Dear All,
Ah, what to talk about this week…Well, I could start with Ukrainian pizza. Hmmm, maybe I really don’t want to talk about this one….
I could talk about the Kyiv metro, which packs ‘em in even tighter than the buses! And, if you are not careful, you could loose your $$$ (which happened to my colleague). It’s a bit out of a time warp or inspiration for a Science Fiction novel – can’t figure out which. A colleague said it reminded him of the Moscow subway. Anybody reading this been on the Moscow subway? Anyway, Kyiv’s is cool (temperature and ambience), and while in it I kept experiencing nostalgia for those big old department stores that used to be in all of our U.S.A. downtown cores. Same quality in the Kyiv subway stations – but not on the subways themselves, which are sadly tired but very efficient.
I could talk about how everything seemed to turn green overnight – the tulips are in bloom, the trees have leaves and the weather has turned warm.
Also, EVERYONE is focused on planting at their village home (DACHA). This weekend is a holiday. Ukrainians have LOTS of holidays and they last for several days each. This one starts tomorrow and runs through Wednesday. It is a sort of Labor Day/May Day combo, and it seems to officially mark the beginning of the growing season. Tomorrow everyone goes back to the village and plants the summer crops of fruit and vegies. It is a communal thing, and my host-family’s village sounds like one big extended family.
Supposedly I am invited out there for next weekend when I get to meet the grandfather, grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins. Am really looking forward to it as the villages here appear to have lots of the more traditional Ukrainian gingerbread decorations on the cottages. And they house lots of traditional handcrafts. Also, saw from the bus to Kyiv that house trim is receiving new paint (part of the new season…?) making it quite bright – lots of blues, greens, whites and yellows. And many folks paint the sides of their homes or their compound gates with geometric or narrative images. Saw a lovely one today painted with swans.I also could talk about the storks which are nesting the entirety of the highway between Kyiv and Chernihiv. I saw stork nests on trips in Turkey but didn’t realize they also summered up here. Each nest (and they arehuge) had an occupant sitting on this year’s eggs. The birds are quite big.
Wonder what it will be like when the chicks hatch. Ukraine also has a version of a Raven – or a very large crow. It has a grey feather cape running over its shoulders and chest.Then there is Kyiv itself. It is two hours south of us, and we were allowed to travel there today (no overnight) as long as we stayed away from Independence Square, which is where the big demonstrations are happening.
Central Kyiv is quite lovely – I think it feels a bit like I expect Prague will look, but Kyiv also has those amazing gold-domed Orthodox cathedrals.
We visited two – St. Sophia and St. Michael. They are stunning and covered with almost as much gold as the Roman Catholic churches in Rome. St Sophia is over 1000 years old; St Michael’s was trashed during the Soviet era and recently rebuilt. Am looking forward to returning at least once before I head to my permanent site in late June. I was told Kyiv also has a pretty impressive circus (European style, of course), and that the building itself is quite pretty. Want to squeeze that in as well. A final note here, I have gotten used to living in a smaller City (Chernihiv is about 300,000), and Kyiv felt so big and congested. I was relieved to return home to the relative quiet here. Wonder what I will feel like after two years if I get posted to a village….?I also could talk about the fact that we already are being prepared to travel and live on our own. Part of the process of the trip to Kyiv was to get us familiar with public transportation and asking questions about direction, transportation, etc. in Ukranian. In about two weeks we must find our way via public transport back to the retreat center at which we originally gathered, and we must do it individually. The system makes sense, so I don’t think it will be a problem – and they promise us they have yet to loose a volunteer! At the retreat center we learn our permanent assignment (finally) and then travel there to meet our site liaison and new host family. As I have mentioned before, since I am learning Ukrainian I likely will be stationed somewhere in the west of the country. The matching process (volunteer to site) already has begun at the office, but they also plan to interview each of us to further identify our preference and priorities. No guarantees we will get exactly the posting we want… To-date, my priorities in order of importance are: 1) proximity to and/or assignment with an arts/culture project; 2) internet access; 3) promimity to Lviv; and 4) proximity to a university. We rec’d a visit from a current
