general update 05.17.08

i think it just hit me this week that the time has been flying by around here, and i know i have not had a chance to respond to many questions over email, so here’s a general update for the moment…

overall, things have been going very well, and i have been much busier than i anticipated. on the language side of things, i have really enjoyed the pace of the classes, and i definitely feel like i will be able to survive after training is over and i am at my site without the support of the other trainees around. we have had a lot of work to do outside of class, usually an hour or two of Russian homework each night, but it has been a great mix of useful vocabulary and example dialogues along with the more traditional grammar sections. between having Ukrainian teachers who know what we should expect when we reach our sites and then coming home and having to communicate around the house or the neighborhood, it’s much different than studying a language back in the US. minus some vocab, i feel like i will be at the same level in Russian as i was with Spanish after college.

on the work side of things, we have finalized our small community development project idea for training and begun to have meetings with our partner organizations to work out the details. in general, our group of 5 trainees is hoping to help the organizations in the city with the professionalism of their websites and the message they want to send to the rest of the community (including current donors to the org, members of their orgs, and potential funders who visit their site). as we have done site visits to various places over the last month and a half, almost all of them said that they were interested in “help with their websites”. since that is a pretty general work description, our smaller group has been conducting a basic survey of the organizations (in Russian and Ukrainian) to find out exactly what help they need most. in addition, we have done some research into existing sites on our own and will be putting together a resource cd to give to the organizations when we leave with high level information about how to use the web as an effective marketing tool. many of our own group of volunteers have expressed hesitancy around their knowledge of this material also, so we’re hoping this will be a resource that everyone can take to their sites.

the other fun piece of this, to make it more sustainable, is that we are pulling in some help from the local technical university. we just met the other day with a small group of 2^nd year students who are interested in helping us translate the materials on the cd into both languages, working with us to learn some of these skills (as their curriculum seems to be geared more towards the specific technologies than the organizational side of their work), and then offering their web development services to these organizations who may have little funding to work with a professional web development firm.

it’s hard to believe that we only have one month left here in chernihiv! we had our site placement interviews this past week, and the next big date is May 27 (only a week and a half away) when we will all find out where we will be going for two years. after that, it’s a couple more weeks to finish up projects, hang out with our host families, and then off to our sites. supposedly, life will slow down after that, but I don’t think I’ll be holding my breath on that one.

I hope everyone is doing well, and i’ll be bugging you over email as well!

my ukrainian diet 05.03.08

what better way is there to start off a day than with a big ol’ plate of freshly made french fries, eggs, kielbasa, yogurt, an orange, and peach juice? i might have to make that my new breakfast of champions, at least for the next couple years while the access to frosted flakes is rather limited.

so far though, the food has been great. i’ve heard all of the complaints about wanting more spices or exotic flavors in the dishes, but there’s really not much you can’t do with salt, pepper, garlic, sunflower oil, and a couple of fresh or dried herbs. sure, some hot sauce might be a nice addition once in a while, but salo and soy sauce (not necessarily together) will more than adequately get you by.

i’ve been lucky in that my host family makes some very tasty food. most meals start off with some sort of freshly made soup (so far this has generally been borsht or some version of chicken soup). i haven’t figured out exactly how my host mom manages to make fresh chicken stock every other day, but one of these times i’m going to catch her in the act and be sure to get a lesson.

and the big lesson i’m still learning…no matter how big a bowl of soup you are served (or how hearty it might be), there’s more food coming…

i still need to learn the names of a lot of these dishes before i can post a good description, but here are a few of my favorites so far… (additionally, i apologize for the spellings. scarily enough, i’m feeling more comfortable spelling in Russian right now than translating the names from their Cyrillic)

- blini – basically blintze-like pancakes that can be filled with just about anything. my two favorites so far have been a shredded chicken and onion mixture, and a ricotta cheese and raisin filling. these are then pan-fried and served up nice and hot (the chicken one is amazing with some soy sauce)

- buterbrat – who doesn’t like an open faced sandwich of bread, butter, and kielbasa?

- borscht – of course. beets are surprisingly tasty (although i’ve really only had them in borscht so far)

- vareniky – the best comparison i can think of is probably a pierogi, although the vareniky are not as doughy on the outside. they can be filled with just about anything, but the main ones i’ve had so far are either potato and fried onion or a mix of ground chicken, pork, or beef. and you have to have the smetana (sour cream) on the top. i’ve sat down to a plate of 8 or 9 of these guys and come away stuffed.

- Smetana – speaking of sour cream, i can definitely say that i was not a huge fan in the US. the stuff over here though is really good. a little creamier and not as sour, it’s got a surprising number of uses (the most interesting was probably this morning though as a replacement for mozzarella on top of fresh tomato slices. i was quite pleasantly surprised!)

- pilmeny – a smaller version of vareniky, but i think they have a slightly different outer shell. just to give you an idea, i can probably eat about 20 of these before being totally stuffed

- and probably the most eaten food….the glorious potato in all its wondrous forms! i’ve had freshly made French fries, au gratin style, mashed (called puree here), sort of like homefries with some kolbasa and shredded carrots, and amazing shredded potato and onion pancakes (called direny). yes, think Hanukkah for inspiration.

these are just a few of the foods that i can think of at the moment. i know there are more as i have not walked away from a table yet without being fed extremely well. i’m also trying to learn a few of these recipes from my host mom, so i’ll be able to make them for anyone who happens to come visit. i will definitely keep everyone updated with more descriptions as I try them again; everything was going so fast the first time around its hard to remember.

the most interesting thing with all of these dishes though is that these foods can appear at any meal; there are no real specific “breakfast” or “dinner” foods that i have seen. i’ve sat down to breakfast with everything from fried fish and puree from the night before to an omelet with yogurt and fruit. it definitely surprised me for the first week, but it doesn’t take long for me to want to eat tasty food no matter what time of day J