The summer flies by...

In light of the fact that I haven’t written a blog entry in four months, I suppose I will have to try to keep things short and sweet. Some cool stuff has definitely happened, some funny, some heart-warming, some horrible, but basically I am FINALLY settling into my Peace Corps service and life in Ukraine. My site change had definitely made all the difference. I have fallen into a place where I honestly feel like this is where I am supposed to be. All the crap that happened before I arrived here at my new site, now seems worth the stress and anguish because here I feel like I am finally at home. In the six months that I have lived at the new site, I feel as integrated as I want to be here in Ukraine. I have a wonderful living situation, good friends, and a relatively stress-free work environment (I work from home - ha). I have been running four to five days a week, doing yoga, taking long-walks and feeling content and at peace.
At the end of May, I had the good fortune to stand in for Caroline at her organizations bi-annual retreat to the sanatorium. Caroline works for a regional non-profit that stands up for the rights of the disabled in Ukraine. A lot of the hands-on work that Caroline does is doing arts and crafts and teaching English to the disabled youth in the Donbass (this is a region consisting of both Lugansk and Donetsk Oblasts in the far East of Ukraine). Lucky me, I got to represent the Peace Corps and America and basically have a really fun and relaxing get-away at a real Ukrainian sanatorium. I guess the American equivalent would be a rehabilitation center. We had a group of around 20 kids in wheelchairs from all over Lugansk and Donetsk Oblasts and we wheelchair danced, sang, swam, and basically had a ton of fun for 3 days. We did some arts and crafts and gave a try at English, but basically we did a lot of hanging around and having a good time. I met some wonderful new friends and really got a feel for how difficult it is to be disabled in Ukraine. It is really important that there are organizations like Caroline’s fighting for equal rights and treatment for people with disabilities here. I won’t go into particulars, but it’s not an easy life here for an abled person. People with disabilities face many more challenges here than in the States . Things like disabled access ramps and bathrooms are a relatively new concept here. Getting around can be a real challenge. Needless to say, this weekend was a real eye opener and I am really grateful for the opportunity to spend time with this great group of kids.
Next up, I spent a week hanging out with another great group of kids at my friend Hailey’s English Camp in her town. I definitely got a very different perspective on Peace Corps assignments here. Hailey is a Youth Development Volunteer. My experience thus far has been with teenagers and adults. Hailey’s camp was for kids ranging in ages from 10 to 13. It was a blast! I got to play and run and be a kid for a week. I was so exhausted. I don’t know why it was so exhausting. The only explanation that Hailey and I could come up with is that kids are just exhausting. Hailey and I instituted a post-camp nap hour that was well-deserved and entirely necessary.
Towards the end of June, I travelled to Kiev for my mandatory mid-Service medical appointments and I met up with my friend Theodora. We high-tailed it to Yalta for a few days and had a nice relaxing trip. It was an eye-opener seeing Yalta which is a Russian resort town. It unfortunately was cold and rainy for much of the time we were there, but we still managed to eat tons, drink tons, and relax on the beach and soak up some intermittent sun. The water was so frigid that my joints hurt when I did manage to get warm enough to hop in for a dip. One of my favorite parts of that trip was the train trip down. Theodora and I were both on top berths in a platzkart car. It was hot so we had the window open for the breeze. We were both just kind of lying their on our berths staring out the window as the world flew by and it started to rain. The rain started to splatter a bit into the car and we both stuck our hands out the window to feel the rain. It was one of those peaceful, childlike moments that makes you smile. And we did, we smiled at each other in the shared moment. And then the lady on the lower bunk had had enough of the rain splatter coming in the car and jumped up and slammed window shut.
July brought a week of Peace Corps sponsored language camp just outside of Kiev. This was a great opportunity to see my friends and to spend time together shooting the shit. I taught a yoga class one morning, swam in the Dnipro, played some soccer on the beach, and saw a real wild hedgehog the last night we were there. I went over to it and pet its prickles, but then it made a weird snort squeak noise and I jumped back and gave it some space. Although it would have made for a funny story, I don’t need to get bit by a hedgehog.
Directly following the language camp, I hopped a plane to Barcelona to meet up with one of my old friends from high school. We saw the shit out of Barcelona. I really like that city. I could see myself living there if anyone knows of any UN or US government jobs that I might be eligible for, digame por favor . We went up in the hills and saw Tibidabo, we saw the Gothic Quarter, we went to the beach, we saw a really creepy cemetery, we Gaudi-d, we ate paella, manchego and drank rioja, we walked a ton. It was great, but exhausting. It was so interesting to be in a developed Western city after being in a developing country for a year and a half. My friend is still ribbing me about my utter amazement with the vending machines in the Barcelona Metro. They had EVERYTHING, food, drinks, and then razors, condoms and sanitary supplies. You could live in there if it wasn’t refrigerated to the point that you would likely suffer from hypothermia.
And then back to Ukraine. I was supposed to travel on to Lvov to get my first taste of the West side of the country, but on returning I was so freaking tired that I opted to just turn around and make the 24 hour journey back home to the East. I spent the last few weeks of August at site relaxing, reading, sunning, running and just trying to get back in the groove and get organized for September when everything would start getting busy again.
A few hometown highlights that I find amusing or that I am proud of is that the TeleGazette (local newspaper) ran a full page article about me and what I am doing living in Starobelsk so now I am a local celebrity. A lot of people have come up and introduced themselves to me, so that has made my life a bit more interesting. I’ve mingled drank beer in gardens and mingled with turkeys. I’ve swam in the river. I joined another banya group so I am expanding my group of contacts. I have a local masseuse now. For the equivalent of five dollars, I can get a massage. The massages are definitely culturally interesting, but hey, that’s what I am here for… to learn about and experience a new culture. I was treated like one of the girls and was invited to order watermelons to be delivered with my neighbor and landlady. I bought 50 kgs. (110 lbs. or 14 small watermelons) and have been eating watermelon pretty much daily for almost a month now. I’ve had my first Peace Corps Volunteer visitors and hosted an American BBQ with a few Ukrainians in attendance. And finally, the following happened this morning.
As I was making my coffee and breakfast this morning, I could see Natasha through the window doing something in the yard with Lydia Kirilova (our neighbor -- side note... Everyone has more or less the same first name. I know a handful of Natashas, Ludas, Oksanas, Svetas, Lydas... it goes on and on. The same for boys names, so in conversation its normal to refer to someone with their full name, thus Lydia Kirilova). Usually when they fuss budget like that at the fence it is in reference to some kind of food delivery. Last one I witnessed was the watermelons.

