well I have officially made it to Ukraine!
and just to summarize very quickly, i will be learning Russian and leaving for chernihiv tomorrow (Friday) to meet my host family for the first time.
it’s been a whirlwind few days and i still feel the after effects of the flight, but here is a quick update of what our journey has entailed so far.
traveling internationally with a group of 64 is a pretty impressive logistical bit of fun. we all made it safely, although there were some tired people on the layover in munich. overall, the trip was very smooth though, and we reached kyiv with the sun just starting to set, allowing us all a decent view of the city as we drove through.
kyiv (incidentally, this is the ukrainian spelling of their capital city) seems to be an interesting mix of historical and soviet architecture sprinkled with new apartment towers, planned communities, colorful markets and bustling people. you can see the development taking shape just in the new billboards lining the highway advertising all types of products. it is definitely a place i’ll have to explore more, although that will probably have to wait a few months until training is over.
as for the volunteers, we were whisked off to a “typical soviet resort” where we’ve spent the past couple days getting prepared for the training about to take place. the pc staff welcomed us in with a traditional Ukrainian welcome ceremony of bread and salt, and we have since eaten our fill, gone through initial medical screenings, received welcome speeches from the pc director and the us ambassador, and had an initial language lesson to hopefully prepare for that first meeting with the host family (probably the one thing i am nervous about!)
everyone from the ambassador, director, training coordinator, and on down the line have all stressed the same good piece of advice over these two short days. and that deals with our definition of success as we begin our transition into this new culture and eventually discover our assigned projects.
peace corps has three goals for a reason. the first one relates to our specific projects by trying to provide skilled American men and women to assist another country’s project needs. the second and third goals relate more to the cross-cultural component, providing a mechanism for Americans to share our culture with Ukrainians and for pc volunteers to share Ukrainian culture with those still in America, respectively.
when, as Americans, we inevitably get frustrated at some part of our projects over the next two years, that will be one of the most crucial times to remember goals two and three. a successful peace corps experience is built on all three goals, and the relationships established, images of a role model, and cultures appreciated are the things that will be remembered by your Ukrainian friends and community members long after the volunteer has returned home.
well, we leave for chernihiv tomorrow afternoon to meet the families that will be helping us over the next three months, and i still have some language studying to do in the hopes of lessening the awkwardness of that first meal!
i hope everyone is doing well, -c
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