Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A Close to Spring

Dear Friends and Family,

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

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

World Map School # 1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.802801342535.2325266.2411718&l=2b804fee69

World Map School #2
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.804735935595.2326161.2411718&l=6ae4e90a80

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

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


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

Following the southwest, Rachel and I headed up to Lviv where I celebrated my birthday for the second year in a row. It was a cloudy day but we were able to site see a bit and spent the day in a café with some Peace Corps friends. Rachel’s trip ended in Kiev with an all day site seeing spree in which I showed her all my favorite corners of the city. It was a dry run for when my parents come and I get to show them the city too! Rachel and I attended the ballet in the evening to see “Vienna Waltz,” an interesting Ukrainian rendition of Austrian life. We spent the night in the airport as Rachel had a 5 am flight back to America. It was a wonderful week spent together reminiscing about Northwestern life and Chicago. I was so honored to have a visitor in Ukraine, especially on my birthday – and Rachel proved to be an excellent traveling companion! Please check out pictures below of our trip and the beautiful countryside of the southwest of Ukraine!
Following Rachel’s departure, I traveled back to Boguslav where I trained about 1.5 years ago! I was accepted for a program called “Adopt a Cluster” in which experienced PCVs travel to visit trainees to offer advice, lead sessions and answer questions about PC life. I was lucky enough to be able to “adopt” my original training site! I arrived in Boguslav with a flood of emotions overwhelming me. The place seemed the exact same, of course there were a few new cafes and store changes, but it felt like I was back home. When I met the trainees it amazed me how far I have come since training. Their questions and concerns were of course some of the same I had faced 1.5 years ago and yet now I am calm, I feel at home in Ukraine and I’ve done a lot of what I had originally set out to do here! It really was a fantastic realization to have – just how far I have come since I was in training myself!

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

All the best,

Megan

Pictures Include:

- Shannon and the Janitor Olya who constructed School #2’s Board
- School #2 Students trace the outline of the World Map
- School #2 Students with completed traced map
- School #2 Students and PCV Alia paint
- PCVs and School #2 Students plus Viktoria with completed day 1
- PCVs Anne, Alia, Stephanie, Kaity and Shannon with me and completed day 1 map
- PCVs making dinner at my house after day 1 painting
- Completed School #2 World Map
- 11th Grade Clean Up Day
- 11th Grade picks up garbage near the school
- 10th Grade Clean Up day
- 10th grade cleans up by the river
- 10th Grade and filled garbage bags following conclusion of Clean Up
- Easter – with my basket
- My Easter Basket with lit candle – contents include home made sausage, easter bread, cheese bread, and rolls.
- Alona and her family, my companions for the Easter Service
- VL Priest blessing the lit Easter Baskets
- With Vera and my Easter Basket
- VL Priest blesses the crowd with holy water
- Rachel (far left) with my PCV friends Meaghan and Kari in Beregovo at the start line of the 10K/Half Marathon Wine Festival
- Rachel and I with our supporting poster “The Faster You Run, the Sooner the Wine Flows!”
- 3 of the members of Whiskey Tango
- Cheer team for our check point
- Tagging team member for team “Super Fly”
- Cheering on fellow PCV Scott who ran the half marathon
- Ceremony congratulating team “Super Fly” for winning the team half marathon race
- Beregovo
- Beregovo
- Mykachevo Castle (3 Pictures)
- Mykachevo Town Center and Square (2 Pictures)
- Rachel and I in Lviv at the top of the Town Square governmental building
- Lviv chocolate factory
- Rachel and I in Kiev climbing the St. Sophia’s bell tower
- Rachel and I at the ballet
- With my Adopt a Cluster in Boguslav in the same room I learned Russian!
- With Max and Iryna
- Vera with some of the new baby geese!
- Attempting to hold two of the baby geese
- our new baby geese!
- Last Bell Ceremony (3 Pictures)
- My flowers from Last Bell!
- Graduation Ceremony – arrival to the culture house (2 pictures)
- Graduation Ball (4 pictures)
- With Inna one of my project students
- After Party hall
- With Alina, another one of my project students
- 11th Grade at the after party
- With Alina, Inna and Olena my 3 project students
- 11th Grade with the Vice Principal