Week 14 – New Home, New Life

I’ve now been in my permanent site in Chervona Sloboda for more than two weeks – it’s a little hard to believe!

Chervona Sloboda

First a little about my new community:

Chervona Sloboda is basically a suburb of Cherkasy, the oblast capital (oblasts are what Ukraine has instead of states, if you were wondering), meaning we’re only about 15 minutes away from the city. There are around 10,000 residents and two schools; two libraries; a fairly decent hospital; a “club” where cultural events take place; a decent soccer field; and lots of dachas (the Ukrainian version of a villa) along the wide, beautiful Dnieper River. It also has more fruit trees than I think I’ve ever seen in my life – it seems that every other tree is covered in mulberries, cherries, apricots, apples, and walnuts (not a fruit, but still). It’s incredible! There are also tons of strawberries. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten as much fresh, homegrown fruit in my life.

black currants

white mulberries

summer cherries

black mulberries

apricots

black cherries

apples

It’s also beautiful – everyone here says it’s a village lifestyle, despite the proximity to the city, because of the abundant vegetable gardens that people spend all summer working. The views of the river are breathtaking, the sunsets are divine. There aren’t really any points of interest in town other than a couple playgrounds, but you can find anything you need next door in Cherkasy.

nothing but sky and river on the Dnieper

sunset in my backyard.

the entire space between my street and the one next to it is taken up by gardens.

lawn service.

vegetable gardens and field as far as the eye can see.

ducklings!

view of the Dnieper from a monument in Cherkasy

Summer School

I am working at School No. 2 here in Chervona Sloboda. It’s about a 15 – 20 minute walk from my new house, which is nice in the afternoons, especially since the entire walk is lined with fruit trees and wildflowers (though I’m sure I won’t love walking it quite so much in the winter). Up to this point, my weekdays have been spent at summer camp there. First through fourth grades have summer camp for three weeks in June, and it’s actually a pretty cool camp – so far we’ve been to the Fire Academy (where apparently all the men in my host family have studied); we went to see a play; we went to the zoo; and we had a picnic. Today was our last day, so we made a little video of the kids talking about what they learned.

With the other English teachers – we accidentally matched!

Posing in front of some posters of Ukraine’s war heroes

I showed up in the newspaper!

Last day of camp!

my school.

I work with three other English teachers: my counterpart Inna, Irina, and Liudmila. They’re all really great and seem to be enthusiastic, energetic, and open to working with me. So far everything has been going smoothly – everyone was pretty relaxed about the camp, which was a nice way to start things off. They also have so far liked my ideas for our summer plans (including an American barbecue for July 4th), so I’ve felt really accepted and supported thus far.

One Big, Happy Family

Of course, the other big part of this new life is my host family. Vitalina, my host mom, does something involving international trade and imports and exports. She actually has to use a lot of English at her job since she works with people from all over the world, but it’s mostly written English, so she’s eager to practice speaking with me. Seryozha used to work in the police force, or as a fireman, or both (not quite sure), but now works in the same company as Vitalina. Vitalina’s parents are both doctors and they live in Libya, where they still work. They are apparently incredibly talented, multilingual doctors, so I’m looking forward to meeting them in person when they come to visit. Seryozha’s parents are retired and live just on the other side of the vegetable garden, where we just celebrated his mother’s 70th birthday with a big family dinner. I haven’t yet figured out what Seryozha’s brother Vitaliy and his wife Liudmila do yet (aside from grow tons of strawberries and make fantastic shashlik), but they’re incredibly nice people and I’m glad they live so close by.

Family portrait, sans Sofia

with Sofia, Vitaliy and Liudmila

Vitalina and Katia – in one my favorite pictures yet!

Sofia, Katia and Vitalina

All the ladies – Vitalina, Liudmila, Sofia, Katia, Vitalina

Sofia, my older host sister, is a talented violinist – she was supposed to have a performance last Saturday in Cherkasy, but it rained all day and they canceled. She will start 8th grade in September and takes both English and German at school. She’s really sweet and really responsible, as long as mom and dad aren’t watching (typical teenager!). Katia will start her first year at school in September, and she also just started ballet. She’s exactly what you expect from the youngest sister – super cute, super giggly, and always expecting to get her way. Sofia and Katia’s 11-year-old cousin, also named Vitalina, frequently comes over to the house (since she lives basically next door). She is a natural at foreign language, and she also has a great singing voice. I’m trying to get her to perform something in English at a music festival coming up in July, but we’ll see. All three of the girls are great kids, and I can definitely say I’m never lonely here!

Overall (despite getting fairly sick last weekend), my first 15 days here have been fantastic. I’m curious to see what the rest of my (considerably less busy) first summer will bring!

Week 12 – Taking the Plunge

Well, we did it! Yesterday we took an oath to faithfully serve and represent the United States and to become real, live Peace Corps Volunteers.

New Partners

We left Oster early Sunday morning, and that same afternoon we met our new counterparts for the first time. Up until that point, all we knew about our lives for the next two years was where we would live, whether we would live in a house or an apartment, our counterparts’ names, the name of the organization or school where we would work, and who would be in our host families. So we were all dying to learn more, and on Sunday afternoon when we all went to lunch, there they were – all of our counterparts.

