One Week Left

A quick recap of happenings from last week:

"On the street" 

May 30: "PST has finally caught up with me. очень устала." "I find it annoying that I can understand what people are saying others in Russian more often than I can understand what is being said to me! Get on the ball, brain!" 

My cluster had our first day of summer camp on Monday. This particular camp was with the 8th from students at the гимназия (Gymnasium). The Gymnasium is one of the types of specialized schools found in Ukraine. You could kind of compare it to a charter school. Students must take a test in order to go there and, in the case of this school, have higher English levels than the regular public schools. This is, in part, because they have longer and more English classes in a week. Anyway, back to the camp.... The theme for the day was Nutrition/Healthy Choices. There were 36 students, so we split them into two separate classes for their first lesson "Nutrition and Eating Healthy," which was taught by the boys. After that class the students were split into 3 groups for their next lessons. I was in charge of the units on Smoking, Alcohol, and Drugs so I had the pleasure of writing 3 lessons and Power Points. Katherine, Rachael, and I each taught one and the students rotated through each. The lessons each had a nifty activity, but unfortunately for Rachael, she came out of the whole thing smelling a bit like an ashtray. It was a good first day of camp overall and the students seemed to learn some new things. After camp, we grabbed some lunch at the supermarket and then followed it up with 3 hours of Russian. No wonder I was tired! As for the being annoyed at not understanding people when they speak to me, here is the story: My host mom had left while I was resting and I heard her say "на улица." About an hour later, her friend came by and I answered the door and told her that Nadia wasn't home. She said things to me that I didn't quite understand and I utilized my good ol' "я не понимаю"(I don't understand) phrase at which point she looked at me slightly annoyed and amused. I told her that I thought Nadia was "на улица," so she pulled out her phone to call her. Here is where it gets annoying: I could understand most of her conversation with another person after not knowing a word she had JUST said to me! Oi vey. By the way, this whole ordeal made me understand why my Ukrainian friend asks me if I want to go on the street with her. It is because even though "на улица" translates as "on the street", it can also mean "outside." Good to know!

Cluster with the 8th form from Gymnasium

June 1: "Today I got a glimpse of what Justin Bieber's daily life much be like: swarmed by teenage girls wanting my signature and a picture. One camp down, one to go!"
So on May 31, we taught the students about HIV/AIDS. The day was split up into "Myths and Realities," taught by Rachael and myself, "Facts and Figures," taught by Joe and Kip, and then we split the group into girls and boys and we taught our respective sexes on "Prevention" which was pretty much a crash course on sex ed. For the "Myths and Realities" lesson, we did an activity to show how HIV can become an epidemic and the whole class pretty much winds up "HIV." It is a pretty important thing to teach the kids here in Ukraine since Ukraine has the most cases of HIV in Europe and it is spreading here faster than anywhere else in the world. The ages it is being contracted by most? 15-24 year olds via drug use and sex. Scary numbers.

The one frustrating thing was that we were not allowed to do condom demonstrations, or even show a video of one! Instead, we verbally gave step by step instructions. I was not prepared to help much on this lesson, so during the flow of it, I was asked to read the slide which talked about the act of sex, ejaculation, and withdrawal. I was mildly embarrassed saying these things to a room of 13 year old girls.

Day 3 Schedule of Events

Wednesday was the last day of camp. I didn't have to teach at all that day, so I observed and acted as quiz giver for the relay race we had. The students were split into groups of 3 and participated in a relay race, scavenger hunt, and yoga. After camp we gave out certificates to say thank you to the students for participating and then presented the two teachers that had been partner teachers to Joe and Katherine with boxes of candy. They then surprised us by given us Ukrainian poems and a packet with a hardcover notebook, highlighters, markers, post-its, and a pen. After the thank yous, students wanted photos with us all. After a group photo, I went to the other classroom we had been using to finish cleaning up so we could get out of there sooner. As I was heading back to the room where my stuff was, I was "swarmed" by some female students who had been bummed that they couldn't find me to get their certificates signed by me or photos with me (but they had gotten everyone else since they stayed in the room.) So I stood in the hall and signed certificates and had photos taken of me with students.

