still no heat in my building...

Bits and pieces from my life, with a heavy focus on the Yukhymets kids (as usual):

~Vitaly (age 17) has taken to asking my opinion on various topics, generally religion-related, and sharing his thoughts with me as well. He's doing a lot of deep thinking for a high-schooler--highlights have included, "How would we have become Christians if God hadn't sent the Holy Spirit?", "Do you think it's wise that all children have a computer accessible at home?" (he's not convinced, due to many parents not providing supervision), "Do you think that money is evil?", and "Did you ever hear that some people believe we come from monkeys?" All of which have led into fascinating conversations.

~Vlada (age 14) really made my day last week. We were studying holidays in 8th form, and everyone had to say what their favorite holiday was and why. Vlada said, "My favorite holiday is Christmas because Jesus was born." That's the first time in two years of teaching that any of my Christian kids have made that bold a statement about their faith, and it made me so happy to hear.

~Oleh (age 13) is going to be one of our school's competitors for the 8th form level of the rayon-wide English Olympiad! I'm excited about this for several reasons. One, it's vindication to me that I've taught someone something over the last two years. Two, even though the olympiad material is going to be more advanced than Oleh's used to, it'll do him good to try and shoot high. Three, Nelya decided on her own without any imput from me to enter him as a participant...after she'd been considering more "academic" students. We've all come a long way in the last two years.

~On Saturday, I went to Barabashova, the largest bazaar in Ukraine (and one of the largest in Europe) to buy Kate's Christmas present. I found what I wanted at the price I wanted, and I didn't get lost. Go me!

~I didn't teach today, but instead spent the day at home typing up a lesson plan. Nelya and I are hosting a district seminar on the topic of debate at the end of November (the debate topic is the dangers of television), and we're also going to submit our lesson plan to an English-language newspaper for Ukrainian teachers. So I spent the day typing up affirmative and negative arguments about TV. Once I accept that it's simply not like it would be in the US, I feel better about it all, and I was able to work in information about AIDS and domestic violence, two huge problems in Ukraine. According to Amnesty International, 50-70% of Ukrainian women have suffered from domestic violence. Wow. I try and think about that, and my brain just refuses to comprehend, especially when I realize that means that 50-70% of women I know have dealt with abuse of some sort.

~Tomorrow I take the overnight train to Kyiv. From there, I'm going to be a mentor for a group of new trainees, do my COS medical, have a day or two unplanned, and then (hopefully) go to Zgurivka one last time to see the Malkos. So I won't be home for the next week and a half, but I'll still have Internet access at the office, so I'll try and post.

Beowulf and the little pig (Fall cleaning, part 2)

The formatting on my previous post turned weird, so I had to split this up into two posts.

Next up for your reading pleasure is a poem about Beowulf that I wrote for my 8th form practicum class that I worked with during Pre-Service Training. If I recall correctly, they had been learning about Beowulf in their textbook, so I wrote this poem for them and cut it up into couplets. They had to put it back together using their knowledge of the story.

Beowulf was a hero,
He was a very brave knight.
He came to Denmark to help his friends,
Who asked him if he'd please fight.
So he fought the monster Grendel
And killed it with his sword.
Then he went back to the castle
And became king as a reward.
Later Beowulf fought a dragon,
But sadly, both of them died.
"Take care of my country," he said,
And all his country cried.

That was obviously when I was a rookie teacher and much more ambitious in lesson planning!

Although on the subject of lesson planning, I had a really good lesson with my 11a class yesterday. The topic was "Love and Marriage", and we matched up famous couples, ranked various traits in potential partners from 1-10 (moderately appalled both at how high "beautiful/handsome" and how low "religious"were marked, but these are Ukrainian teenagers), had a discussion about relationships, and brainstormed romantic phrases in English. The kids participated really well, even some of the boys who usually do nothing. Their hometask was to write a love letter in English, and four girls actually did so (with several others telling me that they had written love letters in Russian but weren't sure how to translate them!). The results were highly entertaining, and if I get a chance later this semester, I'll snag their copybooks long enough to post some excerpts. My favorite was Vika's, who began, "my dear little pig", which apparently is a term of endearment in Ukraine. I explained to Vika that in the US, it probably wouldn't be appreciated quite as much.

Fall cleaning, part one

With less than three months left in Ukraine, I have suddenly been struck by the need to start sorting through 2 years' worth of assorted clutter, so as to not be stuck doing it all at the last minute. I have four(ish) divisions: Throw Out, Keep, Give to My School, and Give to Anyone Who Will Take It (subtitled "Where Did I Get This?"), plus Things I Will Use Before Leaving But Won't Take to the US. I'm pleased to report that Keep is the smallest one so far...or at least, it was before I added a large number of Ukrainian language manuals to the pile. I just hate to pitch them, knowing that if I want to keep up with my language in the States, I'd have a hard time finding a lot of stuff.

Most random find: a yo-yo. I have no idea where it came from...maybe the box Brockway sent me last fall?

And of course, going through papers means a trip down Memory Lane. To begin with chronologically, my personal definition of being a successful PCV that I wrote at Staging back in Chicago almost two years ago.

"I will know that I am a successful Volunteer when I am looked at as a member of my community, rather than an outsider. I probably will never be fully integrated, but when I can start to feel at home, when my students see me simply as their teacher rather than that American who's teaching English, then I'll be on my way. When I've had a good day because my students wanted to learn, because I've had meaningful conversations in Ukrainian, because I begin to realize how much I will miss my host community when I am back in the US, then I will start to become, in my mind, a successful Volunteer."

Wow. By that definition, I've been successful here, because all those things have come true. Something for me to remember when I get frustrated by everything I haven't accomplished here.

Excerpts from the first few pages of the notebook I used during Pre-Service Training (flipping further through it, I was appalled at how bad my spelling was in Ukrainian). Many of these words of wisdom come from higher-ups in PC Ukraine giving us advice in the first few days. They're in order, although I'm skipping some.

• Read first 30 pages of med. book--administrative section [first note]
• voda bez gas--water w/o gas
• "Stop worrying. You just lost control of your lives for a while." Linda Wiley, PCMO
• Nobody learns a language in 3 months!
• being a PCV=like being in love--moods change, but hopefully you end w/feelings of victory
• during the 1990s, Ukrainians lost 60% of their income--during the Great Depression, the US lost 25%
• the Secret Police will know what I'm doing [in retrospect--really? if so, they were really secret]
• don't photograph gov't buildings or transportation [broken by every single PCV, self included]
• during training, think through whether or not I want to be here
• you have to learn before you can share
• babushka--old woman who knows everything