The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday, February 20, 2012

This is Fantastic

Transportation in Ukraine is always a hoot and a half. Public transportation mostly consists of a series of buses, trains, and marshrutkas. A marshrutka, literally 'route bus', is like a bus and a jank van mated and had a runty, not fully functioning offspring. Riding on a marshrutka consists of the following: your marsh may or may not show up on time, or at all; an uncomfortably hot or uncomfortably cold ride, depending on the season; no personal space and/or someone's elbow in your back, face, etc.; hard seats, if you're lucky enough to get one, or standing the entire trip; erratic driving coupled with bad roads, and no shocks to absorb the impact of the deep pot holes you will definitely hit.

Which leads me to this picture that has been circulating around the internet. Marshrutka drivers are always gruff looking men who only give one word answers, and can multitask while driving like you can't even imagine. This fine young gent is a good example. Note the 1) hot tea or coffee 2) the cigarette 3) the cellphone, and 4) him collecting someone's fare. And he's driving.

Impressive, eh?

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine's Day

This article is endearingly accurate.

12 Reasons to Date a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
  1. We can woo you in multiple languages. Who else is going to whisper sweet nothings to you in everything from Albanian to Hausa to Quechua to Xhosa? That’s right. Only a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.
  2. We’re pretty good dancers. Yeah, we don’t like to brag, but after 27 months in Latin America or Africa we know how to move it.
  3. We’ll eat anything. Seriously. No matter how bad your cooking, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers have had worse and will eat it with nary a blink. Sheep’s eyeball? Water buffalo gall bladder? Grasshoppers? Bush rat? Bring it.
  4. We know all about safe sex, thanks to our very thorough Peace Corps health training. In fact, there’s a chance that we’ve stood unblushingly in front of hundreds of villagers and demonstrated good condom technique with a large wooden phallus.
  5. We’ll kill spiders for you. Well, actually, we’ll nonchalantly scoop them up and put them out of sight.  Same goes for mice, geckos, frogs, snakes. Critters don’t faze Returned Volunteers.
  6. We have great date ideas: wandering a street market, checking out a foreign film, taking in a world music concert, volunteering…. Romantic getaway? Our passport is updated and our suitcase is packed. With us, life is always an adventure.
  7. We like you for “you”… not your paycheck. Especially if we are freshly back from service, a local joint with “character” will win out over a pretentious eatery.  Living in a group house? No problem. Does it have running hot water? What luxury!
  8. You won’t get lost when you’re with a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Navigating local markets on four continents, we’ve honed an uncanny sense of direction. Or else we’ll ask for directions. We’re not afraid to talk to “strangers.”
  9. Waiting for a late train or bus? Don’t worry, we’ve been there, done that. We can share lots of funny stories about “the bus ride from hell” that will make the time go quickly and put it all into perspective.
  10. Our low-maintenance fashion style. Returned Peace Corps Volunteer guys are secure in their manhood and don’t mind rocking a sarong. Women often prefer flip flops to high heels. We don’t spend hours in front of a mirror getting ready to go out.
  11. Marry us, and you won’t just get one family — you’ll get two! When we refer to our “brother” or “mom,” you’ll want to be certain we’re talking about our American one or our Peace Corps one. You might even get two wedding ceremonies, one in the U.S. and one back in our Peace Corps country.
  12. And last but not least, we aren’t afraid to get dirty.

Monday, February 13, 2012

The Last American in Mezhyrich

Yeah, I know, that's a dramatic title for a blog post. But it's almost accurate.

I've been informed that my school wants to terminate their contract with Peace Corps. My first question was, now or after my service finishes? Luckily, it's after my service ends (though I know they wouldn't be heart broken if I decided to pack and leave tomorrow). Unfortunately, I wasn't surprised when one of my teachers told me this. My school is very politically divided and I've known for a long time that my presence at school wasn't all that welcome by some teachers. This news would have been more upsetting if I had planned on extending my service to finish out a full second year of teaching in my village, but I had already mostly decided against that. I could write a lot more about this but 1) I lack the energy to detail it all out and 2) an example may be better.

Example:
Last Tuesday, my school had an impromptu teachers' meeting to discuss the possibility of closing school Wednesday to Friday because it was so cold. The decision reached was that school would shut down for the rest of the week and reopen Monday. This is what my counterpart (my Ukrainian partner teacher) told me. So Wednesday I stayed home and did whatever. Same thing on Thursday. Except when I see my landlady, she asks me, "Why aren't you at school?!" I explain that we don't have school because it's so cold. She says no, she's fairly certain they reversed that decision and school is open again. Then she proceeds to ask me a bunch of questions about why I wasn't at school, and didn't someone call me and tell me about this, and it took a few minutes for her to understand that, no, in fact, no one called me to tell me I should show up for work. And now it looks like I decided to skip school to twiddle my thumbs in the warmth of my house. Great.

The responsibility of calling or texting me, in English or Ukrainian, belongs to my counterpart. Things like this happen all the time. She rarely tells me anything or interacts with me in any way if she can avoid it, which often leads to me being out of the loop about what's happening at my school. Personally, I think she doesn't want to interact with me because she doesn't know English very well (which honestly isn't all that relevant). That's also why she doesn't want another American, because rumor has it she's afraid PC will find out she doesn't speak English well. [Side note: PC doesn't care at all. Volunteers are placed at schools where the host organization expresses the desire to host a volunteer, English ability doesn't factor.]

Also, I've been told that because I don't pay special attention to the children and grandchildren of "important people" at school, this has caused some of these people to be very angry with me. Mostly I find this funny, because I've never seen a roster, often don't know kids' last names, and have no way of knowing who is related to who. Not that it would matter, because I do the American thing of paying equal attention to my students. It's a radical teaching tactic, I know.

The title of this blog post was inspired by the thought that my village isn't exactly a tourist destination. I'm the first American here, and if my school wants to sever ties with PC, then it'll probably be a very long time before another one passes through. My counterpart will probably work at my school for another 30 years or so, and if she continues to be politically well connected, then there will probably not be another PCV there until she retires, if she doesn't want another one.

Mostly, this makes me sad for my students.

I know I haven't written a substantial blog post in awhile. I hope this makes up for it.

 Sometimes I come home and google images of kittens. Can you blame me?

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

More Links

NPR's Russia By Rail series is pretty cool.

I have trouble comprehending why anyone would want to live in Siberia, but these pictures almost make me want to go there. Dazzling.
 
Men of the Crowd: How Homo Sovieticus Was Created is a good article about Ukrainian mentality.

In general, anything from Ukrainian Week is informative. I geeked out on this article about parents who try to always speak Ukrainian with their children while living in Russian heavy areas.

It's been cold in Ukraine. Last week, I had school on Monday and Tuesday and then school was closed until this past Monday due to the cold temperature. I had school Monday and Tuesday this week, and my school will be closed until next Monday again. I've only been leaving my house to go to school when I have it and to buy groceries. Otherwise, I'm inside reading or watching tv shows from my external. It's an exciting life, for sure.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Links

Uh oh. You Know You've Been in Ukraine Too Long When...

Cinnamon presidents in your coffee: В <Кофеине> Выбирают Президента

I've heard a lot about friends of acquaintances who have done programs like this in the U.S.: Company Banned in Effort to Protect Foreign Students From Exploitation

Most schools, including mine, were closed due to the cold: At Least 58 Killed in Eastern European Cold Wave (more people have died since this was written)

Lens Pictures of the Day, including the cold wave and, again, the cinnamon presidents.

Gross. A foreign affair: On the great Ukrainian bride hunt

The blog of a PCV who contracted HIV while serving: No Going Back. There is Only Forward.