It’s October, which is called Жовтень (Zhovten’) in Ukrainian – a name derived from the word for yellow in Ukrainian, because of the color of the leaves. When I first learned the names of the months in Ukrainian, I remember naively thinking that they must have picked the name for October before the world’s climate had warmed up, since trees usually don’t start turning yellow until late October.
Silly me. My experience of fall before now has been from the mid-Atlantic states and south. Here in central Ukraine, many trees had already turned yellow before October had even started. The weather here seems to understand the concept of four equal seasons better than in the mid-Atlantic – it’s warm-to-hot from June to August, but as soon as September hits, its warm-to-cool, and now that it’s October, it’s mostly chilly during the day and cold at night.
Whenever the seasons change, I get the urge to write – poems or fiction. I just feel inspired. The first crocuses peeking through the snow; the first sunny day in summer when the green on the trees seems to dominate everything; the first orange-pink leaves on the cherry trees in the fall; the first blanket of snow in winter. I used to write a lot of stories and poems a few years ago, but I think I’ve become so preoccupied with the business of life that it’s hard to channel my thoughts and emotions into creative writing.
I do, however, have quite a lot to tell since my last post.
Consolidation
First of all, the second week of September, Peace Corps had us do a consolidation drill. This basically entailed them telling us we would have to consolidate sometime that week, so we should have a bag ready; every PCV receiving a text message around 9 am on Thursday that we should move immediately to our consolidation points; and then all of us finding a bus or a train to the nearest consolidation point as quickly as possible. My consolidation point was in Kyiv, and Sam and I had already agreed that we would meet in Cherkasy and get a bus together from there. It was a pretty smooth trip and we got to our consolidation point by about 2 or 3 pm. We had a meeting with all the other PCVs who had the Kyiv consolidation point, talked about the importance of responding immediately to such a call (since ordinarily consolidation would occur when there’s some impending emergency, and we may need to be evacuated), and then we had the evening to ourselves. A group of us found an Indian restaurant and gorged ourselves on naan, curry, chutney, and rice.
З Днем Народження
Another thing that happened was – my birthday! I can’t say too much about my birthday – it was pretty quiet and I was honestly not too excited about it. Mostly I missed my family and friends back home for the week leading up to it and the day or two after. But Sam made me some fantastic pecan-topped brownies and kept me company while I tried to hold onto my youth at one of Cherkasy’s night clubs (I discovered that I don’t actually like night clubs anymore, so so much for holding onto that piece of my youth), and two of my friends in Cherkasy and my English teachers at school brought me presents. My host family got me a cake and a traditional Ukrainian picture that says (in Ukrainian) “Best Lass in the Village.” I also claimed for myself an amaryllis bulb that one of the teachers was giving away so I could hold onto a Douse winter tradition – all the Douse women have amaryllises that burst into color each winter.
Teachers’ Day
Far more exciting than my birthday was Teachers’ Day. In Ukraine, there are actually two professional holidays for teachers – one is called Education Workers’ Day, and the other is actual Teachers’ Day. Teachers’ Day is the first Sunday in October each year, and Education Workers’ Day was the Tuesday before that.
This year on Education Workers’ Day, I was invited to attend a concert in Cherkasy along with a larger number of teachers and education workers from throughout the oblast, some of whom would be honored during the ceremony, and some of whom were just attending, like me. I really wish I had had a better seat, because the concert was really fantastic. There were so many performances of traditional Ukrainian dances in traditional dress. There were waltzes and a tango. And all the performers were incredibly talented. I really enjoyed it and felt very lucky that I had been invited to attend.
For Teachers’ Day, our teachers organized a celebration at one of the only restaurants in our village, Budmo. There was tons of food and lots of drinking, lots of toasting and lots of dancing. And lots of talking and laughing. I’m a pretty introverted person most of the time, so when I’m at school surrounded by my fellow teachers, it’s easier for me to sit quietly with a book than it is to join in conversation. But dancing – that I can do. I think it was the first time many of the teachers had gotten a real glimpse of my personality, which was a nice feeling.
That weekend, I also went to a canyon west of Cherkasy called Buky, which was an wonderful way to connect with nature and take a breather from the endless civilization around my village and Cherkasy.
Meeting the Neighbors
Aside from all the celebrations, I’m getting used to my class routine and am starting up my English clubs and a girls’ club with Sam in Cherkasy. It’s a funny thing, though – our school has had a set class schedule since the second week of school, but every week there are at least a couple days when the schedule changes for whatever reason, and if I don’t think to check the new, handwritten schedule at the front of the staff room, I find myself walking into the wrong classrooms to stupefied looks and questioning stares.
This week, nearly every day had its schedule rearranged because we had teachers from Poland visiting our school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as part of a cultural exchange program that my counterpart, Inna, is leading for our school. In the interest of putting our best foot forward, our school held a sort of fair/bake sale on Tuesday – tons of baked goods were on sale for between 50 kopiuk and 3 hryvnia. I found some chocolate chip muffins (with actual chocolate chips!) and bought one to take back to my desk. I got a chance to talk to the English teacher who had come with the Polish delegation for a bit, and she was very friendly and curious about what I was doing in Ukraine, and was quite surprised when I spoke to my director in Ukrainian.
The other two days, instead of fairs, our students put out displays of their artworks to present Ukrainian culture to the guests. If there is one thing I’ve noticed about Ukrainian children, it is that they all seem to be artistic geniuses. On Wednesday they displayed very traditional Ukrainian handicrafts – embroidery and such.Thursday was autumn themed, so there were pumpkins and leaves and everything was yellow and orange and red and brown. Also on Thursday, the English teacher from the delegation came to watch Inna’s and my ninth grade English class. We were starting a new unit on the environment, so we tried to plan an extra interesting lesson for her to observe. I think it went pretty well – the kids participated more and misbehaved less than usual, and we got a lot accomplished.
I really need to write more often – but every week I get busier! But I have some interesting news coming up in the next few weeks, so I’ll be writing again soon!
Dreaming in Ukrainian 