Dear Family and Friends,

As I type this message the days I have remaining in Ukraine are sadly few. My how the two years have flown by! My last week in Velyka Lepetykha has been quite an adventure already with goodbye teas, final greetings on the street and a mix of emotions!

Before I close out my service though, I would like to write one more update blog on the activities that have kept me quite busy these last few weeks.

The weekend of October 7th-9th all female PCVs in the Khersonska Oblast were invited to a fellow PCV’s site of Chaplinka, southern Khersonska Oblast. Stephanie is a devote member of the Gender and Development Working Group of PC Ukraine and hosted a weekend mini GLOW camp for our Khersonska female students. GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World and is an opportunity for young female students to learn how to become leaders in their community, gain project development and managements skills as well as work on their self esteem and learn more about sex and women’s health. Stephanie chose Human Trafficking as a main theme for the weekend camp and so we discussed this tough topic in depth with our campers.

The camp was held in Chaplinka’s Children’s Activities Center which has a gymnasium equipped with a gymnastics mat on which we slept! From our oblast we had 9 PCVs participate bringing 17 students with them to camp. I was luckily able to bring with me 3 campers – Yulia, Yulia and Masha of the 10th grade class! These women did an excellent job practicing their English, eagerly answering questions and participating in the lessons! We tie dyed shirts on Saturday, a first time for many of our campers! And we had a special presentation Saturday night made by the local Kozak foundation (Kozaks are ancient Ukrainian soldiers, a tradition which is still held to this day by men who enact presentations of Kozak customs and dishes). The girls had a lot of chances to practice their English and ask questions that the traditional school classroom setting does not offer the opportunity to ask, such as sexual health, a main topic of the extra questioning and time.

My three girls took away with them Jimmy Johns cups from Stephanie and certificates but the biggest gain was the knowledge that they have the power to do something great in both Velyka Lepetykha and in Ukraine. I was so proud of my students and I can’t wait to see what they do with this power and strength!

October for Americans of course means Halloween so once again I brought the Halloween spirit to my school! On October 20th (just before the Fall Holiday) I showed Casper to my 7th-9th graders and had a coloring competition between the 7th and 8th grade classes. In my 10th and 11th grades I brought in the tub and apples and once again hosted a bobbing for apples competition. The 10A class did the best job as they dove right into the tub to get the apples! Quite a sight! I’ve attached a few pictures below!

For my own Halloween celebrating, I traveled to Kharkiv for the annual Peace Corps Halloween party. However, in the afternoon some of the campers from ABC Camp hosted a Halloween Carnival. PCVs who staffed ABC as well as others joined the campers and their friends for traditional Halloween games, traditional ABC Camp games, a repeat after me song written by me! and lots of good times together again. The campers had prepared a song for the PCV Group 37ers who will be leaving this fall semester – it was a very touching moment! They gave each of us a hand made vareneky (Ukrainian dumpling) pin, which are so cute. It was wonderful to see how excited the campers were to see their friends and the staff again and to feel the excitement and energy for this summer’s upcoming camp! One of my campers told me that through her attending camp and participating on my team I have “changed her world” – moments like this show us how much we as PCVs impact Ukraine and its youth. I will greatly miss having ABC in my life and I cannot wait to hear of its success this coming summer!

On a side note – I would like to thank my best friend Page Piccinini for sending me her Starbucks apron, as it was quite a success with the fellow PCVs at the evening’s PCV party!

Upon return to Velyka Lepetykha for my final 2 weeks at site I bunkered down to complete the final portion of my PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) project -- an ongoing project which began as an initial thought in March 2010 and was still not fully complete! The final piece was a traveling brigade performing an educational script/play on the dangers of drug use and having unprotected sex and the rolls of both in the spread of HIV infection. I worked with the Children’s Activities Center’s Creative Director, Aliona, to put together a team of 9 students from the 11th grade class to perform the script that Aliona had written. My grant money paid for fabric and the sewing of identical blouses for the female students as well as lots and lots of red ribbon and pins for each student in attendance of the concerts to wear. After a week of rehearsals and ribbon cutting/pinning on Friday, November 4th we piled into the school van and drove an hour away to the village of Mikolaevka. The concert lasted only about 25 minutes but we had 28 students of the 7th-11th grade classes listen to the words of the performers. Next we traveled to Rubanivka where we presented to schools #1 and #2 with over 100 students of the 7th-11th grades view the concert. It was quite a successful day and the students did an excellent job!

On Monday, November 7th the brigades’ traveling around the county continued with a trip to Mala Lepetykha where we had 50 students from the 9th-11th grade see the concert followed by Velyka Lepetykha School #2 (Shannon’s School!) with 32 students of the 9th-11th grades and lastly my school with a great turn out of 66 in the 8th-10th grades. The costumes looked great and the students did an excellent job. I hope the words on the dangers of drug use and the need to use a condom to protect oneself against HIV infection sunk in to those students in attendance. I am so thankful for the work that the Children’s Activities Center completed as well as my students and it was an excellent project on which to complete my work here in Velyka Lepetykha!

Following the completion of my final concerts the stress and work of closing up shop here in Velyka Lepetykha began. I have already attended 4 goodbye teas with my schedule filled until I leave on Sunday, November 13th. I will then be traveling to Kiev to present to the training volunteers in Chernigiv and Kiev before I fly to Thailand on Friday, November 18th.

As I look back on all the work I have accomplished, all the experiences I have had, and all the people I have met in these two years, I feel so fortunate and appreciative of all that has happened to me in Peace Corps. It has been quite a ride with plenty of ups and downs, but the time in the end has flown by! I would like to thank all of you who have given me the support to complete this adventure! The emails, packages, Facebook messages, letters, phone calls etc, have all helped me to keep pushing forward! I am so appreciative and grateful for the support I have received.

I will be arriving in Minnesota on December 13th and look forward to seeing all of you again then!

For now I would like to wish you all a wonderful rest of your fall season and a very happy Thanksgiving!

Signing off from Velyka Lepetykha, Ukraine and Peace Corps,

Megan

Pictures Include:

GLOW Camp Chaplinka: 14

Halloween Velyka Lepetykha, Bobbing for Apples: 4

Halloween Kharkiv ABC Camp: 6

HIV/AIDS Traveling Brigade: 21

Visiting Vera’s friends for a goodbye tea: 2

Dear Friends and Family,

As my days come to a close here in Ukraine, I would like to share with you one of the requirements I have fulfilled in closing my service - the writing of my description of service. Below you will find the very long document detailing all that I have done during my 2 year service in Velyka Lepetykha and throughout the Peace Corps community! It is quite impressive to see my accomplishments in writing and I wanted to share them with you all back home!

I will be sure to post one final update on my last projects and experiences at site in the coming week.

Happy November,

Megan

Description of Peace Corps Service

Megan Elizabeth Trout

Ukraine 2009 – 2011

After a competitive application process emphasizing professional skills, motivation, adaptability, cross-cultural understanding and medical fitness, Peace Corps invited Ms. Megan Trout into service as a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in Ukraine.

Pre-Service Training

On September 27th, 2009, Ms. Trout joined the 37th group of Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in Ukraine. She entered an intensive 11.5 week community-based training program. The training program included 200 hours of Russian language training, 90 hours of technical instruction in TEFL methodologies, including six weeks of classroom teaching practice, and 40 hours of cross-cultural studies, including history, economy, and cultural norms. To reinforce language and cross-cultural learning, Ms. Trout lived with a Ukrainian family in the town of Boguslav, Kyiv Region, throughout training.

In preparation for her Peace Corps service, Ms. Trout taught at Boguslav Secondary School #1. While at the school, Ms. Trout taught English to the 4th, 6th and 8th grade students and began implementing the various methodologies that she was studying during the pre-service training. In coordination with four other trainees living in Boguslav, Ms. Trout organized a two-fold community project. Firstly, Ms. Trout developed a country studies map of the United States. The map highlighted American holidays and traditions and included a passage on each trainee, including: information on their state, family, education, hobbies and interests. Secondly, Ms. Trout developed a manual of classic American children’s songs and lyrics with accompanying lesson plans. Ms. Trout presented the materials to the English Department of Boguslav Secondary School #1, as well as the English Department of the Boguslav Technical School, in a seminar demonstrating ways in which the manual may be adapted to the English classroom.

Peace Corps Assignment

U.S. Ambassador John F. Tefft swore in Ms. Trout as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) on December 17th, 2009 in Kyiv, Ukraine. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, Ms. Trout’s program fell under the supervising authority of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine.

Ms. Trout was assigned to Velyka Lepetykha, a town of 9,000 Ukrainian and Russian speakers in the Kherson Region of Ukraine. She worked as a teacher of English at Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1, which has a student body of approximately 550 students and a teaching staff of 48 teachers. Ms. Trout was one of four English teachers at the school. She was overseen by the school’s director, Tamara Vasilevna Kybatko, and was directly supervised by her counterpart, Antonina Victorivna Kryvoviaz. Ms. Trout also worked closely with the two English teachers: Liudmyla Vitaliivna Hunko and Olena Yuriivna Kramska.

Primary Assignment

Velyka Lepetykha Community

Ms. Trout began teaching classes in December 2009. She worked primarily with students in the 5th through 11th grades, teaching the communicative method for 18 hours per week for two years (note: school years in Ukraine begin September 1st and end May 27th.) Ms. Trout taught the 5th, 6th and 7th grade students three times a week, while the 8th grade students met twice a week and the 9th and 11th graders met three times a week. In the 2010-2011 school year, Ms. Trout taught the 10th grade students four times a week.

In her first year, Ms. Trout developed a series of extracurricular English Clubs for her 7th and 9th grade students. Through these clubs, students had a weekly opportunity to speak English, play games in English, learn about American culture and traditions and watch English-language movies.

Ms. Trout increased the English language resources at her school with the help of Darien Book Aid. These new resources included elementary school level English language children’s books and poetry. Following the arrival of the books, Ms. Trout visited the 2nd grade classroom weekly to read to the students using the American children’s books.

Within the community, Ms. Trout lead an adult English Club which offered members of the community the opportunity each week to develop English communicative skills, practice English grammar and learn about American culture and traditions. Over Ms. Trout’s two years in Velyka Lepetykha, three members of the community were diligent in their attendance with another three members attending occasionally.

Throughout her service, Ms. Trout participated in the Coverdell World Wise Schools Program by becoming pen pals and corresponding with a 5th grade class at an elementary school in Faribault, Minnesota.

In March 2010, Ms. Trout attended the Peace Corps Ukraine 12th PEPFAR (Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) sponsored training on preventing new HIV infections and risky behavior. Ms. Trout attended the conference with Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1 Biology teacher and project counterpart, Tatiana Vladimirovna Pletyonnaya. Following the training, Ms. Trout and Ms. Pletyonnaya prepared a number of HIV/AIDS educational activities beginning with World AIDS Day 2010. On December 1st, students wore red in honor of those living with HIV/AIDS and in memorial of those who have died of the disease. Ms. Trout photographed the 54 students of the 1st – 11th grades, wearing red. The photograph was featured in the HIV/AIDS Working Group March 2011 newsletter, “The Cure.”

In the fall of 2010, Ms. Trout and Ms. Pletyonnaya successfully obtained a VAST/PEPFAR grant, in the amount of $983, to sponsor the project “HIV/AIDS Education for a Healthier Future.” This project developed a groundbreaking partnership between Velyka Lepetykha Social Services Center, Children’s Activities Center, Head County Hospital, Secondary School #1, and Secondary School #2. The project began by hosting four trainings in January and February 2011 to prepare the participants to be HIV/AIDS educators. These sessions trained 18 students of the 10th and 11th grades from Velyka Lepetykha Secondary Schools #1 and #2, as well as student representatives of the Children’s Activities Center, 26 adults from the five participating organizations and 54 health care workers from Velyka Lepetykha County, and the Head County Hospital. The trainings focused on the biology, transmission and prevention of HIV as well as the reduction of stigma and discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS. Following the trainings, the educated individuals gave lessons in Schools #1 and #2 and the Children’s Activities Center. The lessons taught HIV/AIDS education to the 5th through 11th grade students. Following the lessons, students created posters presenting HIV/AIDS educational materials as well as hopeful messages for a world without HIV/AIDS. These posters were placed on display in the Children’s Activities Center. On March 3rd, 2011, Ms. Trout organized the “Youth Choose Health” concert in partnership with the Velyka Lepetykha Social Services Center. Eight schools in the region presented 10-minute skits on healthy lifestyles and HIV/AIDS education to further spread the word of HIV/AIDS awareness throughout the community. The PEPFAR project culminated in the painting of two World Map HIV/AIDS Murals in Schools #1 and #2. Ms. Trout organized the attendance and collaboration of seven Kherson Region PCVs to help complete the murals. Students, from their respective schools, in grades 7th through 11th, traced and painted the murals. The art directors of Schools #1 and #2 assisted in the organization of students and completion of the maps.

In the fall of 2011, Ms. Trout, in partnership with the Children’s Activities Center, organized a follow up concert to further spread the word of HIV/AIDS education throughout the Velyka Lepetykha County. A brigade of 12 students from the 11th grade of Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1 wrote, rehearsed and performed an informational play presenting the dangers of drug use and unsafe sex and their roles in the spread of HIV infection. The brigade traveled to 6 county schools to perform the play and distribute red HIV/AIDS awareness ribbons and HIV/AIDS educational booklets to those in attendance.

Ms. Trout also promoted clean water initiatives in Velyka Lepetykha. She wrote and received a grant, in the amount of $500, from Appropriate Projects, an initiative of Water Charities, to purchase and install a water filter in the cafeteria of School #1. Ms. Trout also purchased a water testing kit and in collaboration with School #1’s nurse, tested the local drinking water. Through the results of this test, Ms. Trout created a clean water initiative, which was promoted throughout the community to educate members on the importance of filtering water before consumption. The water testing results and clean water initiative were further shared with PCVs participating in the Environmental Working Group for distribution and use in additional communities. Ms. Trout repeated the water filter project in collaboration with PCV, Shannon Wentworth of Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #2, writing and receiving a grant, in the amount of $420, from Appropriate Projects. The second grant purchased a water filter for School #2 to be used in the cafeteria for breakfast and lunch and to create a water fountain for student and teacher use.

Ms. Trout, in partnership with Svetlana Vladimirovna Artux, Home Economics teacher of Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1, also wrote and received a USAID funded Civic Small Project Assistance Grant, in the amount of $1505, for the project “Sewing a Stronger Future in Velyka Lepetykha.” The grant funded the purchase of 6 new electronic sewing machines, numerous meters of fabrics for the sewing of clothing items and bedding, a new iron, as well as sewing accessories including needles, threads, buttons and elastics. The project taught over 120 young ladies of the 6th – 9th grades how to sew clothing items such as pants, t-shirts and jackets, as well as the bedding items of sheets, blankets and pillowcases. Along with learning to sew, the young women were also taught women’s empowerment, independence through adopting new skills and the importance of volunteerism. Through partnership with the Velyka Lepetykha Social Services Center, completed sewn items were donated to both the Children’s Department of the Velyka Lepetykha Head County Hospital as well as to the children of women participating in the Social Services Center’s program for young, single mothers.

Ms. Trout, in partnership with the Velyka Lepetykha Center for Youth and Sport, led two Earth Day clean up campaigns. In April 2011 Ms. Trout organized the 10th and 11th grade classes to clean a path from the school grounds to the riverbank park one kilometer away. The clean up promoted awareness of littering among the students. Over 50 burlap sacks of garbage and recyclable materials were collected and properly disposed of through the support of the Center for Youth and Sport and town officials.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps, Ms. Trout partnered with Peace Corps Volunteer, Jacob Rodriguez in the Poltava Region of Ukraine to complete a video pen pal project between respective 9th grade classes. Videos with clips of students asking and answering questions were passed between each class. Questions regarded such topics as the unique qualities of one’s region, how to make borsch in one’s region, as well as more important topics, such as the most prevalent problems facing teenagers in their community. The project offered students the opportunity to connect with students of another region and to understand how the social problems facing teenagers can be both similar and varying throughout the country.

Lastly, Ms. Trout invited Platinum Bank to Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1 to put on a Posidelki Party, a monetary party in which students learned about money, savings and banks through playing such games as “Monopoly for Children.” In September 2011 Platinum Bank hosted two parties educating the 2nd and 7th grade students on the value of money and personal savings.

The success of Ms. Trout’s efforts and her projects in Velyka Lepetykha was frequently published in the local newspaper. Ten articles were printed describing project efforts, successes and commentary from participating organizations and project counterparts.

In Ms. Trout’s free time, she visited the Velyka Lepetykha Music School twice weekly for bandura lessons. The bandura is a traditional Ukrainian, plucked, stringed, folk instrument. Olga Valentinivna Kononenko taught Ms. Trout how to both play the bandura and how to read Ukrainian sheet music.

During her time in Velyka Lepetykha, Ms. Trout continued her study of the Russian language by working with a Russian tutor. She attended two weeklong Russian Language Refresher seminars hosted by Peace Corps Ukraine. Ms. Trout achieved an Intermediate High score on the Russian language proficiency test given by Peace Corps Ukraine. Her ability to communicate in the local language enabled Ms. Trout to better integrate into her community, gained her the respect of host country nationals, and better facilitated her work in Ukraine, especially in Velyka Lepetykha.

Secondary Assignment

Peace Corps Community

In addition to her activities in Velyka Lepetykha, Ms. Trout was very active within the Peace Corps Volunteer community. From September 2010 – November 2011, Ms. Trout was the acting head of the Kherson Regional Collaborative, which aimed at fostering effective teaching, leadership development, and resource sharing among volunteers. She also acted as the Regional Collaborative Facilitator for Southern Ukraine, managing 5 Collaborative heads in their mission to develop connections among volunteers in their regions.

Ms. Trout was a member of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), serving on the Educational Resources Committee and as acting head of the Water Task Force. In May 2010 Ms. Trout developed an innovative partnership between EWG and the Ukrainian NGO MAMA-86, an organization devoted to developing green policy and practices in Ukraine to improve standards of living for generations to come. While acting as head of the Water Task Force, Ms. Trout was part of a group that wrote a grant to create a nation wide water-testing project. In September 2011, EWG and their Ukrainian project counterpart, MAMA-86, were awarded a $600 grant from the Northern California RPCV Association.

Ms. Trout also served on the Tourism Working Group (TWG), developing guides for volunteers on traveling within and around Ukraine. Ms. Trout developed “Overview of Russian Visas,” a guide for obtaining a tourist visa to Russia for volunteers, which was published in the Spring 2011 TWG Newsletter “Traveler.”

Ms. Trout was an active member of the Safety and Security Council (SSC), acting as Vice President from January 2010 – February 2011, then as President from February 2011 – September 2011. In her tenure with the Council, Ms. Trout developed safety materials devoted to home safety, transportation and traveling safety, as well as personal safety tips for volunteers. Ms. Trout took leadership of the Cell Phone Loaner Program, which offered cell phones to volunteers who find themselves without a phone due to loss, theft or accident. Through Ms. Trout’s efforts, the Cell Phone Loaner Program increased three-fold in donations from exiting PCVs and four-fold in loan requests from current PCVs. As acting President of SSC, Ms. Trout was responsible for scheduling all council meetings and publicity, developing the agenda, and supervising meeting progress.

While serving on the Safety and Security Council, Ms. Trout, in partnership with fellow PCV Nazgol Zand and Serhiy Pashynskyy, the Safety and Security Officer, developed and introduced the Confidential Peer Response Hotline in September 2010. The Confidential Peer Response Hotline (CPR Hotline) encourages the safety and security of PCVs by providing volunteers with a confidential support for reporting any issues, problems, or incidents, and to act as a link between Peace Corps staff and volunteers whenever necessary. Ms. Trout and Ms. Zand organized the gathering of 9 PCVs in Ternopil, Ternopil Region on November 2nd 2010, to participate in the “Active Listening Training” held by PCV Chuck Serface. Following the training, Ms. Trout and Ms. Zand selected 3 PCVs to serve as active PCVs on the CPR Hotline. Ms. Trout was placed in charge of managing the Hotline and its active PCV advisors and to report on its use to the Safety and Security Officers.

In addition to her work with the Peace Corps, Ms. Trout was very active in the summer at Peace Corps Volunteer hosted summer camps. In July 2010 and 2011, Ms. Trout served as a counselor for ABC Camp, which prepared 70 – 80 Ukrainian youth to become future leaders of Ukraine through learning project design and management, leadership, debate, art, and sharing culture while also participating in team building activities and the implementation of social projects. In addition to acting as a team leader, Ms. Trout taught project design and management as well as sharing world cultures. In November 2010, Ms. Trout participated in a Mini ABC Camp held in Kupiansk, Kharkiv Region, led by PCV Tiago Forte. The Mini ABC Camp focused on teaching Human Rights with an emphasis on Human Rights in Ukraine.

In August 2010, Ms. Trout participated in MASCOT Camp, which provided 70 – 80 Ukrainian youth with lessons and opportunities to experience social awareness, cultural exchange and means to express one’s creativity through the visual arts. In addition to serving as a team leader, Ms. Trout taught project design and management, visual arts and an elective focusing on music and the influence of digital technology on musical styles and techniques. Ms. Trout brought three students of the upcoming 11th grade class from Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1 to attend MASCOT Camp 2010: Olena Pletyonnaya, Inna Stets and Alina Yevtushenko. Following the camp, Ms. Trout guided the girls in their completion of a “YES” Grant--Youth Engaged in Society--a grant funded by the International Outreach Coalition. With Ms. Trout’s guidance, Olena, Inna and Alina developed the project “Don’t Smoke: You are Your Future,” an anti-smoking campaign focused on presenting the truth about the dangers of smoking. The girls distributed pamphlets on the dangers of smoking to students in the 5th – 11th grades. Additionally, they made a special presentation to their fellow 11th grade classmates on the adverse effects of smoking to one’s health and body. Outside of school, Olena, Inna and Alina distributed pamphlets to members of the community, while discussing with interested individuals additional details regarding smoking’s effect on the body. Through this project the three students learned the skills of grant writing and management, as well as project design and implementation.

In July 2011, Ms. Trout served as a counselor for Camp HEAL in Okhtyrka, Sumi Region. Camp HEAL is the HIV/AIDS Working Group’s annual summer camp that trains 70 - 80 Ukrainian youth on HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, healthy lifestyles and project design and management. In addition to serving as a teacher and team leader, Ms. Trout raised funds for Camp HEAL 2011.

Additionally, Ms. Trout served as a counselor for Camp IKNOW 2011 in Kabane, Lugansk Region. Camp IKNOW is an annual summer camp for 20 Ukrainian secondary school students that focuses on issues surrounding the environment, leadership, and project planning. Ms. Trout worked as both a team leader as well as teacher, heading the project design and management lessons at camp. Ms. Trout was able to invite two of her students, Oleg Sosna and Jenya Borovich, from Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1’s upcoming 11th grade, to attend Camp IKNOW 2011. Following camp, Ms. Trout assisted Oleg and Jenya in the organizing of a clean up project involving their fellow 11th grade classmates. Ms. Trout arranged the partnership of the Center for Youth and Sport and the local government in the project’s completion, ensuring the transport of collected waste following the project. Oleg and Jenya presented to the 11th grade class lessons learned from Camp IKNOW, including the art of composting and recycling. Following the presentation, Oleg and Jenya divided the 11th grade into teams and cleaned the territory of the school grounds through the center of town to the riverbank park, collecting glass, plastic and general waste to be disposed of properly through either recycling or dumping in the local landfill. The project taught Oleg and Jenya the skills of project design and management as well as the importance of recycling and taking care of one’s community.

Lastly, in October 2011, Ms. Trout attended a Day GLOW Camp. GLOW, “Girls Leading Our World,” is a camp implemented and sponsored by the Gender and Development Working Group. Campers participate in activities and challenging lessons discussing such important topics as leadership, healthy lifestyles, project design and management, as well as others. In addition to teaching self-esteem to campers, Ms. Trout brought three 10th grade female students from Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1, Yulia Shinkaretska, Yulia Obdienko and Masha Gryba.

Pre-Service Training Participation

In addition to Ms. Trout’s efforts with her fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, Ms. Trout was also frequently enlisted to work with incoming Peace Corps Trainees (PCT). In December 2010, Ms. Trout participated in the Swearing-In Conference of Group 40. She presented to PCTs the works and opportunities provided by the various organizations, including Environmental Working Group, Safety and Security Council, Confidential Peer Response Hotline, and the Tourism Working Group. Throughout the Swearing-In Conference, Ms. Trout provided detailed information regarding site placement, primary and secondary assignments, Ukrainian customs and traditions, as well as the difficulties and successes of being a sworn in PCV.

