One year ago we arrived in Dolyna, just newly sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers, and scared to death. Thoughts were running through my mind, how was I going to do this?  How would I bridge the language barrier, how would I adapt to the slower pace of life, how would I fight the corruption and still be effective, how, how, how would I survive? You see training is all about scaring you to death and making you believe that it is impossible to function effectively in Ukraine. They like to promote the negative about Ukraine with little emphasis on the positive. They tell you over and over how you probably will not make a difference, they talk about all the volunteers who do nothing but then they say --- well go get em!   So needless to say, I was worried. It’s time to swear in, we are just ready to leave for a strange city and my regional manager introduces me to my new director. I am no longer anxious, I am now petrified. Tanya is about 5 feet tall and a bundle of energy. She talks a mile a minute and I could not understand ONE word that she said. She took us to the train, explained (modelling) how we should take off our good shoes and clothes and put on our lounging outfits. It was time to relax. We had 12 hours to try to talk on this 1950 train.   So one year at site, where did the time go. Tanya and I have become close friends, we still cannot talk much but when I look at her, I feel good. We trust each other and have proven ourselves to each other. With Tanya, there is no corruption; she does not want anything for herself, only her community. She has taught me to see life in Ukraine from the people’s eyes. She has made me realize that the system is so unfair that sometimes you just have to compensate to make life better for all. We have taken the curved road together.   Along the way, we have acquired great friends and found numerous people that are a joy to work with. Our English club still has a weekly attendance of approximately 20-30 different age students and our movie night is getting stronger each week. This club is for young adults (+18) and we spend a little time talking and then watch an American film. This group is advanced in their English skills so we watch the movies all in English. Many of these young people are the individuals that we spend most of our time with, they have become our good friends and they have become a strong workforce for us. We don't spend enough time on language but can order food at a restaurant, buy groceries, ride busses all over Eastern Europe and have a Hello, how are you conversation. After that ......       Jim has joined a hiking/mountain tourist club and is enjoying himself. He puts a little money into each grant to help this group build cabins and develop trails. He has also run 1/2 marathons in 4 countries and is looking forward to keep adding more countries to his medal list. He just finished a run in Poland which was very fun for him. I am taking photography lessons in Ukrainian 10 hours a week. What a challenge. Our master teacher is from Lviv and renowned internationally. He is critical, strict and always yelling at me. I love him!  I love the fact that he treats me the same as everyone and that he wants me to be good. He is always telling me that I need to TRY harder, (I think, he thinks I am slacking). But imagine this, I have a wonderful interpreter who has never done this type of photography, she tells me, “Robin how can I translate this to English and explain it to you; I don’t understand it in Ukrainian.” So we work together the best we can, I get about 20% of the lesson, then I go home, looks the lessons up on the internet, spend hours studying what I think he told us and what the internet says and then I go practice. The next lesson, I go in knowing what I should have done last week. So am I learning the science of photography better? Yes. Are my pictures getting better?  Probably not. I am just not an artist however even though it is so HARD, I seem to thrive on the challenge and just can’t give up.       Professionally and emotionally we are growing each day. We have written eight grants together and won all eight. We will send in another one on Saturday, so wish us luck. These grants are providing the training and resources that are enabling us to make a difference. We are teaching elementary students about energy efficiency and giving them an opportunity to earn LCD light bulbs for their classroom. We are employing 4-6 young adults this summer in community projects. They will get a salary for their work and will adhere to Western business practices. We are building a conference center in the museum and having our FIRST fundraiser. We introduced volunteerism and have at least twenty-five great volunteers for our projects. We had an outstanding concert for Healthy Youth and have a 20 x 20 billboard in the middle of town that supports that. We are starting a rayon wide school newspaper and have given the Culture school supplies for arts and crafts along with providing training for 38 young secondary “school presidents.”  Every project is about giving to the community and training people so they can do this.   As this last year starts, we have many opportunities to make a difference. We are planning on extending our service and staying for three years. We have started so many good projects and we would like to see them solidify. This takes time and patience. Also we want to hike the hills, spend more time relaxing and travelling this wonderful area of the world. I miss my friends, I miss the freedom of driving around in the motor home visiting people, hiking mountains, seeing new sites, but I love it here. So we will take it one day at a time and see what the future holds.  Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Life is moving fast in Ukraine. One year down and one to go! Some of the greatest projects we have done involve the youth and these last few months we have been working on a “healthy lifestyles” campaign. It has been frustrating and rewarding, usually at the same time. Frustrating because adults in Ukraine cannot work together and this project involved various schools, the rayon, city hall, the department of youth and sport, Peace Corps Ukraine and the school of leaders. I admit I have been spoiled by my director at the museum, Tanya. If she commits to a project, it gets done! She is dedicated, organized and loyal but when working with other agencies everyone has to be the chief and the concept of team work is foreign. Another problem is that communication is often impossible. We have a local newspaper but… it is associated with the city and so if you are the rayon, you don’t read that paper. Everything-everyone is part of a territory. Very few people cross the lines and work with both city and rayon. So we have 25,000 people in the city but only 4,000 newspapers get sold each week. We do not have any events boards in town which advertise programs and the newspaper does not run a monthly events calendar. As an American it seems pretty simple to improve communication with basic methods in this city however NO ONE wants to do it. The city has a web site – we have never found it. The rayon has a web site – we have never found it. The library has a web site – we have never found it etc….  I tried to get the newspaper to start collecting information from organizations in town, the schools, churches, town council, museum etc.. and publishing a monthly calendar but NO GO!  So for every event we struggle with this lack of communication. The mayor wants to build a community but it starts with communication (and a good press secretary) and no one wants to fix this problem.     Well enough complaining but I should mention one more problem. A lack of coordination of efforts. (big problem) For example the city might have a poster contest, the rayon, the department of youth and sport, the library, the school, us .. but each is a separate activity for the same purpose. Teachers are constantly being called to meetings for this campaign and that campaign. My question: WHY CANT WE HAVE ONE CAMPAIGN THE SAME WEEK OF EVERY YEAR AND EVERYONE KNOWS THE DATES AND WE DO THIS AS A COMMUNITY? Stupid idea right - WHO would get credit?   Our campaign had the basic essay contest, poster contest, concert, HIV/AIDS training, and our English club talked about how to be healthy in your community. We worked with the local schools for the posters and essay, the school of leaders and teachers from 21 different schools for the training and the whole community for the concert. The overall goal of the campaign was to recognize each and every student, teacher and school director in the community that wanted to participate and to welcomed all submissions, not just the BEST.   The posters were outstanding! The talent of many of the children of Dolyna is dazzling. We received over 30 and it was difficult to pick a winner. The essays were not so good. Children just copy and paste Wikipedia information. There is no creative thinking, no analyzing; they do not state their opinions or all the opinions are the same. So it was a little more difficult to pick the best of the essays. Instead we picked good sentences out of all the essays and Oksana made a short program letting each child speak a part. It was very successful and highlighted all their contributions. We picked one poster for the design of the t-shirts and every student who volunteered 5+ hours won a shirt. We made a huge billboard for the main street and showed various students supporting a healthy lifestyles theme.   The concert was another highlight. Oksana is a talented producer, who donated countless hours to make this a success. She visited schools, talked to dance and music teachers, went to the kindergarten, called in favours and even got her sister to travel twelve hours to sing. The result – AWESOME! We had over 100 children and youth showing off their best and the audience loved it. People told me it made them smile, made them happy, it was not a serious soviet style concert. Before the concert I was thinking, never again, after the concert I was wondering how soon can we could do it again.       For the training we brought in a nationally recognized trainer from out of the region. Training in Ukraine is usually seminar type training. But the HIV/AIDS model that PC uses is interactive, fun, informational and uplifting. It was difficult to get this organized. The school, teachers and students did not want 6 hour training. But they did want to know how many hours they have to attend to get the free lunch? All in all it was great, Victor did an outstanding job and everyone enjoyed it and learned new games and information to share at their schools. We had people from 21 different schools for a total of 50 trainees over two days.   There are always some very funny events that although throw a wrench into the machinery, they are often humorous when you look back: 1) the original colour of the campaign was red for HIV/AIDS but had to be changed to green after the election. You see red is a soviet colour, if we used red and hung red ribbons all over town the citizens would think the soviets were taking over. (Our new president is said to lean towards Russia). The campaign became green. 2) We hung the posters in the white house after getting permission of the rayon mayor (a one hour meet and greet). Posters were up about 3 hours, people were very interested in them, and suddenly they disappear. Took 3 people and a full day for the posters to be found again, put them back up, gone the next day. Another case of not working together for the betterment of the youth. Who was getting credit for these posters? 3) the original concert producer told us she was doing a 1.20 minute play. When we said – no we do not want a play and described what we wanted, she rolled her eyes at us. Although I think there were blockade’s thrown our way, we did a GREAT concert and the hall was full. Just shows persistence works.   Overall, I think the whole project was highly successful. We found through trial and error a group of people who wanted this to happen and they helped immensely. One got the hall, one got the stereo, etc… teamwork. Even through the frustrations we did not give up and I think we are modelling the concept of getting things done even in the face of adversity. Every day is a learning experience for me, seeing the roadblocks that people face here and a learning experience for them, learning to just curve around the barriers.   My mission for the last year – communication and team work. I think I am going to be VERY frustrated! Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Our master classes are lots of fun. The first month we learned how to make ceramic souvenirs. We made fish, bells, and Dolyna coins. We had a good crowd, and most important, everyone enjoyed themselves. We have expanded and are now doing four events/activities per month. Ceramics was relatively easy, even for me. I challenge all of you to take craft classes in a foreign language. Tough! But we all get a kick out of my work.   Each week we poll our attendees and are finding approximately 5 to 10 people who are new to the museum. 5 to 10 may seem small but over five months it starts to add us. It also is helping us to build a reputation as a “community center.” Our ongoing concern and challenge is marketing.  Even though the newspaper run weekly schedule of events and great articles on the classes, advertising is difficult.   We met last week and discussed options. We are starting an e-mail monthly newsletter but only about 20% of the community uses a computer and the villages do not have internet access. Oksana is developing flyers for each event and we are posting them in the apartment hallways and the local busses. And last week Oksana personally visited teachers at each of the seven schools. Our goals is to have a good system developed within the next year, but we know it will be a monthly building process.   Ceramic Classes     Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The photo club has continued to expand and provided some fantastic publicity for the museum. It is a prestigious group of serious photographers. President Yuri has boundless energy. His leadership has enabled this group to move ahead rapidly and to be successful. Tuesday night we will vote on the new web site that is being professionally developed, and continue to make plans for our inaugural Kiev Photo Exhibition. Each photographer is to submit eight photographs; two will be picked for the exhibition. This is such a great opportunity for many of our photographers who have never exhibited. Four of us will go to the exhibition to represent our club.  Tanya, Oksana, Yuri and I are planning to go.   The club has hung works by 8 photographers in the new conference center. Last Sunday over fifty people came to view the show. I do not quite understand why this club is so admired in Dolyna, but it certainly is.       While Tanya was in America, she met with many photographers in our sister city Prairie Village and introduced herself and our photo club “Beam.” The PV photo club was so excited to meet Tanya and to view the example of photos she brought. To further develop our sister city relationship, we are now exchanging cultures through our photo clubs. Prairie Village has access to our photo web site and can upload their photos while also making comments on our site. President Yuri and the Mayor will travel to America on Wednesday to represent Dolyna at the gallery exhibit “DolynaArt,” and to thank the art community for the support they have given us. Stay tuned for pictures of the show next week. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

