We will...

Si, se puede!

Equal Pay Day

Tuesday, April 22 is Equal Pay Day!

Equal Pay Day was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men's and women's wages. The day, observed on a Tuesday in April, symbolizes how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year. (Tuesday is the day on which women's wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week.) Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay. The wage gap is even greater for most women of color.

$$$
Equal Pay Day:
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
$$$


Wear RED on Equal Pay Day to symbolize how far women
and minorities are "in the red" with their pay!


The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on January 24, 2008, “The Fair Pay Restoration Act: Ensuring Reasonable Rules in Pay Discrimination Cases.”

http://www.womenspolicy.org/thesource/article.cfm?ArticleID=2639

The Fair Pay Restoration Act (S.1843) – drafted in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which held that employees must sue for pay discrimination within the current 180-day statute of limitations – would permit employees to sue employers for wage discrimination even if the discrimination was discovered beyond the 180-day limit. (This act is similar to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act cited below.)

http://www.nwlc.org/fairpay/
Join the Fair Pay Campaign to support this legislation.
The Fair Pay Campaign is led by the American Association of University Women, the Feminist Majority Foundation, Legal Momentum, the National Organization for Women, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and the National Women's Law Center, with 250 other local, state, and national groups -- including NCPE -- joining them.


http://www.pay-equity.org/index.html

77 cents?

a new website

in case you haven't checked it out yet, i've got a new site up:

www.lawrencelawson.net

i'm using it as a portal to showcase my writing and my publishing endeavours.

check out www.lawrencelawson.net

The Payoff Revisited

Some of you may remember my 26 April 2007 post about Oksana, my Ukrainian student who was chosen to study in the U.S. for a year. Well, here's an update.

Oksana has been at Spalding University in Louisville, KY since September. She has a few months to go in her study abroad experiences. She has taken really interesting classes, participated in college life as her Residence Hall's treasurer, and has volunteered in two local schools.

A few days ago Oksana came to visit me for her Spring Break. We toured around Monterey and San Francisco. Her friends in Louisville had warned her that CA was like another country. When she landed in the sunny 70 degree weather (on a day when 10 inches of snow fell in Louisville) and saw flowers blooming everywhere, she decided her friends were right.

We took Oksana hiking at Point Lobos and we took her to an International Women's Day event put on by the United Nations Association of Monterey. We wore our Ukrainian embroidered shirts and ate a variety of food from different cultures at the potluck.




While she was here, Oksana also tried Japanese food, Mexican food, and Indian food. Everything she tried, she liked.





We took her to the Monterey Aquarium where we saw some very playful sea otters, and some colorful jellyfish.


We went to a Russian friend's house to celebrate the end of Winter and the arrival of Spring. There, Oksana had the opportunity to talk to Russian speakers from many former Soviet Republic countries, and even another Ukrainian girl! We ate blinchiki (crepes) with different toppings and enjoyed the company.














Finally, we went to San Francisco and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, Chinatown and the Ferry Building. Oksana had only seen the bridge in movies, and couldn't believe how huge it was in person. She also commented on how everyone in SF is so different from each other.


Oksana gave us a reason to play "tourist" and get out of the house and see the sights. While I greatly enjoyed our outings, what I will treasure most are our conversations. I was continually amazed at how much her English has improved and what a changed person she has become. She expresses her opinions thoughtfully, and is not afraid to disagree with people. She is questioning the world around her, and making insightful comparisons to life in Ukraine. She has worked so hard and deserves all of the successes that I know are headed her way.

Today Oksana is touring the Grand Canyon. When I visited her at her parents' house in their small Ukrainian village, she told me it was her dream to see the Grand Canyon. She didn't know why, but it's the place she always hoped she would be able to see. Today she will see it. Just another check mark on her long list of accomplishments...

What's next, Oksana?

please follow my writing...

...if you are so inclined.

Rejections of a Writer

&

Successes of a Writer

this is going to be my year.

i can feel it.

writing the book

I didn't think I'd ever come back here, but here I am. It's been a while.

I just wanted to let you know, all of those still reading, that through a bizarre set of miracles, I'm sending a book proposal for my non-fiction book based on my PC Ukraine experience to an agent in NYC next week. If she likes it, maybe something really exciting will happen. If she doesn't, at least I'll have taken a very important first step.

Those of you near and dear to me, if something does come out of this, I'll be contacting you to ask if I can use your real name (first only, not last) in the work. So, think on that....

YAY!

we're back...

Some days it feels like riding a bike...

We're back in student mode, seemingly always rushing from one thing to the next, living by our day planners to keep things straight, and spending hours in front of our computers or buried in books. Our professors and colleagues welcomed us back, though it's a sea of unfamiliar faces in most of our classes.

Other days it's overwhelming...

Just the amount of stuff everywhere, in stores, people's houses, on the road. Cars are huge, and everywhere I turn there seem to be infinite choices to make. The work seems to have been removed from our lives in the name of modern convenience: washing machines, dish racks, high speed internet, and of course, my car. =)

Most days Larry and I walk everywhere and make a point to sit together and eat our meals. But we've noticed how easy it is to get caught up in whatever needs to happen next. Most days are easier than I expected them to be. I'm drowning in new concepts and tasks, but they're interesting and not at all beyond my grasp. It's just keeping up with the work load that consumes me.

And I feel fortunate every day that I wake up and see the sun shining, and I glance down the road a few blocks to the deep blue ocean, with my new appreciation for seasons and what they mean in other places to other people.

Beautiful Northern CA

After a week in San Diego visiting my family, we're in northern CA with Larry's family. We took a drive up the coast on Sunday all the way to Brookings, Oregon. It's cooler up here, but just beautiful.

It's been so nice to be surrounded by family since returning home. I've especially enjoyed taking part in the holiday traditions we've missed these past 2 years like decorating the Christmas tree and sending out cards.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you.

Hugs and Kisses from Fortuna, CA.

gotta add this one from the road

sorry to go back on my word, but this has gotta go up.

checking my email on the street in Berlin, I found this news item and rejoiced.

as I'm an RPCV, I can finally say something political...but I'll let the picture speak for me.

The "R"

So it's all official. The paperwork is handed in. Most of the goodbyes have been said.

We've been showered with gifts and kind words. It's been hard to know what to feel, happy and sad, relieved and surprised, hesitant and ready. Mostly, I feel ready.

Thanks to those of you who kept in touch. Your words of support and your interest in our lives here were always bright spots in my sometimes challenging days. I hope we were able to paint some pictures of life in Ukraine for you, and somewhat increase your understanding of this part of the world.

I am proud of finishing. I couldn't have done it alone. I have been touched by many incredible people along this journey, and supported by many more at home. I have gained valuable experience that I will carry with me. I'm looking forward to readjusting to life at home and finding out what aspects of this adventure I'm going to miss.

Love from Ukraine!

Karen

-----------

we'll make this a joint post as our last post from the good ole ukraine. we'll continue the blog at home for a little while--highlighting the differences in culture, our readjustment, and detailing some of the things about Peace Corps Ukraine / Ukraine that we couldn't talk about while serving--and then shut it down.

so, we're rpcvs now. what a hell of a long initiation process (stole that from another rpcv) to get into the club. two years of slogging through another culture, language, and worldview. it opened my mind though and, in a way, opened my heart. and, at the same time, service in Ukraine hardened my heart (my friends at home will have to help me be friendly and optimistic again as pessimism and rudeness have been some of my most surefire tools of survival).

things i miss that i'm looking forward to:

laughing out loud in public. (karen and i did this yesterday and it felt SO GOOD.)

friends.

family.

things that i'll miss here:

friends

family

verenyky with cherries and sour cream and sugar!!!

living in a beautiful, historic city

it's been an amazingly short--and, at the same time, amazingly long--two years of service. i dreamed of being a PCV for a good chunk of my life. and, for these two plus years, i dreamed of being an RPCV. now that i am, i have few adequate words to describe it. basically, i feel ready.

ready for my next challenge and ready to go home and understand this previous challenge.

thank you to ukraine for all of the memories. thank you to all of my students, host families and friends for all of the good memories. you made these two years worthwhile. everytime you smiled or said "thank you" or asked a good qustion, you made me feel happy.

good luck to oleh, levko, and dima on FLEX round 2! and good luck to Marta in everything! you're my stars and were the light of my two years in ukraine!

peace out for the final final from ukraine,

larry
RPCV Ukraine 05-07

"so long"

so long to Casey...see you in the States buddy.



it was Bandera's first 'first snow' in Ukraine on Monday 12 November
and it was our last 'first snow' in Ukraine

six days.

damn right we're counting.

well oh so very well

had our give-away party last night. lots of people from our oblast came and took all of our (plus Casey's and Shelley's) stuff. the first round of give-away was a free for all, take what you like kind of affair. the second round was a white elephant (yankee swap!) giveaway for the big items (speakers and the DVD Bonanza among others). a good time was had by all. some people did have a difficult time understanding what RSVP and BYOB means. college anyone?

we're down to eight days. today is casey's last day in l'viv. gonna miss that guy, but we'll see him again in the states.

hope you are all well as karen and i do our final packing and end this chapter of our lives!

Becoming Women

My most interesting conversations and experiences in Ukraine have occurred with the girls who regularly attend my English Club. They are the ones who were self-motivated enough to take time out of their busy schedules to practice English. They even came to our Club during the summer, when they could have been relaxing with their friends.

I will miss our conversations and our projects, their amazement at the things I tell them about life in the US. They listen attentively and write everything down, from inspirational quotes to silly slang words.

These young women are kind and motivated. They are beautiful and intelligent. They want to improve their lives and their country, and are just learning how to take the first steps in this process. They continually impress me with their strength and compassion, and I am so proud of who they are becoming.

They thank me for believing in them, though they've never given me a reason not to. I know they will have many successes and create new and exciting opportunities for themselves. I believe so strongly in their futures, and I look forward to our continued correspondence.

FINDING HER HERE

I am becoming the woman I’ve wanted,
grey at the temples,
soft body, delighted,
cracked up by life
with a laugh that’s known bitter,
but, past it, got better,
knows she’s a survivor—
that whatever comes,
she can outlast it.
I am becoming a deep
weathered basket.

I am becoming the woman I’ve longed for,
the motherly lover
with arms strong and tender,
the growing-up daughter
who blushes surprises.
I am becoming full moons
and sunrises.

I find her becoming,
this woman I’ve wanted,
who knows she’ll encompass,
who knows she’s sufficient,
knows where she’s going
and travels with passion.
Who remembers she’s precious,
yet not at all scarce—
who knows she is plenty,
plenty to share.

--Jayne Relaford Brown

last tour

I’m back in L’viv after a whirlwind 13 day goodbye session across the center and east of Ukraine. We went to Kyiv to start the final paperwork to get out of the country. As it stands, we have 20 days left in Ukraine. Then we went to see our host family one last time, and we had an amazing time there. Then Karen went home and I went east to my friend Travis house (read: cabin). After my time there, we all went up to Kharkiv (the 2nd biggest city in Ukraine) for our annual Halloween party. The pictures which follow this post are a smattering of images from the times I’m about to describe.

First off: Kyiv. Not much to say here. Just ran around the office and got paperwork signed. I was unimpressed with the diligence in the office, but I’ll expand upon that thought in 21 days. We stayed in an apartment on the cobblestone street which serves as the scene for the city’s largest craft bazaar (Andrew’s Descent.) We stayed for three nights in Kyiv for a total of $44.80 which is ridiculously cheap for Kyiv. We were just lucky to have friends and other volunteers to share the space, and price, with. The agency had double booked the residence (b/c nothing can really go as planned in Ukraine) so a second group of volunteers, who had rented the place, had to hoof it to another apartment. We met Olya, a girl from my English Club who now goes to Kyiv-Mohila University (pretty much the best Uni in Ukraine), for dinner at Puzata Khata. It’s always nice to see her. She’s so bright and cheery and happy.

Off to Pryluky to see the host family. It was a short trip because Larysa is now a LCF (Language and Cross-Cultural Facilitator) for Peace Corps. She works in the Oblast capital (Chernihiv for all those at home keeping score). So, we arrived Saturday morning, helped her make lunch, spoke a lot of Ukrainian, and waited for our host dad and daughter to return home from buying a new computer. We had a wonderful lunch of chicken borshch accompanied by some warming horilka. That night, we had tea with the neighbors, Kris and Jen’s host family, and some family friends. The conversation quickly descended into Surzhik (a mix of Ukr and Russ) that we had a hard time following. The next day, we hung out with the family until the afternoon, when Larysa had to go back to work. Before she left, we decided to do something special….

For those of you who’ve been with this blog since the beginning, you may remember our first few weeks in Ukraine. During that time, our host family took us out to a park outside of Pryluky for a hike. After the hike, our guide took me off into the woods and told me to dig into the ground with a rusty pick. What I dug up was a bottle of homemade horilka. He had buried it because, “It is Ukrainian tradition to bury something special in a place that you want to come back to.” In Pryluky this last time, we told our host family that we wanted to bury our engagement rings in their yard. It was a sign that our time with them meant a lot to us and we looked forward to coming back one day. Our host dad found an old Tic-Tac box and we dropped our rings into it. He then wrapped the box in a plastic back and took us our to the front yard. He dug a hole and we dropped the rings in. Then we all took turns turning dirt onto the rings, burying a piece of ourselves in Pryluky—in the one place in Ukraine we truly hope to come back to.

Our host family means a lot to us and, the next day when we left at 4am with Valera (who is a marshrutka driver between Pryluky and Kyiv), it was a hard leaving. When Valera walked us to the metro, I was unable to say all the things I wanted to say to him—how much he meant to us, how he made us feel safe, how we’ll miss him—because I was spending all of energy trying not to cry. They were a part of our best experiences in Ukraine and we’ll always remember them and miss them.

After Pryluky, Karen went home to L’viv to teach and I, taking the last of my vacation days, went east to my friend Travis’s house. He lives in a small village in Donetskaya Oblast and is known to have one of the toughest sites in Ukraine. When he wants water to bathe or wash with, he has to pull it ten feet out of a well with a bucket and a hoe. When he’s gotta use the bathroom (winter or summer) he’s got to truck out to his outhouse. When he wants to heat up his house, he’s got to cut wood and stuff his stove (petchka) with wood and coal (he buys coal by the ton). When the fire’s burned down, he takes the remnant coal and wood and sifts it outside to get rid of the pig-iron (creating quite the ash storm). It’s tough living for two years, but for the three days I was out there, it felt like I was at my family’s cabin—except we have running water and an indoor toilet there. We had a good time hanging out—only getting freaked out by the locals one time when we met the man on the train who, unknowingly following Kurt Cobain’s words, was so high he scratched himself until he bled…the entire 30 minute train ride.

Onto Kharkiv for the annual Halloween party. [PC Ukraine hemorrhaged about this party…. More about that in 21 days.] It was a good time and people had a lot of fun. Group 29, especially those who organized the party + their friends, made sure everyone was safe. There’s not a lot about this party, I find, that I can write about without setting PC off in a fuss, so I’ll write about this in 21 days too. Highlight of the day, before the party, was a horse-driven cart carrying a two men dressed as skeletons, a stereo system, and a sign advertising a Halloween party that night in Kharkiv. When they saw us, they turned up the music (heavy metal) and headbanged down the boulevard. Seeing that all happen while being pulled down the street by a horse was just too funny/anachronistic to forget.

I took a 21 hour platskart (where the conductor didn’t want to let me on the train and a family was dead set on getting my bed) back to L’viv and now I’m back with my wife. I missed her and I’m happy to see her. Saying goodbye to our friends and family out east was hard, but as we get older we find that it comes with the territory. If you make friends, one day you’re going to have to say goodbye to them. Without their footprints all over your life, even the sets you never see again, make your time here on earth rich and happy.

I am blessed with good friends. I hope you are too.




Kharkiv Cathedral modelled off of Istanbul's Hagia Sofia

Figures at base of T Shevchenko statue in Kharkiv

Weird mural in Kharkiv Zoo

Travis pulling water out of his well

Fountain in Kharkiv

Only statue I know of that has T Shevchenko as a painter, in Pryluky

Our host family--Me, Valera, Larysa and Karen

Me burying rings in yard

Karen on Andrew's Descent

fires

Our thoughts are with everyone in southern California affected by these fires. We're hoping for the winds to die down and the air to become humid. It's hard to be so far away when bad things happen, but we're lucky to be in contact through emails and sms messages.

We hope the damage is minimal and that your loved ones are safe.

Best wishes from Ukraine.

picture day

Brand-New Statue of Stepan Bandera near our house.

St. George's Cathedral (near our house)

Karen in Plosha Rynok with Teacher's Day Flower

Larry in Plosha Rynok with kvass

Our Attempt at Making Donuts

The countdown of days left in Ukraine, starting from 100. We're now at 39.

I taught from Safran Foer for a day.

A beautiful chuche we discovered one day in L'viv. They are just kinda hidden everywhere.

Fall has come in all its colors.

Some participants of my English club.

City Hall's Tower during a Yulia Tymoshenko Rally.

It says "(The West) ahead toward Europe, (the East) back to Russia, and (the middle) spins in circles and goes nowhere." A political party's add.

Karen at Olesky Zamok (Castle)

Posing at the Zamok.



















Sign at Entrance to Olesky Zamok

A Reflection on 2 Years in Ukraine

I keep thinking about how I need to start packing, to start sorting through the binders of lesson plans and classroom materials, the drawer of mail from friends and family, the CDs and tapes of photos and memories we’ve accumulated. But I find myself fighting the urge to get ready to go, almost as if to slam on the brakes and slow down the countdown a little. Time has never moved as fast in my life as it’s been moving for me lately.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really looking forward to being home, seeing family and friends, driving my car, eating Mexican food, and readjusting to life in the U.S. But right now it’s hard to imagine being on the other side of this experience. One of the things I’ll miss is how every day is an adventure. At home we take for granted the small interactions and experiences that are made challenging here by culture and language. When viewed with some distance, I know these moments will be funny and interesting, though they can be crushingly frustrating at the time.

I will also miss this experience because of the lifestyle I have maintained during the last two years. I live in a beautiful apartment with high ceilings and a sunny balcony and sleep in a comfortable bed. I walk everywhere, usually 6-8 miles per day, with an occasional trip on public transportation when necessary. I eat fresh, local foods that vary by season. I cook more than I ever did before, and I appreciate the time and love required to make things from scratch (and re-heat them without a microwave).

Last week in class I was teaching about cross-cultural communication. We discussed different aspects of culture and likened culture to the metaphor of a tree. There are parts of a tree that you can see, like the trunk, branches and leaves, and there are the parts you can’t see, the roots. Without the roots, the tree would die or fall down, or would never have grown in the first place. We compared this tree to culture, attempting to demonstrate that the aspects of culture that we can observe, such as clothes, holiday traditions, and amount of touching, are a result of the invisible aspects of culture, such as concept of beauty, religious beliefs, and concept of personal space.

Living here for two years has given me the ability to begin to understand the roots of some cultural behaviors that I would otherwise view from an outsider’s perspective as weird or illogical. Many things can be explained by history, religion, or some other unobservable aspect of Ukrainian life. This experience has also given me a chance to reflect on my own culture in more depth.

Often when you are walking through the Center of L’viv on a weekend you will see numerous wedding parties getting their photos taken in front of the town’s monuments. Sometimes there are 3 or 4 brides lined up just steps away from each other at the same monument, waiting to have their picture taken on their special day. I’m sure that in some of these wedding day photos, there is a stray bride in her white gown and veil in the background of another couple’s picture. Perhaps it’s the only child in me, but I would never want to share my special day with other couples, especially not in the backgrounds of my photos! I would have run the other direction if we had met another wedding party on the beach in Monterey on our wedding day. I suppose this attitude is similar to the motto on packed Ukrainian marshrutkas, “there’s always room for one more”; Ukrainians are really good at sharing space.