After camp, we had an office visit with one of the TEFL lead specialists to talk about the last week of PST and the Swearing-On conference as well as to just check in with us. This day exhausted all of us (the others more so than me, I am sure). Our TCF let us leave about 45 minutes early if we promised to work on our presentations at home. We promised.

School #1

June 2: "Yet another phone call from a Ukrainian who had found out about my living here. That being said, is anyone aware of any student exchange programs in the states for international students? I am looking for ones that take 14 year olds!"
This was the start of our second summer camp. Same lessons, only with eighteen 10th formers. Many of these students don't have the same grasp of English as the Gymnasium students, so it made me glad that my TCF had translated my Power Points for me :) It was different talking to 16 and 17 year olds about the dangers of smoking, alcohol, and drugs when it is common for teens to drink and 25% of kids 13-15 smoke regularly! So here is to hoping it impacted some of them a little bit. It was definitely a different camp experience from the first one we had earlier in the week. And, as you can see above, I had another phone call from someone I have not met. I am looking for student exchange programs to tell them about.

June 3: "Heart melting moment of the day: Kittens frolicking and playing together outside on my walk home! I want to to steal one and hide it in my room."

Another HIV Prevention day. Another 3 hours of Russian. Also, the kitten were sticking adorable.

Running the Relay Race!

June 4: "Last day of Summer Camp #2. The next few days will feel so much less stressful!"
Our last day of camps! I could tell that it was harder to teach students on this particular day. One lesson had translations, the other didn't. Even with the one with translations, students didn't quite get everything since additional information was being spoken in English and since they didn't quite seem to feel like focusing. Once we finished the classroom activities, we went outside for the active stuff! Since

things had run a bit over in the classroom and we only had 16 students, we omitted the yoga session for the day. The activities were fun to watch, but unfortunately a student got hurt. One part of the relay race was to climb over a piece of jungle gym equipment. Once he made it to the top and started climbing down the other side, he lost his footing and slipped! On the way down he smacked the side of his face on one of the bars and then I think he hit his chin on a rock. Why do I think this? Because in addition to the red mark on his face, he gashed the underside of his chin open rather deeply and nicely. This guy was such a trooper though. Right after it happened he got up and ran the last of the race, winning it for his team. He said he was okay and we got him cleaned up and bandaged, so I hope all is well.

Gifts from School #1 students

After the outside activities, we headed back indoors to give out the certificates, which the students seemed rather excited about. We gave Olga, the partner teacher, a box of candy to thank her. The students then presented us each with small Ukrainian flags and a book about the town that they had bought and signed for us and they also gave Julia, our TCF, a box of candy. We again played the picture game with the students. This many pictures in a week has sucked because I generally hate having my picture taken! Oh well. While we were doing the picture thing, one of the students came up to me (she is in the picture to the right, standing next to me) and gave me an amazing drawing she had done. I can't imagine the time it must have taken her to do. It is kind of cool that she liked me enough as a teacher/person to do something so nice. After all of the students had left, one stayed behind (the girl in the green in the picture to the right) to give us gifts that she had brought. She gave me a floral Ukrainian headband, a decorated wooden egg, a magnet, and a little statue of a man in traditional Ukrainian clothes. It is some pretty awesome stuff that I cannot wait to display once I get to site. I really want to frame the drawing I was given!

Me and students

To celebrate the end of camps, we invited Julia to pizza with us (even though us girls, including Julia, had eaten pizza the day before as well!). It was rather tasty and a nice end to the week. It was also pretty awesome that the pizza place has a wall air conditioning unit :)

As it stands now, I need to continue to work on memorizing my speech about who I am, what Peace Corps is, what I have done while here, and about our summer camp AND finish my self directed learning project which involves typing in Russian. All of this for tomorrow.
To end things, here is a revised schedule of what is going on this week:
Monday: 8-8:40- Debrief on Community Project, 8:50-10:50- Russian, 12-1:30- Admin. tests, 2:40-3:40- Tutoring
Tuesday: 9-9:30- Visit to School #1 to thank principal, 10-10:30- Visit to City Administration to thank Vice Mayor, 11-1-Russian
Wednesday: 8-9:30- Tech & Cross Cultural Session, 10-12- Russian, 2-3 Tutoring

Thursday: 10:40-11- LPI!
Friday: Trip to English Teaching Resource Center in Kyiv