home again, home again, jiggety-jig!

Okay...home and back in the swing of life, so it's time to blog!

The program at DCU finished up with a talent show/graduation ceremony on Friday afternoon. Everyone who'd scored a 70% or higher in the morning classes (which were graded) received a certificate of completion. For the talent show end of it, we had lots of singing in English, Russian, and Ukrainian, plus a Greek dance. I was part of a choir of some of the Americans singing "Wonderful Grace of Jesus" in four-part harmony acapella. I also sang two songs in Ukrainian by myself--"Ти ж мене підманула," which is a folk song that goes through the days of the week and the reasons why a girl stood her boyfriend up each day (it's probably the most popular folk song in Ukraine, and half the audience was singing along with me), and a Ukrainian translation of "You Are My All in All." I was applauded vigorously--I think after two weeks of putting in a lot of work to learn English, the Ukrainian students were happy to see someone trying to do something in their language.

Earlier that morning, Stephanie, Lana, and I had gone into the center of Donetsk to do some shopping. We were amused by how many people asked us for directions. On our way back home, as we were walking down the street from the trolley stop to the university, a guy a little younger than us asked us a question in English. Assuming that he was a Ukrainian wanting to practice English, I answered in Russian. After a minute or two of confusion, it was determined that we had, in fact, met an American looking for DCU. His name is Brian, and he was a Christian visiting a Russian friend of his who works in Donetsk, and having some free time, had decided to look up what sort of Christian organizations/institutions there were in the area. So we showed him around a bit and he was our photographer during the talent show. In the evening, the four of us went into the center and walked around, swapping stories. We went out to dinner at a place called (in translation) "The Three Fat Guys", which had good food. I had a barbequed pork steak with grilled onions, french fries, and a coleslaw-esque salad. After dinner, we walked down to the river and met up with his friend Kostya and Kostya's girlfriend Nastia. It was a nice evening and a good way to end the program.

Saturday, I went back out to the Good Shepherd children's home, said goodbye to lots of people, made one last trip to the Very Nice Supermarket, and boarded a train home around 9:20. The train ride home was much more pleasant than the ride to Donetsk had been, since I was no longer sick with a fever.

I got home around 3:45 Sunday morning, slept until 8 am, and then got up and went to church. I'd really debated whether or not I wanted to go versus sleep in, but I had really missed being at church over the past month, and I was glad I went. Inna, our usual pianist, was on vacation with her parents, so I ended up playing piano. I guess this makes me the official assistant pianist! Yay, I have a responsibility at church! Yula and Serhii were up visiting her parents (they live in a different town now), so I was able to catch up on how they're doing (went to the Sea of Azov for their honeymoon, she's waiting to get her in-country passport [it's like an ID card] updated so she can get a job).

After church, I came home, napped for an hour, and then went with Robert, the new PCV in town, to a picnic with my friend Natalia and some of her neighbors. We drove to a little village a few kilometers away and spent all afternoon and evening there. We swam in the river (wow, I'm out of shape...my arms ached yesterday!) and ate shashlik. For those sad individuals who don't live in countries where shashlik is popular, let me explain: it's sort of like a shish kebob. Anya, Natalia's neighbor, had marinated chunks of pork in mayonnaise with salt, pepper, and onions sliced into rings. Then, she threaded the pork and onions on metal skewers and roasted them over a fire. It was incredibly good. Who's up for trying it in the US next summer?

The last two days have been quiet, just settling back into everyday life--lots of trips to the bazaar and stores, as I had almost no food in the house; researching grad schools on the Internet; wondering where all the tiny black fly-type critters came from while I was gone and how to get rid of them.

My most interesting experience happened yesterday when I went downstairs to return a couple plates to Oleg and Lesia. Oksana, a former classmate of theirs, was over and they were recording a song that Oleg had written in Russian. However, Oksana also wanted to record an English version, so I ended up translating the song into English, rewording things so it flowed with the music, and helping Oksana with pronunciation. Lots of fun, and one of those experiences that makes me love my crazy, unexpectable life here.

This post is turning out to be horribly long, and I really do need to go over to Robert's to pick up his GRE book, but first, a quick recipe of what I had for dinner tonight, created by yours truly from various online recipes, my imagination, and the contents of my fridge/cupboard.

