I’m writing this entry three days before I leave my site and for that reason this update will be more emotional than the reflective blog found below. Due to an outbreak of swine flu, Ukrainian schools have been under quarantine and were therefore closed from November 2nd and only starting again on November 23rd. This was a rather sour way for Group 33 to end their service, with many volunteers’ departure date during the quarantine, preventing the proper farewell needed for students and teachers.

So after travelling to our final conference in the Carpathian Mountains, then taking part in a weekend training session with the new arrivals of Group 37, I sat in my apartment for three weeks with not much to do. Fortunately, I had one final week before leaving my site, although it has been difficult to show up after a month of not seeing my students and announce that I’d be leaving in a week.

This week has been rather difficult, as I explained to my students, Ukraine is my second home. I’ve lived here for two years and although it will be easy to an extent to go home, it will be difficult to leave here. Inspired by the always creative Brad Luckhardt, I decided to organize small student projects this week to discuss school life, families, and culture in Ukraine and my town. I have been recording these presentations all week and can’t wait to edit them and show them to friends, family, and students in the U.S.

Although it is often easy to feel unproductive, this week I believe I’ve felt the impact of my work through and through. Watching students speak and give presentations who were initially frightened or simply unable to speak to me made me realize how much they’ve grown as pupils and people. Certainly Americans do not have the most flattering reputation abroad, and I’m proud to say that I worked my hardest to improve how Ukrainians perceive us.

My school often refers to me as “Our American” or “Our Mr. Alan” which is a common occurrence throughout Ukraine. I’m not sure if the use of “our” is cultural or linguistic, but it clearly shows the development of a relationship over the past two years.

So on the eve of Group 33’s departure, though most have already left, I wanted to share some statistics given to us. Group 33’s impact on Ukraine includes:

6,000 Ukrainian students taught by Peace Corps Volunteers

200 Ukrainian teachers directly collaborated with PCVs

2,000 Ukrainian teachers trained by PCVs

Participation in local, regional, and national Olympiad

18 resource centers and 10 internet centers funded and organized

70 camps organized and implemented

And here are some of the things I did:

65 teachers trained in the sphere or HIV/AIDS prevention and Awareness

Organized two community events, a school dance and rock concert

Participated as a judge in the Belovodsk and National English Olympiad

Personally organized two camps and participated in five camps total

Organized a pen pal program with an American school

Obtained English books for my school

Worked directly with 6 Ukrainian teachers and over a hundred students

Focused heavily on Environmental education

Russian speaking ability of advanced low

And of course the absorption of Ukrainian culture, history, traditions, pop culture, and more

I only wanted to share these things, 1) for those who haven’t been able to follow all my other blogs or updates, and 2) feel a little better about my experience. I always knew I would never leave my service early and would stay for the entire 27 months, but at the same time I did not want to simply stick it out. Sometimes reflecting and stating such things helps one realize their work and of course feel a little proud.

I hope you’ve enjoyed following the blog and reading about a place which receives less attention than it deserves. Ukraine is now and always will be my second home.

And to close, the following text was written by a ninth grade student, Tonya Bondarenko. I asked students a few questions to keep in mind this week and she went the extra yard and wrote down her thoughts. I haven’t altered the text and believe students should always have ownership over their work and to be proud of their mistakes as much as their achievements.

1. What did you learn from me?

I learnt that every English lesson can be interesting, useful and fascinating. I could to know more about USA not from books or films, but from real American, who always answered our questions. He told us what books had he read, what films had he watched. He played the guitar for us; we watched films about nature together. Once a week we tried to gather and spent a time together. We talked on different topics, discussed some problems, made projects. I think we can learn an optimistic soul, kindly, curiously, and friendly character from Mr. Alan.

2. What did I learn from you (Ukrainians) while here?

As for me, I think he could learn some Ukrainian words and phrases. He always was interested in Ukrainian teens’ tastes, hobbies, spending free time and attitude to life, love, wars, and other important things. So, he knows more about Ukrainian pupils. I think it was intresting for hm to know more about our culture and customs, about our holidays and our famous people.

Mr. Alan lived in our town for two years, he went on travels in our country, he spend all time with Ukrainians. As for me, it was good time for him and he can be proud of these years, because we had a really nice time with him.

3. What did you think about Americans two years ago? And now? Did your idea of Americans change?

Honestly, I think that Americans are lazy and naïve people. But when I made the acquaintance with Mr. Alan I understood that Americans can be open, helpful, and merry people. Mr. Alan told us about his family and his friends very much. They are friendly, polite people. Americans are not worse than we are. They are just different but we have much similar. I changed my opinion about Americans and now I even have some friends from USA which I like to communicate with.

I’ll miss our friendly atmosphere, our amazing lessons, our good wonderful teacher who always knew what we wanted to do. I’ll miss our summer holidays, which we spent with Mr. Alan. We played sport games, listened to his playing guitar, took part in different competitions and spoke about everything we want. We went for a walk with out class near the river, had picnics and did other nice things.

I’ll miss Mr. Alan because we always found things, we can speak about. He is a nice person, and as for me, he became a good teacher and a perfect friend for all of us.

How can I not be grateful for the last two years after reading words like that from a student?

