The End of 2010...

So this is the end of 2010. I am in Ukraine as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Who would have thought! Finishing my first 8 months in country. Wow. Time flies! It seemed like such a long road when I first arrived and now it is almost 2011. So many things have happened. So many experiences have been had.

I am leaving for a trip to Egypt in 2 days with my cluster mates from training. Amy spent the weekend with me. She came in and we got our hair done and pedicures. We got all ready for a week at the beach! It was nice to do a day at the salon in Ukraine. I haven't done that yet. It isn't much different from salons in the states. But I am pretty sure we spent a few more hours in this one then we would at home. Ukrainians like to take their time with things. They are not in any rush! We ended our weekend with a nice night at the sauna. This was my first polar bear club experience. We actually went outside and rubbed snow on us inbetween sauna visits. It was fantastic. It was the first time I was naked outside in Ukraine...in the cold!

I have been rather busy this week with wrapping things up before the holidays. I have finished a lot of preliminary work for our career development program and I have support from my social center to help me with the blind organization. We won't actually be working again until January 22nd with all the holidays in January but at least we have a plan!

Last night was St. Nicholas Day. In Ukraine that is a holiday and it is when children find presents underneathe their pillows. There is a big gift giving celebration on New Years but on this day they can receive gifts under their pillows. Funny story...my friend Alla was away this weekend and her daughter still believes (she thinks so anyway) that St. Nicholas actually brings her the gifts that she finds under her pillow. So Alla gave her house key to her neighbor and asked her to slip the gift under her daughters pillow. Well her daughter was home alone and the neighbor thought it would be a good idea to try and sneak in the house in the middle of the night. Well her daughter was still awake watching television and heard a key in the door and someone come in and turn the ligth on. She was wondering, as she threw herself under the blanket and pretended to be asleep, if she would have time to run to the kitchen and grab a knife. Well the neighbor left the gift under the pillow and snuck back out of the house without being killed. And her daughter might actually still believe in St. Nicholas!

They aren't turning the lights on the Christmas Tree in the center until December 24th but there is a tree in the center of my town. Christman and New Year's are actually really big holidays in Ukraine as well. Which is nice. They are my favorite holidays, well Christmas anyway, and I didn't want to be in Ukraine and not have any Christmas traditions. Well there are many! Maybe even more here then in the states. They celebrate most of their holidays after us though. Their Christmas is actually the 7th of January. The 6th is kind of like their version of Christmas Eve. They cook 12 dishes on Christmas and eat and eat and eat. I will be back in Ukraine for these meals. I have already been invited to a few celebrations! I can't wait.

Well I am off! I will post in the New Year with pictures of Egypt and New Year's Eve in Lviv!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Random thoughts for week 25

A busy week for me. Finally, a project comes into fruition and it only took 6 months. The Peace Corps told us that might happen. Many volunteers even mentioned it. And thus here it is 6 months at site and I am finally working hard on something that will actually happen. This project has everything to do with career development and women's empowerment. I will be working with my local unemployment center and various other volunteers will help me get things started in other parts of Ukraine. Stay tuned who knows where this will go. We have BIG ideas!

Been home for 2 whole weeks. I am finally relaxed and feeling good about a lot of things. Just in time though since I will be leaving for Egypt in less than 2 weeks. It has been nice not traveling all the time but low and behold this will start all over again in a few weeks. Working groups will start their next round of meetings as the new recruits, trickling in this week and next, will have settled into their sites and will be ready to join some working groups. Each one of my working groups has projects that are also coming into fruition for the new year so that is very exciting. Camps for next summer are being planned, ski trips and marathons, all kinds of fun and exciting projects.

A huge event happening next year for Peace Corps is their 50th Anniversary! So much planning will need to take place amongst the volunteers in each country where PC serves. It is a very exciting time to be a PCV. I am really excited. I am unsure of what we will do as PC Ukraine but I happy to be a part of it. In March when President Kennedy signed the official order for The United States Peace Corps is when everything will begin. There are already several events planned in The United States almost every month next year to celebrate the anniversary of PC. I hope we come up with something fun! Suggestions? Don't be shy.