I never realized how much I relish my personal space until I came to Ukraine. Even in Spain, where people would often bump into you on the street without saying “Excuse me,” I never experienced the stifling lack of space of my daily life here. This situation has made me realize how irrational my attitude toward space really is. I view it as “my” space, as if I own it. The fact that I haven’t been able to relinquish ownership on the space around me during the last two years shows me that this personal space bubble is really a part of me. I have begun to embrace it, along with trying to keep a sense of humor about it. When people sit on my lap at concerts, tell me to scoot over and share my small seat on the bus with someone else, or hip-check me on the street I try to visualize these wedding photos and remind myself that it’s good to share.

That said, I am really excited to go home and maneuver my personal space satellite through the streets of Monterey and the San Diego Zoo, the aisles of El Comal, and in the roomy interior of my Galant. I’m going to eat myself silly while trying to maintain my walking policy whenever possible. I’m going to bask in the comfort and convenience of a washing machine and never again complain about saving quarters for the Laundromat. Soon I’ll probably join the ranks of those complaining about gas prices and a lack of free time, but I will do so with the knowledge and appreciation that it can be and has been another way.

beautiful

she's so beautiful (in a niece sort of way) it makes me teary.

3 october 2007

as i forgot to blog about twice, 3 october 2007 marked the end of the second full year we've spent in ukraine. the two years have seemed to fly by and, at the same time, drag on. we spent the day teaching. we celebrated on the 4th by going out for pizza (the 4th, coincidentally, is the two month mark until we arrive, once again, on american soil--that time, for good).

spent a relatively sunny saturday walking to the park to find donuts (which weren't being sold at 1030am). ukrainians, judging by the empty streets and our two years of experience, do not get up early on weekends. you can get up at 7 am on a saturday, troll around the downtown, and literally have the streets to yourself (except for all the tourists who are looking for an open shop (which doesn't really exist that early on a saturday)). that nothing was open early on a saturday or sunday once frustrated us. now, we just laugh. they'll either figure out that the swaths of tourists wandering the streets probably would be inclined to spend money in their shops (if they were only open) or they won't.

had a yelling match in ukrainian the other day at the train ticket office. the woman working there was convinced that i should go to the english speaking window (which doesn't exist) because she couldn't understand that I wanted to go to slavyansk--a city in the east of ukraine--and not slovakia (a country to the west of ukraine). we finally worked through our differences and she tried to sell me a ticket, only she was having a hard time remembering that it was october, not september, and tried, continually, to sell me a ticket for the 23d of last month. ah, ukraine....

slowly packing up here. discovered that there is a ups office near our house. the guy who works there is really nice. unfortunately, he said it costs $200 to ship 10 kilos of stuff to america. that seems pretty pricey. but, at least we have it as an option. i'd never walked in that direction, away from our house, so it was nice to see that part of lviv. the man began by speaking russian to me, but switched over easily to ukrainian when i asked him too. he even used a few phrases of english, which i had a hard time understanding cuz my mind was in ukrainian mode.

44 days.

election plus

it happened.

it's still happening.

too bad i can't comment on the weird stuff i heard about.

guess we'll have to wait 47 days for the tell all.

--------

in other news, i'm teaching from Foer's Everything is Illuminated in my American literature class. I was explaining to my students that one of the narrators, Alex, uses words that he obviously found in a thesaurus. Therefore, he says things, and uses words, that a native speaker wouldn't normally use in certain situations.

one of my students raised his hand and said, "you mean, he tries to use non-famous words?"

"Exactly," I said. "Non-famous words or, as I like to call them, uncommon words."

---------

my students, today like every day, told me how much better the ukrainian school system is than the american school system. this discussion came as we were talking about the FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) testing that's coming up in L'viv. Winners of the competition study in Americ for an academic year.

During the conversation, one particularly clever student asked if homework was assigned in America.

"Yes," I said. "And if you don't do it, your grade lowers. But you have homework here too, so it shouldn't be a big deal."

"Yes, we have it," the student said. "But we don't do it."

And now i'm wavering...which system is harder?

sunny days

sat outside today on the main prospect drinking a beverage with a friend and his am-ukr acquaintance. she talked about apartments and real estate in Ukraine and it got me thinking. an apartment in Lviv, remodeled, goes for $300-$500 a month, depending on location. Ukrainians, unless they are rich "businessmen" can't afford this. it is the foreigners, like me, that prop this market up and make it IMPOSSIBLE for normal Ukrainians to rent. of course, most Ukrainians own their houses, but in these house are three, sometimes four, generations of families. no one can afford to move out.

why?

because expats found that its cheap to live here. and that sucks for Ukrainian middle class because (a) it doesn't exist and (b) it doesn't have a chance to exist because they can't find real jobs to give them enough real money to make a living (like paying skyrocketing rents, skyrocketing food prices, skyrocketing gas prices, etc...).

free-markets and such

stopped some kid on the street and offered him $10 for the Yulia Tymoshenko shirt he was wearing. i was too late to get the free ones/didn't want to get mauled by the ukrainians mobbing for the free ones.

he ripped the shirt off his back like it were on fire. then he shook my hand.

loyalties....

(for any pc admin type reading this, i want you to know i OF COURSE won't be wearing the shirt in public...in Ukraine.)

some poetry?

It only took two years for one of my students to find the blog. So, now I’ve gotta be more careful about what I write. Not that I wasn’t careful already, but I was probably slipping as service was coming to an end. Still, DC and Kyiv read our blog pretty much religiously (not a testament to the writing but more indicative of big brother tapping the phone lines) so we don’t say all that we could…or should. Gotta wait for the post-PC book for that. Gotta use my seven journals full of scribbling for something, don’t I?

Less than two months! Actually, 57 days. Of course I’m counting….

---------------

I just wanted to pop up here and briefly share a poem one of my students—we’ll call him T—wrote in one of my classes. I asked for a volunteer who wouldn’t mind if I shared his or her poetry—in the lesson, we were discussing symbolism in poetry. A boy raised his hand and I present you his poem.

Man go to fishing in village. In village

he breading a fresh air. Man

go to village in horse.

There are good dishes.

My friend skiing

on snowboard on snow.

My friend can skiing to 12 o’clock.

More refreshing than his grammatically flawed, yet original (praise God) prose was the fact that though the rest of his group mates ditched their class (their teacher just didn’t come to school that day), T came into my class and asked if he could join our lesson. He wanted to learn English, he said. He didn’t want to sit around and do nothing. I was happily shocked.

So here’s to you T! Good work!

Game On!

As many volunteers discover, when you are passionate about something it shows in the way you approach your work in that realm. Softball has been my passion for most of my life. It taught me many important lessons in life, some more difficult than others, and I am lucky to have had so many opportunities to play ball.

Last Fall some volunteers in Lutsk invited me to help them with a softball clinic, specifically with pitching. I was excited for the chance, though weary after a negative softball experience last summer which involved young men with big egos, coaches with limited baseball knowledge who liked to argue, and little girls getting yelled at for striking out. This experience was completely different and restored my hope for Ukrainian girls learning softball.

I met many bright, motivated girls who were not afraid to try something new. Softball is not easy, and there are a lot of points which we take for granted (like which direction to run after hitting the ball, which hand the glove goes on, etc). Underhand fastpitch requires a lot of patience and practice, yet these girls were determined to listen to what I had to offer and try their best to improve.

I thank the volunteers in this area who have tirelessly created a softball league from scratch, who even wrote a grant to build the region's first softball field. They have created a positive environment for these girls to learn important lessons like teamwork and perserverence, and have created the opportunity for them to participate in a productive activity during their abundant free time.

Here are some photos of me passing along my love for softball, which my parents encouraged by enduring endless travelling tournaments, scraped knees and tears of frustration, and hours on uncomfortable bleachers. Play Ball!

C to the O to the S

COS (Close of Service) Conference

Group 29 / Ukraine / 2005-2007

The moment I have been waiting for for two years has come and gone. I'm really, at the same time, in disbelief and at peace with it. The four days we spent at Perlyna Karpaty, a resort settled in a forested nook in the northeastern edge of the Carpathian mountains, were some of the most enjoyable of my service. As opposed to the first time our entire group (74 remain of the original 116), the decidedly American energy that bubbles to the surface when 74 United Statesians gather together was infused with a healthy dose of Ukrainianess. An example of this is that during our final dinner, we sat at long tables dressed in an abundance of food and drink much like our Ukrainian forebears. During the dinner, a three piece string band played Ukrainian folk songs. We were excited and sung and danced along for all of them; however, when they played English language songs, our enthusiasm was less palpable. It was a time for us to celebrate our hard work and two years in Ukraine. It was also a time for me to really, truly realize how much of Ukrainian culture I have stitched into myself. I also have come to realize that when I leave Ukraine this November, jettisoning myself across the world as an RPCV, I'll be sad.

I haven't admitted to myself that I'd actually be sad, but it's obvious to me now that I've been lying to myself. It's hard to live here, and I do look forward to a resumption of my life in the United States, but it's also great to live here in ways it's hard to adequately explain.

At our conference, we celebrated our accomplishments. We said hello to colleagues and peers we haven't seen for a while. Karen and I (and Ben) also lamented the absence of Kris and Jen Wiley, our friends from the first days in Ukraine. They were our spine during service, providing us with the support that allowed us to stand when all we wanted to do was slink to the floor. The conference was not the same without them, and they were truly missed.

We also took a few trips during our conference. Some elected to go horseback riding (I had enough of that as a kid and Karen has a strange fear of horses) while others took the ski lift up to the top of a high mountain. We did trip number two and ended up going to the same place Case and I went skiing back in February. It was beautiful, but we had to leave early because I had to get back to a Language Proficiency Test. I ended up scoring Advanced High (the highest score short of fluent, native-like ability that's possible) but our meeting was interrupted because we had to take a group picture so that score can't be counted officially (which sucks). I'll have to take the test again in October and hope I can score the same.

Now we're about to start school--our last two months of teaching. I'm sure it'll go faster than i anticipate and I'll be seeing all of you before I know it. until then, enjoy your lives--that's what they're for.

Love,
Larry

P.S. My (our) thoughts are with Greg and his family during this difficult time. RIP Rodney Milholland (1978-2007).

Larry "Best Hair" Lawson

At our COS conference this past week, Larry won "Best Hair" among all PC Ukraine Group 29ers. The competition was fierce, but you can see from the photos, that the best man won. Perhaps those of you living outside of Ukraine might not think this style is "modern" or "cool," but trust me that more than one local approached Larry during his mullet-mohawk transformation week to compliment his "modny stil" with genuine intentions.

Enjoy!

two days...

...until our close of service conference begins in the Carpathians.

today, though, is ukrainian independence day. we're spending it hosting friends tonight...and tomorrow night. i anticipate a lot of happy feelings. we're all excited at coming this far....

go us!

two contrasting articles on ukraine

one light and airy (and very telling about ukrainian medical 'theory')

BBC reports on Ukrainian Wine Therapy

and one somber

Poland Gives Up On Ukraine

100

if everything goes according to plan, we should be leaving Ukraine as rpcvs in 100 days.

it all comes down to this.

HEAL

Just got back from Donetsk where we worked at Camp H.E.A.L. We taught about cool topics like Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS in Ukraine, and Leadership. We played a lot of games, ate S'mores, and even sang around (near) a giant campfire. The students I brought from Lviv had a really good time, and seemed to learn some good information.

Larry with his group in a final team-building activity: the human web.


My students from L'viv created a project to teach seminars at the local Orphanage.

That's me teaching about anti-Human Trafficking.

Now we're finally going to rest for a bit, but next on the agenda is something really exciting: our COS (close of service) Conference. We get together with all the volunteers left from our group (we started with 116, but I think we're down to about 75), learn about what kind of paperwork will be required, but mostly just celebrate that we've made it this far.

We're approaching the 100-day mark!

t-shirt i picked up in kyiv

has an image of this soviet, wwii era poster!

it says: have you signed up to be a volunteer.

yes, i have.

just not in the way it means.

wonder how much trouble i'll get into for wearing it in l'viv.

back in kyiv

after a week long tour in the east working at a camp. good camp for the campers--they learned a lot about HIV/AIDS in Ukraine and about Human Trafficking in and thru Ukraine.

some of the staff there was way more excited about their coffee than about working with kids and that was sad, but i guessmost grp 29 pcvs have their minds out the door already.

in kyiv this morn at 5am. sitting in the internet cafe at the vokzal. headed to the new office soon to pick up a package. headed back to lviv--home sweet home--tonight. then, in 12 days or so, we'll be off to our close of service (COS) conference.

can't believe this LONG part of my life is finally burning to dusk.

Post-LIFT

fresh off of karen's LIFT conference. what an amazing experience. an upLIFTing experience, if i may. and i suppose i may because, well, you can't stop me.

the conference was only for women--i was the only guy there--and we had students come from as far away as chernihivska oblast (practically russia :)). we spent four days talking about gender equality, violence against women, and project planning, among others.

karen planned the conference for months and, of course, ukraine stepped in its own way several times. the site was less that optimal, less than supportive, and we got thrown a curveball in having to pay for a hostel we were led to believe would be free. add to that a few drunk men hassling us about having a conference / giving us keys (who worked at the site!!!). add to that the last minute snafu of not having access to the money karen raised from friends and family over the past few months and the lead up to the conference was a NIGHTMARE!

but then the conference went off without much of a hitch. we worked our booties off for four straight days and changed a lot of women's lives. they were so appreciative of the time we spent with them/the things we taught them. at the end of the conference, different teams had to present a project they were going to implement in their community to make the lives of normal ukrainians better. one group talked about how they were going to collect money to make cotton bags and encourage people--through selling the bags and passing out information with the bags--to reduce their dependency on plastic bags (which are choking the environment in many countries, ukraine not excluded). one student asked how they were going to get the government involved in the project.

the woman discussing the project, ulyana, said, "we aren't going to involve the government. this is something we can do ourselves."

that little statement gets the "best thing i've heard in ukraine in two years" award.

LIFT was the most rewarding thing i've done in ukraine, hands down. i'm so glad karen didn't have to cancel it at the last second because of all the bs that came down the pipe. those girls we a part of a great thing and they know it.

at the internet cafe

looking up some information i know i won't be able to find.

nearby my monitor is a packet of butter, melting in the heat.

two years ago, that would have been weird.

now, i'm the one who brought the butter in.

karen's camp starts in a few days. stressful but it'll be good.

then we'll be of to donetsk for another camp.

yesterday was one month til our cos conference.

now, i guess, it's less.

yay!

Budapest

For more Budapest photos, check out: www.flickr.com/photos/klhammy

details

Some little things about Ukraine that you wouldn’t know from world news, photos, or even my journal entries:

Milk is sold in a plastic bag. So are yogurt, sour cream, and ice cream. You snip the corner and pour. Milk is also sold in a cardboard box. That kind of milk doesn’t expire for at least 6 months.

Things are sold by the kilogram. So at the market when you ask someone how much for potatoes, apples, cheese, etc. they tell you the price for the kilogram. Yesterday I bought 2 kilos of potatoes for $1. I usually buy half a kilo of my favorite cookies for the same price. So they have to put them in a bag, weigh them, and take out/add one cookie at a time until the scale reads 500 grams. They’re really good at grabbing exactly the right amount the first try.

I’ve never met a single person with a checking account. In fact, I think they might not exist. They do have bank accounts, though. Each month, in order to pay their bills, they have to stand in a line (clump) at the post office. So when I want to buy some stamps or send a package, I’m always in line (clump) behind a lot of people paying their bills. We’re really lucky that we don’t do this, we give our bills to the landlord and we assume he deals with it.

When you send a package from the L’viv post office, you cannot wrap it yourself. You should go with the things you want to send and they will do it for you. Once, I went with a padded envelope in which I was sending a canvas L’viv bag and a birthday card. They made me take out each item and weigh them separately, to the hundredth of a gram. Then they re-write the address on a piece of paper and glue stick it to the front of the envelope (over the same address I had already filled out).

In the 21 months I’ve been in Ukraine, I’ve met less than 10 men who don’t smoke. A pack of Ukrainian cigarettes costs $0.25. A pack of American cigarettes (Lucky Strikes, or Marlboro) costs $0.70. The most expensive kinds of cigarettes are those they are marketing to women, the “slim” kinds with flowers on the package. Those cost $1.20. At the same time, the concept of the “non-smoking section” is also rapidly gaining popularity. In our favorite pizza place, the non-smoking section is almost always more crowded than the smoking section.

Self-serve markets are growing in popularity. Those are the kind you’re used to, with aisles and shopping carts and cashiers. Still, the most common type of store here is one room where everything is behind a counter. You have to tell the shop woman what you want, and she goes and gets it for you. This poses a problem for those of us with limited language skills. The other day I wanted pasta, but I don’t know how to say “shells” or “wagon wheels” or “curlicues” in Ukrainian, so I had to settle for boring ol’ macaroni. Oh, and more than half the time the shop woman adds up your order on an abacus.

my name is larry

haven't been here in a while. been super busy. yeah. that's my story.

finished up school. yay. that's all i'm going to say about that. too many eyes that like to read.

finished up the third draft of my novel. sent it out for comments. hoping to market it when i get home. even if it's not very good. at least i'll have the experience.

what's it about you ask? my good friend told me to say, "it's about the human condition." so there you are. it's about the human condition.

here in kyiv. just finished working with the FLEX kids who are about to go to america to study in american high schools for a year. we worked for four straight days in a sanitorium (you non-ukrs don't actually get that concept...jokes on me) south of kyiv. we taught all day and held activities for the kids at night. i taught ukrainian kids how to play washers! i also played concerts at night for the group of 60. i wrote a song for them and they freakin' loved it. i can't even tell you how much they screamed and clapped. it felt so amazing.

working for FLEX was the most amazing thing i've done in ukraine. working with those AMAZING kids has rejuvenated me. ukraine tends to drag you down cuz you end up dealing with 90 percent of people you don't ever want to deal with and 10 percent (those are not exageratted numbers) during your day. but these kids man...they're something special. it makes me all teary and warm and disney channel movie-ish.a girl came up after my little concert last night--and before my bedtime song i wrote--to sing us a song. it was the most beautiful song i've ever heard in my life. she played guitar and sang her heart out. it really brought tears on in me--and a lot of the people. the applause was incredible. i followed up with my song and the room was just vibrating with energy.

i loved it.

and the best part?

i get another four days with a nother group of kids in two days.thank you god for sending me to ukraine, if only for these eight blissful days.

at the end of the very last session, we did an activity where we wrote comments about each other by passing slips of paper around in a circle so that everyone could write something about everyone. i want to write you what was written to me. i'm crying as i type this because, i think, i haven't really gotten any heartfelt, positive feedback in 23 months of being here and it feels really, really good.god bless these kids.

here's my card:

------------------------------------
larry

he's funny and serious.

you are a great person. and this is not all the truth.

very interesting person. he must be a very good friend.

larry, you rock!

you are a very funny man and clever.

larry, your songs are really cool!

i like you!

i love working with you!

great teacher. funny!

the best teacher in the world.

the coolest teacher which i ever had

i won't forget you! you're a great person

the coolest teacher at PDO

the best teacher in the whole world

you're a raelly super person

you're great!

you're the coolest teacher!

you're really cool...but sometimes strict

---------------------------------------

:D

ukraine's got a great future if these kids get the power.

Juneteenth

Happy Juneteenth!

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth)

We're settling in to our summer routine of not doing much at all! Actually, that's not true. Larry's about to have 2 weeks of very hard work preparing the FLEX students to go to the US for their year of study abroad. And I am planning for my Camp, and researching all of the fun places we will go in Budapest.

We have very frequent visitors; so many that we have to keep a schedule of them on our calendar. That's how I discovered "Juneteenth." Check it out, it's an interesting holiday to know about. Last week Ben and brothers, this week Shelley, Casey, Ezra, Celeste...

