Shoes, birthday parties, and working together.

Hello. 

 

This week was a pretty good week.  I am getting to know the community more and more as the weeks pass by.  I like what I see.  The older generation in the community have a very interesting perspective on how the world works where as the younger generation is very progressive.  The contrast is startling.  The older generation came from a mindset which can be summed up from a famous quote from the days of the USSR, "any initiative will be punished" (this definitely does not apply to everyone).  Contrast this to the youth in the community that are really starting to fly and embrace the freedom that an independent Ukraine has to offer.  I have seen the youth organize themselves in many different activities and clubs with little or no outside assistance.  It is inspiring to see.  When I was in high school, I don't remember ever seeing any student organized clubs that did not have some sort of assistance from the adults in the community or from the local school and I certainly never organized anything like what I have seen here.  For example,  there is a pop dance group in town that practices multiple times per week with little assistance and was organized by the youth themselves.  It is fun to see the youth take charge and I will help them however I can. 

 

 

On Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the birthday party of one of my friends that works for the local government.  It was a great time.  In Ukraine, birthday parties are organized and thrown by the birthday boy/girl instead of by friends and family (like in the US).  My counterpart, a couple coworkers, and I all pitched in and purchased a painting from one of the local artists in town for the occasion (just so happened to be my counterpart's friend so we got a discount).  We also purchased some flowers which continues to amuse me because the flower business in Ukraine is huge!  There seems to be more flower shops than any other type of store in town.  People buy flowers for everything - birthdays, funerals, weddings, first day of school, tea with friends, anniversaries, and every single holiday (there are probably twice as many holidays here than in the US).  I realize that people buy flowers for these occasions in the US but the extent to which flowers are purchased here is enormous.  I went to someone's house the night before the first day of school and I noticed that the streets were flooded with people holding flowers.  I explained to my counterpart that I can count on one hand how many times I have purchased flowers and he gave me a look of empathy.  I tried to explain that it is simply not as common where I am from but I could tell the message was not received.  lol  I could tell he felt bad for me no matter how many times I tried to explain.  Anyways, we made our way to the government building for the birthday party and I wished my friend happy birthday.  The party was held in her office and all of her coworkers came over to her office with flowers and gifts then proceeded to start giving toasts.  I thought it was interesting that the birthday boy or girl gets to call on anyone at any time to give a toast about the birthday boy/girl followed by a stiff drink.  After numerous toasts given by various people, the birthday girl looks at me and says, "give a toast" so everyone stops talking and stares at me with a lingering anticipation to hear the American speak.  I think to myself, "here we go,"  and gave my toast all the while praying that I would not get my Russian mixed up and end up insulting everyone in the room.  My toast went ok though there were many comments that I did not understand - then everyone took another drink.  I ended up giving 4 toasts for this particular birthday party and as far as I know, everyone had a great time and nobody was insulted by my broken Russian.  There was one gentleman at the party that told me he had a bad experience with Americans at his factory some 10 years ago and accused me of knowing more Russian than I let on.  He was obviously not a fan of yours truly though after many toasts and drinks, we seemed to get along just fine and he even shook my hand before he left.  I love that part of my job - when you meet someone with preconceived notions of Americans or simply negative views of Americans, and you get them to realize that not all Americans are greedy capitalist pigs or war hungry or rich etc etc... 

 

 

This weekend I traveled to Donetsk with my counterpart to do some shopping.  Since I have to walk everywhere, my shoes are already a bit worn out (even though I just bought them before I left for Ukraine...sigh).  We started at the Bazaar without any luck because of my enormous size 51 shoes (15 US).  My counterpart was determined to find me some shoes so he called his brother that lives in Donetsk for help.  We me up with his brother and went to 12 different shoe stores.  Those of you that know me, know that I can't shop.  I get exhausted after 5 min of shopping.  I tried to explain that it is ok, I don't need to find shoes right away but no dice.  My counterpart is a very nice guy and was determined to find shoes that fit so 4 hours later...we finally stop.  I don't know what it is about shopping that gets me so exhausted but damn!  I think I will have to order some shoes from the US and have them shipped. 

 

 

On the work front, I have an English club setup for about 10 kids at the local library.  This will be fun - my first lesson is this Wednesday.  I am not a teacher so I will have to do some major planning to make sure my club is both entertaining and educational.  Wish me luck.  I will definitely buy some candy for the first class to help grease the wheels while I get the whole teaching thing down.  This should help my Russian and help me meet people.  I have also been discussing a project plan with my counterpart which I will be writing a grant for this month.  It is difficult to discuss details when you don't know the language so hopefully we can find a translator for some of the more complex stuff (scope, budget, action plan, time frames, etc).  I hope to start writing tomorrow.  Again, wish me luck.  Well, I need to get some sleep.  I hope everything is going great in the good ole US of A!   Drop me a comment so that I know people still read this thing. 

 

 

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1.  Getting to know my new NGO.  Good people.  I hope we have a successful project. 

2.  Ukrainian birthday party.  Awesome

3.  Trip to Donetsk - always fun to explore big cities. 

4.  Bought my train tickets to Kiev for this Friday.  I joined the Peace Corps Tech group - we will meet in Kiev to discuss technology related needs/issues/etc...

5.  Still may or may not go on a 10 day backpacking/camping trip in Crem. 

6.  Found my first sandwich place in Ukraine!  Whoohoo.  Who would have thought I would be so excited about something like that.  lol  Donetsk!

7.  Just hand washed my jeans.  I would not recommend it. 

8.  It is starting to get cold.  I gotta admit, I am a bit nervous about my first Ukrainian winter.