First Week at Site

Hello Everyone,
So, I have been at site for a little over a week.  I have gotten lost, walked around the entire city, had 2 BBQs, watched a movie at the movie theater, met tons of different organization, and have been thinking about possible projects to work on.  It will be difficult to find ways that I can help and what projects I can work on but I am sure with time - it will work out.  It is difficult to manage expectations though because my organization wants results yesterday but they don't know exactly what they want.  Managing my own expectations and those of my counterparts/partner organizations will be first on my list of things to do.  They expect soooo much from me and I don't even know the language yet.  Yikes.  I also desperately want to help with anything and everything that I can help with but don't know what is needed and what I can help with.  Everyone has be extremely welcoming and nice - it makes me want to help with everything but right now I simply don't know how I can help - very frustrating.  I want to repay everyone's kindness by pulling of an amazing project but I just don't know what project yet.  Things simply operate differently here - all my business knowledge does not seem to apply here so I will have to be creative.

Then I will need to figure out how to communicate effectively.  My Russian has gotten much better over the last week due to not being able to speak any English but I have a long way to go before I feel comfortable with everyday conversations.  The main project that I will be working on right now is setting up a business center.  I will be conducting a variety of trainings among other things.  It will be interesting to say the least.  During the summer, it may be difficult to attract interested community members.  I also want to start an English club for anyone that is interested as a way to meet people, find out the needs of the community, learn the culture, and network.  So far I have found 5 adults that are interested.  That will be a good start considering that I am not a teacher but I have spent the last 11 weeks in Russian language classes so I can use those methods and resources to teach.  It will be fun.  I will also be creating a website for the community probably to promote tourism and to provide news and info on what is going on in the community.  The exact details are yet to be determined.  It is extremely difficult to pin down exact details - part because of the communication barrier and part because of me not knowing how things work here.  I keep explaining that I simply need time to learn the community, people, and way of life but that message never seems to be understood.

Anyways, other than work - I have been spending a lot of time with my counterpart going to different businesses, gov buildings, museum, meeting tons of people, having BBQs, etc..etc..  It has been extremely interesting if not a bit overwhelming.  This weekend is a holiday weekend so we have Monday off - I am sure I will be doing something I have never done before but I won't know what I will be doing until 5 min before I am doing it.  Thats just how things go here.  For example, I will be working when my counterpart calls and tells me to go outside and get in a car and then bam - I am off on another unknown adventure.  lol  Or I will be meeting a high gov official and suddenly a piece of furniture will open up to reveal a large bottle of something where it is tradition to take 3 consecutive shots.  lol  Or I will be having a cup of coffee outside the Palace of Culture (where my office is located) and suddenly find myself touring a truck and tractor factory 15 min outside of town.  I never know what the day has in store for me.  Lucky for me, Amy is visiting for the weekend - it has been awesome.  Friday at 4 in the morning I took a 30 min taxi to a neighboring city (Markeevka) to pick her up at the train station.  That was an adventure - I am glad we made it safe and sound.  We had to navigate an unknown city and find the bus station then take the correct bus back to my city.  It is nice to have her around to help digest some of the random stuff that happens.  The culture is just so different - I thought I had an idea of how things worked when i was in training but turns out, I have only scratched the surface.

We are planning on taking a bus to Donetsk tomorrow to explore the city.  Donetsk is the Oblast (Similar to a state) capital w/ a couple million people.  That will be fun and yet another adventure.  I hear there may or may not be a Mexican food restaurant somewhere in the city.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  I hear it is pretty good too.  Then we will see the sites and walk the city.  I am looking forward to it.  Something may or may not come up between now and then which will take up our time but I am sure whatever we do will be fun.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables: (no particular order)
1.  Amy is here!  Awesome
2.  Survived my first week at site.  It will take time to learn how to live and work here - I am excited, still a bit nervous, and overwhelmed at the same time.
3.  Met tons of important people in the City.  Very interesting.  They all seem to wonder what an American is doing way out here.
4.  My sister will be having a daughter within the next month!  Super excited to finally see photos of her.
5.  Still trying to find out how I will be contributing to my organization here.  Extremely stressful - I desperately want to help but I don't know how yet.
6.  Millions of awkward situations.  It is starting to feel awkward to feel comfortable.  lol
7.   Trying out all the different places in my community.  People seem to be perplexed that there is an American living in their community.  Makes me laugh.
8.  Havin a coffee in the morning on my balcony that overlooks the bazaar.  Always interesting people-watching.
9.  Hand washing my cloths.  Is it clean?  Who knows.  But it doesn't smell so it is good enough.