In the last five months we have been working on our first goal, which was to increase eudcational and cultural activities for the community. We wanted to develop an advisory board, a volunteer program and then involve these citizens in designing programs that fit the needs of their community. We met with the advisory board, made a list of classes they felt would be popular and since then, Oksana and volunteers have been planning and producing events. I must say, not to brag, but we are doing well.  The original idea may have been ours, but many leaders in the community stepped up, volunteered to teach “master classes” and the programs are popular.   Our first priority was to provide a conference/workshop center for the classes and for public meetings. This was fun, Oksana and I went shopping, although shopping is Ukraine can be hard. The items we had budgeted for were gone, prices had changed, etc… But this was the first large project that Oksana had managed and she was fantastic.  She immediately figured out how to save a little here, to spend a little more there. As Peace Corps volunteers, one of our first priorities is to build the capacity of our community. So, Oksana and I wrote the grant together, but she is managing the grant and developing the classes. I am her helper.   Oksana’s father drove us into town in his Lada and our first stop was C & C furniture store (we have been to this store 10 times since September and countless phone calls). Again, Oksana started to talk about the 10 tables that we wanted to buy. We wanted 10 white plastic, fold up, easy to carry, tables. They could be used for art, (washable), we could haul them outside for our festivals, and they could be stored relatively easily. But… those were summer tables. Could we order them? Maybe! Can we do it now! We have the cash. – Well maybe. Now we want to buy 20 of the chairs, but the chairs are now 50 uah more expensive, BUT they will be on sale on Thursday, (this is Tuesday), OK, can we pay now, can we hold 30 chairs? NO, they are not on sale today. You must come back on Thursday, that is the sale day!  We are talking about a 10,000 UAH sale - $1250 but NO! So back on the road again, thank god today we have a driver, usually we take busses as we run from store to store.   Hello, METRO. This is a large (Costco) cash and carry store. Here we find more chairs. A little different price but we could get them today. Oksana and dad, start calculating on their cell phone, what is the total cost of 30 chairs. Could we afford that? (They are having to calculate UAH to $$$, add the 20% tax, and then add total costs) Was that our budgeted cost? Ok, we want 30 of these chairs. Oksana puts them on a cart. Now she finds tables she likes better, yes they are cheaper, we can buy these and get more. So 14 more boxes on the cart. Then the computer desk, two computer chairs, a case of paper, …. WAIT A MINUTE! This won’t fit in a lada. Oksana runs to the manager, asks if they can deliver, NO! Can we pay and you hold them until tomorrow? NO! In the meantime, I am watching in amazement as this dynamite 25 year old is in control, dealing with managers, budgeting costs, and solving problems. Within twenty minutes she has called an outside delivery service, calculated the cost of the delivery into the budget, and we are having lunch while we wait.   So we have the furniture, Oksana sweet talks the maintenance man into putting the tables together, hanging blinds, putting up bars for a photo exhibit, Maria scrubs the room down and we are done. We have a beautiful, small conference room. We have held a photo exhibition in this room, the photo club meets here every Monday night, the research club meets once a month, every other Friday night we have “Movies at the Museum” and we have sponsored two master classes. A grant well utilized and very accomplished. I am so proud of my girls and my museum. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I recently spent time exploring Lviv with my Peace Corps friend Linda. It is only 2 hours away from us by bus and is easy to get to for some shopping or big city culture. Lviv is a major city in western Ukraine, and is one of the main cultural centers of today's Ukraine and Poland. It is located 70 km from the Polish border and 160 km (100 miles) from the eastern Carpathian Mountains. It is called Ukraine’s least soviet city. The historic centre with its old buildings and cobblestone roads survived the Second World War and the Soviet presence largely unscathed. The city is 753 years old and is very beautiful. Lviv's historic centre has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1998. Its historic churches, buildings and relics date from the 13th century. Its architecture reflects various European styles and periods. After the fires of 1527 and 1556 Lviv, lost most of its gothic-style buildings, but it retains many buildings in renaissance, baroque, and classic styles. The buildings have many stone sculptures and carvings, particularly on large doors, hundreds of years old. The remains of old churches dot the central cityscape. Some three- to five-storey buildings have hidden inner courtyards and grottoes in various states of repair. There are works by artists of the Vienna Secession, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco styles. The main walking street is 600 m long and in the summer is filled with flowers, fountains and celebration and it also boasts a strong coffee house culture. Like all of Ukraine, Lviv has a history of occupations and a different name during each occupation. It has been called Lev, Lwow (Poland), Lemberg (Austria), and Lvov (Russia). In 1256, Lviv was founded by King Daniel of Galicia, in the Ruthenian principality of Halych-Volhynia and named in honor of his son, Lev. In 1349, Lviv with the rest of Red Ruthenia, was captured by the Kingdom of Poland during the reign of Polish king Casimir III the Great. Lviv was part of Kingdom of Poland from 1340-1569. In 1569-1772, it was under the command of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. 1772–1918 the Austrian Empire and in 1918-1939 the Second Polish Republic. During the outbreak of WWII, the city was seized by the Soviet Union and incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR from 1939-1941.  July 1941-July 1944, it was under German occupation. During these three years, 136,000 people were reported to have died in Lviv’s Jewish ghetto and nearly 350,000 in nearby concentration camps. In addition, in July 1944 it was captured by the Soviet Red Army and the Polish Home Army. We enjoyed a few hours at the historical cemetery Lychakivske, where the Polish elite were buried for centuries. It is a famous and historic cemetery and a primary tourism attraction. Since its creation in 1787, it has been the main necropolis of the city's intelligentsia, middle and upper classes. Among the notable Ukrainians buried there are: Vasyl Barvinsky, impressionist composer, Ivan Franko, poet and reformer of the Ukrainian language, Volodymyr Ivasyuk, composer, Stanislav Ludkevych, composer, Oleksandr Tysowskyj (alternately Alexander Tysovsky), founder of Ukrainian Scouting. Soviet gymnastics legend Viktor Chukarin is also buried there. There are also numerous parts of the cemetery in which veterans of most wars of 19th and 20th centuries are buried, including the quarters of veterans of: the November Uprising, January Uprising World War I, Lwów Eagles (Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów, reopened on 24 June 2005), Polish-Ukrainian War, Polish-Bolshevik War, Polish Defensive War World War II  and Victims of the NKVD.  In late 2006, the city administration announced plans to transfer the tombs of Stepan Bandera, Yevhen Konovalets, Andriy Melnyk and other key leaders of OUN/UPA to a new area of the cemetery dedicated to the Ukrainian national liberation struggle. As you can see from the pictures, it is a wonderful place to absorb history and to start to understand what Ukrainians have been through. When you come to visit us, you would fly into Lviv and start your tour of this wonderful country from there.  See you soon. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Dolyna Photography Club and friends. One of the things I love about Ukraine is the element of surprise.  Some days it is puzzling and some days it is astounding.  Loving Ukraine is trusting in the future and sharing that belief with Ukrainians.  It is encouraging someone who does not believe into believing in opportunities. So yes, I am a cheerleader! I preach that life is what you make it.  The government may have problems but they do not determine if you are happy or sad. This week I asked the FLEX kids “What could you do to make your community a better place.” All the kids answered with the standard Ukrainian answer.  “We cannot do anything; we have poverty, bad government, corruption etc….” Excuse after Excuse. This is 80% of the people’s attitude; we cannot do anything!  Then I asked them “Can you put litter in the garbage instead throwing it on the street, can you help an elderly person, can you talk to your friend that may be having problems?” Of course they said ‘yes’ and then I asked them if they did not think that these actions would make their community cleaner, more caring and a better place to live. Their eyes got big and suddenly they said, “Well I guess we can do something.” That night their homework was to write an essay on what can you do to make your community a better place to live. I feel our job is to open minds, to show the possibilities and to encourage a change the mindset. Most Ukrainians believe that the government makes or solves your problems. It is understandable, Ukraine has lived with being told what to do, how to do it and when.  They are not used to having the power to make their own decisions. We are lucky in Dolyna because our mayor feels the same way as we do and works hard to show the people that choices are here to make. Civic engagement is the mission of the Peace Corps. It is the concept that we are promoting at our museum. We have developed a volunteer program that enables community members to increase their participation in determining, designing and implementing projects that address their community cultural and public education needs. The project aims to help the citizens of Dolyna become familiar with the concept of a participatory approach to community development and become active citizens in designing programs that fit the needs of their community. Although we only started this project a month ago, every day I see action. Tanya, our director, is a fireball. She is short, has fire engine red hair, and has the energy of 10 people. She is also a born leader and I guess I would say she is stubborn, but in the right way. When she believes in something, she goes for it.  (sounds like me huh, I guess that why we are such good friends) Yesterday hosted a reception for me, she invited over 20 photographers and people interested in photography because she wanted to do something nice for me. She always asking me “What do you want, you ask us what we want, but what do you want.?” I showed my PowerPoint on the Hmong refugee summer camp and the photographers showed some outstanding displays of their own.  They had superb portfolios and shows with music. As we were all admiring one another, an older man stated that he was an original member of a photography club from Old Dolyna.  The club was 40 years ago but closed during soviet times. That got everyone brainstorming and suddenly they were talking about making an official club, electing officers, and  donating pictures and old equipment to the museum. The mayor got excited and started promising money, buildings etc…. Dolyna now has a photography club with 20 enthusiastic members.  The first event will be a trip to Dobush rocks to take pictures and on November 14th all club members will bring five pictures for an internal contest. I told them about the Peace Corps International Calendar and they set their first goal; getting a picture of Dolyna in the Worldwide Peace Corps Annual Calendar. The club also proposed to have a continuous photo show in the museum. We will try to fund frames, lights and change out artists every thirty days.  Our new volunteer board will discuss needs and goals with Tanya and update us at the next meeting. The gathering lasted two hours and when everyone was gone, I asked Tanya if she knew this was going to happen. She looked shy and said, “Well I did not plan it but I was thinking last night that it would meet our goals for the museum so I just offered support when the ideas started flowing.” As I said she is an amazing woman. I am happy to be her partner. If you have not ordered your International Peace Corps calendars for 2010, please look up the web site at http://www.rpcvmadison.org/. The International Calendar project seeks to share Peace Corps experiences with home communities and to raise money for grassroots projects in the countries where PC served or in which we live. The images of the Calendar will introduce you to the people who welcomed PC so warmly into their communities. The program works with many educational goals also.  Please take time to read it and support it.  Everyone needs a calendar and what a great Christmas present.   Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Мислила (Myslivka) is a quiet village about 30 minutes from Dolyna. This is a small village (about 300 inhabitants) and was founded by Austrian colonists in the XIX century. Around Myslivka there are forest reserves, where there are berries and mushrooms and where you can encounter wolves, bears, deer, wild boars, and foxes. In the village and surrounding mountains there are many mineral springs. For us it is just a short trip away to a peaceful mountain land. We have not been worried about bears as lonely planet says they are vegetarian bears but our new friends told us right away that the bears eat cows so be careful. This is our third trip to Myslivka there and each has been an adventure.  But, each time gets easier and we are starting to find our way around.  The first time we took local busses as far as we could go then took off walking. After a short time a man and his son came by and insisted that we get in the car.  They did not speak English and we couldn’t understand a word they said. After 30 minutes of talking, (he even called an English speaker – who could not really speak English) they drove us to the closest restaurant about 10 kilometers down the road and told us to catch a bus there. They were very nice and stopped a couple of times for us to look at the river and see the sites. They had to drop us off because they were almost out of gas and could not take us any further.  So we started walking again but soon decided that we better cross the road and catch the next bus back to Dolyna. We had already walked about an hour and it was getting late.  So a few weeks later our language training teacher came to visit us and she wanted to go. This time we just called a cab and took it there. 30 minutes – $65 Hrn. We had a great time down there with Larissa and her daughter Katya and caught a ride back with a van full of men from the area who were driving to Russia to work in construction.  They had been driving back and forth for over 17 years working in Russia. They were quite lively and wanted to know all about Alaska and why were we walking in a small village in Ukraine hitching rides. Next Jim decided to take our young friend who has been our summer interpreter to the bus station and find out how to get to Myslivka.  The bus cashier tells them was only one bus a day and it leaves at 1:00, kind of late if you wanted to hike.  So Sunday morning we decided to go for a two day hike and figured we would hitch again. Guess what, typical Ukraine – here comes a bus. Turns out there are busses they are just aren’t labeled Myslivka. We took off on the hike and immediately met a lovely Ukrainian couple who were also following the same route. They asked us to come along and we spent the day with them. Very nice people, he is the Director of International Relations in Lviv and she is an editor for the cultural magazine. We hiked for two hours up (straight sometimes) and at the top they built a nice little fire for lunch. Jim and I had brought just bread and cheese but they roasted bacon on the fire and served us hot tea.  What a sophisticated way to hike, smoked bacon and sweet peppers on brown bread.  I think I will like this European hiking. It was difficult to hike there though, they do not believe in switch backs, you just go straight up.  After hiking we went and stayed at the local inn where we had an outstanding dinner of local grilled trout, garden fresh vegetables, a fine merlot and time alone.  It was really a wonderful evening. So now we are back in our apartment resting and getting ready for another adventure in Ukraine.  We always have to remember “ask three times, ask three ways.”   Read and post comments | Send to a friend

