Peace Corps Staging and Training
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2004
1
3
39
Trip End
Dec 22, 2006
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Mironivka, Ukraine
Saturday, October 2, 2004
The new information I have found out about my Peace Corps position: First of all, I apologize for lying to all of you...I am NOT actually training in Kiev. My cluster group of 5 volunteers is training here in Mironivka until Dec. 23rd.
We just arrived yesterday, and I met my host-mother, Nadia, last night. She seems extremely sweet. I'm not sure how I understood everything she said, but I found out a lot of information. She has a daughter Lena, who is 23 and works in Kiev during the week. Her husband died 5 years ago from a heart attack. He was 61, and she is 48. She teaches Ukrainian Literature to secondary school students. She has a beautiful Siamese cat, Box. She doesn't smoke or drink and she had a gentle sweet personality, so I feel very lucky.
My cluster of volunteers will meet everyday except Sunday for language training, and this week I will meet with my Ukrainian teacher who will be my counterpart. I am excited, and pleased with how organized the Peace Corps programming is in Ukraine. I already have lots of language materials, and I feel so much support from the facilitators.
Peace Corps told us that my group is the largest Peace Corps group in history, and that Ukraine is the most organized Peace Corps country in the world. 70% of my group will be sent to rural villages where there have never been any Americans before us.
The country is dark and damp right now, and I still feel some jet-lag. However I am doing quite well and feeling fine. My brain is taking in so much. There is a lot of grey, browns and black, but I see beautiful colors here too: the yellow glow of the moon peaking behind the pine forest, the marigolds (Ukraine's national flower), the profound blue eyes that so many Ukrainians seem to have, orange-shiny chestnuts along the sidewalks and bright red apples hanging from the trees.
This is a country where feeling is more important than anything else. The most important thing Peace Corps has given all of my fellow Group 27 volunteers is patience, which is making me stop and think about the feeling of my experience. Right now, I am in love with the country, even if I only know 5 words and feel quite awkward most of the time. I feel as if I could not have asked for a better posting.