I hope all is well in the US -  I will try to post photos when I have time.

First days at site

    Greetings from my new apartment in the Donetskaya oblast.  I  now live in a small city (120k) outside the city of Donetsk Ukraine.  I am only a couple hours from Russia and only a couple hours from the Sea of Azov.  I can't post the name of the city due to Peace Corps policy but I assure you that it is pretty cool.  The city is very green, beautiful parks, friendly people, and the organization I work for is great.  My first impressions other than "wholly crap...I am finally a volunteer" and "wow...there are no other Americans/English speakers for at least an hour in any direction" were that this is a nice City - I think I can be happy here.  It would have been nice to have another volunteer close by but it is better for integration in the community if I can't run off with fellow volunteers whenever I want.  My organization is a new NGO (less than a year old) and it consists of me and my Counterpart and a small room in the "Palace of Culture" (government owned community center).  We have 2 tables, 2 chairs, and a million ideas.  I just got chills thinking about it.  Awesome!  I know it will be tough and it will take time before I can be effective and can actually speak well enough to network but I am excited.  The first project we will be working on is opening up a Business Center for the youth in the community.  At the moment it is only an idea and with my limited Russian, we have not been able to discuss the idea in too much detail but I will no doubt be writing a grant for this project.  We will have an interpreter on Monday so that we can discuss exactly what, why, where, how, and with who.  lol.  I am sure I am getting a bit ahead of myself given that I have only spent two nights in my new community but hey...it doesn't hurt to start thinking about possible projects right away.  My counterpart/coworker is a nice guy , 26 years old, married, has a pet rabbit, and is extremely ambitious.  The mayor's right hand man took us out to eat last night which was nice.  We had Ukrainian Steaks followed by a some Ukrainian beer - Delicious.  It was a nice evening and my counterpart, his wife, and the mayor's guy speak a little bit of English so we can get probably 70% of our messages across.  I can't wait tell I can have a full conversation without pausing and without having to resort to using words that do not fit the sentence.  Other volunteers have stated that the first few weeks at site can be the most difficult and that your language skills improve dramatically because you don't have any English speakers to fall back on.  I hope this is true because I could really use more Russian skillz. 

    Today is Sunday morning here and I am sitting in my appt with the balcony door open, listening to the sounds of the busy bazaar across the street, and sipping some tea while I think about how crazy life can be and all the new stuff I have already experienced.  This is awesome!  Yesterday my counterpart took me to a friend's summer house where we had a BBQ, some delicious Ukrainian beer, and swam in the river.  It was a busy day.  The day started at 8:00 when I woke up and finished unpacking then my new landlord came over and showed me how to work the gas, water, etc...  I have a gas water heater without a tank so I think the flames heat a coiled pipe which in turn heats the water.  In my city we have running water from 6 am - 10 am then from 4 pm - 8 pm so you have to plan accordingly.  The landlord is a very nice guy probably in his 60s and he speaks a little bit of English that he learned 40 years ago by listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival at University.  I thought that was pretty cool and I will try to burn him a CD one of these days so he can listen to them again.  After that, I went with my counterpart and his friend to a little house out in the country by a river.  Very scenic.  We picked cherries, chatted (as much as I could), and relaxed.  The wives prepared a delicious salad while the guys prepared the meat for the BBQ.  I helped as much as I could.  We cut up tomatoes, yellow peppers, and onions then seasoned some pork with milk, tomato sauce, and a packet of spices.  We then put everything together shish kabob style - cooked everything with the wood of a fruit tree for extra flavoring - it was very good.  We also took a drive out to someone's house that turned out to be a fisherman that sells dried fish.  Everyone thought it was pretty funny when I didn't know how to eat the dried fish   lol   I am still not entirely sure.  It looks like a regular fish - not cut or prepared in any way - only dried and hard.  I didn't know where to begin.  Do you just start biting?  I had no idea.  Turns out that you rip the head off then start pealing the skin off and eat everything but the spine.  I didn't get home last night tell midnight - exhausted - awesome day.  Today I am going to do some shopping, attempt to hand wash some clothing, and then buy a cake and take the bus to my counterpart's house for dinner.  I hope I can figure out how to get there.  *(The following was posted the next day)* - Yeah...Totally got lost.  I thought that any bus heading in the direction of my Counterpart's house would go by the stop that I needed.  Turns out that is only the case in the morning.  lol  I guess when my counterpart was explained the buss system, I missed that one key word  "only in the MORNING".  I found myself in the country surrounded by trees and factories with nothing but an oversized cake in one hand, a confused look on my face, and a few Russian words in my head.  I asked someone on the bus where we were which she hapily replied Мы будем Марковка We are going to Markovka (or something like that).  I though...oh shit - I am going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere and not be able to explain to anyone where I am.  I pictured myself sitting on a curb in a field next to a vacant old factory with nothing but a cake and my damaged pride.  I couldn't help but chuckle to myself at the absurdity of it all.  At lease I would have a cake to eat.  lol  Eventually I handed my cellphone to someone on the buss so that they could explain to my counterpart where I was.  The people on the buss were great.  They not only gave me a plastic bag to cover my cake with so that the sun/heat would not ruin it but they also managed to wave down an oncoming buss that was going back to my town.  Awesome.  I ended up making it to my counterpart's house and having a wonderful meal and a nice conversation. 