Mindy (PCV) and I with our new counterparts in Kyiv at the Sofiiska Cathedral

Mindy, counterparts and I at Maidan Nazelezhnosti in Kyiv

With my counterpart, Inna, and my regional manager, Natalya after swearing in!

It was like a matching game where all the pieces keep moving around: I knew I was looking for someone named Inna, but there were several people named Inna and they all kept moving! Finally, our LCF, Ira, happened to meet someone from Chervona Sloboda and knew that she must be looking for me. Inna Horobets, my new counterpart, is everything I could have hoped for! She is young, energetic, friendly, single (I know this sounds like an odd thing to hope for, but Ukrainian moms, like many American moms, are very involved and busy, so if she had a family, it would be harder for her to find time to work with me), helpful, and fun.

During our conference in Kyiv, we talked a lot about Peace Corps policies and expectations, but we also got to talk to our counterparts and figure out what we’ll be doing together, especially over the next few months. School is out for the summer, except for camps for the younger students and exams for the older students, so I think all the TEFL volunteers were very curious about what we would be doing.

Ми Волонтери Корпусу Миру

Then, yesterday, the US Ambassador to Ukraine came and swore us all in! A small group, including Jameson and April (and me) from my cluster, and Mindy and another Erin from other clusters, sang the American and Ukrainian national anthems. I was also asked to prepare a speech with two other Peace Corps volunteers, Dray and Robert, for after we were sworn in. It was a really special day and I received way more attention than I wanted. As soon as the ceremony ended, a reporter pounced on me and asked for an interview. I thought it might seem rude to refuse so of course I said yes. I think it was the worst Ukrainian I’ve ever spoken! She asked me so many times to explain why I had come to Ukraine….How do you say in Ukrainian, “I feel like the best use of my time on Earth is to serve others and make a difference any way I can”?

With April and Ira, our LCF

With PC Ukraine Country Director, Denny Robertson

with Mindy and April!

With PC Ukraine training manager Iryna Krupska

Our speech team – Robert, Dray, Volodya (the perfectionist), Ira (my LCF), and Liuda, my TCF

With my Zoua

On the bright side, I thought our speeches went really well! Everyone laughed at Dray’s jokes, which made it much easier to follow him, since I was laughing and less nervous as well. Afterwards, we had refreshments to celebrate and say goodbye to each other, and then we all took cars or vans to the train station to move to our new homes. It was sad, but it was also exciting, and I am so grateful our counterparts were there to help us look forward to our new lives and spend less time thinking about how much we would miss our friends.

Welcome to the Family

Our trip to Chervona Sloboda took about 3.5 hours on a marshrutka (small bus). The route runs south-southwest from Kyiv past Zolotonosha, where two new volunteers, Casey and Cara, are now living, and then across the Dnieper River, and south through Cherkassy, the oblast capital.

The huge Dnieper River on the way into Cherkassy

Once we got to Chervona Sloboda, we went straight to my new home, where my new family was anxiously waiting for me. First I met my host dad, Seryozha; then Sofia, my 13-year-old host sister; then Vitalina, my 10 or 11-year-old host-cousin; then Katya, my 6-year-old host sister; and finally my host mom, also named Vitalina. Also awaiting my arrival were a giant feast, a huge field full of strawberries (some already ripe), and homemade wine. Later, Seryozha’s brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came over (they live just on the other side of the strawberry field behind the house, as do Seryozha’s parents) to eat, drink, and toast to the new addition to the family – me.

Seryozha, Vitalina, Katya, Vitalina, and Sofia

Vitalina (mom) said this means something like “In case of emergency, break glass and eat bread.”

Gifts from Katya

The lovely yard

The lovely cherries

A little later, after a bit of homemade wine, Seryozha broke out his guitar and sang a few classic Ukrainian songs – Sofia, little Vitalina and Ihor (the nephew) all sang along, and I found myself thinking that this couldn’t be real – it was an incredible welcome, and to have ended up in such a musical family makes me feel so lucky.

Back to School

And today, I had my first day at my new school. Regular school is already over, but the older students have exams, and there is a summer camp now for 3rd graders. I’m not sure why only one grade gets summer camp – maybe I’ll find that out later this week.

The school also gave me a really lovely welcome – all the third graders, and some of the older kids, were waiting outside the school for me with a banner saying “Welcome to our school!” I got to meet the students and talk with them a little, and I helped out in their classes and activities today.

It was not destined to be a normal day, however – my first day in Chervona Sloboda also happened to be International Children’s Day, so the local kids put on a concert with lots of singing and dancing. It took place next door to the school, which is the local “club,” or creativity center, where kids learn to sing and dance. I really admired the way the center did the concert – it’s so hard for young children to sit still for an hour, so the director of the center asked the kids riddles and had them play little games between performances. They really seemed to enjoy it, and I found myself wishing I spoke better Ukrainian so I could do the riddles, too.

I was also impressed with my school – in their classes, they try to insist upon every student only speaking the language they study in that classroom. They also only give instructions in the language they teach. Tomorrow we have a field trip to the local fire station, and the following day we’ll go to see a puppet show (both in Cherkassy, just 15 minutes away).

It’s only my first week, but I can’t wait to see what other surprises my time here in Chervona Sloboda will bring!