Kiev, Krivoy Rog, and back again.

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I did not post last week.  I have been very busy and have not had more than 5 min of internet access over the last 2 weeks but I am back in my city now so let me recap.  The journey began two weeks ago with my new counterpart (I now have a new Counterpart and NGO to work with).  We met at the bus station in Khartsizsk and took a hour long bus ride to Donetsk where me took a couple different Mashootkas to the main train station in Donetsk.  We then hoped on our overnight train to Kiev.  Just when I thought I was starting to feel comfortable with traveling via train, our compartment mates arrived (4 people to a compartment when traveling 2nd class).  Turns out, it was a train full of body builders that were making their way to a competition in Kiev.  These people were HUGE.  They were a couple in their late 20's that made me feel scrawny in comparison.  They were busy eating handfuls of pills with protein shake chasers to care too much about me and my counterpart and the next morning they actually made me some coffee and chatted for a while which was nice.  They are trying to compete in the next Mr. Universe competition in the UK and they ended up being very nice people despite the intimidating exterior.
 

After chatting with our friendly humungous gentle giants, we arrived in Kiev at 7 am and took another series of Mashootkas to the Post Grad institute of the Ukrainian National University where we will be staying for the next 4 nights to attend a Volunteerism conference/training.  This is the same place we stayed at for swearing-in.  We stayed in the student dorms which always makes me think of my experiences in college and my old college buddies even though the college experience is extremely different here.  The conference was very informative and by the end of the conference, my counterpart and I had a project plan written out.  The new NGO that I am working with already has 40 registered "volunteers" so this conference was especially helpful.  It covered how to recruit, motivate, organize, and use volunteers specifically in Ukraine.  It was interesting to me because the concept of volunteerism is lost on most Ukrainians due certain aspects of the USSR and their forced "volunteerism".  lol   If you are forced to do something, are you still considered a volunteer?  I can see the confusion.  Times have changed though and now volunteers are needed in Ukraine  -  slowly but surely the concept will catch on.  The Ukrainians I have talked to about being a volunteer are always extremely skeptical and usually assume that there is some sort of hidden agenda.  We will try to stress the importance of volunteerism in the younger age groups because they seem to be more receptive and it can help their resumes (getting work experience is almost impossible here). 

While we were in Kiev, my fellow volunteers and I went out on the town a few times.  It was awesome.  We have not seen each other for over 2 months and have all experienced some crazy and unique stuff in that time.  No two Peace Corps experiences are the same.  We are spread out all over Ukraine from small towns of 300 people to big cities of a million plus.  We speak either Russian or Ukrainian and we are all matched with very different organizations - for example  HIV/AIDS,  Youth orgs, Women's rights orgs, orphanages, schools, universities, local government, NGOs that work for the disabled, etc etc...  It was interesting to hear everyone's experiences and I think we all had a great time.  While we were in Kiev, we got most of the old Stari Belose cluster back together (the group of PCVs that I trained with) and our LCF (language facilitator during training) and went out for dinner in downtown Kiev.  We packed a ton of stuff into those 4 nights and by the end, Amy and I were completely exhausted.  This was only the beginning of our trip so after the Volunteerism convention, we decided to stay in Kiev for most of the weekend and explore the sights.  Amy got a massage, I found a Cuban restaurant, we exlpored a museum about Kiev 900 AD.  Very interesting.  I especially enjoy finding a public location like a park or a monument and sitting back to observe and think about life.  Amy and I found a nice little park in downtown Kiev that was perfect for this. This park had many people playing chess, kids playing on the playgrounds, the usual people drinking beer, and a slight breeze to top things off.  Very nice. 