I'm headed up to Lutsk tomorrow to help out with the softball teams there. It's all-star season already, and they want me to help the pitchers and pitch some batting practice. We'll see if my arm holds up, and I don't hit too many batters!

I've been keeping a list of funny t-shirt sayings. Things in English are very fashionable, even if they make no sense at all. Some of my favorites:


I took wrestling lesson for annual greyhound sale

Space vixen (worn by a boy)

Stop looking for love in all the me wrong

Successfull.

Goodbye for now...

This past week we spent a great time in Kyiv seeing off our good friends Kris and Jen. They're headed home a little earlier than expected, and though we are sad to see them go, we're so happy for them and their upcoming adventures.

There are times in your life when you realize how lucky you are to have friends who you can relax with, talk about everything, and who seem to just understand you without having to try very hard. These are those times.

They Have Dreams

This week in class we’ve been talking about Americanization. It will also be the topic of next week’s debate. First, I introduce some relevant vocabulary, like: adopt, imitate, influence, and aspect. We also discuss the difference between adding to one’s culture, and replacing it. In groups, the students brainstorm lists of American products, companies, traditions, and languages that exist in Ukraine. They come up with the big ones: Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Nike & Adidas (the way the pronounce “Nike” it rhymes with bike, and they put the accent on the last syllable of Adidas), Avon, Levi’s, etc. They identify fast food as coming from the U.S., things like hamburgers and hot dogs and pizza (didn’t that come from Italy?). As for traditions, they name Halloween and Valentine’s Days which certainly didn’t originate in the U.S., but the customs they are imitating are definitely what they see in U.S. movies and television programs. They have also taken on some wedding traditions similar to ours, such as white dresses and tuxedos (they used to wear their national embroidered outfits) and bachelor/ette parties. On that same high moral plain are television programs like MTV’s “Room Raiders,” Beverly Hills 90210, and the newly popular “The Swan.” Just last week I had a colleague telling me how much she liked that show, and how wonderful it was for ugly women to have an opportunity to feel better about themselves through plastic surgery. I tried to express my disgust with such shows, but she wasn’t listening. Mind you, I was talking to a woman of about 50 who is on a different diet every week (the latest one involves eating only fruit 4 days per week), who constantly complains of headaches (hunger?), and who told me that her doctor says flat shoes are very bad for your health.

In class I try to instigate a discussion about whether or not this American influence has a positive or a negative influence on Ukrainian culture. One or two students have voiced an opinion for the negative side, arguing that Ukrainians shouldn’t use words like “sorry” or “okay” when they have their own Ukrainian words that mean the same thing. A few people think it’s cool, and makes the language richer. But mostly, they have no opinion. It’s something they’ve never thought about, and even when I assign them the task of listing positive and negative aspects of Americanization, they have a difficult time. At first I wondered why this was so difficult, but slowly this week I have come to the realization that this task would require a skill that few of my students possess: critical thinking.

Their educational system prepares them to be very good echoes. Many teachers praise plagiarism, because then there are fewer grammatical mistakes, and make it obvious that they are not at all interested in what the students actually think. Their entire college education has rarely forced them to analyze. Don’t misunderstand this as laziness; my students work very hard. Unfortunately, most of their effort would fall into what we call “busy work,” and involves memorized information that they promptly forget after the exam.

Last week when we were studying Diversity in the U.S. we listened to Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. We discussed the history of segregation in the U.S., the Civil Rights Movement, and the situation of race relations. We summarized what MLK, Jr’s dream was for the U.S., and I asked them to tell me what their dreams are for Ukraine. Most of them told me that they had never thought about it before, and it took them a while to get their thoughts rolling on this question. I told them it could be their personal dream or a larger-scale dream for their entire country. Eventually, they came up with dreams for more honest politicians, better paying jobs, and an opportunity to travel to other countries. They spoke of a more just education system and fair teachers. They dreamt of health for Ukrainians and a better health care system. In their dreams, Ukraine is well-known in other countries for reasons other than its football team and political revolutions. It is a Ukraine that is proud of its history and one in which people speak Ukrainian (not Russian).

I asked them if they thought these dreams could come true. They hesitated. A few students said yes, but for the most part they agreed that these are only dreams, and that they will not come true in their lifetime.

not me, yet funny

Prosecutors want bank robber to get second chance

Oakland County officials will ask public to help man find a job

April 30, 2007

BY KORIE WILKINS

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Prosecutors on Tuesday will ask an Oakland County judge to sentence a convicted bank robber to time served and then will ask for the public's help in finding the man a job.

Larry Lawson, who has been convicted of robbing a LaSalle Bank branch in Troy in July 2006, fainted as he exited the bank. An out-of-work automotive design engineer, Lawson told investigators he wanted to be arrested so he could get food and shelter in jail. Lawson was allowed to plead guilty to one count of bank robbery, which would make him eligible for parole. He's been in jail for the past nine months, unable to post bond.

“Mr. Lawson is an atypical defendant in that he did not rob the bank to feed a drug habit, nor is he a dangerous or habitual felon,” said Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca in a statement. “The criminal justice system is not a place for Mr. Lawson; he merely was caught up in Michigan's devastating economic climate. I would like to turn a negative situation into a success story.”

Prosecutors and Lawson's attorney Todd Kaluzny will hold a press conference Tuesday morning to discuss the rationale for the plea deal. They'll also ask for the public's help in finding Lawson a job.

On Sex in Ukraine

By that, I mean male/female.

At a Ukrainian friend's the other day. My wife and I were having a typical five-hour lunch with two 60 year old women. Between the first course of dill-heavy, noodle soup and the second of mlintsi, a crepe filled with ground beef or innards (depending on your host), one of the women asked me how we prepare turkey in America.

I explained the process, but got stuck on the word "to bake" in Ukrainian. I couldn't think of the past tense form of the verb that I needed to use. I circumlocuted and, at the end of my story, asked how I would say the word, pekty, in past tense.

Pekty, one of the women said.

No, I said. That's the infinitive.

Oh, the other woman said. Pekla.

No, I said again. That's the past tense for women. What about for a man?

Both women looked to each other, their eyes wide open in real surprise, and laughed hysterically. Neither one of them actually knew the past tense form of pekty that denoted a man doing the action.

Language builds a context of the reality we live in. In their reality, they've used that form of pekty so little, maybe not at all, that they've forgotten how to say it.

The payoff

25 April 2007
This morning I woke up early, despite the fact that it’s my day off and I didn’t have anywhere I needed to be. On my mind was the “Miss College” pageant that took place last night. Several of my students participated, and I was curious how Ira K (from English club) did. I didn’t want to ask her though, in case she was upset about the results, so I sent text messages to Nataly and Oskana to see if they knew the outcome.
Nataly wrote back that she was in the hospital, because she’s ill, and that she didn’t know the results. I didn’t hear from Oksana for quite a while, so I gave up on the idea, figuring that I’d find out tomorrow at school. I decided to get an early start on my errands, as the post office is less crowded the earlier you get there, and I had a package to pick up.
I was walking across the small park near our house. It’s the one in front of Sabor Yura (St. George’s Cathedral), near the Polytechnic University. I was admiring the fresh green-yellow leaves on the Spring trees and trying not to step in muddy patches along the path, when my phone beeped. It was hanging around my neck, so I reached under my jacket to grab it. I was excited when I saw that it was a message from Oksana, thinking I would finally get to know the results of the Miss College pageant. As I read the first screen of her message, I was disappointed, as she also did not know the results. Then I scrolled down to the rest of the message. It read:

“I don’t know because I didn’t go there. But I /
have other good news. Yesterday they called me /
from IREX. I have won, and it means that I’m /
going to America!!!”

Standing on the muddy dirt path in that park, holding my phone in my hand as its shoelace lanyard dangled around my neck, I began to cry. Short gasping breaths snuck out of me, and I stopped dead in my tracks. I read the message again, sobbing now. I lifted my head from the phone to see if any passersby might be staring at the unusual scene I had created, but it was early yet and the park was mostly empty. I stepped off to the side of the path, onto some new, stubby grass, and began to reply to Oksana’s message. There weren’t words to express what I wanted to tell her at that moment, how her life would change forever, how she would have a different perspective on her world once she returned, and how she was going to have so many new opportunities open to her, so I simply told her I was happy for her and I couldn’t wait to hear all about it.
The program Oksana was referring to is an opportunity for college students from Eurasia to spend one academic year at a college in the U.S. She applied for it many months ago, and has since kept her progress through the various stages of the application process a secret from everyone at our College except me and her roommate. She will leave Ukraine in the summer and begin at her new college in the Fall semester of this year.
I continued on down the path through the park, wiped my face, blew my nose. My legs felt tingly and the tears were slow to dry up. I felt giddy. I wanted to jump up and click my heels together. I wanted to tell everyone I knew. I wanted to make plans to visit Oksana in America. I realized she would be there before I would. I began to wonder what she was thinking, how her parents were reacting to the news, her friends, her teachers.
It is the most perfect reward I could be given for my two years of service. It is better than any applause or party in my honor. Better than my students’ good grades on the assignments I give them or their genuine interest in what I have to tell them. All of that is temporary, and all of that stays in Ukraine when I leave.
When Oksana got called back to Kyiv for the semifinal round of the application process, she confessed to me that she was deathly afraid of escalators. While navigating the metro in Kyiv to get to the study abroad office, she would have to overcome this fear and just hop on. Now in a few short months this same girl will take the first plane ride of her life and touch down in some big American city she’s only seen in movies. She’ll be surrounded by people speaking English, and other languages, with different backgrounds and different life experiences. She will enroll in classes at an American Univeristy, eat lunch in a college cafeteria, live in a dorm with roommates, ride escalators at shopping malls, and ride in cars down American highways. She will have endless questions. She will miss Ukraine. She will begin to understand some of the things I have told her, and she will learn the rest of it for herself.
Oksana deserves all the credit for her successful study abroad application. But she wouldn’t have known about this opportunity had I not printed it out from an email I received and brought it to her. This almost negligible effort on my part will forever change this one girl’s future. And every time I walk through that park near Sabor Yura I am reminded of the moment when I learned that Oksana was going to go to America. At that moment my daily complaints become small, my dedication feels appreciated, and I feel confident that my temporary presence in Ukraine won’t ever fade completely.










(That's Oksana, far right, with other girls from my English Club)

Photo Exhibit

Check out this great photo exhibit by Yuriy Bilak. It's on display now here in L'viv, and I encourage you to go see it if you're in the area (at the ethnography museum on Svobody, 3rd floor, and it's free). The rest of you will have to settle for the photos on the website. They're excellent! He's really captured a lot of what makes this place unique.

http://ybilak.free.fr/ukrainians.htm

new writing

I've got a new piece on my Peace Corps experience at www.perigee-art.com.

They also said some pretty nice things about me.

Easter #2

On Easter people greet each other with "Christ has risen." The correct response is, "he has risen, indeed." We learned this last year, and were ready this Easter.

It's difficult to explain what a huge holiday Easter is in Ukraine. It's a lot like Christmas in the U.S., with a huge, though less commercial, build-up for weeks beforehand.

We got to Pryluky without hassle. Took a nearly empty morning express train to Kyiv, and hopped on the first marshrutka to Pr'ky. Little did we know, our old host father Valera is now driving the Kyiv-Pr'ky route, and we could have gotten a ride with him had we waited about an hour. We arrived in town early, and only Babusya T was home. We tried to chat with her a bit, but she informed us she was watching a film, so we gave up on that.

Later, Larysa came home and we ate dinner. Our friends Kris and Jen were coming into town later on a bus, but we would wait to see them Saturday. Valera got home, and he and Larry immediately enjoyed "5 drops" (of guess what?) together, though I wasn't invited to partake. We sat around the table and chatted like old times. Valera informed us that our Ukrainian was much worse, and that I, in particular, needed to go back to school. I decided not to tell him that my intermediate level of Ukrainian is a lot better than his English, and is the only reason why we can converse in the first place. =)

Saturday, we dyed eggs with onion skins (not red onions, but the yellow ones). Try it! They turn a beautiful red. We put these plastic strips around them that shrink up when you dip them in boiling water. So they look like traditional Ukrainian "pysanka," to the untrained eye.

Babusya L across the street has already baked her famous Easter bread by the time we arrived, since Saturday was also a holiday this year and no one could work. It was delicious, as we remembered. Though this year we knew not to overdo it. You should never fill yourself up during a meal, because you never know how soon again you'll be eating. This fact, K & J were reminded of as they ate 3 times before 1pm on Easter! We were lucky and I think we only ate 3 times that day. Also, there is a tradition for young women to eat the bread of 12 different paska loaves. This will make you get married soon.

We went to church to get the basket blessed on Saturday, after dying the eggs and preparing the meat. Yes, that's mayonnaise on the meat. We used a whole packet (the yellow thing sitting there), and it was tasty! She boiled it before baking it for a couple hours in a plastic bag. I got to help with that preparation while Larry sat and watched. Little did they know that if we were to repeat that recipe in our home in the future, he would most likely be the one in charge.

We stood in a circle around the outside of the church with our baskets in front of us. The basket contains: meat, eggs, salt, cheese, horse radish, and sometimes wine. They believe that the blessed food is healthier for you and doesn't go bad. Valera told us that if you put a blessed egg and a regular egg side by side, the regular one would go bad after some time but the blessed egg could last a year or more. We decided not to test that theory.

Another fun part of Easter are "egg wars." You tap your egg, once on each side, against someone else's to see whose cracks. The winner takes the other person's cracked egg and eats it. I had the champion egg for a long time, which I got tired of finally because I wanted to eat it. Here you can see Larry and Kris in the middle of a battle. Then Kris' champion egg took on Toli.

What I love about this holiday is how special it is to Ukrainians. We could not have spent it in a better place, with our original "Ukrainian families." They were so good to us, and took us into their homes when we knew nothing of the language or culture. We spent hours around the table, like on Easter, discussing everything from the current politcal situation (grumble, grumble), to Dancing with the Stars, to teaching experiences and our family back in the States.

It was great to see our best PC friends, and to reminisce about when we first arrived in Ukraine. Pr'ky was so confusing, and everything was intimidating. Returning to that city we felt at ease, like seasoned veterans playing an old game. We're lucky to have such a comfortable place to return to, to remind us of what extensive goodness exists here. It's a reminder of what it was like when we came here, and how far we've come since then.

Happy Easter!

looks like i did jinx it

worldview magazine link

well, my piece got published. unfortunately, the editors at the magazine ran out of room in the print edition, so my piece got stuck online.

pretty dissapointing.

it's the 'first shot at the cup' link at the top.

piv-tor-ah

(one and a half)

So we're one and a half years in. That means less than 8 months to go.

In so many ways it seems like much longer. And on the other hand it's really flown by.

This past week my students debated whether or not women should work (as you read in Larry's post, below). There were some interesting opinions, and many interesting arguments. They did a great job with the argument part, though the "supporting your opinion with facts or statistics" is still a tough one. Also, I specifically warned against generalizing "all people..." or "everyone," but it happened a lot anyway. Hey, I can't undo a lifetime of generalizing in a few months.

But I'm trying. =)

women and work (?)

I sat in on one of Karen's classes today. Her students were debating whether or not mothers should have jobs. Here are some nice one-liners I wrote down during the class. Not sure how relevant to the topic they are.

"All women want the chance to be beautiful, to be told that they are pretty."

"Children are gifts from God to two parents."

"If a woman is in old clothes and curlers, her husband will leave her."

"Women must always look beautiful. When a woman looks ugly, her husband can look at he and say, 'This it not my wife.'"

"Did you love your fathers less because they worked?"

"It is hard to find a girl who has a good relationship with her father."

"To feel a mother's love: It is the most important feeling in a child's life."

lviv 26 march 07

fresh from an unbelievably well executed surprise bday party for casey--a weekend that saw our part of the world's time leap ahead an hour and more guests than we've had since last summer--i step out of my apartment this morning and there's a dead woman.

she laying prostrate on the corner on the park nearest our block. her feet are wrapped in green and white socks. her head is buried in her scarf.

she's not moving. she might be sleeping, passed out from too much of something, but she's not.

after i pass her on my way to exchange some money--you don't stop and help these people; you just can't because it happens way too often--i come back by her body and the ambulance has pulled up. a nurse pops out of the back of the van.

she lays an orange bag onto the pavement near the lady, smooths its wind-curled sides, and rolls the lady onto it.

zips her into it.

insane

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/03/18/c1.cr.teacherarrest.0318.p1.php

i know that guy. he was in my building, on my floor during my time at U of O.

i feel all dirty and tingly.

A Wedding March

This week in class we've been disucssing "Wedding Traditions" in the U.S. Of course, the students are a bit thrown off my some of my wedding photos (the beach in January without snow, smearing cake on each others' faces, flip-flops on bridesmaids...).

Many have told me that the building where we got married isn't actually a church, because there are no "icons" on the walls like in Ukrainian churches. I try to explain to them that it is a non-denominational (tough concept) chapel, where church groups of different religions hold services. Then I try to explain the idea of a "justice of the peace" rather than priest...another toughie.

We discussed traditional vows, the idea of writing your own vows, tossing the bouquet, the cake-cutting ceremony, gift registry, the toast, and of course the honeymoon.

Most of their ideas are from movies, of course. You don't find out about some of the important details from watching movies. They liked the gift registry concept, but it was a difficult one to grasp. Most Ukrainian stores still don't even give receipts, and there are very few chains. So the concept of scanning items and updating the registry list all over the country was puzzling.

=) Think of all these things you take for granted.

street life

hunger, yesterday, overtook me on the street. i stopped at a kiosk and bought a hot dog made with a hunter's sausage--a thin, tasty type of cured sausage. as i'm waiting for my dog, these two guys order beer--of course. they receive bottles.

they ask for a bottle opener and go to down on it with one free hand. they manage to get one edge pried up and the one guy says, that's good enough.

he grabs the bottle in his hand puts the cap--the metal cap--between his teeth. he then pries the lid off.

snap!

wow.

and my grandma said teeth weren't made for pliers.

a warm fuzzy

wow.

two minutes ago i was going to log in and blog it up with a bunch of bitching. some needed venting. but then i got an email.

we worked on a conference in Poltava last weekend. i presented about racial diversity in ukraine. it was fun, but i don't know how much we impacted the students. i've been in a rut like that, feeling kinda useless lately. and then this:

"'I was expecting the Americans to tell us about their culture and makeus believe the same things. Instead, they encouraged us to have adiscussion and find solutions for ourselves. I was really surprised.' -- a graduate student from the Technical University"

a student from the conference wrote that.

i am really truly very happy right now.

i'm going to hold onto that and just move on without bitching about anything.

the cat's done outta the bag

sorta.

it will be soon.

i guess i won't be jinxing it now, so i'll let you know.

i'm getting pub'd this summer in Worldview magazine. www.worldviewmagazine.com

it'll be a piece i wrote last summer on ukraine. two-thousand words.

my first worldwide, print publication credit.

look grandma, i'm a real wrter (<<< oh the irony in misspelling that word) now!!

yay.

what occupation?

so, yushchenko mentioned that he might like to see an occupation museum open up in ukraine--a museum to talk about the soviet occupation. he had just visted on ein georgia and got the idea.

and then this from the press:

Creation of Museum of Soviet Occupation, the necessity of which was outlined by the President Yushchenko in Tbilisi, will become the final point of division of Ukraine into West and East. Member of Communist party of Ukraine Oleksandr Golub told Friday.
“It will lead to final split of Ukraine,” he said. “It is just another inadequate action of the President.