This week, RPCV Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) introduced s.1382, the Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009. The bill, as currently written, would authorize $450,000,000 for fiscal year 2010; $575,000,000 for fiscal year 2011; and $700,000,000 for fiscal year 2012 — representing a gradual increase to double Peace Corps’s current budget. The bill also requires the agency director carry out assessments that lead to a new strategic plan. Mr. President: I rise today to introduce the Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009. For 48 years, the Peace Corps has stood as a uniquely American institution.  What other great nation would send its youth abroad, not to extend its power, not to intimidate its adversaries, not to kill and be killed, but to build, to dig, to teach, to empower – and to ask nothing in return? And for 48 years, those young men and women – hundreds of thousands of them, myself included – have returned stronger, wiser, and inspired – prepared to live uniquely American lives of service and accomplishment. For half a century, the Peace Corps has shaped not just these American lives, but the identity of all Americans: who we are as a people, and what we hope to achieve in the world. Today, I rise to offer this legislation for one simple reason: I want the Peace Corps to continue playing that role for another 48 years to come.  But before we consider how the Peace Corps can grow going forward, it’s worth remembering how it became what it is today. Like most groundbreaking ideas, the Peace Corps might not have survived a board meeting or a subcommittee hearing when it was first proposed. It was a wild notion, so breathtakingly outrageous that it could only have been born out of idealism, youthful energy, and, perhaps the key element, too much caffeine. The Peace Corps, you see, was born at two in the morning. It was October 14, 1960, and Senator John F. Kennedy was running hours late for a campaign stop at the University of Michigan. He assumed that most of the crowd would have gone home, but when he arrived at the student union, he found ten thousand students waiting outside in the frigid dark to hear him speak. We can all sympathize with Senator Kennedy: having endured months of late nights, uncomfortable beds, and bad food, he must have been sorely tempted to offer a perfunctory thank you to the Michigan students, recite a stump speech from memory, and send them home. But something besides a chill was in the air that night in Ann Arbor.  Floodlit and shivering, the crowd began to chant his name as he climbed the steps to the student union, and Senator Kennedy realized that this was special.  He realized he owed them more. So he challenged them. “How many of you,” he asked, “who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana?  Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world?” I believe that challenge is the Peace Corps’s founding document.  It didn’t begin with a white paper or a TV ad.  It began with a question. In the days that followed the Kennedy rally at the student union, Michigan students drafted a petition, circulating it to colleges across the state and just a couple of weeks later presenting several scrolls to JFK containing thousands upon thousands of names.  Thirty thousand additional letters flooded into Kennedy headquarters. So, it’s fair to say that the answer to that question – are you willing to serve your country by serving the world? – was an overwhelming “yes.” Kennedy’s top advisors were already working on those issues.  After all, they decided, if we don’t start doing our part for the developing world, the Communists will.  At a time much like today, when our nation faced conflicts with people who knew as little of America as we knew of them, this case for a Peace Corps could be made not only in the lofty rhetoric of idealism, but in the cold, hard language of realpolitik. The notion that service could be part of our foreign policy – indeed, that it could be a powerful weapon in the Cold War – was a truly radical idea.  It suggested that there could be more measures of strength than caliber or tonnage.  It argued that the world needed to see our ideals not just in ink, but incarnate in the young man or woman with dirty hands working under a hot, foreign sun.  It said that you could only hate America if you didn’t know America. The skeptics quickly descended upon Kennedy and his bold call to action.  Richard Nixon called it “a haven for draft-dodgers.”  Former President Eisenhower called it “a juvenile experiment.” And even those old foreign policy hands who supported Kennedy’s plan thought it was a fine idea – as long as it was kept small.  Academic and State Department officials agreed: proceed with caution, start with just a few hundred volunteers, don’t create a fiasco, don’t let this little experiment get out of hand.  If they’d gotten their way, the Peace Could might not exist today. But just as a late-night burst of exuberance gave birth to the Peace Corps, a similar bolt of sleepless inspiration kept it alive. Holed up in a hotel room in downtown Washington with a few typewriters and a stack of blank paper, two Kennedy aides, Sargent Shriver and Harris Wofford – comprising the entirety of the Peace Corps staff – had been tasked with figuring out how to put this outrageous idea into practice. The one thing they knew, Shriver later told us, was that the cautious, conventional approach currently in vogue wouldn’t work.  America would only have one chance to get it right. So it was that Sargent Shriver happened to be at the office at three in the morning, reading a short paper by a State Department employee named Warren Wiggins. Wiggins called his paper “The Towering Task,” a reference to JFK’s first State of the Union address, where the young President said, “The problems…are towering and unprecedented – and the response must be towering and unprecedented as well.” Wiggins called for a towering and unprecedented Peace Corps.  He wrote: “One hundred youths engaged in agricultural work of some sort in Brazil might pass by unnoticed, except for the problems involved, but 5,000 American youths helping to build Brasilia might warrant the full attention and support of the President of Brazil himself.”  Where a handful of kids might present a nuisance to a foreign ambassador, an army of motivated young Americans could make a real difference.  And besides, wasn’t it a moment for great ambition? At three in the morning, Sargent Shriver read Wiggins’s conclusion: The Peace Corps needed to begin with a “quantum jump,” and it needed to begin immediately, by executive order, with as many as 5,000 to 10,000 volunteers right away. By nine that same morning, Warren Wiggins himself was sitting alongside Shriver in that hotel room, drafting a report for the President.  Within a month, President Kennedy had created the Peace Corps by executive order.  Within two years, more than 7,000 young Americans were serving abroad.  And that number had more than doubled by 1966. One of those young Americans was a 22-year-old English major from Providence College who arrived in the small village of Monción in the Dominican Republic.  That young man spoke barely any Spanish.  He had no idea what he was doing, and he certainly didn’t have a clue that, more than 40 years later, he’d be standing on the floor of the United States Senate, explaining that the Peace Corps gave him the richest two years of his life. I owe those two years, and the impact they had on all my years since, to John F. Kennedy’s 2 a.m. question and the Warren Wiggins paper that Sargent Shriver read at 3 a.m. From the story of the Peace Corps, and my own story, we can learn three things. First: the Peace Corps works.  Besides simple labor and good will, every American we send abroad brings with him or her another chance to make America known to a world that often fears and suspects us.  And every American who returns from that service comes home as a citizen who strengthens us with firsthand knowledge of the world. As Sargent Shriver said, “Peace Corps Volunteers come home to the USA realizing that there are billions-yes, billions-of human beings not enraptured by our pretensions, or our practices, or even our standards of conduct.” Second: size matters.  The perils of a small, timid Peace Corps are just as clear today as they were in 1961.  Just as then, advocates of a stripped-down mission make the same arguments: sending untrained, untested students only aggravates our host countries and raises the chance of a mishap-so let’s send a few experts instead.  And just as in 1961, our response is fundamentally the same, and still fundamentally correct: of course we need volunteers of the highest quality.  But we need the highest quantities, too. Third: size comes at a cost.  The bigger any organism grows, the slower it gets.  The Peace Corps that charted its course in a hotel room with a staff of two now enjoys a staff of over a hundred and a fine office building close to the White House.  But even the most groundbreaking ideas must all make, in good time, what the philosopher Gramsci called “the long march through the institutions.”   And where President Kennedy once predicted that, within a few decades, our nation would have more than one million returned volunteers, today fewer than 200,000 have had the opportunity to serve. And so, Mr. President, the legislation I offer today is designed to help the Peace Corps not only grow – and I have joined the many voices calling for it to grow dramatically – but also reform. To those who know and love the Peace Corps, reform is an uncomfortable subject.  After all, we don’t want to destroy what has made this institution so remarkable and unique.  There wouldn’t be a Peace Corps if JFK had stuck to the script in Ann Arbor.  There wouldn’t be a Peace Corps if thousands of students, acting on their own initiative, hadn’t caught his attention with their movement.  There might not be a Peace Corps if Sargent Shriver had listened to the respectable voices of caution. The Peace Corps is unlike any other organ of our government because of its uniquely grassroots origin.  And we can’t treat it like any other organ of our government. So the Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009 does not include a list of mandates.  It does not micromanage. Instead, it asks those who have written this remarkable success story – from the Director to managers and country directors to current and returned volunteers – to serve once more by undertaking a thorough assessment of the Peace Corps and developing a comprehensive strategic plan for reforming and revitalizing the organization. Just as JFK’s question to those Michigan students sparked the Peace Corps, asking questions will strengthen it.  How can volunteers be better managed?  How can they be better trained?  Can we improve recruiting?  Are we sending our volunteers to the right countries?  Why do we have volunteers in Samoa and Tonga, but not in Indonesia, Egypt, or Brazil?  Are we still achieving the broader goals of the Peace Corps and helping our country meet 21st-century challenges? And, most of all: How can we strengthen and grow this remarkable organization without losing the spark – the ambitious sense of the possible that led JFK to stay up late dreaming with those students in Ann Arbor and Sargent Shriver to stay up even later reading Warren Wiggins’s paper? Mr. President, Warren Wiggins died two years ago at the age of 84.  His obituary quoted Harris Wofford: “I think he embodied the watchwords that were once given to me: We must be more inventive if we’re going to do our duty.” Inventiveness and duty: two qualities that don’t often go together.  But the Peace Corps is the result of just such a combination.  It has strengthened our nation, improved the world, and stands today as one of the signal accomplishments of the 20th century.  Nothing has meant more in my life, or in the lives of so many others. Today, we honor that accomplishment.  Let us commit to strengthening and expanding the Peace Corps by passing this legislation.  Let us strive to inspire future generations to walk the path of service and exploration, the one that led me to the Dominican Republic and then, years later, to the U.S. Senate.  And let us never lose that spirit, that idealism, that ambition that led a young President of a young nation to ask a generation to serve. Mr. President, I yield the floor. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

