One Year in Ukraine!!!

Hello all,

Wow, time flies! It has been over 3 weeks since my last post - I have a lot to recap. Things have been going well. I am approaching the 1 year mark and am very comfortable here in Ukraine. As I look back at my life over the past year, I can't help but be amazed at all that has happened. I remember feeling very nervous after I quit my job at Fidelity to join the PC and not knowing what the future has in store for me. I remember all the goodbyes before I left followed by a crazy 3 months that was Peace Corps training. I remember meeting all my cluster mates and they immediately became some of the closes friends I have ever had. I remember feeling amazed and overwhelmed by every new experience I had in Ukraine. I recall the first couple months at site being the only American in my city, figuring out how to work with Ukrainian organizations, learning the language, and leaning how to live in Ukraine. I remember all my travels to different cities in Ukraine and to Egypt, meeting countless new people, and experiencing so many things over the last year that my life before Peace Corps is difficult to understand. Even though it has only been a year and I still have 15 more months to go, I have definitely developed a new outlook on life and seem to view things from a different perspective than I did this time last year. For some reason I think of my sister Erin while I write this because she will no doubt give me shit for being so cheesy but it is all true. ;-) I still feel very honored and proud to have been given the opportunity to serve in the Peace Corps and to be able to live in Ukraine and experience so many new things. The last year has held numerous extreme ups and extreme downs and I still have many more ups and downs to come but I absolutely love the adventure. Ok...the cheesiest part of this post is done – now on to what I have been up to over the last 3 weeks. Lol

For starters, the Volunteer Center is going better than I ever imagined. I am amazed though I can't take much credit for it's success. My counterparts have been doing amazing work. They definitely have a different way of doing things here then in the US but the trainings have been excellent! We had the kids organize a fundraiser to raise money for an operation to restore sight to a young man in the community. The kids were amazing. We split the group up into 8 groups of 5 and sent them to different areas in the city to ask for donations. In just over 2 hours they raised 3,000 UAH which is a huge amount in Ukraine. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and were very proud of their work. When we presented the money to the young man's mom she was extremely grateful and touched by the work the kids did.

I also spent some time in Donetsk for a collaborative meeting with all the volunteers located in the Donetsk region. It was good to meet some of the new volunteers, hear about what everyone else is up to, and SPEAK ENGLISH! God I love English. Lol We had a really good meeting and after the meeting we all got together and had a really nice evening. We played games, had a few beverages, and chatted about life in Ukraine. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night but it is just so nice to speak in one's native tongue/culture. It was great! Peace Corps attracts some pretty cool people.

I was also in Kharkov for a Peace Corps security meeting (I am one of the security wardens in my region). I took an overnight train from Donetsk to Kharkov and arrived at 5 in the morning so I hung out with some of the other volunteers that arrived early and walked around the city a bit. Kharkov is very historic country with some amazing architecture. It just so happened that the training was on St Patrick's Day! Around 10 volunteers went out that night and we managed to find …. wait for it... a Mexican restaurant! Lol Don't get too excited – the only spice they seemed to know was salt. It was still good for nostalgia’s sake. Nice try Ukraine. We also managed to find the only Irish pub in the entire city. It was an epic night and we even went to a club and danced which is way out of character for me but I enjoyed it. I got to spend time with some volunteers that I had not seen for a while like my cluster mate Cassie. It was a really nice evening but then had to catch an overnight train at 3 in the morning. That was interesting to say the least.

On Sunday night (March 20^th) I went with a few Ukrainian friends to a rock concert in Donetsk. I really did not know what to expect out of a Russian rock concert but I was not going to pass up on the opportunity for an amazing experience. When my Ukrainian friends told be about the concert I thought they said,”3 day concert” so I kept asking what days we will go to the concert. I figured it would be a 3 day in a row rock fest. Lol I wondered why they kept giving me weird looks when I asked over and over again, “what 3 days is the concert?” - Turns out they meant a 3D concert. With the mass confusion finally solved, we made our way to Donetsk. The concert was huge with anywhere from 15 – 20 thousand people. There was 5 different Russian rock bands that are considered “legends of Russian rock”. Most of the bands that were there were famous even before the fall of the USSR. The highlight was a band called “АРИЯ” (areeya) – it is comparable to Nirvana. The concert was great but I didn't get back to my city tell after 2:00. Monday was a bit rough.

Well, I may have missed something but I am tired and I have to get up early tomorrow to catch a bus to Donetsk. I will try not to let my blog go so long without an update. I hope people are still reading this thing. If you are, let me know by commenting or emailing me. ConorSteffey@gmail.com I hope all is well in the US.

Conor's Noteworthy Noteables:

1. The ice is finally melting! Come on Summer!
2. Reading a book called Boarderlands: A journey through the history of Ukraine. Very interesting and helps explain why the Ukrainian national anthem includes the words, “Ukraine has not yet perished.”
3. I broke up with Amy but we are still really good friends. It is sad but it is for the best.
4. I am trying to find an organization that can help with an electric wheelchair for a 9 year old kid in my city that has Muscular Dystrophy. Anyone have any ideas? It is a desperate situation. I have contacted The Wheelchair Foundation in the US and a couple NGOs in Ukraine but no luck so far.
5. I decided to take a couple vacation days to visit my friend in Artemovsk and to tour a famous champagne factory and to see some fellow volunteers. This is going to be awesome.
6. I have been trying to start a photo club in my town though it turns out my city already has a photo club. I will check it out and I might end up starting my own club anyway. I have met quite a few people that are really into photography and would love to help me start a new club.
7. I plan on heading to Lugansk around the 10^th for Amy's B-day and to hang out with some of my friends in the area. Now that spring is officially here (finally!) I want to travel as much as possible.
8. I have been here almost a year and I am still sleeping in a bed the size and firmness of a park bench. Why have I put up with this??? I have been desperately trying to find a blowup mattress. I never thought I would be excited to sleep on a blowup mattress but I guess Peace Corps is a time for many firsts.
9. The next projects I will be working on will be to start a business center, a journalism club, and to start a project to promote the democratic process in Ukraine. We shall see.
10. I have been learning more about gender roles in Ukraine. It is very interesting to me. There was debate in one of my English clubs about whether or not women should be allowed to drive and some of the women actually said that they should not be allowed to drive and that driving cars is for men! Wow. Both the boys and girls in my English club agreed that the differences in roles is a good thing. Cultures naturally differ from one another – who am I do say one way is better than another. I couldn’t help but voice by opinion of absolute equality though.  :-)  If everyone is happy I guess that is all that matters.  

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

Concert in Donetsk 

Church in Kharkov 

Kharkov at night (I like this photo) 

The St Patties day crew in Kharkov 

Kharkov 

Mexican Food in Kharkov 

Train Station Kharkov

Random festival in Khartsizsk

Volunteer Center Fundraiser

Concert in Donetsk