Volunteer posted to the Crimea. (I would have liked to be posted to the Crimea, but that is a Russian language area.) She has been developing Crimean Tatar craft cooperatives and marketing opportunities and brought some of the goodies with her, which included: Turkish-style silver jewelry, embroidered velvet bags, hand-painted silk scarves and postcards (images of 19th century paintings of Crimean towns which hang in a local museum).This week, I visit/interview the President of the Cernihiv Art Club, a group of folks focused on and continuing the traditions of Ukranian folk art, including embroidery. This emroidery project is part of our language
classes, and the outcome of my inquiries will be a (very) small brochure in Ukrainian on the embroidery. I am working with another P.C.V. also interested in this stuff, and she knows Pagemaker, so we can insert photos, etc. It will be in Ukrainian, so I could send it but you would not be able to read it!Local projects are going well. My P.C.V. project group has two foci: 1) helping develop a local initiative to bring the private sector, CSOs (non-profits) and government together regularly to learn more about the other (in general and around specific topics) and 2) co-hosting conversations with groups of CSOs about volunteerism (which exists here but in a pretty tightly defined scope). On my own I will be co-hosting a conversation around leadership with some youth groups. One of our first site-visits was to a target school in Chernihiv that focuses on international study and the English language. Several students volunteered to be interpreters for us on our projects, and I am teemed with a young woman, 15, who eventually wants to work/live overseas. So you likely will be hearing more about her in the future. Had my first Ukranian business-style meeting this week – a follow-up interview with a potential client. The meeting lasted two-and-one-half hours, much of which was spent with drinking tea, eating small sweets and getting to know each other.
Business comes after building a relationship, unlike the U.S. where the relationship may develop in the process of doing business.Lastly, an update on my host family. If I haven’t already said this, let me do so now for the record. They are a wild and crazy goup, and I love ‘em.
Mama is 45, teaches kindergarten and is a bundle of energy. She originally is from Russia but moved to Chernihiv when she married Victor, who works in construction. Her family is in/around St. Petersburg. Victor is local, and it is his family’s village they spend so much time at. They have two daughters, Olena (21) and Julia (17). Olena is the serious, intellectual type; when I first arrived she was in the midst of exams so was quite preoccupied. Only now am I seeing more of her. Julia is a bundle of energy, just like her mother – and she is the artist in the family – a dancer. However she also took Bandura lessons (Ukrainian 64-string instrument). Her focus is ballet, modern and traditional Ukrainian. She has promised (on her initiative, not mine) to take me to class to learn traditional dance – but we’ll see if there is time and she maintains the inclination. After all, she is 17!Okay, enough for this week. Will send this email through my blue-tooth/cellphone connection. Keep those messages coming, as it is great to hear from you.
Linda
Wow, it is hard to believe I have been in Ukraine for almost four weeks.
AND, it feels like I have been here a lot longer – and I don’t mean that in a negative way. Things are beginning to feel pretty normal. Take the buses for example – at first they seemed impossibly crowded and with little order. Suitcases and packages seemed always to be in the way and folks pushed and shoved and always seemed able to squeeze more people into limited space. Now, I don’t think twice about stepping over someone’s cases and pushing my way to the opening door. That is, of course, unless a bubuciya (grandmother) is in the way – then one must be somewhat more diplomatic in how one pushes one’s way through. And my grey hair pays off – I have been offered a seat on an extremely crowded bus more than once! In fact, some folks have gone out of there way to help me on the street and in shops. The younger P.C.V.s don’t have the same experiences…As of this week, the things I am missing most are:
1. A coffee house where I can plug into the internet, hold meetings or just
chat. (This has stayed on the list from last week.)2. Tied for second place and new to the list are a) a place of my own and b)
a quiet cup of coffee first thing in the morning - before I have to talk to anyone and before my brain has to work.3. A washing machine – also from last week, although I grow less concerned
about this one4. Licorice (yes, also from last time), and I still miss it
This past week was hard for many of us. Peace Corps had said weeks #4, #5, and #6 are the worst for culture shock, and I think every member of my language cluster has been struggling with the adjustment, a less-steep learning curve than we thought we had and the consequent frustration. This is added to the fact that all of us ‘over 50s’ felt quite competent and ‘professional’ before we got here. We all feel like babies having to learn to live all over again. And that is not a pleasant feeling.
