It’s official! On Wednesday the 20th, we were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers at a ceremony held in a beautiful auditorium at an institute in Kiev. The U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine did the honors, and all 70 of us took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and discharge our duties with respect and vigor, or something close to that. We left Kyiv the next day and have been in our new city since the morning of the 22nd. We live with a nice woman in a medium-sized apartment for a Peace Corps-required one month home stay. We’ll spend this month looking for our own place, and we’re greatly looking forward to living on our own again. Plans for the summer include preparing for classes that will start in September, working on our Russian, getting involved in other programs in town, and exploring this city and other parts of Ukraine. The weather is quite warm, but tempered by a breeze. The people we’ve met so far have been great. We each have “counterparts” at our universities who’ve agreed to be primary support persons, both at school and in life beyond school. They’ll be helpful in our apartment search, and in our looking for Russian tutors. Both are teachers of English, and speak it beautifully.
Though we were tickled to be finished with training, we had a tearful farewell on the 17th when it was time to say goodbye to our new family and friends. Not only did our host family come to see us off at the bus meeting place, but also the couple with whom we had enjoyed our forest picnics and nights at the banya (Russian sauna) surprised us by coming out to say goodbye. With promises to come back to visit regularly, and especially when our kids come to visit in Dec/January, we waved goodbye from the Peace Corps bus. (Another cultural moment, or perhaps not that surprising if you know Peter, was the goodbye gift our friends gave Peter: a bottle of local vodka.)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Cultural Moments
“Cultural moments” are what our delightful language teacher calls those experiences which are uniquely Ukrainian, such as ceremonies on national holidays or other special occasions. We also now apply the term to those smaller experiences or reflections that shine a bright light on the fact that this is a different place, which is not always obvious. Two recent cultural moments:
Our host mom, age 38, just had major dental work done, which included getting a whole new set of front teeth (this non-dental-specialist thinks it might be called a “full bridge”??), and she looks great. She was surprised by Marcia’s positive answer to her question, “Are those teeth your own?”
While riding home on the marshrutka, we sat facing two women deep in conversation, both carefully coiffed, one with hair of bright orange while the other’s was maroonish-purple. (Natural hair color is not the fashion. Much care is given to one’s appearance, and many women – of all ages and professions -- go for rather unusual colors.)
We suffered through a couple weeks of very hot weather, but now it’s lovely, warm with a slight breeze. And it’s strawberry season! For the past week we’ve been eating fresh strawberries with almost every meal, all freshly picked from our hosts’ backyard garden. They’re small and very sweet – yum!
In one week we must say goodbye to this pretty city and, even harder, to the wonderful people we have met and lived with for the last three months. We will go again to Kiev for a few days of classes and meetings before the big event: swearing in as official Peace Corps volunteers. The next day we get on a train with all of our belongings, which have grown with the books and supplies added to the already maxed-out quantity we arrived with, and officially move to our new city.
We learned last month that our home for the next two years is to be a large city in the south of Ukraine. We visited there for three days, and were pleased. It has a population of approx 350,000, is located on the Dnepr River not far from where it meets the Black Sea, and offers all the amenities of a big city, as well as a bit of the blight. We’ll be teaching at two different universities, Peter at a larger public “technical” university, Marcia at a small private business and law university, both in the International Economic Relations departments.
Off now to study for the big oral Russian language exam that awaits us later this week…
Our host mom, age 38, just had major dental work done, which included getting a whole new set of front teeth (this non-dental-specialist thinks it might be called a “full bridge”??), and she looks great. She was surprised by Marcia’s positive answer to her question, “Are those teeth your own?”
While riding home on the marshrutka, we sat facing two women deep in conversation, both carefully coiffed, one with hair of bright orange while the other’s was maroonish-purple. (Natural hair color is not the fashion. Much care is given to one’s appearance, and many women – of all ages and professions -- go for rather unusual colors.)
We suffered through a couple weeks of very hot weather, but now it’s lovely, warm with a slight breeze. And it’s strawberry season! For the past week we’ve been eating fresh strawberries with almost every meal, all freshly picked from our hosts’ backyard garden. They’re small and very sweet – yum!
In one week we must say goodbye to this pretty city and, even harder, to the wonderful people we have met and lived with for the last three months. We will go again to Kiev for a few days of classes and meetings before the big event: swearing in as official Peace Corps volunteers. The next day we get on a train with all of our belongings, which have grown with the books and supplies added to the already maxed-out quantity we arrived with, and officially move to our new city.
We learned last month that our home for the next two years is to be a large city in the south of Ukraine. We visited there for three days, and were pleased. It has a population of approx 350,000, is located on the Dnepr River not far from where it meets the Black Sea, and offers all the amenities of a big city, as well as a bit of the blight. We’ll be teaching at two different universities, Peter at a larger public “technical” university, Marcia at a small private business and law university, both in the International Economic Relations departments.
Off now to study for the big oral Russian language exam that awaits us later this week…
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