April 2005

26th

 

Today was “Mental Health Day”.  It sounds a little lame but what it really is, is a chance for a larger number of groups to get together and talk about our experiences.  At first I thought it was a waste of time because we spent all morning doing Yoga and Meditation exercises.  But even though I do not get anything out of those exercises I found the program to be helpful because it allowed me time to think about my feelings and realize that everyone here is pulling for Virginia and me.  All of my thoughts right now are on my wife.  I guess that is natural because we are connected very strongly together.  I do not know what would happen to me if my wife were not at my side.  I use her for support, for friendship, for strength and for love.  I need her by my side.  It’s as simple as that.   

Life in the Ukraine is proceeding as expected.  They are trying out a new technique with our group as they took away our teacher and gave us a new one for two weeks, then we will get our old teacher back.  The first day with our new teacher was 100 % in Russian.  The new class rules are 1. No English in class.  2.  No questions off topic during class (I like that one) 3.  Smile

In general I think it will give us a better comfort level with the language because it has been very easy to lapse into English whenever we felt like it instead of trying to communicate in Russian.  Today though I feel very unprepared for class.  We had one day of class, one day of Medical meetings, and tomorrow we are off to Kiev to have our interview with Karl Beck the Country Director.  I’m not sure but from what I can determine, we are the last group to be interviewed.  I am not sure what the interview is for since we have already been assigned to our sites, and everyone else was interviewed before site visit.  I’ll see tomorrow.  Not much has changed here so I’ll write more later.  I’m looking forward to the morrow because I will get to go into Kiev and upload the web site and download the mail.  Hopefully my wife will have written something and maybe my grandkids as well.  It is amazing in this day of instant communication that I do not receive more mail from my child and grandchildren.

I guess that it is so hard to tell old dad/granddad hi in the busy life back home. 

Well more later.  Mark

23rd

 

The word is Old.  Kerch is divided into three parts.  Old, older and ancient.  They were originally three towns but they have been one for 1500 years or so, I guess that makes it official around here.  The town is 52 KM of coast and averages 10 km deep.  Long and narrow and curves around three bays.  Ship building, ship repair and fishing are the main businesses.  The town has everything a person needs but still most of the youth grow up wanting to leave for a bigger city.  In the case of Kerch that bigger city is Moscow not Kiev.  Folks, I am going to Russia.  This town is Russian to the core.  I can get an e-mail address with a .ru extension very easy and the web site I will set up could have a .ru address.  That is just so bizarre to me because I grew up with the Russians as my mortal enemy.  They were everything I was brought up to hate.  In just a few short weeks I will be living in a Russian city speaking Russian and working in a library with the rest of the collective, but I will be working on explaining American business practices to business men devoted to overcoming the obstacles of becoming a capitalistic worker and boss.

The Black Sea Coast in Kerch

I met some great people.  Their expectations are realistic and their goals are attainable.  I spoke with some volunteers when they got back and the biggest problem seemed to be expectation control.  One volunteer was told that their job was to bring Democracy to the town.  Another told me that they were expected to build a market base for the town and surrounding area. 

Mine are easy. 

1.  Set up a business resource center for the libraries readers.

2.  Build a foreign language library

3.  Set up a set of lesson plans for high school students to learn about American business practices.

That’s it.  Ok I have to find the resources myself and put them together but really not a bad set of goals.  When I am bored and looking for something to do I can teach Business and Computer English in the library to anyone that wants it.  Teach English to the staff.  Let’s be real.  I am glad about one thing.  My new boss told everyone that I am not allowed to teach English until they teach me Russian, so that will help with my language problems.  It seems that a lot of the previous volunteers to Ukraine went either to English business settings or they went as Tefel teachers where Russian was not a requirement for work.  They learned Russian or Ukrainian only as they needed it to interact with the community.  I, and Virginia, will have to become fluent in Russian just so we can react to our readers.  We will have to become fluent in written Russian as well which is almost like learning a new language all by itself.  I can not wait until that happens.  I want to fit into this life very much, I will still be me with my funny hat but I will be a part of the community.  If you think about this I will become acquainted with every important business person in the city fairly soon and I hope to become friendly with them, teach them and maybe influence them to the way I think a business should be run.  What an opportunity.