After a very nice week in Kiev, we made our way back to the train station and boarded our first class train to Krivoy Rog.  This was awesome.  Amy and I had our own compartment for the overnight train ride so we did not have to worry about anything.  I had a stomach ache but other than that, it was perfect.  We arrived in Krivoy Rog at 6 am and made our way to .... wait for it ... McDonalds for an awesomely delicious yet unfortunately unhealthy meal.  It is kinda funny, I have hear from almost all volunteers that they hated McDonalds before they left the states and never ate there but now that they are in Ukraine, they can't get enough of those beautiful golden arches.  It is true, I only ate at McDonalds once very 6 months but here It is like crack and I can't get enough of it.  After McDonalds, we checked in at the world's creepiest hotel and met some of the other volunteers that will be helping with the camp.  The camp we helped with is called Camp Lead which is a business/leadership camp for kids ages 17-22  (http://www.camplead.webs.com/).  We had over 200 kids show up and I think they learned a thing or two.  Amy and I are CD volunteers (community development) and not teachers so this was a good opportunity to observe some classes and learn a thing or two about teaching kids.  There were over 20 PCVs that helped out with the camp (mainly TEFL).  I helped out however I could which meant making sure all the little things and the administrative stuff was taken care of and I also took tons of photos of all the classes and activities and made a DVD at the end for everyone.  It was a great time.  Well, I need to get going and meet up with my new NGO to discuss what I will be doing.  I hope all is well. 

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1.  Spent almost 2 weeks traveling around Ukraine with Amy!  Awesome

2.  Met up with many PCV buddies in Kiev for an unforgettable week. 

3.  Ate at TGI Friday's in Ukraine with my old cluster and LCF for an out-of-Ukraine experience. 

4.  Explored an old soviet hotel.  Very creepy

5.  Sushi with Cassie and Amy.  Fantastic

6.  Went to a Ukrainian Sauna with a large group of PCVs - very awesome experience. 

7.  Toured Cassie's NGO - it is good to see an active NGO that truly wants to help the community. 

8.  Developed a project plan with my new counterpart - It feels sooo good to finally have a plan. 

9.  The kids at Camp Lead made a cutout photo/poster of me complete with a Nikon camera.  Hilarious.  Good kids. 

10.  Found some hot sauce and normal tortilla chips!  Unfortunately the salsa tastes like ketchup with a chili pepper but still awesome. 

***Click on the Photo to see the large version***

 Cluster (minus Cassie and plus Emily)

Train from Kiev to Krivoy Rog

Statue in Kiev

Lonely Room in old Soviet hotel

Long walk with Amy into the Countryside of Krivoy Rog

Sushi at last!

Summer Travels

Howdy,

Like always, a ton has changed since my last post (I can only blog about a fraction of it).  I now have a new counterpart and am working for a different NGO.  I will still be in the same city and working in the same office but for a different NGO.  I am excited to see what happens from here.  My new NGO has a lot going on and seems to be very involved in the community though I have not seen much of the NGO so far.  My new counterpart and I will be heading to Kiev today at around 5 (1 hour bus to Donetsk then an overnight train to Kiev).  We will be attending a volunteerism training/conference that the Peace Corps has organized at the university.  It should be a very informative training and I hope my counterpart enjoys it.  At the swearing-in conference in June, I heard multiple Ukrainian counterparts comment that the trainings put on by the Peace Corps are extremely well organized and that they have never seen anything like it before.   I think this is a prime example of a difference in cultures.  Americans like to have everything organized down to the min and to the tiniest little detail where as Ukrainians are more open in their scheduling.  It is interesting to see how Ukrainians react to an American run event. 

 

 

It will be nice to be in Kiev again and I am looking forward to seeing some fellow volunteers that I have not seen since swearing-in.  I can't wait to go out with everyone again for a night-out in Kiev!  It will be nice to speak in English!  I am sure everyone will have some crazy stories to tell and it will be nice to get the cluster back together (minus Cassie due to a soccer camp : (    ).  My counterpart will be with me in Kiev until Friday night then he will head back to our city.  I will be in Kiev till Saturday night then I will be taking another overnight train to Krivoy Rogg with Amy to help with a week-long business/English camp for 200 college kids.  Should be awesome.  Amy and I decided to treat ourselves to first class train tickets to Krivoy Rogg - that will be awesome.  We will have our own train compartment complete with air conditioning!  Whoohoo!  It has been an extremely hot summer with temps in the 100's for the last couple weeks with some humidity as well.  This is out of the ordinary for Ukraine and it should be cooling down soon.  I never thought I would be looking forward to winter but damn!  I am sure that when winter rolls around I will regret that statement. 