This blog I intend and believe will be my final update of my Peace Corps service. I’ve mapped out the topics which I plan to break down in sections, each of which I promise to write about honestly, reflectively, and as objectively as possibly. However, I will often admit the subjective nature of certain observations and conclusions reached during my service, contrasting what I’ve learned from my American upbringing and my growth in Ukraine. I do not write out of hostility toward Ukrainian culture, or out of veneration of the U.S. This is merely a summation of what it means to be an American in Ukraine. I mentioned in my last blog that after Peace Corps I can say that I lived in Europe for two years, though it has never felt like that. Perhaps Eastern Ukraine is that different, or my assumption of what it means to be Europe is that incorrect; however, had I lived in Budapest, Prague, or Madrid, I’m sure that I wouldn’t have felt like I lived in real Europe either. I did however get to see real Ukraine and I’m happy to tell you all about. Coming Home I’ll be home in two months time and though my course of action is not definite after settling in, I’m thankful for my last two years. I set out in hopes to learn more about myself, earn something on my own, gain independence, travel, and of course, to attempt to help others. How many of these goals were reached and to what extent is still something that will take years to decipher, but I feel stronger, wiser, and more confident. Much like college, Peace Corps is an atmosphere of academia which surrounds you with information, new and old. From the diversity of fellow volunteers with worldly experiences and Ukrainians with unique perspectives, I simply could not have been exposed to as many learning opportunities were I in the States. In addition, I have confidence which I am proud of, if only for the reason that it is new. I remember walking dozens of city blocks in San Francisco out of fear of attempting to brave public transportation. Yet last summer I arrived in a foreign city with no reservations or planned route and successfully navigated my way to an even more foreign place. Life as a volunteer often makes me feel as though nothing in the States could intimidate me again. Schools in Ukraine My professional experience in U.S. schools may best be described as an apprenticeship, however, my understanding of it as a student, like most my age, is broad. Working in any school is a challenge, but the task of understanding the idiosyncrasies of a school in a different culture is a battle. The following observations are some of which I think an American, or Westerner, would find interesting. The ever changing schedule of a Ukrainian school posed one of the main difficulties of teaching here. Concerts, holidays, the lack of running water, and other external forces were constant chisels chipping away at the predictability of American schools I tried and failed to duplicate. To us Westerners, five of twelve students being removed from a lesson so they can take part in a concert rehearsal is an inadequate excuse and gross misevaluation of priorities. However, in the culture of Ukrainian schools, students have an obligation to assist in such events which are seen as helping the entire school. Cell phones proved to be a constant interruption, whether teaching fifth grade, eleventh grade, or sitting in a teachers’ meeting. It is very easy to impose the manners of our culture in a foreign place, like cell phone etiquette. Perhaps we think we’ll feel less alien if we have some rules which seemingly hold things together and provide some order in an environment which is not yet understood. I’ve seen Ukrainians on cell phones during concerts, student presentations, teachers and students in class, and more. However, why should I expect students to stop using their phones in class if the teachers do not do so? Ultimately, this rudeness is no more irrational than our quickness and fervor to label it as rude. I know volunteers who confiscate students’ phones if they ring and even call their family in America, a few minutes of which would spend all the money on the SIM card. This is just an interesting cross cultural moment on a micro-scale. A few weeks ago, a student’s phone in seventh grade rang and she asked if she could go into the hall. My initial thoughts were “No! This is my lesson. Your parents can call you during the passing period. They need to cut this umbilical cord or you’re never going to be able to make decisions for yourself or face situations on your own.” I let the student into the hall, stating only, “quickly”. Ukraine simply isn’t ready for such tirades and nitpicking. We have bigger fish to fry. Similarly, I often ask students to make charts and tables for grammar exercises or games in the notebooks. Every time I give the imperative to copy down a chart or graph, students take on the appearance of 15th Century ocean navigators, equipped with compasses, rulers, and protractors. Two years ago my reaction was “The chart is not important, the information you write inside the lines is what matters! Hurry up!” This sense of perfection in writing and presentation is an integral part of students schooling here. They only use pens, have white out if they make mistakes, and presentation always factors into the grade. I’d be creating an unfamiliar environment for the students if I prevented them from talking to their parents for twenty seconds or by asking them to discard the expectations of neatness established by the teachers who worked with them before I was here and will continue to teach them after I leave. These are short lessons in the comfort of the many over the few. I’ve also been quick to criticize the form of Ukrainian classroom management or the ostensible lack thereof. Ukrainian methodology is very scientific, most likely a lingering shadow of Soviet influence. Studying to be an educator in America instilled me with a more philosophical and pragmatic approach. Although I see the trend changing over the next few years with the retirement of older teachers, I can’t and perhaps shouldn’t expect to see developments in pedagogy equating Ukraine with America. Practices and beliefs simply vary among places with radically different histories, economies, and governments. Unfortunately, I feel like I’ve used these differences as a crutch. For instance, if the majority of my students failed to do an assignment or a particular class was disruptive, I caught myself pinning the fault on being a different culture: “Well, this activity would have worked had I tried it in America”. While I don’t necessarily belief this after closer scrutiny, I do believe there was a cultural gap that complicated the atmosphere. Copying answers, or what we like to label as blatant cheating, is common in Ukraine, whether exam, quiz, or essay. I tried to convey my beliefs of individual work inside and outside the classroom, but to little or no fruition. Students simply could not understand why I turned into such a tyrant on test day. “Mr. Alan, we help each other. It is good for everybody during exams!” My response was “Ok, I’m your doctor. I copied another student’s work on an exam about human anatomy. Now I have to perform a surgery on your mother.” Although my argument was irrefutable, the stigma of plagiarism and academic dishonesty is simply not to be found. Another cross cultural moment than only needs observing and not ridiculing. Ultimately, I have cherished working in my school. There are days when I feel like there is no other work I could ever do other than teaching, and others when I feel the opposite. This would be the case in a school in Indiana, Lugansk, Taipei, Kigali, or Buenos Aires. I’ve had to adjust to working in an unfamiliar environment, with either a lack of or poor of resources. Teaching is the constant struggle of the bell curve, with a small percent of students excelling, a small percent failing, and the majority in the middle. However teaching a foreign language is more like a spike and there is no curve. Students understand you or they don’t. Catching up with a foreign language is so much more difficult than math, which usually has a moment of epiphany when one finally understand a problem, or history, which can be compensated by additional readings. There is grammar, vocabulary, listening, and speaking/pronunciation. Students are never held back a grade in Ukraine, so I could have a new student recently moved from a village in tenth grade who can’t say a word in English. The task of enticing the advanced students while not losing the struggling ones is a challenge every teacher deals with every day. Additionally, it was a challenge to engage the shy or struggling speakers because they simply don’t understand. The strong students will initiate conversations and I had to work to prevent students from being abandoned. Perhaps I mentioned this before, but I will again for reiteration. I assumed, during training and the first few months at site, that simply being an American would inspire students to take English lessons seriously, attend English clubs, and be in awe of my presence. While the latter is true to an extent, the former couldn’t be more incorrect. After contemplating this point for quite some time, I ultimately told my brother Chris, “How much would I have cared in seventh grade if some Ukrainian came to teach at my school”? To which he replied, “Well, yeah, good point.” Telling People How to Live: the Favorite Past Time of All Americans Several factors contributed to the lack of influence I had in imparting words of wisdom and life lessons to Ukrainians. If the topic was diet, I was the guy from one of the most obese nations in the world telling people how to eat. If the topic was politics, it was my government who had its proverbial thumb in the pies of other nations. If the topic was money, well, you get the picture. All in all, Americans aren’t the easiest people to trust. If the tragedy of nationality wasn’t enough, my physical appearance as a child, my age signifying almost no longer a child, my marital status which negates the possibility of being a man, and my Russian language ability which makes me sound awkward, unrefined, and often hesitant. Some of the following things include some of the observations which can also be described as concerns on behalf of Americans towards Ukrainians and vice versa. I rarely see Ukrainians drink water. Tea is as much an integral part of Ukrainian culture as it is void from American life. Students drink tea with breakfast, receive it with their lunch at school, and every corner food stand, bus station and train will offer you tea. With that said, I rarely see Ukrainians drink water, the tea of America. I’ve tried to explain that lack of water leads to advanced aging and health problems, but I come from a place where one can safely drink the water from the faucet. Equally, food is a constantly debated topic among Americans and Ukrainians, with mostly finger pointing as to who has the unhealthiest food. Ukrainians, in their inventiveness and refusal to waste anything from an animal, eat strips of lard called salo though they refuse to call it fat. Whatever you call it, salo is cholesterol incarnate. The mythos of Ukrainian food dictates salo and white bread are good for you, though it is often recommended to limit these as much as possible in America. When criticizing salo, Ukrainians will condemn McDonalds, hamburgers, and any other fast food which they believe makes up our diet. An interesting part of globalization is nations newly affected by such things as McDonalds or iPods fail to realize that people in America also are being plagued with such overwhelming simplification of products, especially food. Similarly, alcohol and smoking are admitted problems in Ukraine, with some of the cheapest cigarette and liquor prices in Europe. It was difficult being an occasional beer drinker in Ukraine where real men imbibe vodka. It is hard comparing the abuse of alcohol in the U.S. and Ukraine, but in Ukraine the problem is certainly more visible with limited or weakly enforced open container and public intoxication laws. I often felt angry by Ukrainians using culture as a defense, and though to an extent that is true. However, more than 90% of all Ukrainians die from just three causes; smoking, drinking, and auto accidents – and all are preventable. Drinking can be cultural, but when a nation’s male life expectancy rate is actually decreasing, culture cannot be an excuse. Ukrainians always yell at Americans for having the bus windows open, sitting on the cement, having wet hair outside, not eating enough, and not dressing warmly. Much like our concerns about food, drink, and health, this is their way of showing they care about our health, even if we disagree. So it was often a sort of mutual “I have to look after you” relationship with Americans and Ukrainians both in shock at how the others live! Gender Issues One of the most clearly visible differences in Ukraine includes the gender relations and what it means to be a man or woman here. It was often an atmosphere I felt which I feel currently unable to express in written form, yet it includes a lack of or completely different expectations for men’s and women’s occupations, abilities, relationships, and even rights. Women in the U.S. still receive less pay than men for equal work, but in Ukraine gender relations are more equitable with America perhaps forty years ago. Again a paradox exists, because the U.S. did not have a female prime minister (or president for that matter) fifty years ago. Ukrainian women are extremely beautiful and everyone will remind you constantly from the Beatles song “Back in the USSR” to the theory that Lugansk has so many beautiful woman because Catherine the Great banished all attractive women from St. Petersburg and Moscow so they could not overshadow her looks. Women are expected to dress to impress the men and marry young. Men are seldom expected to help at home. A mutual understanding and manipulation of each other’s needs exists. Quoted from the PC Cross Cultural Reader, “Ukrainian women had to become very competitive to get a good man. We know what men like, how they like to be treated. We know all about their fragile egos and how to manipulate them. This includes the way that we dress. Unlike other kinds of animals, the human female should be the one beautifully adorned. And savvy in psychological manipulation in order to catch the good man.” Ultimately, this all makes for quite different gender relations. Racial issues Additionally, racism is a peculiar issue in Ukraine. Though Ukraine, much like Poland and other Central/Eastern European countries have ultra-Nationalist neo-Nazi type groups, hardly representatives of the typical citizen, it is hard to judge the perceptions of race on the small, individual scale in Ukraine. Other than hearing students make occasional comments about Jews, Blacks, and Middle Easterners (certainly not unheard of in any school in the States), I never experienced that blunt “those people” mentality often expressed in America once someone feels comfortable with you to share their bigotry. Now part of this lack of indifference may be due to fewer minorities, but I don’t think that would fully explain the situation. Lugansk, Kharkiv and Kyiv have huge international student populations. I’ve met Nigerians, Malaysians, Senegalese, Syrian, Iraqi, Jordanian and many more in just Lugansk. However, I’m sure their perceptions of racial issues differ greatly from mine, because I fit in if I don’t talk. I’ve heard some volunteers criticize Ukrainians for saying negro, partly because in Russian it sounds like the N-word. However, I’ve defended Ukrainians, assuming they are not using the word in an offensive way, because they haven’t had the cultural revolution related to race and vocabulary which America experienced. Through the 80s it was still acceptable to refer to blacks at Negroes, so the politics of language are simply different here as they lack a population of color. One place you can judge he beliefs of a mass group of people is in the sports arena and I’ve been to many professional football (soccer) matches in Ukraine. Nigerians frequent the Ukrainian club teams and despite the foul taunts and heckling, I never heard one comment relating to race. However, in London, Warsaw, Berlin, Budapest, well known cities of celebrated high culture, fans often make gorilla sounds or throw bananas on the field when a black player has the ball (read more in Franklin Foer’s How Soccer Explains the World). Fashion and Brad’s Middle School Theory Fashion mostly proved to be a topic to make volunteers laugh and express friendly disapproval. Some of the outfits I’ve seen Ukrainians wear, men and women, I’m sure I will never see again, whether they include shiny suits or fish net stockings with ivy patterns. Fashion here is an interesting paradox, because it is extremely important for expressing oneself, but many people buy their clothes, Versace, Armani, and Prada rip offs, at the bazaar! My friend Brad explained to me on several occasions his Middle School Theory. Despite Kyiv being older than Moscow, independent Ukraine is still a very young country – I’m seven years older, for example. He explained Ukrainian identity is in a Middle School phase, were you experiment with all the silly, strange, and exotic fashions, because for the first time in your life it seems like you can and want to express yourself through fashion. It is not rare to see something as contradictory as a fifty year old grandmother at the bazaar rocking pink hair and a cellphone on the back of a horse cart. Other than a general Ukrainian observation that American girls dress more or less like boys, I’d like to hear more of their ideas regarding our fashion. The U.S. has its collection of laughable and impractical fashion – furry boots, popped collars, ripped jeans, etc. I’d like to hear a Ukrainian babushka critique a torn jean, muscle shirt guy. Holidays, Holidays, and More Holidays It isn’t rare to hear even Ukrainians joke about how many holidays they have. There are days for teachers, students, women, miners, veterans, workers, and then religious holidays which have a new and old date due to the Orthodox Church switching its calendar. Most holidays in my town coincide with a concert at the House of Culture with student performances which are either really talented or extremely awkward. My site mate and I usually dread these events as they are really long, packed with people, and consist of the same performances month after month. March 8th marks International Women’s Day which included a concert and then a party at my school. I was glad to see schools participate in a holiday which technically started in New York but has since been discarded. However, I wished for more open discourse about women, their struggles, rights and like there of, and their feelings. The same student performances from graduation were repeated at the Women’s day concert. Wine and vodka were in abundance, yet being an American, I yearned for discussion. This goes for Teacher’s Day as well. The first Sunday in October marks Teacher’s Day. Our school had shortened lessons, a concert, and a party. Several students gave me flowers, chocolate, and even a planner. My immediate reaction was “If you want to give me a gift, study in my class! Do your homework! Don’t make excuses for misbehavior!” and of course this is not only cynical and ungrateful but unrealistic. I was thankful for many teachers in school but that doesn’t mean I did everything they asked. I loosened up by the end of the day at the concert and tried to remove my cultural blinders and although there was still no real discussion of what it means to be a teacher, I enjoyed the concert. Things I’ll miss There are so many things to list. -Walks home from my host families on Sunday evenings, surrounded by small town Ukraine. -The ladies at my favorite shop who are always thankful for the food I take for them to try. -The unpredictability of my students to say something great, funny, or heart warming -Living around completely self sustaining people. I often feel like Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain. I couldn’t sow or reap a harvest, milk a goat or cow, or survive without a store to buy everything. Ukrainians do EVERYTHING themselves. Make their own oil, wine, honey, beer, kill their own meat, and grow their own fruits and vegetables. It is really inspiring. People have two jobs here, their occupation and their farming chores at home. -The seasons are so much more distinct here. Life in the States is seamless. I can get tomatoes or pineapples whenever I want, but in Ukraine you know and feel the seasons in your bones. -My host families consist of some of the sweetest, most caring people I’ve every met. -My students in general. I have really gotten to see them grow with English in two years. It will be hard to say goodbye to the students. -My site is amazing. It is green, though now orange, yellow and red, and a wonderful little enclave of agriculture in an industrial region. -Ukrainian food is really great and creative. I’ll probably realize all the American foods I missed are not how I thought of them. -It feels challenging and adventurous being here. I know it’ll be hard to go back to the States where the every day difficulties I face here do not exist. -Speaking Russian. Although I didn’t study as much as I hoped, I still really enjoy speaking Russian and hope to keep up with it as much as possible. This is already way too long. I hope you enjoyed my observations and gained something if you read this far. Again, I hope you do not interpret any comments or observations as hostile or rude toward Ukraine or its culture.

So I was inspired to write a quick update and share some pictures from random stuff I’ve done since June.  I’m writing this before I actually sit down on a real computer and hope to share about 20 photos, which I’ve resized.      Photo 1.  I got to school early one day during my two week camp after the end of the spring semester.  Some students looked at my guitar longingly so I let them mess around with it.

  Photo 2.  The majority of my camp consisted of team building activities and games.  I’m pictured here with Maxim and Maxim.  The Maxim on the left is screaming BLIN, which translates literally as PANCAKE but colloquially means CRAP!   Photo 3.  An old Soviet bus arrived at my school unexpectedly, offering to whisk us away to our local milk factory.  The field trip included a climb up the most precarious ladder I’ve ever seen, flaming milk experiments, and by far the worst smell I’ve encountered yet in Ukraine.  I did find out that a by-product of some of the cheeses they make is mixed with asphalt to make roads.  With that said, I need not describe the roads here to you.  Not only did I want to stop drinking milk after this trip, I thought it should be my duty to euthanize cows to save them from such a fate.   Photo 4. Brinza cheese, which is somewhat sour/bitter but goes well with bread.   Photo 5.  After the hour long tour on a ninety five degree day, the workers at the milk factory gave each student a heaping cup of sour cream!  I received an extremely dirty look after politely declining.  I was also yelled at by the manager for taking this picture.    Photo 6.  This is me on the top of the factory with the “other side” of Belovodsk behind me.  You can see in the background how the land gradually rises.  The big hill in my town separates my side from this part.   Photo 7.  This is a view of mountains and the Danube river from the Bratislava Castle in Slovakia.  Unfortunately the castle was under construction so the pictures of the structure itself are not very good.   Photo 8.  This is the Danube River which runs through Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, and connects it with Vienna, Austria.    Photo 9. The rooftops of Bratislava and the architecture in general greatly differ from what I’m accustomed to seeing in Eastern Ukraine and even Kyiv for that matter.  After Peace Corps, I will be able to say that I lived in Europe for two years but it doesn’t really it.   Photo 10. This is the old town square in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.  It is one of the biggest tourist cities in Central Europe and is known for being relatively unscathed during WWII (unlike London, Dresden or dozens of other cities).   Photo 11A. Bethanie is standing on a pathway leading away from Prague Castle with the red roofs providing a nice backdrop.

  Photo 11B. Same as above.  Prague is great.  It is the home of art nouveau, Franz Kafka, a cathedral with a shriveled arm, the world’s only cubist café and much more.   Photo 12.  This is the famous St. Vitus Cathedral inside Prague Castle.  Even after all the photos and videos I’ve seen, the hype did not kill the experience.   Photo13.  The famous Prague Clock.  Next to the clock you can see small figures representing vanity, greed, pagan invasion, and death.  Every hour, the clock rings and the 12 apostles come through and show through a small window.  The times listed include the hours of the day, the zodiac, the times of sunrise and sunset, and the phases of the moon. Legend has the clock maker’s eyes were removed after he finished so he couldn’t replicate his work for anyone else.   Photo 14. Mural at St. Vitus Cathedral.   Photo 15. Half of the old city hall in Prague's center, destroyed by the bombs of WWII.   Photo 16.  The hostel’s kitchen in Prague.  We stayed at Sir Toby’s which was the best Hostel I’ve been to, equipped with a pub, lounge and outdoor area.   Photo 17.  One of the many many many Cathedrals in Vienna, Austria.   Photo 18.  This is the Summer Palace for the Hapsburgs, the ruling empire of Austria-Hungary up until the end of WWI.   Photo 19. Same as above.   Photo 20.  This is the view from the hostel window.  We stayed at Wombat’s which was like a college dorm.   Project 21.  Camp iKnow, the camp implemented by the Environmental Working Group, expanded from one camp last year in Ternopil, to three camps this year.  We had seven volunteers and fifteen students from Donestk, Lugansk, Mikolayev, Lviv, and Zaporizha.  Kids are taking a break from the environmental lessons and activities to make friendship bracelets.   Project 22.  With 90 degree days, we made daily trips to the local swimming hole.   Project 23.  A fun camp game with singing and hand slapping.  Of course an American won.

