Greetings from Ukraine!
Where to start? We spent three days altogether in Ukraine in a big sanatorium outside of Kyiv getting a chance to know each other, bond, drink, and endure various trainings.
I will be learning Russian, which means that I am destined to a life of pollution in the eastern part of the country where Russian is predominantly spoken or a beautiful sunny life in Southern Ukraine, where the Black Sea is. As you can only imagine, I have my hopes set for one thing, but my expectations on another.
So far, things have been very good and are going well. I am staying for the next three months an hour and a half west of Kiev with a family. The husband and wife are my age and they have a 5 year old son, Maxim. All are adorable. The town is a biggish town, but lacks public transportation. And this is not an internet cafe as much as it is a telephone center that has a (yes, one) computer with internet access. Hmm. We will see how this works.
Beyond that, I will spend most of my days here doing language lessons and cross cultural training in addition to working at an internship, which I am assuming will be at the pedalogical institute.
We are broken up into clusters for our towns, so I am here with 2 other women approximately my age and an older couple. The 2 women have much more experience with the language and the couple have none, so I find myself somewhere in the middle, and so far it is comfortable. Every weekend (on Saturdays) we get to get together with our "link" group, another group of 5 PCT's who live in a neighboring town. Except in our case, it's an hour and a half away in a different direction. That's the way that it goes, I guess. It seems that not everyone is as far away either from each other or Kiev. But whatever. I'm having fun.
Ukraine is a wonderful country that in a lot of ways looks familiar. Not too different from Russia (smaller towns). It is the fall here, so the leaves are changing. Things of course are different as there are little challenges, but nothing very difficult. My family has indoor plumbing, even if water is not on all the time or always hot. I have yet to use the bucket bath as we just arrived last night, so perhaps tonight will be the night for me!
I want to thank all of you who have written to me, I am sorry that I do not currently have time to e=mail you all personally, but in some ways this is what the blog was supposed to represent. I want to give an extra shout out (as I assume that this will be a regular thing) to Cathy for sending me an entertainment update. Myself and the other volunteers certainly appreciate it. I can't believe that Tom and Katie are having a baby. That is ridiculous. Of course my first question is whether or not it is his, but that isn't nice, is it?
Things will continue to be busy, but I am here, and when I can I will post, and if I can figure out how to do so with pictures, I will. Also, please cross your fingers that I will not be stuck in some polluted crazy city in the Donbass region, although, if I am sent, I will of course go.
I will be learning Russian, which means that I am destined to a life of pollution in the eastern part of the country where Russian is predominantly spoken or a beautiful sunny life in Southern Ukraine, where the Black Sea is. As you can only imagine, I have my hopes set for one thing, but my expectations on another.
So far, things have been very good and are going well. I am staying for the next three months an hour and a half west of Kiev with a family. The husband and wife are my age and they have a 5 year old son, Maxim. All are adorable. The town is a biggish town, but lacks public transportation. And this is not an internet cafe as much as it is a telephone center that has a (yes, one) computer with internet access. Hmm. We will see how this works.
Beyond that, I will spend most of my days here doing language lessons and cross cultural training in addition to working at an internship, which I am assuming will be at the pedalogical institute.
We are broken up into clusters for our towns, so I am here with 2 other women approximately my age and an older couple. The 2 women have much more experience with the language and the couple have none, so I find myself somewhere in the middle, and so far it is comfortable. Every weekend (on Saturdays) we get to get together with our "link" group, another group of 5 PCT's who live in a neighboring town. Except in our case, it's an hour and a half away in a different direction. That's the way that it goes, I guess. It seems that not everyone is as far away either from each other or Kiev. But whatever. I'm having fun.
Ukraine is a wonderful country that in a lot of ways looks familiar. Not too different from Russia (smaller towns). It is the fall here, so the leaves are changing. Things of course are different as there are little challenges, but nothing very difficult. My family has indoor plumbing, even if water is not on all the time or always hot. I have yet to use the bucket bath as we just arrived last night, so perhaps tonight will be the night for me!
I want to thank all of you who have written to me, I am sorry that I do not currently have time to e=mail you all personally, but in some ways this is what the blog was supposed to represent. I want to give an extra shout out (as I assume that this will be a regular thing) to Cathy for sending me an entertainment update. Myself and the other volunteers certainly appreciate it. I can't believe that Tom and Katie are having a baby. That is ridiculous. Of course my first question is whether or not it is his, but that isn't nice, is it?
Things will continue to be busy, but I am here, and when I can I will post, and if I can figure out how to do so with pictures, I will. Also, please cross your fingers that I will not be stuck in some polluted crazy city in the Donbass region, although, if I am sent, I will of course go.
posted by Molly | 3:55 PM
4 Comments:
Hi Molly,
I'm checking back in to the blogger world. Wanted to let you know that I love you, I miss you, and I am wishing you the best time you can have.
also, bucket baths aren't so bad. cold as f**k, but not too bad. once you develop a system (clean important parts, ignore the rest, dirt is your friend), you can do them really quick...
Hey Molly! I am so glad that you are haveing a positive experience so far. We really do hope that you end up where you feel you can make a difference AND enjoy yourself. Regardless, I know you'll make the most of it.
Cora is growing and growing by the day, and is now following Susan around the house. We're celebrating our 4th tomorrow, and are going out to dinner and a show in Lancaster on Friday night (baby free... yay!) Hard to believe that it's been 4 years.
About the baths, when I lived in Quito, we would go for weeks without water, so I know the inconvenience of either going without or taking sponge or bucket baths. No, they are not fun, but better than the alternative, unless you're more kinky than we think and into all that B.O.
Good luck with the language study!
--Ed (for Susan and Cora too)
so glad you are having fun!
Chandra
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