One month since we became Peace Corps Volunteers. I am starting to find a rhythm to my day and work week.  Jim’s week has gotten more abstract but he will work this week to define a better schedule.    We found two young volunteers from Dolyna who are helping translate all the material in the Museum into English and to develop an English script for tours.  They are outstanding, Misha goes to college in Prague, and Inessa attends a university in Poland.  Both of them are dedicated, hardworking volunteers.  While others are lounging at the river these two young people spend their day in the museum or researching. They are excited to learn the history of their city and region.  Inessa spent a year in Texas as an exchange students and Misha would love to go.  It is very difficult for these students to do exchanges as their parents make an average salary of $1500 hrn a month (about $200 a month.) The expenses for the airfare, the visa’s etc.. is so high.  You can imagine the sacrifice it would take for the family to save enough to send their student to American and college is a WILD dream.  So status quo, the businessmen and rich people get to send their children and the rest don’t get to go.  Jim and I are investigating options for these students who deserve more.  They are the future of Ukraine, they are very smart and willing to embrace new ways to do things.  Many of our PCV’s complain that in the schools the old soviet methods and philosophies are still used.  But of course they are, the teachers are from that era, Ukraine has only been independent for 19 years. There has not been an introduction of new methods and these teachers have not experienced anything else. There are many good things about the soviet schedule; the students work hard in math, science etc... But these teachers from the soviet era have not been given a chance to experience the new world.  The students who travel and experience democracy come back with new ideas.  It’s hard to explain but if you worked in a system for your whole life that gave you a fixed salary every day of your life to just show up - not to think – not to be successful, just show up would you suddenly become competitive and innovative.  In order to succeed now these individuals have to learn to compete in business around the world. How do you teach that without the input of new ideas and methods?  The older people will not learn how the world operates, they will continue to operate the way they have their whole lives – show up and don’t think about doing anything different.  But the younger people are learning that you have to be competitive and Ukraine has to modernize in order to survive. I do not think that America has all the answers or is perfect, but it is competitive and successful in the world market and Ukraine needs that.    Volunteerism is also a new concept in Ukraine.  The first question we are asked is how much money is the government giving us to be here.  When we answer $832hrn (a little over $100 a month) for our food and a free apartment people are shocked. WHY ARE YOU HERE? How do we explain volunteerism to Ukrainians? Why would they volunteer – everyone was provided a job. We are writing weekly articles for the local newspaper on the benefits of volunteerism however that is also hard to rationalize. American students volunteer because it benefits them – they get into a better college, they need it to graduate, their parents have told them it is important, but not too many volunteer for the sheer joy and their own personal growth. Colleges do not care what Ukrainian students do in regards to extracurricular activities, only what their testing mark are. Their professions are based on these few tests and students can only attend the college that takes those marks.  The test will say if you can be a journalist, a teacher, a medical doctor, a lawyer but you do not get to choose what you would like to do. That is also why everyone is a teacher, a forester etc… You do not attend college to gain a broad education and decide what your future is. Those tests marks are your future.    I will continue to wrestle with how to explain why Americans volunteer.  Please send me your reasons and I will publish them. Perhaps your reason will persuade someone here and the process will begin. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