Ms. Trout participated in the Peer Advisor Program advising PCTs Monica Funigiello and Laura Veno, of Groups 40 and 41 respectively. The Peer Advisor Program’s goal is to build an informative support system for incoming PCTs and newly sworn in PCVs. Ms. Trout advised the trainees on teaching English with the communicative method, developing one’s local language skills as well as tips for succeeding as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

In May 2011, Ms. Trout was accepted into the “Adopt a Cluster Program” for Group 41’s clusters of Boguslav and Myronivka. Ms. Trout spent three days with her two clusters; attending and advising her PCTs on their language lessons, English classroom teaching, English clubs and general host family difficulties and questions. Ms. Trout remained in contact with her PCTs throughout pre-service training and after Swearing-In.

Also in May 2011, Ms. Trout was invited to present at Pre-Service Training (PST) University for Group 41. In partnership with the Gender and Development Working Group, the Safety and Security Council, the Safety and Security Officers as well as the Peace Corps Medical Officers, Ms. Trout developed and presented the training “Sexual Assault and Harassment Prevention and Response.” This training presented unsafe scenarios relevant to the typical lives of PCVs in Ukraine, and asked PCTs to think through each scenario and determine the best response to ensuring one’s safety, including how to go about reporting such incidents. Ms. Trout developed solutions as well as tips for protecting oneself in Ukraine, and shared this information with the PCTs throughout the training. Upon the request of Mr. Douglass Teschner, Peace Corps Ukraine Country Director, the training and accompanying solutions and recommendations were sent to Peace Corps Washington for review and approval for their use in future safety material development.

Following the success of Ms. Trout’s participation in PST University for Group 41, Ms. Trout was invited to participate in PST University of Group 42 in November 2011. Ms. Trout assisted Mr. Thomas Ross, Director of Programming and Training for Peace Corps Ukraine, in the execution of the trainings “Sexual Assault Awareness” and “Sexual Assault Reporting and Response.” Through these PST University events, Ms. Trout was able to develop resources and supportive guidance for the PCTs’ personal safety awareness in Ukraine.

Summary

Following Ukraine's Declaration of Independence in 1991, and its decision to become an independent, democratic country, a bilateral agreement was signed by US and Ukrainian Presidents to establish a U.S. Peace Corps Program in Ukraine in 1992. Since then, US Peace Corps Volunteers have been serving in Ukraine in the areas of business development, education, environmental protection, youth development, and community development. Ms. Trout’s work as a TEFL Volunteer, as well as her role as a representative of the people, culture, values and traditions of the United States of America, was part of a nation-wide development effort in Ukraine.

Ms. Megan Trout completed her Peace Corps service in Ukraine on November 17th, 2011.

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy fall from Velyka Lepetykha! It has been over a month since my last post from Croatia and I have been very busy here in Ukraine!

Following my return to Ukraine I traveled out west to a new oblast for me, the Volynska Oblast. This oblast is located in the far northwest corner of Ukraine and hosts the most popular lake resort destination in Ukraine – a town called Svityaz. Last summer, a number of my Peace Corps friends traveled to this lake and spent a week lying by the water and cooking missed American dishes so I joined in the fun this year! It certainly made the transition back from Croatia much easier to be spending my time next to a lake after all my time near the sea! We made fajitas, fried rice, curry and a number of other spicy dishes we don’t usually get here in Ukraine! It was a delicious week!

When August 23rd rolled around, those from my group, Group 37, traveled back to the Lvivska Oblast to a town called Slavske. Slavske is a very popular ski resort in the winter but is rented out in the summer as a relaxation spot. Peace Corps rents out an entire hotel resort for the Close of Service conferences. It was the first time my whole group had been gathered together since our swearing in back in December 2009! It was crazy to see everyone again and due to the large size of our group – there were people I was still meeting! Our group arrived in Ukraine with just over 100 individuals. Then a chunk was added from PC Turkmenistan making us 112. At the COS conference we had 98 – which is a great end result! Some have gone home throughout these 2 years due to medical, grad school and Ukraine simply not working out for them, but to have so many make it the whole 2 years was wonderful! We even have 17 extending their service for between 3-12 months! The conference spent time talking about how to close out our service, how to say goodbye to Ukraine and how to prepare ourselves for our lives back in the states. Knowing that 3 months from then I would be leaving Ukraine really hit me hard – this has been my home for 2 years now and it is strange to think that soon it will be an experience of my past. It was great seeing my friends again. Of the Boguslav and Mironivka Clusters with whom I trained, we had all 5 of us from Boguslav make it to the Close of Service conference and 3 from Mironivka! I’ve attached a picture of our training cluster below! It was a great week spent together talking about our experience at site and our excitements to leave Ukraine and start our careers, grad schools and life back in the states.

Below is the link to our Group 37 slideshow. I submitted a lot of pictures and many were used in this presentation! The music has sadly been deleted but please check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avsotRko_4A&feature=related

I got back to Velyka Lepetykha just in time for the 1st bell ceremony and start of my final semester in Ukraine. The 1st bell ceremony was just as I described it last year. The senior class (11th grade) line up on the school lawn, dressed in their Ukrainian school uniforms and receive flowers from the 1st grade entering into the school. Two 11th grade boys finish the ceremony by carrying two of the 1st grade girls on their shoulders while the girls ring the “1st” bell of the school year. It is such a cute tradition and I was excited to see one of my favorite 11th grade students, Sasha, receive the honor of one of these coveted rolls.

This semester I have a lot that I both need to finish as well as start and complete!! My sewing machine project has hit the ground running. Last spring I purchased 6 sewing machines and a lot of fabric with the grant I had been awarded. This fall, the young women of the 6th-9th grades have begun to receive sewing lessons in their Home Economics classes from Sveta, my project counterpart. I was able to visit the 8th grade class and watched the young women learn the art of preparing and cutting the fabric for sewing, threading the sewing machine and start to sew hems on sheets. The girls were super intimidated at first by the machines and pushed other classmates forward to go first but after a few girls took turns they were all fighting over who would be able to go next! It was a blast to see them push the foot pedal for the first time and have the machine take off sewing! The project plans to teach the young women how to sew not only sheets but also clothing items such as pants, shirts and jackets as their skills advance. These items will be donated to the children’s ward of the district hospital as well as to young single mothers through the Social Services Center. Sveta is so excited to use these machines and pass along the knowledge of sewing to the young women and I loved watching them experience their first sewing class! I’m excited to see how their skills progress over the new couple of months!

Outside of the classroom, one fun adventure I had this September was a trip to Kiev for the Kiev Marathon. In its 2nd year Kiev organized a marathon and 10 K (in May there is a half marathon too). The Healthy Lifestyles Working Group of PC Ukraine promoted the run and we had a wonderful turn out of Americans this year! Over 20 individuals ran the 10K and 9 ran the full marathon. Even better, we had also over 20 PCVs standing near the start/finish cheering the whole time! Ukrainians are not a culture of “woo – hoo ers” like Americans are. We screamed and cheered, clapped and organized high 5 rows as runners passed by. What was incredible was seeing the energy boost runners received after passing our line of screams and cheers. We were so loud and supportive that many Ukrainian TV crews came by and filmed us throughout the day! Our PCVs did an excellent job and made us all so proud! I was the unofficial mom of the weekend for 5 of the marathon runners by organizing our apartment, putting them to bed and getting them up for the run and taking care of the after party dinner reservations – it was great to be able to do my part to make their running weekend as stress free as possible! The weather was beautiful on marathon day and I got a lot of sun standing and cheering! Please check out the pictures of the runners below!

Also if anyone is interested in seeing the route or more on the Marathon check out the website below (there is an English version of the site!)

http://kyivmarathon.org/

Back at site I’ve had a busy week. On September 21st Vera invited me to the neighboring town to see her perform with her choir. It was town day for the neighboring village and their concert included choirs from all over the oblast singing traditional folklore songs of Ukraine. Vera’s choir did a great job as well as the Velyka Lepetykha House of Culture choir! I road the bus with these women as they sang songs and cheered, excited for the concert! It felt a bit like being on the “A League of Their Own” bus with the women heading to the next baseball game! The women were so excited to have their own personal photographer too! On Saturday there was a folklore concert competition in Velyka Lepetykha along with Ukrainian traditional food tasting presentation and I attended with Shannon and took lots of pictures for the same women again! Shannon and I were overfed by these women with Ukrainian treats such as potato vareneky, sweet bread and garlic toast but we passed on the homemade vodka shots!

One final exciting experience I would like to share in this blog was the outcome of my two boys’ environmental project. While at Camp IKNOW, Jenya and Oleg had to come up with a project they could implement back at home. Though the project’s original idea was a bit over the top including presenting movies in the park to raise funds, the final version was more manageable and quite successful! On Thursday, September 22nd, Jenya and Oleg gathered their fellow 11th grade classmates into the auditorium and presented on the importance of keeping Velyka Lepetykha clean and beautiful. They presented on composting, recycling and environmental facts such as a plastic bottle takes over 1 million years to decompose! Following the presentation, in partnership with the local Center for Youth and Sport, Oleg and Jenya organized a clean up from our school to the river collecting glass and plastic bottles and other garbage items along the way. I was so proud of their efforts and have written an article to place in the local newspaper in the coming week! Below are pictures of Jenya and Oleg completing their presentation and clean up!

I now have less than 2 months in Ukraine and the work continues on! I am looking forward to finishing my projects and getting ready to get back to the states!

I would like to wish you all a wonderful fall season! I will check in once more before I leave Ukraine!

Love,

Megan

Pictures Include:

Close of Service Conference at Slavske (6)

Lviv following CoS Conferene (2)

1st Bell Ceremony (6)

Sewing Machine Project (5)

Kiev Marathon (5)

Town Day Concert (5)

Jenya and Oleg’s Clean Up Project (3)

Velyka Lepetykha Folklore Concert (5)

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello from Croatia! My best friend from Northwestern University, Page, and I have been traveling this incredible country now for two weeks! We began in Zagreb and worked our way down the coast to Dubrovnik until our night bus back up to Zagreb where we are now awaiting our flights out tomorrow (August 14th).

It has been a wonderful trip and a very much needed vacation from all the work of Peace Corps life!

Our trip started in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Zagreb is located inland and has a very Eastern European feel. I like to refer to Krakow as a quaint Prague but I feel like Zagreb is a quaint Krakow. The city is filled with white washed buildings topped by red tiled roofs and just has that feel of old town Eastern Europe. We spent our first full day in the country roaming the narrow city streets filled with both old shops as well as H&Ms and other chain fashion stores. We feasted on a lunch of pasta and pizza at which I first said a phrase which was then repeated multiple times throughout the trip - “We don't have this in Ukraine!” The pizza had artichokes, a delicious treat I have not had in a long time!

Next we traveled to Pula, a city located on the southern tip of the Istria Peninsula in the northwest of Croatia. Pula was once a part of the Roman Empire which is still quite apparent today with the presence of a Roman amphitheater, Roman forum and multiple ruins scattered throughout the city. Being the cheap travelers that we were, we avoided the $8 entrance fee to the amphitheater and instead walked up the street around to the other side and sat ourselves at a cafe with a perfect view down into the amphitheater and had a beer. A delicious alternative! The spot was such a success we had to return the second night bringing with us some new friends we had made at the hostel!

Pula was also the location of one of our favorite beaches. With crystal blue water and small white pebbles, the beaches in Croatia are amazing! Page and I spent the day lying on the beach and swimming in the clear water. The beach also had some really fun toys including an item called the “Iceberg” which is a very large inflatable climbing wall which you can jump off of into the water. It was a bit tough for climbing but proved a fun jump once at the top!

Our next stop in Croatia was a place just down the coast called Zadar. Zadar's Old Town is a small peninsula off of the mainland. Covered in cafes, gelato stands and street entertainers, Zadar proved to be a fun stop on our trip! The city also hosts the same white washed walls and red roofs which look beautiful next to the crystal blue water. A fun feature of the water boardwalk is an item called the Sea Organ. Stairs on which patrons can sit also function as a working organ into which water flows pushing air out holes in the pavement making sounds resembling an organ. Page and I brought a bottle of wine with us one evening and sat down to listen to the music of the sea. Quite a classy evening! The beaches outside Zadar were also nice but not as beautiful as Pula.

We made our way further down the coast next to a city called Split. One of the more popular destinations in Croatia, Split offers a gorgeous Old Town along the water front filled with places for both young and old (also known as partying backpackers or calmer locals). The original city walls are now filled with cafes and shops but once held the entire city. Page and I wandered the Old Town and climbed the stairs of the main church tower to see a beautiful view of the whole city from above. The food in Split followed the Mediterranean theme of the rest of the coast of Croatia and we were able to dine on some delicious local fish and seafood risotto! (We don't have that in Ukraine either!) The beach outside Split was beautiful with cliffs rising high above on either side. The water was crystal clear for quite a long distance out and sailboats sailed by as we waded in the water. At night, the main square turns into a place where locals and tourists gather together for live music and dancing. One of the evenings we were in Split we were able to sit and watch the salsa dancing of those brave enough to try their skills in front of the larger crowds. It was a beautiful location sitting under the night lighting of the main church tower!

Following Split we took a ferry to one of the many Croatian islands, Hvar. Hvar used to be the spot of small yachts traveling outside of the mainland. Now it is the spot of massive yachts (our favorite being the “Excellence III”) and tourists coming for the breath taking water and beautiful Old Town center. One of my favorite parts of Hvar was the Venetian Fortress which rests at the top of the hill overlooking the town and harbor. Following a short hike to the top (through a forrest filled with the wonderful fragrance of pine!) we were able to take in the view of all the boats, the sidewalks covered in tourists and the many roofs also in the color red. The water sparkled and the rocks lining the water front glistened with the waves crashing upon them. We spent our second day on the island laying on the rocks and jumping into the water. Our spot proved to be a little dangerous as waves made by larger boats crashed up over the payment soaking our towels and at one point washing away our flip flops (which were luckily recovered!). However, our spot lay just beside one of the most popular bars on the island - “Hula Hula” at which Page and I enjoyed a Piña Colada and Peach Daiquiri! Delicious!

Following Hvar we sailed back to the mainland and bused it down to our last stop – Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik, located at the southern tip of Croatia, has a spectacular Old Town enclosed by a very sturdy wall which tourists pay to walk around. Page and I chose a spot on the outside of the wall for our afternoon sunbathings and were able to jump into more crystal clear water (if you haven't gotten it by this point – we spent a lot of time on the beaches! And by my comments you can believe that the beaches were amazing and yes you should go to Croatia!) The Old Town of Dubrovnik offered similar Eastern European feels with churches placed throughout the enclosed walls. The main street of the Old Town was lined in cafes and gelato stands. Luckily for me – one gelato place offered my favorite flavor – Mint Chocolate Chip!! Page and I got ice cream there both nights – it was delicious! We visited one restaurant both days to dine on their freshly caught mussels and fried squid. The seafood of Croatia was so fresh and so delicious. And the restaurant was located right on the wall edge looking into one of the many coves of the mediterranean – a beautiful place to dine!

Page and I took an overnight bus back up to Zagreb where we have spent our last day in Croatia relaxing, eating more and buying a few last souvenirs. It has been an wonderful vacation and this is an incredible country!

As I do not have time to post photos – I am instead pasting the link to my Facebook albums in which you can see all the pictures from each of our cities.

One final comment and extremely exciting update is that I now have an official “Close of Service” date!! November 17th will be my final day as a Peace Corps Volunteer! I will be flying on November 18th to Bangkok where I will meet my friend Sean for a week. We will then travel to China (Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing) for two weeks after which I will fly back to Minneapolis. I will be state side on December 13th! It has been a crazy but life changing 2 year adventure here in Ukraine! I am looking forward to my last semester at site and will be sure to post one more time before I close my service!

Have a wonderful rest of summer!

Megan

Zagreb, Pula, Zadar, Split, Hvar Pictures

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.875788111465.2351933.2411718&l=9d4d9ffa6d&type=1

Dubrovnik Pictures

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.875812367855.2351946.2411718&l=4050de8d6b&type=1

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that you are all having a wonderful summer thus far! It has flown by so quickly and I cannot believe we are already in the midst of August! I have two posts I need to write to catch you all up on the wonderful things that I have been doing this summer! The first regards the three amazing camps which I staffed this July. It was a jam packed month in which I traveled around the north east of Ukraine teaching three very different topics to Ukrainian youth. Though it was exhausting (lost my voice twice and was sick for about a week!) it was still incredibly worth it! The youth of Ukraine are so inspiring. Their efforts to learn skills which can change this country for the better are incredible! I enjoyed the camps and would like to tell you just a little bit about each one as well as share some pictures!

The first camp I staffed was Camp Heal which took place the week of July 1st – 8th in the Sumi Oblast. This camp invites talented Ukrainian youth aged 16-22 to discuss such difficult topics as HIV/AIDS, Human Trafficking, Project Development and Management as well as lighter topics such as leadership, volunteerism and team building. Over 20 American Peace Corps Volunteers staffed the week long camp which taught over 70 campers.

Ukraine sadly is the highest HIV infected country in Europe. The percent remains a bit over 1.3% but statistics show that once a country has surpassed 2% infection there is no controlling the exponential spread of the disease. Due to this scary statistic Ukraine, as well as Peace Corps, has taken on progressive measures to educate and prevent the spread of HIV. Through these efforts, camps such as Heal (Human Trafficking Education, Aids/HIV, Leadership) exist.

The week was filled with themed days in which many topics were discussed. We began with HIV/AIDS discussing the biology of the virus, transmission and prevention as well as stereotypes which exist in Ukraine and throughout the world against those living with HIV/AIDS. On our second day we talked about human trafficking. Ukraine is one of the highest targeted countries for human trafficking, sending individuals all around the world to become sex workers, construction workers or to be sold on the black organ market. It is a sad truth but due to the poverty in Ukraine and lack of jobs, many fall easy victim to promises of a better lifestyle abroad. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recently developed a hotline from which individuals can call and ask if organizations they wish to work for are legitimate or illegal. Campers were taught to protect themselves when accepting jobs and to inform their friends and families about such hotlines and help services which hope to decrease the number of victims of the human trafficking trade.

Other days of camp offered classes on less demanding topics. Project Planning and Development, a goal of Peace Corps, was taught as well as fundraising for projects, leadership development and volunteerism. Volunteerism is not a “popular” past time in Ukraine yet but is certainly growing. The campers were very excited about their return back home to begin spreading the word of HIV/AIDS and Human Trafficking education through the development of projects and presentations within their schools and communities.

Camp HEAL combined lessons with team competitions and other more traditional camp activities. I helped to lead the dark blue team - “Team Sponge Bob Blue Pants.” The team consisted of a great group of very fun campers who created hilarious skits and worked hard at each of our challenges.

On the Fourth of July we taught the campers the words to the Star Spangled Banner and shot off fireworks. On our last night we made smores using Ukrainian ingredients. These were a hit with the campers who came back for seconds and thirds!

The camp was quite a success. The campers left packed with the knowledge to protect themselves against HIV infection, to keep themselves safe against Human Trafficking and to lead their fellow schoolmates to be responsible and innovative individuals. I was inspired by the level of understanding of each subject which these campers showed! I am very eager to hear about the projects they development and implement in the upcoming fall semester! Check out pictures below of the camp!

Following Camp HEAL I traveled to the Lugansk Oblast farther east where I worked Camp IKNOW. IKNOW doesn't actually stand for anything but this is the Environmental Working Group's camp offered in both the east and the west each summer. IKNOW discusses environmentally themed topics such as “leave no trace,” composting, water shortage and conservation as well as project planning and development. The camp takes place at a camp site where we tent, swim in the river and have lessons in an outdoors shelter. A bit less of the luxury of HEAL which had air conditioning and a pool!

I was very lucky to be able to bring with me two students and a chaperon to Camp IKNOW. Oleg and Jenya are incoming 11th grade students and are my best students in English. They are very energetic and creative and they were excellent campers! Vitalik is a friend of mine who has taught himself English and continues to help his friends teach themselves English. He traveled with my boys to camp and acted as the Ukrainian counterpart at camp.

Throughout the week we had classes in the morning in which the students discussed different environmental topics (all in English) and the afternoon offered time for swimming in the river, playing volleyball and other games and in the evening having team time. I helped co-lead the orange team “Team Ten Carrots.” Vitalik co led the Pink team. Jenya was also on the pink team known as the “Spicy Hamsters.” And Oleg was on the green team - “ Team Green Bananas.” The teams competed in challenges in the evenings which presented environmental themes we had learned throughout the day.

During the camp time, campers had to develop projects which they would implement once they returned back to their home communities. Oleg and Jenya worked hard on an idea to offer movies in Velyka Lepetykha's center park which would fundraise money to purchase items which would be used in a town clean up. With the use of fellow students and the support of the school director and community “Youth and Sport” director, Oleg and Jenya plan to organize clean ups of some of the main town areas such as the river, park and town center. I was so impressed by their enthusiasm and excitement for the project and I look forward to my return to Velyka Lepetykha so that we may implement this project!

Camp IKNOW gave these students a great chance to practice their English, meet new friends and to hear the ideas of youth from all parts of Ukraine. Oleg and Jenya were great leaders on their teams and were extremely energetic and competitive during all of the competitions. I was so impressed by their efforts and I'm looking forward to one final semester of English with them!

My last camp was ABC Camp – a camp which I staffed last summer. ABC is located in Kharkiv and runs for two weeks offering classes on sharing culture, art and theater, as well as project development and management to students of the Kharkiv region ages 14-18. The students who come to ABC camp are overly enthusiastic, remarkably skilled at English and so resourceful. The camp is staffed by both Ukrainians and Americans allowing both cultures to come together to inspire the future leaders of Ukraine. The two weeks are filled with team competitions and challenges on top of classes and evening social events. Dress up days filled the schedule with such fun ones as Science Fiction, team color, Hollywood, Mafia and Hippie days. I co lead the Red Team - “Team Flying Tomatoes!” Though we did not come in first this year, we worked really hard and won a number of the dress up day challenges and the song presentations. My team was great and the students worked really hard at all aspects of camp!

This year a new part was added to ABC called PBC – Projects Bring Change. A group of returning campers were selected to complete an intensive project planning class which at the end of the first week presented a completed grant application to a small committee of staff members and then completed a full scale project during camp time. The effort that these students put into the class and the projects was incredible. Peace Corps hopes to inspire small scale projects within the communities where volunteers work and PBC was exactly the skill providing program which hoped to instil this drive to volunteer and project develop within the youth of Ukraine! The project the students decided to implement was a makeover of the American Center in Kharkiv. The PBC campers organized the rest of the camp in the project's implementation – not a small challenge! The project was a success and a reopening ceremony for the center took place during the camp to show all the efforts the campers had placed in the project.

Just like last year – ABC was one of my favorite experiences of my Peace Corps experience. The campers are just so dedicated to the camp and so eager to learn all that they can take in in two weeks. I taught about Brazil during sharing cultures and threw at the campers all I could find from Rio de Janeiro Carnival to the problem with the favelas (slum towns) in Brazil. The two weeks ended in a debate which allowed the students to debate for their country to receive a donation of money for projects – the countries were South Africa, Cambodia and Iran aside from Brazil. The students used their arsenals of knowledge and one debate ended in allotting the money to South Africa while the second debate split the money amongst the countries.

It was hard to say goodbye to the campers this year at ABC as I was not able to fall back on “see you next summer.” The students' efforts will continue to show in coming years as they work on projects in their own communities. I am so glad I was able to participate again this year in such an amazing camp!

July was a crazy mess of camps! As I said I lost my voice twice, got sick for a week while at IKNOW and was completely sleep deprived but it was an incredible experience! Ukraine youth have so much to offer their country and through these camps we have been able to provide them the skills to create this change. Through leadership, volunteerism and project planning classes, I hope that these youth feel prepared to organize their fellow peers to enact change in their communities!

Following the month of camps I headed to Kiev for my flight to Croatia – a very much needed relaxation break! I will be sure to write you about how these two weeks in Croatia have gone! But I will say for now – it is an incredible country and a very beautiful one! I'll share pictures soon! For now – enjoy the ones from camp!

Have a great rest of summer,

Megan

Pictures below are from Camp HEAL, IKNOW and ABC Camp

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy summer and happy early 4th of July! I am very excited about this blog as I get to share with you all the experiences and photos of my trip with my parents to Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg! I had not seen my parents in about 21 months! Quite a long time to be without their hugs! It was wonderful to see them and we had a great time seeing the sights!

My parents traveled from MN to NY and then caught an overnight flight to Moscow followed by a much shorter flight to Kiev. They arrived in Kiev where I greeted them at Borispol Airport on June 13th. Though I had brought a welcoming sign, it was mom who had the camera out and many tears ensued! I had prearranged an apartment in Kiev just off the main street, Kreschatik. (Pronounced Kre – Shattuck!) Kiev is a very colorful city as my past photos have shown – golden domed churches, pastel colored buildings, lots of large cement buildings in the European style as well as plenty of Soviet ones too. It was very exciting to show the parents the city which I feel I have labeled my second home as I’m so frequently there! A tour of Kiev exists in two large loops – the first took the parents to see the National Opera House, the Golden Gate, St. Sophia’s Cathedral, St. Michael’s Cathedral, and St. Andrew’s Cathedral. We climbed the bell tower of St. Sophia’s Cathedral from which I was able to point out some of the sites of the city. It was dad, however, who pointed out to me the under construction football stadium which is being built for the upcoming Euro Cup in the summer of 2012. He asked if I’d been to this city before (I have seen the stadium before but not from above!) It was in front of the National Opera House were dad started to weed the flower beds – he did not stop throughout the entire trip from either pulling a weed or commenting on them! We could have left him multiple places for hours and he would have been quite busy!

