Bye group 36!

It's May 2011 and this week is the first round of COSers from group 36. That means that their group is starting to leave the country of Ukraine for good! Some will vacation somewhere else in the world on their way home to the states and others will just go straight home. We are losing two people here in Konotop. Not that we don't have plenty to spare with 6 volunteers in one town of only 100k but it was nice having that many volunteers here for the last few months. I've gotten used to it and now two of them will leave with one on her way out in only 6 months! Of course after that I am leaving 6 months later. The good thing when a group leaves is that another group comes in. We lose the people we just spent a year with, or a few months, and we meet those we will spend the next few months with.

So I have spent the last few weeks hanging out with those who are leaving and now I am back at site for a while. The other day I had a graduation ceremony for my participants at the unemployment center. I only had three people make it through the program but that is more than I thought and that is pretty good. They were my strongest in English so I thought I might lose some people along the way. I made them a "congratulations" banner, brought in some cookies and tea and made them colorful diplomas with their names on them. They really enjoyed it and we took lots of photos.

All of a sudden there is this commotion amongst the group and I don't understand what is going on. There is a lot of whispering and moving around and then they present me with some gifts. Now these women are graduating so I am not expecting anything but in Ukraine this is just what they do! So I am being presented with a diploma of my own for "Best Teacher" and a beach towel of Ukraine. The diploma is in Russian and my friend and translator begins to tell me what the words mean in English. They have given me marks on different things like "warms hearts with kindness", etc. I got a 12 for everything which in this country a 12 is perfect! They bought this in the bazaar along with the towel and I love it! I almost cried because they said such nice things to me. It was awesome because I woke up that morning, like I have several other times, feeling that I am not making a damn bit of difference here and I should just go home! So when I got there and was showered with gifts and pleasantries it all starts to make sense. Funny thing every time I feel that way Ukraine proves to me that I am here for a reason and that I should focus more on the little things because that is what really counts. Why do we have to be told this over and over and over again? When exactly will we believe it?

So that was my week.

I have many camps coming up this summer so I will spend my time not at these camps preparing for these camps!