You never know what will happen from day-to-day while serving in the Peace Corps.  And you also learn pretty fast that no plan is hard and fast. Last Saturday a group of volunteers in our region had a welcome picnic for us in Ivano-Frankivsk which is the main city in our region and about 45 minutes away on the мапщпутка (auto-bus).  It was a hot, sunny day and we spent it barbequing щащлйк (shish kabob) at the lake in the Shevchenko park around the man-made lake. This park has been beautifully landscaped thanks to EU money.   Out of the blue we received a phone call that said we were invited by the US embassy to come to Kyiv to meet the American Vice-President at a private reception for Foreign Service workers. Everyone was very excited and immediately started talking PEACE CORPS ROAD TRIP.  Now being a little older, I was not so excited.  You see it is 12 hours to Kyiv and that day it was close to 90-100 degrees.  But being the good sport that I am and the fact that my husband REALLY wanted to go, I said alright let’s go.  One part of the group headed to the train station to make reservations, another made hotel reservations and we loaned money, so all could attend. Before long we received a phone call from the train group saying all the trains to Kyiv were full on Sunday. That is a little doubtful as there are many trains and they are large, however the others in the group felt that with a $50hrn bribe we would get on the train. Being the upstanding American citizens we are –the vote was not to bribe them but instead take a bus for the 12 hours (me being one not to fight the system said bribe-bribe-bribe if that is the way it is done) Anyway bus here we come. Quite an experience ten Peace Corps Volunteers and forty Ukrainians on a bus ALL-NIGHT-LONG. We arrived in Kyiv at 6:00 am and from there started a great tourist vacation.  This was the first time since we joined the PC in March that we really had over two hours to ourselves.  We have been on a merry-go-round.  Training, language, meeting new people etc… for four months and now we are in Kyiv and ready to have fun.  So we hiked all the tourist routes, saw the churches, walked artist row, cruised on the river boat, ate salmon ravioli, fresh Cesar salad, drank great red wine and feasted on tiramisu. A fantastic day!   Day 2 – up at 7am and ready for security at the Hyatt Ukraine.  Pretty easy process considering this was the vice-president.  Actually, I think it is worse in the American airports.  The secret service just looked in our bags and waved the magic wand.  After a two hour wait in came Joe Biden.  He gave a rousing speech about Ukraine and the tough decisions the politicians have to make and then thanked us for our willingness to serve for others. He outlined how 269 volunteers in one country can help build trustworthy relationships between countries.  He then took time to shake everyone’s hands and take pictures.  He really was wonderful, personable, warm, and caring.  I got to shake his hand and say “thank you for all you and the President are doing for our country” and he said “No, it is the president and I that want to thank you for all you are doing for our country.” After the Bush years and the negativity it was outstanding to be praised for being volunteers and made me very proud to say “I am an American.” I don’t care about the political stuff – he just brought tears to my eyes and I was full of pride. I love positive people and I think optimism is a very indispensable trait. I believe it spreads and when people feel upbeat the world is a better place.  This is what Obama and Biden do for me and what they did for the majority of the 129 Peace Corps volunteers who had the pleasure of meeting him this week.  Thank you US Embassy and United States Peace Corps.   Oh by the way, we took the train back and had a wonderful time.  There were eight of us and we had a great picnic in our купе (train compartment). Another 12 hours home but we got to lay down for 10 of them.  Not a bad way to travel. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Our redecorated livingroom Moving into your own space in Ukraine is very scary.  It is totally out of your control, you just show up in your village – town – city and they present you with a place to live.  So you can imagine this development caused me a little bit of stress.  Would it be clean? Would it be decent? Could I live there two years? How could I get out of it and into another decent place without irritating the people, the town and the mayor? Well, we are lucky, we got a large flat that is very nice. We even have a modern washing machine, a shower, a REAL toilet (not a squat one) and hot water. We have water filters on each line and a good stove. The refrigerator is great and we have table and chairs. The bed is not great – Ukrainians furniture stores are just getting bona fide beds. Most people sleep on sofa’s that either fold out or fold down. Last week we worked out a plan to try to put two sofas together. It will involve some foam pads, regular hand-made rolled mattresses and then some comforters but we think we can make ONE decent bed.  I hate to be so American that I have to buy a genuine bed, after all I have already made couch covers, pillows, decorated with some of my favorite photo’s, bought martini glasses and pots and pans.  Every time I purchase something, I feel a little spoiled. But then I can always make the argument that it might be cheaper to just buy a bed.   We have a wild kitchen.  I really could not pick colors to decorate with as we have a variety of colors in our wall paper.  We have 3 different kinds of wall paper on three different walls.  We have two styles of cupboards, a dazzling blue refrigerator and a bright orange hanging lamp. We have a black table and chairs and a black and white tiled floor.  As I said it is a wild room but I love it.  So whenever I buy something to decorate I get another color. I want all the colors of the rainbow in my wild kitchen.   As I have said we have a great apartment – we don’t look at the old faded, ripped wall-paper or the cement walls that seem to produce pounds of dust each day.  We see a beautiful home that we are comfortable in and are proud to show our friends. Looks like we might get to host the holiday’s at our place as we are the only ones with a working stove and a table that seats ten. My goal is to fill our home with PCV’s on the weekends and enjoy our good fortune.  Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Address:  Dolyna Association of Entrepreneurs Robin or Jim Eleazer 11 Hrushevs’koho Street 77504 Dolyna, Ukraine   Долинський бізнес Центр РовінЖім Елеазер Вулю Грушевськогобб, 11 М. Долина Івано-франківська оьп, 77503 Україна  Parcels valued at $200.00 or less are delivered without a customs declaration.  Please estimate the parcel value at less than $200.00. Ukrainian customs law does not allow foodstuff, medications, money or jewelry to be sent across the border. Parcels containing these items cannot be cleared through Ukrainian customs and will be sent back. Packages from the US normally take about two months to arrive in Ukraine via surface mail and two to three weeks via airmail. The post office may charge a set rate per parcel that we may pay when we pick up the package. Most mail arrives in good condition, although occasionally letters and packages are tampered with. Given this fact, volunteers are encouraged to advise family and friends not to send culturally sensitive message, cash or other valuables. Due to recent changes in Ukrainian customs regulations we are discouraged from using express mail. (Although, I know people who do and it seems to work well). USPS is believed to be the most convenient way to send mail; if the declared value does not exceed $200.00 and the total weight is less than 50kg. It is also necessary for the shipper to apply the following statement: “Goods for Personal Use.” Customs officers can change the declared value of the mail – if you put $199.00 a customs officer may increase the value to $250.00 and we would pay duty on it.  Please do not indicate anywhere in the address or on the package that is for official use or project related. Use the basic address with no additional titles or modifications as the customs workers can identify the package as “Official” and require us to pay a fee. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

