First off here are some pictures from a while ago. These pictures are from when I went to a school in another rayon (district) and led some classes about American culture and who I am.

The woman to the left is the English teacher there and the one on the right is a friend who came and did an awesome job of translating! It was a great day and very awesome experience to go there, talk and show some pictures of my hometown. I felt like Mick Jagger from the way the kids were treating me, until I realized that I wasn't, and asking for my autograph on their copybooks.

Anyhow, onto the strangest experience I've had yet in Ukraine. Yesterday I arrived at the train station from the coal mines of the East and proceeded to the bus station. There was a long line and my bus was leaving soon and it is cheaper to catch the bus outside of the station because you do not have to pay tax. So with this sound financial reasoning in my head I went onwards to the bus stop within 50 feet of the bus station. Until...an old woman approached me and haggling me for some change and wouldn't leave no matter how much I told her no. So, being ignorant, I pulled money out of my pocket to get to the change at the bottom of my pocket. She then took the money right out of my hands and started spitting on it, folding it, and blessing me. This involved making a cross over me and tapping me lightly on the crotch...at a busy intersection.

I informed the woman that I needed that money back at which time another woman came up to me and very heavily backhanded me in the crotch. Then she told me I was a bad person and I needed to leave immediately. Being completely confused, physically tender, and tired I actually crossed the street while many Ukrainians looked at me, without emotion of course. I do applaud them for stealing my money and then calling me a bad person as it caused me to actually feet I had done something wrong. The amazing part is that this has happened, in precise order, to another volunteer. I don't even know how many sessions of trial-and-error were necessary to perfect the art.

Easter was a good time which still required waking up at 4 O'Clock in the morning to go to a local church and get the special easter bread pasku and other food blessed. Which was followed by going back to sleep before waking up again and going to have lunch with an English teacher and then rushing off to catch a ride with Hailey's counterpart to go to a friend's dacha (summer cottage). Much merriment , food, and spirits were had and it was a great way to blow off steam and focus on the last leg of school before coming home!

All is well and back to a lot of work. I have one project ongoing right now, a project dealing with HIV/AIDS next, and then a library project!

Уолтер Хюс

ул. Молодёжная д. 10 кв. 49

Г. Нижнегорский Р-Н Нижнегорский

Обл. АР Крым

Украина

97152

Walter Hughes

17 Molodyozhnaya. Apt. 49

Nizhnegorsky

A.R. Crimea

Ukraine

97152

Just in case anyone wants to give Chase a package to mail to me. Anything is welcome and I will make sure to dedicate a statue in honor of you!

Walter

So it has been a little bit too long since the last blog post but I will try to give a decent update on my life. My school has been in quarantine for three weeks due to many children getting sick with the Flu and apparently flu shots are not mandatory for school children here. At first, the school thought it would only be a couple of days which then turned into weeks. I initially found this out when the cashier in Sadove looked at me and asked me, "What are you doing here?" I started to go in to my decision to join the Peace Corps when she told me to stop and told me there was no school and that it was in quarantine. I then called my counterpart who proceeded to tell me that about a third of the children had the flu and that school was postponed until further notice.

I then went to Lugansk for Women's Day and had a blast with the people there. We went to a new restaurant with teachers from school and proceeded to dance the night away. The next day was Maslanitza which is an old tradition that celebrates the beginning of Spring and was incredibly fun to be a part of. We met up with Hailey's counterpart and her counterpart's husband and walked around seeing what was available. There were many people selling shish kabob's and there was a large ominous pole in the background with trinkets hanging off of it. Oleg proceeded to tell me it was waxed down and people climb it to win chicken, geese, ducks...or a DVD player. Oleg and I along with another volunteer were then drafted into a tug-of-war match and came in second place which resulted in us being presented a bottle of beer! Very good times were had and all was well on the Eastern Front.

There was an HIV/AIDS conference that volunteers attended with their partners about a month ago that was incredibly interesting and helpful for volunteers to plan events with their counterparts. It was my counterparts first time going to Kiev and to his displeasure the conference was 20 kilometers outside of Kiev. He was great to have along and we are receiving a trainer for the students on April 8th to kick off some HIV/AIDS events we have planned that I believe will be a great success.

