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