February Fo'sho with a Mashing in of March.

I think I am just getting silly with blog titles now, but really, just typing the name of the month is so boring.

TAG Meeting
So I may or may not have said this before, but I am the TAG (Training Advisory Group) rep for TEFL Group 41. This means I get to have a hand in preparing PST (pre-service training) for incoming groups. February was my first TAG meeting where I met with all staff who have their hands in creating a PST program and other PCVs reps from both my group and earlier ones. So again, for the 3rd time the span of a month, I was off to Kiev! At this meeting, I (along with the Youth Development and Community Development reps from Group 41, Matt and Pete) had to present the results of our Post-PST surveys as well as recommendations for the upcoming PST for Group 43. We discussed Language, Safety, Cross-Cultural, and Technical training over the course of a few hours and developed a list of changes to be implemented. It was a really great knowing that we were being listened to and our opinions being considered and utilized by PC Staff. Our Training Manager, Iryna, is amazing and really cares about PCVs and doing what is best for them.

At the end of the meeting, Iryna invited me, Pete, and Matt to attend Group 43's arrival retreat in March so that they could meet and hear from current PCVs before heading off to their training sites.

PEPFAR Training

Me presenting our HIV-related project
idea.

Alas, a mere few days after returning back home from Kiev, I was on my way back again. This time I had my counterpart, Lilly, and one of our 10th form students in tow. We were on our way to a PEPFAR Training in Kiev. PEPFAR stands for "President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief" and the focus of the training was "HIV Risky Behaviors Prevention" and covered everything from biology to stigma and discrimination to how to create HIV awareness and prevention projects in our communities. Unfortunately, Ukraine has the highest HIV infection rate in Europe and there is a lot of stigma and discrimination associated with a positive HIV status. It was a very interesting 5-day training and I was glad I had the opportunity to attend with people from my village. It was especially great hearing positive feedback from my student and counterpart, especially in regards to hearing from HIV positive people themselves.




Working Groups
I am involved with two working group here in Ukraine in addition to my TAG duties. Working groups are groups of PCVs that meet a few times a year to discuss and exchange project ideas, create materials, and organize Ukraine-wide initiatives. I am involved with the Multicultural Awareness Council (MAC) and Safety and Security Council (SSC). I attended the MAC meeting right after PEPFAR where I got myself involved with our working group's camp, Camp Unity, as a part of the Lesson Planning Committee.

Sad blurred picture :(

One great benefits of working groups is being able to meet with people who share similar goals for projects, not to mention it is a chance to hang out with people you may not have seen for awhile! A few of us MAC-ites tend to find ourselves out to lunch post-meeting. This occasion called of pizza.

Closer to the end of the month I headed to Kiev for the 4th time in 2 months to attend the SSC Meeting.
So. Many. Trains.

Group 43 Arrival Retreat!
Arrival Retreat happened in March and since it is the only thing that really happened in March (aside from a trip to Turkey which gets its own post) I figured I'd squish it in here!

Once again I found myself in Chernigiv where my own Arrival Retreat happened. I hitched a ride from Kiev with the PCMOs, Matt, and Pete which got us there in time to settle into our rooms before the arrival of all the new PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees)! I totally lucked out with a re-modeled room that I got all to myself, whereas the boys had the joy of being roommates.

The reason for our presence there was to help answer questions and to sit in on sessions to give a PCVs point of view in our respective fields and our lives in general as PCVs in Ukraine. The only downside to this was we all sat in on the same 45 minute talk three times since YD, CD, and TEFL group were divided up!

I was excited to be there and meet the new trainees, one of which I had been talking to for awhile before her arrival. I was told by a PCV friend in Uganda to keep an eye out for her since they have a mutual friend. Diana (the new PCT) was nice enough to bring me a bag of peanut butter cups while another newbie brought me a couple new pairs of flats I ordered with her TEVAS discount and had sent to her house. Which was beyond awesome since I know what a pain packing can be and how precious space is! It made my feet way happy to have new homes.

Over the course of our time there, we did our best to teach the PCTs the game of Durak. It is such a great way to integrate in Ukraine and since pretty much everyone plays it is a valuable game to know and also very hard to learn if you don't have anyone to teach you the rules in English!

My ride back to Kiev as with our two Safety and Security Coordinators and Pete. It involved Pete, Papa Sergei, as he is affectionately known (he is also PC Ukraine's Chuck Norris), and I telling jokes. Mostly of inappropriate nature.

Remembering January

Jeez, I just keep on failing at this whole blog thing and creating more work for myself in the world of back-blogging. Meh.

Let's continue with this journey, shall we?

So a few things happened in January:

• Visit to the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer for those of you not in the know)
• Trip to Lvov (I learned Russian. We don't say "L'viv"! That's a lie, I call it Lviv when I speak the English)
• Russian Language Refresher
• Birthday Shenanigans

My trip to the PCMO was a follow-up I needed in regards to a pre-departure medical issue. I was glad to receive and e-mail from the doctor a few weeks later saying "You have a healthy cervix!" Gotta love the best PCMO in Ukraine's way of giving good news.

