Dear Family and Friends,
Happy Spring and belated Happy Easter! I hope that you all have been having a wonderfully warm and relaxing spring and for those of you who celebrated, an enjoyable Easter Holiday! As I stated in my last post – the spring is finally here and the weather is now warm, sunny and very enjoyable in Velyka Lepetykha! Since my last post at the end of February, I have been extremely busy though primarily with traveling – as many of you know to be my favorite past time! So I want to take a few moments to update you all on what has been going on here in the months of March and April!
The first week of March for me was a very exciting one as I received an invitation to travel to Kiev for a weeklong PEPFAR training. PEPFAR is “The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief” and is a program begun by President George W. Bush, though apparently originating from an idea of Laura Bush, which funds AIDs relief around the world. Ukraine is the heaviest hit country in Europe of HIV infected individuals and so Peace Corps Ukraine is very active in supporting projects that help to increase awareness of the disease and measures of prevention against contracting HIV. These trainings are a wonderful opportunity because along with attending myself, I was able to bring a Ukrainian counterpart who will be my partner in any future projects I implement under the HIV/AIDS awareness category. I brought one of the teachers from my school who teaches biology and health and has previous experience working with HIV/AIDS infected children. The conference lasted four days and was an intense combination of biology lessons, learning about ways of infection as well as preventive measures, the stereotypes that exist in Ukraine facing those who are infected, and means of teaching awareness to our students. For us PC Volunteers, there were also language lessons every morning to teach us how to say all of this either in Russian or Ukrainian – this was tough! At the end of the week we worked with our counterparts to begin brainstorming potential projects we wish to implement into our community to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS. Tanya and I hope to do a training next fall quarter and then a project with the school for World AIDS Day in December. I’ll be sure to keep you all informed of the progress of the project as it spans out!
Following this training I traveled with my clustermate, Whitney, to Dnipropetrovsk, a city about 8 hours southeast by train from Kiev along the Dnipro River. Matt, another of my clustermates, lives just 1.5 hours outside of Dnipropetrovsk. Kelsey took the train over from her site and we had a little cluster reunion (Rudy could not come up from Crimea so we were one short). Dnipropetrovsk is a very industrial city and was once the head of nuclear engineering for the Soviet Union according to Matt. This fact meant that the city was closed to any outsiders for the majority of the Soviet Union’s life span, so for foreigners to be walking around today is quite an experience for the locals. Matt walked us along Karl Marx Boulevard where we shopped for souvenirs and had lunch at an Italian/American/Mexican/Japanese restaurant – the place honestly had 3 different menus! One of my favorite experiences from the weekend was visiting a church in Dnipropetrovsk in which we found a Red Cross food drive taking place in the center of the church. It was so impressive to see the amount of food being donated to help those in need while standing under the gorgeous paintings of the church! I’ve attached a picture of the inside.
As for the rest of the weekend spent together – the primary means of entertainment was eating. Kelsey had brought some Trader Joe spices and mixes her mom sent from the states and we created some fun dishes – one night we had Mexican Fried Rice with beans in tortillas, another night we did chicken and rice with taco seasoning which was deliciously hotter than any Ukrainian food around! Kelsey’s mom also had sent a Buttermilk Pancake mix so we made delicious pancakes for breakfast one morning! It was a delightful, relaxing weekend.
On Monday, March 8th we headed back to our sites. March 8th is Women’s Day, which I believe is an International Holiday but one that is celebrated with extreme adherence here in Ukraine. All work and school is cancelled and on this day you give flowers, candies or little gifts to the important women in your life. My host parents got me some carnations and I presented my host mom with a nice red flowered potted plant, which is now sitting, in my windowsill, haha (it was still the same window until April 15th but I now have a new plastic, nail repellent window!) Women’s Day in Ukraine often includes a community concert celebrating Ukrainian culture and traditions and Velyka Lepetykha stuck with this tradition by hosting what ended up to be a 4 hour long concert on the Thursday following the holiday with singers, dancers, performers and even a circus act group! It was quite an experience as the groups included older and younger singers, WWII themed dances as well as modern dance, and the circus act threw me off as I did not expect the girl who was standing on nails while someone else went across the room on a unicycle! However, the music school teachers greatly appreciated that I not only attended, but was one of the few who made it through the entire 4 hours without leaving at some point!