Also, this week...How to Walk in Ukraine in the Winter! So it has been a few weeks since we have had snow on the ground and I am finding that there is a systematic way to walk in this weather. First of all get yak traks that have prongs and not coils. Coils just make you skate on the ice they don't actually penetrate the ice. Secondly, pay attention to the weather. The snow is not going anywhere. There might be days where there will be more snow than the next or days when there is less but there is always snow. I have come to realize that when it rains it is best not to walk if you don't have to because the rain, in this temperature, only causes the snow to become ice and in a city where plowing happens only on the roads and major sidewalks, walking is a skill that must be learned here. The snow becomes ice and you can begin to train for the icecapades. It takes double the time to get anywhere since you have to walk that much slower to avoid falling on your ass. And trust me you almost fall a thousand times anyway! It is actually kind of like a game. How many times can I almost fall on the way to.............! But when the snow falls again it lays over the ice nicely so that now it is much easier to walk. Like today. It rained all night last night so I figured I wouldnt have to get up and run this morning since there would be nothing but ice on the ground but at some point it snowed and it layered the ice so that you can walk on it without slipping. I enjoyed walking today without sliding around. It was a nice change. And how much more can I say on this topic? Moving on.

After yet another presentation from an Amway representative in my town I am home now and reflecting. Today I was sitting in my favorite coffee shop thinking about my family and how much I love and miss them. I had just been on facebook and noticed that it was my Aunt Lucy's birthday so I sent her a happy birthday message and then I started to cry. I haven't seen my Aunt Lucy, or any of my family, in months and I had an overwhelming feeling of sadness while looking at a picture of her, her husband and all of her grandchildren. Which by the way are all girls! Just thinking about how happy they looked in the picture together! Being so far away from my family has given me such an appreciation for them that I don't think they will ever realize. It pains me that I will not be with them for the holidays this year but they know I will be home soon and that I need to do this now and they are so proud of me. I couldn't imagine my life without them.

A week of firsts

This week was a week of firsts. That is the life of a PCV though for most if not all of his or her service. You are always learning and things are always new. At least that is what has happened so far. It was the first snowfall on Monday, the first of December which is also the first day of winter (which is kind of a holiday here), the first time I got to hear Alex and Peter play the according and the first time I was ever interviewed let alone the first time in Ukraine. This week was about Volunteerism, Disabled People, HIV/AIDS and Anti-Slavery. We had a lot of volunteer projects going on around the world in PC and probably other organizations. It was a big week for some volunteers.

I had a human trafficking project going on at my site. I brought a guest speaker here to provide new information to the psychologists of some of our schools here in Konotop and to the specialist at our Unemployment Center. They were take the information back to their respective schools and conduct their own seminar with this new information on Dec 2nd. Which in the states is anti-slavery day. I attended the seminar at our Unemployment Center and it went great.

For volunteer day one of our other volunteers in Konotop did a presentation at the "Volunteer of the Year" Event. And that is where I was interviewed. Our local Konotop channel asked me a few questions about why I volunteered, what motivated me to do so and a few other questions about how long I have been here and what language I study. Very basic questions. I did it all in Russian but I was pretty nervous and couldn't understand some of the questions so we had to stop a few times. It will air in Konotop on Monday or Wednesday at 815pm.

This is the first weekend I am spending in Konotop in a few weeks. I definitely need the relaxing time. Unfortunately, like most weekends I didn't rest much. Another first I forgot to mention is that for the first time I celebrated Hannukah with some friends. I have certainly attended some Jewish holiday gatherings before but I do believe this was my first Hannukah celebration. It was a really good time. The Ktop four got together and some good food and good converation.

Another first for the week...I haven't had much luck at the ATM recently and this time was no different. So I went to the ATM on Saturday all ready to renew my PO Box and go to the bazaar for some food and after I took the money out I was certain I put my wallet in my purse. Several minutes later on the walk to the bazaar I fell down a hill from the snow, which was histarical, but it made me take a peek into my purse to make sure everything was there. That is when I realized I didn't have my wallet and after looking all around the white snow for my white wallet and it was no where to be found I figured I might have dropped it on the ground at the ATM by mistake. I was certain that I put it in my purse. So walking fast back to the ATM sure that someone had picked it up by this point and only hoping that they took it into a store to report it lost I got to the ATM and there was my wallet. Lying safe and sound exactly where I had dropped it and not touched. Maybe it is a good thing the wallet is white. So that is the second time I lost something and it was exactly where I left it when I returned... But I am not planning on making a habbit of that!