Anyway in the seminar we talked about personalities, how to look for a job, how to interview, etc. All the components of job searching. We discussed the book "What Color is Your Parachute" which I am currently reading. There is quite a difference in age and experience in our group which makes it a good place to network. Many of the people in our group have worked for several years, owned their own business, have furthering degrees, etc. So lots of experience floating around. We also had a guest speaker come from USAID to talk about international jobs. As much as I love traveling and seeing the world I am thinking my next venture might be in the old USofA!
Thanksgiving has just passed. I spent the holiday in Vinnitsa again with my friends. We had a magnificent time. First we had Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with my sitemates at my house. We had ham, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, corn bread, and I can't remember what else. That was a great time. We skyped with our old sitemate while we had dinner. She just got back to America. Then Friday night I went to Vinnitsa to do it all over again in a different place with different people. We had dinner on Saturday afternoon. We had 2 turkeys, salad, raisin bread, caviar (YUM), cranberry sauce, and some more things that I can't remember. The food was great, we drank and were merry.
I spent some time with a Ukrainian friend of mine that popped down from Kiev to see his parents and me on the way. I met him a month ago and it has been fun practicing my language with him since he doesn't speak any English. He is a cop in Kiev and is studying English for Euro 2012. After having been in country for so long I really do appreciate the many friendships that I have with Ukrainians. It is really fun and interesting to meet new people all the time. Now that my language is better and I have a better understanding of things I meet more people every time I travel and it is really exciting. Unfortunately, just like any other culture things don't always work out and your friendships may be only for a short time or for the rest of your life. In this case, it was a short time.
Things at site have gotten busier as I knew they would. Every Tuesday and Wednesday I spend time at Hearts of Love. This is a children's center for children with disabilities. This center is where my old site mate used to work when he was here. On Tuesday I work with the really young kids (2 to 6 years old) and try to help Anya with their development. These kids don't speak much and they can't do much and it is a gradual process but we work with them on speech and motor skills. No one has a degree in this and right now it is very grass roots which is why I have been trying to talk to other organizations that exist in Ukraine through connections I have made in America about how to get training for this type of thing. I am also helping out with English club here and every Wednesday we have a girls club consisting of some girls from the center.
Our girls club is very important. We get different girls and different ages and I can see the many attitudes of teenagers that I haven't had to deal with since I was one! We have a bully in our class and she teases the girls that are "different" which I don't like but we have to conduct this club in Russian and my language is just not where it needs to be to deal with this type of behavior but it is something that I need to think about and try to combat with them. It is difficult coming up with ideas that will be interesting for all of the girls at the same time. But it has only been 2 months for me so I will learn as we go.
I have recently been asked to do some leadership classes at one of our technical schools. That should be exciting. I will have to do it in Russian which again will be challenging but I am exciting to do something different with a different group of kids. I hope this works out. I would love to start a leadership club and get some kids to make some real differences in their town. They have everything they need here. They just need some direction and unfortunately so do I in some respects. But this might be a good thing. I am also about to start an HIV/AIDS project in my town and they would be helpful if I can get them to help me.
So I've been frequently seeing my tutor lately and the reason for the title of my post is because I learn so much from her. Nothing that is at all relevant in my life but still it is all new stuff. She always asks me questions that I just don't know the answer to. Things I never think about in my life. For example what is the organizational structure of state government in the US? I have no idea! I mean I can say in general but I am not 100% sure. These are things I should know but I don't. I have friends that can spout this off right away and probably in under a few minutes but as for me not so much. Why is Cinderella called Cinderella? I don't know I haven't read that book in over 25 years! But apparently cinders also means ashes which is why she is called Cinderella. Do you know how they made white and dark bread in Russian a long long time ago? I do, couldn't explain it to you in Russian but someday I will tell you the story in English. Provided of course that I don't forget! If only these were conversations I had to use on a daily basis my language might be better!
Today I will be a guest speaker at my sitemates school. She has asked me to do a mini presentation on NYC. That should be a hoot! By the way toilet paper was first introduced in NYC in 1857!