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1.  I am now an official Peace Corps Volunteer!  3 months of training done!

2.  Had to say all my goodbyes to my fellow volunteers in Kiev.  Dare I say it was a bit emotional.  We have all grown very close over the last 3 months and I will miss them all.  My closest cluster mate is 6 hours away and some of my friends are over 30 hours away by train.  I am in the south east and some have been sent to the north west.  When you think about it, it would be faster to visit someone in the states than my friends in western Ukraine.

3.  BBQ  -  met some cool people and had a great time. 

4.  Counterpart and new organization - So far it looks like a great fit.  I am looking forward to start working. 

5.  Walked around the city - very interesting.  It will take some time before I am comfortable and familiar with everything.

6.  I finally have my own place.  My host family was great for the 3 months of training but I need my own space. 

7.  The 13 hour train ride from Kiev to Donetsk - interesting stuff to say the least.  Slept like a baby.

8.  Shopping.  Went to the grocery store for some essentials and definitely stuck out like a sore thumb.  Everything has a different process that I am unfamiliar with.
9.  One last walk with Amy in our little training village. 
10.  Swearing-in ceremony. 

Swearing-in Ceremony

New PCVs

My new Flat

New Flat 2

New Flat 3

New Flat 4

Language makes the world go round

Greetings,

    I will know where I will be living, who I will be working with, and what I will be doing in two days.  So, while we have all been waiting for our assignments we have been getting ready for the move, hanging out, and tying up loose ends in our village.  It has been nice to have a few days without language class and to be able to spend time with other volunteers.  It is kind of funny because we are all trying to prepare ourselves for the move to our permanent sites where we will be living and working for the next two years but we still don't know what we will be doing or where we will be living so how do you prepare?  You don't know if you will be in a village without running water or if you will be in a city with some amenities or in a cold part of Northern Ukraine or the much hotter Southern Ukraine.  Good thing PC people are all pretty laid back because if you are the type of person that likes to have some control over things - you might freak out.  I am not too worried about where I will live or what I will be doing - I am mainly concerned with who I will be working with.  As long as I get along with my counterpart, they can put me in a hole in the middle of nowhere and I will probably be happy. 