Lunch in Kiev was a cultural one as I took the parents to a Ukrainian buffet and loaded our tray with traditional foods. The parents tried varenyky (dumplings) filled with potato and mushrooms, deruny (potato pancakes), beef shashlik (shish kabob), chicken Kiev (or as my mom called it – “exploding chicken”), borsch (beet root soup) and pampushkis (garlic rolls eaten with borsch). Though they tried everything, their favorite dish at lunch was a cheese covered brussel sprout dish probably designed off a more western dish. Sigh.

The second loop in Kiev showed the parents the President’s office, the Parliament, the Marynsky Palace (officially the residence of the leader of Ukraine but currently under renovation and uninhabited), the Kiev Dynamo Professional Football Team’s stadium and overviews of the Dnipro River (which flow all the way down Ukraine and through Velyka Lepetykha!). My favorite part of the day was taking the parents in the evening to see the ballet, Don Quixote, at the National Opera House! Though the performance had little to do with the story of Don Quixote (there was still of course the windmill scene), the dancing was excellent and has added another show to my repertoire of performances viewed at the Opera House!

The following day, my parents and I flew to Moscow. Aeroflot, the Russian airline, has many daily flights from Kiev to Moscow which take only 1 hour 15 minutes and still serve you a sandwich and beverage – come on Northwest, where is my sandwich on a 3 hour flight to NY!? Dad had booked us a nice apartment through a mutual friend’s Russian friend and we were thrilled to see that one of the apartment building’s first floor tenants was a Papa John’s Pizza!! “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” was printed in large letters on the welcoming sign in Russian – it was great (and was our dinner on the second night in Moscow!)

In Moscow I took the parents directly to the center to see the Kremlin and Red Square. Our first visit was to the Armory of the Kremlin where all of the most precious jewels and treasures of the Tsar dynasty are kept on display. Faberge Eggs, porcelain dish sets, gold and silver serving trays, and gem bedazzled bible cases glittered in front of our eyes as we listened to the commentary about the history of the tsar empire and the changes in tastes and fashion over the years. The lower floor was filled with clothing back to the days of Catherine the Great, carriages which brought Elizabeth to her coronation, and the crowns of all the tsars from the beginning. The armory was my favorite part of Moscow last year and continued to be this year – I just love all the jewels!

On the second day in Moscow we started with a trip to see Lenin and as my dad stated “Lenin is still dead.” But when one looks at him – you wonder if he was ever really alive! Lenin’s body has remained on display since his death in 1924 and he looks like he is made of wax. When Lenin died, he requested to be buried in St. Petersburg alongside his mother, but it was to Stalin’s demands that his body was embalmed and put on display. Russia this year created a website which asks fellow Russians to vote on whether or not Lenin’s body should finally be laid to rest but for now he still lies in his mausoleum in Moscow.

Following our trip to the mausoleum, I took the parents around Red Square. First up a trip into St. Basil’s (also know as the Onion Dome Church or the Ice Cream Church to many) in which my dad was very excited to see church relics dating back to the 11th century (one of the oldest items he had ever seen before). The inside of the church has been well preserved and many of the original paintings still coat the walls. Also in Red Square is the GYM, a large mall which houses some of the most expensive shops – we visited to use the bathroom and steal Internet from Coffee House.

The most famous street in Moscow is called “Arbat” street and is a walking street lined with street performers, artists, souvenirs shops, cafes and restaurants. This is also the location of a number of American chains, which this Peace Corps Volunteer has been deprived of, including Cinnabon, Starbucks, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Subway, and Hard Rock Café. Russia also is home to Dunkin Donuts, Hardee’s (Carl’s Jr.), Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Burger King and others. I did get Starbucks which was delicious! In the afternoon we did a boat tour down the Moscow River which borders the southern half of the city. On the boat there was a group of NASA workers who had come to Russia to work with their Moscow counterparts on space development. Though I of course was not alive for the Cold War, through my time in Ukraine I have learned just host strained the USSR – USA relationship was and the incredible steps which have been taken to mend this relationship. Considering NASA working in partnership now with Russia seems quite a large step in the mending of the Russia-USA relationship of the past!

On our last day, which dad labeled as the “day of churches,” I took the parents inside the Kremlin to see chapel square, a portion of the Kremlin interior which has 5 large churches, used during the time of the tsars for coronations, weddings, services and burials. Amazingly preserved and restored, despite the Soviet Union being anti-religion and destroying many churches, these churches house beautiful paintings of the apostles and passages from the bible. One of my favorite parts about visiting the Kremlin was listening to the number of languages the tourist groups surrounding us were speaking. Last summer Sean and I used our language skills to pick up information on the church interiors – this summer there was a large presence of Spanish and Japanese tourists which allowed me to use my Spanish skills to get some of the info on the churches.

In the evening we took an over night train to St. Petersburg, however, this time I got to ride 2nd class! Trains in Ukraine and Russia are the same – there are 3 classes one may choose from which varies the number of people in the wagon car and the level of privacy a passenger may have. When traveling with Sean last summer, we opted for the cheapest, 3rd class ticket which has 6 people in a compartment without doors and thus no privacy. While traveling with my parents, we bought out a compartment in 2nd class. Meaning that there were 4 beds, which can be closed off by a door that locks - definitely a safer way to travel but obviously a bit more costly.

We arrived in St. Petersburg to rain at 5 am and spent a number of hours sitting around a café and McDonald’s waiting for the Hermitage to open at 10:30am. The Hermitage was originally a small portion of the Winter Palace, built by Catherine the Great to house her collection of paintings and works of art. However, as the years went on, the Hermitage was expanded and now takes up the whole Winter Palace where one may see works of art from antiquity to modernism. Seeing the whole museum would take days, and with my mother’s incapacity to go for long without Diet Coke, a toilet and food, we were unable to see it all. However dad ensured that we hit up the rooms with Monet, Van Gogh, and moved along to Picasso. I loved visiting the rooms decorated as the palace would have been in the day of the tsars. The colorful rooms and golden furniture were beautiful.

June is known as the month of the White Nights in St. Petersburg as it remains light out until close to 1 or 2 am! (We did not see this as mom’s bedtime runs about 9:30 pm each night but even then it was still light out!) While we were visiting, one of the largest festivals took place right next to our apartment! The festival is know as Scarlet Sails (Алые паруса in Russian) and is an outdoor concert honoring the recent high school graduates. Students flocked to the streets and covered the center of St. Petersburg, which hosted a concert and fireworks ending in the sailing of a red sailed ship along the Neva River. The city was packed with students, especially on Nevskyy Prospekt (the main street leading to the Hermitage), and we watched them dance and sing with their fellow classmates as they headed to the concert.

On our second day in St. Petersburg, we got up early and caught a bus to a town called Peterhof. Peterhof is home to one of the many palaces once inhabited by the tsars, but this one is famous for its gardens and fountains. We arrived at the palace before its opening and stood in line with the group tourists also waiting entrance. When the doors opened, a group of 3 Russian tourists pushed passed us and headed towards the entrance (Russians as well as Ukrainians do NOT stand in line – they WILL find a way to get in front of as many people as possible no matter where you are – post office, bank, airport security etc. It really is one of the few things I genuinely dislike about this culture) When I told the woman she needed to wait in line she informed me she wasn’t with a big group and thus could push ahead, when I told her we weren’t either, she invited me to skip the line with her and we pushed a head through the group tourists and entered the palace. I may despise this cultural belief that lines are suggestions not fact, but it got us into the palace without having to wait in line!

Sadly the Grand Palace at Peterhof is entirely a reconstruction as bombs demolished it during WWII. The skeleton of the palace remained when the Russians returned to find it in ruins and have since rebuilt the entire thing, decorating it as close to its originality as possible. Outside the palace, at 11am, a music performance began signaling the turning on of the park’s fountains. Throughout the park, which lies along the Gulf of Finland, fountains flow with statues of Adam and Eve, cascades of water, and plenty of golden figures. The whole park was delightful and I was glad that on this trip I was able to visit! (Last year Sean and I visited a different palace in the town of Tsarskaya Celo).

On our last day in St. Petersburg, I took the parents on a bit of a circular tour of the city – we climbed to the top of St. Isaac’s Cathedral for a view of the city from above, crossed over to see the columns which have been used as light houses for ships traveling along the Neva River and ended at the Peter and Paul Fortress to see the cathedral which houses the remaining tsars’ tombs including that of the final Romanov family. The fortress has a cannon which is shot off each day at noon, a sight which dad thought we shouldn’t miss – upon hearing the cannon sound and my filming hand jump about 1 foot, we realized we could have been anywhere in St. Petersburg and wouldn’t have actually missed it! In the afternoon I showed the parents “The Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood.” A gruesome title but this is the onion dome of St. Petersburg, which was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was murdered. The entire interior of the church is decorated in mosaics – not a single spot is painted. The parents existed and stated that it was one of the most spectacular things they had ever seen – please check out a picture below!

My last day with the parents flew us back to Kiev where we had a chance to do a little more shopping (including a trip to the brand new Gap in Kiev where I scored some very very needed new jeans). We ended the trip with dinner at TGI Fridays where I had baby back ribs! I know I’m in Peace Corps – but Kiev does have some American perks which can keep a volunteer going!

Saying goodbye to my parents on the morning of their flight was really hard. 21 months apart cannot be regained in 10 days’ time! But I reminded myself that I only have 5 months left of my service here in Ukraine (which is very hard to believe!!) and I will soon be back in the states with all of you and my family! It was an absolutely wonderful trip and I am so glad I got to show my parents a bit of the country which has been my home for the last 21 months.

As for the rest of my summer – I am headed off to begin all of my summer camps! In July I will be working 3 camps – Camp HEAL (HIV/AIDS Education), Camp IKNOW (Environmental Education) and ABC Camp (Leadership and Project Development). In August I will be taking my last trip out of Ukraine to Croatia where I will be meeting up with my best friend from Northwestern, Page. When I return to site following all these adventures, I will be sure to update my blog!

Have a wonderful and very warm and happy summer!

Megan

Pictures Include:

- Greeting the Parents at the Airport (3)

- Kreschatik Street in Kiev

- National Opera House

- Dad weeding outside the National Opera House

- View of St. Michael’s from the St. Sophia Bell Tower

- Getting our “Faribault Daily Newspaper” shot outside St. Michael’s

- Ukrainian lunch

- Inside the National Opera House for the ballet

- St. Basil’s in Moscow

- Bolshoi Theater

- Church of Our Savior

- Moscow University (Soviet Union themed building)

- Kremlin entrance

- Chapel Square inside the Kremlin

- Wendy’s on Arbat Street

- Inside the metro in Moscow – the escalators are at intense degrees and go quite a long ways down!

- Peterhof Upper Gardens and Grand Palace

- Wearing our booties for walking around the Grand Palace at Peterhof

- Peterhof Grand Palace fountains (2)

- Performance by one of the cascade fountains at Peterhof

- In St. Petersburg at the Peter the Great statue

- View across the Neva River of the Hermitage

- Catherine the Great statue outside the St. Petersburg Library

- Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood Exterior and Interior (2)

- Final dinner with the parents at TGI Fridays!

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Memorial Day! I hope that you all have had a great spring season! I am now officially done with school for the year and looking forward to the great fun I will have this summer both traveling and working at summer camps. Before I head off for the summer though, I wanted to write one more post with updates on how my spring has been!

To begin, we finished the World Map in School #2! A week after the first map was painted we began school #2’s map. Completed on the same type of wooden backing, School #2’s world map also took a week’s time. Along with the organizational support of my site mate Shannon, I had help from a number of students from School #2 and other PCVs from the Khersonska Oblast. This time we had Anne, Stephanie, Alia, Lucas, and Kaity (who came back for a second weekend of painting)! Shannon painted the ocean blue throughout the week and tracing went well on Friday with the help of a few of Shannon’s students. On Saturday and Sunday we worked on the countries, Ukrainian flag and PC symbol. The art teacher, Viktoria, of School #2, assisted us. Viktoria is also my personal Avon/Oriflame provider! The map turned out great! Below I have attached pictures of the process, but if you are interested in seeing more pictures – please check out the albums on Facebook via the links below!

World Map School # 1

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.802801342535.2325266.2411718&l=2b804fee69

World Map School #2

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.804735935595.2326161.2411718&l=6ae4e90a80

As a member of the Environmental Working Group, this year I was very excited about Earth Day on April 22nd. I partnered with the Center for Youth and Sports and its director, Leena, to lead two clean up projects with our 11th and 10th grade students. Sadly in Ukraine, there is a serious littering problem. Garbage is thrown on the streets without regard to its effects on the environment or the beauty of the city. In a country obsessed with the beauty of everything, it really does bother me that individuals are not more aware of their environmental impact on their own towns. Along with Leena’s help, I organized a clean up from the school to the river and around on separate days for the two classes. Burlap sacks were distributed and garbage was assorted into bags of plastic, glass or paper to then be recycled afterwards. A lot of garbage was collected and I asked the students to remember how the smallest pieces of paper tossed on the ground can add up quickly to a lot of garbage. I hope that the clean up days showed my students why littering is such a big problem in Ukraine and something that they need to work on to stop.

A great cultural moment for this season was my Easter Weekend. Easter is a very important holiday in Ukraine. Last year I attended the beginning of the Easter service so this year I decided to attend the conclusion. Lent in Orthodox Christianity is also 40 days but the rules are much stricter. Orthodox Christians are unable to eat meat, fish, eggs, and sunflower oil or consume anything with alcohol. This means that come Easter, Ukrainians are drooling for some homemade sausage and wine! To prepare for the Easter service, Ukrainians make a ton of homemade sausage, wine, Easter bread called “Paska” and dye many eggs. All items are then placed into a basket and covered with a hand-sewn cloth and brought to the Easter Service. The whole service begins at 11 pm and ends around 4 or 5 am. This year I went from 3 am to 5 am along with the director of the Social Services Center, Alona, and her family. My host mom Vera is a member of the Church Choir and was at the church well before 11 pm to begin preparations for the ceremony and was thus busy throughout. Ukrainians arrive and begin to form a circle around the church continuing down the road. Every Ukrainian has a basket and I had one too thanks to Vera’s baking frenzy the week before Easter. Upon the signal by the priest, candles are lit in each basket and the priest begins to loop around the church and bless all the patrons visiting and their baskets. The second loop made by the priest brings the holy water blessing. In America we are very economical with our water dousing, but in Ukraine buckets of holy water are tossed onto the patrons. As the priest neared my group with his branch soaked in water, I ducked behind a friend. Both this act and the act of wiping the water off your face are considered sacrilegious. Seeing my friends, however, soaked in holy water while it was still quite chilly out, allowed me to justify my actions. Once the blessing has concluded, Ukrainians take their newly blessed basket of goodies home and begin the overindulging which ensues for the coming days. I have never eaten so many hard-boiled eggs in my life! But it was a wonderful ceremony and I am glad I was able to attend with such great people!

Another great moment for me was the visit of my good friend from Northwestern, Rachel, for my birthday week here in Ukraine! Rachel arrived on April 28th to Kiev Borispol where I greeted her in the brand new Terminal F, the new international Terminal. Though Rachel had flown across the world to see me, the first thing I made her do was get on an all night train to the south west corner of Ukraine to a city called Mykachevo. On the Hungarian border there is a Ukrainian town called Beregovo. Beregovo is known for its wines and each year there is a wine festival in which the locals taste all the vineyards of the region. As there is a Peace Corps Volunteer in this town, she has for the past two years, combined the wine festival with a 10K and Half Marathon Run. I took Rachel down to see the region and help volunteer at the race. Many PCVs ran either in teams or solo, either 5 K, 10K or the Half Marathon. We cheered on my friends who raced as team “Whiskey Tango” and handed out water at one of the checkpoints. It was a great time and the southwest of Ukraine is a beautiful region! Such an interesting mix of cultures too as most locals speak Hungarian or Russian, not Ukrainian which is quite unusual for the west! When the marathon ended Rachel and I headed back to Mykachevo where we enjoyed a tour of a Hungarian Castle outside town.

Following the southwest, Rachel and I headed up to Lviv where I celebrated my birthday for the second year in a row. It was a cloudy day but we were able to site see a bit and spent the day in a café with some Peace Corps friends. Rachel’s trip ended in Kiev with an all day site seeing spree in which I showed her all my favorite corners of the city. It was a dry run for when my parents come and I get to show them the city too! Rachel and I attended the ballet in the evening to see “Vienna Waltz,” an interesting Ukrainian rendition of Austrian life. We spent the night in the airport as Rachel had a 5 am flight back to America. It was a wonderful week spent together reminiscing about Northwestern life and Chicago. I was so honored to have a visitor in Ukraine, especially on my birthday – and Rachel proved to be an excellent traveling companion! Please check out pictures below of our trip and the beautiful countryside of the southwest of Ukraine!

Following Rachel’s departure, I traveled back to Boguslav where I trained about 1.5 years ago! I was accepted for a program called “Adopt a Cluster” in which experienced PCVs travel to visit trainees to offer advice, lead sessions and answer questions about PC life. I was lucky enough to be able to “adopt” my original training site! I arrived in Boguslav with a flood of emotions overwhelming me. The place seemed the exact same, of course there were a few new cafes and store changes, but it felt like I was back home. When I met the trainees it amazed me how far I have come since training. Their questions and concerns were of course some of the same I had faced 1.5 years ago and yet now I am calm, I feel at home in Ukraine and I’ve done a lot of what I had originally set out to do here! It really was a fantastic realization to have – just how far I have come since I was in training myself!

I spent 4 days with the cluster attending their Russian language lessons, helping with their English club at school and attending and critiquing their lessons in the Ukrainian English classroom. The best part of the weekend was when I got to visit my host mom Iryna and host brother Max. You may remember Max from my posts so long ago, as the kid with the cute Harry Potter glasses and shy smile – sadly, Max has now grown up! He has lost the glasses for contacts and now spikes his hair up. He is still shy and blushed from ear to ear when I called him my favorite brother in the whole world, but he is definitely matured. My host mom Iryna is doing well and still working as a childcare taker at the kindergarten. My host sister Rimma and Host dad Sergey are still in Kiev studying and working respectively. Rimma, however, is no longer engaged as she was when I left Boguslav but is now dating a new guy who the parents approve of much more. As I rattled off in Russian, Iryna just smiled at how far I’ve come with my language skills! Jenny, the current trainee living in the house, exclaimed how she cannot wait to be at the same level – it was such a nice compliment and just another reminder of how far my language skills have come! Below I have pictures of me with my “Adopted Cluster” as well as one with Iryna and Max!

When I arrived back to Velyka Lepetykha, Vera had a surprise for me – 45 or so baby geese were now living on our porch!! Throughout the year Vera had been collecting the eggs from her geese and storing them until 3 months ago when she had them placed under an incubator to begin to grow. I was so excited and frantically began to name them all. Vera told me I couldn’t name them as then I would know who I was eating, but I was able to name one – Penguin, a black footed baby goose which looked more like a baby penguin. They were a riot and chirped constantly. The best was watching how they reacted to Vera’s voice and presence – clearly they had named her “Mom” and went with it. We have since moved all the geese out to the shed where they have a pen set up, but it was a lot of fun living with baby geese for a short while! A few got some camera time as Vera continued to bring baby geese to my room anytime I was on skype to show them off!

My last update of this post occurred this last week at school – Last Bell. You may recall last year when I described last bell. I enjoyed the ceremony much more this year as I have had a much closer relationship with this year’s 11th grade class! The Last Bell ceremony took place on Friday the 27th, it was a beautiful sunny day and the 11th graders were dressed in their finest Ukrainian uniforms and suits. Speeches were made and certificates were given out. This year there were 3 1st grade girls who were selected to ride on the shoulders of 3 of the 11th grade boys to ring the “last bell.” One of these little girls was the daughter of one of my fellow English teachers and so I was instructed to photograph the event heavily. I have attached a picture of Nastia riding on Sasha’s shoulders below! She did an excellent job and the ceremony was a hit. I’ve also attached a picture of all the flowers I got by the end of the day! It really does pay to be a popular teacher – I have peonies all over the house now!

Following last bell, there is a graduation ball. The ball took place Sunday evening and the house of culture concert hall was packed! Ukraine does not have prom but the Graduation Ball offers a chance for the 11th grade students to dress to the nines! My three young ladies, who completed the anti smoking project in the fall, were dressed beautifully!! I was so proud of them as they accepted their diplomas as well as their medals for being in the top 10 of the 11th grade class! It has been a great year this school year and these young women certainly have been a huge part of my life here in VL – I am so sad to see them leave the school but excited to see where they end up!

It really has been a great year here in Ukraine and I feel like I’ve done a lot both at site and in this country! I now have only a half of a year left in my service but still a number of things I wish to accomplish!

On a last note, please check out the following two links! The first is a promotional video for the Environmental Working Group in which there are a number of photos from both of my World Map Projects as well as my Water Filter Project. The second link is the official close of my Water Filter project in which you may read about the conclusion and success of the project.

Environmental Working Group Video: http://vimeo.com/23845660

Close of Water Filter Project Page: http://appropriateprojects.com/node/700

I would like to wish you all a wonderful summer. My next big excitement is the arrival of my parents on June 13th!! I will be sure to post again about their visit and our trip to Russia!!

All the best,

Megan

Pictures Include:

- Shannon and the Janitor Olya who constructed School #2’s Board

- School #2 Students trace the outline of the World Map

- School #2 Students with completed traced map

- School #2 Students and PCV Alia paint

- PCVs and School #2 Students plus Viktoria with completed day 1

- PCVs Anne, Alia, Stephanie, Kaity and Shannon with me and completed day 1 map

- PCVs making dinner at my house after day 1 painting

- Completed School #2 World Map

- 11th Grade Clean Up Day

- 11th Grade picks up garbage near the school

- 10th Grade Clean Up day

- 10th grade cleans up by the river

- 10th Grade and filled garbage bags following conclusion of Clean Up

- Easter – with my basket

- My Easter Basket with lit candle – contents include home made sausage, easter bread, cheese bread, and rolls.

- Alona and her family, my companions for the Easter Service

- VL Priest blessing the lit Easter Baskets

- With Vera and my Easter Basket

- VL Priest blesses the crowd with holy water

- Rachel (far left) with my PCV friends Meaghan and Kari in Beregovo at the start line of the 10K/Half Marathon Wine Festival

- Rachel and I with our supporting poster “The Faster You Run, the Sooner the Wine Flows!”

- 3 of the members of Whiskey Tango

- Cheer team for our check point

- Tagging team member for team “Super Fly”

- Cheering on fellow PCV Scott who ran the half marathon

- Ceremony congratulating team “Super Fly” for winning the team half marathon race

- Beregovo

- Beregovo

- Mykachevo Castle (3 Pictures)

- Mykachevo Town Center and Square (2 Pictures)

- Rachel and I in Lviv at the top of the Town Square governmental building

- Lviv chocolate factory

- Rachel and I in Kiev climbing the St. Sophia’s bell tower

- Rachel and I at the ballet

- With my Adopt a Cluster in Boguslav in the same room I learned Russian!

- With Max and Iryna

- Vera with some of the new baby geese!

- Attempting to hold two of the baby geese

- our new baby geese!

- Last Bell Ceremony (3 Pictures)

- My flowers from Last Bell!

- Graduation Ceremony – arrival to the culture house (2 pictures)

- Graduation Ball (4 pictures)

- With Inna one of my project students

- After Party hall

- With Alina, another one of my project students

- 11th Grade at the after party

- With Alina, Inna and Olena my 3 project students

- 11th Grade with the Vice Principal

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy 8th of March, International Women’s Day! Ukraine is still freezing cold and covered in snow, but I am looking forward to the upcoming spring very much! I have waited to update you all on my life until this moment because I have finally finished (well nearly finished) two of my projects and I want to share with you the efforts, results and pictures!

Since the end of the winter break I have been overwhelmingly busy with two of my projects – a water filter project and my HIV/AIDS Awareness project. I will start by telling about the Water Filter project.

Sadly due to pollution, slide offs of eroded littered soil and dumping, the fresh water of Ukraine is undrinkable. However, community organizations paid by the government to test the water, claim that it is safe to drink and free of any contaminants or harmful substances. Ukrainians know that this is not true but with few other cheap enough options they still continue to drink the tap water as is. As a member of the PC Environmental Working Group, I have been working with the Water Task Force on projects, which hope to educate Ukrainians on the importance of boiling or filtering tap water before consumption. My project has resulted from these efforts.