It's like the streets of Lviv knew my
birthday was in January

Львов!
The day same day I visited the PCMO in Kiev, I planned on meeting up with 2 out of the 4 other PCVs that I would be going to Lviv with. Thanks to cell phones, that didn't quite happen. One PCV backed out of the trip while the other one (who happened to have my train ticket to Lviv) found herself stuck in Paris one her flight home. What did a cell phone have to do with the story? Well, someone on one of her flights in the states decided they didn't want to turn off their cell phone while in the air. The plane took off, discovered this fact, then turned around. This resulted in a domino effect of her missing connecting flights and me being stuck in Kiev without a train ticket.

Okay, so I wasn't really "stuck" in Kiev, but I seriously thought it was a possibility. The reason I thought this was because it was January 3rd and Ukrainian Christmas (aka Orthodox Christmas) was on the 7th. Typically, it is hard to get last minute tickets at this time of year. With this in mind, I walked to the train station with some volunteers I had been hanging out with that day figuring that if I couldn't get a train ticket to Lviv, then maybe I could get one the following day or a ticket back home. To my surprise, I lucked out. There were no platzkart (3rd class) tickets left, so I had to go with kupe (2nd class). I further lucked out since rather than there being 4 people in my compartment, it was just me and one other girl. Hooray for non-cramp quarters!

Google the Masoch statue in Lviv and
you will learn why she is smiling
with her hand in his pocket...

I got into Lviv pretty early in the morning and waited at the train station for Davi and Elyse to arrive from their journey through Serbia and Romania. By the time they got in it was still dark outside. We checked our bags at the train station since we couldn't go to our hostel until one and then we headed for the refuge of all PCVs in need of shelter early in the morning: McDonald's. We didn't quite know where it was, but we figured if we could get to the center of town, we were bound to find one. This gamble worked out after less than 45 minutes of walking around. We hung out, drank coffee, and interneted for a few hours before deciding it would be a good idea to locate our hostel and get a bit acclimated with the city before grabbing our crap back at the train station. We stayed for a few days, saw some sites, met up with near-by PCVs, and enjoyed some donuts at Lviv's annual donut festival.

My trip ended with an 18 hour train ride with Davi back to Nikolaev where we had conversations with other passengers in English, Russian, and Ukrainian while playing a ton of Дурак ("durak").

Winter Language Refresher- Russian Style!
So twice a year, PC Ukraine holds two language refreshers: one for Ukrainian learners and one for Russian learners (not that that means you can't go to one if you learned the other..). One set happens in winter while the other occurs in summer.

Volodiya demonstrating how to get into the bomb shelter
under the building. (Pic credit to Beth!)

The Russian Refresher took place in Chernigiv at the same place we happened to have our arrival retreat. One thing we Group 41 participants noticed was how our perceptions of the venue had changed since being there last. When we first arrived, we were a bit taken aback by the atmosphere, upkeep, and food of the place. Upon our return to the same place, we found it funny that we now considered it a "nice" place and found ourselves excited about beet salad (at least I was excited about it...) It was nice seeing people I hadn't seen in awhile, including my old LCF who taught me Russian in the first place, as well as meeting PCVs I had never met before.

Basically Language Refresher is like camp for PCVs. We have lessons we sign up for as well as a choice of afternoon activities (learning to cross-stitch/knit, Ukrainian traditional dance, basket weaving, etc.) and a nightly movie (in Russian, with subtitles)/activity. I am thankful for it because it gives me a chance to study in a school-like environment, only in small groups, and it forces me to practice and be corrected!

The Birthday Bagel and Ballet That Never Were

Michael and Beth at the best falafel place in Kiev

Fun fact: Elyse's birthday is the day before mine. Fun fact #2: Our birthdays happened the Sunday/Monday after language refresher. This naturally meant we would celebrate in Kiev. We had heard about there being a new place in Kiev where one can seek out the comfort of bagels. True story: Ukraine is not up in the business of bagels. Well, it wasn't anyway until this place appeared. Sure, they aren't up to Safeway or Einstein quality, but they are tasty and can come with cream cheese.

Anyway...
We decided our birthday weekend should involve bagels. We also thought it would be fun to go see a ballet since tickets can be pretty inexpensive. We planned to do these things on Saturday, then Friday night happened.

One of our friends told us about an amazing place for falafel. A little restaurant owned by an awesome Israeli man who had let them take over the place one or two weeks prior. They had their own little dance club as they were allowed to hook up their own iPod to his sound system. Naturally, we decided we must go there for two reasons: tasty falafel and potentially sweet atmosphere. I will tell you right now, that the owner of this place is way cool. Every time I go in there, I am warmly welcomed and remembered and usually sent away with a free shot of vodka.

Birthday drinks. (Pic credit to Beth, again)

Back to the story...
We accomplished taking over the place (and by we, I mean quite a bit of PCVs) and found ourselves having a good time. The owner found out it was my and Elyse's birthday and brought over free drinks for everyone and followed it up with 2nd ones for Elyse and myself.

Flash to the next morning when I wake up at the hostel with a killer headache and a tummy that wants nothing to do with food.

I watered myself up and we made it out the door and to bagels, albeit a bit later than we planned on. It was a bit of a journey getting there since none of us had ever gone, but after the roundabout route, we finally made it and enjoyed our little pieces of doughy, cream cheesy heaven. Bagels happened, but ballet, sadly, did not. Perhaps next year.

And so ends my busy January.