Wow oh wow has the past few days been
crazy! I can’t believe I am already in Ukraine and settled in to my community!
So much has happened these past few days it’s hard to believe.
We arrived in Kiev without any issues
(minus a landing that was a little less than scary…) and after going through
the Diplomats entrance into the country
(no big deal), we were taken by bus to a hotel in a neighboring city where we
had our orientation. Orientation covered things such as safety, history of the
country, banking info, and sessions on our specialty. It also gave us more time
as a training group to bond and get to know each other better. More exciting than all that however was
finding out who was in our cluster and link groups (cluster- about 5 people
living in the same community and working with the same language teacher. You take all your classes with these people
and work on projects with them. Basically, a cluster consists of the people you
will be spending the next three months with. Link-when two clusters in nearby
communities meet up to work together). We also found out who our language teachers would be. I
am BEYOND thrilled at my cluster group and LCF. I literally could not be more
excited about whom I am with and our group dynamic, it is a match made in heaven! And our
language teacher is the sassiest of sassy. Perfection.
My cluster group is stationed in an
extremely small farming village about 2 hours from Kiev. When you think of
under-developed Soviet Ukraine, this place is exactly what comes to mind-and I
love it. I live with one older lady and am the only one in my cluster without running
water or plumbing. I thought not having running water would be more
challenging, but it actually isn’t really an issue. I have learned how to boil
water for everything and take bucket baths like a champ. We have an outhouse we
use during the day, but because we live on a farm and don’t want to disturb the
animals, at night if one needs to use the restroom one has to use a bucket that
is located in the middle of the kitchen. Needless to say, I have become a pro
at using the bathroom while the sun it out and waiting till the morning to use
it again haha.Our farm has pigs, chickens, rabbits and of course, our ever watchful dog that barks at anyone who even thinks about walking down our street.
I absolutely adore my host mama. This lady
is amazing. She is a nurse/doctor (still haven’t figured that one out yet) as
well as farmer. Although she speaks no English at all, she is so attentive to
me and loving that I feel super spoiled. She is a beast at cooking (many things
coming from out back in our farm), and an awesome chai maker. She is never
satisfied with how much I am eating, and every time I say I am full, she
motions for me to take 3 more bites and literally counts down till I have
completed the three bites haha. She is precious. Every night after dinner she
sits down with me and has me show her my homework and tries to talk with me
about it. We are already so close, I feel like she is a long lost grandma I never knew I had.
I still am trying to get used to the random
sites I see while walking around town. Yesterday I watched the cleaning and
decapitation of a pig that was about the size of two of me. Today I saw a kid
on a bike ride by with a hatchet in his hand. Two days ago I noticed some local children standing a bench looking over my fence to watch me eat dinner. I don't know if that was the first time they did it or the first time I noticed, but I thought it was hilarious. What is so interesting about watching me eat? Everyone knows about the Americans here in town, and we are constantly stared at. I guess I now know what celebrities feel like to some extent. As amused as I am with the sites around here, I feel that the locals are just as amused by me. Literally 7 people stopped what they were doing to watch me get water out of a well haha.
So, I haven't taken many pictures yet. I promise to be better and upload more showing my home and town later. But these pig ones had to go up asap.