"What occupation? This is absurd,” Golub added.

first, it's "what famine?"

then, "what racism?"

now it's, "what occupation?"

backwards more than forwards, i tell you.

backwards more than forwards.

ixnay on the inxjay

came to kyiv for medical and dental exams. routine stuff. were looking for an apartment to stay in cuz we didn't want to stay in the same ol' hotel way out in the middle of nowhere. in that quest, we had a very poor service interaction (surprise) with a ukrainian woman who rents hotels in kyiv. but we ended up in an apartment anyway with our friends kris and jen. we were headed, tonight, to see them in poltava and work on a conference; instead, they areflying back to the u.s. they've received some bad news about a family member and are returning home for two weeks for a funeral. we wish them safe travels. we did the same trip a little over a year ago. we understand the pain in going home, but also the joy that mixes in from being able to see home again. very, very bittersweet.

big heat today. up to plus 5 or so. snow is melting--maybe for good this time? the roads are like rivers for all of the run-off. we walked forty minutes in the rain to the detists and forty minutes back. avoiding the metro, for no other reason than just because. so far, so good.

in somewhat exciting news, which isn't confirmed yet, i submitted a piece of my pc writing series that i'm doing for perigee-art.com to worldview magazine--a pc magazine with worldwide distribution. they wrote that they liked my piece, offered edits, and said they were interested in publishing it in the summer. if so, it'll be my first real-deal print magazine publication.

i hope i didn't just jinx that.

:D

Family

It's been an interesting week in class, as Larry referred to below. I've been teaching about "American Families," and all that entails. I've been challenging the students to define family, helping them with some vocabulary along the way, but mostly focusing on their opinions and ideas of who makes a family.

We've had some heated debates and discussions. I love it when they disagree with each other and aren't afraid to express their views. I try not to impose my views on them, and encourage them to respect each others' ideas, especially if they disagree.

This week they did it all.

We start by drawing our families. It's interesting to see if they only include those who they live with, or if the extended family makes it into the drawing. Sometimes they include pets, and we discuss whether or not pets can be family members. We go over some key terms (related by blood, by marriage, extended vs. nuclear family, co-inhabitants, etc) and then I challenge them to write a definition of "family." Most come up with something along the lines of "a group of people related by blood or marriage, who love and support each other." Some leave out the feelings aspect, others include the idea that "family" doesn't have to be related, but just people you feel strongly commited to.

I pass out notecards with different living arrangements, and they discuss whether or not each is a "family." Often they begin to contradict their own definitions, so we discuss it. They have a difficult time with one example couple I included, together for over 25 years but not married and no kids. They argue over whether or not this is a family, because they have no stamp in their passport (apparently something that happens in Ukraine when people are married), and no proof of their relationship. Some argue that a couple must have children, but then when I mention same-sex couples they change their minds.

I realize that most of these are new questions for them. No one has ever challenged their very traditional notion of family as a mother, father, and children. Many of them don't know any other model. They are shocked to learn that the majority of households in the US are comprised of a married couple with no kids (29%), followed by a person living alone (26%), only then do we have married couples with children (24%).

They also have had interesting discussions about what the "official stamp" means. They ask me why two people would live together so long without getting married. They don't know any people like this. Some seem to believe that without this stamp the relationship could end tomorrow, even in the case of the couple together for 25 years. They worry about the future of this relationship more than my 2-years-young marriage.

They shared openly and maturely, in most cases. I was impressed by their willingness to reevaluate their own definitions.

* * *

Check out the "Photos" link for some new Mardi Gras photos. I believe it was my first time celebrating this holiday. It meant a lot to Edwin, and we paused for a moment of silence for the city and people of New Orleans.

Sending you smiles from L'viv.

sadly it's coming to an end

the q, that is.

it's time to start working in the classroom again, come monday. i doubt any of you feel sad for me, and i don't blame you. i would complain that having nothing to do is rather boring, but i'm very good at filling my time and my life. i have no complaints on that front.

on tuesday, we had a big ol mardi gras party. our citymate, edwin, hosted. he's from nowlins, so he knew how to do it right. we made masks and ate beans and rice and gumbo and the famous king cake--replete with the seven pound, six ounce baby jesus buried under the sugary green and blue crust. no idea what i'm talking about? i didn't either until two days ago.

the king cake's a big deal. if you find the baby jesus--which one fo the ukrainian guests did--you hafta host the next party. as he's moving to america with his new american bride, i guess we'll have the hoedown next year in the states.

the spirit of the party was thrown into stark relief by a comment one of karen's students made about new orleans during class. she mentioned how a lot of people felt katrina hit the gulf coast because god wanted to punish the area--specifiaclly n o--for its sins. nothing else i've heard in this country has made me so slack jawed. the hate that religion breeds...it's so old testament. and the main reason i stay aloof from (of?) religion. all that religious leaders (and political pundits who have become the spokespeople of the church) can talk about is hate and seperation. and, frankly, i'm fucking tired of that kinda talk.

[/end rant]

yesterday, we went to a club in lviv. it's the first time we've went out to a late night venue in the city--safety being our #1 priority whilst living here. our friend, who lives in a neighboring town, knows a guy in the band, and we got invited out. and we are so glad we went. besides the fact that the music simply rocked our socks off (and the singer could sing his everloving face off), it was nice to be around ukrainians that reminded more of the states than of ukraine. by this i mean, they looked and acted different than each other. everyone had a different style. everyone seemed to be respecting everyone else. no one was passed out on the floor hammered. all of the negative things i could say about ukraine were absent in that concert venue last night. instead, we met smiling people. happy people. people just having fun and dancing to music. everyone was young adn just into being themselves, it seemed to me. in short, we saw a face of ukraine that we haven't seen until now. it was a fresh breath of air. we hope to go back to that club.

after the club, we walked around the center looking for a taxi. we found one and, karen and i believe, the driver was the first guy in ukraine not to think we were foreigners. we chatted about the weather (his forecast ended up being, of course, incorrect) and the route to our house. he never once asked if we were foriegn--which EVERYONE else does. well, more like, they just make a statement about it--"you're a foriegner"--and proceed to stare.

and am i about done with the staring. everywhere we go. and i mean like 10 or 20 minutes worth of staring. just cuz we're speaking a different language. i wish they knew how staring, to us, is an act of aggression. and just plain rude.

anyway, life is chuggin along. looking down the calendar to our cos date, which karen implores me not to do because it "gets my hopes up." but, when the day comes, i'll not be sad. we've had a good run, but i'm tired. tired of being stared at, as you now know. but also tired of a lot of other things.

but, i suppose, the ukrainians around me are more tired of things that i am--a new try at a new draft of the constitution being just one thing--so i'll put my head down and keep going.

i guess that's how i feel right now.

hrm....

there is snow somewhere

while the streets are currently clear of the soft white stuff, the ski resorts are not.

kinda.

taking advantage of the quarantine my school--and my friend's school--is under, casey and i went to slavske (o) for an adventure. i've lived in this oblast for almost a year and haven't yet seen the carpathian mountains; i figured now, with the little bit of time off, would be the best time to see them. and ski them.

of course, i chose snowboarding instead, and snowboarding is the single biggest thing in the world that i SUCK at. but, more on that later.

first, we took the 730 train from lviv to slavske. i had been reading my return ticket instead, so we hopped onto the wrong wagon. noticing we were in platskart (a whole lotta people) as opposed to koup (not a whole lotta people)--and there was a little boy sleeping in one of our spaces--casey realized our (my) error. so we ran back outta the wagon, grabbed our tickets, and booked it down to the other end of the train, where our real wagon awaited.

three hours, and a lotta flat land WITHOUT snow, later, we were in the trans-carpathian region. there were actually mountains there. slight peaks that jutted out of the earth. rimmed with snow. pulling into the train station, we gotta look at some of the ski runs coming down the side of some of the mountains. i just gotta say, they were mostly dirt and mostly now snow. yet there was snow on the ground, so we had hope.

we walked from the train station, down a crooked road full of potholes, and toward a hotel. across from the hotel was the "prokat"--the rental place. casey rented some skis and i opted for the snowboard. i wanted to try something new.

clever.

so, as i was getting geared up, casey asked where a mountain was with snow. the name he got was a mountain that translates as "high on top." now, hearing that, i jumped up and reminded everyone that i was a beginner. i wanted bunny, not treachery. they assured us that there were beginner slopes. we shrugged and headed outside to find a taxi.

now, if you're thinking yellow cab from Crazy Taxi or NYC, think again. well, actually, keep the Crazy Taxi part. for 60 uah (12$) we got loaded into a soviet style green jeep with a nice new steering wheel grip but not new not nice suspension. halfway down the road, the man driving points up

up

up

and says, "there's your mountain." I freak again and reiterate: I AM A BEGINNER. he assured us there would be no problem.

so we get to the base of the hill and we see the line for the ski lifts and lift passes and we get cut in front of and we get cut in front of. (ukrainians love love love to cut in line). finally we get a ski lift pass and stand in line for the ski lift and ukrainians cut and cut. then we get to the front and sit down.

thirty minutes later (literally) we're on top. way on top--you can check the pics at the bottom.

and they were right, the beginner stuff was at the top. so i dicked around falling on my ass for about four hours, ate some shashlik, and fell some more. casey did the same thing, except with skis and except without falling.

it was beautiful up thee and cold up there and i'm glad we went up there--despite the height.

after our skiing, we took another cool ass jeep down the mountain (50 uah this time) and returned our equipment. then we toured the small town (five minutes) (seriously) and then sit in the train station to wait for our train, which will come in thre hours.

train stations are much much much better than television.

we got to watch people open wine bottles with ski poles. we got asked if we were foreigners--to which i replied, "we live in lviv." we got to listen to a really really really really wasted old woman sing horribly to people waiting for trains. (which was less funny and more sad and depressing; alcohol is the ruin of this country).

and then we took the train home.

all in all a very very fun day. a surreal day for a pcv.

and all in russian. one person on the entire mountain--besides us--was speaking ukrainian. the rest was russian. boo.

enjoy the pics.



me and a snowboard

scenery

skilifts

scenery

the hil (and slavske the town in the distance)

scenery

scenery

casey

hittin' the q

or the k.

karantin.

that's how they say it in ukrainian. this seems to happen every year, according to the people i talk to. it's already happened in several oblasts, and now it's hit the city of lviv.

the q.

quarantine.

and if you're like me, that word strikes fear into your heart. images of deadly diseases come to mind. being locked up in your house.

but here, it's really just an expected vacation. a few of my students came down with the flu (glad i got my flu shot) and didnt come to school. right around the same time it happened last year.

and the year before.

and then othe students dont come to school because their friends dont have to come to school.

and the eventually no one is coming to school and they call a quarantine because of having too few students. i had, on average, four students in each of my classes last week.

so, on friday we hit the q. we have it for ten days and then we reevaluate the situation. probably wont go longer than ten days, but who knows.

so i've got some extra time to work on some projects i'm in on.

and i've got time to take a day trip to slavske (www.slavsko.com) and check out what this ukrainian skiing thing is all about.

w00t.

Making up for lost time

It seems the snow is making up for lost time. It's been snowing pretty constantly since Winter finally decided to show its face. The snow's been pretty wet though, and doesn't always stay on the ground for long.

I'm still on a sort of extended vacation since returning from the States. My classes at the College start up on Feb 9th, and I will have a whole new schedule, but hopefully all the same students. They are usually pretty kind to me with my schedule, not giving me too many classes in one day, or having me work so late that I'll be walking home in the dark. Just found out this week that my colleague Yulia teaches nearly twice as many classes as I do. On top of that, she teaches private English lessons from home to supplement her salary. I'd be willing to bet almost all of my colleagues do. They also probably cook and clean a lot more than I do...but that's a whole different entry.

By the way, I've updated the "Photos" link on the right-hand side with some of our photos from the holidays in the US. Check us out!

Hope you are all staying warm and eating lots of finger food for me while watching the big game. Go Chargers! Oh wait...well, I hope it's a good game, anyway.

I heard the groundhog is predicting an early Spring. Tell that to Ukraine, please.

[karen]

snow in l'viv

the snow's finally hit. not too bad. we're hovering at around 0
celsius, so the snow melts during the day. for the most part. put
then, during the night, the temp drops and all the melted snow turns
to frozen water. let the slip sliding commence!

off to another oblast center this coming weekend for warden training.
happy to be able to see a new city. not happy that i'll probably have
to go overnight to a city that's less than 135 KILOMETERS (prolly)
away. bah.

writing away on my novel, which i haven't mentioned at all up here.
getting a lot of good work done on that. maybe it'll be done by the
time i COS outta here?

school is going okay. i've really parsed down my lesson plans to five
vocabulary words that we can work on in a conversational setting.
seems to be working so far. ss seem on task--those that come.

off to see blood diamonds in a bit with some fellow volunters. it'll
be in ukrainian, which is great.

at least it's not in russian.

in kyiv for language and medical

Well.

Taught for three days, in between holidays and being sick from jetlag—that shit makes me nauseous. My students are pretty much the same as before, but I think I’m learning how to cope. In America, we have our discipline system. It’s a rule-goverened kind of affair. Here, it’s more about yelling. I don’t yell. I don’t like to yell. I’m an inside voice kind of guy. So I leave it up to the headmistress of each class. This is something that I didn’t try this year, but have already employed this year. Behvavior gets reported to the headmistress and then the yelling starts. I’ve never found yelling effective, but nothing I did last year worked out in the class as far as discipline went. I know it’s a cop out, but as long as I’m not the one yelling….

Headed to kyiv tonight (well, will be in kyiv by the time I post this) for mid-service medical training and language training. Will get to see all of our friends who live in various other parts of the country. I’ve made a plan with myself to only drink juice. Juice only. We’ll see how it goes.

Being in America gave me a sense of calm. Being here, I haven’t descended into the frustration et all that I felt last year. Of course, it’s only been a week.

Walked a friend to the train station a few days ago. We went out at 530am. It was dark. Three boys followed us—and when I say followed, I really just mean they were walking in the same direction that we were. But the pursuit made me remember how dark this country is at night. There isn’t much in the way of street lights. It wasn’t the safest walk ever walked, and I’m glad I didn’t let my friend go alone. In the train station, I waited for my other friend, who was coming in on a train from kyiv. I wasn’t gonna walk home alone.

I can't believe it's almost been a year since the last langauge refrsher Karen attended. Man, we had a lot of fun then, which was nice after coming back from my gma's funeral last year. God, I can't beieve that was a year ago. We're gonna be outta here before we even realize.

Jeez, it's almost February!

rawr

jet f'in lag.

it's like a monster clawing at my brain. and i can't seem to shake it.

rawr.

glad to be back tho.

11.5 months (or so) to go.

and jenn's comment was right on: being a PCV changes you wholly.

doing the countdown again

getting out of the states soon. going back to ukraine. refreshed. ready to finish up my service. shed myself of much of the frustration i felt about ukraine. definitely very happy about living in america, something i thought i wouldn't come to. i was pretty much done with it when i left for ukraine in the first place. now, thankfully, i have a whole new perspective. that's one major thing i am thankful for about my experiences in ukraine. it has helped me appreciate my life here so much more. and it has helped me realize the really important things: friends and family. and has helped me weed out the really unimportant things: stuff and fake people. also, the gains in patience that i have made are worth the price of admission, the price of service.

here are a few pics we took down here in san diego with karen's family and up north with my family. being home has been so rejuvinating. i am so appreciative for all the time people took to be with us. we have such amazing people in our lives, and i hope they all know how wonderful they are. the energy they have given to us will sustain us throughout the last eleven months.

me, uncle jr., justin, greg

karen preparing holubtsi (cabbage rolls)

us in front of the christmas tree

america, america...

something about shedding light (or grace) on me (or thee).

man, it is so nice to be home. i forgot what it was like to feel like i belonged somewhere. the static dragging along in the back of my mind, the constant reminder that some things are a little off kilter, has fallen away. i'm smiling. i'm happy. and i've still got 13 days. w00t!

karen cut her hair today. she cut it real short. she asked my opinion before she did it, and i thought she'd look nice with short hair. i, as usual, was right. her students will say things like, "oooooo!" and "ooooooooooooo!"

went to a beach in San Diego yesterday. it was nice to be so close to the ocean. there's a pic up there on top of karen walking down the beach. (all that long hair is now gone.)

it's 78 degress here, plus. we're happy to be here, basking in the sun.

i was blown away, and still am taken aback, by all the english i am hearing. all the diversity i am seeing. i'm still not used to seeing people who aren't white. and i'm still not used to hearing perfect english. even my english has degraded since living in ukraine.

to all of my friends still in ukraine for the holiday season, i wish you luck, joy, and love.

and these words: america is more amazing than you probably remember.

merry christmas

merry xmas from Krakow!

staying at a hostel near wawel acstle with our friend celeste. we're all flying home tomorrow. it'll be a very long day, flying against the time zone and all of that. but we'll touch down tomorrow night and be with family. almost teary just thinking about it.

krakow, as always, is amazing. two nights ago , i stayed up all night with my friend casey. he was taking off for home early in the morning, so we decided to punch through the night, drinking. we pub hopped, moving from a cool music club (where karen and celeste were with us) and then off to a pizza club, a sub-street level pub built out of bricks and resembling a bomb shelter, to our final stop--a death metal club. the woman at the door didn't seem to want to let us in. she kept asking, "you know this is a death metal club, right?" as it was, it as the only place still serving beer, so we pushed in. got a 1/4 of the way through the beer and decided it really wasn't a place we wanted to stay.

the train from l'viv to krakow was long. we had about a 4 hour wait at the border. we always heard the waits were long on the train, but 4 hours? turned out an old woman in another wagon had died and the authorities were waiting for a lawyer to come to clear up the legal troubles of a ukrainian dying on a ukr/polish train in poland. it was a strange experience for us. ignorant of the situation, we all played rummy. karen and i had a coupe mate in an older ukrainian woman who aws flabergasted that we a) spoke ukrainian and b) didn't have family in krakow. why would we go to another city if we didnt have anyone meeting us? other than that, seh kept trying to get karen to drink hot, black tea beacuse it was "good for the heart." in Casey and celeste's coupe was a man from London. i think casey still thinks the guy was a spy. he's lived in ukraine too long.

anyway, havign a pot luck chtistmas dinner tonight with some aussies. should be fun.

love to all. see some of you soon.

ll

another day deeper

two days ago was my best friend's birthday. it was the second, and the last, that i have missed. next year, i'll be there in person to celebrate. he'll be picking us up from the airport midway through our time home in california; he will drive us to meet my mom. we're very excited.

yesterday, on a saturday, i held a leadership conference at my school. karen and i interviewed 23 students and selected the top twelve to take part in the conference. we invited another volunteer to help us give the conference. the start time was 10 am, and, par for the course, only a handful of people arrived on time. but, by 1015 we had eight students and we kicked off the four hour event with a kinesthetic activity. then, as we began our first session, and introduction to leadership, two more students came, bringing the final total up to 10. we talked in the second session about communication--active listening. in the third, and final, we discussed problem solving. the students were very active. i was surprised to see students who rarely ever raise their hands in class raising their hands in the conference. everyone was talking and cooperating, all in english. karen, casey, and i were very impressed.

and i was very happy. for all the lameness that happens at my school on the administrator level, i have to remember that the kids are where its at. they came in on a saturday and worked very hard. they wanted to participate, and they wanted to do it in english. i gave them an opportunity to speak in ukrainian, but they chose not to. they wanted to push themselves, to try. something i really don't see in class in school. it was refreshing. i'm hoping to do many more of these conferences. i also plan, next semester, to begin after school clubs: writing and debate.

lastly, we're leaving very soon! it's exciting, but i'm so busy here, our journey home hasn't been on my mind so much. but it's coming on fast.

it's already december

a fairly familiar title, but what can you do. thinks are still trucking along here. we're officially under three weeks until we return home for a much needed plug-in to a familiar culture. it's good here, but by that i really just mean it could be worse. and i'm really glad that it's not.

parent teacher conference tonight. kinda like open house, i assume. except there aren't projects on display in each teacher's classroom. students don't troupe through the corridors hand in hand with mother or father. in fact, when i asked if father's would be coming out as well as mothers, the students just laughed at me. a sad laugh, i felt. i'm sure there'll be some daddy's down there tonight, right?

this conference comes just at the right time for me because my supervisor at my school just informed me that a majority of students and parents are unsatisfied with my work. she went on to list a number of reasons why--though each one was a specific problem my supervisor has with me and, most likely, wasn't uttered by a parent. that hunch was later confirmed by a colleague. so, i'm not getting along with my supervisor. my supervisor observed one of my classes and pretty much disliked everything i did, dismissing it as "new wave methodology" that my supervisor had tried in the past and found ineffective. it wasn't a super constructive meeting--but after our mutual bitchfest three days ago, it seemed constructive--but at least my supervisor has some basis for the negative things my supervisor says about my work now. previously, all the negativity was based upon hearsay. so, at he conference, the majority of parents get a chance to tell me just how much they dislike the practices of the american they have never met.

in seriousness though, being a western trained teacher is a tough gig here. everything is seen as a game instead of a legit practice. and i refuse to unlearn everything, sink into grammar-translation and dialogue memorization and call that something which it is not: learning. my students like me and they are learning. its a benefit if a student is learning but doesnt, at first, recognize that fact. especially with my 8th formers, which are the students particularly in question.

it's all very frustrating, but in a very small way. being lied to has kind of reduced my emotional involvement in the argument. i don't need to prove myself as a competent teacher to someone who needs to lie to attack me. that's not worth it.

and, in 2.5 weeks, i'll be home! nothing can get me down with that on the horizon.

