Do you ever have moments where you completely forget where you are, what you are doing and what is going on? This did not happen to me very much in the states, but it happens to me fairly often in Ukraine, usually when I am traveling. This happened to me a couple Fridays ago. I was on a marshrutka traveling to another town to see a volunteer. I was looking out the window and I saw something that looked just like a baseball field. For a second, I thought, wow, there is a baseball field and I thought I was back in the states. And then I was like, wait, there are not baseball fields in Ukraine. Then I was like, wait, I am in Ukraine. Then I was like, wait, hold on, why am I in Ukraine?! And for a split second I completely forgot what I was doing and why I was in Ukraine. But then I came back to reality. It was a very strange moment.
Two weeks ago I participated in a teacher’s camp in Sumy, which is the capitol of my Oblast. Sumy is about 2 hours by marshrutka from Konotop and about 300,000 people live there. The camp was for English teachers, and there were about 9 of us volunteers there to teach the teachers about different things they can bring into their classrooms—ideas for activities, how to hold debates in their classes, information about HIV/AIDS, as well as other lessons about teaching and leadership. There were about 25 teachers there. It was SO much fun. The teachers were really enthusiastic, excited to share their knowledge with us as well as learn from us, and I made some new Ukrainian friends who are excited to show me around Sumy some weekend soon. It’s really nice meeting wonderful Ukrainian people and making connections, especially with people who are my age.
The camp was on a Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday after camp, one of the other volunteers who were there said that she had found online that there was a synagogue in Sumy that she wanted to try to find, so a whole bunch of us set out on an adventure to find this synagogue. (It also happened to be Purim on that Sunday, which was a nice coincidence.) Well we got lost, but then we asked a nice man pushing a baby carriage where it was, and he led us through Sumy to the street we were looking for. Suddenly before we knew it, we were washing our hands, saying a blessing, and stumbled into a huge Purim celebration. The synagogue was full of Ukrainian Jewish people, and the rabbi there is actually from California. At first we stood and watched as he read from the torah (probably the fastest I have ever heard Hebrew being read. Maybe the fastest I have heard any language. It was amazing!) And then we were given seats at the tables. Before we knew it, we were eating, listening to kids sing songs in Russian and Hebrew, drinking vodka and watching a man juggle bottles lit on fire! It was such a fun, interesting and amazing experience. Hearing Russian and Hebrew being mixed together, speaking with other Ukrainian Jewish people, just the whole experience was awesome. The rabbi and another man who was speaking a bunch talked a bit about Peace Corps and that we were American volunteers, and everyone clapped, which was nice. I am going to try to go there for Passover, and the rabbi gave me the phone number of someone in my town who works at a Jewish Community Center! Apparently there is a somewhat active Jewish life in my town, which I had no idea about, nor did my site mate. So I will give him a call soon.
You know it is interesting. For much of, I am not sure about most of, but for much of my life, Judaism is something that I felt not much of a connection to. I mean, I have always loved many of the holidays and certain traditions. But I am somewhat of a rebellious person and much of my life, for instance when I went to Hebrew school and went to temple, I wasn’t really going because I enjoyed the services or felt a connection. Yes I loved the temple I used to go to, but I loved it more for the people and the activities (when I was a child) that we would do there. Recently I was speaking to an English teacher at my school, and he said that his parents were Atheists and so that was how he was raised. And now as an adult, he is starting to find an interest in learning more about religion and finding out about what is out there on his own, without his parents telling him that religion is bad. I think this is the same for me. I am not saying that my family ever told me what to believe, but being the rebellious child/teenager I was, and the rebellious adult I still feel I am at times, I think that I would rather figure out and experience things on my own. I think I feel more free to do what I want when it comes to Judaism and decide how I want it to be in my life. Additionally, Ukraine has an interesting though quite sad history of Jewish people, so I think it would be interesting to learn more about it here first hand.
Last week I went to a 4 day PEPFAR conference in Kyiv. The purpose was to educate us-- the American volunteers and our Ukrainian counterparts so that we can go back to our site and know how to apply for a PEPFAR grant and go about implementing a project, related to HIV/AIDS prevention. The days were full of seminars, lessons panels and activities all related to HIV/AIDS. It was 25 Peace Corps Volunteers and each volunteer brought a Ukrainian colleague, and we were split into two groups. The Ukrainian colleagues did pretty much exactly what we did, but in Ukrianian/Russian and we learned in English. But every day we did have an hour- long language lesson, learning HIV/AIDS terminology in Ukrainian/Russian. We learned about the history and biology of HIV/AIDS. Learned about transmission of the disease, about stigma and discrimination, as well as the situation in Ukraine. Two HIV positive Ukrainian women came and told us their stories of living with the virus. It was a great week, and I am excited about the prospect of applying for a grant and doing some work within my school and community related to HIV/AIDS.
The weekend after the PEPFAR training I went to see my host family for the first time since training ended. It was so much fun. I ate so much borsch, vareniki and golubtsi. It was crazy. The 8th of March was International Women’s Day, which is an official holiday in Ukraine, and my host mom’s nephew and his daughter were in town, so we had a big women’s day celebration. It was me, my host brother, host mom, my host mom’s sister, her two sons and granddaughter and the neighbor and her son. We ate a lot, toasted many times and gave little presents to each woman. It was really nice to be back where I had training. I also went to visit another host mom from training, and it was fun to see her. It was a great 4 days of speaking lots of Russian, relaxing and eating amazing food. My host mom and I had fun watching “Ukraine’s Got Talent” as well as a Ukrainian version of “America’s funniest home videos”. I am planning to go back there for Easter. Easter in Ukraine is apparently an amazing time, so that should be fun. Also my host mom’s granddaughter will be there for Easter, so we will finally be reunited and have some crazy times!
I have SO much laundry to do. I don’t know how it all piled up, but I really really don’t want to do it. Ultimately, I don’t mind hand washing, but when there is so much, that’s the worst. Plus I feel like nothing ever really gets that clean. Grrrr. Okay, enough complaining, I am gonna go tackle the laundry situation.
Miss everyone back home lots. Bye bye!
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