All was revealed as Natasha bustled into the house fisting two large plastic bags. She looked at me and said, 'Amy! Reeboo! (Amy! Fish!), and proceeded to try to jam the two rather large bags of fish into the fridge muttering something about Operatszi Reeboo (Operation Fish). I chuckled at that and imagined the Mission Impossible theme-song playing in the background knowing that in the very near future there would be a huge production of chopping, slicing, salting and preserving going on on the porch today. She was excited about the fish, me not so much. Large deliveries of watermelons, amusing. Large deliveries of tomatoes, interesting and colorful. Large deliveries of fish... eck. Stinky.

Then she jumped up, washed her hands, put on some makeup and her sunglasses and told me she was going to the market. Amy! Operatszi Okroshka (Operation Okroshka)! Now that is more like it.

(Okroshka is a cold sour cream-based cucumber and dill soup with finely chopped potatoes, green onions, hard-boiled eggs, and ham or kielbasa. Mighty tasty).

Photos from Slaviansk

Photos from weekend at the sanatorium with the kids from Caroline's organization. Kids are from all over Lugansk Oblast. Caroline's organization fights for inclusion of disabled kids in schools and disabled rights. I'll blog more about the weekend later. A small group of us also visited the Lavra in Slaviansk.

Sanatorium

Well, there you have it. May is over even before it started. Time is flying, yet I am admittedly kind of bored. I have read a shit ton of books and do manage to keep myself relatively busy, but time seems to be passing without anything to show for it. In retrospect, that is not true, but coming from the very results driven USA, it’s hard to take pride in all the little things.

Easter came and went. I celebrated in Lugansk with a small handful of PCVs. We spent the weekend preparing for the big To-Do the following weekend. Caroline’s organization for Disabled People in Lugansk Oblast was hosting a Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Celebration in the form of a Variety Show style kids party for the kids who are involved in Caroline’s organization. There was singing, wheelchair dancing, an Easter egg hunt and tons of games and arts and crafts. It was a hit! The kids loved it. I got to bust out my Origami skills and taught people how to make paper cranes. There was play dough, Uno, and cookies and tea. And once done, we celebrated with a great dinner at Caroline’s and pancakes somewhere along the line. At some point we also went to a traditional Ukrainian dance performance which was great. Check out the pictures of the awesome 50th Anniversary Banner that Caroline and I slaved away on.

