Month at Site!

Greetings from Ukraine,

Well, I have been at site for over a month now and have been in Ukraine for just about 4 months.  These months have been some of the craziest months of my life.  Three months of extensive language training.  Then moving to a new city, without any friends, zero English speakers, and having to figure out how to live and work in a new community is insane.  New jobs are stressful even when you know the language and the culture but when you don't know, it is a recipe for some crazy times.  Even after one month I can tell that I have not even scratched the surface.  I still have a long ways to go before I am a productive member of society and before I can really build an effective network of friends and possible business partners.  Sometimes I need to step back for a min to realize just how far I have come with regards to learning the language, culture, and job because it can be overwhelming if you only think about how far you still have to go.  

Over the last week I have been exploring my city a bit and have been looking for gyms and recreational facilities.  I found the addresses for two gyms - one boxing gym and one general workout facility but even with the addresses, it has been hard to find these places.  For whatever reason, many Ukrainian businesses do not have signs on the outside of their buildings.  So I probably walked by these places many times but because there are no signs outside, I have not been able to find them.  lol  I have also been learning to work with my new org and counterpart.  We have a lot to figure out.  That's all I can say on that matter.  I am also trying to meet with other organizations that I might be able to work with or that can help my org with some of our projects.  I have a meeting tomorrow in Donetsk to meet with a much larger NGO and hopefully we will be able to devise a project that we can work together on.  One can hope.

I just want to start have a positive impact ASAP because it seems like time is flying without much getting done.  This might be because of the lack of some of the conveniences that I have grown accustomed to back in the US.  For example, a WASHING MACHINE!!  I spend many hours each week doing laundry by hand and I never know if my cloths are clean or not - not to mention the fact that it is tiresome work bent over a bucket of water scrubbing your cloths.  Also, when you do not have a dryer you have to iron everything.  Kinda crazy but I have hardly ever ironed anything in my life.  lol  I took stuff to the dry cleaner and only bought wrinkle free clothing.  :-)  Cooking is the other huge time consumer.  In the US, I basically lived off quick meals like COSTCO frozen veggies, lasagna, pasta, stir fry, sandwiches, or would simply grab a burrito or burger at the local fast food joint.  Here I have to walk to the bazaar or local store and purchase some veggies, meat fresh off the cow/pig/chicken/etc, fruit, and bread.  The food here has zero preservatives which at first i thought that was great/healthy/neato - but soon realized that when milk expires in 3 days, bread in 4, and the veggies last less than a week that you find yourself walking to the store around 5 times a week.  The food does taste fresh especially the milk but there are no quick easy meals :-(   It takes me around 2 hours to cut up all the food, cook it, eat it, and clean up.  Not to mention that this process depends greatly on when the water comes back on (running water only 6 hours per day 3 morning & 3 evening).  Add an average of an hour a night for laundry and there goes 3 prime "Conor time" hours.  Then it is off to studying Russian before alas falling asleep in my midget sized bed  (I put a chair next to the footboard so that I can stretch out from time to time lol).  I don't want to sound like I am complaining because truth be told, I kinda enjoy doing all these things.  I find it peaceful and when everything else is unknown and crazy, you need to enjoy any peace you can find.

Anywho, the last weekend was spend walking around my town, studying Russian, and relaxing while trying to just take it all in.  Tonight (Monday) I purchased a train ticket to Lugansk (7/24 - 8/01).  I will be helping a fellow volunteer run a camp in the forest.  Whoohoo!  That will be awesome.  Amy will be there too!   Can't wait.  Things have been stressful at my site so it will be nice to get away for a week, be surrounded by nature, meet new people, and help however I can.  Should be interesting - Platzcart both ways (3rd class train car, refer to previous post for details, all 2nd class tickets were taken)   After that I am back at site for  2 weeks then I am off to Kiev for a couple days for some Volunteerism training then I go from Kiev to Keevoy Rogg for almost a week to help someone else with a different camp. I love it.  I think back to my days sitting at my desk all day dreaming about the adventure Peace Corps was sure to give me and it really puts everything into perspective.  Life is an adventure - if you disagree with that statement you might want to do some thinking.  Anywho, my counterpart should be coming over any min now to have a beer and talk about some work stuff so I need to go.  I hope all is well in the US

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1.  Exploring my City.  Always fun

2.  Learning how to cook, clean, and live in my new surroundings.  It's a process

3.  Having my first weekend all to myself in a long time.  Very relaxing but a bit weird after being surrounded by people every weekend and having tons of stuff to do for the last 4 months. 

4.  More learning pains while I figure out how to work with my counterpart / Org.

5.  Figured out the train system finally.  It is in desperate need of an update.  It is written in a mix of Russian and Ukrainian & the postings on the walls of train stations can be outdated so you never know if you have reliable info. 

6.  Skyped with numerous people.  Skype is awesome

7.  Starting a website for my org.  Should be fun.  

Amy and I

Donetsk

Afgan War Vets