Simple Summer Pizza

Pour a small bit (2 T or so) of sunflower oil into a cup. Mix with 2 cloves of crushed garlic. Spread over pre-baked pizza crust (mine was probably about 8 inches in diameter). Add 1-2 chopped fresh tomatoes (I removed the seeds but kept the skins on) and a little bit of chopped-up hard salami. Sprinkle with oregano. Add a thin layer of grated cheese (I used a marbled cheese from the supermarket, but if you live in a country where mozerella doesn't cost an arm and a leg and is only available in large cities, I'd recommend that instead) and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese (also costs an arm and a leg but keeps longer). Bake 5-7 minutes in a hot oven until the crust has browned a bit on the bottom and the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

big update!

Yeah, I'm still alive. My apologies to all of my faithful readers who keep checking back and wondering why I haven't posted recently...it's a combination of general busyness, Tif's visit, and three days when the Internet didn't work. However, my Internet guy has put my connection on a different channel (I don't know exactly what this means in English, but it seems good) and now my connection is a lot faster...and I can upload photos! (See previous post.)

Let's see...going back about two weeks now, before Tif came. My friend Andrey's church did a series of evangelistic tent meetings for four nights in an area of town where a lot of my kids live. Each night, they would have a general meeting explaining the basics of Christianity with music and a sermon, which was then followed by a meeting that was more youth-oriented on topics like AIDS, alcoholism, and drugs. At least 25 of the kids from my school were there (we only have about 280!), whether sitting and listening or occasionally drifting over from the cafe/bar across the road. I don't believe that anyone got saved during the meetings, but hearing the Gospel is a rare occurence over here, and I simply pray that seeds were planted that will come to fruition later. I know that the mom of one of my seventh form boys really enjoyed the meetings and wants to start attending church regularly. I myself really felt convicted to pray for my kids...the barriers of language, culture, and my role as a PCV limit my ability to witness to them in words, but going to the meetings regularly and praying fervently for each child by name were things that I could do in spite of those barriers. It was a boost for my own faith.

Tif arrived last Friday, and we've had a grand time! She knows the language and the area, so a few days she was off visiting people she knew from before and finding souvenirs, but we've been together a lot, especially in the evenings...cooking, listening to the music she brought, and having random conversations on any and all topics. Oh, and finding out that the cafe on the corner has a lot of good food at cheap prices! I enjoy eating out once in a while, but I would feel odd doing it by myself here in town.

Sunday was Yula and Serhii's wedding...I had wanted to do a huge post about that event alone, but I think I'll just leave it with all the comments I wrote about the pictures in my last post. If you have questions, let me know.

Monday we bummed around town, took pictures by the statues of Lenin and Taras Shevchenko (Ukraine's greatest poet), and stopped by to visit Robert, the new PCV in my town. He works at a non-profit organization that helps invalids, large families, and families with invalid children. The organization had gotten a LARGE donation of used clothes from Canada, and the director had invited me over to look through and see if there was anything I would want. Most of it wasn't anything I would/could wear, but I ended up with two sweaters.

Last night was the school-leaving ceremony for the 11th form (US graduation). It involved lots of music and dance numbers, including small children dancing (very cute), a harem dance (weirdly fascinating and not what I would consider appropriate for the occasion...Tif caught some of it on video), and me singing "Fly Me to the Moon" in English. It was a very nice ceremony, and the kids were all dressed up--the boys in suits, the girls in prom-type dresses. After the ceremony, there was an all-night dance for the kids...last year I stayed, but we were planning to go to Kharkiv today and so we left after the ceremony.

Woke up this morning at 7 am to a severe thunderstorm and me having a sore throat and feeling exhausted, so we stayed home and are planning to go to Kharkiv tomorrow, as we thought it better that I rest today rather than keep pushing and get very sick when we go to L'viv next week. So I went back to bed and slept until after 11. Then we had pork stroganoff on toast for lunch (don't ask, we invented the combination earlier this week and it's really good), and Tif went off to go exchange money and look for Harry Potter books in Russian to complete her set, while I attempt to catch up on blogging.

Next Monday, we head for L'viv in western Ukraine, which is supposed to be a beautiful old city reminiscent of Prague or Krakow. It'll be about a 24 hour trip from Balaklia to L'viv, but we're up for the adventure. Then we get back to Kyiv on Thursday and Tif flies out on Friday morning. We're planning to go out to McDonald's that morning for her birthday, but we'll see how that goes. I think I'm going to visit the Malkos in Zgurivka next weekend, then come home for a few days, and then I'm off to Donetsk again.

Tif's back, so I'll close for now. :)

the best laid plans of mice and men and sal...

I'm sad.