It feels like after that my landlady’s daughter and daughter’s boyfriend came to visit. This was great, because Anya speaks English so finally there was a bit more dialogue back and forth than the usual basics. I also learned that when my landlady’s kids come to visit, she cooks up a storm. So we ate well. This was also the weekend where I learned about the coming of Baby. Apparently the house-cat had a baby, a tiny little orange ball of fur that I fell in love with. Unfortunately, my love was all for naught, because yesterday during lunch (after about 3 weeks with Baby), my landlady announced that Baby was gone. Some lady with a basket came to the shop and took her away. Then she said, but don’t cry Amy, there will be other babies. So hardcore.

I got invited to the first picnics of picnic season. One was spent in the garden of one of Vera’s friends. Apparently we were invited for beer and snacks, but this woman’s house is way out there, close to the river with an awesome view. Apparently, she also has a pregnant cow and real turkeys. So I had a few beers and started harassing the turkeys by mimicking the gobble gobble noise that turkeys make. The turkey would respond EVERY TIME! Perhaps it was the beer and weird home-made hootch that we drank that made this so hilarious to me, but it was awesome.
The next awesome picnic was more of a BBQ at home. My landlady and her friends all chipped in for steak on Victory Day and we drank and had a great BBQ. After I met up with my friend Luda and we went and watched all the celebrations and concerts that were going in the center of town. This included some kids rapping in English which was hilarious. (Kids, if you happen to be reading this, I will gladly offer my rap-tastic assistance for the next performance. If you are going to be performing in front of native English speakers, there is some work that needs to be done). Apparently, firework safety is a little less stringent in Ukraine. The night ended with a bang, which thankfully didn’t result in any injuries, but aren’t things a little too close for comfort when you have firework detritus falling in your hair?

Probably the coolest thing that happened in May was my witnessing a fight. In Starobelsk, there is a small group of people here that are passionate about standing up for their rights and standing up against corruption. Corruption is a big problem in Ukraine. The fact that these people are standing up and speaking out is awesome. I tagged along with my tutor to a meeting that resulted in some serious screaming and a little bit of neck clawing and shirt ripping. One of the corrupt was the one who did the lashing out. One of those standing up was the victim. It’s just exciting to see some passion here. I don’t want to get too much into it, but there are not a lot of people here willing to question authority. Or for that matter, there are not a lot of people here who even think that there is anything to question about authority. Shit happens, they accept it, because the mentality is that they can’t do anything to change things. Well, change is happening. Albeit in small pockets, but I am excited to be able to witness it.

And on that note, I have hit a point where I am suffering from the blahs. The weather is changing and the HOT has come. Work is a foreign concept unless it involves your garden. Things just seem to have slowed down, A LOT. I am battling with my American concept of productivity and trying to relax and appreciate my experience here in our village in Ukraine. It’s hard for me, but Summer is here and my self-imposed ban on travel is over in a few days. It’s time to start getting a move on again.

April flies by

Again the time has flown by really fast and all of a sudden I am behind on the blog again. More funny stories have ensued. I should really start jotting this all down (says she as she pulls out a piece of paper and a pen and tries to recall the past few weeks… again).

Well let’s see. I think I mentioned that I have already been embraced into a weekly banya group. So Wednesday nights for me, are now occupied. When I am free I go to my twice weekly yoga class and then the rest of the week seems to fill up rather nicely as the days go on. I’m working on getting up in the morning and running or doing yoga and that has been going well. Still looking for other opportunities for group athletics, but I think that is something that will come with time.

I took a mini-trip to Lugansk for a couple of days. I managed to snag an extra ticket that Caroline had to an organ concert. The concert was pretty amazing. It was a situation that for me is difficult to sit through without fidgeting, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Because the concert was in the evening on a Thursday, and I had a PC meeting on Saturday with the Lugansk volunteers, I stayed through on Friday and helped Caroline with her English Clubs for disabled kids which I had a good time with. Friday night the PCVs decended on Lugansk and we made pizza at Caroline’s and topped off a few bottles of wine. It was a fun night. My big lesson learned from the weekend was how to get home from Lugansk from my site. To get to Lugansk, I figured out that if I jumped out of the bus near the ferris wheel coming into town I was reasonably close to the train station and could walk to Caroline’s from there. Leaving town on the other hand was not that easy. Logic said that I could stand near the ferris wheel and grab a bus back to my town. Nope. I stood out there for an hour in freezing wind and inevitably gave up and crashed with Wyoming, heading to the bus station first thing in the morning. So note to self: Suck up the bus ride to the bus station and buy a ticket legitimately. Waiting on the side of the road for a bus is a crap shoot.

