"It's been One Week..."

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, no plumbing, no internet, and no cell phone service …and I am so happy. I never expected a Soviet torn area of the world to become not only a welcoming community full of beautiful, warm people, but to become a home to me. And although the language is kicking my butt (such a struggle!), I know that it will come easier with time. I can’t believe it’s only been a week. Week 2, show me what you got. 



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.