Summer Storms

Now, when I was told that I will be packing my bags for Ukraine, NO ONE informed me about the summer weather.  This summer has been a very interesting one in terms of what I am doing and of course, the weather....

I do know that the climate in Ukraine varies based on location.  I am not sure if it is just the west, but there are some CRAZY thunder storms.   I sit in my room watching lightning flash and thunder roar.  I absolutely love it!  

It only gets a little annoying when I decide to take a walk either to the supermarket or just an "excursion".  One second it will be hot and sunny and the next the sky decides it wants to change: dark clouds, roaring thunder, and flashing lights.  On the positive side, when I have been out and about when this happens, it enters the "Great memories of site"...

I still don't own an umbrella, and I do not know how much longer I can last without having one with me at all times, but I will let you know when I cave in and buy one.

In the meantime, I am loving this weather in the summer--something new!

That is all for now.
Until Next Time,
stay dry! ;-)

What keeps me going

So summer time at site is not boring... Just EXTREMELY lonely.

There are so many things that I want to do--and I do them, but after awhile doing everything by myself gets pretty flippin' lonely.

One thing I did today to kill some time was hang all my letters from my mom on my wall--right next to my dream catcher (Pictured to the right).... but that only took 30 min tops.

At times it is hard to understand why I am here, especially when there is so much going on back home.  It is hard to hear about family members being sick and not being able to be there by their side, it is hard to see someone I like so much move on, it is hard not to be there to root on the siblings in all their events like they did for me all those years, and it is exciting to see people get married-- it is only a bummer I can't be there to help celebrate.
But the good family and friends all remind me that I am here for a reason, and the love and support I get from them makes me keep my head up and keep moving.-- so I thank you.

It doesn't help that there are NO kids around.  But I can only imagine how my life will do a 180 degree turn once the kids move into the dorms. ** Dance parties, games, hanging out, soccer, tutoring, making jewelry, EVERYTHING!

So for the next month or so, I am hanging in there and trying to keep positive enjoying the moment and looking forward to the next

Until next time,

I am enjoying the peace.

Rusty...

Many of you may already know about my dog, Rusty.  He is an old pup and has definitely gotten around...

I felt like I would write a short sweet update about his adventure so far in Ukraine. He has gotten to see every place I have seen, and is loving it!! He definitely misses the kids from the internat back at camp in Haivoron.  

You see, when I stayed an extra night with the other camp, all the kids gave Rusty special attention that he hasn't had in awhile, and I am pretty sure they all fell in love with him, I mean, how can they not??  He is so easy going and lovable.  

He is getting really old and doesn't like pictures taken of him because of his "bad" eye, but he agreed to take one just for this blog post as long as I covered up his eye.  

Anyways, he says hello to everyone back home (especially his bestie, Baby).  Rusty and I are staying occupied by coloring, reading, and stumbleupon.

Rusty on top of Ukrainian Embroidery work with a homemade "I love you" heart covering his eye.

From Boredom to Pochaiv

The day began with my having NOTHING to do (like usual).  It is difficult arriving to site in the summer. But I am taking advantage of all this time to myself.  Anyways, today I woke up early and lounged around for a bit.  Then a knock on my door turned out to be my Counter Part.  There was not much to say, but she was just checking on me.  (One thing I learned is to always be dressed, or at least have a dress near by to slip on because my door gets knocked on frequently, and now that it is known that I am back, I should be prepared)

   

My CP informed me about a group of Americans in town doing a VBS in the center.  One of my students, Nadia is coming by tomorrow morning to take me with her to VBS to meet them.  It should be interesting, and I am kind of excited!  So after all that information was passed along, I didn't think I was going to do anything for the day.  I was planning on going to the park and just people watch, but about an hour later, the Director of my school told me to come downstairs.   So I did, and voila!  A group of Americans! and.... they were a DIFFERENT group of Americans than the ones I am planning on meeting tomorrow.

They came to the school to bring chairs for the classrooms.  They are from near Seattle, Washington but all of them speak either Russian or Ukrainian fluently because they are either from  here originally or their parents are from here.  After talking with them for a bit, they invited me to go to Pochaiv Lavra Monastery.

Ok, I am making this short and sweet.  After being told that my dress was too short I had to put a black skirt wrap on.  Ana and Liz (pictured to the right) also had to put on the blue scarf thing and cover their shoulders).  Once we got that all taken care of--in we went!  Pochaiv was unbelievable- the art work and structure of everything was absolutely phenomenal! But in terms of how people were worshiping in there was a shock for the girls.

Because this is a culturally sensitive issue, if you would like to know more about what I saw and how worship goes on in the monastery, let me know, I would be happy to inform you in an e-mail.  