Its interesting how the feeling of inadequacy and questioning of the choice to join PC has been voiced by almost everyone on one day or another. The brain just seems to stop working – literally going blank. I went to sleep early twice this week just because I could not take any more stimulation – no interaction with my host family, no learning new vocabulary or grammar and no interaction with Ukrainians, please. It all was just too much NEW stuff. Even the most traveled and seemingly sophisticated of the group has had some adjustment problems. PC says it is a bit worse in Ukraine because on the surface things seems similar to western Europe and the U.S., albeit a bit shabbier and well-worn – so the experience is like a series of little mind games in which one thinks one knows the answers only to discover one knows nothing. For those of you familiar with it, VERY MUCH like the Barnga game – except it all doesn’t stop after an hour or a day.
Having said all of this, I feel pretty optimistic. Probably because we are starting work on some short community projects which has us interacting with community members a lot. For example, this week we attended a gathering of 20 local/national NGOs and several government officials interested in meeting us and potentially hosting a short project. Listening to them speak about their work and building an understanding of how I can be of service has reminded me why I signed up for this. And it gives context and motivation for continuing to work on the language, which is both easy and difficult.
I have come to understand that four-hour language lessons make me very tired and provide ample opportunity for me to relax my focus – which means my dyslexia then can kick in. If you are at all familiar with the cyrillic alphabet, think of looking at a paragraph or two of it with your eyes partially closed. After a while an entire line of text can look like just a bunch of vertical lines. I continue to improve with the language, however, and now begin to understand snipets of conversation on the radio or the bus and read street signs.
Most importantly, I am getting out into the culture. For me, this really makes this place real – and interesting. Last weekend I walked around a good part of old Chernigiv and saw amazing churches and monasteries and learned a lot about the history and architecture of the City. It seems Chernigiv historically has been very important in Ukraine – 2nd only to Kyiv. And that history goes back pretty far – to Danish settlement in what was called Rus (read: Russia). In fact the first cities developed were Kyiv and Chernigiv – before Moscow. This week I attended a concert by a private arts school, and saw/listened to both traditional and classical presentations. Tomorrow I will go with a colleague and her host-mother to visit a group of embroiderers – to talk with them about what is going on and to see their stuff. Can’t Wait! We also will visit a local exhibit on traditional textile arts and hopefully can have a chat with the curator or exhibition developer. We are hoping next weekend to take the bus to Kyiv.
The political situation here continues to morph. The demonstrations are building in number and intensity, although they are localized.
(Unfortunately they are happening in the places in Kyiv I would want to visit, and the Peace Corps says we must stay away from them. Not because Americans are targets, but because things happen when folks get worked up.)
It reminds me of what what happening this past winter in Oaxaca in that Americans are not perceived as the problem; they just might find themselves between two Ukrainians who disagree and want to fight about it.Local news says that both Europe and Russia are taking sides and trying to influence things. Russia supports the P.M.; Europe (and U.S.) supports the President and Timoschenko. No one really knows what will happen between now and the proposed elections scheduled for late May. We are hoping it all will quite down enough for us to sneak into Kyiv and visit Independence Square, etc. Things are pretty quiet away from the capitol, so there are no problems for us here - Although it all does make for some lively dinner conversation. Don’t have to have a lot of Ukrainian language expertise to understand who is on what side!