Black Ribbons

Ukraine Marks 73rd Anniversary of Famine
Released : Saturday, November 25, 2006 7:06 AM

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine held solemn commemorations Saturday to mark the 73rd anniversary of a man-made Soviet-era famine that killed one-third of the country's population, a tragedy that Ukraine's president wants recognized as an act of genocide.

At the height of the 1932-33 famine, 33,000 people died of hunger every day, devastating entire villages. Cases of cannibalism were widespread as desperation deepened.
Black ribbons were hung Saturday on the blue and yellow national flag, and in cities across the country, officials laid flowers at monuments to the estimated 10 million victims.

President Viktor Yushchenko and Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz unveiled the cornerstone of a planned memorial complex in the capital. Later Saturday, officials planned a procession and the lighting of thousands of candles on a centuries-old Kiev square.
"I would like for us never to tolerate the shame of having to hold discussions about what to call this," Yushchenko said at the ceremony. "This is one of the most horrible pages of our history, and for a long time now, it has had only one name."

Soviet dictator Josef Stalin provoked the famine in a campaign to force peasants to give up their private farms and join collectives. Authorities collectivized agriculture throughout the Soviet Union, but farmers in Ukraine, known as the breadbasket of the U.S.S.R., fiercely resisted and bore the brunt of the man-made disaster.

Yushchenko has asked parliament to recognize the famine as genocide, but some lawmakers have resisted, and Moscow has warned Kiev against using that term.
Russia argues that the orchestrated famine did not specifically target Ukrainians but also other peoples in the Soviet agricultural belt, including Russians and Kazakhs, and this month said the issue should not be "politicized." But historians say that the overwhelming majority of victims were Ukrainians, and the famine coincided with Stalin's effort to quash growing Ukrainian nationalism.

"Practically every family who lived in Ukraine at that time suffered deaths," opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said.

During the Soviet era, the mass starvation was a closely guarded state secret, but information trickled out over the years and Ukraine has since declassified thousands of files. Ten nations, including the United States, have recognized the famine as an act of genocide, defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group. Genocide is a crime under international law.

Moroz said he supports recognizing the mass starvation as genocide, and predicted that the president's bill, which has run into some trouble among lawmakers loyal to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, would come before parliament next week. Some lawmakers from Yanukovych's Russia-leaning Party of Regions have suggested calling the famine a tragedy instead of genocide, but party member Taras Chornovil predicted the president's version would ultimately pass.

Under Stalin, each village was ordered to provide the state with a quota of grain, but the demands typically exceeded crop yields. As village after village failed to meet the requirements, they were put on a blacklist. The government seized all food and residents were prohibited from leaving, effectively condemning them to starvation.

Those who resisted were shot or sent to Siberia.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://macroworld.net/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=230283441

it's already november

wow! the time is just trucking along. we're already in november. man!

in kyiv now after a elongated stint in poltava. karen and i worked on a civics conference (we specifically demonstrated ways democracy can be evident in education). we were also able to hang out with our bestest pc friends, kris and jen. it was sure nice to see them, and to get away from l'viv for a little bit. until i left, i didn't realize how frustrated i was with everything that was going on there, professionally. personally, most everything is good. being in poltava, observing teachers, participating in conferences, and meeting new students really energized me.

being in poltava was my first experience in "the east." though some people might call poltava the center, i think it is east enough--and russian speaking enough--to count as east. and being there, i realized that some of my preconceived notions about that part of the country were wrong. people seemed happier in poltava than they do in l'viv. people were smiling, laughing. we walked around at night several times in poltava and never, ever felt unsafe. this is not true in l'viv. l'viv is a bigger city, however, so maybe that accounts for some of the goodness i found in poltava (a decidedly smaller, but not small) city. in short, yay for poltava! i really think it comes down to the fact that there are jobs in poltava. factories adn such. money. none of that is really in l'viv. l'viv is a beautiful museum with a rich history, but unless they can spin a strong tourism base out of the city--and they seem to be trying--there's not much else there in the money-making field.

Leaves everywhere

For some reason falling leaves seem to be Enemy #1 around here...and they are swept up almost as fast as they fall. I can't really understand this, because to me they are so beautiful and natural and they will just become mulch under the snow in a month or so, won't they?

During my walk to school in the morning I pass numerous women, mostly elderly, bent at the waist, backs parallel to the ground, sweeping leaves. Their brooms are about 2 feet long, forcing them to bend over really far in order to reach the ground. Their "dust pans" are made of metal, and must be really cold to hold on to. Usually they are putting the leaves into big trash bags, and after that I don't know what happens to them.

In the park there is a flatbed truck which serves as the trash truck and leave truck. Interestingly, the bed to this truck is only about 3 feet deep, so much of what's inside flies out when it moves.

Often you'll see someone sweeping into the wind, scattering leaves more than gathering, or someone else dropping more leaves to the ground than they manage to put into the trash bag. It has occurred to me that perhaps they are creating work for themselves. At home I might think they get paid by the hour, and are therefore not in any hurry to accomplish their task. However, here I'm not sure that they're paid at all.

We've had similar puzzlement over the trash issue. I've come to the conclusion that people really do want to throw their trash in a trash can, there just aren't any. They will often pile their trash neatly in a pile, with a lot of other people's trash, near an overflowing trash bin, or just in a corner somewhere, where there ought to be one. Perhaps this severe lack of trash bin creates jobs for people: picking up trash. If you installed dozens of new bins, someone could just dump them, replace the bag, and be done with it. As it is, someone sweeps it to a neat pile somewhere, and then by hand puts it in a bag. It's easily a half day's work. I've heard of Volunteers meeting opposition when trying to install new trashcans in a city. It takes away jobs.

a short

Just pulled out of an AP wire story--written by a former PCV in Ukraine--about a dress made entirely of confectionery. The last graph of his piece reads as follows:

"The baker hopes to someday open a business with his sister in Ukraine, believing there's more room for skillful bakers here than in Paris. 'Here you can buy jobs,' he said. 'You want to be president, governor, (parliament) deputy, OK. But my job you can't buy--you have to do it.'

The here being Ukraine.

The here being Ukraine.

perigee-art.com

Forgot to say. www.perigee-art.com published my newest Peace Corps piece. Enjoy.

a crisp begin to autumn

The sun is up, but doesn't really start to heat anything until 11am or later. We are lucky to still be in for warm afternoons, but the promise of a continued "babane lito" (or Indian summer (known as Grandma Summer here)) is fading. Today, the chill sunk in. The thermometer on our balcony read 8 degrees C. The whole sky was an overcast grey spitting a fine mist over all of us ants walking around the earth over here. Soon, it'll get much colder and much wetter. I'm beyond happy that I have a happy pile of books to sustain me through the long, dark cold.

Karen is busy reading journals written by her students. They have a weekly correspondence where they can practice their written English with a native speaker. Several of her students are imploring her to have children because that is a woman's duty. Those of you who know her know that's going over well. So well. Women are born to make children, and Ukraine's population is dropping. So the government offers "cash for kids," probably not unlike our tax breaks. Seems like a surer way to keep your population stable would be to keep people in your country, but that seems beyond the means of the leaders here.

All the rest is well beyond well. We are having a good, busy time and look forward to coming home in 10 weeks!

jeebus i'm famous

I'm in a Wikipedia entry that I didn't even write!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perigee:_Publication_for_the_Arts

Wowza

Teacher's Day

What a wonderful sentiment: to honor those who teach, to say thank you for choosing a respected, but often underappreciated profession.

Ironically, during the same week of this holiday the teacher's at my College didn't receive their paychecks. They were told they would be waiting for them in their banks for over a week, but the money never appeared. Last time I checked, they were still waiting.

I did receive some gifts: 3 different boquets of flowers, and a really nice book in English about Lviv. I received the book a week late because the class that gave it to me only had 5 students the day of the holiday.

Many of my students didn't come to class on that day, which also happened to be the day of their presentations. So for teacher's day I had to adjust my planned lesson, and reduce their grades by 25% for being late (a new policy I've implemented which is shocking to them).

Other volunteers had no students at all. Or students who presented them with chocolates and then asked if they could be excused for the rest of the day. In one of my classes students had to give their presentations over the distracting voices of the teachers celebrating their holiday in the back of my classroom.

Nevertheless, however well-intentioned but misguided these celebrations were, the sentiment is there. Somewhere in history someone decided that teachers were important enough to merit their own holiday. And if it's the "thought that counts," it's a gift that makes me smile.

diversity in Ukraine

The PM of Ukraine recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post.

He said, among other things, "Finally, Ukraine is and will remain a country of great diversity. We have the largest Jewish population in Europe. I have many close friends of the Islamic faith, and we have countless Christian denominations, including at least three Orthodox ones."

In McDonald's yesterday, a dark-skinned man walked up the counter and asked for an application for employment. The employees handed him an application while laughing at him, and as he walked away they continued to laugh at him, using words to characterize his physical apperance which I considered racist.

Diversity is not one of the things I see here.

bittersweet news

As some of you already know, my work was being considered for a
nomination for the Pushcart Prize. The PP is a very prestigious award
for small press authors and can lead to much bigger things. I was very
honored to be considered for this prize. They say to be nominated in
itself is a prestige unmatched at this level, and I agree.

That said, I have the humble honor of letting you know that I am now a
Pushcart Prize nominee. I am nominated for a piece I wrote about my
Peace Corps experience titled "Mirrors Finding Floors." You can find
this piece at perigee-art.com . I can't express how honored I am.
Perigee was only able to chose six pieces out of their entire stock of
published work's for 2006; mine was the only work of prose selected.
The work will wing its way to the Pushcart editors after I get another
edit done. They make decisions sometime late next year. What happens
from then we'll discuss if I am selected--which is very doubtful.

That's the sweet; now for the bitter: I was selected for a piece I
really don't like anymore. I wrote it during a difficult time of my PC
experience; in fact, it was my first written in Ukraine. It reminds me
of the dark, so maybe that's why I don't like it. But, I really just
think it could have been written better. Here's goes the editing
round....

P.S. The Perigee letter:

"Dear Lawrence Lawson,

As you know, over the last several weeks the editors and I have been
reviewing the work we published during 2006. We've been looking for
our Pushcart Prize nominees. The Pushcart Prize is a respected and
coveted award which only the best writers and poets receive. Even to
be nominated for the prize is an achievement and an honor.

Each year small presses, like Perigee, have the opportunity to
nominate six of the works they've published. The nominees are then
considered by the Pushcart panel for that year's prize--which includes
publication in the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology.
(http://www.pushcartprize.com)

I'm pleased to inform you that Perigee is nominating you for the 2006
Pushcart Prize, for your Peace Corps prose piece "Mirrors Finding
Floors"--which we published in our 12th issue. Not only have we
continued to enjoy your Peace Corps writings, but this piece in
particular was among the very best work we've published this year. You
have our thanks and our congratulations on a job well done.

We have announced you as a Pushcart nominee on our official weblog.
We'll be sending your work to the Pushcart panel in November, in time
to meet their December 1st deadline. If you wish any final changes
made before the panel considers your work, please let us know during
October. Otherwise, we wish you good luck as the panel considers your
prose. We will notify you of any prize status as soon as we receive
word. If you have questions, feel free to contact me directly.

Warm Regards,

-ROBERT J WOERHEIDE
Managing Editor"

Yours,

Larry

50+ years ago

This week my students are presenting the information they've found about their "Famous American." In order to show them how things would work, I did a mock presentation last week on tennis great Billie Jean King. I gave them some basic facts about her, all her career tennis victories, her struggle for women to earn equal prize money, her victory over Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes," and of course her life-long dedication to the game. I asked them to please ask questions based on this information, but I can never get them away from their favorite question...

It's always the first thing I'm asked when I meet a new group of Ukrainian students.

It's not about the U.S....though I may be the first "American" they've met,
It's not about my choice to live in their country for 2 years teaching English,
It's not about whether or not I miss my family (though that usually comes 2nd)...

it's:

Do you have any children?

Interestingly, (though not surprisingly), Larry doesn't get asked this nearly as often.

So they couldn't care less about Billie Jean King's legendary tennis career, they just wanted to know why she didn't have a "normal" family. And they demanded an answer. They wanted to know how I could choose my career over having a family, didn't I feel lonely in my life without children, and why I devoted time to helping underprivileged children but didn't have any of my own.

I literally didn't know how to answer these questions. When I said I (BJKing) was divorced, they demanded to know "why?" I told them it was a personal question, but they were unsatisfied.

This week during their presentations, the questions have continued. They consistently ask their classmates, who are acting as famous celebrities, first and foremost about their families. If they are unsatisfied with the response, nothing else seems to matter. No career achievements or international acclaim are as acceptable to them as having a "normal" family.


It's strange to be the only person in the room shocked by something. To everyone else, these questions seem normal. At first, I tried to explain to them that in the U.S. it would be more appropriate to ask "DO you plan to have children?" rather than "WHEN do you plan to have children?" But the concept of having children as a choice is something I feel my students are years away from accepting.

my briefs

We are four days away from the opening of the celebration of L'viv's
750th anniversary. We are four days away from A high-tech, German
laser show put on in the center of town at "no cost to the city
besides the cost of transportation." We are four days away from a
medieval-styled tournament--replete with knights and ladies and swords
and armor--at the historic Shevchenko Park. We are four days away from
an opportunity to explore the network of tunnels and caves that form
the "underground city of L'viv." We are four days away from Okean
Elzy. We are four days away from Ruslana. From an all day and all
night Jazz festival.

Now, we seemed to have just been here. The excitement. The build-up.
It was Independence Day, one month ago. There was to be concerts and
contests and festivities. Instead, the country cancelled most of the
festivities because of a plane crash in Donetsk. Nothing happened when
it was supposed to happen. The wind whipped out of the sails.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't expecting the same this time. The same
let down. The same disappointment. I'd also be lying if I said that
despite all of that, I wasn't excited.

---------------------------

In other news, we have a new heating system in our house. Our landlord
put it in, along with help from a relative. Two days on, it's leaking
water all over the bathroom.

---------------------------

Obsessed with West Wing. Maybe I'm a little late to the ballgame, but
let's just celebrate my arrival.

---------------------------

Battles in my classrooms. Some students want in who aren't on the
roster. Other students who are on the roster don't care to be there.
Others still are trying to bring in influential friends to force the
administration's hand. Ukraine.

---------------------------

Battles over Crimea. Ninety-three percent of schools there are
Russian. These schools serve a Russian population that numbers under
50% of the peninsula's population.

--------------------------

Russians angry about Ukraine's bid for NATO, which the PM has bagged anyway.

--------------------------

Oil painting. I've picked it up. I suck at it, but I suck at writing
and guitar playing and I still do those things.

--------------------------

I woke up at 7am this morning. I fell back asleep when I shouldn't
have. I woke up 30 minutes later.

--------------------------

That's probably enough.

a calling, they say

New Peace Corps ad. Maybe you've already seen it.

I remember where I was.

I was in a greasy takeaway in Hull, England.

And now I'm in Ukraine.

http://www.impactist.com/projectpages/peacecorps/IMPpeacecorps.html

Dead White Guys

This week in all my classes I've been assigning their first project of the year.  They have to research a famous "American" and then give a presentation to the class on what they've learned and why this person is interesting to them.  Then their classmates will interview them, as if they are that famous person.

 

We start this day by brainstorming all the "Famous Americans" they can think of.  As I expected they mostly name movie stars, musicians, and a few politicians from the news.  Britney Spears, Madonna, 50 Cent, Bruce Willis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Clinton...you get the idea.  A debate always arises when they name Arnold Sscwarzenegger about whether or not he's "American."  I stay out of it, trying to facilitate their thoughts on the complicated question of what it means to be "American."  I think they have no idea what a big question that is, and I enjoy watching their thoughts unravel.  First they say he's not American because he wasn't born in the U.S.  Then usually someone will argue, but he lives there!  And I say, I live in Ukraine, does that make me Ukrainian....you get the idea.  At the end of the discussion I have them vote whether or not he's American.  All of my classes have decided he is.  The deciding arguments: he is a politician, he speaks English, and most importantly, he has an American wife.  Hehe, one girl tried to argue that he didn't have American features.  I asked her what those were....good luck!

 

It's been really great.  I can see in their faces that these are issues they've never really thought about as their idea of what it means to be Ukrainian is fairly narrow and rarely challenged. 

 

One thing that shocked me on the first day I taught this lesson was who my students chose to research for their project.  After hearing who they named in the brainstorming activity, all of the modern pop stars and a few current politicians, I was shocked to read the list of dead, old white guys they had chosen for their project.  On the first day, they had signed up for: George Washington, Robert Frost, Theodore Dreiser, JFK, and Charles Dickins (oops).  I thought it would be fun and interesting for them to research a famous person, but clearly their choices were made based on who they would find in their library's ancient encyclopedia collection.

 

As I've taught this lesson, I've emphasized the importance of choosing someone they're actually interested in learning about, not just someone they know will be in their Literature books.  I understand their reliance on outdated materials, you make the best of what you have, but am encouraging them to give the more difficult options a try.  A few of them use the internet, another thing I have to remind when I assign projects like this one.  It's such a given in my world.  I hope to arrange a training for them at the local "Internet Access & Training Program" Center in town, where they can use computers for free.

 

I'm getting better at teaching this lesson as the week goes on, and students are becoming more daring.

 

Today's list of people my students will research: Madonna, Eminem, Sandra Day O'Connor, Christina Aguilera, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Swank, Leonardo DiCaprio, Britney Spears, Andre Agassi, and Julia Roberts.  For better or worse, at least it's what they're interested in.

ab day or a bday

Tomorrow's the big day, but I had the party last night.

Just asked over my closest PC friends--only Jen and Kris couldn't make
it. In between teaching and planning for teaching, I made all the
food. Potato salad, beet salad, bags of chips (those were tough to
make), and the fixings for do it yurself pizzas.

Put on some music off of the iPod--pumped through some new pc speakers
I picked up next door to the apartment--and we all sat around and
chilled.

And boy was it nice. After the first week of school, we all got to
just sit around, unwind, and not talk about work. The house was filled
with just Americans, so we were able to experience just our
culture--so needed sometimes.

Earlier in the day, I went to the little store next to my house and
bought beer--five bottles at a time. On the third trip, the woman who
works there asked me what the beer was for. usually men buy a bottle
at a time, stand around the store, and drink it. By buying multiple
bottles and leaving and then reappearing, I was a little odd. So I
explained it was bday. She congratulated me and showed me to the beer
cooler. (Some things they do drink cool here...sometimes.)