But overall, it was a fun excursion!   Here are a couple pictures of the monastery.  I made a cool connection with Vitalliy, the pastor of a church in Ternopil (the one the Americans were with), and told him to give me a call if and whenever he needs help with anything.  So hopefully he will take up my offer and I will be able to do some partner work with him!

Besides that, all is well and sweaty!

Until next time...

Re-emphasizing the magic moments of camp

Because so much happened at camp, the best way for me to explain it is to give you a top 25 things that happened.  So here it goes!

1. I got lost, and by the grace of God, wonderful and kind people were so kind to help me out
2. Discotheque EVERY night
3. Ivanna Kupala day- I made a flower head dress for my "lover" to fetch out of the water
4. At the lake where the celebration took place, I saw a real floating lantern (as stated in the previous blog)  But I didn't mention how I took a paddle boat out for 15 minutes with Becca for only 5 uah. (less than a dollar!)
5. Burnt my feet on hot sand playing soccer and now have a giant blood blister on my big toe
6. I did my rendition of Glee's rain dance to the Rhianna and Eminem song.  In my crazy wacky outfit, I started dancing in the rain and stomping around.  Didn't get it on video, but according to others it looked really cool.  I felt free, and it was one of the funnest things I have done... EVER it took puddle jumping to an entire different art.  I even got the camper Sasha who is a dancer to join me!
7. Julia and I with the help of all the other volunteers pulled off a successful haunted house regardless of a lack of funding!  
8. for this haunted house, I crocheted a giant spider web with very cheap gray yarn and a crochet needle I made out of a stick -- very magical if you ask me!
9. for the 2 weeks I was there, I slept on a bed made of pillows--It was like I was like an easy going princess-  I didn't have just one pea under my pillow- I had mold, spiders, mosquitoes, and feathers!
10. I did my "specialty stunt" at the lake during the night.... if you don't know, don't ask...
11. I came home with some very beautiful beaded jewelry made by the kids
12. 4th of July was spent at a discotheque in town-- and did not feel like 4th of July at all, but it was still fun
13. The last night there was a huge bon fire with REAL JiffyPuff Marshmallows!! with the lack of graham crackers, I made s'mores out of some type of cookie and put a little bit of chocolate on it.  I had to make sure that my 2 new good friends Vanya and Andriy tried it, so I had to go search for them at the discotheque, told them to follow me, and then made them the best s'more I could possibly make.  (They loved it!  even though Andriy only got a marshmallow : / )
14. One night there was a horrible heavy metal band that played, and it was sooo awful.  To make it fun, some of the guy volunteers told me to get on stage and jump off and that they would catch me... and so I did!  WHOO HOO  Rock on!
15. I did a lot of head banging with Team Samurai-  talk about neck cramp... 
16. I learned how to do the Thriller dance
17. The campers thought I was an awesome dancer.... HAHA I played the role, and I think I even fooled myself!  
18. Becca and I on the last day of camp when everyone was gone walked to the market and bought a big juicy and delicious watermelon on the side of the road!!  дуже смачно! 
19. The little girls are phenomenal braiders and my little friend Yulia braided my hair all the time in a whole bunch of funky ways! 
20. Did I mention that there was a discotheque EVERY NIGHT!!?!   I never got sick of it!  (minus the same songs they played over and over again....)
21. The campers were so gifted!  Everyone was SUPER good at least one thing whether it be dancing, sports, beading, drawing, musically talented, arm strength or finding GIANT mushrooms...  I have felt that about all the kids in Ukraine.  It is awesome!
22. I got to spend 2 weeks with some awesome people..  Especially 4 volunteer girls that I became even closer with and I am soooo glad that we got to bond!
23. I met my peer advisor* and finally got advice!!     *A peer advisor is someone Peace Corps sets you up with before you leave for Ukraine and they are there to answer any of your questions before you leave and during training... but you all know I am not one with many questions, so I never really talked to her. But we joked about it and she is FREAKIN AWESOME!   I now know to ask her advice if needed.... (each person's experience is different, so you never know!)
24. Late at night a couple of us would sneak to the hot showers, but every now and then when it was locked, we took cold showers, but enjoyed it with singing some good songs!
25. I made some awesome new friends and I am so stoked to go back next year knowing what I am getting myself into...  (this isn't really a magical moment, but overall it is magical)

The Magical and Mystical 3 weeks of summer

I have just returned from Summer camp in the town of Haivoron in the Kirovogradska Oblast.  When I was thinking about what I wanted to write about camp, the things that popped to my mind were like magical moments living a fairy tale.