I baked my salmon fillet with a little bit of butter, fresh dill, and lemon slices. I made a small batch of rice to go with it. I grated up some radishes and added a few drops of oil and vinegar for my side salad. I even added a couple slices of bread on the side.

And my salmon wasn't fresh...it was preserved in brine (which I hadn't known prior to baking). It was too salty to eat, and half an hour later, my mouth is still puckering from the thought.

I was going to have such a nice supper, too!

~*~

Today at school we had an outdoor assembly for Victory Day, which is on Wednesday and celebrates the ending of WWII. In Ukraine, which was a major battle ground, the Soviet Army were the winners, so everyone had red flowers and we had a red star with candles around it. In some ways, it was if we were celebrating the triumph of Communism over Nazism, which seemed a little odd to the American. But it definitely would have been the better choice in 1945.

Anyhow, we had our assembly with our veterans--one old man in an army uniform with a chest full of medals, and two babuskas with head scarves. All the classes either had to present a musical number or draw a poster. The results were varied, but interesting.

Yesterday at the Ys, Vitaly, who was not blessed with an artistic gift in the slightest, was trying to draw the 10-B poster, as none of his classmates had volunteered. (Viktor asked me, "Do you know how to draw a star so that all of the angles are exactly even?" Since I take after my mom more than my dad, the answer was no. Nadia's comment was that Vitaly shouldn't bite off more than he can chew...or at least, the Ukrainian equivalent.)

We had various musical numbers--mostly Soviet war songs, I think--by the kids. My favorite was my 8-B form, who apparently had raided all the available attics. A group of them came out in various costumes based on old army uniforms--we had Alyona as a nurse, Slava in a long khaki trenchcoat, Alosha as a sailor, Vitaly with a parachuter's helmet, Zhenia in an army jacket with a bloody bandage around his head, and Firyuza looking like a guerilla fighter who had acquired everyone else's castoffs (my personal opinion). Plus Olena, Vita, and Natasha, who weren't in costume but were there for vocal support. They sang a verse of a song and then had a little skit. I liked that they didn't do the same sort of thing as everyone else.

The other performance that I found notable was that of Maksym and Andrei, two of my 6-A boys. With the music teacher accompanying them on his accordion, they belted out two Soviet army songs with more noise and energy than accuracy. The first song was a lively one with a traditional "Russian" sound about partisans out in the forest, and it hit me that during WWII, boys that age would have been involved in the war in various ways and singing the song in much the same way. It gave me goosebumps.

And I got some of the extra tulips that were left over!

gooooooogling

Thought for all of you to ponder: do the verses in I Corinthians 14 prohibiting speaking in tongues without an interpreter also apply nowadays to people singing in a foreign language in church? I don't mean once in a while, like if you have guests from a different country, but on a regular basis. My pastor here occasionally asks if I'll sing a solo in church (part of the weekly service is devoted to special music in small groups, duets, trios, and solos), and I don't know what language to sing in. If I sing in English, I can accompany myself on the piano and know that I'm pronouncing everything correctly...but no one can understand me. If I sing in Ukrainian, it's harder for me to read the words of the song and the piano notes at the same time, especially as I don't get to practice playing the piano often...also, my accent's noticable enough that I don't know how easy I'd be to understand if I sang a song people didn't already know.

Either way, I feel awkward. I love singing in our "older group" (i.e. anyone over 18 who can carry a tune...we sit together and function as sort of a very small choir), because I'm part of it, just another member of the church. If I sing a solo, everyone looks at me, and no matter which language I sing in, everyone's reminded that I'm the American. I spend my life over here being the American...at church, I just want to be another Christian. But my pastor keeps asking me to sing, and I don't think that trying to explain all of this to him would help.

~*~

In other news, the Y kids and I watched E.T. dubbed into Ukrainian this afternoon, which was a lot of fun...I hadn't seen that movie in ages!

~*~

These are the best of what comes up when I type "Sally needs" into Google:

*Sally needs a suitor who is capable of tending to her dreams and is willing to be second priority so that the people can come first. (I followed the link...it's about Sonic the Hedgehog, of all things!)
*Sally needs to be reminded to multiply before adding
*Sally needs to learn how to stay on task during independent work
*Sally needs to increase her positive interaction with peers
*Sally needs $50000 to buy a Pete's Postage Post franchise
*Sally needs to get a real gun
*Sally needs to work in such an unfulfilling job
*Sally needs sunshine
*Sally needs to make her best underwater documentary film in order to attract backing for future projects
*Sally needs a hug