Another Easter in Ukraine. This time last year I had just been here a month. However, we arrived on Easter since it was earlier last year. That was our first encounter with our new family and our new lives. I decided this year now that I know more Russian and I understand more about what this holiday means to Ukrainians I would do the Ukrainian thing which is to color eggs and make Easter bread and then head to the church at 330am, listen to the service or singing, depending on the church, and then get ourselves and our food blessed! I didn't go to the church with my host mom last year and it seems I was missing out. Although one of my cluster mates did go to church with his host family and I am not sure he had the ultimate experience. You don't just go there you get yourself and your food blessed. If that is what happened to him he left a big detail out of his story.
It wasn't a complete Ukrainian experience, however, I colored eggs with my American site mates. We made burritos for dinner and we never actually made the Easter bread although we were given it by many different people. One of my sitemates is pretty lucky. She moved in next door to an old couple whose son is in Russia so they treat her like a daughter. It is nice to have that much attention as a new volunteer. She gets to do everything Ukrainian and they live right next door to her. Everyone has a different experience in the Peace Corps. No one is better or worse just different. Although I am sure some of us wonder...what if?
After the service and the blessed food we all went to our prospective houses and went to sleep. At least I did! I woke up around 10am and started my day all over again. My counterpart invited me to her house around 1pm to celebrate. I had my eggs ready from the night before and I went on over. It was just her, her husband and son and her husbands mother. I've met her before. I think she might have been having a celebration before she came. She is a sweet woman but she likes to drink and I am never really sure where she comes up with the things she talks about. She did finally get to "where is your boyfriend honey"...I have that exact same question. I am pretty sure she asked me that last time but in a different context.
Last week was a good week with my career development program. We discussed interviewing and we had a mock interview day which the participants really enjoyed. I invited my sitemates to help me do interviews but only one was around. That is ok because only 2 of my participants showed up. Funny thing about my students they were coming every week until I started making them do their homework. I have to give it to the teachers out there. It is tough keeping students interested. It is really difficult to get them to do what you want them to do. This isn't even for me. I want them to understand this stuff because it can help them out but you can only show them the way! They tell me this is interesting for them. They really enjoyed the mock interview day but I only got 2 out of the 4 there and I started with 9!
Well this is going to be a busy week. I am back on the road to Kiev for a meeting with IOM and then to Chernigiv to introduce our Career Development Program to the new recruits! I am excited to me the new volunteers. Then we head to the south of Ukraine for a 5K and then off to Prague!! I am however, going to do a mini project about human trafficking with my sitemates pupils. I am very excited about it. I am trying to land us on CNN through their Freedom Project which is focusing on anti-slavery this year. I have been proding volunteers to help me and now we have a grand idea. We are doing a discussion club with 4 schools about different topics surrounding human trafficking and then I am going to video tape the students discussing what it is and what they can do to raise awareness. We are introducing a 527 campaign across Ukraine for IOM. 527 is a number you can call (much like 311 in NY) to get information about things related to human trafficking. It is free from any cell service in Ukraine. I am very excited about this project and really happy that my sitemates are interested in it because without them and their pupils (students) I wouldn't be able to make this happen. And this to me is the reason I am a volunteer in Ukraine.
Happy Easter.