In returning to Starobelsk I had what turned out to be a really busy week. Yoga and then Banya on Wednesday where the girls made a date with me to do drinks on Friday. There was an event at the library and a famous Ukrainian author came to do a reading of his poetry and to promote his latest novel. Our reading room was packed. Unfortunately, the author spoke Ukrainian, so I understood even less than usual, but it was still a fun gathering. And in true Ukrainian style I got to take my picture with the author. The other weird occurrence was my tutor dragging me into the hallway of the library and presenting me to this man and saying, ‘Amy are you free tonight’. ‘Well, yes, I suppose I am’. And then the question, ‘Are you interested’? Not sure what I was answering yes to, but since we are told to accept all invitations in the beginning, I said, Yes I am interested, and then completely regretting it because I thought there was a chance I was getting fixed up on a date since the whole thing was introduced as a way for me to meet people my age. Turns out I was going to hang out with the director of the youth theater group. Yes, he is roughly my age. And yes, I was very relieved to be surrounded by about 15 youth of various ages including two of English Club members.

Friday, I thought I was invited to see the Ms. Starobelsk pageant or contest. I walked to the House of Culture and called the person who I thought invited me. Turns out, it wasn’t for her to invite me. Or maybe it was. She invited me and told me about it, apparently the director of the library was supposed to give me a ticket. There was some kind of a misunderstanding and I was standing around without at ticket. I figured the situation was awkward enough as it was so I bounced and went home and got ready for my night out with the Banya girls.

Night out with the Banya girls was awesome. We apparently were meeting for dinner and drinks, but I misunderstood that part. It’s my understanding that in Ukraine, people don’t go out to dinner often, because it is so expensive. So I thought we were just going out for drinks. Nope, I had to eat dinner twice, because apparently it was my birthday celebration. There were 5 of us and between 2 of us we drank 3 bottles of wine and the other 3 girls drank two bottles of vodka. There was a lot of bad dancing. I tried to mix it up a little and was told to ‘Stop dancing like that, this isn’t New York City’. I really thought the bad dancing was just bad dancing, but apparently it’s a thing, a style per say. Good thing I am a quick study. I started dancing bad too so I could fit in with my new friends. At a certain point some guys started smoking in the restaurant that we were in and my friend was like, that’s it. I’m calling the cops. And she did. Next thing I know all 5 of us are in the back of a cop car crammed in with the two cops. The cops gave us a ride to the club, where there was more bad dancing and this is where we ended the night.

My birthday turned out to be great. The day before my birthday I just relaxed and read and watched some movies which is something that I have been wanting to do for months now. On my birthday, I slept in and my landlady presented me with a pair of neon orange underwear and a handkerchief. My tutor came over at 10:30 bearing a cake and a photo album of Poltava. Then came the onslaught of phone calls from people in town and people from home. I think there was a good 4 hour chunk of time where I was on Skype back to back with different people. The birthday celebrations continued on Monday with my friend at the library giving me some chocolates and then my secondary organization gave me some towels and another cake.

Then came my first trip to Kiev from my new site. We are talking a 2 hour marshrutka ride plus a 15 hour train. Thankfully, I downloaded an audio book and a whole bunch of new books for my Kindle so the trip was actually pretty relaxing. I got a lot of reading done. In Kiev, I got to hook up with Emily and Kim for my birthday. We went to a halal café that I remembered had some really good marinated chicken kebabs for not too much money. I unfortunately must have eaten something not good for lunch before because I had to high-tail it into a fast food joint for a toilet on the walk home. This also kept my drinking to a minimum so I was not the life of the party, but it was great to see my peeps. I then got on the train for my 15 hour train ride back and apparently had a chronic belcher in my compartment. Yep, that’s right, but this time it wasn’t me. There was someone standing in the hallway for awhile burping really, really loud and I had trouble being mature. I kept snickering and later realized that the belcher was the doctor in my compartment because she was burping in the compartment later. She spoke some English so asked me where I was from. I told her where I was living and working and she made two really kind of funny comments. I told her I worked at a library and she said, ‘So there are people who read in Starobelsk!?!’ She told me she was from Lugansk and I told her I really liked Lugansk as a city. She looked at me and said, ‘Lugansk is a hole’. You should go see Odessa. Okay, fair enough. I could see this conversation wasn’t going anywhere too positive so I politely said, Well, yes, it is my goal to see Odessa and Lviv by the end of the end of the summer. Then I hopped back up on my bunk and opened my book. She belched. I snickered.