 

On another note.  Virginia is on her way back to the United States right now.  A medical problem came up that the local doctors think is minor but Peace Corps has decided to send her back to Washington for a consultation.  She will be in Washington DC for at least a week.  I will write more about that as I can.  Right now I do not know any more than that.  When she e-mails me I will add it to her web page so you can all hear from her.  Feel free to e-mail her because while she is there she will have time to answer most of your questions.

 

Now I need to Study.  Russian is calling me.  I guess that may be because I am listening to Bering Strait while I am writing this.  Outstanding music.  A group of Russian students with more talent than their small community could handle found a teacher who introduced them to American Bluegrass music and taught them how to play the instruments.  The album is a mix of traditional bluegrass type tunes that may or may not have been translated from the original Russian or Kentuckian but my favorite is the Russian Folk Song they turned into an outstanding bluegrass rocker.  Poruskia-Paranya.  It rips right into your head and heart. Alright you have to like bluegrass to like it that much but you do not have to like bluegrass to enjoy the album.

My goal is to find out more about the music here.  I have run into two instruments I want to know more about already and it seems that the accordion is a big instrument here, and they make it sound great.  I have heard several students play and if they can play that good I can not wait until I can hear a real player take the stage.

 

After we arrive in Kerch, I will be setting up a section of this site to discuss the town of Kerch in more detail and put a few pictures on the web.  They have so much to offer there that I feel compelled to tout their city for them. 

14th

 

Today we are back where it all started in Ukraine.  We are back at the resort that we started from for a coordinators conference and site announcement.  We arrived yesterday before lunch and true to form they made us wait for awhile before they told us.  The country is broken up into 7 regions for Peace Corps purposes with each area under the control of a regional manager.  We were gathered together in a big room and each regional manager stood up and invited their new members to the town they were going to visit.  We are going to region two so we did not have to wait long but I am going to do a Peace Corps thing here and make you wait.  I think I may not be able to upload this for a few days because I will not be back to my computer until the 21st. 

We listened to the list of locations for our fellow volunteers, the youth development people are going to school (16), palaces of culture (4), youth center (1) and orphanages (3).  Those of us in the business track are going to women’s business centers, small business centers, workers unions, relocations centers and two of us are going to work in libraries.

That’s right, Virginia is headed to a children’s library, while I am headed to the central library.  We both have pretty much the same objectives but I get to build and run a resource center for the library.

The Director of the library is very interested to turning the library into a modern research center for the community.  We can do this by:  Teaching English to the staff and members of the library.

Teach IT skills to the staff and readers. Help find sponsors to bring in resources and books.  Write grants to create the resource center and bring in internet access.

Right we will be lucky to do all of that but what the heck, we’ll try.  The only thing different about Virginia write up is that she is assigned to the children’s library and she gets to teach IT to children with special needs instead of running the resource center.

The library consists of 19 libraries with 1.6 million volumes, and two computers.  We will not see the library until next week so I will write more about it later.  Right now the information you are all waiting for.  Where.

 

We are headed to one of the oldest towns in Ukraine.  Two summers ago they celebrated their 2500th birthday.  Ship yards, steel mills, fishermen and farmers make up the town and during most of the last 50 years the town was a closed community because most of it was a Soviet Military base.  With the collapse of the soviet union a large percentage of the population lost their jobs and they have not recovered yet.  We will be located 4.3 kilometers from the Russian border.  Less than a mile from the Black sea and 20 kilometers from the Azure sea, (I know that I spelled that wrong But I’ll correct it later) and just about as far from the capital as you can get.  We are bound for the town of Kerch at the eastern tip of Crimea.  

 

We will have a lot more to say after our trip but for now I just needed to get that information out.  Any help from our librarian friends or relatives would be appreciated.  I feel that for a while I will be the internet resource center as I look information and prepare it for the community.  Any thoughts or opinions on grants or sources that would be willing to help me out go ahead and send.  Web sites or information what ever.