Folks also are very aware of what has happended in Virginia. Talk is not about how terrible a place the U.S. is to live but rather how these sorts of things are happening around the world. My language teacher told us today about a Ukrainian example that occurred a few years ago. I haven’t checked the news lately (well, since I left the U.S.), so someone feel free to fill me in on the latest.
The weather definitely has changed – it is Spring, and the leaves are coming out. Can’t wait to see some more flowers in bloom. My host family already has prepped their garden at the village house. They were out there this week breaking ground and beginning to plant some of the more hardy stuff.
Their life focus really is their village and the family there, although all of them have close friendships in the City. I am looking forward to visiting all of the relatives in May, when I go for a weekend visit.
Apparently I was the focus of conversation this week because everyone is curious and because my host-mother took a copy of a newspaper article with my picture in it.Have been meeting my host-mother’s friends, one by one. Last Sunday I had my first real Ukrainian dining experience – a five hour lunch with vodka (not me), a ton of food, toasts, lots of conversation and the occassional breaking-out into song. A man attending was telling the story of his family, which apparently was living in Chernobyl when the reactor failed. I did not understand it all, but I did get the following: he heard about the failure, hurried home to get his family out of there, went to Odessa – and now lives alone. I don’t think he divorced because he still would have contact with his kids – and he says he has no one anymore. I think his family must have died from radiation exposure. Boy, that was sobering. He did have an amazing voice and periodically would start singing one of those stereotypic, melancholic Ukrainian songs. This Sunday I meet two more friends, one from the University who speaks English.
Well, this is all for now. It’s time to get back to the books.
More next week. LindaPS. Oh, if for any reason any of you feel so moved to send a package (and I am not asking that you do), please don’t declare food or CDs on the customs list. If you do, the package won’t make it past Ukrainian customs, and I will pay a steep fee to recover the non-censured items. And probably the
worst part of it will be the endless bureaucracy around the whole issue.PPSs. The houseboat is rented! YEA!
I now have finished week #2 in Ukraine and am feeling more mellow about it all. Things feel less 'different,' and I know enough of the language to make my way about. I am a pro at the packed Ukraine buses and feel comfortable being out and about by myself.
So far, I have not been forced to eat or drink anything I don’t want; folks seem to be more interested in finding out what I like than in expecting me to eat their exotics. My host mother is an amazing cook. So far with that one pig she and my host husband slaughtered for Easter, she has made delicious stuff: oven-dried pork, koBbaca, borscht, cabage rolls, soup w/rice, omlettes and kotleta (ground meat patties). I also have had some mighty fine ‘salads,’ made with a range of vegetables - and not just cabbage (kapoociya). This all sounds heavy, but it is not processed food so is much more nourishing – and I don’t eat as much of it because it is so satisfying.
Have already lost about five pounds, thanks to the food and the walking.Easter was fun. We were up at 5:00am and out the door half an hour later to go to the H.F. church to get the Easter basket blessed. The church is about 800 years old and feels like one of those Byzantine places you find in Greece and Turkey. The service is pretty flexible; folks stand around while a small choir sang (very well) and the priest walked around swinging his incense container. After the service was finished, everyone lined up on both sides of the sidewalk that wound around the church itself. The priests then came out to bless the Easter baskets, which were filled with the food that would become breakfast – traditional things that folks had given up eating for Lent. Our basket had the koBbaca, decorated Easter eggs (at least one in red for good luck), salo (pig fat/lard), Pasca (Easter bread), and wine. The priests took forever to get outside for the blessing, and we all were freezing. Eventually they came out with something that looked like a horsetail whisk, which was dunked in a bucket of water; the water then was flung at the people and the baskets. We are not talking about a little spritz of water here; rather the priest really dunked that whisk and soaked everyone in the front row. My host mom kept trying to pull me to the front (I was behind her), but I would nudge my way back because I could see how wet folks were getting. For some reason, the priest would stop and reverse direction whenever he got close to us and our basket. Three times we ran to another side of the church to try to cut in line there and get the basket blessed so we could get out of the cold. (eventually that day it snowed – a blizzard.)