Water Charities is an American NGO, which helps to fund PCV projects related to water in their local communities. Through their associated organization, Appropriate Projects, I was able to write a grant, which provided me $500 for the implementation of my project. Please check out the link appropriateprojects.com and click on Ukraine projects. My project is already a few pages into the Ukrainian projects due to the popularity of this grant, but you may search “Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1 Water Filter Project” and will thus find my grant and project description.

To complete this project I requested the help of our school’s nurse, Lena, as my project partner. Our goal was to install a water filter in the cafeteria of our school in order to provide filtered water for use in the making of the student’s lunches. Our first purchase was a Water Quality Test Kit bought online from an American company (H2Okits.com). Along with Lena we completed the tests on our tap water and found dangerous levels of Nitrate, Sulfate and Chloride. We also found the tap water to have an off the chart total hardness which I could have determined simply by the dryness of my scalp! These results have been shared with the school as well as school #2 now interested in completing their own Water Filter project. A parent meeting was held so that Lena could share with parents the water test results and promote filtered water consumption in the home.

The second purchase was an Aquafor Viking Plus Filter. Aquafor is a Russian company, which provides water filtration systems of various sizes, and luckily an outlet exists in our oblast center, Kherson. I was able to transport the filter and cartridge to Velyka Lepetykha on one of my many trips to Kiev and the janitorial staff took charge of its installation. Funding from Appropriate Projects covered expensive chemicals used to clean the vat in which the water stands before use, as well as tubing to connect the water source to the filter and drop the water into the vat. The cleaning process took over a week to scrub away the years of mineral build up but the results were wonderful! Filtered water now falls into a sparkling clean vat and made then into tea, soup or used for any other cooking needs. As we have 556 students and some 50+ faculty at our school, many are benefiting from this source of clean potable water!

Though the project was a quick one, implemented in a month’s time, the sustainability and duration of the benefits are ongoing. On the Appropriate Projects webpage, contributions may be made to each volunteer’s project. I would greatly appreciate any donations that you are able to make to my project. Though the grant has been fully funded up-front, the organization appreciates donations to ensure the funding of future projects.

The second project, which I have to share with you, is my HIV/AIDS Awareness Project. This project has been in the works since last March when the biology teacher, Tanya, and I attended a PEPFAR Conference in Kiev for a week in which we learned about the biology, transmission and prevention of HIV as well as Ukrainian behavioral views towards people living with HIV/AIDS. PEPFAR is the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, an initiative started by George Bush (though imagined by Laura Bush) which funds AIDS education and relief around the world. Peace Corps Volunteers are especially assisted in the completion of HIV/AIDS projects through PEPFAR and I was lucky enough to be awarded a grant in October for the completion of my project.

Ukraine has the highest HIV infection rate of all the European countries. Today more than 600,000 individuals are registered HIV positive in Ukraine. Currently in Velyka Lepetykha County there are 54 registered individuals with HIV. However, many fear that the number of individuals registered is drastically smaller than the actual number of HIV cases in Ukraine. Stigmas against people living with HIV as well as ignorance towards ways of transmission have maintained a constantly increasing rate of infection with a disproportionate rate of testing and HIV awareness. I initiated this project in the hopes of increasing awareness of HIV transmission and prevention as well as diminish stigmas towards people living with HIV/AIDS.

The first step in our project was to invite a professional trainer to conduct two trainings in Velyka Lepetykha on the subject of HIV/AIDS. The weekend of January 15th and 16th Maria Didenko, our trainer, trained 18 students as well as 28 teachers, doctors, social workers and other service providers on the topic of HIV biology, transmission and prevention and stigmas towards people living with HIV/AIDS. Through my PEPFAR Grant I was able to provide materials needed for the training, a lunch each day and coffee breaks which were greatly appreciated throughout the trainings. I was very happy with the turn out of students as well as adults and through these trainings I was provided with a small corps of HIV/AIDS educated teachers to assist in the following steps of our project.

Following the trainings, School #1, School #2 and the Children’s Center, completed lessons on the subject of HIV/AIDS to students in the 5th-11th grade classes. My new site mate, Shannon Wentworth, lead the efforts in School #2 while I organized my trained teachers and students to complete lessons in School #1. Following lessons students drew posters of the biology of HIV as well as ways of transmission, which we have since taped up in the hallway to continue to remind students of the lessons they learned regarding HIV.

The ultimate piece of our project was our HIV/AIDS Awareness Concert which took place Thursday, March 3rd. Despite a number of disasters which occurred throughout the weeks prior to the concert (no funding for student transport to concert, director of house of culture canceling my reservation for the concert hall 3 days before the concert, the county head refusing to allow us the use of the projector and screen the morning of the concert despite prior approval) the concert did take place and I feel was quite a success! Of the 10 schools in our county, 8 schools sent a team of about 10 students each to present a 10-minute presentation on their thoughts on health as well as HIV/AIDS. The imagination, creativity and enthusiasm put into these presentations was outstanding! The winning team, School #1 from a neighboring village Rubanivka, brought their own puppet theatre type stage from which they popped in and out of the windows, sang and danced around and just put on a great show! The skits tended to place a greater emphasis on all around health than HIV/AIDs with such topics as alcoholism, drug abuse and smoking being mentioned quite frequently but each did discuss HIV and I hope that lessons were learned while preparing these skits. The concert was coordinated in association with the Social Services Center and took place in the Children’s Center’s auditorium. Though the venue was a lot smaller than the intended House of Culture’s size of 600 seats, the feeling was more intimate and the energy greater! Students also brought posters completed on the topic of health and HIV/AIDS, which were judged by the jury and then hung around the room as decorations for the concert. A jury of 4 members judged each team’s skit on creativity and demonstration of the topics at hand. I sat as one of the judges but spent most of my time taking pictures and enjoying the performance! Prizes were given to the top teams for poster creation and skit presentation. Sadly, my school did not win but their skit was quite good and very energetic! At the end of the concert I was surprised with a Certificate of Recognition for having organized the concert and for having completed my project. Presented to me by the county and the head of the Social Services Center, I was quite honored!

Though this concert was supposed to be the final event of my project, there still remains another step in the action plan – our World Map Murals. Following spring break Shannon and I will be painting a World Map on the walls of School #1 and #2. Geography knowledge is greatly lacking in Ukrainian schooling and thus I have received funding to complete these murals. We will be painting red HIV/AIDS Awareness ribbons upon each map and hope to use them in future lessons to increase Ukrainian understanding that HIV is not simply a problem in Africa, but a problem all over the world, including Ukraine. We are both very excited about this part of the project, as it will be a great chance to work with some of our students on a more informal basis and to continue to remind our students of the lessons they have learned this semester on HIV/AIDS.

An exciting result of this project was the organizing of a second training completed in the Velyka Lepetykha Hospital. Peter Nikolaevich, the chief director and head doctor of the VL hospital attended my training on January 16th and was so impressed by it that he requested such a training for his staff. With the help of a few remaining funds I was able to request a second trainer, this time receiving the service of Radislav, a pediatrician from the far west of Ukraine. Peter organized on Saturday, February 26th, the arrival of 28 hospital staff members from 4 of the county’s hospitals. Another 29 hospital staff members attended Sunday from our own hospital. Both Peter and I were very satisfied with the results of the trainings as surveys showed the increase of individual awareness on HIV transmission to be over a 40% increase! Though this training was not originally planned, I am very glad I was able to execute it. I am now BFFs with the Chief Doctor of our hospital who is eager to work with me on future projects! We will see what I can come up with!

On a separate note, I have received word that my SPA (small project assistance) Grant Request has been approved for funding! In the end of March I will receive funding to complete my Sewing Machine project with the young women of the 6th-9th grade home economics classes. These students will learn how to sew sheets and blankets as well as shirts and pants. The completed pieces will be donated to the children of young single mothers in VL as well as the Children’s Ward of the District Hospital where children removed from dangerous living situations are housed until further housing may be found. My project partner, the home economics’ teacher, Sveta, is very excited about this project and the approaching purchase of new sewing machines for the school. I will be sure to update you all on the accomplishments of this project in the spring!

On a personal note, I have moved host families. Due to difficulties with my host mother Lyuda, I requested the help of my director and was found a new living arrangement. I am now living with a windowed woman, Vera who works as one of the math teacher’s in my school. Our apartment is located on the outskirts of town near the bus station but I have my own room, which is very comfortable. Vera is a very bubbly, happy woman who makes homemade wine and sings to herself frequently. In the evenings we have dinner together and in the mornings walk together to school. I am very happy with the move and have attached a picture with Vera below. Please do not worry – I still have a shower, microwave and a washing machine!

As this quarter comes to a close I am very thankful for all that I have been able to accomplish at my school! I am also quite excited about my upcoming SPA grant project and completing our World Map Murals! I am heading March 20th to Istanbul, Turkey for my spring break holidays – which I feel I am in great need of – and will continue my efforts when I get back to school following break on March 28th!

All the best,

Megan

Pictures Include:

-Water Filter Project:

Pre filter project pictures of vat, boiling water as a means of cleansing and children in the cafeteria

Post Filter pictures of installation, water testing and a clean vat and children drinking filtered tea

-HIV/AIDS Project

Student and Adult HIV/AIDS trainings

School #1 lessons to the 11th, 8th, 7th, and 6th students

VL Hospital Training, photo with Chief Doctor Peter Nikolaevich and trainer Radislav

HIV/AIDS Awareness Concert – posters, teams, judges, skits as well as receiving my Certificate of Appreciation from Alona, and pictures with some of the winning teams

-Picture with my host mother Vera

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Holidays!! Since I last wrote you following the Fall Holiday, life has been quite busy here in Velyka Lepetykha and I wanted to pass along some updates on the things I’ve been up to!

To start, my 11th grade girls have finished their Anti-Smoking Campaign and I think it was a hit! The girls printed information about the dangers of smoking and we took to the streets to pass out the information and candies (sweets are a great replacement for smoking!) The girls told the citizens of Velyka Lepetykha to avoid or stop smoking due to the dangers and to share this information with their friends and loved ones. The second portion of the project took place in our school where the girls presented to the 11th grade a power point on the dangers of smoking and passed out the same informational slips of papers to the 5th-11th grades. They had a lot of fun getting to share the information they had learned with fellow classmates and being able to design and implement their own project! I have attached a few pictures of Olena, Inna and Alina and the different parts of their project. I am so proud of their work and I hope that the information helps to deter my students from smoking.

The weekend of Thanksgiving was a special one for me not only due to the holiday, but also because ABCamp organized and ran its very first Weekender Camp. I traveled on Thanksgiving Day to Kharkiv, up in the northeast of Ukraine where my cluster mate Whitney lives, to spend Thanksgiving evening with her. Together we traveled to a city called Kupiyansk located 2 hours further northeast towards Russia. Tiago, a fellow PCV, organized all the secondary schools in his town to send the best English speakers for a 2-day English immersion camp discussing the topic of Human Rights. I partnered with a very bright and bubbly Ukrainian named Elena to teach the Freedom of Speech. Our class included discussion of the right to freedom of speech and the illegality of censorship and we had the kids “express” their speech through hand drawn blog pages. The kids then swapped their blogs and “commented” on the themes and what they hoped the author would add in future “posts.” The kids had a lot of fun with the lesson and many wrote their blogs about how much they liked ABCamp and why. Both days we had team time like a regular ABCamp, and I once again adorned purple to lead the “Purple Parrots.” Our team completed a video scavenger hunt, filming such crazy scenes as monkeys hanging in a tree eating bananas to proposing to a stranger. The kids were so excited as this was nothing like anything they had done before! Each clip had to include a human right being violated and the correction of that violation. The purple team expressed the freedom of speech by trying to order McDonalds at a kiosk and saying it was their right to ask for McDonalds! We had a great time and it was so exciting to work with such enthusiastic and intelligent students! I have attached pictures of our hand written blogs, my purple team and the camp group shot.

Though the camp did take up the whole weekend and most of our free time, we did, however, have a chance to properly celebrate Whitney’s favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. On Saturday night amidst creating lesson plan materials and organizing the following day’s schedule, we were able to make dinner. A neighbor of Tiago’s, Iryna, had been instructed in the span of about 5 minutes how to make Stove Top stuffing and how to properly cook a Thanksgiving turkey. (Though I’ve only done this once before, somehow I was put in charge of this instruction!) Iryna called throughout the day in panic that it would not turn out well but when we arrived home Saturday evening, I was greeted with the most beautiful Thanksgiving turkey I have ever seen in my life – it was delicious beyond belief!! Whitney made mashed potatoes and deviled eggs. Two Ukrainians brought crab salads and I helped my lesson partner Elena, make corn pudding (a traditional dish in Whitney’s family). Tiago’s family had sent 2 cans of jellied cranberry sauce (my all time favorite!) and there was an entire table of desserts brought by the other Ukrainians including crepes filled with caramel and bananas and Samantha’s pumpkin chocolate chip pie/bread. As we dug into the delicious meal Whitney had us go around the room and say what we were thankful for this year. With 7 Ukrainians and 6 Americans come together to celebrate, I was thankful for the opportunity to share our American culture and food with such amazing Ukrainians!! Peace Corps has provided me so many amazing opportunities throughout this year but these moments when you hear the gratitude in the voices of Ukrainians, our friends, you really realize how amazing it is to be here and to be sharing of ourselves and our cultures with these individuals. It was a wonderful evening – and luckily there was plenty of turkey and fixings left for a Trout family traditional turkey sandwich the next day!

When I returned to Velyka Lepetykha following Thanksgiving, there was another “holiday” upon me – World AIDS Day. December 1st is a day to remember all those we have lost in the struggle against HIV/AIDS and to support all those living with the disease still today. My counterpart for my HIV/AIDS project helped me organize a few events to commemorate the day. First we announced that the students wear red and had them stand together in the auditorium for a picture. The students are standing in the shape of the red ribbon of HIV awareness but this is a little difficult to see in the picture below. In the afternoon, we held two showings of the film “A Closer Walk.” The film discusses the problem with HIV all over the world, including Ukraine, and the need for us to come together and help stop HIV/AIDS. My students did a pretty good job of paying attention and watching the film, but I’m hoping the lessons in the winter semester will be more informative and will really spark the interest to make a difference within my students. One exciting note is that the picture of the students wearing red has been accepted by the magazine “The Cure,” which is published once quarterly by the HIV/AIDS Working Group and distributed throughout Peace Corps and a number of Ukrainian partner organizations. I cannot wait to present the magazine to our director!

Lastly, I want to tell you about a very exciting week I recently spent in Kiev – Swearing In! If you can believe it (I can’t) I have now been a sworn in Peace Corps Volunteer for a whole year! On December 16th the most recent set of TEFL volunteers swore in and I was luckily able to attend the conference. I went with my good friend Meaghan and presented the working groups I have been involved in this last year, Environmental Working Group and Safety and Security. It felt quite strange to stand in front of the 90 trainees and know that I was the “expert” in the room! One of the individuals swearing in, Shannon, found out on Monday December 13th that her site is a little town down in the Khersonska Oblast known as Velyka Lepetykha – I have a site mate! Shannon is a graduate of Wellesley and she will be working at VL Secondary School #2 for the next 2 years. I welcomed Shannon the weekend of December 18th with a walk around our town and my host mother made baked duck for our family to eat with Shannon on Sunday. I am so excited to have another PCV here in my town and the timing is wonderful for my HIV/AIDS project as she will head the School #2 involvement in the project! Another new PCV I met was a fellow ’09 graduate of Northwestern, Ashley. I have attached a picture of Ashley standing with Meaghan and me at the swearing in ceremony.

As the Christmas Holiday comes upon us, Velyka Lepetykha has been preparing well with a New Year’s Tree and decorations in the cafeteria, a Saint Nicholas Concert and lots of control work (tests) to finish off the semester. The Saint Nicholas Concert was held on December 17th despite a snowstorm outside. The audience was primarily elementary students but I went to see my 11th and 10th grade students perform. The storyline had Saint Nicholas and his granddaughter kidnapped by father frost. Two children then seek the help of an angel who guides them to speak to the Winter Queen who forces father frost to return Saint Nicholas and his granddaughter in time for Saint Nicholas day (December 19th.) I loved the performance as Inna, of the Anti-Smoking Project, was father frost and one of my best 10th grade students, Jenya, played Saint Nicholas. After the concert I got a picture with the stars of the show, which I have attached below!

I am very much looking forward to the holiday and a chance to take a break from all my work! I will be spending Christmas weekend in Crimea and then heading to Lviv for a few days before I fly with 7 other PCVs to Egypt for a week! We are headed to Sharm El Sheikh (unfortunately where all the recent shark attacks have occurred) and will be there for a week! I will be sure to pass along photos and stories when I return assuming a shark doesn’t eat me!

I would like to wish you all a very wonderful holiday season! Please stay safe and warm!

Love, Megan

P.S. I am attaching a very exciting letter I received this month from Senator Al Franken, which I wanted to share with you all!

Photos include:

Khersonska Oblast PCVs of groups 36, 37 and 38 (not the most recent arrivals)

Anti Smoking Campaign with Alina, Olena and Inna

Thanksgiving at Tiago’s site and ABC mini camp

World AIDS Day

Swearing In Conference with Ashley and Meaghan and Kiev New Year’s Tree

Velyka Lepetykha Christmas Concert

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy fall!! I am now finally back at site and have successfully begun my first full school year! It has been a little difficult to get back into the swing of things following 3 months of traveling, working summer camps and free floating around the country without any work responsibilities! This was an incredible summer starting with my travels, which I wrote about in previous blogs, but then got even better as I was able to fulfill one of my dreams of working as a summer camp counselor. In the months of July and August I worked two camps – ABCamp and MASCOT, both of which were great successes and a lot of fun. I wanted to take a moment to tell you about each of these and share some pictures from my camp experiences.

ABCamp (also known as American Borsch Camp) took place from July 27th – August 6th. As a two-week camp, the counselors had a lot of time with the campers and relationships were well bonded and everyone had a great time. The camp’s purpose was to teach leadership skills and project planning/civic engagement to the future leaders of Ukraine. The camp took place in a school downtown Kharkiv, the capital of the former Ukrainian Republic of the USSR. The 80 campers ranged in ages from 13-20 and all had intermediate to advanced levels of English, making discussions in class very interesting! I taught alongside a Ukrainian university student, Anya, one of the Project Planning classes as well as co-lead with a Ukrainian Graduate Student, Valera, Team Super Duper Purple People. As this didn’t seem like enough involvement I also helped write and edit the “Daily Dish” newspaper, which Adrianne Klein, a fellow PCV, and I published 5 times throughout the camp. Campers attended each day three classes along with an elective class, team time and challenge followed by a social event at the end of the day. Aside from Project Planning, the campers attended Sharing Cultures, which included lessons on India, Albania, Cuba and China and another class either of Theatre or Music. Electives in the afternoon varied over different sports, languages and activities. Adrianne and I taught newspaper/photography as an elective in which we gathered our articles for upcoming editions of the “Daily Dish.” Team time was a lot of fun in the afternoon as Valera and I energized the Purple Team while playing games and getting to know one another better. Challenges following team time ranged in levels of difficulty and we did such challenges as crossing the river, Sherpa’s Walk, water balloon find, team cheers and others. Though the Purple Team did not take first place, we received an award for “Most Enthusiastic Team” which we felt was a great accomplishment! I loved being a part of this camp as it allowed me to work alongside some amazing Ukrainian youth doing some incredible things all in the name of volunteerism. Our director, Anya, is younger than I am and has organized and implemented more projects than I could ever have imagined completing at this point in my life! Her devotion to developing the minds of the Ukrainian youth is so inspiring and I was so grateful for the chance to work alongside her. Another fun aspect of working this camp was that Kharkiv is my cluster mate Whitney’s site and so a few of us PCVs were able to stay at her apartment. Evenings were filled with salad making and lots of PCV talking and gossip! A nice break each evening from the energy draining days of camp! I have already signed up to work ABCamp 2011 and I am looking forward to seeing my Purple Team campers once more!

Before heading to MASCOT camp in southern Ukraine, I used my free few days to visit Kelsey, my cluster mate in the Kirovograd Oblast located in the center of Ukraine. The days were filled with a lot of sleeping to catch up from ABC, delicious foods (Kelsey’s mom had sent her BBQ sauce!!!) and playing with Kelsey’s cat, Noski (meaning socks in Russian). The stay was a nice break from camp chaos before I headed down to Mykolayiv for MASCOT.

MASCOT Camp, the acronym’s meaning is currently under argument, took place from August 15th – 22nd and also involved about 80 campers ranging in ages of 13-23. Camp took place at the Black Sea University in Mykolayiv where our director, Alya, had studied. As this camp was only one week rather than two, there was less time to do about the same number of activities as ABCamp! At this camp I co-taught alongside a Ukrainian counterpart, Dima, the Visual Arts class which touched on topics of painting, photography, short film and body art. I also co-lead alongside a Ukrainian staffer, Kolya, Team Magenta Amazing Generation (MAG for short). As the camp was shorter, we combined a number of aspects of ABCamp and the teams implemented civic projects together rather than having a separate project planning class. Team Magenta decided to raise money by singing and dancing on the main street of Sovietskaya one evening. The hard earned money then bought gloves and bags, which were used the following day to clean the park alongside the university. We were successful in collecting 34 bags of trash and a tire from the park – a favorite place for students to come and relax between classes. Team Magenta felt that the project was a great success!

Other classes throughout the week included Diversity and Civics in which project planning was discussed alongside the implementation of team projects. Campers had the chance to participate in challenges in the afternoons and the Sherpa’s Walk, Egg Drop and Team Cheer challenges were enjoyed by all throughout the week. Team Magenta was successful in most of the challenges and we took first overall in the MASCOT Team Challenge! A very exciting win!

One of the most fun aspects of both camps was the dress up days. Themes were decided before camp and during the camp they were announced one day prior. This short notice made preparing difficult and increased/encouraged creativity. During ABCamp we had theme days of Team Color, Inside Out, Hippie, Halloween, Soviet Union, and Sharing Cultures. MASCOT had days of Team Color, Mismatch, My Hero, Twins, Team Theme and Hippie. Camper’s creativity was at a max with these theme days as few resources were turned into great costumes! I have placed a few pictures below with some of the fun themes as well as my costumes on these days!

Both camps were a lot of fun and I have also signed up to work MASCOT once more. As I took with me three girls now 11th formers at my school in Velyka Lepetykha, we are planning to implement a civics project here in our community over the next few months! And I hope to take even more students in the coming year!

My last week of summer was not spent hastily either as I spent the week in Crimea where I had traveled to back in May. I spent one day in Bakhchisaray seeing the Khan’s Palace and Tatar Caves once more with a fellow PCV then traveled by myself the next day to see Cevastopol, the location of the Russian Black Sea Fleet – a very touchy subject for Ukrainians in the Russia-Ukraine relations debate. Following these two days I was joined in Crimea by my cluster mate Kelsey and her mom, Cathy for a few days of tourism and relaxation. We traveled to Yalta, the location of the famous Yalta Conference of 1945 attended by Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill to determine the next steps following the end of WWII. Our next day was spent hiking on one of the famous plateau mountains surrounding the Yalta beach area. Lastly we stopped in Sudak located in the southeast of Crimea where there is a Genoese Fortress and the most beautiful beach in Crimea, Novi Svit. The beach allowed for some great sunbathing and relaxation! I finally returned from Crimea to site on August 29th!

My plans for the new school year include an HIV/AIDS project for which I am writing a grant right now and then the project I will implement with the 11th form girls. Though my schedule is all over the place I am assigned to teach 6th-10th form this year and I have already begun my bandura lessons again! Upcoming travels hopefully include a trip to Moldova for fall break and a trip to Egypt in December, both of which I am very excited for!

I want to wish you all the best of luck with the upcoming fall season! I will be sure to keep you posted on the results of my grants and projects and all the adventures that await me in this new school year!

Love, Megan

The following day I had to get up to catch the 5:30am train to Budapest where I was meeting my Peace Corps friends Whitney and Meaghan as well as Susie – my Hungarian friend you may recall from when I visited 2.5 years ago while I was living in Spain! The train passed through the beautiful countryside of both the Czech Republic, Slovakia and then the north of Hungary. I was able to only catch a glimpse of Bratislava and I wished I had taken an extra day to visit that city as well. Susie greeted me at the train station – she is still studying Architecture in Budapest and has another year to go. She looks just the same and was such a wonderful hostess once again! The major difference of this trip from the last was the clothing! In January 2008 I was freezing! 4 pairs of socks plus wool-lined boots did not even begin to cover the cold – this time around, it was about battling the heat! Next time I go to Budapest it will definitely be in the fall!

Meaghan and Whitney arrived shortly after on their train from Ukraine. From travel exhaustion we did not do any touring the first day but topped the evening off with a trip to the cinema. In Ukraine, films are only in Ukrainian and are never in their original language. Both Whitney and myself have learned Russian, making this a pretty unenjoyable form of entertainment. So, when we found that many cinemas in Budapest play movies in English – we jumped on the chance to get our fix of American culture through the horribly teen angst film, Twilight. The movie ticket cost a whopping $4.50 – I think I might move here!