 

The town we are going to is between 150,000 and 171,000 depending on who you ask.  Most of the citizens consider themselves Russians living in Ukraine and a lot more are Russian Citizens.  We have the returning Tartars to add to the mix so life will be interesting.  The climate is milder than the rest of Ukraine with little snow sticking around, The land is rolling hills and because of it’s location they all say it is windy there.  Russians use to vacation there because of the air.  Tourism is not a factor in this town as it is in the rest of Crimea because it is very far away for everything.  To get there from Kiev is a 15 hour train ride to Simperpol and a 6 hour bus ride across the island.

 

That’s our briefing; we’ll give you the reality when we get back.

Mark 

10th

 

Another Saturday Night and I ain’t got no…  Well I guess it’s Sunday so that dose not matter.  It is beautiful here right now, spring has sprung and the world is in bloom.  If it can be green it is and to add to that it is clean up time in Ukraine so everything is getting a fresh coat of paint.  The streets are being swept and all of the sand that was put down on top of the snow is being put aside.  Life is good.

Wednesday we will find out where we are going and it will most likely be after our trip that we will be able to post where that is so do not be surprised if we can not tell you until after the 21st of April.  We go to the coordinators conference on Wednesday and they will tell us, then on Thursday we will meet with our coordinator from that town.  The coordinator may or may not speak English, the town may or may not ever have been visited by an American but it will be fun.  Then we work with our coordinator for a day or two before boarding a bus/train and heading out to our future home.  The time spent at the site will be determined by the distance away from Kiev and how long it takes to get there.  We need to be back in Kiev, all by ourselves, on the 21st for debriefing and then back to our training site that day.  This is our first big adventure and we are looking forward to it very much. 

We have been working on our language skills and in class it just does not seem to be sinking in, but this weekend we had many conservations with various people and they seemed to go alright so I feel better. 

Today our host family had visitors right after lunch so we headed back to the table for more food and conservation.  We showed pictures to everyone and we were grilled about our family, our education, our motivation and the color of our underwear, well that was a joke of course, but it seemed to be a comprehensive grilling.  This whole country is all about family.  The language class spent one whole week on words to describe family and at the time I thought it was a waste of time.  Right now I’m glad that I learned how to say my sister’s second cousin’s daughter because it sure came in handy today. 

I am working on my introduction speech tonight.  I have already written it but not I have to translate it into Russian so that my instructor can go over it before I give it.  No matter how hard I try, I am very likely to tell that big group of future coworkers that I have a drunken family instead of a large family or that my Brother is green instead of a tree surgeon and the fact that my sister is a library will surely bring down the house.  They already think I am weird because I have two papas and three mamas’ but my host family knows all about all of you and they can not wait to meet you when you come.

Speaking of coming, feel free.  Allow yourselves plenty of time to get your passport and visa and scout out good plane fares but once you are here and out of the capital, it is very inexpensive.  The local hotel is quite nice and has satellite TV and most of the extras but costs a whopping 50 grivinia a day.  Go back to March’s sidebar and remember that a grivinia is worth about 18 cents each so that makes the hotel a very expensive place at twenty dollars a night.  Transportation to Kiev from where we are staying is 9 grivinia and takes two hours. 

Transportation is available and fairly easy to get but standing is a definite possibility on the shorter trips and walking is required for the in town transportation.  We have not used a taxi as yet but they should be somewhere in that price range.  The Peace Corps tells us that we are not allowed to travel very far away from our site for the first three months or the last three months but we should be able to arrange for time off most of the rest of the year.  Every one here is involved with some kind of summer camp so check with us for dates before you come as that will be a required event. 

Tomorrow we travel to Kiev for a field trip to the train station.  Got to make sure that we know how to get around because we have to get home all by ourselves from where ever we go to.  This trip could involve trains, bus, mashrutka (route taxi), and donkey cart so we have to be ready for it all.  No one knows where they will be going so preparation takes longer.  Wish us luck.

