A Very Cold Winter!

We've made it through our last winter in Ukraine, but it wasn't easy! These pictures are from Heather's village during the snowiest part of the winter.


Most shopping in the village (and sometimes in the city too) is done at the bazaar.

The bazaar is only two or three days a week so you need to plan your meals.

Ukrainians eat a lot of canned goods during the winter. Prices of fruits and vegetables drop dramatically in the summer and most people take advantage of this by canning summer foods to eat all year round.

Dried goods are another option.


It is still surprising to me the number of people in Ukraine that get around like this.

The ice froze straight to the branches this day. It was very beautiful, but it didn't last long. Heather took advantage of the moment and snapped this picture.

This is in front of heather's apartment. This is the area where the chickens are usually running around. That is a well in the center, but unfortunately it is pretty polluted.

Heather's apartment building.

It snowed a whole bunch!

Heather's apartment is heated by a wood fire stove. It was an extremely cold winter, even by Ukrainian standards. That meant we got to split lots of logs. Even with the fire it could still get pretty cold. Especially at night because after you go to sleep the fire goes out pretty quick. It's not practical to get up every half hour to throw another log on. The best solution at night is lots and lots of blankets.

We needed lots of kindling for starting fires too. This was not exactly what I imagined when I first thought of doing Peace Corps, but they did tell me to be ready for anything.



Thanks to Heather for the use of these pictures.

The Theater

Last month I spent a very non Peace Corps evening with my counterpart at the theater. I didn't even know that we had a theater, but apparently there are two. One that does its productions in Russian, the other in Ukrainian.

Here we are before the play.

It was a very nice theater!


Our seats were in the front row and they were only 10 grivs each (about $1.25)


There was an aquarium near the refreshments.

And a birdcage.


And turtles.

And a chinchilla. It was like a small zoo in there!






On the other side they had a hand made doll collection.

And this tapestry. Unfortunately this is where my camera ran out of battery, but other than a few more dolls I got the most important stuff. It was a lot of fun stepping out of my Peace Corps shoes for an evening.

Language Refresher

At the end of January Heather and I went to Western Ukraine for a language refresher. We stayed at a sanitarium with many other Peace Corps volunteers and had language classes with Peace Corps teachers. Unfortunately, there's not much sun this time of year but the area was very beautiful. We went for a little hike and took some pictures.


I haven't seen so many pine trees since I came to Ukraine. The sanitarium was in the middle of a forest which gave it a really nice atmosphere.

Temperatures around this time were -20 degrees Celsius and there was plenty of snow.






There is a lake nearby, but it was completely frozen over.


Heather really wanted to stand on the frozen lake. I was scared.




We made a new friend just outside the building where we were staying. We had fun, but I was happy to leave the north and get back to my warm apartment.

Christmas!

Christmas is on January 7th in Ukraine, but we still like to celebrate Christmas on December 25th. For Christmas we had some of our friends over. Even though most people still had classes they were able to get a day off to come down.


Here Heather and Martin are preparing some Christmas food in my very small kitchen (by American standards). Notice the hot sauce on the table. Thanks to all of my family for contributing some of those American foods that we miss so much. It's a real treat to have those things on holidays or just to bring a little excitement to a dreary day.



Here Martin sports his home made batman christmas hat and his frosty tie. I makes me think back to packing for Ukraine. Martin had a very different idea from the rest of us as to what he should bring.

Here is our Chuck eyeing our Christmas feast. Everyone worked real hard to make something special and we had a fantastic meal. The only rule we had for people coming was that they had to bring a dish as well as their own fork and plate. I don't think any volunteer in Ukraine has enough dishes by themself to host a party, but we all chip in to make a great party. It's idiosyncracies like this that make life in Ukraine interesting. We don't mind, it's just a little different from the way we usually do things back home.

This is our Christmas tree! We bought it downtown and had quite a time getting it home on the marshrutka (small bus), but nothing was going to deter our Christmas spirit. We didn't have any ornaments, so we decorated it with things from around the house. We also made popcorn and strung it. It may not be the prettiest tree I've ever had and it didn't have the most expensive ornaments, but we worked hard for it and it really made our Christmas special. We were so grateful to have it. This picture is credited to Heather.

My landlady has many of her things in the apartment and one of those things are these antlers. It has become a tradition that we always put the punch in antlers, like so. Why not?

Heather and I wish you Happy Holidays!