Again a ton has happened. It’s so hard to keep up with the ole blog. I have since left Starry Belous. I woke up that morning with bad diarrhea, but thanks to the 4 Imodium that I took, I managed the 2 hour bus ride to Kiev and then some. The took us to a University campus where we would be spending the next 4 days in various meetings and information sessions, in addition to meeting our counterparts for the first time, all before getting shipped off to our sites. I know I’ve said it before, but training was exhausting. Being ill on top of it was even more so, sitting through days of meetings and knowing that we were about to say goodbye to each other and forced into a weird uncomfortable social situation with our counterparts… tough man. I was one tired sister. But the last 4 days were fun and in some ways brought a lot of us closer together.
The first day at the gathering in Kiev, they told us where we would be heading to site. Our little Cluster was flung all over the country. I was headed to Balakleya in the Kharkiv Oblast. It’s a town of 45,000 people. I would have my own apartment on the 3rd floor of a 5-story walk up. I would not have hot water. I would be working for an organization that works with HIV positive children and youth. Kim and John would be sent off to the same region in Sumi Oblast and would be living roughly an hour apart. Conor is roughly six hours away from me in Donetsk Oblast. And Cassie was flung the farthest from everyone to somewhere I can’t remember right now, but she’s in a major city and was placed on the women’s soccer team before she even got to site.
Conor and I went on an adventure the last night. We took the chance at having a last ditch effort to get some American food before heading off to site and the potential for endless meals of cabbage salads, kasha and friend eggs. What did we eat? We went out for a cheeseburger! And not just any old shitty cheeseburger, we went to TGI Fridays or тжи Фрайдис. I got the Cheesy Bacon Cheeseburger standard size Conor got the Jack Daniels Burger ultimate size (apparently it means you get an extra patty of beef) with an icy cold Heineken draft beer. I don’t think I have ever seen Conor so ecstatic. I think it might have been the first time he was full in three months. Whether it was the burgers or just the end of a training – we were both exhausted post-meal. We headed straight back to the dorms and we both passed out.
The last day – D-Day was tough. We had some meetings, then the official Swearing-In Ceremony, and then a few of us at a time we were to be picked off and sent to the train station to head out. The Swearing-In Ceremony was great. My host-mom showed up for the ceremony so that was a great surprise. She bought me chocolates which I immediately opened since I was nervous about committing myself to something for two years – especially since I still don’t know exactly what is in store for me. When Theodora asked if anyone wanted coffee, I jumped on that. Around the time Theodora and Cassie came back with the coffees, a man came up and started talking to my mom in Russian. So she turned her back and us and started having a conversation. As I was stirring my coffee, I said rather loudly to my friends... ‘Gee, I hope this coffee doesn’t make me want to poop during the ceremony’. And that was when Conor started laughing hysterically and said, ‘Dude, reporter… recording…’ Ooops, I was kind of wondering why the guy was holding his Blackberry in between he and my host-mom. So maybe there is a sound bite out there of me talking about poop in the background of a meaning interview about Ukrainian/American partnerships.
The actually ceremony made me feel pretty proud. They played the Ukraine National Anthem, then the US National Anthem, and I could have swore I felt an inkling of patriotism in these cynical bones. I might have even teared up a little. A bit later the Peace Corps trainees were asked to stand and raise their right hand and we actually had to repeat an oath. It was so official. I actually swore to serve my country and promote world peace. Cool. My stomach dropped a bit, but I shrugged it off… two years is a long time, but in the grand scheme of things it will probably go by in the wink of an eye.
And then the torture started to happen. First John and Kim went to head off to their sites... See Peace Corps had our departures staggered to make it less of a logistical nightmare to see off 72 people. But being one of the 7 left standing at the end of the day due to my late train departure sucked because I got to see EVERYONE go. Every damn hour hugging, lugging (baggage) and crying over and over again. It was killer. Conor went next. Then Cassie. Thankfully both Vicki and Brenda were in the 7 left standing so that I had some funny peeps to shoot the shit with. Vicki bought a bag of Snickers bars and doled them out… btw, Vicki, I still have that Snickers. I am saving it for a rainy day.
For the train ride, the Peace Corps was generous and bought out an entire Coupé compartment for the volunteer, the counterpart and all of the volunteers belongings. This sounded a little extravagant, but much safer than trying to watch over a ton of baggage in a shared space… Come to find out, we would not have been able to fit in the Coupé with the baggage and 2 other strangers. It was a tight space. I could reach out and touch my counterpart on the other side of the room from my sleeping berth. I can’t imagine trying to sleep in there with a bunch of strangers (although essential the counterpart is a stranger). I am going to find out this weekend though. I am hoping my Coupé is not sold out.
Another note on the trains… early morning the conductor makes an announcement over the compartment sound system that says, ‘It’s time to wake up, it’s time to wake up, it’s time to wake up…’ in a really soothing, not obtrusive voice. Initially, I couldn’t figure out why they would wake us up an hour before arrival, but then I went to the bathroom and discovered why. Everyone lines up for the bathroom and if you want to get in there and brush your teeth and wash up pre-arrival you have to wait in the line. I guess this is good for me to note. Do not drink a lot of water on long train trips, because you might not get to go to the bathroom, and be careful what you eat and/or take some Imodium preemptively.
Now, I want to mention, that you have to give Peace Corps volunteers some credit for being adventurous and brave. It’s not easy to get dropped in a different country where you don’t speak the language or know the customs and get dropped into a host-family setting where you are living with strangers for three months in various conditions. But setting off for site, post-training and only know a few details about your new home, new job, and new colleagues and knowing that this is going to be your life for the next 2 years and not knowing what to expect… that is scary. Even scarier when you counterpart neither speaks English, nor makes any effort to speak Russian in a way that would be comprehensible to someone just learning the language. I’d just like you to think on that before I write my next entry about what my first impressions of my new site were.