Our first full day was spent enjoying the sites of Pest. We began with St. Stephen’s Basilica – the church in which rests the mummified hand of St. Stephen, one of the apostles. We had to pay 200 forint ($0.85) to light up the box to see the hand! Our tour continued to Hero’s Square where statues to commemorate the Magyars who founded Hungary stand. We also stopped at the National Opera House as well as the Great Synagogue, the largest synagogue in all of Europe and the second largest in the world. The best part of the day for me; however, was the tour of the Parliament. Stefan and I had made it our goal to get into the Parliament for a tour 2.5 years ago and dramatically failed every attempt we made, thus making it my #1 goal for this trip to see the inside. Luckily, we succeeded! As Hungary used to be a bicameral government, the Parliament was built with two identical wings. Today, Hungary’s government is unicameral thus leaving one wing open and available for tours. Our tour included the large entrance hallway complete with very precious red granite stone columns followed by a view of the St. Stephen’s crown, the official crown of the ruling government of Hungary, and lastly, entrance into the auditorium, which used to hold the House of Lords. The Parliament when it was completed, consumed more energy in a single day than the entire city of Budapest. Today it is more energy efficient (and half the building isn’t used continuously) so this is no longer the case. The building was quite stunning inside – below are pictures.

Our second day was used to explore Buda, primarily the castle district of Budapest. Castle Hill holds many interesting buildings including Matthias Church (which was no longer under scaffolding!), the Fisherman’s Bastion from which you can see the best views of Budapest, and lastly the Royal Palace. Meaghan and Whitney had a wonderful time snapping pictures around the district – as we had done a little slide show of my trip to Hungary 2.5 years ago the night before, I remembered how many of these places I have already photographed and thus held off a bit this time! Susie gave us a tour of her university, which brought Meaghan and I to break out in “Go U Northwestern” to Whitney’s disgust – haha. We ended the night with another trip to the cinema – it was just so good the first time around! This time we saw “Robin Hood” – the pre-story to Robin Hood’s legendary life acted out by Russell Crowe and Kate Blanchett – it was ok, but once again all in English and only $4.50! Love it! We drove up to the Citadel where Susie had taken me before for the amazing night view of Budapest. It was breathtaking!

The next few days of our time in Hungary were spent lakeside. If you look at a map of Hungary – one thing that sticks out is this long skinny lake called Lake Balaton, which takes up a major portion of the western side of the country. Susie’s family owns a traditional Hungary summerhouse in the town of Balatonfured near the lake and we were treated to 4th of July weekend there! Lake Balaton is actually quite shallow and most accesses to the lake are wading depth for many many feet out. Also, the lake is not a beachy one and most access points have nicely mowed lawns on which you sunbathe before hoping in the water. We brought out books and Ipods and laid out by the water for some very needed rest and relaxation time only interrupted for ice cream breaks – of which there was one each day. In the evening we went into the town and walked along the boardwalk lined with souvenir shops, restaurants and bars and covered in Hungarians on vacation – it felt very spring break like with the outdoor bars and ice cream parlors.

On the 4th of July, Meaghan, Whitney and I treated Susie, her mom Marina and her twin sister Dory to a traditional American Independence Day meal – hamburgers, potato salad, watermelon and then Marina threw in a Greek Salad (which I liked best!) I made the burgers – dad are you proud!?, Whitney took over the potato salad and Meaghan set the table. We had a wonderful feast and were so thankful for our luck to be there at a lake home enjoying the company together for our holiday weekend!

We drove back to Budapest on the 6th to do some laundry, spend our last few forint on brownie mix which we made that night to watch the Uruguay vs. Germany World Cup game, and to pack up. Sadly – on the 7th we had to head back into Ukraine. I was very sad to see my traveling adventures come to a close. Whitney and I headed to the Chernigiv Oblast north of Kiev for a Russian Language Refresher Camp where I have been this last week and Meaghan is now prepping for another camp she will be working this coming week.

I am so thankful for the amazing experiences I have had these last few weeks. Following this month of travel, I have now been to 25 countries in the world – a fact that makes me realize just how fortunate I have been. For now, I am remaining in country looking forward to my two upcoming Summer Camps – ABCamp and Mascot and I look forward to telling you about those towards the end of August.

Once again I hope that you are all having a wonderful July and I would like to wish you an excellent rest of your summer!

Best, Megan

If you want to compare pictures from Winter ’08 in Budapest – please feel free to check out the blog post on:

http://meganinspain0708.blogspot.com/2008/01/italy-austria-and-hungary.html

Following my time in Krakow, I hopped on an overnight train to Prague. While in Spain I had really wanted to travel to Prague, but the distance and costs of flights had been out of reach. Now, on the other side of the Czech Republic, this journey was quite simple. My first day in Prague was spent exclusively with my favorite touring company – Sandeman New Europe Tours. I began the day with their free walking tour of the city, continued onto the Castle District Tour, and finished off the night watching the World Cup Game while on their Pub Crawl Tour. Prague is an incredibly beautiful city. The truth is that Prague is not known for its impressive museums or interesting sites to visit internally, but for its external beauty, winding streets of little shops and cafes and endless photo opportunities. Located along the Vltava River, Prague is comprised of many districts, each with their own history and flare. My walking tour took me through the Old Town, beginning in the center square where St. Nicholas’ Church stands as well as the famous Astronomical Clock and continued onto the Jewish District of Josefov and ended near the river for a beautiful view of the castle in the Castle District. The Astronomical Clock, which a friend of mine told me was the only thing aside from beer that he knew Prague to be famous for, was a marvel in its day due to the spectacle it puts on every hour. The clock has 4 statues which represent the deepest civic anxieties of the 15th century - Vanity, Greed, Pagan Invasion and lastly Death, represented by a skeleton, who on the hour, rings a bell to remind all that death is surely coming. The 12 Apostles then parade by nodding to the crowd and the spectacle is ended with the crowing of a rooster. This clock was so unique that legend says the clock maker was blinded so that he could not replicate his work and the clock would remain unique to Prague. Today, with the presence of television and other entertainment, the spectacle is not as moving as it once would have been to viewers in the 15th century, but the fact that such a clock existed in its day is quite impressive.

In the afternoon I joined the Castle District tour, which took us across the river to wind through the streets leading up to the castle overlooking the city. The castle dates back to the 9th century is apparently the largest castle in the world. In the center of the castle district stands St. Vitus Cathedral, which began construction in 926 but was only recently completed which is quite obvious due to the change in design techniques for the top portion of the Cathedral – check out a picture below. At the top of the castle district there is a monastery founded in 1140, which to this day brews beer to help finance the monastery. The best part of the whole tour was the moments when we were able to stop and enjoy the view of the city. Prague is a vast span of red roofs and tan buildings making it such a beautiful and picturesque city. I couldn’t stop taking pictures!

On my second day in the city I headed into the Jewish District, Josefov. The Jewish District, once the Jewish Ghetto during the years of WWII (for the Czech Republic this began in 1939), consists of six synagogues, a very crowded Jewish Cemetery and Jewish Museum. Faiz, a friend I made while on my train from Krakow, joined me for the day. The Jewish District exists still today only because the Nazi’s preserved this area in expectation of opening a museum there for the “extinct” Jewish race. Faiz and I went for two specific sites, the first being the Jewish Cemetery begun in the 15th century. Due to the crowding in the Jewish Ghetto, little room was available for the burial of Jewish individuals. For this reason, coffins were buried one on top of another in a system of layering with 10 being the most that was ever buried on top of one another. Visible are some 12,000 tombstones but below lays over 100,000 coffins. Due to this crowding, the tombstones have all begun to shift and fall into one another making it quite a site. There is a picture below. The second site we wanted to see was the Pinkas Synagogue. This synagogue houses the names, birthdates and dates of disappearance of all 77,297 Bohemian and Moravian Jews fallen victim to the Nazi terror. The walls are covered in these names and numbers from floor to ceiling. While we were in the prayer room, two Jewish men began to sing in prayer to the memorial plaque where inscribed are the names of the Concentration Camps these individuals were sent to and killed. As the men sang they began to cry, as did I. Though I set off on this whole trip to see the sites, I never imagined the historical lessons and events I would experience – the prayer was incredibly moving and I’m thankful we got a chance to see and be a part of remembering the names of these people who were so brutally killed. On the second floor of the synagogue is an exhibition of drawings and paintings done by children who were held in the Terezin Concentration Camp – their work showed the hope that one day they would be able to return to their happy lives in Prague. Unfortunately, the drawings are for the most part, all that remains of most of the children who were taken to Terezin.

On my last day in Prague, I did another Sandeman tour to a city outside Prague, called Kutna Hora. Once a competitor for the most prosperous city in the Czech Republic, Kutna Hora was the location of one of the richest silver mines in Central Europe. Our tour took us to see Saint Barbara’s Church, built to thank God for the wealth of the silver mine, as well as the location of the first minting press in the Czech Republic. Those these were interesting; the most famous site in Kutna Hora is a chapel known as The Sedlec Ossuary or Bone Chapel. Inside this Chapel rests the skeletons of some 20 – 40,000 individuals. The Chapel was constructed for burial ceremonies to take place in a once a very popular cemetery. As the chapel was being built on top of already buried bodies, the bodies were removed to be buried again later. However, one crazy monk who oversaw the chapel rearranged all the bones to be placed in their separate bone categories. When a new family took over the charge of the chapel, they ordered an artist to design something that would honor the bones now too disorganized to ever be sorted back to their proper individual’s coffin. Today, tourists can see 4 separate pyramids made of skulls and bones, a chandelier made of every bone in the human body and the crest of the family who commissioned the artwork also made entirely of human bone. It was quite creepy to see so many skulls hanging about the chapel and a tourmate commented on how hard it is to look at these skulls and not remember that they once were a part of a living, breathing human being like ourselves! The tour was really spectacular and in the afternoon we stopped at a cute outdoors restaurant to feast on traditional Czech food – I have attached a picture of the beef and dumpling dish with cranberries and cream, which I had along with a beer from the Kutna Hora region. The girls in my picture at the restaurant are from Minnesota – their names were Megan and Beth – too weird!

If you want to check out this fantastic company's website:

http://www.neweuropetours.eu/

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy belated 4th of July! I hope that you are all having a wonderful summer and enjoyed a very nice Independence Day holiday! I am writing to you from Kharkiv, a large city in the east of Ukraine, which was once the Ukrainian capital during the time of the Soviet Union. I am here to prepare for the upcoming ABCamp while enjoying spending time with my clustermate, Whitney, who lives and works here in Kharkiv.

It has been a very very busy month and a half for me, of which I wrote about the first part in my Russia blog. Following my return to Ukraine I headed to L’viv to stay with my good friend, Kari, whom I visited for my birthday and from there I began my leap into Europe. My first stop was Krakow followed by Prague and ending in Budapest before heading back into Ukraine. I want to share with you some sites and pictures from these cities but due to all the pictures, I am splitting up the posts into their three perspective cities.

This 3-city tour began with plans to travel from Ukraine to Budapest with fellow NU alumna, Meaghan, and expanded to include a trip to Krakow and then simply made sense to connect the two cities with a stop in Prague. Krakow had only been a city on my list of places I would like to visit for about 2 months. In April, following the tragic plane crash which took the lives of the Polish President, his wife and many Polish government officials, I had a chance to watch some English language television and spent an entire afternoon watching the funeral of the Polish President and his wife. Though this was quite morbid, it ended up showing me the city of Krakow; including the insides of St. Mary’s Basilica, the Old Town Square, Wawel Castle overlooking the city and simply a lot of the beautiful architecture throughout Krakow. Through these images I determined I had to get to this beautiful ancient city and a short 2 months later I was there.

Krakow, which recently celebrated its 750th year, held the title of capital of the Polish state for over 500 years. The city is covered in Gothic and Renaissance architecture and has something beautiful to admire around every corner. I had to remind myself multiple times to look where I was going as I spent my entire 3 days in the city looking up and wandering around in awe of the unique facades of each building.

On my first full day in the city, I actually spent it touring two very famous sites outside of Krakow. The first in Polish is Oswiecim, but we know it as Auschwitz, the site of the largest attempt at genocide in human history. Auschwitz-Birkenau existed as a Nazi extermination camp from 1940-1945 and is the site where an estimated 1.6 million people died including 1.1 million Jews, 150,000 Poles and people of 27 nationalities in total. The morning of my tour was quite sunny and fairly warm which made fully feeling the effects of being in the Auschwitz camp quite difficult. Memories of black and white photographs of Auschwitz filled my mind, but walking through the barracks while the birds sang and the sun shined just made such a large number seem so unfathomable. Rooms filled with suitcases, shoes, eyeglasses, combs and brushes as well as women’s human hair; however, put the gruesome scene into better perspective. The Nazis had a plan for everything that was taken from the victims down to the hair being collected to make fabric for Nazi soldier clothing and blankets. Our tour included entrance into the barracks where prisoners slept 6-8 in a bunk bed as well as the prison barracks where prisoners were made to stand all night and were forced to work all the next day. One of the last stops at the Auschwitz camp was entrance into the first gas chamber, built to test the use of Zyklon B in the extermination of mass numbers of people. Originally prisoners were shot one at a time, but with the increase in number of prisoners entering the camps, the Auschwitz camp decided to test the chemical, originally used to get ride of lice on clothing, for use in the killing of prisoners. The chemical exists in small blue crystals and simply needs heat to turn into a deadly gas – the heat of enough bodies in a small enclosure suffices. As we entered the gas chamber, our tour guide pointed to the holes in the ceiling from which the crystals were dropped explaining that those near the hole died quickly, but those farther away had a few minutes before the gas would reach them. I cannot imagine the horror, which those people inside such gas chambers, must have felt before they passed away.

The Auschwitz complex actually consists of 3 camps, the second known as Birkenau and the third Monowitz. The Nazis successfully destroyed the Monowitz working camp, but failed to destroy all of Birkenau and most all of Auschwitz is left. Birkenau, however, was the site of the largest extermination with its 4 large gas chambers, each capable of asphyxiating up to 2,000 people at a time. We entered the camp and walked along the train tracks down to the remains of the 2 largest gas chambers and crematoriums (the Nazis blew these up before fleeing the site). As I walked along the tracks to the end which stands only a few feet from the entrance to the two large gas chambers, as far as I could see on both sides of me stood chimneystacks where over 300 barracks once stood. The camp held up to 200,000 prisoners and in the remaining weeks of the war, was used to kill 400,000 Hungarian Jews who were carted in by train and told to wait in line to be taken into the gas chambers. Photographs of individuals waiting with their families and personal possessions for their turn to go into the gas chamber, they were told it was into the shower, made my heart stop. As I looked at the pictures of these individuals, naïve to what was about to happen, I started to tear up. I wanted to yell out to them but what could I have done?

If you ever have a chance to see these camps, please do – only through education and understanding can we ensure that these catastrophes are not repeated.

In the afternoon, I was able to travel another direction outside Krakow to visit the Wieliczka salt mine, a working mine for over 700 years. Salt used to be one of the most valuable resources in the world, more valuable than gold or silver. The word “salary” comes from the Latin word for salt and the hand gesture of rubbing your fingers together with your thumb to represent money – comes from the Roman hand gesture meaning “pay me in salt.” Interesting huh? The tour took us down 135 meters underground to visit some 22 different chambers where salt was mined. The mine actually comprises of 300 km of tunnels and gets to 327m deep. The salt mine is interesting to visit as miners, on breaks from excavating, spent time carving full sculptures from blocks of salt. Such salt sculptures included the likenesses of Nicholas Copernicus and Pope John Paul II as well as a replica of Davinci’s The Final Supper. One of the best parts is the Chapel of St. Kinga, a chapel entirely carved in salt from its “marble” tiled floors to the chandeliers and the chapel’s altarpiece. Every bit of it is carved from salt taken from a part of the mine. I felt a bit like I was in a room of Willy Wonka’s factory as the guide said everything here is edible – though I don’t know who would want to take a bite out of a wall of salt!

On my second day, I spent my time wandering Wawel Hill where from Kings ruled the Polish state before the capital was moved to Warsaw in the 16th century. Inside Wawel Cathedral rests the tombs of many of Poland’s most famous rulers and humanitarians including that of St. Queen Hedwig who ruled in the 14th century and who financed the construction of Collegium Maius, the second oldest University in Europe and the place where Copernicus first studied astronomy. The Polish President and his wife are also now buried in the crypt of the Cathedral. It was quite an emotional moment passing such a freshly completed tomb covered in roses while the many onlookers teared up and prayed over the marble covered tomb.

Also on Wawel Hill stands the Castle. I chose to visit the Royal Chambers, which are filled with 16th century intricately decorated tapestries on the walls, and then the Crown Treasury and Armory where on display rests the “Jagged Sword” used in all coronations from 1320 onwards. My favorite part of Wawel Hill, however, rests under the castle and cathedral. Legend has it that a fire breathing dragon once terrorized the people of Krakow until one day, a group of boys covered a bag of sulfur in animal furs and laid it outside the dragons cave for the dragon to eat. The legend differs in that some say the dragon died simply from the sulfur overdose while others say that the dragon became so thirsty from the sulfur that he drank so much water from the Vistula River that he exploded. Either way, the dragon no longer terrorizes the people of Krakow and tourists are able to walk through the damp crevices of his cave and exit to see a large bronze dragon, which breathes fire every few minutes. Check out the pictures below!

My last day in Krakow began with a tour of Collegium Maius, a college founded in the 14th century. Inside we were able to see 16th century astronomical instruments, which were used by Nicholas Copernicus when he was a student at the College, as well as the world’s tiniest globe dating to 1510, on which the American continent is placed about where we place Antarctica now on the map! Following my tour I went back to Old Town Square just in time for the sun to shine for the first time since my morning at Auschwitz. I used this opportunity to climb to the top of St. Mary’s Basilica also known as the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady. From the highest of the two towers, a trumpeter plays a tune every hour on the hour to remember the trumpeter who, when the Tatars were invading Krakow, sounded the alarm to protect the city but was killed mid note by a Tatar arrow. I remember reading the book “The Trumpeter of Krakow” in 7th grade at Shattuck – but only recalled this when I reached the top of the tower and had my picture taken with one of the trumpeters hired to play this famous tune. The views from the tower were incredible and I’ve attached pictures below. I also had a chance to go inside the Basilica and look up to the heavenly painted ceilings and golden altarpiece. As I sat near the altar and looked at the pews where the Ukrainian and Russian Presidents had been sitting during the funeral, I felt quite accomplished for having gotten myself here to enjoy this marvelous city.

Enjoy the pictures!

Dear Friends and Family, Happy Summer! I have now completed my last classes of the school year and am happily on summer holiday! It has been a very hectic and crazy month since I have last posted and I want to share with you a few fun moments from Ukraine! The first experience was my birthday weekend spent in the ancient Ukrainian city of L’viv. L’viv is the third largest city in Ukraine on the western side about 2 hours travel time from the Polish boarder. I traveled there for my birthday and was met by a number of other Peace Corps Volunteers to enjoy the city and celebrate turning 24! (The train to L’viv from my oblast center, Kherson, was 20 hours long! Can you imagine being on a train for 20 hours! I had to do it there and back! Too long!) L’viv dates back to 1256 and has been under Ukrainian, Polish, German and Soviet control throughout its history. It is an incredible display of Eastern European architecture with many larger concrete buildings but with a Ukrainian flare of bright pastel colors and lots of architectural decorations. I loved walking around and talking pictures of the colorful fronts on the buildings! We also climbed to the top of the city’s governmental headquarters in the center square and had a view of the whole city from above. The building had a similar architectural look of a building in Florence and the whole city had a very Western European feel. I am attaching a picture looking down at the city. You will notice in the pictures below that I’m wearing bunny ears - my friends Kari, the volunteer living in L’viv, and Meaghan, the other NU ‘09 alum here, gave these to me. I was given the present as I stepped off my train and told I had to wear them all day – I didn’t argue but put them on and sported them proudly as we walked around the city – yes I am a proud representative of the United States of America! On May 2nd, my birthday, a few PCVS and I went to an outdoor restaurant with very cute little wooden fenced in private tables and I got to try a new Ukrainian dish I had not had yet, Deruny or potato pancakes. They taste like a bready hash brown and are eaten with sour cream. It was a wonderful birthday celebration weekend! The following weekend on May 9th Ukraine celebrated “Victory Day.” WWII was a very devastating period in the history of Ukraine. One of my friends has told me that every single family in Velyka Lepetykha lost a family member in WWII and most lost many more as fighting did occur here in VL. From the Soviet Union over 20 million individuals were lost in WWII. For this reason Victory Day, the day the Germans signed a peace treaty with the allies, is a large holiday in Ukraine on which every town and city hosts a parade, presentation and concert to honor and remember those who fought in the war. My school prepared for this day for over 2 weeks, rehearsing after school for the concert and performance to be presented in front of the whole town on Victory Day. The day began at 8am when we had to be at school to line up for the parade. The students had to dress according to their costumes for the presentations – this meant that a lot of the boys were dressed as WWII soldiers (I have attached a picture as well as one with some of my 5th grade girls!) We walked behind a large number of Soviet Union flags and past WWII Veterans to the WWII monument. By the monument there was a stage set and those survivors of WWII were presented with flowers and speeches were made to remember those no longer with us. My students performed dances and WWII reenactments complete with fires and explosions, very interesting to watch. Following all the presentations, the day was spent among family and friends picnicking by the Dnipro River eating barbeque and enjoying the beautiful sunny day! I spent my afternoon with some of my new Ukrainian friends eating and drinking by the river too. I was very glad that I got to experience such a united town event! The day was completed with a concert and fireworks. Though one interesting fact is that Ukrainians don’t really understand firework safety – so the fireworks were shot off directly overhead meaning that the ash from the explosion fell right on top of us – it was hard to watch, as we had to shade our eyes from the falling debris. Oh Ukraine. Another fun trip I took this month was my first trip to The Republic of Crimea. Originally I had a Peace Corps meeting planned for May 15th but after purchasing my bus ticket to Simferopol, the oblast capital of Crimea, the meeting was canceled. So it became a nice tourism weekend instead. I headed down on Thursday the 13th and was able to stay with Adrianne, another Peace Corps Volunteer, in her apartment. Adrianne is a very fun PCV from Los Angeles who surprisingly decided to attend Grinnell College in Iowa (why she’d choose to do this I cannot understand). This allowed us to bond over Midwest culture – she greatly enjoyed my Minnesotan accent! Since Adrianne had school on Friday, I decided to take a day trip to Bakhchisaray, a town about 30 minutes outside Simferopol. This town is known for its Turkish Palace called the Khan’s Palace built in the 15th century and a network of cave cities in the rocky hills where the Tatars, a Turkish ethnic group, lived while escaping death by the Cossacks, a Ukrainian Militant group. At the bus station I met a Polish guy named Pierre who is living in France, working in Belgium and who’s life goal is to see all the European countries. I made him my tourism buddy of the day – he had a guidebook! Pierre and I went to the Khan’s Palace where I felt like I had been swept back into Southern Spain with the Arab influence and colorful open palace rooms and many many fountains. We did a tour of the palace and museum seeing Turkish clothing items from the 15th century including very cool looking platforms shoes. While we were in the palace the afternoon call to prayer was sung from one of the minarets and we watched the men take off their shoes and head into the mosque inside the palace walls. Outside the palace we ate baklava, which was very different from baklava I’ve had before but was more fried dough strips coated in sweet syrup. Pierre and I then took the bus to a monastery carved out of the mountainside; unfortunately it was closed so we began the hike up to the cave city. I had not brought tennis shoes to Crimea so Pierre laughed as I did the hike in flip-flops – I was not going to miss out! The cave city includes caves of all sizes and a few two story cave homes with stairs even. It was quite interesting and hard to describe. I felt like I was back in Pompeii, Pierre agreed, but in all honesty the life seemed like it would have been quite comfortable as the Tatars would be left alone and not bothered by Cossack threat simply as they wouldn’t have been able to find them! While walking around we ran into a film crew and were told it was an American film named “The Fighters of Freedom” – a few actors were dressed as Taliban and we got to watch a little filming. The only one on the set who spoke English was the director – though she sounded Canadian. Keep an eye out for the film! The next day Adrianne joined my day trip along with a Fullbright Fellow, Elizabeth, who is studying Tatar education in Crimea and we went to Yevpatoria, a city on the west coast of Crimea. The goal was to lie out on the beach but the overcast ruined those plans. In the end we spent the day walking around the “old city” with its Turkish influence of crooked streets and a very beautiful Mosque from the 1500s. We did stop to put our feet into the Black Sea! I’ve attached some pictures from the city below. On Sunday I walked around Simferopol with Kevin, a PCV who had originally been my neighbor in the Khersonskaya oblast but had unfortunately needed to move sites and is now in Crimea. Kevin came down to join me and we walked around the river along with a Ukrainian friend of his. The best part of the day was getting to see my Russian Language teacher from Training, Yevginia who is from Simferopol. She took us to the Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful! Yevginia is doing well and is considering accepting PC’s offer to teach Russian again to the incoming group of TEFL volunteers this next fall when there will be 170 volunteers arriving! I headed back to site on Monday very happy with my first adventure into Crimea – unfortunately, I did not have time to go to Yalta so I will have to return at some point in the next 1.5 years to check it out – then you can look forward to the pictures of the castle from the famous Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Yalta Conference! Cross-Cultural Experience: Ok, now is time to tell you about my most recent cross-cultural experience! In Ukraine the first thing a PCV notices is the difference in dress styles from that of Americans. The boots story from a few posts back is just one such example. But in Ukraine anything goes – stripes match polka dots, an entire black outfit with brown shoes is ok, pink red blue and black are a great combo, especially all at once, and if your knee high stockings hang out from under your skit that is totally allowed and kinda in fashion right now! It has been an interesting experience to watch the teachers file into the teacher’s room – I never know what combo of animal prints with flowers and bright blue shoes will come in next. My preference for Gap classic look is clearly not the norm! So for Meaghan, the NU alum’s, birthday this last weekend another PCV and myself decided to get her a few items that are very Ukrainian to add to her wardrobe. The first was a mesh shirt – mesh is HUGE here! But unlike in America where if we do wear mesh, (which is seldom) we wear mesh over things. In Ukraine you only need to be wearing your bra. Most of my students have come to school in push up bras and a see through mesh top – that is totally allowed! I stand in shock, but cant say anything as a few of the teachers have also worn this outfit! So we got her a bright blue mesh top. Next, lace stockings – these are huge with flip-flops, sandals, tennis shoes, anything! Think ankle length with shorts or a skirt. Lastly, a big white bow with lots of excess curly cues. Every girl in grades 1st-11th owns one of these bows if not two for pigtails and they are worn on special occasions – even the 11th form graduation if you can believe it! The bigger the bow the better – if the kid behind you cannot see the black board then your bow is just big enough! I got Meaghan one and made her wear it the entire day we were in Kiev and out to eat for her birthday (think of it as payback for the bunny ears!) Please check out the amazing picture below of Meaghan pulling off her very Ukrainian outfit (note: a compromise was made that Meaghan got to wear a tank top under the mesh shirt). The last experience to share this post was the recent graduation ceremony I attended on Friday at school known as “Last Bell.” At this ceremony the 11th grade girls wore the traditional Ukrainian school uniform, a navy blue dress and white apron with their huge white bows. It all reminded me of my Paraguayan uniform! The boys wore suits or dress slacks and white shirt. All the students and parents stood on one side of the field and the 11th form walked in to stand on the other side. The ceremony was simple with a few speeches and gifts presented to the school director, but the great part of “Last Bell” was when two 11th form boys lifted up and carried two 1st form girls on their shoulders as the little girls ring bells to signify the last bell of the school year. The 11th formers then did a choreographed dance, which ended in throwing pigeons into the air (this failed as most them dive bombed the crowd!). All students on this day bring flowers that they present to their teachers; I walked home with over 20 peonies, 4 roses, a batch of lilies and a few carnations – clearly the favorite teacher!! Lyuda and I are living in a garden right now of flower smells at home – it is wonderful! Tomorrow night is a concert in honor of the 11th formers, which I am excited to attend. The ceremony was very nice and brought me some nostalgia for my own Shattuck graduation – too bad we didn’t get to throw pigeons!! Ok that is it for updates on May. This summer will be a busy one as I head to Russia in a week (June 9th-19th) and then I will be going to L’viv once more at the end of June and off to Budapest in July! All of which I will be sure to update you on when I have a chance this summer! One side note I would like to make is that I would like to greatly thank all of you who went to the ABCamp website and were able to contribute to our upcoming summer camp. I have recently been informed that we have completed our fundraising needs for this year’s camp and I am so thankful for your help! If you did not have a chance to give to ABCamp, but wanted to, there will also be a fundraiser for Camp MASCOT, which I am doing in August. I will be sure to provide a link to this website when one is available. I hope that you all had a wonderfully warm and enjoyable spring and are looking forward to a great summer – I know I am!! Thank you again for all of your support! Best, Меган Филипивна Траут (Megan Daughter of Phillip Trout) Pictures Include: Meaghan, Kari and myself, wearing my new bunny ears, at the L’viv train station * PCVs in L’viv to celebrate my birthday * L’viv governmental building in the center square * 2 pictures: center square beautiful facades * street beers in the center of L’viv * a view of L’viv from above * L’viv Opera House * walking around L’viv * Birthday Dinner * Birthday cake from Lyuda “Happy Birthday Megan” * With my 5th graders on Victory Day * 11th form boys dressed as WWII soldiers * 11th form girls with WWI Veterans in line for the parade * VL mayor addressing the audience * WWII veterans with flowers from the students * WWII monument * 5th grade performance * Khan’s Palace in Bahkchisaray * Summer room in Khan’s palace * Gardens of Khan’s Palace * Monastery carved into the mountain side * One of the sets of caves in the cave city * other side of the mountain * Elizabeth and Adrianne in front of one of the sites of Yevpatoria * Cathedral in Yevpatoria * Adrianne and I in the rented robes to enter the mosque * inside the mosque – very Spain Cordoba Mosque feel! * Adrianne and me in the Black Sea * Kevin and Olya in Simferopol * at the botanical gardens with Yevginia * fixing Meaghan’s new Ukrainian white bow! * Meaghan’s Ukrainian outfit complete with bow, mesh top and lace socks * out for a steak dinner in Kiev (steak dinner with salad and 3 beers- $10 each!) * Graduation with English teacher Lyuda (left) and counterpart Tonia * my favorite 9th grade students Natasha and Ira * 11th form students walk under Ukrainian decorated towels * 11th form lined up with “class moms” my counterpart Tonia and another * 1st formers present 11th form with flowers and a pin * 11th formers throw pigeons into the air * 11th form boy carries 1st form girl ringing the last bell * with the director, Tamara and all the flowers we got! * my flowers