 

 

Over the last week I have been in transition from one NGO to the other so I have had some spare time to help an NGO based out of Donetsk with a website and some translation work.  This org is very interesting and has been around for a long time with tons of projects going on at all times.  Cool stuff.  I have also been going on walks every now and then when I it is not too hot though I keep finding myself back at the bazaar day after day and every time I am there I find something I missed the first time.  Well, I need to finish packing.  Have a good week everyone. 

 

 

 

Life goes on.

Hello from "The Boarderlands",

It has not been that long since my last post but a lot has happened and I want to get back into the routine of posting every Sunday/Monday.  For starters, I have met with some other organizations in town that seem really cool and I think I can really help them.  We shall see - things progress very slowly here, especially in the summer so I probably won't know if things will work out for quite some time but it is exciting.  I may be horseback riding with one of these organizations sometime next week.  I love Peace Corps - the job can take you anywhere and you can end up doing anything.  I also met with the local library and after the initial shock that there is an American in town, they seemed pretty receptive to the idea of an English club in their library but the director is on vacation tell Aug 22 so the waiting continues.  I also helped a Donetsk NGO with an application to the EU "youth in action" program.  Very cool.  I am excited to see how that plays out.  When I got home from the library, I came across a couple of old guys playing chess under a tree near my apartment so hopefully they will let me play one of these days.  Could be fun.  The older generation is very interesting to me because they have lived through so much - famines, wars, regime changes, boarder changes, etc...  They seem to have a very different view of the world than most.  I just wish my Russian was better so that I can have more in depth discussions with them. 

Yesterday I decided to go for a long walk out into the countryside to clear my head and take some photos.  I am definitely glad that I did.  After walking for an hour and a half outside my city, I came across a beautiful lake and the quietest little village I have seen so far in Ukraine.  This was the stereotypical small Ukrainian village complete with green rolling hills, cows, sheep, goats, old thatched roof houses, small farms all over the place, and a small creek running through the middle.  It was starting to get dark and I hadn't seen a paved road for more than 45 min so I should have headed back at that point before it got too dark for me to find my way back but I was too intrigued with this quiet little place.  What would it be like to live here?  What are the people like?  Chances are that this village is extremely old considering the fact that my little village during training (Stari Belous) dated back into the stone age.   What was this village like during the "Great Patriotic War" (WWII)  ?   How many secrets lie buried mere feet below these vast fields?  While I was pondering these questions and stroking my beard, probably with a blank or slightly inquisitive expressions on my face, I noticed from the corner of my eye that an old man has been staring at me with a confused look on his face.  Probably wondering what the hell this tall bearded foreigner is doing way out here.  I could not help but giggle at the fact that here I am out in the middle of nowhere thinking about a small village while an old man inquisitively looks at me looking inquisitively at his village.  I snap out of my trance and say hello before continuing my walk.  It is not common to say hello to people you don't know here so I was not offended when the old man did not respond to my greeting and continued to look at me with a confused look on his face as I slowly walked around the next bend and out of sight.  At the top of the next hill I saw a familiar red tent next to a small lake.  These tents are small portable Ukrainian bars so I figure what better way to end my walk than with a nice frosty beer before I turn around and make the long trek back to the city and I was curious to find out why someone decided to setup a bar in the middle of nowhere.  I make my way there and am pleasantly surprised to find a sandy beach on the side of this small lake with many people hanging out and enjoying the sunset.  I purchased a beer (1715), took in the sunset for a bit, then made my way home as quickly as possible because I did not want to find myself lost at night in the middle of nowhere.  It was dark well before I made it back to my city but I managed to get back to my apartment without incident. 