  We arrived in Dolyna on Friday, June 19th. The standard way to travel is all night trains which cross-cross the country. It was a great trip. We were met at the station by current Peace Corps volunteers (Matt from Oklahoma State University, Alexis and Jack) who are stationed near our town. Each cabin sleeps 4 people but it is recommended that you just rent the whole thing. There are small tables in the cabins where people share drinks and food during travel. We spent alot of the time in the hallway talking with our new counterparts and new friends. The 12 hour train was 97 hrn each ($12.90) which included the room and clean sheets and towels. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Robin I will be working at the Dolyna Museum of Regional studies which quite frankly freaked me out at the beginning.  I saw the placement and said “Oh no! A museum is not the place for me, I need a noisy place, send Jim there!”  Then when I read the job description I continued to freak. 1) Introduce project design and management concepts to the staff to help them to improve their work in the area of research, culture preservation and promotion and tourism development-not sure if I can do this. 2) Help involve local youth in the resolution of culture preservation issues-I can do this. 3) translate historical documents and tourism brochures-this part almost had me running to the nearest exit. 4) Establish and develop the cooperation with other museums, libraries and foundations abroad. 5) Create an English version of the museum web page-nope don’t think I can do this either.  Jim Jim will be working at the Dolyna Town Council. He is working with mayor to help create the Ukrainian-American Center in the community, assist with the cooperation and cultural exchange between Dolyna and their sister city Prairie Village, Kansas, identify fundraising and investment options, initiate professional networking with NGO’s and foundations abroad and assist with ongoing professisonal exchange programs.  We are very happy here and love the town and the people. We are being cautious though, we have only been here two weeks. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Our cluster group. The five old folks and our awesome language teacher Larissa.  Right after swearing in with Larissa New Peace Corps Volunteers The 50 of us waiting to become Peace Corps Volunteers As we were leaving our host families in Chernihiv.  All 25 of us and the families on the theatre steps. On Monday, June 14, 2009 all twenty-five community development volunteers left Chernihiv and pre-service training for Kyiv and our swearing-in ceremony.  Everyone in our group completed the program and stayed in Ukraine. When asked if that was a record many Peace Corps staff members said it was the first group they remembered where all members finished the program. Although to the credit of the Ukrainian Peace Corps staff the early termination rate of volunteers in Ukraine is only 7% while the world-wide average is around 28%. The swearing-in conference was another grueling Peace Corps seminar.  Between meeting our new regional manager, learning how to access our living allowance, signing our contracts, and learning about HIV and vulnerable populations we finally got to find out where we were going to be stationed for the next two years and we met our new counterparts.  A counterpart is the person who is responsible for us in our new community and who we will go to for help, advice on projects etc… Sounds great right but guess what they don’t speak English and 11 weeks of grueling training did not prepare us to talk to counterparts in Ukrainian.  All in all it worked out fine, they are lovely people and we like them both very much.  We are very lucky, other volunteers are not so blessed! Housing While at the conference the Peace Corps finally started giving us some information about how we would live the next two years. The first document for our review was the minimum housing standards publication that states that our housing should be similar to that of the Peace Corps Volunteers’ Ukrainian co-workers.  As you all know we lived in a wonderful flat in Chernihiv with our host mother Vera, so I was only mildly concerned about this.  However, in reading the form I became a little apprehensive.  It states “hot water is a luxury” (we knew that and figured we could live with that), the residence must be located at a safe distance from areas with high risk of flooding and other areas with a high level of ecological pollution or dangerous natural phenomena, within distance of more than 1km from municipal waste sites, active metal smelters and refineries, or tuberculosis hospital (ok, we could handle this). The floors must be cement or wooden, and under no circumstances earthen (ok, this is good, no dirt floors). The Volunteer must have access to water for drinking, cooking, and sanitation (including bathing, flushing toilets, washing clothes and floors – minimum 40 liters per day). We knew that many of our group would not have water in their residence and would have to heat water on the stove (this was also ok). If the toilet is outside it should not be more than 75 meters from the house and a locked toilet/latrine door should be in place and a key available to the volunteers at all times. Furniture and utensils: volunteers must have the following items in residence: For the kitchen: Stove/hot  place, refrigerator, kitchen table, at least 2 stools or chairs, a shelf for kitchen utensils, 2 dishes, 2 bowls, 2 forks, 2 knives, 2 spoons, 2 cups, a kitchen pot, a kettle and a frying pan. For the room: a table/desk, at least 2 chairs, a desk lamp, a bookshelf, a bed, a dresser/closet, a mirror, a pillow, a mattress and a blanket.  Sounds pretty sparse, bare – meager! Well guess what we got - exactly 2 bowls, 2 spoons, 2 forks etc… Truthfully, it is a very large, very nice, apartment.  The town council is paying for it and I can tell that our counterpart – Roman worked hard to get us a nice place.  We are on the 3rd floor in a standard soviet style building. We are only five minutes to the grocery store, the museum and maybe fifteen to the Business Centre where Jim and I both have offices.  I can work from home, the museum or the business centre so we are often moving from place to place. Living Allowance Our second informational document was the current living allowance rate –  1,372 hrn which equals $182.93 per month. This is the breakdown on how we should spend our money: Communication: 12% - telephone, postage, internet (164 hrn = $21.86) Food 60% (823 hrn = $110)                                                                                                                                Household supplies: 3% - cleaning, soap and paper (41 hrn = $5.40) Clothing: 4% (54 hrn = $7.20) Discretionary: 10% (137 hrn = $18.00) Local transportation: 6% (82 hrn = $10.93) Personal sundries: 5% (68 hrn = $9.06)   You can see why the Peace Corps is pretty selective with the information they tell you until you have done all the training – lots of people would say this is too hard and leave. But after training the fun starts and we hope it all works out well.  Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Last week in language we studied how to travel on the metro, autobus, and train. We had to take a field trip into Kiev to use the language and to learn the safety features.  We also went to the Peace Corps office so we would know how to get to the office where the doctor, volunteer lounge and administration is housed.  It was a fun day, just like being in any big city.  Kiev has a population of approx. 3 million people and it seemed like at least 1 million cars.  The city (like all of Ukraine) has many parks, memorials and churches.  It is also very expensive.  I enjoyed the architecture and the walking. We took the route bus to the city and then back.  We were supposed to take the train back but all of us got to tired and wanted to go back early.  It was not a visit, it was an assignment and we had to work.  It was fun asking people for directions and everyone was very nice to us. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