I'm really just rambling here cuz I wanted to tell you i had a little
bday party and it was great to be surrounded by friends. Sometimes we
forget how great that feels. So thanks to all my friends who came out.

football

There's so much to say, so I never end up saying anything. I just want
it to be complete, but that can never, ever happen. Not unless you've
been here. Had the experience. So, for now, a quicker thinger.

Went to a football game a few days ago with some friends. Watched the
local team physically dominate the Donetsk Metalurg team. our team got
about a bazillion shots on goal, landing none of them. The game ended
in a tie. The rain made the field slick, so the players were having a
bit of a time trying to control the ball. The entrance to the stadium
was mayhem. People screaming, crowding for tickets. Our friend Casey
barrelled to the front and bought a handful for 20 uah a pop ($4). He
said, "the hooligans are buying seats for 10, so I bought ours for 20.
Hope no one minds." Football fanaticism is a pretty big problem in
Europe, it seems, and maybe everywhere in the world besides the US (we
have Am. Football for that (see: Oakland Raiders)), but we saw no
problems inside the stadium. Maybe because the police were their
taking mostly everyone's beer away, a surprise move, I must say.
Circling the field, every ten feet or so, was another police officer.
Usually they don't make me feel safe, but that night they did.

The more I live here, the more I realize American is a police state
(something I know so many people have already discovered). It's
strange how we are the "land of the free," but we have so many laws
that bind us, that make us feel safe. It was something I was never
conscious of until coming to Ukraine--how those laws, both written and
unwritten, make you feel safe. Living in a different culture helps you
pull your nose away from the mirror and see the whole picture, and I'm
grateful for that.

Big event

A few days ago we happened upon a lot of people outside of our beautiful Opera House. We hadn't heard of anything big happening, so we went closer to investigate. There was a screen set up in the square, showing people inside the Hall and someone giving a speech. There was also a banner commemorating the 150th anniversary of Ivan Franko's birth. We stood and watched for a while, and I realized we were the only people under 50 in the entire crowd, and certainly the only people not dressed up for the occasion. A few young people passed by, but seemed uninterested to stop and find out what was going on.

At a pause in the speeches the camera zoomed in on a familiar face. It was the President of Ukraine, right there in our own Opera House. He was listening intently, up in the balcony with an empty seat on either side of him. Later, he addressed the audience. The audio outside in the square was bad so I didn't catch much of his message. It was brief, and at the end people outside applauded politely.

You can read about it here, but the translations are strange, and I think the message is somewhat lost. It's interesting, nonetheless. I was especially struck by the crowd, 180 degrees different from the one we were immersed in a few days earlier at a "hip-hop" concert.

http://eng.for-ua.com/news/2006/08/28/101402.html

studies, marshrutkas, and krakow

It's been a while since a big update. We've been really busy here in L--, and things are about to get busier. I've been having individual tutoring sessions with students from Karen's college as well as from L'viv National University. We're working under the framework of 40 minutes of English and 20 minutes of Ukrainian. I have such sessions almost every day, which is really helping my spoken language come to the surface, giving me quicker access to this most foreign of languages. On my own, I read a lot of Ukr newspapers; I've got myself quite a collections of interesting articles.

It is interesting to read these articles because I find some of the same frustrations I have with the systems in place both in Ukraine and L'viv voiced by citizens of this country. For example: public transportation. We ride marshrutkas--mini vans--around town when we need to get somewhere faster than our feet will carry us. The drivers of these vehicles are, according to our standards, very irresponsible drivers. They veer into oncoming traffic, take turns at improbable speeds, and are either all gas or all brake. All while having 15 people sitting down and another 15 people standing in the narrow aisles of these vehicles. More than once in these vehicles have I been bandied about like a potato in a sack (vigorously shaken). Sometimes I question their credentials, thinking that most of the drivers are probably the boys in school from whom (side note: from learning Ukrainian, I'm really starting to understand how to used whom in my own, native language) nothing is expected until they drop out of school. Later, they attend driving school. Maybe. Lo and behold, in an article written in the L'viv Gazette a week or so ago, citizens and writers are discussing the same issue. They talked about the bad driving, the danger in riding these vehicles (though we're in no more danger here than on a LA freeway with cars nearly caroming off of each other each second), and the general lack of ability the drivers have. They discussed measures to supervise, and if needed, suspend these drivers from work.  In a country that isn't even allowed, on the whole, to fail students out of school, it's nothing more than a lot of hot air. But people are talking about it; they are sharing my frustrations. This is a rather large, and welcome, discovery.

Speaking of Marshrutkas, we took a series of them on our way to the WONDERFUL city of Krakow, in Poland. First we went to the Ukrainian border town of Shehini. There, we walked to the place at the border that you can walk across and met about 1,500 babusyas. We walked past the end of the line, to kind of get our bearings, and we had all 1,500 babusyas screaming at us, "Can't you see the line!" "Can't you see we're waiting." So I played the card my parents sometimes blame foreigners in our country of doing: I pretended I didn't understand them and kept on with what I was doing. My wonderful wife, however, was against this idea and took us to the back of the line. Undeterred, and knowing we'd be in line for literally six or seven hours with all of the babusyas smuggling cigarettes and vodka into Poland if we didn't play our "i'm an American card", I found a gaurd and produced some uber Ukrainian. I told him we were American, new to the whole border thing, American, and that we didn't know where to stand and that we were American. He proceeded to ask me bunch of questions which, I assumed meant he was really interested in the intricacies of my life or he was waiting for a bribe.

During this exchange, I told him we were meeting our friend in Krakow who flew in from the US. Only, up until then, I thought the word from friend who is a girl is "podruha." Turns out, instead, that I was telling the guy I was going to  Krakow with my wife to pick up my girlfriend (like the dateable kind). He laughed. We laughed. He pushed us to the front of the line. Grateful we were, but we still had to wait an hour in the crush of babas who were sending cigarettes across the border. But, 2.5-3 hrs (with the time change) after we left our door in L'viv, we were on a marshrutka, in Poland, to the strain station.

Then we were in Krakow. AMAZING! It's really a must go. We toured the city, soaked up all of the old and nicely preserved churches and buildings, listened to a bugler who, every hour, came out of the main tower of the main church on the main square to blow a tune, only to cut off mid-note after about 45 seconds--signifying a time, back in the day, when Tatars invaded, the tower bugle dude tried to warn the city, and was cut short by a swift moving arrow (though the town, so I heard, was duly warned anyway). The public transportation was amazing in the city--we could find out everything we needed to know from things called "schedules" which are notably absent in Ukraine. People were friendly AND helpful and FRIENDLY and HELPFUL. 

We took two side trips during our time in Krakow. One to the salt mines, very near Krakow. It's an old salt mine that found bored miners carving intricate statues out of the salt rock beneath the surface of the earth. We waited 2.5 hours in line for a 2 hr tour and it was the most unique thing i have every seen. We ended up 400' or so beneath the surface. Down there are churches carved out of salt, statues of famous people (like the Pope and Jesus and Copernicus--not Britney Spears or George bush), kings, and other neat things. We descended 380 steps at the first part of the tour. It was crazy deep, vertigo inspiring stuff.

The second trip was to Auschwitz-Berkenau, about 2 hrs outside of Krakow. This was a huge tour and we didn't have nearly enough time to see, appreciate, or let affect us all of the things that were there. Our tour was almost four hours. We saw all of the things you'd expect. The empty bunkhouse. Gas chambers. Gallows. Memorials to those who lost their lives, written in all of the languages that were spoken there (+English). The monstrosity done there is too massive to fully comprehend, but I walked away not asking how the Nazis could have done this, I was asking how humanity could have done this. Such evil, I feel, could be perpetuated by any human/group of humans. It wasn't unique, unfortunately, to that group of Germans. I hope we, as humans, can carry on the memory of what happened there and not allow it to happen again. (Not completely off page, a man on our tour kept comparing A-B to Guan-Bay.)

So, that's a lot to read. I hope you enjoyed it. We are back in L'viv now, really noticed how far Ukraine got left behind, how far Poland--or parts of Poland--got ahead. Realizing we are here for a real reason. We'll continue to do our best, in ways that are good.

Yours,
LL

winding down

As the summer winds down, I feel like it's barely getting started. We still have constant visitors, which I'm sure I'll miss once the cold, dark Winter approaches. We've just returned from an incredible trip to Krakow, where we met up with Michelle the marathon-traveller/gradstudent/picture-taking machine. =)

It was an incredible trip, full of friendly waitresses, patient ticket salespeople, and easy-to-follow public transportation. Polish turned out to be fairly easy to understand when spoken, but the written form was full of crazy consonant clusters we didn't know how to pronounce.

It was wonderful to have my friend here, to experience a bit of our life in our city. I enjoyed witnessing what was remarkable, odd, or shocking to her, many things I have long since gotten accustomed to ignoring.

Auschwitz was awful and wonderful; we had an excellent tour guide who compassionately described some of the horror that took place where we stood. There wasn't much time to let things sink in, but I'm so glad we went. Our time there was much too short.

In a week or so meetings will start up in preparation for the new semester, and then I will get into a new routine. I'm looking forward to seeing my students, hearing of their summer "rests," and hitting the ground running in terms of our English study.

Happy Ukrainian Independence Day, August 24th. This year is the 15th anniversary and we will celebrate with a concert, good food, and even an appearance of a world champion Strongman.

quick updater thinger

Just wanted to drop the line I've been meaning to drop for a week now (but waited to append it to a larger update that just never came):

KRK, Poland > SAN, California 25 Dec
SAN, California > KRK, Poland 12 Jan

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!you make plans to see me or vice versa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other news, headed to Krakow Saturday for a few days. Gonna see Auschwitz--that's gonna be tough but important.

triceps

Who needs to lift weights when you can hand wash!?

Usually I just wash 2 or 3 things at a time, the bare essentials. But yesterday I got ambitious and threw 8 shirts, 2 pairs of pants and some socks and underwear into my big purple wash bin. I think it's intended to be for painting, as I bought it at a hardware store, and it has that rippled slanting slope that you run your paint roller over to even out the paint. Well that's my new and improved washboard, that fits perfectly across the edges of the tub.

I started just after L left for tutoring yesterday morning, and was still scrubbing, rinsing, and wringing when he came back 2 hours later.

Many of you might be thinking, duh, Karen...that's life of people without washing machines. But really, it forces me to realize how EASY "modern conveniences" have made our lives at home. I've never had to hand wash. I even had the nerve to complain about saving up quarters for the laundromat. I never thought about how much time and sweat and EXERCISE it produce something we take for granted: clean clothes.

Perhaps I've mentioned it before, but I have a renewed appreciation for the hard work that falls under the blanket category of "housework." And I'm just taking care of myself, imagine if I was trying to do laundry for a family, including sheets, towels, work clothes....ahh! One thing's for sure, I'd be buff.

And allow me to mention the fact that on two different occasions I've heard of Ukrainian women asking their husbands for washing machines only to be met with the question,

"but what would you do all day?"

a great honor

"It is a distinctly regional force, hated by the majority of the country, which despite disillusionment with Yushchenko, gave fewer votes to Yanukovych in March 2006 (32%) than he received in the first round of the 2004 presidential elections (36%)."

 

This from the Ukraine report I regularly receive in my inbox. It's interesting to be here, to watch the defection of Moroz of the Socialists to the pro-Russian Party of Regions (who don't feel Yushchenko's election was even legitimate and whose ideology the Socialists opposed, at least in the ways that I understand), feel the shifting of the political climate (just look up "Ukraine horns" in Google news), and to try to understand the RAPID changes that are occurring here.  That as of this moment, P of R is in the majority, less people support them now than in 2004 is breathtaking to me. A lot of us volunteers see things in black and white as far as politics go. We don't delve in too much because we aren't allowed to and, frankly, because we don't really understand the foundations the current political climate is built upon. What I do know is that, standing on the Maidan today, watching the yellow flags of PORA (the Ukr. youth movement which lent substantial support to Yushchenko's 1st pres. bid) and Yulia Tymoshchenko's flag (red heart contrasted against a stark, white field) flapping against the backdrop of a hundred more flags flapping against tents and rows of tents and tents in rows, I was moved. Deeply. People are camping out again on Independence Square--nowhere near the 1,000,000 from 2004's Orange Rev, but hundreds--demanding democracy. Demanding their country listen to them.

 

One banner I read, hanging from the pedestrian bridge that crosses a cobblestone road that twists behind the square, said/demanded, in Ukrainian (and I dunno if your PCs can read the text):

 

сперше--про україну
потім--про себе

 

Which means: First, about Ukraine / Later: about yourself. Which pretty much sums up how I feel about what's going on.

 

To be standing amongst so many who simply want a voice is a great honor.  A great honor indeed.

small things can get you through

On the rains, we usually take coupe--a four person "room" on an overnight train. At first, not knowing the language, culture, etc... it was easier to fend of two other people as opposed to many more that you find in Platskart--a full carriage of beds with no divisions.  We had received advice when we first got her that we had to try Platskart at least once. It was an experience.  Recently, a few of our friends had taken Platskart pretty much across the country and spoke fairly favorably of it (as favorably as you can get about a noisy, bumpy, overnight ride). So, on our way to and from Khmelnytsky (where we worked in a fairly unsuccessful summer camp), we decided to try Platskart. It was well worth it not only for the presence of so many people--which makes getting away from one quite simple--but also for the kind people whom we met on the train.

On the platform, we walked the seeming mile length of the train toward our carriage. We showed the conductor our tickets and boarded. My seat was taken by a large woman and her small child. it was daytime, and I wasn't going to use the bed, so I didn't bother trying to sit in my exact seat--as the American in me is wont to do. I sat with Karen on her bed--which folded up in the middle to create a little, uncomfortable table. The carriage was half full, and we found ourselves sitting across from one of the only full berths on the train.  there sat a family headed to Simferopol, in Crimea. After a few hours, the mother of the family discovered that we could speak Ukrainian and engaged us in a very pleasant conversation. We talked about the weather, the lack of farms in Ukraine (which was strange as, while we talked, we rolled past 18 billion farms), and some ukrainian literary figures. Normal and pleasant.

Pleasant because the woman didn't treat us like three year olds because we still can't navigate the genitive case.

Pleasant because she didn't treat us like a novelty because we were Americans who spoke Ukrainian and not Russian.

Pleasant because she treated us normally like we were normal people normally riding on a normal train.

Unfortunately, that's kind of rare. Usually, we feel like fish in a bowl. Googled at because we're American. Because we speak Ukrainian. Because we don't understand Russian. Because we're here at all.

But she treated us like normal people, and I thank her for that.

tropical

The other day my mom wrote the abbreviation "A/C" in a message, and I wrote back and asked her what that meant. So quickly I've forgotten...

People always insisted that humid heat is worse than dry heat. That it's hotter, and it's harder to breathe. I thought I preferred it to dry, because my skin likes the moisture. But I'm currently rconsidering my stance. My legs were actually sweating today on the marshrutka into Kyiv, and this from a person who doesn't sweat. It's stifling hot these days, but I know I shouldn't complain. At least it's not snowing, right?

So we survived our first Ukrainian summer camp experience, and we're headed to #2 in a few days. We learned that it's important to ask for details before you make travel plans, to confirm that there is actually a camp to teach at in the first place. We got stuck in the difficult situation of teaching students who not only didn't want to be studying during their summer vacation, they didn't even know about the camp they were attending in the first place. On the first morning, Larry asked then, do you know why you're here? They all responded, "No!" in unison. We told them they were at English language camp, and they're weren't exactly thrilled. However, being that we're flexible, resourceful PCVs, we made something from nothing and it turned out not half bad.

Students created brochures for a local park, including information about plantlife, animals, park activities, scenery and a trail map. And they had to do it all in English, so we taught them the vocabulary they would need (meadow, path, grove, valley, etc), drew some pictures, played some games, and that was that. We only had 3 classes with them, but they came up with really good drafts.

Meanwhile, Ukraine eeked out an exciting World Cup victory, putting them into the top 8! All this in their first ever World Cup appearance. Looking forward to the next match tomorrow night.

heat

Perhaps my body adjusted to the cold. Since when is 75-80 degrees hot!? I think it's pretty humid here, but really. I'm getting emails and letters about record breaking heat in CA and CO, in the 90's and 100's, so this is nothing. It's like my body forgot what it's like, but I guess we'll find out at Softball Camp in a few weeks. It'll be like old times, red-faced Karen playin' ball.

This morning, L and I ventured to "Arson," a big supermarket we'd heard good things about. It has big wide isles, and more checkout stands than Costco. A lot of pre-packaged stuff like meats and dried fruits that might come in handy when we don't want to elbow our way through the crowds at the bazaars. Although, I think it's growing on me. In general people here seem more used to dealing with foreigners. They stare less. Sometimes people don't even turn around when they hear us speaking English.

Did we ever tell you what it's like buying meat at the bazaar? You enter a big cement warehouse with big chunks of meat hanging on hooks or lying on newspaper all around you. It's mostly female vendors, and they shout out to you as you walk by. People are poking the meat with their bare hands or picking up chunks to smell them. When you choose your vendor, usually someone that's been recommended to you by a friend, you ask what's fresh, or tell them what you plan to make with their meat. After asking the price and agreeing, you tell them how much you want. They then select a huge chunk of meat, still attached to a large portion of the animal, and place it on a flat surface (often a tree stump or cement block). They grab an axe and smash it into your selected chunk a few times until it breaks loose, put it on the scale, punch something into the calculator and stuff your meat into a plastic bag for you. Sometimes they even double bag it.

Short update from L-town

Sunny now. Trying to capture the vitamin D and store it away for summer. Getting a little red, but enjoying the weather.

Just hosted our two friends from P---. We trained with them and were so happy to have them here. We took them around to all of the sites in the span of two days. We live in a good location where we can navigate to any point in the city pretty well. They were impressed with the view from the top of a high fortress. From there, you can see the edges of L---, where it melts away into western Ukrainian forest. For living in such a big city, it's nice to be reminded we're really just some people living in a large community right in the middle of a forest in Eastern Europe.

In two days we take off for a 20 day tour of summer campdom. We are teaching in two different cities, one in the central Ukraine, and one in the West. We are looking forward to seeing new parts of the country, but we just love our city so much it's hard to leave it. But, there is work to be done, and that is why we are here.

Enjoy youselves. Thinking of you.

LL

dandelions

We are definitely sampling the good life. We've moved into our own apartment: 2 large rooms, a nice kitchen and bathroom, and a balcony. There's water all day, though the best pressure is during the usual 6-9am/pm. We have high ceilings and get morning sun into our bedroom and living room, when there's sun. Lately it's been cloudy and occasionally rainy, perhaps they have summers similar to Monterey here, though it's strange because we're not near the ocean (sea). You can check out photos of our new home on flickr.com (If you're not a member, let me know and I'll "invite" you).

Yesterday, during a discussion with my students about working or studying abroad, one girl asked if it was true that people in the U.S. are all fat. =) I think she was worried that this question would offend me, so she padded it with the disclaimer that she has family in the U.S. and they told her that people don't all look like they do on tv. I told her that in general, I thought it was safe to say that people in the U.S. are fatter than people here. We talked a bit about fast food and exercise and diabetes. This same girl dreams of going abroad and living in the U.S. I asked her where her family lives, thinking in my head what a rude awakening she'll be in for if she's expecting Beverly Hills, 90210. She replied, "Detroit."

Today's my last day of classes and I'm looking forward to having some more free time to explore the things we've been wanting to see in L---. Though I'll actually miss teaching my students. They're so interesting and fun to talk to and motivated. I'm sure the summer will fly and I'll be back in the classroom before I know it. I'll be doing an English Club in the library once a week here; we'll see if anyone shows up.

Yesterday we bought a bit pot to make soup in, and Larry cooked up some corn chowder. It's by far the best recipe we've found in the "Babusya's Cookbook" PC gave us. It's delicious, and it just gets better each day. Looking forward to a bit bowl of that for lunch later.