I have now received all the funding for my room renovation project and we are getting everything organized and ready. It is hugely exciting and everyone is very excited to complete it and start enjoying it.

All in all life is good here despite the bouts of boredom and frustration that everybody goes through!

I am now in the fifth or sixth apartment now and it is by far the nicest of the ones I have lived in. Life is going well, I think, and I am busy with teaching and getting some projects completed. Everyone at school asked how my family liked Ukraine and there was a lot of enthusiasm about...something. I have finally gotten internet installed at the new apartment which took about a week for someone to simply turn on the connection as everything was already installed. One thing I did notice was that the IT guy setting up my internet was behaviorally similar to his American counterpart in that he perceived himself as Lord of all that is technological, long haired, and pretty funny in his dealings with other people. I am still trying to figure out why he had a bottle of propane with him when he came over to my house. I guess if the internet didn't work he was going to burn me alive... A lot has happened since the last post such as AIDS Day, Christmas and all my new tattoos and piercings.

So pictures.

AIDS Day

Goofing around in the Gym with the Counterpart

My Tutor/Choregrapher

School Dance Competition

For Halloween approximately 50-60 volunteers stayed in Kharkiv to have a little get together and see one another. Got to meet some interesting people and catch up with people I haven't seen in a good while. Had a great time and it was well worth the trip. However, not everything I went there with came back with me.

Hailey and I were on the train in Kharkiv heading to my town in Crimea when we encountered a seemingly nice Ukrainian lady. I help her get her bedding set up and say hello while we are getting settled in our places. I got ready for bed and folded up my jeans and shirt under the table beside me on the lower bunk with Hailey's make up bag being on top of that. Our coupe buddy gets off the train at 3:30 AM and I wake up to her rustling around thinking nothing about it. Hailey and I wake up at 4:45 to get off the train and I realize that my jeans are nowhere to be found and neither is Hailey's bag. Turns out this lady took my jeans and Hailey's bag forgoing the expensive camera in my satchel bag or my wallet and passport in my jacket. This of course was incredibly frustrating but life will go on and I now have an arch-nemesis in this world in the form of a middle-aged Ukrainian woman. The one thing I don't get is why would you steal a pair of jeans? There are so many different waist and length sizes that it would be difficult to fit just anyone where as my coat was one of three possible sizes.

Anyway! Pictures!

This is my current apartment on Lenin St.

Sidewalk going along Lenin with all the fences and flowers.

This is the main street by me where all my shops are.

The man, the myth, the legend...Lenin. That is the House of Culture in the background.

The Administration Building for my Rayon (County)

This is the soccer stadium about 2 minutes from my house. The fenced off portion is for mini-soccer games.

Path from my house to the bazaar.

This is further down my street.

The street outside of my Bazaar.

That's all for now but I will update soon.

Here is my address in case any awesome people want to send awesome things!

уолтер хьюс

ул. ленина д. 17 кб. 4Г. нижнегорскийовл. АР Крым украйна97101

Walter Hughes17 Lenin St. Apt. 4Nizhnegorsky A.R. Crimea PN Nizhnegorsky Ukraine97101

I finally got around to starting a blog because I have a decent internet connection and so on. I am now transmitting from my fourth apartment in as many months. It is an awesome one with 2 bedrooms, one with Thomas the Train accouterments, and obviously a decent internet connection.

Funny story for the day.

I was trying to get the water boiler working right but noticed every time I touched the faucet I got shocked. I unplugged the boiler and noticed the electroshock therapy stopped with it. I figured the two loose wires hanging at the bottom of it needed to be together and I made it so. This resulted in a purple and green sparkling apocalypse that sent me running/flying out of the bathroom. Thus, when in doubt, don't connect the wires and get your downstairs neighbors to come hang and help.

Everything else is awesome and I have school tomorrow. I am waiting on some grants and projects to go through so it should be exciting!

Here are some pictures of Sadove:

Hopefully this will give you all an idea of how my town looks and I'll be sure to update it often!