We have been separated into groups for training. Each of our cluster groups (5 members) were required to complete a community development project during our pre-service training.  Our group was privileged to work with the Employment Centre for Youth.  They provide services for youth 14-35. Their primary purpose is to help students obtain seasonal and after school employment. They also provide job counseling, workshops, consult youth who wish to open their own business and arrange special events for Ukrainian contests.  This is not your typical American agency; it is a one person office.  The priority of many of the students in Ukraine is to go to American and find work. So to help with the culture shock students experience when they go to America we developed the following project: Project/Event Design: 1.      Overview of Project/Event Activities: The Peace Corps Trainees will organize, plan, facilitate and conduct five 1.5 hour seminars on similarities and differences between the United States of American and Ukraine which are designed to provide cross cultural education. The seminar subjects are: 1.     Culture, History, Geography, State system: Government, Local Authorities, Law and Human Rights (Roberta Eleazer) 2.      Travel, Health and Safety (James Eleazer) 3.      Medical Services in the United States 4.      Education and Travel 5.      Communication: At Home, Public & Business   This was a large project for training and we ended up developing a manual which was 125 pages. This still wasn’t enough as far as I was concerned. How do you educate people about America who cannot imagine what it is like and travel with blind faith. Our presentations went well and we had a great experience.  We became good friends with the volunteers and the director of the agency. After the final seminar the organization took us to the woods for a relaxing picnic and conversation. As you can see by the pictures it was an outstanding afternoon with our new Ukrainian friends. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

According to the Cross Cultural handbook there is hardly a Russian family who did not suffer from the Nazis in the Great Patriotic war (1941-45). May 9th is Victory Day and the day to celebrate the veterans who took part in World War II. In celebration today there was an outstanding military parade involving the veterans and current service men from various branches. The veterans wore their old uniforms with the original medals. The streets were lined with family and friends who give these elderly soldiers flowers and congratulations. It was a spectacular ceremony and parade. As I was taking pictures I had the opportunity to speak so many of them.  Since I barely speak Ukrainian (and most of the people in this community speak Russian) I just walked up - smiled and said “ya ochee u-cry-ian-sku.  Which means I don’t speak Ukrainian. I then told them I was a volunteer working in Ukraine and could I take their picture.  Of course, don’t think I said all this – it was mostly a combination of a few words and lots of pointing at my camera and saying Bood Laska (please). They were thrilled to oblige and as you can imagine I had a wonderful morning walking and snapping to my heart’s content. I hope you enjoy these photographs. Most of the pictures are portraits of the people who participated not only in the parade but the people who came out and supported these veterans. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

   Our host mother is a wonderful person who does a great deal for us.  Today to show her that we appreciate and care so much for her we wanted to bring her home flowers.  Although it seems like this is a simple gesture as flowers are everywhere here are some Ukraine flower RULES you must consider before purchasing anything. Most contemporary societies have let the symbolism of flowers and their colors fade away but Ukraine is not one of them.  Don’t give red flowers unless you are passionate about someone. Yellow is a color that Ukraine associated with certain potentially traumatic messages. It means goodbye – so don’t give yellow flowers. Carnations have a pretty heavy political association. They were always favored by the Communist Party and government officials. Many people still identify the red carnation with Communist officialdom, which can make that particular flower a touchy gift. NEVER give an even number of flowers unless you are attending a funeral. Flower vendors won’t even sell you an even number unless they’re sure that someone you know has died. Meanwhile 13 of anything is out of the question.  Bouquets should be of three, five, seven or nine flowers.  One flower is nice but remember, that giving more than nine flowers indicates serious romantic feelings and intentions. For a birthday girl you give as many flowers as she has years, but subtract or add one to make the number odd, if necessary. We came home with 7 beautiful yellow-red tulips and Vera loved them. Send to a friend

Happy Birthday John  Our oldest Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine is John from Connecticut. John has been here for 19 months and will go home in December. John has an assignment working in the Oblast library where he holds an English club each Sunday. He also teaches at the Foreign Language School and privately tutors students during the week. He is quite an awesome person as you can imagine. John was 80 today.   Send to a friend

Here are some pictures of our cluster group. That is the group of OLD people who have to survive the language lessons each day. Yes, it is misery!  However this is week three and only seven left to go.  There is also some pictures of our apartment.  It is very beautiful and very well kept.  Vera is a wonderful host mother who is working hard on fattening us up. She thinks we are too skinny to live in Ukraine and deal with the weather. If we walk home each day Vera says we have to eat twice as much to keep up our strength.    Read and post comments | Send to a friend

This week we had a classroom project and language lesson on learning to cook Borsch. Our assignment was to familiarize ourselves with the Bazaar and experience buying the ingredients and sometimes bargain for better prices. This was a joke, we were introduced to the words one hour before we left the classroom and you can imagine four old farts trying to remember the words and convey these to the FAST taking ladies who run the booth, who furthermore speak Russian. The prices are dirt cheap compared to American prices, and if they are marked up, it is only 10% on a item.  So you have a kilo of radishes that cost 11 hr. ($1.37) and you want to argue over 1.3 kopek. Impossible and WHY is my question would we think we could do this after 2.3 weeks in the country. Also you would never buy a kilo of radishes maybe you might get 5 grams which it takes 1,000 grams to make a kilo.  So math whizes you figure it out. We’ll just hand over the amount they say.  Nonetheless we only receive $5.75 per day (that’s for the two of us) to buy our drinking water, take the bus back and forth to school and buy lunch. We managed to get our four items within 5 minutes but it took a lot of pointing and they just take the money out of your hand.  How much did it cost?  Who Knows – five minutes to complete a task that realistically would take us 30 minutes. We bought sunflower oil, garlic, parsley, sour cream and we failed to buy the borsch spices.  Even with pointing at the words in our language book we failed.  So our borsch had to do without spice.  We ran back to our language teacher’s apartment and cooked it and it was still great.  I think the soups and borsch are our favorite.  Although everything is wonderful I am a little concerned about the amount of flour and oil we are consuming although everyone in our group is losing weight and eating all the time. We are eating plenty of calcium each day with a small piece of cheese at each meal and usually a yogurt at lunch. The meat portions are very small which is great and we have a salad each night.  The cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, oranges and banana’s are full of flavor and we eat some of these each day. In case you think we are throwing hryvniak and kopeck’s around while we figure out the prices don’t worry we are working on staying within the Ukrainian budget and even saving money.  The first week we did fine but last week we had to buy coat hangers which were about $.75 each. BUDGET BLOWN! We needed these because we were spending an extra hour at home each night ironing something to wear for the next day.  Now we can do all the laundry on Saturday and on Sunday iron an outfit for each day. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