Today (Sunday) I decided that I have eaten enough eggs for one lifetime and that I would attempt to cook something that I can nibble on for the next couple days.  Amy pointed me to a recipe in the "babushka's cookbook" (PC issued cookbook) for stew.  This is about as simple a meal as possible and I have attempted it in the past so I thought I would give it a try.  I also Googled simple stew recipes only to find all the "simple" recipes require premade packets of Lipton this or premade that.  American's have it easy.  I headed out early this morning to the local store for the ingredients but unfortunately they did not have any carrots or good looking meat so I decided to head to the bazaar.  Always an interesting experience at the bazaar.

There are a few things you should know about a Ukrainian Bazaar.  First of all it is utter chaos but also a prime example of a free market economy.  Supply and demand regulate everything in this place.  I have mentioned this in previous posts but I am still amazed at how random the stuff can be at a bazaar.  You can buy clothing, veggies, livestock, electronics, motorcycles, furniture, and everything else you can think of.  Some people seem to find stuff on the side of the road and haul it to the bazaar on the small chance that they can sell this item. Today, I decided to sit back and simply observe the chaos for a while and was thoroughly entertained with all senses engaged.  The smell of too many unwashed bodies huddled together under a hot tent mixed with the smell of oversized fish heads that a babushka has on display on gruesome looking hooks mixed with the smell of fresh picked veggies mixed with the smell of women's cosmetics etc etc... The air is so thick with aromas that you can almost taste it.  Then you have the overwhelming heat (it has been in the 100's) radiating off of everything and compounded by the humid air that hits you like you just opened the oven and leaned too close.   Visually the bazaar is overwhelming due to the bazaar consisting of countless narrow rows of people trying to sell everything under to sun all the while the rows are packed with 3 times as many people as should properly fit in these tight rows of chaos.  The constant movement of people and things in addition to the huge plethora of different colors forces your eyes to dart back and forth constantly.  The audio stimuli can be hypnotic  - everyone in the bazaar yelling at the same time in a mix of Russian and Ukrainian about prices, gossip, goods for sale, the tall bearded foreigner, bargaining, etc...  The sense of touch at the bazaar is probably what will stick in my mind forever.  All the heat and humidity makes your clothing stick to your body while you try and make your way though endless crowds of pushy sweating people - you seem to slide through a sweat lubricated mess of chaos like a mosh pit from hell to the tune of angry babushkas all the while checking your pockets constantly to make sure you have not been pick pocketed.  A friend of mine had her purse slashed open and wallet stolen at a bazaar by a couple adolescent girls. 

Anywho,  I kinda went off on another tangent.  After I bought carrots and fresh meat (1 kilo of beef that was alive mere hours before I purchased it) I made it back across the street to my apartment and proceeded to cook.  I love good food but the once in a blue moon where I actually attempt to cook always reminds my why I never cook.  It took me hours to cut up and prepare all the meat, veggies, etc... and that does not include cleanup.  It was worth it though - the stew was awesome and I ate until I could not eat any more then took a much needed nap before going on another walk. 

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1.  Exploring the countryside.  Great for clearing one's head and putting things into perspective.

2.  Making more and more contacts in my community.  Very cool.

3.  Cooking.  Fun but exhausting.  I am no cook. 

4.  Helping an NGO based out of Donetsk with some meaningful projects.  It is nice to have something meaningful to work on and  I might be facilitating a lesson or two for this NGO on entrepreneurship in the near future. 

5.  Sitting in front of a fan whenever I am in my apartment.  Temp in the 100's and no air conditioning.  How do Ukrainian's not drink water constantly?  I find myself constantly dehydrated. 

6.  Studyin Russian as much as I can but not nearly as much as I should.  It is exhausting trying to speak it all day so I have little patience for it at night. 

