Random adventures

I left off with the Village of Popivka. I returned to the village on Friday for "Old People Day". Friday was a big day there were lots of celebrations going on. You had "Old People Day" and "Teacher's Day". Teacher's Day is actually Sunday but they were celebrating it on Friday. So I raced to Popivka to have a wonderful lunch with the village and the village Mayor. I sat next to him. There was lots of food and singing. They presented all the babushkas with little cards of congratulations. Some of them were teachers in their past lives and others were just special! I even got a gift! They presented me with a coffee mug. A really nice one! Me and the Mayor got the same one. It was awesome. I told them not to do that but they did it anyway! They are such wonderful people.

After shoveling the food in my mouth and rushing out the door we took a few more photos of all of us together and then they rushed me in the car and off we went to the House of Culture for more singing and dancing from the students of Konotop for teacher's day.

So back to Kiev on Saturday. I should get an apartment there for the next 2 years considering I am there all the time! I went to Kiev for the HIV/AIDS working group. I was excited for this to come. I am on a few different working groups but each one of them is very interesting to me and I am excited to get some project ideas as well besides meeting great new PCVs and learning a thing or two. I am extremely exhausted from all the traveling but it is fun and part of my job here is to see Ukraine so I will do that. I am off to Ivano-Frankivsk this weekend for a project with my special needs working group. I can't wait to see Ivano and learn how to start a fun day in my town for children with special needs.

I got to meet this new person in PC that I have been hearing lots about. I left from Kiev and went to a town called Kovalivka. It was really cute. It was like a mini disney land. Apparently, there is a woman there that paid for the brand new school, brand new restaurant that looks like wedding hall, the brand new church and the brand new hotel. She was in politics or something which is where she got her money from. She has done some amazing things there hopefully all for good things.

A strange turn of events the HIV/AIDS working group got tickets to see Bill Clinton in Kiev. He is giving a speech on the subject and the things he has done to prevent HIV. They had a big concert and a bunch of cool Ukrainian singers came and put on a show. There were so many people and there was a lot of shoving and crazy moshness going on but it was super awesome. We got to see Bill and his 15 minutes of fame in Ukraine. We tried to shake his hand at the end. We were even yelling "We are Americans"..."We are Peace Corps Volunteers"! But he wasnt hearing us!

Good times and back to site for 3 days and then we do it all again...