  Sorry it has been almost three weeks since we started this journey.  As you will see the schedule is crazy and we are working very hard.  Today is my first day of internet so I will try to catch up a little. Our first two days were spent at a former Soviet Union sanatorium where we were in pre-service training. We did classes on safety and security and a great culture class.  We also did 3 hours of language learning how to say common phrases to introduce ourselves to our new families.  As you can see it was very run down.  I was a little nervous about what kind of building we would end up living in but we are in a wonderful home now. Our host mother is named Vera. She is a 65 year old pensioner, who loves to take care of us.  She cooks amazing food from simple, fresh ingredients.  We eat on plates the size of a dessert plate and yet I always feel full. We are eating fresh eggs, potatoes, beets, and herbs from the summer house (dacha). Each meal starts with a soup or borsch and fresh bread which are both outstanding. Then a meat/fish/chicken dish with salad. We walk home the two miles from school each day just to try to work some of it off.  Our mother thinks we should not be walking as it is not a popular hobby here and she is worried we will catch a cold, get hurt or in the beginning get lost.  When we left the house the first day she was a nervous wreck, but we got home 15 minutes before our scheduled time.  She is feeling more comfortable about us being on our own a little but she does feel a large responsibility towards us and our success in the program.  The Peace Corps has trained these mothers and done extensive interviewing to make sure we are all in very good homes.  We have a nice room to sleep in and even an extra room for our computer and a table to study on.  We are spoiled and very happy here! Tomorrow we will do laundry for the first time (an experience I hear) and take our weekly shower.  Everyone dresses very fashionably and the shoes are dazzling. Although I probably could not walk on those spike heels, I love the looks of them.  We are required to wear business clothes each time we are out of the house so we are doing a lot of dressing up. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Our school site is the city of Chernihiv which is a city of 300,000.  It is an 11th century city with a cluster of historical churches.  As you can see in the pictures they are gold domed and very beautiful. It is an relaxing city that is pleasant to walk around and it is now spring so the weather has been fairly mild.  There are many outstanding café and pastry shops - Jim’s favorite.  Beer is 6Hrn which is less than one dollar (8Hrn = $1.00USD) and a mouthwatering pasty is 1.90Hrn (.25 cents).  We receive 312Hrn every two weeks to live on ($39). This covers water for 14 days @ 3Hrn, lunch @ 10Hrn per day, bus travel (marshrutka) @ 3Hrn and misc spending @ 10Hrn per day. (10Hrn is just over $1.00 each day).  The fifty-five of us who volunteered have been separated into cluster groups of five students to each teacher.  We catch the city bus each day to travel to our language teacher’s house.  Her name is Larissa and she is very nice and an excellent teacher.  The work load is TREMENDOUS. We are in school or studying 14 hours a day.  Graduate school was a picnic compared to this experience.  However, it almost always fun and exciting to experience so much.  We are in language lessons 3 hours a day, business language lessons 30 minutes/2 times a week, technical training 6 hours a week, site visits 4 hours a week, individual language training 1 hour each week, etc….. In our spare time we are supposed to be interacting with our host families (whom we cannot really talk to), go around town and talking with other host families, and go to stores etc.. to practice Ukraine. Additionally, have at least 3 hours of homework each day.  In two weeks we have to do a mini project with a non-profit from Chernihiv to prepare us for the work in our communities. It is pretty crazy. After the first couple of days we realized that we would go crazy trying to keep up the pace so we have all cut back and are relaxing more.  Each day I remind Jim that he said this would be fun. We are enjoying the other volunteers; they are so interesting and nice.  It is awe-inspiring to be in a group of such dedicated, responsible people.  I am looking forward to spending more time with them and maybe having one of those notable martinis on a Friday night. Today we visited the St. Pareskevy Pyatnytsi church and climbed the 58m bell tower (1775) of the Troyitski-Illynsky Monastary. We toured the Antonly Caves which consist of 315m of passageways, galleries and three chapels constructed from the 11th to 13th centuries. The bones of the monks killed during the Mongol invasion are preserved in a windowed sarcophagus. It is unknown how many monks-hermits lived in these underground caves but we saw numerous very small individual dug out caves where they lived, studies and slept. In the same park is a monument over the Grave of the Unknown Soldier which was erected to glorify the liberators of Chernigov from the German-fascists executed 1200 Chernigov residents during the period of occupation. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Our first two days in Ukraine were spent in this former Soviet Union Sanatorium where we had staging. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Laundry Day Last week we did our first loads of laundry.  In Ukraine it is a process that takes time.  As you can see the washing machines are of a different era and you need to know how to work them.  In the Soviet times it was very difficult for the people to save enough money to buy these appliances so they are very precious and many families may not have them.  Our culture teacher told us it could have taken up to ten years for a family to save for one of these. First you fill the washing machine with water from the sink.  While the clothes are being washed you fill the bathtub with cold water.  After the machine is done you wring/squeeze all the soapy water out and put all the clothes in the bathtub to rinse them out. After sloshing those around for a few minutes to get the soap out you again press the water out.  Now the clothing goes into a spinner. After all this is done you take the clothes to the porch to line dry. It’s not difficult just time consuming and after all this is done – guess what.  EVERYTHING has to be ironed.  So yes, laundry is an all day process. Additionally, I should mention that shoes need to be polished ever week and buffed each day. It is very improper to meet anyone important with dirty shoes and even on the bus people will look at your shoes.  For shoe fanatics like my sister-in-law Carol, you would have a blast just looking in the 70-100 shoe stores in the Bazaar.  And truthfully I have not seen two pair alike. This is also true for coats – and you know I love coats. I just keep reminding myself how much trouble it was getting the bags we had to this town and we have to move again in June.  Read and post comments | Send to a friend

      We took a quick trip to Washington D.C. to see some friends and the beautiful cherry blossoms.  Although the weather is a little drizzly, the plants are blooming and everything is colorful.  We met Megan, another Peace Corps volunteer who was visiting. Monday all of us going to Ukraine (63) start training at 1:00 p.m in Philly. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

YEAH, We got out inbetween eruptions. Our plane departed on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m.  We are in Washington D.C. going to visit with friends and some of the museums.  The cherry blossoms are beautiful although the weather is drizzly. ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Mount Redoubt erupted twice Thursday morning, sending ash to at least 65,000 feet and mud flowing down the Drift River, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. The "major explosive event" occurred at 9:24, the AVO said. It's Redoubt's largest eruption since exploding Sunday and Monday. A few smaller events followed, the AVO said, but they did not produce ash clouds higher than 20,000 feet. "At this point, we have a wide open system and probably for the rest of the eruption we don't expect to see short-term warning," said Stephanie Prejean, a research geophysicist with the AVO. "We can have these large eruptions pretty much at any time." A large, dark mass of ash could be seen slowly moving up the inlet during the afternoon, and by about 2 p.m. ash was falling in Homer and Seldovia. An ash fall advisory is in effect until 6 p.m. for the western Kenai Peninsula, including Kenai, Soldotna, Cooper Landing and Homer. Ash fall on the western side of the peninsula was expected to end by 6 p.m., but the National Weather Service expected it to track north and east into interior Kenai Peninsula. Alaska Airlines canceled all flights to and from Anchorage as a safety precaution following Mount Redoubt's Thursday morning eruptions. The cancellations were in effect for the remainder of the day, and the airline hoped to resume operations after daylight Friday. Other flights faced cancellation, as well. Read and post comments | Send to a friend

  Alaska - The Most Beautiful Place in the World Read and post comments | Send to a friend

 

We've said goodbye to the family, the Ipod has been loaded with 1,000 songs, we learned over 100 Ukrainian words, gifts have been bought for the host families, the car has been sold, the packing is done, we are down to the last two going away dinners, and guess what???  The volcano is erupting!  Planes are not flying - getting in and out of Alaska is on hold.  We have 48 hours until we leave so please pray that this darn volcano decides to go back to sleep. Just our luck - after waiting 7 years to go to the Peace Corps we should of known. Expect the unexpected! Tomorrow night Sushi, Wednesday night Thai.  Here we come Ukraine and we are so happy to be coming to your country and getting a chance to share in your culture.  Thank you for having us.     Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Schedule: Monday, March 30th - Tuesday, March 31 Staging Tuesday, March 31 - Fly to Ukraine 11 weeks of training in community near Kyiv Mailing Guidelines: We cannot receive ANY packages for the first 11 weeks. Anything larger than a regular envelope will be returned to the sender. After we receive our permanent placement we can receive packages. Packages usually take two to three weeks via USPS air mail. The Ukrainian post office charges a set rate (duty) per parcel, which each volunteer has to pay to retrieve their packages. Contents should be less than $99 Do not send valuables Do not send home-made food or food with a short shelf-life Meese Co is the recommend packages service. Phone: (800) 361-7345 Valid Address until June 1, 2009: U.S. Peace Corps/Ukraine Robin Eleazer P.O. Box 298 01030 Kyiv, Ukraine Internet: There is no internet access available at the PST Venue and we cannot make international calls. We will not be able to call or e-mail for the first days in Ukraine. e-mail address: eleazer@gci.net Emergency: You can contact the Office of Special Services at 800-424-8580 ext. 1470 at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, DC.       Send to a friend

Summer flowers in Anchorage, AK. "Life is Calling"  27 months.  To some it may seem like a long time but we are afraid it won't be long enough to travel the country, meet the people and enjoy the culture.  From April 2009 to June 2011 we will be serving in the Peace Corps in Ukraine. The Peace Corps first opened its program in Ukraine in 1992. Our program, community development, assists Ukrainian businesses, government institutions and non-governmental organizations to increase individual capacity, model professional skills, help define organizational missions, assist in develop strategies for reaching goals, and improve agency planning and networking. We will participate in a 10-week intensive training program in Ukraine to prepare us for these jobs. During this time we will live in a small rural village with a host family. After training we will move to a site where we will work for the reminder of our service. We will learn Ukraine or Russian depending on which part of the country out job will be in. During pre-service training internet access may be difficult but I will post ASAP. 23 days to go!   Read and post comments | Send to a friend