I got home after my journey to someone in my house with my landlady. Apparently, my landlady was having a sort of reunion with her friends who work the Olympiad, which to my understanding is some kind of academic competition. We sat down for a meal and I offered up one of my bottles of Spanish wine that I had acquired at the Wine Mania store in Lugansk. The guy later went out and grabbed a bottle of Crimean wine. My landlady left to walk her other friend home and the guy offered to give me a foot massage. I politely declined and since my feet were on the couch next to me, he decided to start rubbing my foot anyway. Now see, I really don’t understand why this happens to me. I don’t flirt with people. I am cordial and polite and then someone feels the need to touch me and I have no idea how to deal with this situation politely. So I sat there squirming for a couple of minutes then swung my feet on the floor and got up and left the room. What else is a girl to do!?! I think my landlady is still puzzled as to why I spent the remainder of the night in my room avoiding the foot toucher. Anyhow so ends my busy week as I patiently wait for what other uncomfortable and awkward situations will come my way.

New Site New Life

When I write my blog, I truly intend to stay up to date with it and keep the stories coming. But, then life happens and all of a sudden several weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye.

My new site has been nothing but amazing. I think I am quickly approaching the one month mark here and I have been embraced with open arms. Things have been happening so fast, I barely know where to begin. I guess I should introduce my new site. I moved to Starobelsk in Luganska Oblast. I am on the far East side of the country, and I am basically about an hour drive to Russia in a few directions. To travel to Kiev, I have to take a roughly two hour bus ride to Lugansk and then a 15 to 17 hour train ride. CRAZY! But, oddly enough, instead of feeling isolated here, I feel welcome.

My new job post is a library, the central library in the district or rayon. I should probably mention that there was a previous volunteer who just medically separated about 3 months before her close of service. She totally paved the way for me here. She laid some foundation work at the library and I am trying to pick up where she left off. There is a weekly English Club, I have already asked for book donations from two different programs, and this week I am hoping to write a water grant to install a toilet in the library. Can you believe the library doesn’t have a toilet? Fortunately, there is a great program that offers grants to do responsible water projects and new toilets fit the bill. Once I get that one written up, I’ll be asking friends and family to donate towards the toilet, eh hem… hint hint. Don’t worry it’s a relatively small grant with a max of a little over 500 dollars so every little bit helps and you can write it off.

Thanks to the previous volunteer, I also have an amazing secondary project site where I’ll admit I spend the majority of my time. It’s a non-profit organization called Viktoria and they do a variety of projects dealing with human rights, women’s rights, civic education, and anti-corruption. It’s a really great place and I will also be doing a project with them that I will ask for support for (again, hint hint). My boss there is named Vera and she is amazing. She and two other ladies fight corruption in the bazaar and I have nicknamed them The Warriors. Everyday they come to the office and have these really heated discussions and write petitions and letters to administration. I only understand half of what they are saying, but the level of energy expended is great. These ladies have some seriously heated discussions. It’s really great to see such passion and dedication. Rosa and Nina also always bring food. So I have been fed pretty much every day I show up at the office. I’m getting badgered with the cooshites (eat Amy eat) again.

I have also had a sort of guardian angel to help me here. The previous volunteer sent her friend and travel buddy Olga my way in the form of a tutor, but she has been so much more than that. She has really helped me a lot with the settling in process and she continues to be a solid advocate for me. She is helping me meet people, she shows me important things around the town, and she helped me secure my new apartment which is awesome. She also comes to my English Club at the library and helps me when I struggle by asking great questions, and she also acts as an interpreter at times in a very interesting way. Olga’s English is so so, but she was a French teacher and speaks French fluently. So we communicate in French when it’s important that we understand each other perfectly. So for example, I had a meeting at the library and they asked her to translate, she spoke to me in French, I asked her questions in French, etc. It’s not the most efficient way for me to understand things here, but it works.