    Other than site placement, we have all taken our LPIs (Language Proficiency Interviews) which I am sure we all did ok.  Our group's got some mad Russian skillz however we will definitely struggle the first few months at site.  We can at least get our messages across in Russian even if we don't understand the response.  lol  I am forced to be a bad listener because I can't understand what people are saying but I can say what is on my mind.  I find myself getting rather good at determining the topic of a conversation based solely on reading facial expressions and body language.  lol  Either that or the Ukrainians I speak to have gotten used to me saying really random stuff.  lol  For example, a babushka in my village walked up to me and started talking to me in Russian with a really concerned look on her face and the only words I picked up from her concerned handful of sentences was:  Egg, chicken, garden, today, and old.  I usually understand more that this in the average conversation but sometimes this is all you have to work with.  So from here you have two choices -  A. Try to guess what she said based on the few words you managed to pick out, her facial expressions, and prior conversations with this nice old babushka or    B. Ask her to repeat herself and probably end up in the same situation with the same two options once again.  In this particular "conversation" I decided to wing it and attempt to guess what she said.  I based my guess on some universal truths about babushkas:  They are always extremely concerned about what you have eaten, how much of it you ate, and what you are planning to eat later.  So given that 2 out of the 5 words that I understood were food related, it is a relatively safe assumption that she wants to talk about food or has asked if I want to eat.  My response went something like this. "Hello.  Good morning.  This morning for breakfast I cooked 3 fried eggs and ate 4 sandwiches (Bread, cheese, kielbasa) and I think I will have borsch (similar to soup) for lunch.  Also, I am not hungry right now.  Thanks.  Good weather today isn't it?  How are you?"   At this point, there are usually three possible outcomes  A. One of her eyebrows raises slightly and she gives you a very confused and inquisitive look then slowly starts laughing at the verbal diarrhea that came out of your mouth at which point I usually start laughing too because of how funny the whole situation is.  or   B. You got lucky and nailed it.  At this point she will be happy that you ate something but will not believe that you are not hungry and will attempt to feed you if you don't repeat that you have already eaten and are indeed not hungry at least 3 more times.   or C. There is a slight awkward pause followed by a small nod of the head with minimal facial expressions then she starts talking about the weather and will usually agree that the weather is nice but it is too hot/cold/rainy/etc.  This is why I try to add something at the end of all my responses about some insignificant topic so that if I do mess up and say the wrong thing or if she does not understand my response - she has an out.  She does not have to repeat herself a million times, she can just start talking about the weather or what she is up to and hopefully I will understand more of what she says later and we can have a more fluid conversation.  The only problem with this strategy is that you never really know if you guessed correctly or if  she had originally said something totally different.  For this conversation she could have easily said that she needs help gathering eggs from the chickens and help in the garden today because she is old and can't do it all herself.  If that is what she had actually said, I might look like a bit of an ass talking about all the food I ate.  lol   But people are patient and know that you don't speak the language very well yet and will usually give you the benefit of the doubt.  Anywho, the actual outcome of this conversation was outcome C.  I still am not entirely sure if I answered correctly or what but after that part of the conversation we talked about the weather, what she is up to, her daughter, my host mom, - we actually chatted for about 15 min.  Learning a language is a hilarious and incredibly awkward process and I am sure I will have thousands of similar conversations before I start to "get it".  lol  I almost want to add a segment to my blog called the "Awkward Conversation of the Week Award"  lol 

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1.  Language test completed - will find out score in a few days.

2.  Went on a scavenger hunt in Chernigiv with 20 other volunteers followed by happy hour at the local cafe.  It was nice to walk around Chernigiv one last time before we all move away from one another to our separate sites. 

3.  Going to the "beach" later today.  It is a sandy area next to the river - very popular in our little village of 2,500 people - should be fun. 

4.  Ate some Peanut Butter.  Fantastic.  I never thought I would say that about something like peanut butter but damn it was good.

5.  I have not had running water for a few days (I hope it rains soon so that I have running water again).  I stink and my cloths are dirty.  When I told this to some fellow volunteer they said welcome to the Peace Corps - lol

6.  Packing up all my stuff again + 20 pounds of books and paperwork.  Should be interesting.
7. Raided a fellow volunteers hard drive and got tons of good movies. That will come in handy come winter when we only have 8 hours of sunlight.

Flyin Solo

Howdy,

    Training is more or less over now.  I have learned a ton but still have a lot to go.  Training has been absolutely great - we were busy all the time but we were doing stuff we enjoy, which made the experience extremely enjoyable and fulfilling i.e... learning Russian, helping the community,  working on our project, and basically integrating in the community.  From this point on I will be doing it solo.  No English speaking friends nearby, no caring locals (not yet anywho), no structure, and basically nothing familiar.  With time I will meet people at site and will develop a network of friends and coworkers but in the meantime it will just be me and Ukraine.  To be honest, it is a bit freaky but also exciting at the same time.  I debated omitting that last sentence but then I would not be painting a realistic picture.  Up to this point, I have been safely nuzzled in the bosom that is 3 months of Peace Corps Training (which has had it's own set of challenges).  We have had a support network from the beginning of training - complete with cluster mates, language facilitators, host families, cultural facilitators, fellow volunteers, and of course the PC staff.  Now it will just be me and my counterpart in whatever city/town/village they decide to put me.    I will find out more details on the 14th so until then, I will continue to cross my fingers and study the language. 

