Remember how I was a little nervous last week about only having 24 hours between observing a class and teaching one? Turns out I was not quite so lucky! I got a call at 9 on Sunday night and found out that the teacher was sick. That meant me and another volunteer got to teach the class instead of observing it! It went pretty well, all things considered. The students seem to like us and we got them to practice some of their conversation skills. Their English is very good which is a good thing because my Ukrainian is terrible! We have to communicate somehow. The students we are working with are future English teachers. I am really happy about that because I think that means the work we do will have a much bigger impact.

Our own language training is going well, but right now we are still learning the basics. Because of budget cuts the amount of time we get for training is being reduced. Originally I thought we would be in training for three months, instead we will have 10 weeks. The next group to come to Ukraine will only have 8 weeks! It's a little intimidating to think that we are reaching the halfway point of our training. I'm not sure about everyone else, but I really have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I can't wait to finish training because, to be honest, it really is not a lot of fun. On the other hand, I'm not confident enough in my language skills to go off on my own. Oh well, we don't depart for our sites until December 7th so there is still some time.

All the volunteers in Chernihev went on a tour of some of the famous sites of the city yesterday. I had been to most of them before, but it was nice because this time we had an English-speaking guide. The other neat thing was there were a few volunteers from group 31 that went too. They have been in Ukraine for over two years and will be finishing their service in a few weeks. Chatting with them was encouraging because they told us that we would pick up a lot of our language skills once we get to our sites and also that life will improve dramatically at that point. Having a little free time and being able to communicate sounds really nice right now. It was also great just seeing how comfortable and well-adjusted they were to life in Ukraine. It was kind of like a window to where we might be in two years.

I have to admit that it was a little bit scary too though. Right now I'm still trying to adjust to living in Ukraine. Group 31 is going back in a few weeks! It was just a reminder that two years isn't such a long time and soon we will be counting how much longer we have left in Ukraine instead of how long we have been here. I'm just pushing that thought to the side right now because there are much more immediate things for me to worry about. But I know that I'll have to deal with it at some point. That's all I've got time for right now, catch up with you next week!

Adjustment

I'm starting to get used to being in Ukraine, but I have to admit that the adjustment has been an extremely bipolar experience. Most days I'm thrilled to be here and enjoy the fact that every day is an adventure. Sometimes it can be a bit much and I really wish I could communicate better and be more independent. It is definitely more difficult than I expected it to be. I have visited many foreign countries and thought most things wouldn't be so different here. I can tell you that living in a foreign country is an entirely different experience than visiting one.

When I first came here I really did not know how to do anything at all. I like to make the analogy that managing your daily life in the states is like playing catch. It's really not that difficult and you can mostly survive on autopilot. Trying to adjust to life in Ukraine is like having 200 baseballs thrown at you simultaneously! Even the simplist things you need to learn all over again. Each task is like a ball you need to catch. Imagine if nothing was automatic and required your full attention. I am starting to get the hang of life here, but some days I still have my arms over my head while I get pelted with baseballs! It is a good thing though, if the Peace Corps were easy it wouldn't be worth doing. One of the reasons I wanted to join was so that I would be challenged in ways that I have never been before. I have not been disappointed!

On Tuesday I teach my first English class. Surprised? Me too! We observed a class at a University last week and on Monday we will observe the class that we will be teaching ourselves. We will have a chance to talk to the instructor about exactly what we will be doing. Most of us really wish we had more than 24 hours to prepare, but the Peace Corps has an expression for this: "experiential learning." Come to think of it, we have been doing quite a lot of experiential learning. Anyway, we will be teaching two days a week which will be good preparation for us before we leave for our placement sites.

In addition to our language classes, technical sessions, and the classes we will be teaching we also have to work on a project at the University. Basically, we come up with some way we can help out like holding a seminar to show teachers how to use the internet as an educational resource. We come up with the idea and discuss it with the admistrators, teachers, and students and then make it happen. We also have to write a grant so that our project will be funded. It is sort of a trial run to get us prepared to do these types of things when we get to our permanent sites.

All of this stuff has been keeping us pretty busy. Some of the volunteers like to compare training to boot camp. We have been told by other volunteers that once we finish our training things will be much easier. We will get much more time to ourselves and we will be more in charge of our own lives. Right now our entire day is scheduled for us then we go home, do a big pile of homework, and go to sleep. It is really difficult for someone like me to not be in control of what I do and how I do it, but I imagine it must be even more difficult for some of the more experienced volunteers. They have come here after a lifelong career in academics, education, or business and have to start over at square one.

Even though it sometimes feels like we are being treated like children we realize that it is because in a lot of ways we are like children. As experienced and independent minded as all of us are, the truth is we don't really know how things work here in Ukraine. We are just starting to learn and it is already clear that things work very differently here than they did in the United States. As we get our education we are "growing up" and soon we will be able to live in Ukraine as adults. We are getting this education both inside and outside of school.

A few days ago I had what we call a "cultural moment." After I did my laundry and was frantically trying to iron all my clothes the 13 year old boy that I live with asked me "Why do you have so many clothes?" It seems like a simple question, but it is not. People in Ukraine typically have only a few outfits. That is accepted and normal here. I must have looked awfully silly with that big pile of shirts trying to iron them all. I could have tried to answer his question by explaining to him that everyone in the US has this many clothes (and usually more). That maybe we have so many clothes because it is an indicator of wealth and status. Maybe we use our clothes as a way to express ourselves. Maybe we have so many just because everyone else does. I have to admit, that as I stood there next to my giant pile of wrinkled shirts none of these seemed like very good explanations. After he asked me this question all of these things went through my mind, but I just stood there blankly for a second while I considered these possibilities and simply said "I don't know." He shrugged his shoulders after getting the answer he must have expected and walked off. Some things are just not so easy to explain. What I didn't tell him was that I left most of my clothes in the states!