Dear Friends and Family,

The summer is almost upon us and classes will be done in the next short week! With this I have begun to work on my summer projects, one of which is ABCamp. I took a moment a few posts ago to begin to tell you about this exciting camp that I have the honor of working in July/August, but I would like to take a moment to share with you some more information about this camp. The goal of which is to show you how important this camp will be for the youth of Ukraine and to once more request your financial support. One of my fellow staff members and Peace Corps Volunteers has written an excellent letter describing how invaluable this camp will be for the youth attending and what exactly it hopes to accomplish. Please take a moment to read her letter and then continue on to the link below to donate to ABCamp. Every little bit helps and I greatly appreciate your support.

Sincerely, Megan

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=343-171

Samantha, PCV and ABCamp Staff Member:

"Lately, I've been hearing people say, Ukraine will happen. They mean that the government will straighten up. (The latest elections have proven to be a good start; the egg throwing in parliament a step backwards.) They mean that the economy will turn around. That fewer people will struggle to get fed. But if Ukraine is going to happen, a new generation of thinking is required. This thinking is being cultivated at ABCamp.

Now in it's second year, ABCamp has grown out of a group of weekend leadership camps started a half dozen years ago by two Peace Corps Volunteers who recognized the need for such education. Started two years ago by a pair of young Ukrainian women, this two-week long camp keeps a concentrated focus on civic leadership and project planning.

Very quickly after meeting with camp direct and co-founder, Anya Bespalaya, I saw the potential for big change. Part inexhaustible energy and part steadfast commitment, Anya is an inspiration. Her positivity about Ukraine's future is infections and the belief is spreading. After only one short weekend training, I saw Ukraine's future in an entirely different light. An alumna of these leadership weekends and camps, Anya put her project planning skills to good use and paired with co-founder and best friend Alia to start ABC.

At ABCamp, teams of students are taught an array of different classes: from project planning to music, sharing cultures to debate. During their two weeks at came, they are set with the task of organizing projects around Kharkov, the camp's headquarters. Their efforts are visible. They clean the city's parks, connect with its citizens, all while working together to overcome the challenges of planning a project. The support network that has been created out of these camps is something to marvel at. After camp, students who express a serious interest in planning a project in their home communities and outfitted with a teacher-mentor to help them through the process. In short, this is a camp that is producing real, sustainable results.

And what of the camp staff? Students vie for a spot on the staff once they're old enough. Did I mention that it's all taught in English? Ukrainian counselors, Peace Corps volunteers and student campers all promise to abide by the 'No Russian or Ukrainian' rule. Seeing the counselors together is an unexplainable pleasure. At staff training, they jump between conversations in English and Russian and Ukrainian with uncharacteristic ease. The desire and dedication of each has already revealed itself ten-fold in the few short weeks that we've known each other.

Now, it's simply funding that we need. Which should, after all, be the easiest part.

I agree with the things I hear, Ukraine will happen. But creating allies requires advocates. And this means investing in the future that we want. I'm working for ABCamp because I can see the changes it’s creating here in Ukraine. It is an open, safe space. It is the platform for change that so many of us volunteers are searching for (desperately, sometimes) during our service. It comes back to the thing about the fisherman and the fish. There are a lot here who are hungry but few who are willing to take up the work of learning what it takes to catch their own meal. ABCamp is a special place where everyone is grabbing for the fishing rod."

Samantha also profiled our Ukrainian director, Anya. Please check it out: http://atyourperilmisspeace.wordpress.com/.

Ukrainian and American Staff Members of ABCamp 2010

Dear Family and Friends, Happy Spring and belated Happy Easter! I hope that you all have been having a wonderfully warm and relaxing spring and for those of you who celebrated, an enjoyable Easter Holiday! As I stated in my last post – the spring is finally here and the weather is now warm, sunny and very enjoyable in Velyka Lepetykha! Since my last post at the end of February, I have been extremely busy though primarily with traveling – as many of you know to be my favorite past time! So I want to take a few moments to update you all on what has been going on here in the months of March and April! The first week of March for me was a very exciting one as I received an invitation to travel to Kiev for a weeklong PEPFAR training. PEPFAR is “The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief” and is a program begun by President George W. Bush, though apparently originating from an idea of Laura Bush, which funds AIDs relief around the world. Ukraine is the heaviest hit country in Europe of HIV infected individuals and so Peace Corps Ukraine is very active in supporting projects that help to increase awareness of the disease and measures of prevention against contracting HIV. These trainings are a wonderful opportunity because along with attending myself, I was able to bring a Ukrainian counterpart who will be my partner in any future projects I implement under the HIV/AIDS awareness category. I brought one of the teachers from my school who teaches biology and health and has previous experience working with HIV/AIDS infected children. The conference lasted four days and was an intense combination of biology lessons, learning about ways of infection as well as preventive measures, the stereotypes that exist in Ukraine facing those who are infected, and means of teaching awareness to our students. For us PC Volunteers, there were also language lessons every morning to teach us how to say all of this either in Russian or Ukrainian – this was tough! At the end of the week we worked with our counterparts to begin brainstorming potential projects we wish to implement into our community to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS. Tanya and I hope to do a training next fall quarter and then a project with the school for World AIDS Day in December. I’ll be sure to keep you all informed of the progress of the project as it spans out! Following this training I traveled with my clustermate, Whitney, to Dnipropetrovsk, a city about 8 hours southeast by train from Kiev along the Dnipro River. Matt, another of my clustermates, lives just 1.5 hours outside of Dnipropetrovsk. Kelsey took the train over from her site and we had a little cluster reunion (Rudy could not come up from Crimea so we were one short). Dnipropetrovsk is a very industrial city and was once the head of nuclear engineering for the Soviet Union according to Matt. This fact meant that the city was closed to any outsiders for the majority of the Soviet Union’s life span, so for foreigners to be walking around today is quite an experience for the locals. Matt walked us along Karl Marx Boulevard where we shopped for souvenirs and had lunch at an Italian/American/Mexican/Japanese restaurant – the place honestly had 3 different menus! One of my favorite experiences from the weekend was visiting a church in Dnipropetrovsk in which we found a Red Cross food drive taking place in the center of the church. It was so impressive to see the amount of food being donated to help those in need while standing under the gorgeous paintings of the church! I’ve attached a picture of the inside. As for the rest of the weekend spent together – the primary means of entertainment was eating. Kelsey had brought some Trader Joe spices and mixes her mom sent from the states and we created some fun dishes – one night we had Mexican Fried Rice with beans in tortillas, another night we did chicken and rice with taco seasoning which was deliciously hotter than any Ukrainian food around! Kelsey’s mom also had sent a Buttermilk Pancake mix so we made delicious pancakes for breakfast one morning! It was a delightful, relaxing weekend. On Monday, March 8th we headed back to our sites. March 8th is Women’s Day, which I believe is an International Holiday but one that is celebrated with extreme adherence here in Ukraine. All work and school is cancelled and on this day you give flowers, candies or little gifts to the important women in your life. My host parents got me some carnations and I presented my host mom with a nice red flowered potted plant, which is now sitting, in my windowsill, haha (it was still the same window until April 15th but I now have a new plastic, nail repellent window!) Women’s Day in Ukraine often includes a community concert celebrating Ukrainian culture and traditions and Velyka Lepetykha stuck with this tradition by hosting what ended up to be a 4 hour long concert on the Thursday following the holiday with singers, dancers, performers and even a circus act group! It was quite an experience as the groups included older and younger singers, WWII themed dances as well as modern dance, and the circus act threw me off as I did not expect the girl who was standing on nails while someone else went across the room on a unicycle! However, the music school teachers greatly appreciated that I not only attended, but was one of the few who made it through the entire 4 hours without leaving at some point! This post’s cultural experience to share with you was, like the last one, humorous, unexpected and extremely Ukrainian. The week following the 4 hour concert I went for my weekly Bandura lesson on Tuesday afternoon and was confronted by the music teacher, Yuri with the fact that on Thursday there would be a concert at the VL school to celebrate “Ukrainian Romance in Literature” – I still don’t know why this theme. As I smiled and said I would love to attend he informed me that I wasn’t going to attend, but I was going to play in the concert. My heart started pounding as he had me show him the songs I knew – he didn’t like any of the songs I knew well but chose the song I had learned that day to play by heart in front of the entire school on Thursday. I freaked out, but agreed and went and practiced like a mad woman. On Wednesday I got fitted into my Ukrainian traditional dress (blouse with red sequins, high wasted black dress skirt and colored striped belt which ties around at the point where the blouse is tucked in) and practiced around the other lessons of my Bandura teacher. On Thursday at 2pm I had to be dressed and ready in the auditorium – as I ran through the school in my Ukrainian dress, my students cheered me on and oohed and ahhed my costume! I was terrified and was one of only 4 performers for the concert. As I was introduced to the school I sat down with the bandura and managed to crank out my song – I skipped an entire section and didn’t play one of the notes with the left hand any time it came around because I always got the string wrong, but I survived!! The teacher who organized the concert exclaimed to the audience that I had only been learning for 2 months, she failed to mention that I learned the song 2 days before! – I got a huge round of applause and carnations from the director of the school afterwards - it was awesome! Check out the picture below of me playing! Don’t tell me you’re not impressed! The following week was spring break. I have never appreciated how enjoyable and needed school holidays must be for teachers like they are for students until this moment when I found myself counting down until break more than I think I ever did as a student! Spring break was wonderful as I had 10 days off from school and was able to travel a bit. First I left my site and traveled to Mykolayiv, this is an oblast center just north west of my oblast. I have mentioned one of my summer camps I will be working in July, the other summer camp I will be doing in August will be located in Mykolayiv so I went to Mykolayiv for a Staff Meeting and to get to know the rest of the team before we work together this summer. Mykolayiv has the largest Zoo in all of Ukraine. I did not have a chance to go in and visit but the staff plans to check out the Zoo this summer before the camp begins. A strange side note is that Mykolayiv is also the Ukrainian capital of marrying Ukrainian women to Western men (West European and American men) so if anyone is looking for a Ukrainian bride, this would be a good city to visit! Following the training I traveled with a few other Peace Corps Volunteers to Odessa (Whitney from my cluster as well as Tiago and Graciela), a port city one oblast farther west from Mykolayiv. Odessa is a beautiful city known for its impressive architecture and facades. I spent most of my time in the city looking up at the building tops and taking pictures of all the building fronts, I am attaching a few pictures from Odessa including one of the Opera House which was one block from the apartment we rented to stay in for the two nights we were in Odessa. Aside from the architecture, another interesting part of Odessa is the port itself. To walk from the city to the port, there are sets of steps known as the Potemkin Steps that descend to the port. These steps were made famous when a silent Russian movie was filmed here in 1925 known as “The Battleship Potemkin” about a battle that occurred on these steps in 1905. Tiago had taken a film class, which had discussed this movie, and so he was quite in awe to be there and described the film for us, I plan to check it out when I have a chance. The view to the Port was beautiful so please check out the picture of that as well! On the last day in Odessa, Tiago and I went to the beach and I was able to put my feet into the Black Sea for the first time – it was cold, but nothing a Minnesotan can’t handle!! My Spring Break travels ended in Kyiv where I went to apply for my visa to Russia. (I was successful in picking up the passport and new visa last weekend!) One of the days I went to the top of St. Sophia’s Bell Tower, which overlooks the city. It was a beautiful view and I was able to see all sides of the city. I have attached a picture from one of the windows looking down St. Sophia’s street towards the center of the city known as Independence Square, you can see in the background the President’s Offices as well. I also attached a picture from the ground of the tower I climbed for these views, it wasn’t very high but being on top a hill the view was breathtaking! While in Kyiv my good friend Andy’s parents visited from Pensacola, Florida and they generously hosted me in their hotel, the Pharaoh a Floatel on the Dnipro River! I paid back the generosity by acting as their personal tour guide of the city on Monday before my train back to site and their train to Lviv – it was fun to lead them around the city, guide book in hand, and good practice for when my family comes next summer! The last event I want to tell you about was my Easter weekend here in Ukraine. Ukraine is primarily Russian Orthodox and Easter is a very important holiday as it is for many in the states. However, Ukrainians celebrate the holiday very differently. To begin, Ukrainians go to church on Saturday night before Easter Sunday at 11pm and stay until 5am. At midnight, the entire congregation walks around the outside of the church singing and ringing bells as it is the hour of Christ’s resurrection. It was a very beautiful church service, though I was very tired afterwards! (and I only made it to 2am) People then go to one another’s houses at 5am and greet each other with “Christ has risen.” The traditional food of Easter here is a sweet bread which is very tall and decorated often with sprinkles, similar to a bread I had while in Spain on Easter. I also helped my host mom decorate hard-boiled eggs but here she used decals which when boiled shrink to attach to the egg – it was pretty nifty! I’ve attached a picture of the breads and eggs arranged decoratively on a plate. It was a very nice weekend and we didn’t have school on the Monday following Easter so I was able to relax quite a bit. Today(April 17th) is Lyuda, my host mother’s 61st birthday and we have been eating all day! I baked a chocolate cake, which has gone over very well with her guests coming to eat at the house. I have attached a picture of my host mother with the cake as well as her sitting with her sister, Larissa and her sister in law, Valye. It has been a nice day so far! My host father Tolia has traveled to Russia to help their son build a summer home and so I have been told he will be gone for the next 5 months! So there will be plenty of time for me to get to know my host mom! I have attached a picture of my host dad planting potatoes in the garden, unfortunately the only photo I have of him so far! I’ll fix that when he returns in the fall. Ok I believe this is enough updating for now! All in all life is going well for me here and I am excited as in May I will be traveling to Lviv for my birthday and potentially to Crimea for a Working Group meeting so I will be able to talk about those places in the next post! For now – I hope you all have a wonderful rest of April! Love, Megan

Pictures Include: My PEPFAR Counterpart Tanya and myself with our potential HIV/AIDs project, the Khersonskaya Oblast Volunteers at PEPFAR, my PEPFAR Russian Language group and our instructor, all the PCVs and Counterparts who attended the PEPFAR Conference, Tanya and myself with our certificates of completion, two pictures inside the church in Dnipropetrovsk where you can see the table of food and the Red Cross sign for the food drive, Kelsey and Whitney outside the American/Mexican/Italian/Japanese restaurant, Kelsey and Matt with our pancakes and mix, the Music School’s Orchestra during the 4 hour concert, with Yuri in my Ukrainian dress and bandura before the concert, playing bandura on the stage at school in the concert, after the concert with the director and other coworkers, group shot of the staff of this summer’s Mykolayiv camp, Jessica, Graciela, Whitney and Tiago in front of the Odessa Opera House, two pictures of beautiful facades in Odessa, Whitney and me in front of the Catherine the Great of Russia statue pointing to the Odessa port (she wrote the order to build the port), Whitney and me on the Potemkin Steps, with Whitney and Graciela on the Opera House lawn, on Gogol street (a famous Russian writer who lived on this street from 1850-1851), Odessa Opera House lit up at night, with my feet in the Black Sea, Kelsey pointing out the ballet “Cinderella” in Ukrainian which we saw that evening, view of St. Michaels followed by view of Maidan Square from the top of the St. Sophia’s tower, view of the St. Sophia tower from the monastery grounds, Andy’s parents hotel the Floatel!, Andy and I in the St. Sophia Tower, Making Easter eggs with my host mom, Lyuda and then the plate with the Easter bread and decorated eggs, inside the VL church and outside at midnight as the priest blessed the church following Christ’s resurrection, pictures with my 5th graders when we went to the VL museum, my new window!, Lyuda with my amazing chocolate cake and then eating lunch with her sister and sister in law, lastly Tolia (on the right) and a friend planting potatoes in our garden followed by Lyuda preparing the potato spuds to be planted.