  Project 24.  Students making fish out of bottles, Alex’s trash art session.   Project 25.  After spraining my ankle, I was not allowed to stand or walk by my PC medical officer.  I had to teach a leadership lesson and decided to just use my body as a blackboard.

May 28th

This is my first blog in quite some time and I’m glad I have significant events to discuss regarding my living abroad in the Borderland – Ukraine. On May 28th, 2009, my father came to visit my home of the past 21 months in Eastern Ukraine. We’ve discussed this possibility for some time and before I joined the Peace Corps my dad said he would be certain to visit wherever my country of service would be, whether Morocco, Kazakhstan, or Fiji. When I found out I would be serving in Ukraine, one of my dad’s initial reactions was “Well, I’m excited too because until now I never would have had a reason to go there, so it is a country I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.”

I was rather nervous about him coming, since Ukraine, like much of Eastern Europe, is not as equipped to suit tourists as Western countries. My dad would have to make his own way to my oblast center Lugansk by himself as I couldn’t take time off to meet him in Kyiv due to my work. However, the excitement of knowing someone who supported me from my early curiosity toward Peace Corps would soon see where I work and live. I think it is very important to have an outsider’s perspective as I may be desensitized or somewhat biased regarding Ukraine. I really couldn’t wait to hear my dad’s interpretations and impressions of this country.

Arrival

My dad flew from Chicago to Zurich, Switzerland, then to Kyiv, Ukraine, then to Lugansk, Ukraine. He spent some time in Germany and Switzerland a few years back and the layover was too short for the time there to be memorable. However, the flight to Lugansk was five hours after he arrived to Kyiv and opportunities for killing time in Boryspil Airport leaves much to be desired.

I barely slept the night before I went to pick him up. I had to go to Lugansk by bus and hang out at my friend Seth’s apartment who left me his key. It was without a doubt the longest day of my service, waiting around until ten o’clock at night. I had to take a taxi out to the airport which was the size of Gary’s, running only five or six flights daily. I wasn’t sure where to wait but there were others meeting family so I shadowed them. It was a strange feeling to see all the upper class Ukrainians come through the gate, most people travel by train here as it is unbelievably cheap. Then, my dad came through, smiling, and the first thing I noticed was his Harley Davidson shirt. His trip to Lugansk passed free of hindrance, despite it being extremely long and physically tiring. We had to stay at Seth’s apartment due to his late arrival: my town is two hours from Lugansk and buses do not run late.

He refused to take trains to and from Kyiv in order to save time, but I introduce my dad to the Ukrainian public transportation system through minibuses, taxis, and eventually the subway in Kyiv. Riding the bus to my town the next day, my dad had a glimpse of what I have to deal with as the bus was crammed, hot, and not one window was open. I have more than grown accustomed to this form of travel.

We arrived at my apartment, which is a typical Ukrainian apartment with a small bathroom, small kitchen, and one room which acts as a living room and bedroom. Despite its relative tackiness and gaudy décor, including burnt orange flowery carpet, forestry wallpaper, imitation Persian rugs on the walls, and a metal plaque with a naked woman, my dad was relatively impressed with my living quarters. Considering what volunteers in other Peace Corps countries have to go through, my apartment may be laughable in America but here I am proud to live here. He soon realized my idiosyncrasies which I displayed in America were still intact here, as I am rather obsessive about cleaning, organizing and I still working in the kitchen!

Time in Belovodsk

One surprise for my dad was I must walk everywhere in my town as it is too small for buses or taxis yet large enough to tire you if you walk from one side of town to the other. Another early observation was the amount of monuments and statues in my town. Walking from the bus station to my apartment we crossed a giant Soviet WWII memorial, and later he saw the Chernobyl memorial, Bolshevik Revolution monument, Lenin statue, and another WWII monument. Perhaps we have as many monuments in America, but we are never out of our cars long enough to notice them.

My dad had several opportunities to see the emphasis put on student performances and presentations in Ukraine. Our first day in town, a two hour concert at the House of Culture exhibited traditional Ukrainian music and dance, as well as modern song dance routines. I have lost count of how many of these concerts I’ve seen so the novelty has somewhat expired, but my dad was impressed by the amount of activities available to youth even in my small town.

A few days later, he had another chance to view students’ talents at a different concert at the same place. An organization, Lugari which would best be described as co-ed Boy Scouts put on a concert also consisting of various song and dance repetitions. However, the ultimate display of student talent came in the form of a backyard performance in the yard of my apartment complex. Several children, ages ranging from 4-10 from what I gather, knocked on my door and called us down to watch their performance. Basically, it amounted to hanging a rug on a clothesline for a backdrop/changing area and my father and I, along with some parents, watching an hour long private concert. Herman, one of my site mate Chris’s students, played three different instruments; students sang songs and read poetry in Ukrainian, acted out famous fairy tales, and even a hula-hoop act. It was cute in its awkwardness as the children spoke quietly and continuously forgot to address the “audience,” got distracted by people walking by, and played behind the stage curtain. Most of it was in Ukrainian which meant I was as confused as my dad, but we both felt like we had the chance to witness something special.

Unfortunately, the second day of my day camp at school my counterpart informed me my dad could not participate since he does not have the proper documents from the Ukrainian government allowing him to interact with students. Tuesday and Wednesday he was then forced to stay at my apartment. He subsequently spent his afternoons reading and watching 24. Although my apartment is usually hot in the summer, reaching up to 83 degrees in the living room and as high as 97 degrees in the kitchen if I make the foolish mistake of using the oven, it was rather temperate after my dad refused to endure such heat and bought me a fan. I've learned to live without those little privileges and it has helped me to save a large sum of my Peace Corps money for travel.

We spent the afternoons going for walks, looking at my pictures and videos from my service, and we even watched a few episodes of BBC's Planet Earth, prompting my dad to say WOOOW every three minutes. We spent time with my sitemate, eating smoked cheese, smoked fish, and smoked sausage, drinking Ukrainian beer, and playing cards. On Sunday, we went to visit my host family whom I lived with during my first month in Belovdsk before I found an apartment. My dad was amazed by how self sufficient they are, growing, building, and raising everything themselves. In their yard they have bees for honey, chickens, goats, strawberries, raspberries, greens, and just about every vegetable in season. Yuri, my host dad, showed us his cellar where they store food which included jars of jam, fat, and meat.

We ate a large early dinner together which included borsch, pampushky which are garlic buns, and this great dish consisting of fried potatoes which were then baked and meat. The samagon, bathtub vodka, was pulled out at the first chance and my dad got a chance to see what real homemade liquor was like. He brought presents including decorations for my host mom Valentina, US quarters for Yuri because he collects coins, CDs and a poster for Tonya who loves music, and a Boston Celtics jersey for Dima though he was still at college in Kharkiv. Feeling so blessed, they gave us a giant bottle of cherry compote, cherry preserves, cherry wine, and more food than we were ultimately able to eat.

As if this day wasn't enough, the last evening before we set off together for Kyiv, my neighbors invited us outside for a feast on the picnic table. My dad, Chris and I along with five of my neighbors sat around eating for two hours and talking, each group asking questions of the other, much like dinner with my host family. What is life like in America, was the Soviet Union better, will the economy get worse, what do you like most about your country – these were some sample questions of our discussion. At one point, while outside on the picnic bench alone, a different neighbor approached my father trying to remember as much English as possible, explaining he was a soldier for the Polish military. He then went to his apartment to put on his uniform and then presented my dad with gifts, including an autographed book about my oblast and a military photo.

While he was here, my dad had a different perspective on things. I watched the things he chose to photograph or whatever seemed to catch his eye and it greatly differed from the things that strike me. He assumed Ukraine would be perhaps less developed and was surprised by how clean things were. I found this interesting as often volunteers complain about the amount of trash, but having an "outsider's" perspective, it made me try to look at this country differently, look beyond all my biases I have gained living here. His favorite line throughout the trip, however, was "That's not up to code" commented on either bad wiring or construction and absolutely refused to use a public toilet, which are often squatting toilets.

Kyiv

Saving time, we flew from Lugansk to Kyiv on a Thursday morning at seven o'clock, which was a shock for me. My usual trip by train takes at least 16 hours and the flight was only an hour long. In fact, the flight from Lugansk to Kyiv was shorter than the taxi ride from Kyiv's airport to the hotel. It was great to have a chance, on my Dad's dollar which I am more than grateful for, to see a different side of Kyiv and be a tourist for a short time.

We checked into our Hotel, I believe a four star with something like ten restaurants, car services, and English Speaking staff members and I was dumbstruck. The hotel where I usually stay costs ten dollars a night and electricity and hot water are never a guarantee. My dad took a shower as soon as possible as my apartment doesn’t have hot water and he felt like a new person. He roared 'Man, I haven't showered in eight days' to which I replied 'When's the last time you think I took one?!" We set off for the city, taking the subway to Independence Square, the center of the city and the ritziest part of Kyiv. From there we saw St. Michael's and St. Sofia's cathedrals, taking plenty of pictures and stopping to take in the views as it is greatly different from even the oldest or biggest cities in America.

We decided next to go to the National Chernobyl museum which was an educational and moving site. Equipped with audio headsets in English, we walked around the museum observing tens of thousands of documents, personal items, and pieces of art and photographs of the tragedy. There was almost too much information and at times it was overwhelming.

Feeling rather tired after walking so much and waking up at four, we went back to the hotel and rested until dinner. I tried to find neat memorable places to take my dad for food and the Drum was a must. It is in this scary alleyway and located half underground down a stairwell much like a speakeasy. Of course he made a joke like "I'm not going in there" but ultimately enjoyed the atmosphere as the establishment has room for no more than 20 patrons.

The next morning, I got up at six to meet Bethanie at the train station as she arrived from Crimea. She shared the luxury of staying in such a nice by showering and having a few plates at the buffet breakfast and again we were off to see things in Kyiv. We went to the World War II museum, and coincidentally it was June 6th, the anniversary of D-Day. The facility was three floors yet we had only the strength to explore the first two. Words can't really do these places justice and I will post pictures as soon as I can. Following the museum, we went to the National Art Museum which contained everything from religious artifacts to post-modernism and cubist artworks. Souvenir shopping was done at Andrew's descent, a winding stone street leading up a hill to St. Andrew's cathedral. Along the road are vender's with items and gifts, most of them tacky, to sell to tourists and my dad had a fun time haggling with them as they know enough English to conduct their minor business. We were back and forth top to bottom left to right in Kyiv on the subway and in taxis for two days straight.

The second night in Kyiv and last night of my dad's trip, we made reservations for a restaurant called Porto, which I read about in a guide and thought it would appeal to my dad's tastes. My dad, Bethanie, fellow PCV's Amber and Seth, along with his sister who was visiting, my former Russian language teacher Max and his wife Lena all joined us at this chic restaurant. It specialized in seafood and there were giant ice sheets with whole fish laying out which you could choose, and then select how you wanted it to be cooked. My dad was more than in his element, being a host that is, and more than took care of my friends and me. Max and my dad hit it off, sitting next to each, as Max acted as the main translator and interpreter for the evening. We had more food than I could ever wish to describe, but I will say it was amazing. There were plates of fish on fire, giant salads, octopus tentacles, wine, four or five different kinds of fish and of course desert, and then flaming after dinner liqueurs. Needless to say it was a step up from making tuna sandwiches in the Peace Corps office lounge. My dad was glowing after the dinner and I felt glad the place I chose suited us perfectly. It was the best way to end his trip, hosting others in their own country, meeting my friends here, and of course laughing.

It was an amazing trip and though a lot of this blog is simply a recount of what we did, I have a lot more to say about the impact and impressions it left as well as my Dad's observations. I'll leave that for another time.

I'm off tomorrow on a train and will be spending the next two weeks in Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic. Safe travels and talk soon.