Wishing you sunshine and smiles from beautiful Ukraine. Happy day.

ramblings on a friday afternoon

Three days ago was the hottest day yet in Ukraine. For Karen and I, it was beach weather. As there is no beach here, or anywhere near here, we made do by going to our schools and doing our jobs--as much as we wanted to just stroll around the center, take in some outdoor sights, or just park ourselves on a bench and eat some ice cream.  Of course, upon arriving at school, we found that our students had done just that. In some classes, I was teaching three students. In others, six. Such is the life here.

All those commercials say it is the toughest job you'll ever love, and it is tough some days. But other days, man, let me tell you, it ain't so tough. Standing beneath the cupola of a 14th century church, admiring the, unfortunately deteriorating, frescoes depicting priests and lay people....and the disembodied--and screaming--head of Jesus. Discovering a new pizza joint--pizza, having recently been rediscovered as our favorite food--and watching my excited wife order pepperoni, a rarity here, and watching her smile decline as a pizza wheels out of the kitchen, replete with hot, red chili peppers (and no the kind that play guitars with socks dangling of their dangles). (Upon receiving the bill, we saw, written, "pepperoni," which ended our debate of whether I had ordered wrong, or if they really though that was pepperoni was hot, red chili peppers. At least, in that new place, themed like a European football hangout, pepperoni has a different meaning.) Taking in a beer (Guinness!!) and a Margarita (Karen) at a newly discovered pub, Irish themed, and meeting with a fellow PCV and new friend to us all, a Ukrainian named Roman who works for a Dutch firm and has a former moto-cross & tennis champion for a father in law. (When info on tennis courts in L--- pans out, I'll let you know if that is fact or farce). So, no, it ain't always tough.

But when everyday you've got to run around the school, finding someone who might know of someone who has the key for your room--because copying them would make too much sense, it's a little tough. When you're getting yelled at on the marshrutka in a language you barely understand (Karen's story), it gets a little tough. When you've got four summer camps looming on the summer horizon, it gets a little tough.

But, man, when those kids get all excited cuz your actually there, cuz you actually understand them, cuz they actually understand them, and cuz you're actually, actually, actually there and will actually be there for another 18 months, it is worth it.

Anyway...rain now. And lots of it. The reason: It's L----. Kinda what we always said for Humboldt County.

"Why's it raining is freakin' June?"

"Cuz it's Humboldt."

This weekend, some folks coming in from the East. A Birthday. Meeting my language tutor on Saturday.

On Tuesday: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In Ukrainian.

Next week, the last week of regular school. Then a 10-day day-camp. Time to bust out my newly purchased guitar.

Oh yeah, and in the next 10 days, we're moving again. And for the last time until we move back to the US.  Moving to a nice 2-room apt near the center of town.

Love,
LL

Yay.

[P.S. Congrats and golf claps to Scott Webb for getting the accept into MIIS. Too bad we won't be colleagues--as you'll surely finish before we're back. You're at a great school in a great part of the state.]

a sat morn in l---

A bright sunny day in L--, a fitting epilogue to yesterday's downpour. Monuments and church-tops are drying off in the heat--and hopefully so are my clothes.

I went to class in the morning, bez umbrella, and taught a killer lesson on advertising. End of class rolls around as my students are ready to unveil a slogan and an intended audience for their own products--like a cell phone that doubles as a fork--and the bell rings. I tell then I'll see them during the 3rd lesson, and we'll finish up the presentations. They tell me they don't have class because there will be a history test--scheduled eons ago before I existed in this historic town--that they have to take. This was confirmed by the vice-principal, and I finished editing a few pages of a colleagues Am. Lit. text that I'm in charge of, and then stepped out into the rain. This was at 9:30am. It was still raining when I stepped out of "Tsukerhya," a fabulous cafe near the center where I ate apple strudel and had a perfectly mixed mug of Irish Coffee, at 3:30pm. I'd been trying to hold out against the weather, exploring the new--and dry--markets and shops of my new city, so that I could meet a new language tutor at 5:30pm. We were going to walk around and do the first talking in Ukrainian I've done in weeks. Unfortunately, the rain got to be too much, and I, unfortunately, had to cancel. Boo!

Heading into the summer here. Got a number of camps lined up. Will be working in the old training town of P---. Then off to K---- for a softball/leadership camp. My new site has a plan cooked up that'll take me to Poland for another camp in July. We've been having a go about that because my site kinda thinks it owns me for more than the 18 hours a week they are entitled to. nothing to complain about with a free trip to Poland, though. Of course, I've done 24/hour summer camps ( I.E. Concordia) and I'm not anxious for a repeat.

Anyway, we're off soon for High Castle--again. This time, we'll actually see the castle and avoid the bribing.

LL

[p.s. As I have more frequent access to Internet, I'll be sending more frequent updates. If you want off the list, please let me know. no hard feelings.]

[p.p.s. Congrats to Cris Elder for securing an ELF in Guatemala!!!!!]

L-town week one

Yes.

We have arrived safely.

Yes.

We finally have an apartment.

Yes.

We have to move again in a month (into our 6th domocile in the goold ol' Ukr).

Okay, now that that is taken care of, welcome to L-town. It's a big city in the west if you don't already know the name. Pretty much tourist central right now. Watched a huge concert in the city center yesterday. One of my favorite Ukrainian bands, Друга Ріка (Second River, I guess), was playing, along with a few other decent bands. The city put up a stage right in front of the historic Opera house, creating a real interesting contrast between old and new, between were we came from and where we are now. the center was filled with 15 year olds, just packed. Most of them drinking--those kind of laws aren't really enforced here. No problems of note, however.

 

Some friends from the surrounding area acme in to join us. It's nice to be in a place now where we can talk to some of our friends and realize that the shit we went through is some of the same shit everyone else is going through. Or went through. We were so isolated in S-town.

 

I'm working at a school of international relations. The English spoken there is really good, so I feel like I'm going to be a able to do a lot of good work in getting the kids to a higher level. 

 

Oh, friends just came in. Gotta jet.

 

LL

next stop

After a mid-semester vacation while we waited for our site transfer, we are finally headed to our next home. We have played tourist for nearly two weeks now, and we are looking forward to playing teacher again. We are anxious to feel settled, to be in one place for longer than a month or two, but we have (at least) one more move before that happens.

When we arrive in our new city I will pass along a mailing address through email. Speaking of email, we will likely have much more frequent access to ours where we are headed.

Feeling excited and lucky and, as always, very well taken care of by PC.

updizzle

So I didn't really surprise her, but surprise is the same word in Ukrainian as it is in English. What I'm trying to say is that surprises are kinda common.  So I went with what works: I walked her around the Andrivska street market and watched her eyes. She's hard to shop for not because she's got expensive taste and not because she wants a hundred things. якраз навпаки, вона часто не хоче нічого. (Exactly the opposite, she usually doesn't want anything.  I'm the consumer of the relationship; she can talk herself out of buying anything.

 

So today, I talked her out of talking her self out of buying anything. Except I bought it, of course. 

 

We picked up a piece of art from a local guy. At first, I had to track him down through the other street vendors whop had set up shop near him. He was engaged in a chess game near the middle of the cobblestone street which dipped--suspiciously like a hill in this flat, flat land--down past a 18th century church which gorgeous matte teal onion-domes. He started in on us in Russian, as they all do. Then he asked if e understood. We said we understood Ukrainian better. He said he saw we were foreign and thought we'd understand Russian; I think he was surprised that tourists could understand/speak Ukrainian. We told him we lived here, which explained our ability. [Once the switch went over and we were getting all Ukrainian, we understood nearly everything].

 

He quoted us some prices on his really good, part-abstract work. Some really reasonable prices. As we'd already passed buy his place on the street, his work hanging from a black, cast-iron gate, I knew which pieces Karen was interested in. Once Karen knew I was indeed going to buy one of his pieces, and that it was better if she choose it rather than me doing an eenie-meenie-moe number of the ones hers eyes lingered on, she chose one titled, "View from the other side of the moon." It shows the earth in the distance. In the foreground is the side of the moon that we never see. The artist rendered his thoughts of what exists on that side of the moon in his print.

 

So, happy birthday Karen (a few days early). Now we just gotta find a way to get it to L-town safely.

 

And find a wall we can truly call ours for longer than two or three months to tack it to.

protests across america

It's pretty nuts to be sitting in downtown Kyiv and watching images and news of the protests gearing up in America.  Seeing photos today of supporters of undocumented workers was uplifting today. I hope the national dialogue changes to one of inclusion. And not into a nation-wide race riot.

 

All the rich people, poor people, every people who are afraid of the influx of immigrants in America need to look in the mirror. America is a nation of immigrants. We can see it in all of our faces.

 

And we always will.

 

It's time to respect ourselves, our ancestors, and those living and dying everyday trying to make a life for themselves in America--or anywhere.

 

Living in another culture, being the outsider, gives me a perspective I wish more people in our country, our island, had.

walking with the dead

Still in Kyiv. Today is labor day, so the town--except for Khreshatik--is like a ghost town. In the words of my friend describing Poltava, "It's post-apocalyptic." Yeah, that.

 

Took the Funicular--a short tram that crawls up a hill near the river Dnipro--today. Thought it would be like a touristy view of the city. Walked up to the kaca to buy tickets for the journey. 50 kopeks each; the same as riding the Metro. Gave the lady a 1 and got two tokens in return. When I looked at them, I realized they were just 50 kopek pieces. Nothing special. Turned out to be just a way to get from the river, over the hill, and down to Khreshatik. Of course, we got a pretty nice view of the river and wound up in a beautiful park which leaned up against old church grounds--one of the churches had an onion-dome made out of wooden shingles. Lots of cool sites up there, and of course today's the day we leave the camera in the hotel.  Oh well.

 

Went to another ancient church ground the other day. The Kyiv Pechescka Lavra in downtown Kyiv. Part of one of the churches on the grounds dates back to 11th century AD.  We'd heard about the underground monastery. I wanted to see that.  When we finally found it, after winding around the epic churches which crawled above us and into the sky, Karen couldn't go it. She didn't have a head scarf and didn't want to buy one for 15 UAH. Neither did she have a long skirt. Orthodox up in here. So I entered alone. Well, I entered with a large group of Ukrainians. They all had candles and rosary looking devices. The journey into the first part of the cave was slow as everyone stopped to pray at every official looking prayer stop. The narrow, rounded path got narrower as we wound into the earth (really only about 20 meters down).

 

Then, the stops and the prays got more frequent. Women and men were throwing themselves on top of these box things that were lining the walkway, praying, and clicking their beads against the boxes. Then they'd kiss the boxes and move onto the next. The next of like 20 or 30. As I progressed, I discovered the boxes lining the narrow corridors were actually wooden framed coffins paned with glass. Inside, hermit priests from the 11th - 15th centuries, some replete with oil portraits of how that looked in life hanging above  their final resting places. From some of the dried, blackened hands poking out of the burial shrouds, I had a pretty good idea what they looked like in death. In some other rooms were ancient artifacts that we couldn't look at. Some famous holy relics. The tour wound further into the earth, but I a route out the first exit. Being a little claustrophobic and having a different relationship with the dead than most Ukrainians do, I decided to bail before I really let out the screams I'd been holding in.

 

Off to L in the west on Weds--so we hear.

a friday afternoon

Another big holiday weekend coming up. Almost half the year is holidays, I swear. Kyiv might be really busy this weekend or really dead. Being coming to the city to celebrate or people leaving the city to celebrate. Really, it could go either way.

In the middle here--Kyiv and really any adjacent oblast--and our Ukrainian language skills kinda fall outta favor. They can get us around. We can od what we need to do, but the lingua franca is definitely Russian. And I can get around even in Russian. Can do what I need, just from what I've picked up from the Surjik (a blend of Ukrainian and Russian) I hear. But I am much more comfortable in pure/almost-pure Ukrainian.

Living in the West as we did, we rarely heard Russian in large doses. Just on TV, which we didn't watch very often. Our langauge usually came from talking or reading, and most of that was in Ukrainian. It got to where I was even thinking in Ukrainian.

So we're glad to be headed back out to the west. We're having a good time in Kyiv, taking in some theatre (Don Quixote ballet, translated into a ballet--PHENOMENAL), visiting the touristy places in town, and taking a much needed rest. We saw Hetman Ivan Mazepa's house yesterday. And today, being the dorks that we are, are attending a seminar in downtown Kyiv being given by Peter Master. He'll be talking about how to teach the English article system in a more coherent way.

Like I said: dorks.

Before that, we'll prolly head over to the underground monasteries.

Yeah, life.

a more robust update

priviet

In Kyiv. In the sun. Gotta say, Kyiv is a much different city in the
sun than it is in the snow. Don't get me wrong. The snow is beautiful.
But as all y'all who spent some good portion of your lives in the
midwest/northern plains/east/anywhere besides bila okeana, the snow is
beautiful til you gotta do something in it. Til you live in it for a
few days. Then it gets to be "that g-d snow" instead of just "snow."

We're hopefully headed to our old host family in P-town for Easter.
Got some meetings and stuff to handle in Kyiv with PC. Site
reassignment. For those of you who havent been in semi-constant
contact with us, I'll break it down real quick. Our sites, while
consiting of a number of wonderful people and unbelievable students,
was unable to procure us an apartment to live in for two years.
Despite some pleasant nudging, later turning into threats to take us
out of site, our sites could not find us a place to live. No
apartment, no teachers. Really, really sad for the kids because our
coordinators and directors didn't think we'd seriously leave. Even as
we were closing down our bank accounts, getting the notary to make up
some new rules so we could get our packages at the post office that
are still coming, people were still saying, "Oh, you'll be back in a
few weeks when we find something." Well, my sites were. Karen's
director couldn't be bothered to find an apartment, yet he quickly
found us a taxi back to Kyiv. My sites will probably be getting
volunteers again. We helped pave the way for a stronger relationship
between S-town and PC. Karen's site...I don't know.

So, there wasn't ever a safety concern for us there. Nothing more
serious than a lack of commitment to us. So now we will talk about a
new site tomorrow. As we speak Ukrainian--pretty well, I'd say, for
only studying six months--they're leaning towards the West, if they
can. We'll be coming in at the end of the semester, so we might not be
teaching til next semester, which is rough. We love teaching. I really
come alive in the classroom--in front of a class or with a pen in my
had are the times I really feel like I've tapped into some secret
energy from the Earth.

Leaving, I had, at each of my sites, all of my students in one room.
Then I had to break the news to then. Then cried. I cried. My
coordinators cried. I told then have much I did to get here. How long
I waited, how excited I was, and how crushed I was that I couldn't
stay. Crushed. Then, to watch them all run out to the front of the
school, crying and waving. Makes you feel all good and all bad and all
at the same damn time. Alive and dead.

Staying at a hotel in Kyiv currently. Taking the Metro back and forth.
Always fun. Buying fresh, poppy-seeded breadfrom the street vendors.
Taking in the ancient landscape heavily salted with modernity.
Standing on the escalator, hand on the thick, black rubber band that
serves as the handrail, my feet on the metal, moving steps, I find
that the handrail moves faster than the steps. So, if you lean on it,
your arm will eventually pull forward and you'll be leaning at a weird
angle. And that's kinda how it is here. Only the world Ukraine proper
so desperately wants to be a part of is the handrail.

And Ukraine itself is the steps.

--
http://www.peacecorps.gov
Our Ukraine WebBlog: http://klukraine.blogspot.com
http://www.lawrencelawson.com
http://news.google.com

In Kyiv

In Kyiv. Awaiting site reassignment. Things turned for the worst, I
suppose, and now we'll be headed to a new city. That's exciting at
least.

Off to relax after a fair bit of stress. Hope to respond to you all
personally soon. The important thing is: we're safe and happy.

Love to all.

LL & KH

Ukraine in April

Okay, so I really don't get to the internet.

First of all. http://www.perigee-art.com . 15 April 2006. My next
installment of my Peace Corps work for that magazine. You gotta pay $1
for the priveledge, but it's only a buck. I getting right famous and
stuff.

Enough with the plugs.

It's getting warm hear. Actually, it's done got warm here. Snow's
gone. The river's full (of water and trash). The ground is all sand,
like we're at the beach or something. It's getting easier and easier
to live here. The language is really coming on at a good clip--thanks
to four hours of tutoring a week and us still living with our host
family. I'm writing stories again, entered some of my work, and moving
forward with that.

The teaching is going good. really taught some good classes lately.
I'm really settling down in the classroom and working with a style
that the students really respond to. The novelty of the American has
pretty much worn off for the students, so I'm just their teacher now.
But one they seem to like, which is nice. School ends the end of next
month. Then we've got a summer to look forward to. If any of you want
to visit, that would be the time.

We'll be going back to P for easter (a week later than yours) and we
are excited to see out old friends and family. We'll be going back
there in the summer, we hope, to work on a camp.

though things are good here, things are also slow. It's a real small
town mentality here. All there is to do for the youth is
drink--drinking laws are not enforced. We're hoping to provide some
alternatives--I've started a basketball thing on Saturdays. Of
course, we're real scatter brained because we don't have an apartment
yet. The people we work and live with have had a hard time finding
empty apartments--and have had a hard time understanding the urgency
of living on our own. We're three weeks past the date we should have
moved and still waiting. We've went from patient to angry to angrier
to amused to complacent. I've learned a lot about myelf during the
process, but I feel our contacts here are a little slower in wanting
to learn anything about us.

When the sun is shining here, it's beautiful. Well, not the city so
much. It's utilitarian. But the weather is beautiful. I've missed
the sun.

Post office here doesn't believe it can send postcards, so we're
having to package them all up and send em in letters. Jim, your
stamps are finally coming--though all the beautiful stamps are not
available in my town. Or anywhere it seems. They have posters for
them, but they don't have them for sale.

Wish you all well,
Larry

--
http://www.peacecorps.gov
Our Ukraine WebBlog: http://klukraine.blogspot.com
http://www.lawrencelawson.com
http://news.google.com

Onward

All you warm ones (except Celeste),

Well, we're marching ever onward. The cold that hit the country while
we were in America didn't sweep away with our arrival. The following
monday, we got hit with -28c weather. Only one day, and the day I
happened to be walking around downtown with nothing to do. I'm sure
some of you have been in weather where, when you bearth, your
nosehairs stick together. Where you face feels like you're laying it
on a block of solid ice. All of this, and the sun was still shining.

It's a cruel trick, looking outside the window and seeing sunlight,
long forgotten here, creeping through the snow bound tree limbs and
thinking, "Today will be a find day to wear my non-artic clothing." A
quick trip back inside to change back into that artic clothing, and
the day finds its start...

So our first full week back, we taught as much as we could, but the
cold weather drove most of the students away. It's like snowed-in days
back at home, only here the snow's constant. We've got "too cold to
move; foolish to go outside days." I think I taught maybe nine classes
the first week back. Karen, less, but not just because of the cold.
She's got some schedule problems at her site. Something about two or
three classes shoved into the same time slot. The confusion is
understandable if the schdule there is anything like the schedule at
my school. Take graph paper and draw along the x-axis (is the
horizontal axis really x? It's been so long since imaginary numbers
and parabolas) all of the grades (or forms) that study at the school.
Along the y-axis, draw all of the of the tiem slots available,
grouping each day of the week seperately. Now, on different colored
pieces of cardboard--some the designs of christmas wrapping paper,
others all cardstock from Soviet times--type the names of all of the
classes. Each class gets it's own color--some of my English classes
have this weird chess-piece design. Now, spend a whole day arranging
those tiles on the graph paper so that none of the classes conflict.
Impossible, say I , but they manage to get it almost right. Of cours,
my schedule changes every week. Of course, of course, I haven't
really been at that site much because of going home to America and the
language conference we just had in Kyiv.