7.  Returned PCVs from Ukraine contacting me because they came across my blog.  Very cool. 

***Click to view large version***

Just shootin

My Walk

My Walk 2

Quiet little village

Stew

PC Ukraine Stew Recipe (click to view large image)

Campin in Lugansk

Hello all,

First of all, my sister had a new, beautiful, and healthy baby!  Awesome!  I can't wait to meet her.  My entire family went up to meet her.  I gotta admit, this makes me a bit homesick.  I wish I could be there.  This is life.  Lots of sacrifices.  I have lots of photos though and will video skype ASAP (no WIFI in my city so we shall see). 

It has been a while since my last post.  I spent last week in Lugansk at a summer camp for troubled kids.  It was nice to get away for the week and be out in the countryside in a tent.  Whoohoo!  It was very nice.  Of course there were some unexpected events at this camp but that is to be expected here.  Seems like everything that happens here ends up happening differently than initially planed.  The plan was for my PCV friend's organization to rent space at a camp for our kids (60 kids from nearby towns and villages).  When the organization rented part of the camp they were under the impression that they could do whatever they wanted with their kids because they rented the time.  Turns out, the camp "forgot" to mention that the camp requires all kids to attend bible study sessions.  Since the Peace Corps is a non-religious org, my fellow PCVs and I could not participate in any religious activities.  The kids and their parents did not seem to be surprised at all and seemed to be ok with the situation and expected something like this to occure.  They were just happy to be together at a camp because most of the kids have not had an opportunity to go to a camp.  My fellow PCVs and I taught English, healthy lifestyles, and organized some fun activities for the kids.  Everything turned out ok and I think everyone had a good time. 

After the camp, we spent the weekend in Lugansk.  Lugansk is a decent sized city with plenty to do.  We explored the city, watched a movie at the movie theatre, and had some excellent meals with some fellow volunteers.  Some of the other volunteers were quite handy in the kitchen and managed to make some damn good salsa.  I was in heaven.  Salsa is definitely one of my comfort foods for sure.  She told me how to make it and I think I will have to give it a try.  We shall see, I have messed up some pretty simple meals soooooo I am not too optimistic.  I am having a difficult time with the organization that I "work" with so I don't know if I can handle the disappointment of messing up salsa.  lol  Might be the straw that broke the camel's back.  Anywho, while in Lugansk we went to a the home of one of the translators out in a small village.  We had a picnic, saw the famous sunflower fields, and swam in the river.  Another awesome time. 

Now I am back in my city and trying to meet new organizations.  I met an organization yesterday that is very interesting.  I am going back today to observe a karate class (Kazak style) and may or may not be horseback riding on Friday.  I also went to the city library to talk about setting up an English club but the director is on vacation tell the 22nd.  Not much happens in the summer here.  The Peace Corps warned me that everything slows down in the summer and that I might not get much done in the summer but I never thought too much about it.  Turns out they were spot on.  lol  I just wish I had something productive to do.  Things are not going well with the organization that I work with.  Now that I am back from camp I will try to continue updating the blog every Sunday/Monday.  Peace!


Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:
1.  New baby in the family!   Awesome!!!!
2.  Summercamp with Amy in Lugansk.  Very cool
3.  Had a few American style homecooked meals with some of my fellow PCVs in Lugansk.
4.  More crazy train experiences.
5.  Numerous get-togethers with fellow volunteers.  Always nice to have an English-speaking night.
6.  Booked my tickets of Kiev (Aug 17) then to Keevoy Rog (Aug 21).
7.  Ate at a "Texas" grill in Lugansk.  There was nothing "Texas" about it but it was good.

Here are some of the photos from the last couple weeks.  As always, click the photo to see the full version. 

Campin

Campin

Camp Gates

Photo of a Future Photo

Interesting Guy that Chatted with us on the Street

Drinkin Coffee at the Mall in Lugansk

Cooking and Cribbage at Caroline's Place in Lugansk

Field of Sunflowers on the way to our Picnic

Sunflower

Picnic

Fresh Picked Veggies for the Picnic