The first English Club went by really fast. I had a decent-sized group and the people all spoke at a relatively decent conversational level. I introduced myself and let the group introduce themselves, and then I told them they could ask me questions about me or America, etc. Olga went last and asked me kind of an odd question at the time. She asked me, ‘Do you believe in destiny?’ Well, I thought that question was a bit odd at the time. But, a week later it kind of came back to bite me. Over the past summer I participated in a camp and it kind of got hijacked by a group of American Baptists. If memory serves me right, the blog entry was titled The Karate Kids Save the Day. We ended up making the best of the situation, but the hijacking kind of ruined our program. We did get to work with a great group of kids that I wrote about way back when and called them ‘The Karate Kids’. They were kick ass. They ended up boycotting the Baptist camp and heading out solo to camp by the river so that they didn’t have to have anything to do with the religious stuff that was kind of getting crammed down their throats. Turns out, the Karate Kids are from Starobelsk. I got invited to a karate exhibition and guess who… the Karate Kids from camp. I ended up having tea last week with one of the older ‘kids’ who is actually an English teacher in town. Ukraine is a pretty big country. The odds of my getting reunited with these kids were pretty slim. Now tell me that Olga’s question about destiny doesn’t send chills up and down your spine. It’s really as if I was meant to come here. I had to go through all that crap at the other site, to finally end up where I belonged all along.

Vera, the lead Warrior, is also a source of a few interesting stories. First let me say, Vera has embraced me as one of her own the moment Olga dragged me into her office to make the introductions. She is great and even though she doesn’t speak English, we communicate really well. She understands how to speak with someone who is just learning Russian. Anyhow, basically her little office in the hotel where she rents space is now my office. She told me to make myself at home and feel free to come and work there. It’s great. The first funny Vera story was my first Friday night in my new apartment, I decided to go out and grab some cookies. I needed something sweet. When I was in the store this women wearing this enormous furry hooded jacket grabbed my arm, turned to me in the way that you have to turn if you are wearing a giant hood and looked at me and said, ‘Amy, are you going to Vera’s?’ I vaguely remembered meeting this woman, but told her, no. I wasn’t planning on it. But then I thought better and asked her, ‘What is going on at Vera’s?’ She looked at me and said, ‘I can’t tell you here, I will tell you outside.’ Fair enough. So she drags me outside and says slowing flicking her neck. ‘We are going to get drunk! You are coming with me!’. Okeedokee. So started the first vodka night with the girls. Vera has also introduced me to another group of girls who banya/sauna once a week. So I already have a banya group!

I also got invited to a yoga class twice a week for retired ladies. One of my English Club members invited me and I went because I am trying to meet new people and I want to practice yoga. I figured, why not? The pace is good for someone who doesn’t speak the language well and it’s a complete hoot to see these ladies do some of the rocking back and forth poses. It’s something akin to Weeble Wobbles rocking back and forth. Oh and the class is held in a hallway on the third floor of one of the schools. So picture 10-15 ladies stacked down a hallway doing yoga. I would love to take a photo sometime, but I don’t dare. I’m already the outsider being around 20 years younger than the other participants. I don’t want to ‘rock’ the boat.

My last bit of great news is that I was put up in temporary housing for two weeks when I first got here while they were waiting for my apartment to open up. (Temporary housing was akin to indoor camping). Well for some reason, I lost the apartment that I was waiting for and Olga decided that I should move into the previous volunteer’s apartment. There was some question as to whether the previous volunteer would be returning from her medevac, so they were holding it for her, but it turns out that she will not return, so apartment is mine. So, I got to move into her room. I do have a landlady now, but Natasha is an incredibly energetic and happy woman who has a great sense of humor. She is also an AMAZING cook and more often than not is shoving food down my throat. She is an awesome roommate. And her apartment is very ‘luxe’. There is a shower pod with hot water, great water pressure and it rains from the shower ceiling, a kitchen with all the amenities and appliances (re: microwave and toaster oven), a washing machine, a television, and unlimited internet. I do have to kick in some of my own money each month for the rent, but considering she throws in food, the internet is unlimited, and she does the cleaning, it is well worth it. Oh and maybe the best part is that she has a garden in back and a porch, but not a rinky dinky porch, a real porch. And apparently she has 38 different kinds of roses in the garden. I can’t wait for the weather to get better so that I can sit on the porch and drink coffee in the morning. It’s going to be so nice. Oh and did I mention that it is in the center of town and literally a two minute walk from both my primary and my secondary sites? Awesome.