Oh yes, language conference. PC sent us to Kyiv for a Ukrainian
language refresher. We'd have four days of content-based language
instruction while staying at that fine Ukrainian resort, P-sok. All
the egg-dipped chicken and egg-dipped beef and egg-dipped mystery meat
we could eat. So, we're at the conference, and we get to see our
friends again. Kris and Jen and Ben and Nate; names meaningless,
maybe, to you all, but pure joy to us. So we have our classes, which
were quite good. I got to do in a class what I do at home--read
newspaper articles, practice ukrainian cursive, sing along to
Ukrainian songs, etc.... Good stuff, but I felt, once again, like a
second grader. I've really come along with the langauge to a point
were I feel realy comfortable with what I know--that plateau thing.
Being there, and taking the advanced course, the world was once again
laid bare to me; the skeletons of the earth that I saw were made up of
every bit of Ukrainian I (a) still don't know and (b) didn't know
existed. One class I attened was more a philosophy of the language
than anything tanglible or useful (now, although on work for my MA at
MIIS it'll be invaluable, I feel). I learned how the three genders of
the language (male, female, and neuter) give way to a fourth gender
(spilny) which is really the hermaphrodite of the language as words
that fall within its orbit take both male and female gender. Oh my God
I'm boring you with nerdy word facts....

Anyway, it was good to see our friends. Ben got a (not!!!!) pirated
copy of Brokeback, and we watched that one night. Good movie, but I
liked the story better, I think. I played chess (finally!!) all three
days and got my ass royally kicked by my former Ukrainian teacher. It
was cool though, cause we did it all in Ukrainian, and now I know how
to say the useful word "castling" which some people don't even use in
English and I'll barely

(oh, oh, just gave an impromptu English lesson in the Library)

be able to use the word in normal conversation with people here. I
thought here'd be some chess playing fools, but I've only seen people
playing once. And that was while they were trying to exchange Dollars
for Hryvnia in the street.

Anyway, back in S-town now, and we're thinking about the way of things
here. How much easier life could be for people if only a few things
were to change. How our work here is really affecting our students.
Our we really helping them? Is knowledge of authentic English really
going to help them when they teach with the Ukrainian variant of
English like "to go in for sports" and "the US is washed by three
oceans" ? If the students don't go anywhere but here, are we really
helping them by teaching them Englosh as it is really spoken by native
speakers? Or are we hurting them because they'll use words that even
their teachers don't know? And will later correct out of them? ?s ?s
?s

Started working with a Ukrainian tutor. Got off to a slow start
because she wanted to take me back to Ukrainian 101 when I'm already
in 301. Had to really convince her that I already knew what she was
talking about (and that I really wanted speaking and writing practice,
not listening practice and vocabulary drills). I'm starting with a
second tutor today, so I'm up to four hours a week, which really isn't
much, but coupled with actually living in the culture I'll use the
langauge in, it's a big help. In a few weeks, I'll get that piano
tutor. One lives across the hall from us. I'll learn piano, something
I've always wanted to do, and I'll learn some language at the same
time.Just gotta find a patient teacher.

Well, that's enough for now. Gotta teach in 40 minutes. Hope all's
well with you and yours.

Your friend (or relative) in Ukraine,
LL

a new start in ukraine

Though it's been only a few short days since I've seen some of you, and I apologize for not being able to contact more of you while I was home, I feel I should take advantage of the Internet while I have it and send in an update. Access is limited, and I've probably got something to say.

 

Home was bittersweet. I was overwhelmed by seeing my family, whom I dearly miss, and by watching the woman who raised me, who loved and was loved, lowered below the earth. It's been an emotional tilt-a-whirl. After four months in Ukraine, I got to go home. After 24 years as a grandson, I am grandparentless (excluding the spiritual side of the matter). At home, I was lucky enough to have two weeks with the most important people in my life. We were able to grieve together. To laugh together. To remember together. And to share the occasional beverage together. There was a lot of closure in my trip that I never would have had if I weren't allowed, with Karen, to fly home.  I am indebted to the PC Ukraine staff for the work they did to get us home. I owe them what I've already given them: two years of my life.

 

It was hard to leave my family again, but I knew I had to.  I didn't belong in America.  At least, not yet. I was embedded in Ukrainian culture just enough to experience some culture shock upon returning home.  It's hard to put into words that make sense but there were so many things that I had gotten used to not having. Having them again, all again and all at once, shocked me a little. It was an important lesson to learn: having everything I wanted, doing anything I wanted was hard to get used to...after four months.  I can't imagine what it'll be like after two years.

 

I felt in a dream, stuck between the American culture I knew and the Ukrainian culture I was getting to know. From buying a bottle of water with a $20 and not being harassed for exact change to being transported anywhere I wanted to go (a) in a timely fashion and (b) without being squished up against a hundred people, all the little things added up, giving me a glimpse of how I'd feel returning to America in December of 2007 (or Dec 2006, if I go home for Christmas).

 

Being back here is just as strange.  Having to come up with exact change. Slipping on the ice. Being forced to speak Ukrainian again. Adding to that the jet-lag, which is befuddling my mind. [Example, last night, in the hotel, Karen's cell went off, and I began grilling her about when my grandma would be calling]. So, some of the things are the same. But there are also some things that are different. It's kinda like having a new start. Some of the negative things we've experienced, or the negative attitudes we have, we can reshape or redefine.  It's like coming to Ukraine for the first time, only being very informed about what it's going to be like. We know a lot about the culture, so we can react better to those things this time around.

 

After 19 hours on various planes, living through delays and such, we returned to Ukraine, flying low over the same patch of land I saw back in the beginning of October, only this time fitted with layers of snow instead of naked, burning fields. Back at the office, we learned from the Director of PC Ukraine that we had missed the coldest winter he'd ever seen in Ukraine. Everyone here is talking about the black frost, the -25 to -30C weather, the snow. The coldest winter in years--and hopefully the coldest for years.  I don't feel too bad that I missed that part of the winter.

 

Back in Kyiv, everything's the same.  Snow falling in sheets. Slush and ice of the ground. Women freezing in the streets to sell their wares (mobile phone cards or jars of pickles). Men wandering, talking into their cell phones. Today, on the street, we heard a Brit talking into his cell phone. Two weeks ago, I would have died to hear him talk; after being home for two weeks, listening to all the English I could handle, it wasn't such a treat. I realized, though, in another couple of months, I'd be back, roaming the streets of Kyiv, listening for that man's voice again. Until you're in another country, living under a different language, you might not understand the joy in hearing your native tongue.

 

The political parties are out on the streets, gearing up for the elections. It's nice to see people out on the streets, supporting causes that are important to them. Everyone has his or her flag, scarf, or banner in support of their candidate. There are so many parties, I can't even begin to count. But they must be worthy candidates because these people are standing out in the freezing cold, waving their flags all day.  Worthy or else rich.

 

Karen and I are in Kyiv for another 24 hours. Then we take a train up to S-town. We'll get in at 11pm, so we'll get to lug our suitcases home in the dark. Looking forward to being in our new home--as we've just switched host families. We didn't even have the chance to unpack; we were there less than 24 hours before I found out about my grandmother and had to go home.

 

Anyway, I should end this before I ramble on some more.  Missing in all and wishing you all health, love, and life.

 

back in ukraine

Just writing to let you all know that we are safely back in Ukraine. Jet lag is crushing my brain, but other than that, we are okay.  It was nice to be home in Cali, although I wish it wasn't a funeral that took me home. It was nice to see my family and my friends. Also, it was nice to avoid the -25C weather here.

Hope all is well.

airborne

Somewhere between two places, we are airborne.

This time at home has allowed me to reflect on the positive things, the simplicity, that I am growing to love about Ukraine.

And when in Ukraine, I was remembering fondly all of the advantages and conveniences of life in the U.S.

When fully immersed in one or the other, it's easy to become frustrated by the day-to-day challenges. When far away from either I find myself focusing on the good.

Today we are somewhere in the middle.

68

Is how many times a day I think about her.
Is how many times a second I wish she were still here.
Is how many warm memories I have every moment I think of her.
Is how many kisses I wish I could still give her.

Is how many wonderful years she had lived.

My grandmother was an amazing, strong, beautiful, unique woman who I wish you could have met.

Who I wish I could have met again when I came home.

Who I wish everyday that I could see again.

hello

Apparently i've been sending my blog updates to the wrong address!  Here's an update from several weeks ago!

 

I'm glad to be writing to you all.  It's been quite a while since I've
been able to send an update. Karen and I are settled into our new site
in the Northwest of Ukraine. We are speaking a lot of Ukrainian here,
and we are learning some Russian along the way.

Our new host family is nice.  The house is small, but comfortable.
There isn't a lot of room for our stuff (and we togther have less
stuff than many single volunteers do), but we'll make due for three
months.  We are located on a road that I used to dream about, so I
feel comfortable that this is a good place for us.  And the host
mother, who works at the local hospital, calls me Laren.  Those of you
who confuse my name and Karen's name will find humour in this.  The
host family is very nice.  The food is very good.  The host daughter
speaks very good English, but only speaks Ukrainian with us.  We are
happy to be where we are.

We spent a week in Kyiv after we left our previous city. We didn't see
much besides the poorly illuminated walls of the Santitorium Prolisok.
 We were glad to see our friends, some of whom we dearly miss now, but
we weren't sad to leave that building.  Of course, we'll be going back
there soon for a language refresher in Feb.

It's cold here.

Cold.

I just want to emphasize that. Ice on the road and all.  Ever walked
on ice--some of you surely have.  If not, go to your local ice skating
rink, put on some boots (no fair cheating with skates!) and take a few
steps forward.  Fun, eh?  Now, do it all the way across town!  Yes,
not so fun anymore, eh?

Life is good here, and we are doing fine.  We miss our families over
the holidays, but, then again, we miss our families everyday. We are
settling in here near the Belarus border--hoping we don't accidently
cross it--and finding that work at our sites will be fun and
challenging. Our coordinators are nice. Every woman we meet wants to
be our mother.  Those of you who know how well I work with being told
what to do will find this especially funny.  But, it's also nice. Nice to be taken care. Nice to be
worried for.

We spent Christmas on a train.  That was not so bad as we were able to
talk to our families back at home.  Thank god for cell phones in Peace
Corps.  Lucky us.  We also played cribbage on the train with some
fellow volunteers.  I 15-2'ed all up in that mother.

To end, I want to wish all who read this, and everyone you know, a
very merry holiday season.  I'll share one last thing before i go:

ukrayinska jittya

Or: Ukrainian Life.

Whenever somethign happens that didn't go quite according to plan,
everyone says, "That's Ukrainian Life!"  Missed the bus?  That's
Ukrainian life. Fell on the ice? That's Ukrainian life.  Walk into
your house and find men you didn't expect to see building a new door?

You guessed it: That's Ukrainian life.

Until next time, pohkah.
 

Old/New Year

A few of our previous posts didn't go through, so we'll have to get you up to speed.

We are getting settled in our permanent town. It's smaller than where we lived during training, but grows on me more each day. We've made friends with some of the shop ladies and the woman at the bank who understands when we try to explain our transactions. People have been welcoming and patient.

An interesting note on people's obsession with feeding us here...they adopt the "do as I say, not as I do" policy. They continuously say "eat, eat," "it's necessary to try everything," "you haven't eaten anything," and we are chowing down Thanksgiving-style, while others are sitting there with maybe a few bites of salad or potatoes on their plate. No fair! Some people don't seem to realize that when I'm hungry...I eat. And when I'm full, I usually stop. We've also discovered it's not good to call them out on the fact that THEY'RE not eating anything. That would be too logical. ;)

We've been overwhelmed with your mail. Christmas cards, postcards, etc. Thank you so much! If you don't have our new address, check your email, or let us know and we'll send it again.

No reliable access to internet yet in town. So this will be sporadic, at best.

Happy New Year! (it's old new year here now...long history, different calendars...)

We'll try to get some photos out to you soon.

xoxoo

December in Ukraine

Trouble accessing email today, so I will try here.

We had a great Ukrainian lesson today. Lots of talking, not too much conjugating or figuring out what cases to use. This language is amazingly complicated, which makes it beautiful yet frustrating at times.

Have been meaning to mention that they use abacuses (?) here! You remember, those little metal rods with different color beads that you move up or down to count things. Every time I buy an international stamp at the P.O. the woman uses an abacus to add my 3,30 to 3,30, and it always comes out right!

They also use "real" brooms. Not those plastic things we have, actual branches from a once-living thing all tied together. They work really well too. We've been using one to wipe the snow off our shoes before entering the house.

The snow melted last week during our "head wave" (haha), I think it got up to 10 degrees C. This morning it was 1 degree (plus) and I thought it wasn't so cold. Imagine that. It snowed again a few nights ago, but now it's mostly slush. I'm getting better at walking on it, though we're all destined to fall eventually.

Headed home to study and plan our community event. We will hold an "English Teachers Appreciation Night" on Wednesday and invite local teachers from different schools. It's a chance to share ideas and get them together to chat. Then Friday L and I are teaching a seminar on how adapt an old-fashioned textbook and make it more communicative. Should be a productive, yet super busy, week.

Hope you are all well and staying warm. We think of you often, especially now that it's becoming holiday time.

Big hugs!

peace corps ukraine rocks

PC Ukraine does an amazing job of taking care of its volunteers. So to all our friends and family, please know that we are in good hands--and know that the writing has been sparse lately because we've been SUPER DUPER busy!

Three weeks til swearing in!

--Staying warm in Ukraine: LL & KH

site announcement

We are assigned to a city in the Rivnenska Oblast.

Near Belarus.

The city started life as a train station.

I'll be teaching at two sites, a Lyceum or Economics and Law and a Collegium. I'll be teaching English, Business English, and US History (if nothing changes, which is impossible). Karen will be teaching at a pedagogical college.

We leave for our site visit tomorrow.

Monday in Kyiv

Little did we know, today is a special day in Kyiv. We passed by hundreds of demonstrators in the center, and our driver had to take a very long detour. More on that in email (perhaps).

We are in Kyiv for one day, to find out where they will send of for the next two years. If it were up to me, I would have us stay exactly where we are in P-town. Our host family is incredible, and we are learning our way around town. This morning as we were leaving to catch the 7:15am marshrutka, babusya told us that she has gotten used to having us around the house and she feels pity that we will leave. We assured her we would return in 2 weeks after our site visit, but it was so kind of her to tell us that. We even got a hug from our host mother when we left. It was the first for each of us.

I have been getting your letters and emails. Thank you. Dyakuyu. It is so nice to hear news from home.

We might be sent to a place with internet, or we might be sent to a place with outhouses and no hot water, so you may not hear from us for 2 weeks but please don't worry. We are healthy and happy.

Speaking of hot water...the other night when I went to take a shower (we have to sit down in the tub, but it's closer to a shower than a bath cause you have to wash with the trickle of water that comes out of the spout) I turned the hot water heater up too high, and the water actually began to boil in the pipes. I knew I had done something wrong, but I wasn't sure what to do about it. Babusya came over and turned off the hot water entirely, so at first it was freezing, then hot again, then freezing, and you get the idea. I opted not to shampoo my hair, in case the water was too hot to rinse it out. Hehe...maybe too much information, but you can appreciate the small differences (luxuries) of being home.

All our love. xoxoo

metro

10 cents to ride the metro to Kyiv.

 

A million dollars worth of stories.

voda or vodu

In about six days or so we head towards the capital to discover where our permanent site will be. We will stay with our future host family for a week and then come back for some technical sessions. I am hoping beyond hope to go to a place in Ukraine whee I can make full use of the Ukrainian language. You can read into that how you will.

 

In other news, it is nice to receive letters from friends and family back home. I haven't heard from my family yet, but I am hoping their words are on the way. We've heard from some friends of ours from school; it is so nice to keep in contact with what is going on back in the States.

 

The language here is picking up. When I first got here, I walked into a shop hoping for a pencil and some tissue. I walked out with a pen and some beer. There days, I more or less get what I want if the shop attendant can understand my jumbled words. Yesterday I bought some slipper and journals. One journal was an adventure as the shop keeper dug through her pile until she could find the right one for me. I stuck it in my bag and didn't look at it really close until I got home. There I found that I had an American Chopper journal, replete with Paul Sr. My uncle would be so proud.  In case you don't know, there is only one self serve shop where I live.  Everywhere else, you have to ask for what you want. It turns each trip for bread or toilet paper into a life or death task. It was really hard when I had zero/nul/NONE of the language, but it was a great way to practice the language.  I didn't realize how badly I could fuck up asking for water in a second language, but with all the cases in Ukrainian, one sentence can vary about 70 different ways. Voda or vodu or whatever ever else it can be.

 

That as it is, the days of death are fewer these days.

 

Wishing you love from Ukraine.

blood in ukraine

They tell us that Ukraine will seem the same, but you'll eventually find the differences. It's like a picture puzzle in the newspaper, sectioned off near the jumble and the crossword puzzle, where you have to find the five differences between the two pictures. Between the US and Ukraine. Yesterday, I began to find the differences.

 

On the train from I to P, three fisherman boarded. They sat down next to this girl who asked them, I think, to leave. They did not. They were sitting directly across the aisle from me. They began to attack her with questions. Then, eventually, to make a long, long story short, the men started to fight with each other. By the end, the one nearest the window wound up with a bloody nose.

 

The first difference: no one stood up to break it up; no one really noticed.

counterstrike

When I was a Freshman, a Sophomore in college, I studied. Don't get me wrong. I read a lot. I also, however, played a little game called Counter-Strike. After many months of long nights eliminating the terrorist scum, I gave up my drug and studied more earnestly. As a result, my grades went up.

Every now and again, home in FOrtuna, I play CS with my cousin. He still plays, now that he's a freshman in college. Once I boarded the plane for Ukraine, I knew that part of my life was behind me.

Wrong.

Every internet cafe I go into, regardless of time of day, there are little boys playing CS. I see the drug working its magic. I see the addiction.

I also see that these kids have some 1337 skills. R0}{oR and all that.

It's strange for me to see. Ukraine is in such a transition. Counterstrike along side of babucyas selling sunflower seeds on the street. Old brick buildings falling down on the main street while new, modern buildings get put up on secluded side streets.

It is an experience I find hard to depict.

poor kids

When we first arrived, our host mother introduced us to babusya T and she said "poor kids."

So far I disagree. This place is really growing on me.

Went to church with our host family on Sunday. Stood in a line while people lit candles and the main guy sang and swung an incense ball. Then went to a huge bazaar that reminded me of a super-crowded swap meet. Met our host father's sister and her husband. When he heard we were from CA, he asked what we grow there. I'll have to learn that in Ukrainian.

We're studying food now, so I can finally say, NO REALLY, I'M FULL! Every time I serve myself, they say "Malo!" which to me means bad (Spanish), but they're saying I'm not serving myself enough. They worry every time I sneeze, but I try to convince them for me it's normal.

My body feels especially healthy here, and my spirits are high.

We look forward to hearing from you.
xoooo

Week 2

So we've begun to get a routine, but are still adjusting to our new life.

This morning we woke up around 7 and ate breakfast with our host mother L. We had oats and a Kix-like cereal covered in yogurt. Tasty. We've finally convinced them that we don't need greasy, meaty heaps in the morning. We dressed and met the fellow married couple volunteers (who live across the street) to walk to our language instructor's home together. We stopped at the bazaar to buy some snacks, and I got some peppermint tea.

We spend about 5-6 hrs per day studied language, and it's coming slowly. Larry is nearly putting together correctly-conjugated sentences but I'm still pointing and naming words. It will be a long process, but we're determined. We remind ourselves it's only been a week.

The food continues to be tasty, and our host family so kind. We wash our shoes in the bathroom sink when we get home because they are muddy. I am perpetually asked if I am cold, while Larry is scoffed at if he wears a hat.

More soon. We love hearing from you.

xoxoo

meeting

Met with the mayor of P-town today. He is a very nice man....

 

Observing my first class tomorrow. Karen is too. Then we start teaching soon.

Very soon.

alive in Ukraine

Here.

 

Sick.

 

Here.