As many know, Ukraine is FILLED with holidays.  I am pretty sure there is a holiday at least once a week.  It is a great excuse to celebrate.   At camp, I got to celebrate the US Independence day, Ivan Kupala Day, "Halloween", and each day of camp there was a competition/theme which lead me to believe everyday was a holiday at camp.

Lena, Me, and Christine

 Now, Ivanna Kupala Day gets its own little section here.  The volunteers were given a "break" that night to got to the lake and enjoy the festivities that go on.  It includes jumping over fire, throwing flower head dresses into the water, and lots of drinks, music, and celebrating.  I got to create my own flower head dress which was a total blast, and as the sun set and the sky got darker, I witnessed a real floating lantern.  Now I think the reason why this was so cool is because the movie Tangled is by far on my top charts and I watch it almost every other day as I eat dinner.  This night of celebration reminded me so much of the movie that I felt like I was in a fairy tale, and it was AWESOME!  My little cousin Jazzy would have absolutely LOVED this holiday!  I will bring  it back to the states when I go home so she can celebrate it too and have just as much fun as I did.  


Back at camp, the teams had a chalk drawing competition of the holiday.I think one of my favorite things about Ukraine is the creativity and artistic talent that EVERYONE has!

I think I should back up a little bit to the experience of traveling to camp.  I think it is important for everyone to go through what I went through because it just makes you a stronger person… HAHA

I bought a train ticket to Vinnytsia and was told that I could easily catch a marshutka or electrichka to Haivoron from there.  So I believed what I was told, and went for it.  Once I reached Vinnytsia, it was pouring rain, and I had no idea where to go.  After asking information about going to haivoron on an electrichka, the lady informed me that they only went there on Saturday and Monday.  It was a Wednesday…  So I asked a babushka how to get to the avtovokzal (bus station),to make an attempt to get on a bus.  After given directions, and following them correctly, I made it.  Unfortunately there was no bus to Haivoron, so I decided to get to the nearest big city, Uman.  After calling Becca about my dilemma, the volunteers at camp hooked me up with Kris, a PCV in Uman and she said I could stay at her place for the night.  Well, yay me! --  I missed my stop in Uman because I fell asleep!!!! So as it gets darker, we drove for another 2 hours until the next stop.  The bus driver probably was annoyed with me as I kept asking him what I should do but after my sad face and smiles, he could only feel sorry for me, so he made sure that I got on a bus going back to Uman by having the lady who worked the night shift at this bus stop make sure I get on the bus going back without having to pay!  After standing in the middle of who knows where for 2 hours from 10- midnight, I got on a bus back to Uman where Kris then met me at the bus station.  The next morning, I rushed to the bus station to hop on the bus that either left at 8:20  or 8:45… good thing I rushed because it was the 8:20 bus, and I had to run and flag it down to stop.  Ohhh joyous traveling in Ukraine. 

Samurai Samurai WHOOT WHOOT WHOOT!

So once I finally got to camp, all went smoothly.  I ended up being a co-team leader for the Samurai team.   The Samurai team was full of energy and tricks up their sleeve that they kept all of us volunteers on our toes, but there is no other team I would have wanted to be a team leader for.   I was originally going to teach multi-culturism, but one thing I have learned to be is flexible, and it sure pays off to be flexible here in Ukraine.  And I will most definitely want to be a team leader again next year.

dance like your look alike competition

I had so much fun at the discotheque every night, making beads in the day, playing soccer, swimming
in the lake, helping team Samurai prepare for their

competitions, playing volleyball, and just hanging out… ALL DAY LONG!

One of the many football matches.  Andriy from Internat

Camp Big Bang has definitely been the most fun I have had since I being here, and it was sad to leave.  There were 2 camps going on at the site.  One was Big Bang and the other one was from a school.  They were going to be there for 6 weeks, as Big Bang was only 3 weeks.  The kids at the other camp were so amazing.  I felt like I bonded

with some of them more than some other the BB campers.  Due to train scheduling, I was leaving 2 days after camp ended, so I asked if I could stay with the internat group for the remainder of my time.  And I am

SOOO GLAD I did.  Those last 2 days were fun in a different way.  I think because these kids all live together throughout the year, they are more like brothers and sisters, and I felt like I was part of a big family camping trip.  Saying goodbye to them actually made me tear up for a bit…  But Anna, the leader told me that she would call me to help out on their next trip.  They are only 15 hours away from my site…. No big deal in terms of Ukrainian time….

I don’t really know what else to say to keep this short and sweet, but really.   Big Bang rocks and I am so glad I decided to hop on that train and go for it (even after all the travel difficulties) because I made some awesome lifelong relationships there and learned some really cool neat tricks/ talents!