The past few weeks brings to mind a good quote… ‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’. And on that note, I think I breezed past the one year in Ukraine mark a week ago.

Lots of Change

It’s been three weeks since I returned to Ukraine, and A LOT has happened. A LOT. I am just starting to feel like my feet are solidly underneath me after everything. When I got off the plane here, I had no idea where I would be going. Well, first stop Peace Corps office, but other than that a lot was still up in the air. I walked in the office and for all intents and purposes there was not one person there who knew what to do with me. My Regional Manager was out of the office and I’m not sure that he was appraised that I would be returning to Ukraine, and the Medical Office knowing that I was deemed healthy had figuratively washed their hands of me. I literally walked up and down there stairs between two offices at least ten times in a little over an hour to figure out where I would be going next.

The program people wanted me to go back to my old site, since my new site hadn’t found me an apartment yet. My RM told me I was never going back to my old site and I didn’t really want to go back there. Unfortunately, decisions had to be made on the spot and I was kind of homeless in Ukraine. I wanted to go to hang at Conor’s site for a couple of days until the dust settled, but administratively that didn’t make sense to the people in the office. Many panicked phone calls were made to my RM, my new site, my old site, etc. I was literally a few steps away from the ticket window at the train station and my RM called and told me to wait a few minutes and that he would call me back with a plan.

The short back story being that all of my stuff minus my valuables that I took with me to DC were still in my old apt. in Balakleya. After almost a year, I have accumulated a lot of stuff in addition to what I had already. Plus the PC gives us a space heater, a fire extinguisher, and about 30 lbs. of written materials during training. When all is said and done, I had the equivalent of 4 large suitcases, 3 smaller bags, and a backpack (filled with my laptop, my new Netbook that I picked up in the states since my laptop might not make it much longer, Kindle, camera, and all the wires that go along with that). Plus a gigantic backpack of food that I entrusted to Kim with the assumption that I might not make it back to Ukraine and I wanted my closest friends to reap the benefits of my cache of American foodstuffs – peanut butter, hot sauces, mac & cheese, and Nature Valley granola bars. (That bag is still with Kim, figuring out how to get it back is still in process. I miss my hot sauce!).

My RM called me back and told me to buy a ticket to my old site for the next day. If I was there and if my new site was able to find me housing he would come with the Peace Corps car and move me to my new site. If not, I was on my own. Well, I took a chance that my new site would be able to find me housing ASAP and went back to my old site. Unfortunately, finding an apartment in 24 hours is a huge feat and it didn’t happen, so my RM called me back and told me I was on my own for the move. Well shit. How does one girl move 4 large suitcases, 3 smaller bags, and a backpack down 3 flights of stairs, and onto a train at 3:43 in the morning when the train only stops for 2 minutes? How? Well another PCV comes to the rescue with her Ukrainian counterpart at 12:30 am and they help me with the help of two taxis and drivers on one end and one taxi and drivers on the other. This was a real Ukrainian adventure.

The day after my RM called to say he would not help me, my new site came through with temporary housing. So he told me to saddle up and get to Lugansk and that my new people would pick me up from the train station. Well, this was impossible on my own. So a 69 year old PCV volunteered to bring her 22 year old friend on a middle of the night train adventure. They took the train from Lugansk to my town (a 7 hour train ride) and arrived at mine at 12:30 am. We had a beer, shot the shit, I finished packing and we met our taxi drivers outside with all the bags at 3 am. The taxis brought us and all the junk to the platform and we hoped that we were in the right place since you have to get on the correct ticketed car and running with 4 large suitcases and 3 small bags was not an option. We were about 30 feet off the mark, but managed to get everything and ourselves on the train in the two minute window. I bought an extra berth for the baggage, the train attendants were not pleased, but all in all, it worked out. Seven hours later, we were in Lugansk and thankfully that was the end of the line for the train so we could take our time unloading. We manage to hail a cab, he helped us with the bags and we crammed all the bags, plus the three of us, plus driver into a car the size of an early 80s Toyota Corolla hatchback. It was really amazing. On the Lugansk end, Caroline, generously volunteered a corner of her living room for my stuff and a couch for me to sleep on until my people picked me up.