This post’s cultural experience to share with you was, like the last one, humorous, unexpected and extremely Ukrainian. The week following the 4 hour concert I went for my weekly Bandura lesson on Tuesday afternoon and was confronted by the music teacher, Yuri with the fact that on Thursday there would be a concert at the VL school to celebrate “Ukrainian Romance in Literature” – I still don’t know why this theme. As I smiled and said I would love to attend he informed me that I wasn’t going to attend, but I was going to play in the concert. My heart started pounding as he had me show him the songs I knew – he didn’t like any of the songs I knew well but chose the song I had learned that day to play by heart in front of the entire school on Thursday. I freaked out, but agreed and went and practiced like a mad woman. On Wednesday I got fitted into my Ukrainian traditional dress (blouse with red sequins, high wasted black dress skirt and colored striped belt which ties around at the point where the blouse is tucked in) and practiced around the other lessons of my Bandura teacher. On Thursday at 2pm I had to be dressed and ready in the auditorium – as I ran through the school in my Ukrainian dress, my students cheered me on and oohed and ahhed my costume! I was terrified and was one of only 4 performers for the concert. As I was introduced to the school I sat down with the bandura and managed to crank out my song – I skipped an entire section and didn’t play one of the notes with the left hand any time it came around because I always got the string wrong, but I survived!! The teacher who organized the concert exclaimed to the audience that I had only been learning for 2 months, she failed to mention that I learned the song 2 days before! – I got a huge round of applause and carnations from the director of the school afterwards - it was awesome! Check out the picture below of me playing! Don’t tell me you’re not impressed!
The following week was spring break. I have never appreciated how enjoyable and needed school holidays must be for teachers like they are for students until this moment when I found myself counting down until break more than I think I ever did as a student! Spring break was wonderful as I had 10 days off from school and was able to travel a bit. First I left my site and traveled to Mykolayiv, this is an oblast center just north west of my oblast. I have mentioned one of my summer camps I will be working in July, the other summer camp I will be doing in August will be located in Mykolayiv so I went to Mykolayiv for a Staff Meeting and to get to know the rest of the team before we work together this summer. Mykolayiv has the largest Zoo in all of Ukraine. I did not have a chance to go in and visit but the staff plans to check out the Zoo this summer before the camp begins. A strange side note is that Mykolayiv is also the Ukrainian capital of marrying Ukrainian women to Western men (West European and American men) so if anyone is looking for a Ukrainian bride, this would be a good city to visit!
Following the training I traveled with a few other Peace Corps Volunteers to Odessa (Whitney from my cluster as well as Tiago and Graciela), a port city one oblast farther west from Mykolayiv. Odessa is a beautiful city known for its impressive architecture and facades. I spent most of my time in the city looking up at the building tops and taking pictures of all the building fronts, I am attaching a few pictures from Odessa including one of the Opera House which was one block from the apartment we rented to stay in for the two nights we were in Odessa. Aside from the architecture, another interesting part of Odessa is the port itself. To walk from the city to the port, there are sets of steps known as the Potemkin Steps that descend to the port. These steps were made famous when a silent Russian movie was filmed here in 1925 known as “The Battleship Potemkin” about a battle that occurred on these steps in 1905. Tiago had taken a film class, which had discussed this movie, and so he was quite in awe to be there and described the film for us, I plan to check it out when I have a chance. The view to the Port was beautiful so please check out the picture of that as well! On the last day in Odessa, Tiago and I went to the beach and I was able to put my feet into the Black Sea for the first time – it was cold, but nothing a Minnesotan can’t handle!!
My Spring Break travels ended in Kyiv where I went to apply for my visa to Russia. (I was successful in picking up the passport and new visa last weekend!) One of the days I went to the top of St. Sophia’s Bell Tower, which overlooks the city. It was a beautiful view and I was able to see all sides of the city. I have attached a picture from one of the windows looking down St. Sophia’s street towards the center of the city known as Independence Square, you can see in the background the President’s Offices as well. I also attached a picture from the ground of the tower I climbed for these views, it wasn’t very high but being on top a hill the view was breathtaking! While in Kyiv my good friend Andy’s parents visited from Pensacola, Florida and they generously hosted me in their hotel, the Pharaoh a Floatel on the Dnipro River! I paid back the generosity by acting as their personal tour guide of the city on Monday before my train back to site and their train to Lviv – it was fun to lead them around the city, guide book in hand, and good practice for when my family comes next summer!