    Other than training coming to an end, we have our LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) on Wednesday which will give us an idea of where we stand as far as Russian goes.  We have to get to at least intermediate low/mid which means we can communicate on most topics with some errors and a basic vocabulary.  I fell comfortable that I will get at least intermediate mid.  Apparently the older groups have a much harder time with the language.  Among the Community Development volunteers, I am one of the youngest - my cluster (the 5 volunteers in my training group/community) consists of 3 of us being 26 years old.  Some of the older clusters (60+ years old) have tons of work experience and are extremely knowledgeable - one of the volunteers being the former CFO of a fortune 500 company.  It is interesting to see the many different approaches to CD.  I look forward to collaborating and working with some of the older volunteers if possible.  Hopefully I can find a side project that I can work on with fellow volunteers - I feel like I can learn a lot from some of my fellow volunteers.  There are also a large # of YD (Youth Development) and TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) volunteers in Ukraine.  YD and TEFL are usually the youngest volunteers.  Regardless of background, age, experience, etc..  everyone will have to make a major adjustment.  Me for example, will have to work on being more social and will have to concentrate on networking as much as possible especially during the first couple months at site.  Everyone is different, some are going to have a hard time adjusting to life without the comforts that they are used to having (running water is a biggie), some will have a hard time living alone in an unfamiliar village/town/city,  some will struggle with working without any structure, the list goes on and on. To me, benefits far outweigh the costs.  Two words - "fulfilling work"  - it is hard to find something like this; something you believe in. 

    Other than all that stressful stuff, we have had some visitors to our quiet little village.  The volunteers that trained in our village 6 months ago have decided to visit their former host families.  It is interesting to see another person interact with my HF.  Very funny and cool at the same time.  These volunteers are TEFL volunteers so they don't do the stuff that we will be doing but it is interesting to hear their experiences and stories.  The former volunteer that stayed with my host family will be staying here tell Monday.  It is awesome to hear her interact with my HF and to see everything from another perspective.  It has been a good weekend.  The previous volunteers arrived Friday night and we all got together Sat for a long game of football followed by a trip to Chernigiv for a night out.  Like always, it was nice to have an English speaking evening with some interesting and genuinely good people.  Sunday we got together at one of the Babushka's house and had snacks and chatted.  We then went to the Sauna for the evening.  It was awesome.  Sauna's are extremely popular in Ukraine and considered very good for your health.  I rented a private room for the evening just for us volunteers.  Sorry I was too busy to update the blog at my regular time.  I try to update at the same time each week.  Well, it is now Monday morning and I really need to start studying Russian to make up for lost study time from this weekend.  Not to mention that this is the third time I have written this post which for whatever reason kept being deleted.  Arggg

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1.  Finished up my side project of learning Russian cursive. 

2.  Had some long conversations with my HM.  (I have come a long way with the language but still have a long way to go)

3.  Chatting with the previous volunteer that stayed with my HF.  Very cool.

4.  Found a decent wine called "Bastardo" - not bad.  All the other Ukrainian wines are extremely sweet. 

5.  There is a group of Geese that live near one of my cluster mates.  Apparently, they really don't like my cluster mate and will chase her as soon as they see her even if she is a block away they will start charging her.  I feel bad but this is one of the funniest things in the world to me.  lol  Even typing about it is making me laugh : )

6.  Going to the Sauna with some fellow volunteers for a relaxing evening. 

7.  Went out for another English speaking night out in Chernigiv with some fellow volunteers.  Always interesting and fun - PCVs are interesting and genuinely good people. 

8.  I have been working on a photo project where I have taken the same photo of a certain babushka's garden every day for the last couple weeks and before I leave my village I will put the photos together into a movie to show how fast things grow here.  I will try to post the video if I can.   

The Crew with Mama Lidia

Another Awesome soccer day

Photo from our project

BBQ day