6th

 

I got to upload Virginia’s journal the other day but I did not have mine with me.  I hope to upload this journal soon but I will write more right now.  I met with the IT teachers the other day and was happy to find a group of dedicated teachers and a small lab of very good computers.  They told me that they were using the lab to teach science, math and physics as well as computer programming.  The computer programming classes do not start until the students last year in school.  This is to prepare them for university.  They gave me detailed information on the number of computers in the district and the number of schools.  They have 17 schools in the district with a total of 326 computers.  90 of them are less than three years old but the rest are 5-7 years old and not very helpful to the school.  They told me that each school had at least 5 computers for students to use.  We discussed ways to increase the teacher’s ability to use the computers to help with school instruction.  I had an idea on a workshop but I have since come to the conclusion that it will not work here.  I spoke to an English teacher from one of the other schools and she was certain that her school had no computers at all, let alone any that worked well.  The school administration member that came to the meeting spoke of the problems that teachers have with computers.  The time it takes to put together a presentation is not available to the teachers here.  They have no preparation period and they are so poorly paid that they will not stay after to work on class preparation.  The administration locks the doors of the school at 4 pm and everyone is out the door.  When can they put together a presentation?  Not one teacher at the school owns a computer of their own and based on the salary that I am told they are paid; I do not see any chance that they ever will.  How can I help introduce them to computers for instruction with those problems? 

I have to remember that this period of time is a learning period.  What we are here to do is learn Russian and discover the problems that we will encounter when we get to our permanent site.  The layers of people that get in the way of your work, how you have to follow the steps to get anything done.

What I have learned is that I will be frustrated much of the time here in Ukraine.  It seems that preparation time is non existent.  I proposed working with a couple of interested teachers to put together a presentation for the rest of the teachers.  What I found out was:  I needed to get permission from the city administration to talk to the school administration so I could ask the IT instructor to help me find the teachers that would be interested in working on this project.  Then when I had their names I would have to go back to the city administration and get permission to ask the school administration if I could visit with them to see if they were interested in working on the project.  Then we would have to get the city administration to tell the school administration that the teachers would be required to attend a seminar from some Peace Corps volunteer on a subject they most likely have no interest in attending.  It appears that nothing is up to the teachers, they are told when they need to be somewhere and if they are not told to be there then they will not be there. 

It seems that the major problem here is not with the equipment that they have nor with the ability of the teachers but with the system they have inherited.  It is cumbersome and restrictive from our point of view but they have used it for many year and they have turned out many talented students.  Some of the best programmers in the world come from Ukraine.

Now for other stuff.  The time is coming neigh when we will find out where we are going.  At this time next week we will be packed and ready to leave for the coordinators conference and the site visit.  April 13th-16th will see us back at the training site we started at.  During that time we will be introduced to our future coordinators and told were we will be working.  Then from the 17th – 21st we will travel to our future site and visit the town and our job site.  We will stay with the second host family and hopefully find the time to set up a post office box so we can receive mail.

Right now we can receive mail through the Peace Corps but it goes through the Embassy mail room so it is opened before it gets to us.  I’m not sure what they are looking for but since 911 they said it has gotten worse.  Please if you are writing to us use the mail address for the Peace Corp until told to do anything different.  When we get a box for our mail we will be able to receive packages but remember that we will be living with someone else until September.  Well I have to get back to homework so I will sign off for now.  I have to write a story in Russian using an odd list of words the teacher provided.  I have been working on learning to type in Russian on the computer.  I come home each day from class and transcribe the notes into the computer using Russian and English.  They look very neat that way and some times it helps me remember the words better but it is a lot of work.  Right now I know the keyboard in Russian as well as I do in English but since I have to look at each word for spelling, I can not type very fast.  Writing the story requires two notebooks, a dictionary, and my computer notes as well as asking my wife her opinion on the case usage of the word.

Ok, I’ll include my story here so you can enjoy the tale.

 

Мой жена очень нравится путешествовать.  Она часто ездит в поезд. Я кнпл мой жеиа подарок два билеты на поезд Одесса на пятнадцатый июня.  Эти сральный вагон.  Я надежда она получала сама.  Я класл шоколад, пиченьеы, сирь и хлеб в пакет на путешествовать.  Я надежда не дождь.

 

What it says is:  My wife likes to travel very much.  She often travels by train.  I bought my wife a present of two first class tickets on the train to Odessa, on the 15th of June.  I hope she enjoys herself.  I will put together a packet containing chocolate, cookies, cheese and bread for the journey.  I hope that it does not rain. 