When awareness is combined with sympathy, they always bring tolerance and support.

Friday, the tenth of May was the second part of my HIV/Awareness campaign relating to my project at my small village site in Eastern Ukraine – a rock concert by and for students. The main focus of the work is giving teachers the tools, facts, and strategies necessary for talking to students about sex, narcotics, and ultimately HIV/AIDS. While planning this work, my counterpart and I organized opportunities which expose students to facts, myths, and statistics regarding the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but doing so through events which attract their attention (see also: the previous blog regarding the school dance).

Unfortunately, Inna, my project counterpart has been out of school for nearly three weeks now, including the week leading up to the rock festival, due to health issues. Inna did an excellent job planning and executing the school dance and similarly planned the rock festival. However, I found out the day before she would not be able to attend so I had to first find out where she left off and then pick up from there. Thankfully, my English teaching counterpart Raisa and my school director Zhanna helped me immensely.

The two hour schedule included four student group performances, Simbioz, Anomalia, Fallen Angels, and Cemetery. In between each performance we hoped to show segments of Queen’s benefit performance for HIV/AIDS awareness in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city containing the greatest student population. The video included information about the life and death of Freddie Mercury, facts regarding the epidemic, and Queens performance which was watched by nearly 300,000 Ukrainians in Kharkiv’s square.

Around 4:45 on Friday, fifteen minutes before the start of the concert, few students had arrived to our school’s auditorium. I faced the conflict of the first band starting with barely any audience versus the inability to delay the start by more than a few minutes. Additionally, the auditorium was still well lit from increasingly longer days and I wasn’t sure the film would be visible under such conditions.

Ultimately, we started half an hour late which proved inconsequential. I gave the same speech in Russian from the school dance and then introduced my really good friend Brad Luckhardt. Having studied Russian for several years, he gave a much better, more advanced speech. Brad’s speech follows:

Good evening respected guests,

I thank you all for coming to this evening’s meeting. I want to say a big thank you to Mr. Alan (me), his colleagues, and especially his students for all of their efforts. Some of us here know the facts about the AIDS epidemic in Ukraine. An independent estimate by the United Nations says that in 2007 there were around 400,000 HIV positive people living in Ukraine. In that same year the United Nations believes that around 20,000 people died of AIDS in Ukraine. That statistic is even more frightening because it represents real people who live around us; our neighbors, our friends, and our relatives. We should know that in reality all types of people can have HIV and that being HIV positive doesn’t say anything about a person’s personality.

It is my opinion that the most difficult obstacle in our fight against HIV/AIDS is a lack of awareness. What does that mean? What should we know? Without question we should know how HIV is transmitted and in which ways we can protect ourselves.

Moreover, we should know that a HIV positive mother has a good chance of giving birth to a healthy child, given that she knows her own HIV status and that she does everything possible for the child’s health. Additionally, we should know that if people living with HIV learn about their status early enough, they can live a full life with the help of medicine which, by the way, is available free in Ukraine.

Knowing all of this we can live without fear. This is most important because if we live in fear we cannot support one another. When awareness is combined with sympathy, they always bring tolerance and support.

I hope that events such as our concert this evening will be the first step towards a society in which we can live hand in hand, with mutual support, without fear, regardless of our HIV Status. I wish you good health, a pleasant mood, good listening, and all the very best.

Добрый вечер уважаемые гости! Я благодарю вас всех за то, что вы пришли на нашу сегодняшнюю встречу. Я хочу сказать огромное спасибо Mr. Alan, его коллегам, и особенно его ученикам за все их усилия.

Некоторые из нас знают факты об эпидемии СПИДа в Украине. По независимой оценке ООН в 2007ом году на территории Украины проживало около четырёхсот тысяч ВИЧ-инфицированных людей. В этом же году ООН тоже считает, что около двадцати тысяч погибли из-за СПИДа. Такая статистика страшнее потому, что она представляет настоящих людей, которые живут вокруг нас – наши соседи, наши друзья, и наши родственники. Мы должны знать, что в действительности все категории людей могут иметь ВИЧ, также позитивный ВИЧ статус не говорит ничего о личности человека.

По-моему мнению, самая большая трудность в борьбе с явлением ВИЧ/СПИДом недостаток знаний. А что это значит, что мы должны знать? Однозначно мы должны знать, как ВИЧ передаётся и какими способами можно защищать себя, также мы должны знать что ВИЧ-инфицированная мама имеет все шансы родить здорового ребёнка при условии, что она знает свой статус и делает всё возможное для спасения своего ребёнка. К тому же, если инфицирован человек узнаёт свой статус достаточно рано, с помощью лекарства, которое между прочим выдаётся бесплатно в Украине, он может жить полной жизнью. Зная всё это, мы можем жить без страха. Это главное потому, что если мы живем со страхом, мы не можем поддерживать друг друга. Когда знание соседствует с сочувствием, они всегда привносят толерантность и поддержку.

Я надеюсь, что такие мероприятия как наш концерт являются первым шагом к обществу, где все могут жить рука об руку с поддержкой и без страха, невзирая на их статус. Я желаю вам всем крепкого здоровья, хорошего настроения, приятного слушания и всего всего наилучшего.

The explosion of applause was thunderous at the close of his speech. Brad spoke confidently yet assertively, with a presence that helped illustrate the dire situation Ukraine currently faces. We then watched the first ten minutes of Queen’s televised performance. The teachers in attendance commended the video as it discusses Freddie Mercury’s isolation and fear upon discovering his HIV status. Regrettably, too little time was allotted for the video and I wish we could have watched more than ten minutes.

The students’ performances were great, ranging from rap metal, classic rock, and even some rather epic hard rock. During their performances, some of the group members grabbed the microphone in between their songs to speak what was on their mind regarding HIV/AIDS. This was one of the best parts of the night as I had solicited them to share some words. I felt proud as I watched them speak about HIV/AIDS out of their own free will.

As the students performed, my great friends and fellow volunteers Amber Webb and Marnie Ajello passed out red ribbons to the audience. In addition to those two and Brad, group 35 volunteer Chris McDonald, my site mate Chris Russell, and Curtis Schwieterman were in attendance to support the event.

The many talents of the students in my village can not be overstated. The other volunteers were all impressed with the singing, song writing, and playing abilities of each and every group on the stage. Having played with some of the groups, mostly Sergiy and Marina from Anomalia, I was amazed to see how much their music has progressed in the little time I’ve been here. Another great aspect of the concert was that it provided a free, fun, and positive environment for kids for a few hours after school.

In between the groups, students read information about HIV/AIDS, including myths, ten important facts, and finally a quiz that allowed the audience to display their knowledge. Each group had twenty minutes to perform and they stuck to their word and required only three minutes to set up after the previous group had finished.

The final performance of the night was what my counterpart dubbed “The American Boys,” Curtis Schwieterman and I. We put our years of guitar playing to use and Curtis brought down the house with his smooth and forceful voice. We played Better Together by Jack Johnson, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, Curtis’ own song Walking in Circles, Redemption Song and No Woman No Cry by Bob Marley, and Northbound 35 by Jeffrey Foucault. One of the best parts during our performance was when I asked in Russian, “Do you know Bob Marley?” and the audience roared. Ukrainians LOVE clapping along and they tried do likewise during our songs, which didn’t really mesh since some of our songs were very mellow and solemn, so it turned into a funny cross cultural moment. We received a more than warm reception and it was truly an amazing opportunity my school was never hesitant in providing. We took many photos and videos and hope to share them with you all when I can.

Ultimately, seven Americans and about 150 Ukrainians were in attendance for the night’s two hour concert. I was proud to see sixth graders to teachers and school alumni and of course especially happy to see my students present. It was the most exciting and personally rewarding thing I’ve done so far and I hope it had some lasting effect.

The following introduction and article was written by PCV Amber Webb who shared a training site near Kyiv with me and currently lives in my neighboring oblast. She's spearheading a project with PC Ukraine's Environmental working group, which I take part in, and together we will implement this project if we receive the required funding. Enjoy. Keith

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Hello Friends and Family of Keith! For the past year and a half, I've been a Peace Corps volunteer with Keith here in eastern Ukraine. I'm writing today to tell you about an exciting project you can get involved with! I'm sure Keith has written often of the circumstances we live in, yet wonderful people we have the brilliant opportunity to work with! As a member of the Environmental Working Group, our current project is to increase environmental awareness across Ukraine. The Project is called 'Eco Meters Across Ukraine' and can be viewed more on the Peace Corps website. I'd really appreciate if you could take the time to read a quick article about our lives here in the East, and go onto the PC website to donate to the project if its within your means. Thanks for you time! Email me with any questions or comments you may have! To donate: Go to www.peacecorps.gov, Click Donate, Click Current Volunteer Projects, wait for the entire screen to pop up and scroll to the very bottom. You'll find our project title 'Eco Meters' A.Webb KS Peace, Love, and Smiles,Amber WebbPCV Yasinavataya, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine

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Babas, Bucket Baths, and Lynch Mobs - Amber Webb

Yesterday a baba asked me why I chose to come to Ukraine. What’s a baba, you may wonder? Baba is the affectionate term for ‘grandmother’ in Russian. They are the hardened post-soviet women, draped in head scarves and thick stockings, pedaling their pickles and beets on every street corner, and absolutely the purest representation of Ukrainian culture. They’ve endured famines and wars, don’t even flinch at sub-zero temperatures, and can drink vodka like its water. Don’t you know in Ukraine, a shot a day keeps the doctor away? So when one of these stoic daughters of Lenin asks you a question, you’d better be prepared to answer.

Seventeen months ago, I arrived in Ukraine as a Peace Corps volunteer. Ukraine is not a country that you’ll often see in the media for such horrors as the kidnapping drug cartels of South America or the child soldiers and spreading AIDS epidemic in Africa, but it is a country of many problems that simmer just below the surface of the world’s attention.

My assignment is in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. It is the most industrialized and polluted area in Europe. I’m sure after two years in the Donbas, my daily runs will result in Black Lung and the occasional dip I take in the river will produce a second belly-button or 3-eyed offspring, but this is my life as a Peace Corps volunteer. I wake every morning hoping for running water, sometimes arrive to work dazed and slightly euphoric from the exhaust-filled buses, and have on occasion, slept in a parka and snow boots on the bitterest of winter nights. But for all its hardships, Ukraine has also given me moments of confused but well-intentioned oddity.

On a Peace Corps budget, my washing machine is actually a bucket which doubles as my bathtub. Hence, I hand-wash my clothes… and apparently not very well. One day, after returning from work, I went to collect my drying garments from the line. Under the watchful eyes of collecting babas, I took my clothes only to find that they were a little cleaner than when I’d first left. Wondering how this was possible, I looked around until the herd of babas that had secretly re-washed my clothes, tried to hide the evidence by scattering to the wind and avoiding eye contact. I didn’t pursue any accusations in hopes that the practice would continue.

On another occasion, it was yet one more evening of the frequent power-outages in my town. On the assumption that the clumsy American girl probably didn’t think to have candles, the neighborhood kids came to bring me some. When they found I wasn’t at home, worry set in. Armed with flashlights and candles, babas and parents in tow, they marched through the streets to find me. After buying a phone card from a man on the street, I glanced up to see what looked to be a lynch mob coming my way. My initial reaction was to run. I do only live a few hundred short miles from Transylvania and visions of Frankenstein and burning at the stake were running through my mind. However, in a brief and rare moment of rational thought, I realized that Ukrainians are generally a kind and giving people. They returned me home safely, stocked with candles and matches and I have since wondered why they take such care of me and have such respect for what I do?

One explanation is that many Ukrainians wonder why I would leave the comfort and affluence of the US to be a volunteer in Ukraine. For them, this is a county that was dealt a bad hand. The constant political instability and on-going corruption has only lead to a public acceptance of stagnant development. The economy is failing, public welfare is neglected, and the environment becomes more and more detrimental to health everyday. Even now in the second decade of post-soviet development, mentalities have been slow to change, activists are few and far between, and for many it is a waiting game of unlikely government support. Yet, Ukraine is a country with much potential for development. For years now they’ve teetered on the edge of success and efficiency, yet never quite crossed the finish line. My job and the job of Peace Corps volunteers worldwide is to help facilitate this process.