A few more quick notes.

In case anyone does not have my e-mail address it is davidaceo at gmail dot com. Also, if there is anything you want to know that I forgot to mention or skipped over in my last post please let me know. I will try to provide more detail in the next entry. Unfortunately, I only have enough time to throw my random thoughts down and submit the post and so each entry won't be proofread and thought out as it should be. Talk to you next weekend!

I'm still alive!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been extremely busy since the last update. First, I'll give you the latest about the blog, then the latest about me. I'm going to start updating it regularly, once a week on Sunday. I don't have time to update it more often than that and Sunday is my day off (sort of). I will also need to add a password to access the blog. Because of Peace Corps regulations I either have to submit every post to them to be approved or I need to put a password on the blog. They don't want any Ukrainians to read it and possibly be offended. If you read my blog and would like to keep reading it, please send me an e-mail so that I can send you the password. You can feel free to share the password with anyone who would like to read the blog. This will go into effect next week.

Okay, enough about that. After leaving home I spent a few days in Philadelphia with Peace Corps staff and the other volunteers coming to Ukraine. There were 72 volunteers so things were kind of crazy over there. I didn't know anybody, but neither did anyone else so we spent lots of time getting to know each other. We spent most of our time in training sessions learning about Ukraine, learning about how to be safe there, and learning about the cultural differences. From Philadelphia we flew to Frankfurt and then to Kiev. When we got to Kiev we discovered that half of our bags had not made the journey with us. It was actually pretty amazing, out of 72 of us only four people got all their bags.

Of course, the remedy to this situation was filling out paperwork - in Ukrainian. It was pretty crazy at the airport. Imagine 72 Peace Corps volunteers who have been traveling for over 24 hours in the Kiev airport trying to fill out all these different forms in Ukrainian. Oh yeah, and if you made a mistake on the form you had to start over again. Because no one actually knew exactly how we were supposed to fill out these forms we made a lot of mistakes. Once we did get the forms filled out correctly there were more forms. Of course, no one knew how to fill those out either. We never did manage to get through all the paperwork. Eventually, the Peace Corps sent a few people over to take care of the situation. After that there were no more forms, all we had to do then was get our passports stamped and leave the airport. There was just one small problem - one of the members of our group has the last name "Castro." After we got that sorted out we left the airport (after about five hours).

Next it was time to head to the Peace Corps retreat which was two or three hours away. We were all pretty exhausted by the time we got there and we just crashed. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any of Ukraine because it was pitch black by the time we left the airport. The next morning we got up early (every morning we got up early) and got going on a few more training sessions. In our spare time we got to walk around the retreat and see the countryside in Ukraine. After a few more days of training sessions we were all split up and sent to our clusters. Even though there are 72 volunteers in my group, we were all split up into clusters of about 5 and sent to different cities to do our training. This was a little bit scary and a little bit sad. After spending the last 4 or 5 days meeting 72 new people we were being split up and sent to different places. We said goodbye to the friends we had made and got ready to make some new ones.

Next, off to our new cities and to our Ukranian host families. I was sent to Chernihev with five other volunteers that I didn't know very well, my friends were assigned to different cities. When the bus arrived we got out and waited in the square for our host families to come and pick us up (we were about a half hour early). It was kind of strange waiting for people you had never met to come and pick you up so that you can live with them for the next few months. When we would see people walk by we would wonder, "is this my new family?" We all laughed about it and the best way to describe it is to say that we were like puppies hoping someone would walk by and take us home with them. My family did come and I discovered that they speak virtually zero English. I speak very little Ukrainian and so communication is still difficult. It took me half an hour to ask where I can hang my towel and an entire afternoon to make it to the bank that ended up being just down the street.

Aside from the language barrier they are very nice and make me feel welcome in their home. Their home is also very nice. When I got on the plane to come to Ukraine I thought I might be getting my water from a well. Instead, my family has hot water, a washing machine, and internet in the home. I am the only volunteer that I know of who has access to all of these things. Space is at a premium in all of Ukraine, there are usually many people living in very small spaces. I like it here and am starting to settle in.

I go to class six days a week, most of the time is spent in language training and the rest is technical training and other miscellaneous things like medical visits or meeting local officials. I am working very hard on the language training. One of the girls in my cluster has a master's in Russian and another is a linguist. It is hard to keep up, but it motivates me to study more and learn Ukrainian faster. It is important for me to spend lots of time studying anyway so that I can communicate. I'd like to be able to talk more with my host family, but even more than that I will need to communicate when I leave Chernihev in two months to go to my placement site. I will probably be there without any other volunteers or Peace Corps staff.

In the technical training sessions we learn how to teach English in the Ukrainian universities. This includes a few days a week observing and teaching at a university here in Chernihev. I start observing next week and then a few weeks after that I will begin teaching. I need to get back to studying right now, but I will tell you more next week. I really need to spend every spare minute studying so that I can communicate.

I have been getting lots of e-mails from everyone which is great, but I am too busy to respond to most of them during the week. You will probably get most of your replys on the weekend. I also have a cell phone now. If you want to call me send me an e-mail and I will give you my number. I still haven't managed to call to the US yet, but hopefully I will figure it out soon. Talk to you later!