The last event I want to tell you about was my Easter weekend here in Ukraine. Ukraine is primarily Russian Orthodox and Easter is a very important holiday as it is for many in the states. However, Ukrainians celebrate the holiday very differently. To begin, Ukrainians go to church on Saturday night before Easter Sunday at 11pm and stay until 5am. At midnight, the entire congregation walks around the outside of the church singing and ringing bells as it is the hour of Christ’s resurrection. It was a very beautiful church service, though I was very tired afterwards! (and I only made it to 2am) People then go to one another’s houses at 5am and greet each other with “Christ has risen.” The traditional food of Easter here is a sweet bread which is very tall and decorated often with sprinkles, similar to a bread I had while in Spain on Easter. I also helped my host mom decorate hard-boiled eggs but here she used decals which when boiled shrink to attach to the egg – it was pretty nifty! I’ve attached a picture of the breads and eggs arranged decoratively on a plate. It was a very nice weekend and we didn’t have school on the Monday following Easter so I was able to relax quite a bit.
Today(April 17th) is Lyuda, my host mother’s 61st birthday and we have been eating all day! I baked a chocolate cake, which has gone over very well with her guests coming to eat at the house. I have attached a picture of my host mother with the cake as well as her sitting with her sister, Larissa and her sister in law, Valye. It has been a nice day so far! My host father Tolia has traveled to Russia to help their son build a summer home and so I have been told he will be gone for the next 5 months! So there will be plenty of time for me to get to know my host mom! I have attached a picture of my host dad planting potatoes in the garden, unfortunately the only photo I have of him so far! I’ll fix that when he returns in the fall.
Ok I believe this is enough updating for now! All in all life is going well for me here and I am excited as in May I will be traveling to Lviv for my birthday and potentially to Crimea for a Working Group meeting so I will be able to talk about those places in the next post! For now – I hope you all have a wonderful rest of April!
Love, Megan
Pictures Include: My PEPFAR Counterpart Tanya and myself with our potential HIV/AIDs project, the Khersonskaya Oblast Volunteers at PEPFAR, my PEPFAR Russian Language group and our instructor, all the PCVs and Counterparts who attended the PEPFAR Conference, Tanya and myself with our certificates of completion, two pictures inside the church in Dnipropetrovsk where you can see the table of food and the Red Cross sign for the food drive, Kelsey and Whitney outside the American/Mexican/Italian/Japanese restaurant, Kelsey and Matt with our pancakes and mix, the Music School’s Orchestra during the 4 hour concert, with Yuri in my Ukrainian dress and bandura before the concert, playing bandura on the stage at school in the concert, after the concert with the director and other coworkers, group shot of the staff of this summer’s Mykolayiv camp, Jessica, Graciela, Whitney and Tiago in front of the Odessa Opera House, two pictures of beautiful facades in Odessa, Whitney and me in front of the Catherine the Great of Russia statue pointing to the Odessa port (she wrote the order to build the port), Whitney and me on the Potemkin Steps, with Whitney and Graciela on the Opera House lawn, on Gogol street (a famous Russian writer who lived on this street from 1850-1851), Odessa Opera House lit up at night, with my feet in the Black Sea, Kelsey pointing out the ballet “Cinderella” in Ukrainian which we saw that evening, view of St. Michaels followed by view of Maidan Square from the top of the St. Sophia’s tower, view of the St. Sophia tower from the monastery grounds, Andy’s parents hotel the Floatel!, Andy and I in the St. Sophia Tower, Making Easter eggs with my host mom, Lyuda and then the plate with the Easter bread and decorated eggs, inside the VL church and outside at midnight as the priest blessed the church following Christ’s resurrection, pictures with my 5th graders when we went to the VL museum, my new window!, Lyuda with my amazing chocolate cake and then eating lunch with her sister and sister in law, lastly Tolia (on the right) and a friend planting potatoes in our garden followed by Lyuda preparing the potato spuds to be planted.