We took a taxi home and had Easter breakfast from the basket. I also had bought some chocolates (Ukrainians LOVE chocolate, and the box was empty by the end of the day), and those were on the table as well. Then we all went back to bed until noon, when we joined the family of the boyfriend of the oldest host daughter for a picnic in an amazing birch forest. It was freezing outside, but the tradition is to do an outdoor picnic and grill a Ukrainian version of Shish. It all was pretty cool (if not literally downright cold). There were Vodka toasts (I have yet to be made to feel like I have to drink anything I don’t want to) and lively political chat – and it all was very relaxed. It was fun meeting the future in-laws, and of course I was one of the topics of conversation.
An Easter tradition – two
people hold Easter eggs in their hands and bang the tips together. Whose-ever eggshell cracks is the looser – the other will have good luck. And we got a blizzard that afternoon!Language learning is progressing – I am surprised by how much I already can communicate, even if it is not in the most perfect grammar. Peace Corps has been clear that they want us to be understood, and that doesn’t mean we put together the perfect sentence. I also am VERY relieved to know that if my counterpart (with which ever organization I am assigned) does not speak English, Peace Corps will pay for interpretor services.
We spend four hours every morning in general language class, and then twice a week have an additional two hours in what is referred to as Technical Language. (Read: consulting terminology and methodology). Twice a week
in the afternoon we attend four hours of technical and cultural training, which is designed to help us understand how best to work with Ukrainians. We also have begun site visits with local organizations that might serve as hosts for our training projects (short duration and ending by June 20); these projects will be practice for our primary site, which we go to sometime in July. Today we visited with a City-based agency whose purpose is job training/development for folks between the ages of 16 and 35. They would like some of us P.C.V.s to work with their initiative to encourage/train young, up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Tomorrow we will pay a site visit to a local school whose focus is the English language, and Friday we will visit a youth/family center.In addition to all of the formal classes, we have what is called ‘self-directed’ learning, which means we pay attention to opportunities to informally observe and learn. A project for tomorrow is to shop for and cook a Ukrainian lunch for our language group of six. My charge was to find/purchase vareniki and palmeni. Went to several markets to compare products and prices and was surprised by the range of frozen products! FYI, most folks here have a microwave and use it to heat up foods they cook from scratch. (Interestingly, my family has two televisions, a computer, a fridge and stove and a microwave, but it does not have a washing machine.
Oh, did I tell you that I have to do ALL of my laundry BY HAND?!!!!! You better believe that when I get my own place it will have a washing machine!
This ‘washing things out in the tub’ stuff has got to end! If I were to say now what it is I miss most, the list would include a washing machine, a café for gathering/hanging out with friends, and licorice! I already have mentioned the first item. The second – cafes – is virtually non-existent. There really is no where to go to get a cup of tea/coffee and just hang out. Everything happens in the home. This is kind of rough on us as we would like to go somewhere that is away from the host family home (which, for the most, are very small – the size of a New Yorkapartment?) and just hang out. There is a McDonald’s downtown, but it is much too noisy – a happening place. We’ll keep looking… Finally, there is plenty of chocolate in this country, but no licorice, which is one of my favorites.Overall, the food is pretty good. No complaints there. My host mom is a very good cook, and I love having someone else make my meals for me. What a treat. Not all of the volunteers are as lucky as I am in this regard. Some really complain about the quality of the cooking – it seems there is plenty of processed, fast food available at the market/grocery.
Tomorrow is Saturday, and I won't have structured education - however, I do have a language study group that will meet downtown. Will probably spend most of the day downtown. Sunday I go with my host-mom (its weird to say that as she is younger than I am...) to visit some of her friends. Wonder if any will speak English. Doesn't matter as I need to keep practicing my Ukrainian.
This is all for now. Will send another update next week or the week after.
My best to all - and keep those messages coming. It is good to hear news from home. LindaLinda Knudsen McAusland (OSR 12) writes from her Peace Corps posting in the Ukraine.