So why did I come to Ukraine? Why do I live in darkness 16 hours a day and survive on a diet of cabbage and potatoes? I’d like to say it’s the exotic local and easy life, but this is the Donbas. The kid I see recycling his trash, the students I see collecting clothes for orphans, and the activism of my blind friends here to make a better life for all minority and repressed groups, that’s the reason I came. The Ukrainians I work with may lack funds, but they definitely don’t lack spirit. Introducing these ideas of sustainable development and volunteerism to such people is what makes me smile, even on the darkest days here in Ukraine. It is for this reason I write. Currently, many of my students have embarked on a project to increase environmental awareness. The project is call Eco Meters Across Ukraine and the idea is to start mass clean-ups in urban areas and to paint environmental murals in the most dirty and polluted regions. Because the economic crisis is hitting worst abroad in the developing world, our ability to fundraise is limited. Hence, we write to you in hopes that you can spare a little extra money to make a difference not only to my hard-working students, but also to the thousands of Ukrainians that will see our murals on a daily basis.

If you would like to contribute to this project donations are tax-deductible. Please visit the website:

www.peacecorps.gov, click on donors and donate to a volunteer project. For region, type Europe and Central Asia. You can also type that my home state is Kansas. Submit and scroll to the bottom of the page. The project is called “Eco Meters Across Ukraine”.

Friday, March 20th was the first activity of several up and coming events related to my HIV AIDS prevention and awareness project which was funded by PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Action Plan for AIDS Relief).

Our school had a dance to help raise awareness about the problem of HIV/AIDS in Ukraine, Europe, and the world. It was mostly organized by my PEPFAR colleague, Inna, a teacher of biology at my school who attended a week long training seminar with me in Kyiv provided by Peace Corps.

We’ve had some disagreements and a few snags with the implementation of our project, mainly due to lack of experience executing a real project with real money and the language barrier. Most of my time is spent speaking English as my primary work is teaching English as a foreign language. Not to mention, she speaks Surzhik rather heavily, a blend of Ukrainian and Russian, so my Ukrainian vocabulary has slowly increase.

We invited all students from 8th grade and up from my school and School Number 2 where my site mate Chris works. At first I was uncertain as only a handful of students arrived by the official start time, 4:00pm. We pushed back the opening speeches and introductions by an hour and students danced and talked while others arrived. At 5:00pm we had about 30-35 students, which was less than we were both expecting. Anya, an 11th grader, gave an introduction of my project work with Inna which includes training teachers to be service providers and how to talk to kids about HIV/AIDS and then I gave a short speech in Russian.

Good evening. I would like to say that we have worse diseases than HIV and AIDS; for example, fear, hatred, ignorance, and discrimination.

HIV and AIDS are problems which are both important and serious. This is not only a problem for people citizens of Ukraine, but citizens of the world. We have a responsibility so that people who live with HIV and AIDS don’t live alone.

Ukraine has the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in Europe. Protect yourself and those you love.

And remember that HIV is not transmitted through laughter or friendship, and certainly not through dance. Let’s dance! In Ukraine and America, it’s fashionable [smart] to be healthy.

The students starting cheering despite my inability to pronounce the word ignorance in Russian, obyazannast. The students organized the music and acted as DJs and every fourth song or so, students gave information about HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention, which was executed wonderfully.

They spoke about Freddie Mercury, the former leadsinger of Queen who died of AIDS. Queen is an exceptionally popular group in Ukraine and only last year the remaining members performed an HIV/AIDS benefit concert in Kharkiv for free in front of about 300,000 screaming Ukrainians. After speaking about the death of Mercury, they played a Queen song and every student knew every word in English and as they screamed the words at the top of their lungs I felt foolish as I didn’t even recognize the song!

I’m really proud of my counterpart and how well she planned the activity. We had about fifty students come and raised just under 40 UAH which at the current exchange rate is about 5 dollars but for Ukraine that is quite a bit. At first I was disappointed at the small turnout, but the students had so much fun and as I thanked them as they left, they said “No, thank you!” which totally sealed the event as being a success.

I never thought dancing with 14-17 year olds for three hours would be so much fun, but really it was a great time. Chris came as well as one student from his school and it was just a great, fun, positive environment.

In two weeks, we will be having a Rock Festival at school. Three of our school’s rock groups will play. My good friend Curtis will accompany me on some acoustic songs as well which makes me excited. In between groups, Inna will show segments from the Queen concert in Kharkiv which was broadcasted. It’ll show information about Mercury’s life, HIV in Ukraine, and select songs from the group. I can’t wait for this event as rock is more popular than the disco scene and more students will come as they won’t be expected to dance – or at least I hope this forecast comes true.

So signing of with our project’s slogan, It’s smart to be healthy!

Written by Hanni Reynolds

Many countries around the world are in need of assistance, and America found a way in the 1960s to give a hand. According to www.peacecorps.gov, Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. From that inspiration grew an agency of the federal government devoted to world peace and friendship called the Peace Corps (PC).

Keith Gough, a 2002 graduate of MHS, is currently in Ukraine volunteering for the PC.

In Kennedy’s famous inaugural speech, he stated: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Gough said that the Peace Corps is one example of how to fulfill that idea.

“I first considered Peace Corps during a course at Indiana University called Human Impact on the Environment where the instructor taught about effective agricultural practices by presenting his experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South America,” Gough said.

Gough, who has been volunteering since October 2007, said that the goals of the PC are to provide countries with trained and capable workers who will pass on skills and information to help the host community grow, promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served and to promote a better understanding of the people served part of Americans. “I have met amazing volunteers who have already done more with their lives than I could ever imagine. I've made lifelong friends with Ukrainians and Americans and no two days here are the same,” Gough said.

Gough was studying Social Studies education and he thought the Peace Corps would be good way to relay information about history, culture, geography and more through first hand experience. "There is only so much you can learn from a book and from a classroom and I thought about how much volunteering would help as an educator,” Gough said.

Before taking part in the PC, Gough volunteered locally. He attended Indiana University and volunteered working as a tutor for children from domestic violence backgrounds. He also worked in a crisis shelter, and was a mentor for Big Brothers, Big Sisters. “Peace Corps was a way I could take volunteering to the next step and learn skills that would continue to benefit me as a teacher and a human for the rest of my life,” Gough said.

In high school, Gough did not care much about anything. He said he wasn’t the best student and should have done more in school. “I was an average student in high school and didn’t take advantage of the opportunities available, especially at MHS,” Gough said. “So I always felt guilty that my parents paid for my schooling when I never felt like I earned a free ride.” He said the Peace Corps was a way he could earn an achievement on his own and be more independent.

It was very difficult to stray far from his family even when he liked the independence.

“Saying goodbye to my friends and family was very difficult, especially since I’ve traveled very little and my only time away from home was during college,” Gough said.

He said it was very hard for him to leave, but he received only love and support from all of those who were closet to him, including his first host family in Ukraine. The first three months of volunteer work were training. The PC training includes learning languages and jobs, health and safety, and crossing culture.

“Volunteers live in a training site during this time with other volunteers who share all the same training sessions,” Gough said.

For three months, Gough had five hours of Russian language every weekday.

“Russian is a very difficult language to learn, but living here means I have to speak it whether I’m buying train tickets or haggling in the bazaar (an open market),” Gough said. He has passion for the PC and suggests that it would be a good idea for students to consider volunteering one day. If high school students are interested in Peace Corps, he recommends reading about the programs.

“Try to find opportunities to volunteer in your community as America is greatly in need, Gough said. “Find opportunities to travel if you can or to work with those from different countries. All these things will prepare those who are interested in applying for the Peace Corps.”

Although the Peace Corps is mainly for college graduates, it is still a goal that high school students may achieve.

During his experiences overseas as a Peace Corps volunteer, he believes he has grown in so many ways. “I am no longer afraid of making mistakes,” Gough said. “If I was, then I wouldn't be able to do or accomplish anything here.”

“I've also become more aware of my own ignorance, about politics, culture, history and so forth. Americans often think things work the same everywhere in the world, and that simply isn't true.”

Gough said that the schools are so much different from America that it is hard not to think of things in terms of right and wrong simply because things differ from what I am used to.

Gough is a member of PC Ukraine’s Environmental Working Group and he just finishes writing a President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief grant to fund an HIV AIDS awareness project that plans to educate thousands of adolescents about HIV prevention and transmission. “I’m trying to dispel myths and arm students and teachers with information that can save lives.” He is still in Ukraine, and will be until December 2009. He is continuing his passion and says he is loving every moment of his experiences.

“After reading the book ‘Three Cups of Tea’, the biggest thing I took away from volunteering overseas is not exactly what you do, but how,” Gough said. “Tasks cannot be on an American timeframe or completed in the same way as in the States, and it is very important to work with your community in a familiar way to make them comfortable. These are all things I would not have been able to perceive before being a PCV.”

Peace Corps Ukraine has many working groups, one of which is Gender and Development (GAD) which works to change unhealthy perceptions and stereotypes about gender roles through summer camps, lesson plans, contests, and many other activities.

I passed on the information for the 2008 essay contest to my counterpart and she promptly worked to make the composition an in class control work assignment that would count as a grade but also later be entered into the contest via email. Unfortunately, this did not go completely as planned as there were supposed to be in class discussions and readings about the issue of gender prior to the assignment but I did not conduct these classes, and to be honest I’m not sure if I would have found appropriate materials in time. Also many students simply found articles online and copied and pasted them into Word Documents then used translator programs on their computers to translate into English. In the end, we sent away about eight or nine essays to the contest, though they weren’t really close to the five hundred word stipulation and I’m sure the students had plenty of help from teachers or siblings, but at least they are working and thinking about such issues. My favorite essays were the ones with the most mistakes as I know the students wrote the compositions themselves.

This year’s topic was: World Life Expectancy Fact Sheet

“The life expectancy in Ukraine is lower for men than it is for women. Currently the corresponding decline in life expectancy is 4.5 years for men and .3 years for women (World Health Organization, 2003).

The average life expectancy of men in Ukraine is 62 (World Factbook).

The average life expectancy of women in Ukraine is 73 (World Factbook).

Country yr. 2000 Life Expectancy yr. 1998 Life Expectancy

Canda 79.4 79.2

Iraq 66.5 66.6

Mexico 71.5 71.6

Romania 69.9 70.5

Ukraine 66.0 65.8

U.K. 77.7 77.2

United States 77.1 76.1

The assignment asked the students to explain what they believe the causes of the decrease in life expectancy as well as the discrepancy between male and female life spans and what they would do if they were President to fix the problems. Most of the responses I’ve read have dealt with alcohol which is no mere coincidence, but rather it seems like a cry for help. Sadly, this essay contest came only two weeks after the death of the Physical Education teacher’s son who worked in Kyiv and was barely forty years old died of a heart attack. I also met a man whose brother died during a simple dental procedure and I realize the status of health care here is no laughing matter.

Some Americans may think Ukraine’s cheap price of liquor, no open container policy, and ability to drink not only on the streets but on public transportation to be good things, but these are all things that are having very serious impacts on this country and population.

Here are some of the essays written in English, others were in Ukrainian, I sent to be submitted. Mind you some of the wording is unclear but I felt it important not to change what they wrote.

________________________________________________________________________

Dmytro Hundar

Grade 6

Belovodska Gymnasium

My name is Dmytro Hundar. I live in Ukraine. Ukraine is a big and beautiful country. It is situated in the center of Europe. Its population is forty six million, but some years ago there were much more people on our country. They say people die like flies.

I live in a small town. I know many people in my town and I can say many of them die at an early age, especially men.

When I listen to the news on TV I hear that something happens almost every day. It may be an accident on some enterprise or pit. Very often I hear about traffic accidents. People, especially young men, drink alcohol and spirits and drive their cars. I think it’s the main reason of such kind of accidents. We have very serious ecological problems in our country also.

Medical care in our country is not up to standard. We have a high sickness rate.

If I were a president I would pay much more attention to the environment protection and medical service, I would prohibit drinking of alcohol spirits and improve control on the roads.

I think all these measures will improve the situation in Ukraine.

_________________________________________________________________________

Alex Vladitchak

Age: 17

The demographic problem is one of global problems of all mankind. In Ukraine it has the specificity.

For the last ten years the population in our country was reduced almost by 4 million people. Besides there are low parameters of average life expectancy: for women this parameter is 73 years, for men 62 years. As we see, a difference essential enough.

According to these parameters we see one more problem. Such as, high fatality rate of a men.

On statistics, boys are born more often than girls (the difference makes approximately 5%) in the world. Really, has nature provided such problem?

What causes this problem on the territory of our state?

Without diving into centuries when primitive people lived among the wild nature, they entirely depended on it when often it was necessary to give a life of hunters for the extracted food (and they were men) we shall receive the following.

To begin, the big influence on quantity of the population (especially the male population) was rendered from constant wars Ukrainian people fought against the Mongolian nomads, and later against Turkey, Poland. Two world wars and two civil wars were on the territory of Ukraine only last century. And armies, as it is known, consist basically of men.