 

All nominations for a literary award will be laughed at so do not bother.  I was happy just to get it written.

Bye for now

 

3rd

 

Ok, it’s been a week.  That is a bad habit to get into and one that I will try very hard to get out of.  It’s just that since I know that I can not upload I tend to wait until I might be able to upload.  Alright, back to current events.  Time is still full of things to do but somewhere during the last week it seems that time shifted to other things and the thoughts that I will be able to do some extra things here in Ukraine.  We study Russian formally 4 hours a day with 1 hour of individual tutoring each week, and then we visit businesses and work on community relations.  That means we get to go out and work on our Russian with the friendly people of this Ukrainian speaking town.  Actually this town is very multi-lingual but the menu’s and signs are all in Ukrainian so that adds a level of frustration.  Virginia and I went to a nice restaurant the other day and just sat and stared at the menu for 15 minutes or so before we tried to find out what they had to eat.  I stared at that typewritten menu and did not understand that it was in Russian Cursive.  I just knew that if it was typed it had to be in the printed characters, I was wrong, just because I can not get my computer to type in cursive does not mean that the Russian typewriters do not have this capability.  Once we passed that hurtle it was okay and we had a very nice lunch.

Tuesday I will be meeting with the School’s IT people to find out what is available to the teachers in the schools.  I have been working up a PowerPoint presentation that uses graphics and other media to teach simple English.  Just before I left Greenwood, I spent several hours taking pictures around town and in the stores.  Those pictures are now part of my program.  I show a picture and identify as many items as I can in Russian, then the students identify them in turn and the mouse click displays the Russian text.  The actual PowerPoint took very little time but the Russian Typing took a very long time.  I have to look at the word to spell it right, then the keyboard diagram that I made to get the letters right, and if the word is long enough, I get to do that several times.  I can now type several of the characters without looking but I need to start all over again each time I leave the computer because I just can not get it set in y mind yet. 

There is a church Organization here in town that has its roots in Australia and they have been kind enough to let us use their internet connection from time to time to check our e-mail.  I offered to help them in anyway that I could and it turns out that they are ready to get into Video work because they would like to do a few infomercials on one of their community projects, a Bio Gas facility,  The video equipment is not here yet but I will see what I can do.  The other day they asked if I could help out with a networking problem they had and I got to go up stairs where they have a ten computer classroom where they teach any student in town without charge how to use a computer.  I was impressed with the level of instruction provided and the quality of machines in the room.  My previous experience was of very old machines teaching Excel 97 workbook programs.  I also saw upstairs a second classroom of industrial sewing machines where they were teaching students how to sew upholstery and curtains.  I don’t know what else they teach but I was impressed with the level of involvement this group has with the community without pushing their religious views on the students.  They came in and offered help with out strings and a church that is open to all.  It is not my church but I am impressed with their ability to live the Christian life and minister without strings in a community that is ready to grow religiously. 

We had our last job interview last week.  It seems that we filled out all of that paperwork about ourselves and our backgrounds only to come here and go through a job placement interview.  They have a location in mind but you have a chance to talk about your resume and put a true spin on it.  The resume that they request when you enter Peace Corps was comprehensive to say the least.  It listed every job we have ever had and that is what they used to set our preliminary site.  This interview allowed us to give our thoughts on each job and list those that we did not ever what to do again.  It was good for me because listing Television Production and instructing Television production on the resume left out the parts that I like.  I mentioned that I had heard that the Peace Corps Ukrainian was looking for an editor for a current project and I wanted to be considered regardless of where I was stationed. That got a reaction and the next day I received a phone call from the Deputy Head of Country with a request to cut down a 30 minute tape to several :30 sec. commercials and a ten minute infomercial.  I said Yes and even though I have not sworn in as yet I now have an official job with the Peace Corps.  Well that will have to do for now and maybe I can upload tomorrow. I need to get back to Reviewing my case rules.  This week we get to add another case as if the 5 we already have are not enough.

 

В году четыре времени гола: весна, лето, осень, зима?

 

What is your favorite season of the year: spring, summer, fall, or winter?  Just a little practice typing and hopefully to impress you with just how bad my Russian is.

 

Mark

 

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