Dear Family and Friends,             The sun came out this week for the first time in two months! Spring is in the air and I think I might be able to say now that I have made it through my first winter in Ukraine  without losing all sanity! Despite the “waterproof” snow boots no longer keeping the water out and the jagged ice covering my entire path to school, I have made it through with only a handful of falls onto my butt (Yak Trax saved my life!) I cannot express how relieved I am to finally see the sun and know that summer holidays are only a few months away!             Since my last post regarding the holidays and a general update on how my first month at site passed by, I have experienced a few Ukrainian cultural moments as well as been able to travel a little bit and so I would like to share these experiences with you.             My first cultural differences experience occurred over a few separate occasions over the last two months. I do not quite understand why this is still true today, but in Ukraine, especially in the minds of the older generations, there is a terrible fear of “the draft.” Now when I say draft I do not mean to an army, I mean a draft in the terms of a cool breeze coming in through the window. Back during the Soviet years, mainly the Stalin years of starvation, Ukrainians were so afraid of becoming sick as they were so malnourished that the cold was seen as a silent killer and anyone who was chilled was destined to die. It is not uncommon to hear a “babushka” say that you should bundle up because if you get cold you will die. Now that extreme of a consequence would make most Americans laugh I believe but here it is accepted and strongly followed as truth. My host mom deals with this fear by heating the house to about 90 degrees. This extreme has made sleeping quite uncomfortable and difficult. A few days after arriving to site I was able to open my window and I began to open it in the evenings to cool down my room. My host mom’s fear that I would get cold in the night brought her to nail shut my window when I went to Nova Kahovka for New Years. Rather than causing a fight, I pulled out my trusty Swiss Army knife and unnailed shut my window as the house was still 90 degrees. This led her to renail shut my window which I unnailed shut again and a fight ensued over her fearing I’ll be cold and me telling her a sauna is not the answer. The fight was intense but we are now ok as Peace Corps is going to buy me a new window which will be plastic (the current one is an old drafty wooden one) and will keep out the draft when closed but more importantly cannot be nailed shut – safety hazard to the max! My host mom though has informed me that we cannot change the window until it gets warm out as she does not want the cold to get in during those hours of construction. Oh the Ukrainian draft fear!             My second Ukrainian cultural differences experience was quite a comical one. As I mentioned above, my “waterproof” snow boots held out about as much water as a pair of nylons and with the snow beginning to melt these last few weeks, my feet were always painfully soaked through. I began bringing a change of shoes to school, as I’d arrive with dripping socks and boots and have to be at school all day. When my school director learned of my boots situation she freaked out (if you take the above story’s extreme reaction to a cold fresh air, then you can imagine how terrified the director was that I would die from my wet feet dilemma! They also worry that I am weak and will die so I am often asked to eat extra and taken care of like a child to ensure “their American” survives). The director said she would take me to the bazaar to help me buy a new pair of boots. I was very grateful and walked with her to the bazaar. This day had been especially cold so the water on the street had frozen and made the walk to the bazaar slick with ice. Now when Ukrainians think of snow boots – they think of stiletto heeled leather boots with fur lining – about as impractical as you can possibly imagine. As we walked to the bazaar I had to hold the arm of my director to help her over the ice as I was still wearing my snow boots and yak trax and she was wearing her “snow boots” – a pair of 3 inch heeled leather boots with no traction. The director took me to a stand and immediately pointed out a “beautiful pair” of stiletto heels with way too many sparkles and buckles. Despite my insistence that the boots needed to be flat and practical, the heeled ones kept coming. I finally found a pair of very classy boots with an inch heel in my size that she approved of, but I really wanted a pair that I could attach on my Yak Trax. We walked around the bazaar and I pulled out all the men’s snow boots – cheap ones that looked like they were from Walmart or galoshes that were made of foamy rubber that were incredibly uncomfortable looking but waterproof!! With each pair I grabbed at in enthusiasm to their practicality my director gasped in horror that I would buy such ugly boots and put them down and pulled me back to the heeled boots stand. I did buy the 1 inch heeled boots ($31!) and later that day bought from my host mother’s stand a pair of galoshes for $3. Neither of these will be appropriate for next winter but it is a start from the wet feet of before. I then had to help my director back to the school once again as she almost fell multiple times due to the ice but continued to exclaim how much better the boots I bought would be than the snow boots I kept showing her I wanted. I just don’t get it!             On the topic of travel, I mentioned in my last post that I had plans to head to Kiev and to Crimea. The Crimea trip was canceled due to a change of scheduling so instead I made it back up to Kiev twice. Peace Corps has many “working groups” a volunteer may join to further develop projects that work on different topics for the betterment of Ukraine and its citizens. I have joined two of these groups: the Safety and Security Counsel and the Environmental Working Group. These two groups had meetings in Kiev in consecutive weekends and offered me a chance to escape to Kiev for some city time and American conversing. The first weekend was crazy with snowy weather! I have attached a few pictures below of the city including one of myself in front of the President’s governmental offices building where the camera couldn’t even focus on my face as there were too many snowflakes in the way to confuse it! I was able to spend some quality time with my friend Meaghan (the NU alum) and we roamed the city to see a few landmarks I had not yet seen. I will admit that I had McDonalds the first night I was in Kiev with some PCVs – Big Mac and fries, not at all what I’d chose to eat in the states but at that moment delicious! The best experience of all from the two weekends was on Sunday evening of the second weekend, I went to see the Ballet at the National Opera House in Kiev. The ballet was “The Marriage of Figaro” a comedic ballet in two acts. The ballet began at 7pm, ended at 9:10pm and my train was at 9:44pm about 2 Metro stops away. I did leave 5 minutes early and made it to my train 20 minutes early so no worries. The ballet experience was spectacular. I sat in a box (I believe my first time ever sitting in a box seat). The ballet was fantastic with the male playing the older housekeeper role complete with numbers on pointe – hilarious and easily my favorite character. And the ticket was only $4! I am planning on making the opera house a frequent stop on my trips to the city as there is a different performance nightly be it ballet, opera or other talents.             As for life at site things are moving along smoothly. My 9th grade English club has been proceeding along well and I have been asked to begin a 7th grade English club on Thursdays. I had my first “communication lesson” with the English teachers this last week where we conversed in English only for an hour to get them to practice free speech rather than the daily habit of read and translate. And lastly I have been teaching four men on Tuesday evenings English as an adult English club following my bandura lessons (two of the men are music teachers so I don’t have to change venues!) These English classes/clubs on top of my regular classes plus the new responsibilities of my two working groups have increased my daily activity (I am the new co-vice president of the Safety and Security Counsel which I am quite excited about!). All this has been a nice change of pace from the excess free time I had in January. I am though about to complete War and Peace which I must say was my greatest accomplishment of January/February!! Bandura lessons have been difficult as I learned the left hand/bass clef two weeks ago and have been working to put the two hands together without looking at my left hand constantly. My fingers are blistering from plucking the thick strings – if I was coming from a bass or cello background it would be a lot easier than the violin background of small strings! However I have been loving the experience and I was able to get my Bandura teacher to take my picture at the last lesson. Please check it out below!             I have one last thing I would like to comment on before I close this blog post. This coming summer I have been so fortunate to be offered one of the spots as a camp counselor at ABCamp. This camp has been designed to increase civic service among Ukrainian youth by empowering and inspiring them to become active leaders in their community. The camp will take place outside Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine  and will be led by a mixture of Ukrainian and American volunteers. The camp is currently fundraising the money that will be needed to provide the facilities and general needs of the camp in order to keep costs down for campers wishing to attend. I would like to ask you all to please take a moment to check out the donation page (below) on the Peace Corps website and consider if you may spare some money for the cause. I have appreciated all of your words of support and encouragement and would love your support with my upcoming participation in ABCamp. https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=343-171

              I hope the spring brings warm weather to you all and lots of sunshine!!                                                  Love, Megan

P.S. Should you be interested in learning more about what is going on in Ukraine. The best place to read about Ukrainian news is on the Kyiv Post website - a paper written for Ex pats living in Ukraine. It has all the coverage of the latest Presidential Election which just came to a close this last week with the Russian supported Yanukovych taking the win. 

http://www.kyivpost.com/

Pictures Include: My house covered in snow, the 7ft snowman built at school, in the music school practicing my bandura!, two types of seats on the train to Kiev (the first being a side seat which I had my second trip up and the second is a lower middle seat which I had this trip), the Golden Gate of Kiev which is the ancient entrance into the city, ice skating on Maidan, House of the Chimeras, the Presidential building sign, The Marriage of Figaro and following pictures are of the Opera House both on the outside and then on the inside. 

Dear Friends and Family,

            Happy New Year and Happy Old New Year!! Since my last post following Christmas in 2009 I have experienced a few Ukrainian holidays and been able to take a few small trips that I would like to update you all on in this blog post!             As I wrote about in my last post, Christmas here in the Eastern Orthodox religion is celebrated on January 7th and is actually not as large a holiday as New Year’s Eve/Day. So my first Ukrainian holiday came on New Year’s Eve. That week in school the teachers had a special little New Year’s party that began with gathering in a room with a New Year Tree (decorated like a traditional Christmas tree in America but called a New Year Tree), we held hands in a circle and sang a traditional Ukrainian song while Yuri (the Music School teacher) played along on his accordion. It was a really neat experience to walk around in the circle as the teachers all sang along though the general Ukrainian words of the song flew over my head. Following this song Santa Claus (the gym teacher) presented all the teachers with bags of candy for a New Year’s treat. It was a huge bag of chocolates. Ukraine does not have Santa Claus but Father Frost and Snowgirl (his granddaughter often a blonde girl who helps Father Frost) but the teachers had gone with a Santa Claus costume instead. It is tradition to receive presents on New Year’s Day much like we receive presents on Christmas Day. That day, following school, I had plans to head to Nova Kakhovka – the neighboring site where my friend Alia Scheirman is a volunteer (and a native Minnesotan!).  As I was going to miss New Year’s day in Velyka Lepetykha, I swapped gifts with my host family that night. I received a new pair of socks with a large tiger on them (this is the year of the tiger and it is therefore good luck to have tiger items). I gave Tolia and Lyuda both shot glasses from Minnesota. They liked them and are now proudly displayed in the kitchen. Following the swap I walked to the bus station on the outskirts of my town and took the 2-hour bus to Nova Kakhovka where Alia, Lucas (a Michigan native volunteer living in Berislav only 20 minutes from Nova Kakhovka) and Lucas’ counterpart, Natasha picked me up to head to Alia’s apartment. We dined on chili Minnesota style and Ukrainian salads while we watched Ukrainian New Year’s celebrations on the television. At midnight we ran outside of the apartment to light our sparklers though this one 12 year old kid made our sparklers look like baby’s toys as he shot off bottle rockets and roman candles from his hand in the middle of the apartment quad. The obsession over one’s personal safety is just not the same here as it is in the US! I spent the whole weekend in Nova Kakhovka, a city of over 50,000 and was able to shop at the Walmart like “Oscars,” eat at a pizzeria and walk through an outdoor zoo complete with turkeys, goats, and muskrats! It was a very nice weekend and a great escape from my small town!             When I returned to site it was actually the holiday vacation but Velyka Lepetykha had faculty meetings Monday-Wednesday before Christmas Day on Thursday. I only was required to attend the meetings on Monday and Tuesday for the English teachers though both meetings were entirely conducted in Ukrainian, what’s a Russian speaker to do!? Haha.  I was anxious for Wednesday as my good friend Kelsey Rote from my training cluster came down to visit me from her site in the Kirovograd Oblast (located about 8 or 9 hours by train north of Kherson) as she was also on her holiday vacation and quite bored in her small town and thought it best we spend our free time bored together! She arrived in my town in the middle of a snowstorm that turned into a rainstorm that then turned into sun the next day for us to walk around my site! I’ve added some pictures below from our tour of my town including our time down by the river. The Dnipro was not that cold despite the freezing cold weather of that week. I showed off my Minnesotan skills of surviving the cold by pretending to sunbathe near the icy water (Kelsey is from Oregon and does not take the cold weather well at all!) The best part of our time together was our trip the next day to Nova Kakhovka where Rudy (another cluster mate of mine) was visiting Alia for her holidays and so we were able to spend the weekend all together. Unfortunately the timing of Kelsey’s visit meant that I did not spend Christmas day with my host family, but I found they do not celebrate the holidays as over the top as the traditional Ukrainian. Instead the plan for Christmas had been to sit and watch TV all day and eat dinner as usual. Therefore, I do not have much to update you on as to Christmas traditions that I personally have experienced. To me it seems to be more along the lines of a Thanksgiving holiday where a family eats together and spends most of the time relaxing rather than doing such things as gift exchanges or singing holiday songs etc (these are saved for New Year and Old New Year). However I have heard that many Ukrainians celebrate both Christmas as well as New Year’s very over the top with food, drinks and a massively large amount of family members gathering together under one roof. The one holiday that I did get to experience which I thought was very interesting is the celebration of the Old New Year. Before the Gregorian calendar was adopted, Ukraine used to celebrate the New Year on January 14th. The tradition to celebrate the Old New Year is still very special for many Ukrainians. On the evening of the 13th, women and young girls go around from house to house singing to men and boys and throwing grain on one another for good luck. Then, following midnight, men and boys go around from house to house singing to the women and girls and throwing grain back at them for good luck. My experience with this tradition came on the evening of the 13th, three woman and a male (so not exactly following the rules) came to our house and sang 5 different traditional Ukrainian songs with interludes offering hopes that our family would have wealth, happiness and health in the new year. It was really nice and I recognized the carolers as members of the faculty from my school – they were fabulous singers! The following day the entire school was covered in a thick inch of grain throughout the building as kids had brought to school the grain to throw at one another. This became a bit of a discipline problem during class but was really crazy to see how everyone got into the act of decking each other with grain and screaming “good luck!” At what point in American traditions is it ok to chuck things at the teacher and have it be a good thing!             Lastly, I wanted to write a little about teaching in Velyka Lepetykha. Following the New Year vacation I began to teach full time. My first week I taught the 4th graders but this was swapped for the older crew of 9th graders so my final span of students includes two sections of 5th grade as well as two sections of 6th grade, and then one each of 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. I teach 3-5 classes a day all days of the week a total of 18 hours a week. I am working with three different English teachers including my counterpart Tonia. I am actually co-teaching which means that I do not teach all 45 minutes of the lesson but provide the communication and activities of each lesson and therefore get about 20-25 minutes a lesson. This has allowed for my introduction into a full schedule of classes to be a bit more relaxed as I do not need to stress over full lessons, however it has also been a bit of a downside as I cannot do as many activities or any longer activities due to my shortened time frame. I am hoping that once I prove myself unquestionably able to teach and handle these students then I’ll be able to teach more classes for the full 45 minutes. As a sum up of my experience thus far teaching is difficult!! The level of English of my students is surprisingly low at all levels. What makes life most difficult is the range of levels within one class as within each grade there are students who blow me away with their English vocabulary as well as students who cannot tell me their names. This disparity has made partner work and general communication quite difficult. My 5th and 6th graders are quite enthused to do just about anything I attempt in class (though quite rowdily) where as my 7th graders drag their heels through anything that I attempt to teach them. My 9th graders have been some of the most interested of my classes as I believe they are old enough that they realize me being there is an advantage for them in learning English and they pay attention with great detail. I have begun my first English Club after school with the top 10 students of my 9th  grade class. I taught an introduction lesson with a side theme of New York which went very well and I have a lesson on baseball planned for this week! I am also starting a communication hour with the four English teachers so that they may work more on their own English skills. One of Peace Corps’ favorite words is “sustainability” and so I want to help develop the communication skills of the English teachers over time so that they may arrive at a more comfortable level personally and in turn push their own students in the future. I am looking forward to viewing their progress as the teachers here are very well equipped for read and translate exercises but speaking freely does not come easily for any of them and I would like to help expand that.             On a personal note, I have begun Russian Language tutoring. I had my first meeting with a tutor this last week and spoke Russian for 2.5 hours solid! I will continue to meet with her weekly to improve my own communication skills. Another activity I have picked up for fun is music lessons – I am learning how to play the traditional Ukrainian instrument the Bandura. This 54-string instrument looks like a very large ukulele and sits on one’s lap and is plucked. I had my first lesson last week and I will continue to work on it weekly! I was very excited to pluck through the C Major scale for the first time on the bandura and my teacher Olga immediately put me through 4 short songs to practice. I plan to be more committed in my practicing than I was with the violin. And I promise to get a picture of myself with a bandura for a future post. I am also going to try to see if I can get a short video clip of myself playing the instrument for a future post too! As my town is so small, there really are very few things to do following the school day and so I am working on filling my time with other means of entertainment. The English lessons/classes and my own Russian and Bandura lessons will sure help! I also am continuing to think of future trips to take and places I want to visit while in Ukraine and Eastern Europe! I went to Kherson, the capital of my oblast, this last weekend for my H1N1 shot and spent a wonderful weekend with Americans eating baked spaghetti one night and chicken the next – it was delightful! I am planning on heading back to Kiev in February and then to Crimea the following week for a Peace Corps meeting – both trips I will be happy to comment on in the upcoming post! Traveling is my own personal high and anytime I can see a new place I am so energized that I feel these future trips will allow for the more difficult moments at site to be all worth while!             Ok, I think that is enough updating for now. I do hope that you all passed a wonderful New Year’s and that 2010 is treating you all very well! I cannot believe it but I have now been in Ukraine 4 months! Only 23 to go!                         Have a wonderful and happy February,                                    Love, Megan

P.S.I began this list the other day as I feel I have gone through so many different cravings over the last 4 months that it would be interesting to note down what a Peace Corps volunteer may crave when in a country that does not have everything a simple stones throw away!   Cravings: Dad’s French Onion Soup Mom’s Christmas Cookies/Bars/Treats, Kristin Ostebee’s Sugar Cookies A big cheeseburger! (I’ll be in Kiev in February so I will see how good McDonalds looks then) Banana bread/cake –especially SSM middle school banana cake Grilled Vegetables, fresh red and yellow peppers Chipotle Ranch Dressing Brown SugarMexican Food, Mom’s Chicken Enchiladas 

Pictures Below include: My clothes out on the line (please enjoy the NU tshirt!), the bridge in my town connecting the two halves of Velyka Lepetykha, the New Year's Tree in my school, Santa delivering presents to the teachers, a picture with my school director Tamara on the left and Tonia my counterpart on the right, the old movie theatre in my town, a statue from the WWII monument with an angel and a bandura, me sunbathing by the Dnipro, Kelsey touching the river, in Nova Kakhovka near the river, at the Zoo cafe with Rudy,Alia, and Kelsey, at the disco in Nova Kakhovka (we were practically the only ones there so each song was dedicated to the Americans!), near the New Year's Tree in Nova Kakhovka and then by a snowman while in Kherson this last weekend with Alia and Lucas. 

Dear Friends and Family, 

Happy Holidays!!! I hope that you all have had a wonderful Christmas and Hanukkah! So much has happened to me here in Ukraine since my last update so please bear with the length of this post but it has been a very exciting time for me as a newly sworn in Peace Corps Volunteer and so I want to share this experience with all of you.

As promised, I have attached a final picture from Boguslav School #1 of my sixth grade class. In my last post I was about to begin our last week in Boguslav. To sum up that experience, my last day of classes went very well. I thoroughly loved my sixth grade class – as I was telling my mom on the phone – sixth graders are delightful. They are old enough to have a decent attention span as well as discipline, but they are young enough to not be dramatic and moody. In the end I got a hug from many of the students despite it only being my second time teaching them – I am really going to miss that class! 

My Russian Language classes ended on Wednesday, December 9th with lots of review and preparations for our Language Proficiency Test on Thursday. I am happy to inform all of you that I did pass! We were to achieve an Intermediate Mid Level on the test in order to be “ready for our 2 years at site” and I achieved that level. So the 2.5 months of Russian paid off! We celebrated with a holiday party where we made Ginger Bread Cookies with Powdered sugar frosting (thanks Mom for all the frosting making practice!). We did a little Secret Santa exchange too knowing that none of us would have gifts to open on Christmas day. The requirements were a price limit and the gift had to be wrapped. I drew my language teacher’s name from the hat and so I pulled from my bag of Minnesota goodies a window ornament of a loon and bought some chocolates. The wrapping was tricky – in the end I had a piece of red construction paper and cut some of my knitting yarn to tie the package together (can you say clever!!). The gift was a hit – I received from Rudy a pack of markers, some cards and a new pair of socks wrapped in a desktop wallpaper print out of the TV show “Entourage” – a show that I have recently become addicted to since being in Ukraine – its on HBO, check it out! The day before we headed to Kiev we had a goodbye party for our host families. Peace Corps had prepared certificates of appreciation/recognition for the host families with the pictures we had taken with them. We bought cake and cookies and served tea and coffee, it was a wonderful time spent together and a nice way to show how much we appreciated the time we had with them. Max was the only kid to come to the party and he was a hit! The other 4 in my group loved him – I think it was the Harry Potter glasses. Following the party I gave my host family a frame with our “family” picture, I was very excited to receive in return a jar of my host mother’s strawberry jam for tea! It was hard to say goodbye – especially to my awesome host brother Max. I gave him a copy of Wall E, which we managed to watch one last time, bringing the total viewing times to something like 4 for just that movie. Disney did truly help us bond these past 2.5 months!

On Monday the 14th we got all of our bags into the bus with the Mironivka crew and said our last goodbyes to our families and headed off to Kiev. One side note I would like to mention regarding travels is a wonderful Ukrainian custom that I had the fortune to experience before my trip to Kiev. Ukrainians before traveling have the custom of taking a seat right before leaving a house and having a moment of silence. The act of taking a seat allows for any bad demons that would follow you on your journey to disappear and to allow for a safe passage. Right before we began to take my bags down to load into the car my host dad pulled me down to sit on my red suitcase and we had a moment of silence for my journey. It was a really touching moment as I had only heard of such a custom but was so touched to now be experiencing my whole host family sitting in the hopes that I had a safe journey. (It was also a little worrying as my host dad was sitting on my black suitcase, which was already bulging at the seams!) In Kiev, Peace Corps had organized us to stay at the Taras Shevchenko University Campus for the Masters program in the International Students’ dorm. With 112 PCVs, all the PC staff and the incoming 112 Counterparts – Peace Corps was forced to find a big space for us to stay! Luckily the first thing on the agenda following check in was to find out the location of our sites – which was good as I was about to pass out from my nerves not knowing where in a matter of 3 days I would be going to live for the next 2 years. Peace Corps announced the locations based on Regions – the country is split into 8 regions, each watched over by a Regional Manager. My name was called for Region 2 – The Republic of Crimea and the Khersonskaya Oblast. It was very exciting to stand along with the other Group 37ers who would be with me in our Region! This included Rudy from my group and 2 girls from our Mironivka Link Group. Following the announcements we went to meet with our regional manager and I found my site to be a town called Velyka Lepetykha on the Dnipro River in the Khersonskaya Oblast. I have tried to Google this – nothing comes up except its location on Google Maps, so feel free to Google it, otherwise I have attached pictures from my site! I am now working for the Velyka Lepetykha School #1. The town is about 10,000 people and is very beautiful. I am living with an older married couple, Lyuda and Tolia who take good care of me, but I’ll finish telling about that after finishing talking about the Swearing In Conference. 

The following day we got to meet our Counterparts. A Counterpart is a Ukrainian that works in the school in which you will teach and works as your mediator for any needs you may have in the town. Peace Corps requires every receiving school of a Peace Corps Volunteer to have a Counterpart so that there is someone looking out for the needs of the Volunteer. My Counterpart is named Tonia, I want to guess she is about 40 years old; she has short spiky black hair and she told me she lives with her 8 cats and her mother. We discussed my tentative teaching schedule – I will be teaching 4th through 8th graders, which I was very excited about! I was a little disappointed to hear though that I will be co-teaching all of the lessons. Meaning that the Ukrainian teacher for such subjects as Grammar and Lexical Material will teach the first 20 minutes and then the Communication will come from my 20-25 minutes of the lesson. I was hoping to be able to teach by myself but in all truth, Grammar is taught here completely in Ukrainian and so my ability to explain in English probably would not have worked anyways. 

On the last day of the Swearing In Conference we actually had the Swearing In Ceremony. This Ceremony took place in the large auditorium of the University - each Peace Corps Trainee sat with their Counterpart and attending host families took the side rows (none of the Boguslav Host Families attended). One of the Peace Corps Staff read aloud all of our names, our home states, our future sites and the name of our Counterpart. This took quite a bit of time but was exciting to hear all the places that my friends would be going to live and serve! Attending this Ceremony was the newly appointed US Ambassador to Ukraine. For all those attached to Northwestern or my family will find interesting, President Bienen, the recently retired President of Northwestern University, was offered the job of Ambassador to Ukraine but early this summer decided to turn this position down. As I listened to the new Ambassador speak, I realized how cool it would have been to have President Bienen there with three Northwestern Alums in the audience! The Ambassador also administered the Oath in which we became employees of the United States of America through the Peace Corps TEFL Program. It was a very touching moment! I chocked up thinking about all the work that went into getting to this moment!! I started my application to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in late September of 2008! Over a year of applications, physicals, preparations, studying and hard work went into getting me to the point of Swear In! I was so proud of myself! I have attached a picture of my Counterpart and myself at the Ceremony in front of one of the Peace Corps Banners used at this ceremony. 

That evening, despite a large snowstorm in Ukraine – hitting especially hard the South where I was going, we loaded busses to the train station. My train was at 9:44 pm and due to traffic because of the snow we made it to the train station at 9:35pm. Tonia and I grabbed my bags and with the other 5 Volunteers to be on my train and their Counterparts we ran like there was no tomorrow to catch our train. I don’t know if a miracle occurred or if the time I saved by simply throwing both my suitcases down the 2 flights of stairs to get to the train tracks saved us but we somehow made the train by a minute. The doors closed as I was stepping onto the train. I don’t know how to put more intensity into the explanation of this event, but I was about to cry as I sat onto my bunk bed in thanks for making the train (I had already heard many accounts of people missing buses and trains for their sites and thus having to return to Kiev to leave another day because of the snow and length of travel to the train and bus stations). I slept well on my overnight train- I would even say it was as nice as my night train between Venice and Linz, Austria two years ago this time of year. We made it to Kherson and relaxed until a crazy funny guy named Yuri showed up in a sand dune rover looking vehicle to take Tonia and I to Lepetykha. This was quite a trip – especially when we off roaded it into the woods to help a car that had run off the road. I appreciated too that Yuri was only wearing a long sleeved shirt but with his massive fur hat he said he was plenty warm. I was sitting there shivering in about 3 layers - I must get one of these fur hats! 

I have now been at site for a week and it has been very calm. The first few days in town, the snow had brought freezing rain causing a foot of ice for the entire path of my trek to school. Luckily, REI had prepared me well and I whipped out my Yak Trax (i.e. rubber pieces you put onto your boots with metal picks to help walk on ice) and I was able to walk to school without a problem as everyone else slipped along the way. I have met the principal of my school – she is a wonderful and nice woman who took me to meet the head of schools of Lepetykha who was also very welcoming. I have been able to observe my classes – the students’ English is very very limited at all levels so I have my work cut out for me, but they are eager to work with me and so I am grateful for that! When the fourth graders learned I would be in their class there were a number of “Yeahs!” and hands thrown into the air in rejoicing – an uplifting moment I might say. I have also had a short chance to teach my 6th grade class and next week I get to teach them “Jingle Bells!” I spent an afternoon walking around the town, taking pictures – it is a beautiful town and I now cannot wait for spring when it isn’t so icy and wet and I can wander further. I have been able to buy a water filter (think Brita type water filter) and I have found our Bazaar and checked that out – not as big as Boguslav but lots of clothes for when mine finally wear out. So all in all things are coming along well! The school continues until December 31st and then the students are on holiday until January 11th, which is nice! Ukraine celebrates New Years, Christmas on January 6th/7th and then the Old New Year. So I actually taught on our Christmas and as a special treat on Christmas Eve I cracked out my peanut butter and had it with an apple and watched Elf. Yuri, my driver from Kherson, made Christmas day very special as he had prepared a little speech with my Counterpart’s English help. When I arrived at school he greeted me with “Merry Christmas, I congratulate you on your special day and I wish you all the best. Merry Christmas!” It was wonderful – I saw the piece of paper he read from later, it was transliterated with Russian letters sounding out the English words – quite interesting to read!  