Secondly, men choose to themselves extreme trades, such as military men, miners, metallurgists, pilots, seamen and others. Accidents with plural fatal cases have happened in the last two months to Ukrainian men.

Thirdly, men are engaged in extreme kinds of sports more often: mountaineering, a scuba diving, mountain and water slalom and others where they are exposed to risk.

Furthermore, men more often than women get in various criminal situations and participate in criminal groupings. And it often costs lives.

Next, this abusing alcohol, smoking, and drugs considerably undermine health. And it is frequently also the cause of death.

And still men make the majority of drivers, which get in crashes more often. These and still many other reasons, including a usual boyish overindulgence in foolish activities.

Why does it occur? It is difficult to answer this question. Here a profound knowledge in the field of psychology is necessary. It is a separate greater theme for consideration, and we shall not concern it.

I cannot give the examples from private life; I still do not have sufficient experience. I refer to knowledge, from the literature and experience of adults. However, it is enough to understand scales of a considered problem.

What measures are necessary to make for its decision?

People from simple inhabitants up to presidents should solve all global problems. If I were the president I should do my best to prevent wars and to keep peace all over the Earth. I should create all conditions to develop economy and social policy to provide a high material and spiritual standard of living of people, to care about health of each person, to stop all diseases, and to give the people the possibility to get jobs they need.

And the most important - to teach each person to appreciate and protect the life as a gift.

Alina Volvak

8th Grade

I am a Ukrainian and I’m proud that my motherland is Ukraine. I’m nearly fourtneen years old now but I understand that I was born in the years when Ukraine had proclaimed its independence and I had become a small part in the history of my “mother.” When Ukraine proclaimed itself democratic, legal, and social state, it took the duties to keep the demands of international community according to equal rights of citizens, including the problem of carrying gender changes concerning sex signs.

As the United Nations Organizations considers all men and women must have equal reigghts and possibilities, they must realize their aims and dreams into life, they must respect one another as equal among them.

Nowadays the psycho-emotional behavior of women becomes more aggressive, and the behavior of men – softer. It leads to the fact that fatality rate of men at an early age increases. T’s sad but Ukraine takes the first place in the world concerning fatality of men from twenty to forty five years old. We must immediately do something with this problem. The situation in the country shows that the number of population decreases, the state of health of men becomes worse. According to the facts women live ten to twelve years longer than men. It’s connected with the fact that our government, our society pay not enough attention to the men’s healthy. They feel problems keenly, for example in the sphere of economy if their salary is very low.

We have many ecological problems which influence our health greatly, for example the accident at the Chornobyl power Station (the Chornoboyl Tragedy), the epidemic of AIDS, the tuberculosis, and other infections. They lead to the premature deaths, disablements, and other diseases. I think that the usage of alcoholic drinks, drugs, and other harmful things influence negatively on men. Looking for a way out of a complicated situation a man resorts to physical violence, to a risky way of life, to criminal crimes. I have a friend who is brought up only by a mother. He doesn’t feel the care and presence of a father in his life. But it is not correct being. Having left with the child neither mother nor father are bale to make valuable conditions for child’s upbringing. From his childhood a child has such psychological changes which can lead to mental disorder.

If I were a president, I would provide all people with regular jobs, with dwellings – to make sure in tomorrow’s day. In order a green dragon not to ruin our families. I would solve this problem on the state grade because nowadays this one is a tragedy nearly in every family. For this purpose it is necessary to institute control over the production and trade of alcohol.

It’s necessary to keep in mind that when a boy or a girl is born they both possess equal rights as citizens of Ukraine in future any of their rights mustn’t be infringed on. I would like every person to realize himself in any sphere of life and nobody and nothing would become an obstacle for this!

I believe you and trust you, my dear Ukraine!

Yulia Grozdikovoi

8th Grade

Once my classmate said to me: “There are not enogh men in the world. You must take care of us”.

People never think about the statistics of death in Ukraine, but it’s very important. The lives of women are longer than the men’s lives. In Ukraine they live 62 years, and women live 73 years.

Today, the causes of death are very different. They are accident, illnesses, etc. But I think that harmful habits do the greatest hurt for our health. It depends on tobacco and alcohol.

Today, schoolboys and schoolgirls have these habits too. It’s very sad, because our country can’t do anything. Of course, our country tries to do something, but we can’t see this work.

Often we set the questions about our future profession. Probably, I want to be the president, but not for very long, only in order to change this bad situation.

We must introduce a few rules for that. First of all, we must prohibit selling alcohol to children. We have already introduced this rule, but only one shop in a thousand executes it. Then we must supply uncorruptible agents, who will tell us about the bad shops in all cities and villages.

Also we must imitate European countries which don’t allow people to drink alcohol and to smoke in “the streets”. They have special places for such activities.

I think that these rules are simple. And if we will do it, our men will live longer, and Ukraine will not have this problem.

The following things are some cultural observations I’ve recorded during my six months in Ukraine. Some are funny and peculiar while others are extremely important in understanding and acknowledging in order to be accepted into a Ukrainian household.

1) Ukraine is very much a foot culture. People will pass judgment on you based on the cleanliness of your shoes. Remember to take off your shoes once entering a house as most times even guest slippers are available. Many important buildings like schools and administration buildings have small troughs of water to clean the mud from your shoes before walking into the building. Our shoes in America would probably be a lot cleaner if we weren’t able to drive just about everywhere.

2) One of my favorite customs is for family or friends to sit in silence before someone leaves to travel. Long ago, Ukrainians would sit still in belief that demons that would be watching and hoping to upset someone’s travels would become bored and then leave. Today this is done more out of tradition.

3) School is much more strict and less lenient than American schools at the same time. Students are expected to stand up and greet the teachers as well as say goodbye, ask to enter a classroom, and basically plead for forgiveness if they are late. On the other hand, students run through the halls yelling, wrestling, blasting music on the cellphones, and join in mass groups during breaks to smoke outside the building. Similarly, there are two bells for each period – the first for students and the second for teachers who are almost always late. I have walked in on teachers smoking in the men’s room and it is not uncommon for toasts to be made with wine, champagne, and even vodka on holidays at school.

4) Bribes are very common in Ukrainian society, whether to get you out of trouble from the militia, local government, or to boost your grade or get out of a test at the public and university level.

5) The people in my town look at me as a child since I speak Russian like a toddler and believe since I am new to their culture I need to be looked after as much as possible. I am not only thankful for my host families assistance, but also for random strangers who have given me cellphone chargers after losing mine, rides home after getting lost, and free food when they found out I don’t grow potatoes.

6) The discussion of money, how much you make or how much you spend, is very common and to many Americans seems very blunt and rude. However, this is just one more way Ukrainian culture is different in their openness to discuss things we may not like to share, like our pay stubs.

7) Men almost always greet and part by shaking hands and women are never expecting to shake hands. Shaking hands with your gloves on is considered to be very offensive as historically enemies would hide weapons in their gloves. Also, it is bad luck to shake hands, or pass money, through a doorframe.

8) Almost everyone has two jobs, their official work that pays them and their gardens and farms that feed them. Ukrainians are food of practical knowledge and people are expected to know how to farm and raise animals for the products as well as experience.

9) Never whistle indoors. Ukrainians believe you will whistle away all their money.

10) Gossip is pretty popular, just like America. Everyone knows what I buy at the stores, what I receive at the post office, and probably by now how much I receive for my living allowance. Teachers at my school also are very reluctant to share feedback to improve my lessons and often just talk to each other to criticize me rather than telling me directly.

11) Ukrainians are very multitalented, as most students play at least one instrument, sport, and can either paint, draw, dance, sing, or all of the above. The time spent at the School of Music, Sports, or Arts is just as important as the time studying Math or Science at the public school.

12) Family names are not important. Ukrainians like Russians use patronymics. This is when an ending is attached to the end of your father’s name according to your gender. For example if a boy named Sasha’s father’s name is Vasyl, then his patronymic name is Vasylovitch. If a girl named Zhenya’s father’s name is Vasyl then her patronymic name is Vasylivna. I used to introduce myself as Keith Alan Jamesovitch, but people just laugh at me. Most times the family name is not even used, especially in schools. Family names will also end based on gender. For example Dima Fiatov and his sister Tony Filatova – same name different ending. Even with studying famous Russians us Westerners don’t acknowledge the patronymic name, like Vladimir Putin, the former president of Russia. Most people here know him as Vladimir Vladimirovitch. (ps. Russian’s new president’s name translates to “bear”)

13) Ukrainians are very reserved. On buses, subways, and on the sidewalk, you won’t find many people yelling and talking loud unless it is following a football (soccer) match. Even good friends may simply greet each other with the nod of a head or a quick handshake when passing in public. This is one of the more difficult cultural characteristics for Americans to fit into since most times we want to smile at everyone, say hi, and talk to strangers.

14) Russian vs. Ukrainian. Do not make the mistake of calling a Ukrainian person a Russian. Though the cultures and countries have much in common, Ukrainians pride themselves in their own identity and their sovereignty. Even out East where Russian is more commonly spoken than Ukrainian, there is still a mix of the languages. The reliance on Russian is often explained as out of custom and what they are used to speaking and what is most widely understood. Speaking clean Russian in Eastern Ukraine is as strange as speaking clean Ukrainian.

There are many complicated political problems in Ukraine, argued by those who are loyal to Russia and those who want to join NATO and be more like Western European countries. Just as you hear the Democrat vs. Republic debate in America, this is the most common thing you will hear debated in Ukraine.

________

Now what I would like to do is have the readers of this blog share some of their own cultural quirks and the interesting things about daily life in America. Being out of the country has made it difficult to explain the little things about American life as written above about Ukraine so I would greatly appreciate your assistance as to make American culture more vivid for my students. Thanks.

Saturday March 21st

I was under the impression Friday was my last day teaching before Spring Break, but the Administration decided that morning to have the usual Monday classes on Saturday since we missed two weeks for quarantine and we still haven’t caught up. I finished the Barack Obama book Dreams from my Father book, which I highly recommend, and stayed up late Friday night so I could return it to Marnie when I would see her next in Lugansk.

My classes went rather well Saturday despite feeling a little groggy, but I know the students didn’t want to be there so I tried to be as energetic as possible to motivate them. In Eighth form the students shared their postcards they made about Whitehall and then we began to write our own definitions for the vocabulary words in the next section, an activity that sounds a lot harder than you think for nonnative speakers of any language.

In ninth grade the students we split up in pairs and each group was assigned a region in the US, for example New England or the Midwest, and had to present the states included in the region, history, climate, geography, and economy and teach the rest of the students. It went rather well though in my more advanced class almost eight kids out of fourteen didn’t show up, which made me give everyone who came a perfect score for the day. I later saw some of the absent pupils in the hall and again they used to the trite excuse of going to the doctor, so after break I’m going to explain to them that next time I will get their home phone numbers from the office and then call their parents and explain in Russian that I am concerned for the students’ health considering how often they visit the doctor. If this doesn’t work, I’ll just continue to give them all zeros. Fortunately, I haven’t had a reason to be strict yet with my students as I’ve had no problems, but it won’t take long before they see me switch modes and to understand how serious I am.

In fifth form we continued to learn about animals and though they were very rambunctious, the class was fun and I was able to teach them the famed long named Hawaiin fish nuah-nuah-nuka-nuka-a-poo-a-hah. That was probably the highlight of the week at school though watching children dressed as elves goosestepping during a school concert was both surreal and sublime.

Zarya 0 – Metalurg 1

After teaching, I ran home to grab my bag and then jumped on a bus to Lugansk. While doing so, I realized fifty percent of the time I am a little more than fifty percent certain I am on the right bus to the right town. By the time I got about eighty miles south two hours later, the climate jumped probably fifteen degrees so I decided to walk to the stadium from the bus station which took about a half an hour. It was almost like being back in the states during a football game at IU with tailgating and the likes, though the only food was sunflower seeds. I quickly met up with Seth, Marnie, Olya, and Adam. Marnie and I were not checked for our backpacks which had clothes and toiletries for staying at Seth’s but they everyone who purchased a beer that comes in plastic bottles cut off so the cap could not be screwed back on and the bottle heaved at some poor chap. I thought this was very interesting since I had my Leatherman pocket knife on me and wasn’t frisked luckily.

The weather was fantastic, the beer was good, and since I know very little about football (soccer) I really enjoyed myself while my friends explained the basic rules. We lost one to zero but it was still fun and the ticket cost four dollars, though as Olya explained two years ago they cost ten cents a piece, so imagine how upset the fans would be for the percent increase. Olya meets with the English Club at the Lugansk Library and speaks perfect English. Every time a fan or group of fans started to yell and heckle, she would put her head down and laugh and refused to translate their words saying only that they were stupid and dirty phrases. Whatever it was, I knew it was probably funny by the way it sounded and how the fellow spectators responded.

