Conor's Corner: May 2011

Hello All,

Once again, I have gone too long without posting. My bad. Time flies – what can I say. It is 1:30 pm and it has been raining all day so it is a perfect time to update the ole blog. The Volunteer Center trainings are over and now we are concentrating on the projects that the kids will implement. Now that the Volunteer Center is winding down, I can start to concentrate on a new project or two. We have a few projects in the works but it is unclear which ones will be realized and the timeframes. I am thinking about working with an organization in Donetsk that I helped 6 months ago. They are well established and they can give me something constructive to do while things are quiet in my city. I am starting to have quite a bit of time on my hands so I have been looking for ideas, purchased a football so I can organize football games with the kids, shopping for a bicycle, and reading a lot. I have not read anything absolutely amazing lately – mainly just mediocre books by Jasper Fforde. Entertaining but easily forgettable.

A month ago, I visited the famous Wine/Champaign factory in my friends town of Artemovsk. The factory is located deep underground and has an interesting history from when Germany invaded in WW2. It is a really old factory that is one of the few factories that still use the old methods for brewing wine and Champaign. They actually hand turn all of their bottles. They have a small army of people that go through the dark tunnels turning and shaking all the bottles all day every day. Very interesting. I went with a group of volunteers and a few Ukrainian locals. We had a great time and obviously, the wine/Champaign tasting was the highlight of the trip. We got to try every wine/Champaign they brew which was great because most of them are well outside a PCV's budget. After the factory, I stayed in Artemovsk for an extra day to spend time with some fellow volunteers, see the city, and just relax. I was impressed, Artemovsk is a beautiful little city. While I was there, I found a blowup mattress so I finally have something somewhat comfortable to sleep on. I can believe I slept on a bed with the size and comfort of a park bench for as long as I did. Ridiculous. Not to mention that I never thought I would be excited to sleep on a blowup mattress. :- ) Oh Peace Corps – you do change one's perspective in the strangest ways.

On Easter, I took some of the kids from our Volunteer Center to the forest with another NGO in our city for a picnic and some games. It was a good time. We played a variety of games, had a tug-a-war, and had some good food. It was a good day and I got my first sunburn of the season. Oh sun, it has been too long. Finally color is starting to come back to Ukraine. Winter in Ukraine can be described as 1000 shades of gray. There is simply no color during the winter. The buildings are gray, people only ware dark clothing, the sun sets as early as 3:30 pm, and the sky is always overcast. Thank god winter is finally over. I look forward to lots of time outside this summer and lots of traveling. I will be going to the Netherlands with my parents in June and Turkey in August as well as many trips to different cities inside Ukraine.

I spent last weekend in Simferopol with some Ukrainian friends from my city. It was an interesting experience to say the least. We went for a medieval reenactment so naturally, my friend Igor and I had monk costumes made for us and made our way to Crimea (we stayed in a forest outside the village of Pooshkee). Now, this is definitely now my scene. I know this but I thought it would be nice to go on a short camping trip and experience something out of the ordinary and out of the ordinary is exactly what I got. lol Around 100 people showed up to the event and it turns out that it is not only a medieval themed event but also for fantasy characters. When I joined the Peace Corps, this experience would rate pretty close to the top of the list of things I didn't see coming. The camp was setup as a miniature city and everyone there was a citizen of that city with a different background, history, and profession. We had blacksmiths, librarians, hospitals, etc... It was fun but I couldn't really play along with everyone because when a "battle" would start, people would shout out different attacks and how many hit points etc... and my Russian skillz definitely don't cover this particular topic so I had no idea what was going on. lol So, my friend Igor and I were dressed up as evil monks, someone let us borrow a couple of swords so we could protect ourselves, and we did what we could. Igor was named "Jay" and I was "Silent Bob" (because of my limited Russian). We were required to stay in character at all times which was interesting. At night the "city" had a few performances such as a theatre, fire show, and story telling. Overall, it was fun. I met many new people, went on a couple small hikes, and camped in the new tent I purchased a couple weeks ago. I also brought some spices that my awesome Aunt and parents sent me and made an American style BBQ which everyone seemed to like. It was just nice to be outside for a few days. While we were there, we kept hearing really loud explosions that sounded like thunder coming from the other side of a small hill. I asked what it was and someone explained that to this day, people are still finding unexploded ordinances from both WWI and WW2! So the authorities regularly destroy newly found unexploded bombs and whatnot. Crazy. Even in my city, a friend went out to a nearby forest with a metal detector and came back with WW2 ammunition, an old soldier's helmet, and an old water canteen.

Well, I hope all is well. Take care America.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1. My Brother graduates college today! Way to go Fer-man! I will wake up tomorrow morning at 2:00 am to skype Dad's Cellphone while everyone is at the celebratory dinner. I wish I could be there but this is the second best thing.

2. Thank you everyone that sent me an email stating that they are reading my blog. Good to know my Fidelity friends are still reading. I miss you all!

3. Heading to a Donetsk Football game tomorrow with some fellow volunteers. Should be awesome.

4. My organization will be organizing a fundraiser for a local hospital and a Chernobyl flash mob this weekend. Should be fun – I will be sure to take many photos.

5. Skyped with my family yesterday – always fun though it makes me miss home.

6. Visited a fellow volunteer in Makeevka a couple weeks ago. It is always interesting to see how other volunteers are living. This particular volunteer is hooked up. He has a huge modern apartment close to the city center. Wow. I am jealous. I live in a one room apartment with running water only 6 hours a day.

7. I am looking forward to my Parents visiting in June. This is going to be awesome. I will have them each post their impressions on the blog.
8. I was in the newspaper again. The newspaper interviewed my site mate and I about how we are living in Ukraine - our impressions, what we eat, what we do, etc.... It was funny because she asked me to take a photo of myself cooking a meal so there is a large photo in the town newspaper of me cooking eggs. lol
9. I went to my Ukrainian friend's Bday. Always fun. I will have to organize my birthday party soon. In Ukraine, it is the birthday boy/girl's responsibility to throw their own party, bring all the food, and pay for everything.
10. I visited the University of Economics and Law in Donetsk and talked about the stock market. Very interesting. Very smart students.

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