I’m going back to visit my host family this weekend for Orthodox Easter. I had planned on arriving in Kyiv this Friday, but due to an unforeseen dog biting incident, I got here on Monday instead. But that’s another story for another post. In honor of heading back to my training site, I thought I’d do a [...]

For Ukraine PCVs, the country is roughly divided into three parts. They are the gritty, industrial East, the pastoral, heartland of the West, and the South, i.e. Crimea. Of course, this is an oversimplification of Ukrainian geography and PCVs actually live all over the country, including the north and in the central part of the [...]

I took several hundred photos while in Morocco. I didn’t want to overwhelm my earlier post, so here I present some additonal vignettes of what I saw there. Enjoy!

I have been successful at receiving mail at site, both letters and packages. Here is my advice on the best way to go about sending me something spectacular: Please use the United States Postal Service (USPS). New customs regulations require mandatory processing for anything sent by courier or express mail service, regardless of the declared value. [...]

Sometimes I question my ability to organize some sort of large-scale project here in my community. This happens for many reasons, namely because of my constrained ability to communicate and therefore, my lack of understanding about most things going on around me. However, the arrival of spring has shown me, once again, how hard people [...]

Part One Everyone knows that the main perk of being a teacher is the opportunity to educate young people, giving them the knowledge and skills which will prepare them for the future. But the other perk of being a teacher is, of course, Spring Break! Two of my fellow volunteers and I took advantage of ours [...]

Due to popular demand, I am posting some guidelines on how to send mail to me while I’m in Ukraine. For the first three months, I will be immersed in Pre-Service Training (PST). Get used to the acronyms, now. While I’m in PST, I cannot receive any packages of wonderful goodies. However, I can receive [...]

and time for a list of things I’ll miss/I won’t miss about the United States. Subject to change Things I’ll Miss 24-hour cable news Being able to understand what’s being said without translating in my head first Cash Cab Central heating/air conditioning Cold drinks College football and basketball Drinking water from the tap Dry cleaning Fast, convenient internet Frivolous fashion Mexican food the Presidential election Shark Week Spicy food Wearing light-colored clothes Wide [...]

This is not an interesting read. I am in a preparations lull. I haven’t received my staging kit so I can’t do much more paperwork or finalize travel plans. There are a few things I could be doing, like working on my absentee ballot, getting a power of attorney signed, looking into personal property insurance, writing [...]

I finally finished my aspiration statement and sent it off. It’s not a great piece of writing, but I’m mostly happy with how it turned out. I’ve heard varying opinions about the aspiration statement and read quite a few of them on other PCV blogs. Some people advise to just write something down and send [...]

Here is an interesting and pretty fair article about Peace Corps Ukraine, from The Ukrainian Observer. I found it informative, and hope that I, too, can make an impact on the individual level. Peace Corps Numbers Up But Quality Questions Remain By Lua Pottier After 14 years of cooperation with the Ukrainian government, the term ‘Peace Corps [...]

This timeline is something of a tradition on PCV blogs, along with the ubiquitous and probably unhelpful packing list. It is probably only of interest to aspiring PCVs, but I thought I’d share. I don’t keep exact dates on every time I received an email or my toolkit was updated, but here’s the general idea. Also, [...]

It’s official. I have received an invitation to serve in Ukraine as a Peace Corps volunteer! I plan to call and accept my invitation tomorrow. I intend to use this blog to express my thoughts, explicate my experiences, and keep in touch while I am gone. I didn’t want to start a blog until I [...]