After the game, al the fans simple storm the street lighting off fireworks and blocking the cars, buses, and trollies, a celebration I thought would be reserved for an actual victory. Once more, we went to the Schwarma stand, which is like a Middle Eastern burrito, and to add to the list of people I’ve met there from Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, we met a couple born in Pakistan but based out of Malaysia studying biology in English at one of the Lugansk Universities.

After the schwarma, we went to the Chelsea Pub restaurant across the street to sit and talk and have a snack, which turned out to be pistachios since they were fresh out of ice cream. While we were there, we heard a man speaking English in a heavy southern drawl and quickly realized he was on a date with a Ukrainian woman with a translator present, which sadly enough probably means he was going through one of many companies that helps Westerners find wives in Ukraine and then obtain the proper documents to take them back to their country. He heard us speak English and had a quick conversation with him though the whole ordeal still seamed very shady and awkward. At least it was reassuring to know that he’s been coming to Ukraine for years yet we speak better Russian after three months of training and six months total in country.

Peace Corps Perception

I often admit in my writing and in my conversation that sometimes my life here is very far from my first expectations of Peace Corps service. Ukraine on one hand looks much like life in America, with fashion, restaurants, designer clothes, and technology; however, this is very deceiving since the everyday customs, rituals, and culture overall is very different which I think tricks people into thinking they are back in the States. This causes them to let down their guard some which can either get them in trouble or put them in danger. I think this deception would make adjusting to a new country more difficult than going to a new country where everything is completely different, like villages in Sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia, because there are not fragments of your old life in America tricking you into thinking you are somewhere else.

Next fall when you see geese heading south for the winter flying along in "V" for­mation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way. It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. People who share common direction and a sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier, because they are traveling on the thrust on one another.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone, and quickly gets into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front. If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay information with those who are headed the same way we are going.

When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point. It pays to take turns doing hard jobs.

The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. An encouraging work goes a long way.

Finally, when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by a gun shot and falls out, two geese fall out of formation, and follow him down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly or until he is dead, and they launch out on their own or with another formation to catch up with the group. If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other like that.

Author Unknown

For people interested in sending a care package or a letter, here is my address in Russian, though I’m not sure if your computer will support the text.

Алан Гоуч

Петровского, 7

Беловодск

92800

Луганская Область

Украина

If this works, you can either copy by hand or print out a label or something by copying and pasting the text into a word document.

For backup, here is my address in English

Alan Gough

Petrovsky, 7

Belovodsk

92800

Lugansk Oblast

Ukraine

My parents tried to send a package via UPS and customs were a big problem. There is a Ukrainian run company called MEEST that has offices all across the States and I believe there website is meest.net. This company has received the best reviews from PCVs here in Ukraine for the quality of care and inexpensiveness (and sending food isn’t a problem unlike UPS). If there isn’t an office near you I believe you can send a package to them and they will forward it. You can contact them to know exactly what and how much to send, how much it will cost, and how long it will take.

As far as letters go, they will arrive here in about a month and I believe you only need a ninety cent stamp.

Ps. Most people know me as Alan since Keith has several problems translating into the Cyrillic alphabet as well as Russian and Ukrainian vocab.

If the text does not show up, email me.

I was unable to obtain internet access in time to post my blog about IWD, but you can read now if interested on the holiday last Saturday.

______________________________

March 8th is International Women’s Day, a holiday and day of celebration that I was unaware of until I stumbled off an airplane in Kyiv five months ago. Although International Women’s Day is often seen as being rooted in Socialist or Communist societies, Russia and the former Soviet republics are not alone in celebrating this holiday as demonstrations have been held in the United States, India, Austria, China, Cameroon, and nations of every size and culture, from East to West.

Historically, the holiday can be seen as a mass dissent against the social, political, and mostly the economical inequalities of the sexes, which explains the day’s significance in socialist regimes. Women have demonstrated for workers’ rights across the globe for the last ninety nine years to shed light on not only horrid working conditions, but also domestic abuse and maltreatment.

Today in Ukraine, and many other countries where International Women’s Day is an official holiday designated by the government, the holiday has shed its political connotations and can be seen in a similar light as Mother’s Day. Political groups still meet to discuss the advancement of women and history is dictated in schools, administrative meetings - both local and national, and on the television.

Ukrainian society is still seen as patriarchal, though a Ukrainian proverb explains, “The man is a head, but the woman is a neck. The man looks where the neck turns.” Under the Soviet Union, more than ninety percent of households were unable to sustain on a single income, forcing women into the dangerous and unsupportive factories while continuing to maintain house and home.

The most common way to celebrate in Ukraine is the giving of small gifts, such as flowers, chocolate, and small gifts to all women in the family, neighbors, and sometimes coworkers as well. Odd numbers of flowers are presented to women, as even numbers are given only for funerals. The color of the flowers are also very important; yellow signifies a farewell; red indicates a victory and is often used on days of military remembrance; and white is a symbol of innocence.

So for those who were unaware of the holiday, like me, surprise your mother, sister, daughter, or coworker with a small gift this year. They’ll greatly appreciate the gesture and you can share a very important part of Ukrainian culture with those in America.

Quotes I enjoy:

"When I think of talking, it is of course with a woman. For talking at its best being an inspiration, it wants a corresponding divine quality of receptiveness, and where will you find this but in a woman ?"

- Oliver Wendell Holmes .

“I’m just a person trapped inside a woman's body."

- Elaine Boosler .

Further Reading (educate yourself, find more information!)

Fanny Wright – Scottish American activist who attacked the clergy believing organized religion to be the basis for inequality of the sexes. Most known for her “utopian” plantations in which the owners and slaves practiced miscegenation, the solution Wright believed would bring an end to chattel slavery.

Sojourner Truth – Born into slavery before the turn of the 19th Century, Truth fought to give herself a voice in a world where all women were white and all blacks were male. As she did not fit into the standard mold of 19th Century Femininity, Truth once publicly bared her breasts when a man questioned her womanliness. She strongly opposed the 14th Amendment, demanding the word “man” be removed and opposed Frederick Douglas who argued black men should vote even if black women could not.

Abbey Kelley – A Massachusetts born Quaker, Kelley dedicated her life to changing the way white society treated blacks. However, her white skin did not protect her from phrases such as “nigger bitch” which were heaved often by the very people she tried to educate. Inspired by William Lloyd Garrison and the American Anti-Slavery Society, Kelley was banished by her church for her independent travels through New England where she spoke to the commoner about the immorality of slavery.

The Anti Slavery Convention of American, where Kelley presented her ideals, was the first ever female organized political meeting in America, more than a decade before Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the famous meeting in Seneca Falls. Believing white women should vote before black men, both Stanton and Susan B Anthony prioritized women’s suffrage over abolition and greatly opposed Kelley’s commentary on abolition at any means.

The following article was written by a former volunteer, recruiter, and country director for Cameroon. I'm interested to hear your responses regarding his stance on the immaturity and lacking skills of Peace Corps Volunteers.

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January 9, 2008 Op-Ed Contributor Too Many Innocents Abroad

By ROBERT L. STRAUSS Antananarivo, Madagascar

THE Peace Corps recently began a laudable initiative to increase the number of volunteers who are 50 and older. As the Peace Corps’ country director in Cameroon from 2002 until last February, I observed how many older volunteers brought something to their service that most young volunteers could not: extensive professional and life experience and the ability to mentor younger volunteers.

However, even if the Peace Corps reaches its goal of having 15 percent of its volunteers over 50, the overwhelming majority will remain recently minted college graduates. And too often these young volunteers lack the maturity and professional experience to be effective development workers in the 21st century.

This wasn’t the case in 1961 when the Peace Corps sent its first volunteers overseas. Back then, enthusiastic young Americans offered something that many newly independent nations counted in double and even single digits: college graduates. But today, those same nations have millions of well-educated citizens of their own desperately in need of work. So it’s much less clear what inexperienced Americans have to offer.

The Peace Corps has long shipped out well-meaning young people possessing little more than good intentions and a college diploma. What the agency should begin doing is recruiting only the best of recent graduates — as the top professional schools do — and only those older people whose skills and personal characteristics are a solid fit for the needs of the host country.

The Peace Corps has resisted doing this for fear that it would cause the number of volunteers to plummet. The name of the game has been getting volunteers into the field, qualified or not.

In Cameroon, we had many volunteers sent to serve in the agriculture program whose only experience was puttering around in their mom and dad’s backyard during high school. I wrote to our headquarters in Washington to ask if anyone had considered how an American farmer would feel if a fresh-out-of-college Cameroonian with a liberal arts degree who had occasionally visited Grandma’s cassava plot were sent to Iowa to consult on pig-raising techniques learned in a three-month crash course. I’m pretty sure the American farmer would see it as a publicity stunt and a bunch of hooey, but I never heard back from headquarters.

For the Peace Corps, the number of volunteers has always trumped the quality of their work, perhaps because the agency fears that an objective assessment of its impact would reveal that while volunteers generate good will for the United States, they do little or nothing to actually aid development in poor countries. The agency has no comprehensive system for self-evaluation, but rather relies heavily on personal anecdote to demonstrate its worth.

Every few years, the agency polls its volunteers, but in my experience it does not systematically ask the people it is supposedly helping what they think the volunteers have achieved. This is a clear indication of how the Peace Corps neglects its customers; as long as the volunteers are enjoying themselves, it doesn’t matter whether they improve the quality of life in the host countries. Any well-run organization must know what its customers want and then deliver the goods, but this is something the Peace Corps has never learned.

This lack of organizational introspection allows the agency to continue sending, for example, unqualified volunteers to teach English when nearly every developing country could easily find high-caliber English teachers among its own population. Even after Cameroonian teachers and education officials ranked English instruction as their lowest priority (after help with computer literacy, math and science, for example), headquarters in Washington continued to send trainees with little or no classroom experience to teach English in Cameroonian schools. One volunteer told me that the only possible reason he could think of for having been selected was that he was a native English speaker.

The Peace Corps was born during the glory days of the early Kennedy administration. Since then, its leaders and many of the more than 190,000 volunteers who have served have mythologized the agency into something that can never be questioned or improved. The result is an organization that finds itself less and less able to provide what the people of developing countries need — at a time when the United States has never had a greater need for their good will.

Robert L. Strauss has been a Peace Corps volunteer, recruiter and country director. He now heads a management consulting company.

The most important thing to remember is service for every volunteer is very different, due to schools, communities, housing; therefore, I can only shed light on my experiences.

On any given school day, my routine can more or less be summed up by the following:

I am pretty lucky since my earliest classes start at eight o’clock and I live only a five minute walk from my school, the Belovodsk Gymnasium. I admit the first thing I do when I wake up is check the e-mails on my cell phone; reading messages from friends and family is the greatest motivation to remember what I am doing and why I am here and provides the motivation I need.

Although cooking is one of my hobbies, breakfast is usually simple, consisting of, in any combination, eggs, bread, pourage, fruit, yogurt, or muesli. I don’t eat lunch at school so I have to make sure I have enough fuel to teach anywhere from two to five lessons on given days.

Showering is a hassle since I do not have a short, rather my bathtub and a large yogurt cup I use rinse. Filling the bathtub would be a very long, expensive, and ultimately wasteful process, so I full out shower about two days a week (a number that would have frightened me in America, but here I don’t mind).

I teach at the Gymnasium in my town, which is the larger of the two public schools. There are almost eight hundred students from grades first through eleventh and over seventy teachers, six of which instruct English.

I teach 5th through 9th grade, though Ukrainians say form. Each class begins with the students standing to welcome the teacher and in the younger form students often sing melodies, such as “Good morning, good morning, good morning to you, good morning, good morning, we are glad to see you.” Teaching English as a foreign language is a challenge, but I try to think what interested me in Russian class and what helps me best to study and absorb new words and grammar, which works sometimes.

As I walk through the hallways, the students always yell, “Good morning, Mr. Alan,” even if it is two o’clock in the afternoon. I use my middle name Alan, because Keith is difficult to pronounce since the Cyrillic alphabet has no “TH” sound – they would say Keet, which in Russian is whale. The students are easily motivated by competition so I often try to think of activities that involve points and teams. They have fifteen seconds to think of a team name, some of the highlights so far have included Manchester United vs. Chelsea, Four Guys and a Girl vs Team Forever, and Team Smile vs Team Sad Face.

