She alerts everyone in the room that there are 3 days to the weekend or 2 weeks to break. At first I thought she must really hate her job but I don’t think that’s it anymore. I don’t know what she’s counting down to; perhaps her death, perhaps a ritual to the cycle of months of the year.

One comment outsiders make about Ukrainian society is its obsession with the past, particularly the nostalgia that it creates. I certainly have. On the other hand, there are moments when I’m caught off guard by the not distant future. For instance, last month I proposed a change to the curriculum for a class to make it more in-line with national testing that was just announced (whole other topic). The response to my proposal was that soon it would be April, and after April comes May, and in May the school year is over. So, why should we start something new now? Change certainly does take time. I’m always thrown off by this forward counting. It happens with age too, often if you ask someone older than a toddler how old they are, they tell you the age they will be at their next birthday. A 13 year old is 14, a 35 year old is 36 and so on. It’s almost as though the present doesn’t exist.

This approach is like a red flag for Peace Corps volunteers, we can easily point at the “problem”. We can show how to properly plan. Over the course of Peace Corps’ presence in Ukraine, the goal of passing along skills and making processes more sustainable has had successes, but much more slowly than someone on the outside would expect. The notion that tomorrow is far away and that we should wait for action until then is deeply ingrained. Problems are patched over, the root never pulled out or the idea of “prevention” ever instilled. I can’t even imagine the horror an efficiency expert would experience here.

Where am I going with this? What conclusions can I draw? I guess I want to stress the absence of seeing now as the moment. The sacred nature of the life-cycle as fate: you’re a child, you become a beautiful young woman, you marry before your looks go, you have a child that is raised by your mother because you’re too young to be established with a career, you establish yourself at your job and endlessly fuss over your child in hope of success, the child enters a university and marries, a year later your husband dies of a heart-attack, you raise your child’s child, you retire at 55, with retirement you watch and scold your grandchild until your heart gives out as well.

I’m not trying to be disrespectful, this is life. It can’t be altered unless contaminated by outside influences. I’m in a way a poison, showing off my checklists and desire to be constantly evolving. I fail to always be culturally sensitive, to be compassionate.

National English Olympiad

Last month I really lucked out. Thanks to fellow volunteers, I was selected to be part of the American jury at the national competition for English as a foreign language in Ukraine. The competition is taken very seriously and Peace Corps is extremely proud to have been invited by the administration to create and administer the test.

Every school in the country participates in olympiads which are tests of school subjects. The best students then go on to a regional and state competition. The winners of the state (oblast-wide) competitions are invited to attend the national olympiad that takes place in a different city every year. No one complained when they found out that the 2011 sponsor was Yalta, considered one of the most beautiful cities in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union.

It was wonderful to interact with some of the country’s brightest youth. Though as members of the jury we had to keep our distance from the contestants, it was meaningful for me to witness their skill and ability to use original thought.

Here are some pictures from the opening and closing ceremony along with the “School of the Future” which hosted us.

Available After-School Clubs at the School of the Future, as someone who's tried and failed more times than I can count to start programs this array is dehumanizing.

ABC, one more time

Courtesy of my friend Sam K:

Every day I wake up grateful for the quarter degree of warmth gained overnight. Though the temperature is a bit slow to respond (apocalypse realized – it snowed in Ukraine last week!), these days are ticking away quick like wildfire. While I’m rooting for Spring and Summer to sweep in, I’m forever walking around with a bee in my bonnet and a nervous pit in my gut because, well, we’ve still got funds to raise if we want to make this camp a reality!

Here’s the thing: If we don’t raise all of the $5,778 needed to fund ABCamp – we won’t receive any funds at all! And then we’re left in just about the worst place we could be – with no summer plans and a broken promise.

Luckily, there is a season: TAX SEASON! As the Turbo Tax-chaos comes to a close and before you’re brain powers down to the prospect of money entirely, don’t forget that any donation you make to help support ABCamp is 100% tax-deductible.

We’ve been working so hard these past few months to help put together funds necessary for our camp and we’re more than halfway there. We have a beautiful website/blog that has reached nearly 2,000 views. It’s clear, the word about ABCamp 2011 is out – now all we’ve got to do is make good on our promise to get funding.

You can make a donation here:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=343-206

ABC2011: ACTION >>> BRINGS >>>> CHANGE

With every good wish,

Samantha K.

I really want to steal these.

my landlady's recipe books

Yalta

In March I had the pleasure of visiting Yalta in Crimea. Here's a photo roll of some of my pictures from the city.

Inside our hotel there was this copy of a painting of the three brothers of Rus, it's one of my favorites.

The Boardwalk

A statue of Chekov's The Lady with a Dog

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built for the Romanovs

"The most beautiful Lenin statue in all of the Soviet Union"

Livadia Palace, Site of the Yalta Conference

Massandra Winery