Ok, I believe that is all for updating now. I am sorry it is long! I want to wish you all a wonderful rest of the holiday season and a very Happy New Year!! I am adding my new address below so please feel free to send me letters! They make my day! I miss you all tons but all is going well here and I am so thankful for that! 

  Love, Megan 

Also make note please of the New Cell Number: +38 066 457 4403

New Address (You need both the English and Russian – I suggest printing the address and taping it onto the letter to avoid having to write the Cyrillic letters!)

Megan Trout

C/O Velyka Lepetykha School #1

18A, Kuyibysheva Street

Velyka Lepetykha

Kherson Oblast

Ukraine

74502

Меган Траут

Великая Лепетиха Средняя Школа #1

18A Ул. Куйбышева 

Г. Великая Лепетиха

Херсонская Область

Украйна

Индекс: 74502The Pictures below are My Sixth Grade Class, Making Ginger Bread Cookies, my gift for Yevginia, Our Group at our Holiday Party, Kelsey with a dancing Santa in Kiev, Max rock climbing in the hallway, our Family goodbye party, pictures with the host family on my last day in Boguslav, Kelsey and I wiht the map with all our sites labeled, my oblast and my name labeled, the Boguslav Crew with our teachers on Swearing In day, with the 3 Minnesotans at Swearing In, with Tonia my counterpart after Swearing In, My House in Lepetykha, the Dnipro River, the abandoned Port House (you can still see the name in Cyrillic on top of the buidling), the Church in Lepetykha and lastly a personal concert the Music School put on for me (lead by Yuri) where they played me La Cucaracha. 

The pictures below include: a picture of the 5 of us with the materials of our community project- we made a map of the US with information about ourselves, states and favorite holidays. We then presented the material to the English teachers of Boguslav School #1. You will see pictures of Rudy and I presenting the Elementary English Songs and Activities as well as our group picture with the teachers and the tea we held following the presentation. (Please enjoy my new blazer which I mentioned I got for free at the Peace Corps Office!)

Also, below these 6 pictures are pictures of me teachign the 8th graders as well as picture of Matt and I with our 8th graders and then Rudy and Whitney with their 7th graders from this last Thursday!

I have one more class on this coming Tuesday, December 8th - I'll be sure to get a picture with that class as well!

Dear Friends and Family, It has been over a month since my last post. Please forgive me for the delay in posting, but in all honesty, life was pretty calm and uneventful during our 3 weeks of Quarantine. Life has gone back to “normal” in that the quarantine has finally ended and the schools have once again continued classes. I was able to teach a new class today, the 6th graders, which was a very enjoyable lesson on “present continuous” and describing birthday parties and what one does at a birthday party. On Thursday, I am very excited for this, as one of the Peace Corps Technical trainers is coming to Boguslav to view us teach and I have a very exciting/interactive lesson planned for my 8th graders she will view me teach. I am hoping it goes well! Since I last wrote to you all I have been able to travel to Kiev twice more as well as taken a trip to Kaharlik, the town where my good friend and Northwestern Alum, Meaghan Joyce lives. The trips to Kiev were both wonderful trips and very relaxing as life here in training is extremely chaotic and strenuous. The first trip to Kiev was a trip to see the Lavra Monastery. This Monastery began in the 1100s and houses the bodies of hundreds of years old mummified monks in caves located beneath the churches. It is a very interesting place to visit as anyone may enter the caves and see the glass coffins holding the decoratively dressed mummies. There is no electricity in the caves and so you must carry a small candle and all women must wear skirts so we had to rent wrap around skirts to be able to enter. The caves were incredible as some of the monks have their hands sticking out from the robes they are wearing and so you are able to see the state their decayed bodies are in. As pictures were not allowed inside, I do not have a picture myself but you can check online as it is really creapy to see!

Our second trip to Kiev was fun as we started the morning off at the Book Bazaar. Kiev has a huge book bazaar that requires its own Metro Stop. You may find anything relating to education at this bazaar from classroom materials, to computer programs, to DVDS and music etc. I bought picture flashcards to help me in my upcoming classes and the other 4 in my group bought books and some DVDs. After the bazaar we took a trip to a supermarket called Billa and bought the ever so craved but never found PEANUT BUTTER! I have successfully found it! I am actually eating an apple right now with the peanut butter as I type this post – it is delicious. The most exciting part of the day was when we stopped in at the Peace Corps Office in Kiev. The office has a volunteer lounge where volunteers come to use free internet, free printing, the book exchange wall and to converse with whomever is in the lounge at the time! We were able to meet people from Group 36 which are the Youth Development volunteers who arrived this last spring. They were planning a 1 week trip to Egypt together which is going to cost about 3000 GRN which is about $400 – round trip flight, hotel, guide and 2 meals a day – sign me up! Haha. I also picked up some new plant dress pants and a new pin strip black blazer from the free clothes pile left from past volunteers – it was quite a grab! As for life in training, the best thing I can say is that it is coming to a close! We have 1.5 weeks left – on December 14th we will head to Kiev for the swearing in conference. That day we will find out our sites where we will be living for 2 years. I am extremely anxious to know where I will be! In these two weeks we have been scrambling to complete our Community Project – a collection of elementary and intermediate level English songs with accompanying lyrics and activities for the school we have been teaching at to be used in the classrooms as new material. We have also finished our Russian Language Project, which is a video on a day in the life of ourselves in Boguslav. I am especially proud of this project as I worked my I Movie skills and edited the entire film. Matt did the music composition and Whitney completed the title transition slides. All in all we were extremely proud of the film and Kelsey was able to get it onto You Tube – please feel free to check it out! Next week will be our Language Proficiency Test to see if we have accomplished the Intermediate level of Russian, the level required by the Peace Corps for swearing in. A lot is still needing to be accomplished but we are trucking along and I am confident the Boguslav Crew will survive!! As a final word before I head out. I want to say that I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving a very American Traditional way here in Boguslav. The 5 of us along with the help of our language instructor, Yevginia, went to the bazaar Wednesday morning and bought a turkey, potatoes, vegetables and fresh pumpkin and rolls. On Thursday we baked the turkey with a fruit stuffing (they do not do bred crumb stuffing here). One side note on the turkey – unlike the nicely cleaned and bagged turkey you may buy at a Jewel, Rainbow, etc – here, turkeys purchased in the bazaar come with a neck, all the guts still intact and the feet in a baggie assuming you are going to eat them. It was quite funny to watch Whitney shriek and fly back as she opened the bag and saw the neck flapping on the turkey’s body! Aside from the turkey we also made mashed potatoes, boiled vegetables, Whitney made deviled eggs and Matt made sweet tea. Yevginia tried to make cranberry sauce but it did not thicken and so was a cranberry dressing. She also made pumpkin bread rather than pumpkin pie but we did not complain! As we dug in, we said what all we are thankful for this year – I am thankful for all the amazing opportunities I have had throughout my life and the wonderful people with whom I have been able to share these opportunities. I want to wish you all a wonderful December – I will be sending you my next post from my site!! Please enjoy the pictures and the added links! Best, Megan

Links to our You Tube Video (in 2 parts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZZfqs356l8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Spcxhursw

The pictures are from Kiev, the masks are during the quarantine scare our host families made us wear them, the Halloween Party at School, Kelsey and I made Chocolate Chip Cookies that Iryna and Max scarfed down!, our thanksgiving dinner with our turkey and me carving, and then 2 pictures from Kiev of our group in front of St. Sophia nad the 3 Minnesotans in front of St. Sophia.

Below are a bunch of photos I took in the last 3 weeks. The first picture is from an abandoned ship yard in the neighboring town of Mironivka where our cluster goes weekly for our technical sessions. In the photo to the right of the castly building is a picture with our instructor Tatiana who teaches us the art of teaching each week.

Below these 3 pictures is a picture of the "Love Bridge" I believe I explained that in the first set of photo posts that its where all couples here in Boguslav go after getting married for good luck in their marriages. There is a picture of the 4 of us girls there waiting for Matt to arrivefor us to film our Russian Language video!

The picture with Matt and the goat is actually at the abandoned Ship building - there was a woman feeding her 2 goats just in the field and she took them across the bridge - it was incredible to watch them follow her diligently!

Next are the 2 photos from the bazaar that I explained in the post - my mom bought fish and meat at the bazaar - it was a hopping place! Everyone goesto the bazaar on Sundays to get their week's fresh produce. It was really cool to see.

The last two group pictures are first us with the school principal who is extremely supportive of us in the school and just a wonderful person. She has been so helpful for us and welcoming!! And then following that is a picture of me with my host family. From left to rigth there is Iryna my mom, Sergey my dad, Rimma next to me- my 19 year old sister and Max is in the back. He normally wears these super cute Harry Potter glasses but he wont take pictures with them on.

Enjoy!

Dear Family and Friends, Hello from Boguslav in the beginning of my sixth week here in Ukraine! Though a lot has happened, I am having a hard time deciding what I want to share first! To start I want to remark that things are going very well for me in my language skills. I have been practicing with as many people who will speak with me! To date I have now had about 6 months of SSM/NU worth of hours of Russian in the 5 weeks I’ve been here – I find these statistics incredible to throw out there as I am absorbing as much as possible in such a short span of time! When I wrote my last blog post, I was on the eve of teaching my first class at the school here in Boguslav. To explain the school situation first, there are three schools in Boguslav that go from the 1st through the 12th grades but the school we are teaching at is the Specialized School. This means that the students were selected as top learners when they were little and allowed to attend this school. Each class selects a specialty when they are in the third grade choosing from English, Math or Ukrainian and for all the following years their classes are heavily focused on the specialty they have chosen. My cluster is teaching students from the 3rd form through the 9th form in all of the specialties but our classes are not focused on these specialties – just learning English. My first class was on October 13th taught alongside Kelsey. We taught the 4th form. It was a really exciting experience as we had to teach the subject “to have” along with items in a bedroom. Kelsey drew a bedroom on a large poster and we had post its of items – the kids were to put the items on the board and say what was in the room as well as what they had in their rooms. The English language education in Ukraine is heavily focused on grammar and translation – somewhat like Latin is taught in the United States. There is little focus on conversational English and so our activity with simply getting the kids out of their seats was a huge excitement for them! I promise a picture of us with our class in our next post. Following this lesson on Thursday the 15th, Matt and I taught the 8th form. Due to lessons heavily focusing on translation rather than communication – many students are excellent at memorizing large passages of English and repeating it word for word rather than sharing their own opinions – it’s actually quite impressive to hear how much they can memorize in an evening. Matt and I taught the class the subject “Navigating the Newspaper.” We had a copy of the Kyiv Post which Peace Corps provides every trainee/volunteer as it is a quality newspaper written in English and perfect for the situation. We had students write an index for our newspaper as well as read an article that they then titled themselves. The class was really enjoyable and I am finding myself really comfortable teaching both the age levels which is an exciting sensation knowing I have 2 years of teaching ahead of me! In total we have all been able to teach our classes twice; however this leads me to the next topic of this blog post. The Swine Flu apparently is rampantly spreading throughout Ukraine and people are dying daily from its affects. It has become such a problem for Ukraine that they have actually quarantined well pretty much everything. This being said all schools have been shut down for the next 3 weeks and people have been advised not to go to large gatherings or public places to ensure the disease slows its spread. Though the Peace Corps is not considering this a threat to volunteers – it is a huge “threat” for our training as this means that 3 weeks of our opportunity to practice our teaching skills and interaction with the children has been cut off. Though we will now have more chances for Russian Language class – in truth we are worried as only a couple of us have teaching experience and so these few weeks we have for training are crucial. Please feel free if you are interested to Google the situation on the kyivpost.com On a more positive note I wanted to say a few more words about my group’s trip to Kyiv! I uploaded pictures of the trip when I was able to finally get pictures of my town online, but I did not have time then to make a post on the trip so I want to add a few words now. We went by bus to Kyiv on October 18th getting to the city at 9am. Kyiv is an incredible city but not very large – everything is very central and therefore easy to get around both walking as well as by metro. Kyiv is referred to as the “mother of Russian Cities” as it was once the center of the great state of Kyivan Rus which began in 5th/6th centuries. Once in Kyiv we headed directly to the city center with a short stop at the Peace Corps office which is a very nice facility of 5 floors including a room filled with books to swap up and a computer lab with internet! Following our fill on technology we headed out to Maiden Square also known as Independence Square – my pictures in the previous post include a description of the importance of this square due to its use as the center of the Orange Revolution. As an additional note – this coming January there will be presidential as well as prime minister elections once more making it a very interesting time to be in Ukraine. Though there is little understanding as to who holds the majority vote, there is also little expectation that another revolution will occur which though it would be interesting to view, is a safer situation for foreigners in country. Just north of Maiden Square is St. Sophia’s Cathedral. “Sofia” comes from the Greek word meaning ‘wisdom’ and the church was built in 1037. It is a beautiful church with the most recent addition built in the Ukrainian Baroque style. The church is famous for its mosaics and political graffiti on the inside – unfortunately our group didn’t get a chance to enter on this trip but we plan to return once the quarantine ends so that we may see the inside of the churches as well as see the famous Caves of the Lavra church. Following St. Sophia’s we saw both St. Michael’s and St. Andrew’s – two churches you may see in the photos on the last post. Kyiv is a beautiful, large city and I cannot wait to return to see more of its art and hopefully the Chernobyl Museum which I’ve heard is incredibly well done. The last topic I wanted to mention in this post is my family. To start – after my last post my host sister Rimma got engaged! I am very excited for her as the guy is really nice and I told her I would love to attend the wedding so I can see what a Ukrainian wedding celebration looks like! This will not take place until the spring so await a description of the festivities then! I also finally got a picture taken with my family so please check that picture out below! My host mom, Iryna, took me last Sunday with her to the bazaar in Boguslav which was a treat. In Ukraine the most popular place to shop for all your needs is at an open-air bazaar where you may find anything from food to oriental rugs. That day my host mom was shopping for the weekly essentials – eggs, chicken, beef, vegetables, a crazy amount of fish and a few household products. I’m attaching a picture of the meat room where the most common item is “Salo” which is straight pig fat slabs – so imagine bacon and just leave the fat – generally eaten uncooked. Ukrainians eat this cut into pieces on bread – I have politely declined to consume it separately but it is included in most Ukrainian dishes so I cannot avoid this altogether. Today at the market I happily found wool yarn to knit myself a scarf – this lead to a wonderful conversation with the woman at the stand who I discovered has a son at the school we are teaching – she said my Russian was very good for 1 month, which was a nice compliment! I am planning on visiting that stand again next Sunday so hopefully I can exploit the opportunity to work on my Russian some more! That is it for now. I will be sure to include the update of the quarantine in my next post and whether or not the schools were closed for the entire 3 months –we are all praying this to not be the truth so we may continue working in the schools but the health of the country comes first. A belated Happy Halloween to all and I hope you have a wonderful November! Love, Megan Trout

As the computer will not allow me to change the order of these pictures - please feel free to start at the bottom and work your way up as the bottom picture is from my arrival and this first picture is the most recent addition to my experiences here in Ukraine!

This church is St. Michaels - It also has a large bell tower just to the left of this picture but I loved all the domes of this church best.

This is St. Andrews- also gorgeous and on top of a hill overlooking a winding street which was covered in little stands selling Ukrainian souvenirs and gifts.

This is the Boguslav group in front of St. Sophia - a beautiful church in Kiev!

This is the other side of Independence Square. The people in white are supporting the prime minister for reelection in January.

In the Center of Kiev is Maiden Square which is also known as Indenpendence Square. This is where the Orange Revolution took place in 2004 in support of the candidate who had not been elected in the elections. The Revolution occured because supporters thought Russia had interfered in the elections to get the other candidate to win. In the end, there was a reelection and the candidate supported by the Revolution won by quite a bit. His name is Yuschenko and he is currently the president but elections are coming up in January so it will be interesting to be here then!

This picture is in front of the monument which was created in 2001 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union. I'm standing with Kelsey in the picture.

While in Kiev we ate at a traditional cafe with Ukrainian dishes. I got the most traditional items you can think of. The bowl of soup is Borsch which is a Ukrianian staple - it is a soup with boiled cabbage in a meat broth usually with other vegetables and then topped off with sour cream - EVERYTHING here is topped off with sour cream. The plate in my hand had Varenky which are dumplings - mine were filled with potatoes which are another staple here in Ukraine. The water is gas water as I read the label wrong. Quite a meal!

We had a cooking day one day at our language teacher's home to test out our knowledge of cooking words and phrases. The meal included Chicken and pineapple, maccarroni and cheese, boiled cabbage and carrots and Sangria. I made the Sangria.

This is my host mother, Iryna (I will get a family shot up in the next blog!). She was showing off the fish she bought that day at the market. Here fish is often prepared in a salted form which means it is just cut into pieces, salted and then cooked - so the whole head to tail ends up on the plate. It makes me miss Cedar Lake Fish more than I can explain!

The Boguslav Crew - From Left to Right: Me, Kelsey, Matt, Rudy and Whitney. We spend almost every waking moment together here as training is a very long process!

Bogulsav has a bridge that they say looks like the Golden Gate Bridge. It is quite a bit smaller but it still really nice. It is a tradition here in Boguslav for recent brides and grooms to get their pictures taken at the bridge. We actually saw a couple leaving as we approached the bridge.

Peace Corps divides volunteers into clusters of 5 people per cluster for training. Each cluster has a link group that they train with on Saturdays for teaching English. This is a picture of the Boguslav Cluster with our link from Mironivka in my Language Teacher's home where we have class each day.

This is a photo of Boguslav, my town for training. It is very beautiful!! There is a river that divides the town into two parts and it is spectacular here now in the fall!

This is a picture taken outside my apartment building in Boguslav. The first white balcony on the right is my family's apartment.

This picture is taken alongside the river where the retreat was located in Desna. I'm standing with Meaghan, a good friend of mine from Northwestern University - we were very lucky to receive P.C. services in the same country!

Our First Night in Desna we were welcomed with a special Bread Ceremony - I am standing with Pat on the left and Alia on the right - both natives of Minnesota

Hello Friends and Family from Ukraine! I have now been in country for 2 weeks and I wanted to take a moment to catch you up on the events, which have occurred thus far in my Peace Corps experience! Despite an emotional break down over my suitcases, carryon and items I could not fit in my overweight luggage around midnight the night before my flight to Philadelphia- I was able to make to it all the way to Ukraine safe, sound and lucky to have all my luggage!! 110 Peace Corps “Trainees” (as we will be called until swear in on December 17th when we receive the full title of Volunteer) arrived to Philadelphia on September 25th. As the 110 of us, each with 2 pieces of 50(+) lb suitcases and plenty of carry ons, arrived at the Hampton Inn City Centre, we were asked to register and to begin the ice breakers which would introduce ourselves to the other men and women who would share our experiences for the next 27 months of our lives. It was quite an overwhelming few hours as I felt Freshman Year of College occurring all over again – the need to impress/interest enough people into being your friend so that you would have a support system for the next 27 months brought people talking to as many other trainees as possible. As I have mentioned to a few of you before I left, I have had the wonderful fortune this summer to meet 7 of my co-volunteers through get togethers in both Chicago and Minneapolis, as well as having a close friend from Northwestern also receive an invitation to P.C. Ukraine! This allowed my hesitancy/nerves to subside quite a bit! US Soil training was primarily an overview of all the paperwork and packets that we were required to read since accepting our invitations – the primary reason for this training is to ensure that all those present have fully contemplated the responsibility which they are taking on and to determine that 27 months of service is a feasible action in ones life. With all of us on board we arrived on Sept. 26th to JFK airport for our flight to Frankfurt, Germany followed by a short flight to Boryspil, Kiev. We arrived and were warmly welcomed by the Peace Corps staff of Ukraine – the only American of the P.C. Staff in Ukraine is the Country Director – all other positions are held by Ukrainians. This is a wonderful aspect of the P.C. because it truly does allow for cultural integration, as the citizens of the country you are attempting to integrate yourself into are the people who are leading you through that integration. The first three days in country is filled with a “Retreat” where all Trainees stay in a city called “Desna” just 2 hours north and slightly east of Kyiv. In Desna we were housed at a place that is called a Retreat but in truth is more a Sanitarium - is a place where people go to relax and recover from an illness. It looked to me like a concrete built summer camp but the fact that it could house all 110 of us and Staff was great! Throughout these three days we worked on Safety lessons, Cultural Differences, the P.C. rules such as the “Delta Award” which are the reasons that P.C. may send you home on the next Delta Flight out of Kyiv (these mainly include breaking P.C. rules set to keep us safe and therefore ones you shouldn’t be breaking). The most exciting part of the retreat for me was when I learned that for the next 12 weeks I would be learning RUSSIAN! P.C. Ukraine teaches volunteers 1 of 2 languages – Ukrainian or Russian. Due to the many years of Russian especially Soviet control over Ukraine – the country is quite divided in its loyalties to Ukraine as an independent nation versus Ukraine as a province of Russia. This has lead to the Ukraine of today being a very bilingual nation with Ukrainian as the official language but Russian as the dominant language – therefore P.C. teaches 60% of the volunteers Ukrainian who will work in on the western side of Ukrainian and 40% of Volunteers Russian who will work on the Eastern half of Ukraine. I am so incredibly excited to be learning Russian as I feel that it is a very interesting language that I have always been interested in learning – throughout my Northwestern life I feel that I had a lot of interaction with the Russian language (Russian Roommate, Russian Friends, Russian Coworkers at the Nail Bar etc.) that I feel very lucky to be able to now learn this language! I also hope that I will be able to visit St. Petersburg and Moscow at one point during this experience and the language will certainly help the trip immensely! Once the 3 days of Retreat are complete – P.C. trainees travel to their training sites – these are small communities set to accept 5 or 6 trainees where language classes take place, technical training of how to teach English, and a school willing to take in these new teachers of English opens classes for the practice of teaching English to Ukrainian children occurs. My town is named Boguslav – in Cyrillic it’s: Богуслав. Boguslav is located about 2 hours south and slightly east of Kyiv. Here I live with a host family who have been extremely welcoming! I have a host mother, Iryna, a host father Sergey, a 19 year old host sister, Rima and a 9 year old host brother Maxim (Max). The family lives in an apartment building pictured below – it lies on one of the main 3 roads of Boguslav. My walk to school each day is about 20 minutes long as I head to my Language Instructor's home for our daily 4-5 hours of Russian. Beginning this last week my cluster had a visit to the local school where we will be teaching for the next 10weeks. My first day visiting was alongside one of the other trainees, Kesley. She and I visited the 4th form (grade) and were swarmed by the kids pushing and shoving one another to be the first to ask us our names – it was amazing to see their eagerness to speak with us! We will be teaching this class this coming Tuesday (Oct. 13th). I also was able to visit some of the older kids – both 8th and 9th form, these students did not corner us with questions but they did show excitement to our presence in their classroom and upcoming guest teaching. I am coteaching the 8th form on Thurdsday the 14th alongside another trainee, Matt. In conclusion I just want to say that things are going very well for me so far here in Ukraine! My language is coming along very quickly – I did the math yesterday and realized that I have had to date in 2 weeks more Russian language class hours than an entire quarter at Shattuck or Northwestern which explains how I am already speaking full sentences – describing myself, my likes and dislikes, my hobbies, my family and school etc. I am looking forward to testing out my teaching skills in the next 10 weeks of training and seeing the reactions of the children – I promise to pass along a description of that experience! And so for now I will leave you with a few pictures of Boguslav. Please feel free to email me any questions regarding my town, Peace Corps or anything else you'd like me to address in the next blog post! Also feel free to send me any letters at the following address – I'd love to receive the support! PCV Megan Trout C/O Peace Corps Ukraine 111 A Saksahanskoho Street Kyiv, 01032 Ukraine До Свидания Всего Хорошего! Меган (Megan)

P.S. Photos will come at a later time due to technical difficulties on this computer and its internet. Sorry but I promise they are worth the wait!

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you for checking in to see how this whole adventure unfolds! At this moment in time I am still in the United States, however I fly to Philadelphia tomorrow (9-25-09) and then on to Ukraine the next day (9-26-09). Upon arrival in Kyiv, I will be joined by about 100 other Peace Corps volunteers to begin our 3 months of intensive language, culture and vocational training to prepare ourselves for the upcoming 2 year adventure! I am unsure of my living situation and therefore of my internet connection but I hope to be able to update this blog monthly as I maintained throughout my experience in Madrid, Spain. Please feel free to email me with any questions regarding my experience - otherwise please enjoy the tales and pictures that I will be sure to share once the experience begins!

Thanks again for all the love and support!!

Megan