On Mondays and Fridays I have Russian tutoring with the school’s veteran Russian teacher who does not know one word of English. Often times I think, “If I understand what she was saying to me during tutoring, I wouldn’t need it.” Learning Russian is very difficult and continuing to study without explanations in English is even more of a challenge but I try!

Often times if I didn’t hear Ukrainian or Russian being spoken in the halls, I would think it to be a hallway in America when I walk past students. Their clothes appear as though they were just ordered out of a Gap or Hot Topic catalog, they play with the cellphones, and the younger students play tag and other games.

I have English club twice a week with the students who are not in my classes, because I want to give them all a chance to practice the language in a free and open way with a native speaker. We have played and sang “No Woman, No Cry” by Bob Marley, done mock interviews, and played Scattergories. UNO is also a very good game to practice with younger students because you can practice numbers, colors, verbs of motion like to go and to go back, and extra things like skip, take, and draw (I say this because it helped me with my Russian when I taught it to my host family with no English used).

My time after school is spent divided doing several things. I often watch one or two programs on the British Travel Channel, play my guitar, study Russian, and then I lesson plan. The text books in Ukraine are often out of date, therefore I make extra resources in hopes to make the content and activities more interesting. Making the materials takes the majority of my time and I draw pictures and write texts on the clean side of inexpensive wall paper quite often. I also have internet access at my school, which is slow and often unreliable, but I am very lucky to be able to research content and lesson ideas to make class more fun and effective.

After school, students participate in a variety of activities that take place at the sport school, music school, house of creativity, and house of culture. Most students can play an instrument or sing and football (soccer) is the most popular sport here (Almost nobody watches American Football). School is over by two o’clock, but students often have three to four extra hours of activities after school in addition to their homework and as you can see they have many responsibilities. After that, there is a computer game club in my town called Victory where students play Medal of Honor and Counterstrike.

After four months total of living with two different Ukrainian families, I now live in my own apartment fit with gas heat, a refrigerator, running water, and an indoor toilet. Compared to Peace Corps in more remote locations like villages in Africa and Southeast Asia, I am living the life!

There are no supermarkets or large stores in my town, only small stores that resemble convenient stores; however, customers have to point and ask for all the things they wish to purchase which are located behind the counter. This makes shopping somewhat difficult and it takes quite some time, so usually I go several times a week to buy only a few things at once.

If you have any questions, comments, or want to know more about a certain topic or theme I discussed, please just ask and I will tell you more!

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The ideas and opinions expressed in this journal belong solely to its writer and do not in any way represent the beliefs of Peace Corps or Peace Corps Ukraine.

Ukraine – A historical perspective

So what do we really know about Ukraine? Before I left I did not know much, which was an exciting factor of this venture. Chernobyl, the Soviet purges, and Ukrainian Cossacks were about all I could tell you about. So let’s review together.

First, “The” Ukraine – Everybody says this and I’m not quite sure why. I said it before I came here, but I urge you to drop the “the”. It makes Ukraine sound more like a region of Russian rather than a sovereign nation.

The city of Kyiv is older than Moscow and the Kyivan Rus civilization, formed over 1,000 years ago, is the heart of East Slavic culture. In the ninth century, the Scandinavian Prince Oleg captured Kyiv, killings its leaders and proclaimed the region to be the land of the Rus, whose name later contributed to the moniker Russia. They built fortresses on the Dnipro River (Dnieper) to protect invasions from invading nomads. Thus, the seeds were sown for a grand civilization. Kyiv later served as a uniting center for the previously disconnecting Slavic tribes to band together to protect their land. Just before the turn of the eleventh century, Christianity was introduced to improve ties with the Byzantine Empire as well as older Western nations. Prince Vladimir heaved the pagan icons into the Dnipro and then inhabitants were baptized in the freezing river water.

Most of the developed regions of Kyiv were destroyed during the Mongol invasions of the twelfth century, led by the grandson of Genghis Khan, allowing the Tartars to rule for almost an entire century. Kyivan Rus was subsequently divided into three regions, Galicia, Volynia, and Muscovy – later Poland, Lithuania, and Russia. The Mongols assimilated with the Rus in the lands of modern Ukraine, which were tested by additional invasions by Turks, Poles, and Lithuanians in the years to come. The city of Kyiv received slight autonomy by the Lithuanian throne, lasting almost four hundred years. The 16th century found the rise of the Zaporozhyan Cossacks, a group whose origins can be traced to the escaped Ukrainian serf class who later formed the center of military and political organization of Ukraine to strike at the heart of the oppressive feudal system. Cossack is a Turkish word which means “free man” and it is one of many national symbols today.

The Cossacks developed the independent state of Zaporizhya Sich, an interesting mix of democratic ideals and militaristic influence. They were known for their unmatchable skills in horsemanship and their physical appearance, easily described as a long moustache, a shaved head with a single lock of hair, and often an earring. In attempt to receive assistance against Polish Expansionism, one of the Cossack leaders signed a treaty in the 17th Century with Russia, who instead incorporated Ukraine into its already vast empire. The Cossacks later even elicited the help of Sweden to help fight off Peter the Great, though the Swedish armies were crushed and the Cossack land soon become a voiceless province within Russia.

Anti-imperial sentiment grew in the mid 19th Century with the works of poet Taras Schevchenko, whose face can be seen in monuments in almost every school and on statues in most towns in Ukraine. The amount of pride and honor toward Schevchenko is truly unmatched and it is often said that that one can find a copy of his text Kobzar next to the Bible in every home. His words were quoted in Ukrainian by Bill Clinton during a trip to Ukraine; “Fight and you shall win.” Taras’ punishment for writing such provoking words included forced labor in Siberia and later prohibition from ever returning to Ukraine. To counter the roused Ukrainians, Tsarist Russia banned not only his writings, but also the use of the Ukrainian language, which is the official language of Ukraine today. “There is something appealing about a nation whose greatest hero is a poet and a painter,” stated Linda Hodges about the lionized Schevchenko.

Following the Bolshevik Revolution and abdication of the Russian throne by Nicholas II and later execution of the Romanov Dynasty, Ukraine failed to grasp the reigns of its own independence, switching regimes nearly eighteen times in three years. One of the most difficult concepts for Americans to understand about Ukrainian history, and Central and Eastern Europe history for that matter, is the frequent acquisition of land leading to drawing and redrawing of borders, especially in the North and West of Ukraine.

A popular joke among Ukrainians living in the Carpathians involves an old man who declares “I was born in the Hapsburg Empire, went to school in Czechoslovakia, served in the Hungarian army, and was confined to the gulag prisons in the Soviet Union, and now live in Independent Ukraine.” “Wow, you sure have traveled a lot,” says another man, to which the old man responds with, “Oh no, I have never left my village.”

After two centuries of domination, Ukraine received another brief taste of freedom in 1918 following the Great War (WWI) until 1922 when the government was forced to cede to the Soviet Union, again incorporating the Eastern Ukrainian lands while Poland annexed the West.

The purges in the Soviet Union started by Lenin were carried on with fervor in the 1930s with the rule of Stalin, and though no person was safe from condemnation as a party traitor and consequent execution or forced labor in the gulags, Ukrainians and Cossacks were ruthlessly targeted due to their rebellious history. The Cossacks cherished freedom and independence, rising from the ashes of the feudal system to obtain their own farmable land, and the grain and crops harvested were a symbol of their independence. This greatly complicated the collectivization of land in the 1930s, causing Stalin to increase the grain quota exported from Ukraine to the Soviet Union, causing a massive shortage of food. Stalin’s response was to organize mass roadblocks to punish the Cossacks for their resistance and any attempt to obtain crops for personal consumption was punishable by execution. The exact number of deaths during the Soviet constructed famine is uncertain but most historians conclude an estimated seven million people died in only fifteen months, with 25,000 dying every day and a third of the total number of casualties being children. Like many other things, discussing the famine during the reign of the Soviet Union was a crime and Ukraine did not formally acknowledge the event until 1998 with the National Day of Remembrance of the Famine Victims, which falls on the fourth Saturday of November.

After the invasion of Nazi Germany, Ukraine suffered one of the highest losses in population percentages during the war (Russia lost over twenty million and China nearly fifteen million during WWII – The Great Patriotic War). Eight million Ukrainians perished during the war, including nearly 1.5 million Jews. Initially, the Nazis were met with cheers; Ukrainians believed the Germans to be their liberators, yet they soon realized their error. Sadly, many Ukrainians served as guards in various camps including Treblinka. Sobibor, and Belzic. However, anti-fascist uprisings and guerilla attacks forced the Germans to ponder why the Ukrainians fought so voraciously to protect their dictator. “They would learn the hard way a lesson that all too many aggressors overlook: that a people will fight not for their dictators, but for their homes and families.”

The greatest atrocity took place in a ravine outside of Kyiv named Baby Yar where more than 30,000 Jews were murdered by German SS in only two days, September 29th and 30th, 1941 and the later addition of 70,000 more bodies to the mass grave turned Baby Yar into the symbol of the Jewish Holocaust in Ukraine. A famous Ukrainian film director once stated, “The fate of humankind is decided in the Ukrainian fields and villages, in fire and flame, on our misfortune. So ill-fated is our land. So miserable is our lot.” Much like the unfortunate position of Poland sandwiched between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s geography has weaved tragedy in the fabric of its history.

Mass imprisoning of Ukrainians and Ukrainian Jews came in the 1950s before the death of Stalin in 1953 and later in the following decades, which were not rectified until the release of many prisoners as late as the 1980s.

The Chernobyl disaster on April 26th, 1986 was a manifestation of the crumbling Soviet Union, officially causing the deaths of over ten thousand, with millions since suffering from the fallout, more than a million being children. Lina Kostenko, a Ukrainian poet, stated “a radiation meter was no good for measuring the devastation of the soul.” Denying the scale of the cataclysmic event, the Soviet Union faced a rebirth of Ukrainian insurgency, which led to the declaration of independence on August 24th, 1991. Scrambling to forge a new government in the newly obtained wave of freedom, the first years were plagued with crime, abuse of administrative power, and inflation.

The Orange Revolution in 2004 brought a peaceful rally of Ukrainians to Independence Square to support of Victor Yushenko, the current president of Ukraine, to oppose the rigged election that declared the then Prime Minister Yanukovych to be the winner of the presidential election. Ukraine is now a republic that blends presidential and parliamentary governments.

Additional Information

-Ukraine is comprised of twenty four oblasts, and the Autonomous Region of Crimea in the South.

-Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe after Russia.

-The population is roughly 46,490,400 people (fifth largest in Europe).

-Ukraine borders Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova.

-Orthodox Christianity is the prevailing religion with Catholics predominantly residing in the West and Muslim populations in the South.

- Ukraine is almost at a 99% literacy rate

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Ukraine is one of Europe’s largest energy consumers in Europe guzzling twice as much unrenewable energy sources as Germany, though I think it not fair to compare a teenager country to such a developed, profitable nation as Germany. In addition, eleven new nuclear power plants are currently set to be built within the next twenty years.

Cultural Observations

People would be sorely mistaken to simply lump Ukrainian culture with that of its big brother Slavic Russia and simply being east doesn’t mean the people are any less Ukrainian. I have observed an interesting dichotomy in the pride of my host family out in Lugansk Oblast that includes pride for their Russian heritage yet their dedication to their homeland Ukraine. Ukrainian is heavily spoken though I am only fifty kilometers from Russia and Serjic, a mix of the two languages can be heard just about anywhere in my town. However, I cannot begin to fathom the difference in culture and lifestyle between villages in the East and West. The East is known as being as the industrial center due to Soviet influence, and cities including Lugansk, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk are influential mining centers, often referred to as the Donbas region.

I apologize if this read like a term paper, but once I started writing I got back into the swing of college history papers. I hope you enjoyed reading and learned something new. For my next updatel, which will be a while don’t worry, I’ll try to focus on where I left with culture.

For further reading:

“Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust” Dolot, Miron. 1987

“”The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation” Wilson, Andrew.

“Ukrainian’s Forbidden History” Graham Smith and Rob Perks

For Fiction-

“Everything is Illuminated” - I think I’m the only PCV here who HASN’T read this book.

If anyone has any questions or topics they’d like to hear about just send me an e-mail or respond and I will try my hardest to answer. Also, if you read the articles I sent about the former country director of Peace Corps Cameroon or the man who circumnavigated the world with only manpower, I’d love to hear your thoughts and reactions.

Best wishes and let me know how you and all your loved ones are if and when you get the chance.

“True glory consists of doing what deserves to be written and writing was deserves to be read.”-

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” – Thomas Paine

“May the fire in my eyes light the way for me.” – E.Town Concrete

Keith