At this point, the operative question was, when would they pick me up? First it was Tuesday. Then it was Wednesday. Then it was Wednesday or Thursday. But finally it was definitely on Friday. So on Friday, I was ready to go. My friends came over to help again, with the 22 year old Ukrainian very graciously translating everything so everyone could understand. The car that came to pick me up was the equivalent of a mini-Jeep. The mini-Jeep had a huge spare tire in the minimal trunk space. My new people also packed 3 people in the car. So, there was only room in the car for me and one suitcase. This spiraled into a quick panicked negotiation where they agreed that they would come back the following day with an empty vehicle and that I would just bring the one suitcase and whatever I needed for the night. So I did. I hopped in a car full of strangers with only a few of my belongings and set off on a 2 hour ride.

We arrived in town and I would be renting a small house for two weeks until my permanent apartment was ready on March 25th. Well, let’s just say for two weeks the house was passable, but not comfortable. I equate the experience to indoor camping. The bathroom and the stove were in a converted porch (this means these two rooms are FREEZING at all times). There were three rooms in the house, but for heating purposes we kept my one with the fridge and the table closed off from the rest of the house. They moved a divan for me to sleep on into the room and closed the doors to the other two rooms and sparked up the gas heater. I could see my breath. It was freezing in the room and there was some kind of miscommunication between the Peace Corps and my organization. They didn’t have sheets, blankets, or even pots and pans for me to use. So, here I was in this freezing house with no blankets and no kettle, no nothing. At least if I had my stuff, I would have had a sleeping bag and a little pillow, but it never occurred to me to pack that in my overnight essentials. I called my RM and he said, ‘Amy, ask them to take you to the bus station and catch the first bus back to Lugansk and stay with Caroline for the night. They are not prepared. Let them get prepared and they can pick you and the rest of your stuff up tomorrow’. At that point, I just wanted to scream. What a nightmare!?!

This is where I am repeating to myself in my head all the Peace Corps mottos… ‘It’s the toughest job you will ever love’, ‘How far will you go?’, you should be prepared to serve in hardship conditions, etc… I took a deep breath and went to the bus station, bought a ticket, and headed back to Caroline in Lugansk.
Prior to my Peace Corps experience, I considered myself to be a very patient person. This past year has taught me that I am capable of so much more. If I ever doubted my strength, this proves that I am one tough cookie. Something kept me going. I knew that if I could get through this without going totally bonkers, it would be worth it. New site, new people, new beginning, new opportunities, and most importantly a new adventure. It will be worth it. I just kept repeating that over and over again.

The next day would be a new day, they would pick me up and everything would be fine. And for the most part it was. They picked me and my stuff up, we side-tripped to pick up the driver’s son. He squished in with my stuff in the back seat. The house was still freezing despite the fact that the heat was cranking for 24 hours at that point, but I had my thermals and my sleeping bag to make it work this time around. My Director brought me a kettle, a pot, bowl, cup, set of utensils, sheets, pillow and light blanket. I had my Peace Corps space heater. Hey, it’s just like camping indoors, right? It’s only for two weeks and the people I met were amazingly kind. The vibe was completely different from my last site so I knew that as long as I rolled with the punches things were turn out to be alright. And after a little more than a week, it has turned out to be much better than I could have ever dreamed.

Medevac

Holy whirlwind Batman. After packing up my apartment in Balakleya, I hurried back to Kiev and got ready to head back to Washington, DC for medevac. I slept in the Peace Corps office in sick bay and they drove me to the airport at 3 am or something and then wham bam thank you ma’am, later that same day (due to the time change) my brother picked me up at Dulles and we grabbed dinner before he drove me to Georgetown to the hotel that I would be living at for the next three weeks. I should note that the dinner tasted like the most amazing thing I have ever eaten. It was grilled salmon over a bed of mixed green salad with blue cheese, pieces of boiled potatoes, pecans, pine nuts, figs, tomatoes… it was amazing. Salads in Ukraine tend to be simple, either tomatoes and cucumbers, or cabbage, or something not all that vegetable related and mayonnaise laden (i.e. cubed lunch meats, kielbasa, peas and mayo or something gross like that). Lettuce is not readily available in most places and as for mixed greens and baby lettuces, forget about it. Blue cheese is hard to find and at the point I ate this magnificent salad, I had not eaten grilled salmon since I left the States at the end of March last year. Needless to say, it was quite possibly the best salad I have ever eaten. This is something you can only appreciate if you have been deprived of or are not able to access the food stuffs in that salad.

Much of my medevac was an exercise in food porn. I had a list of certain foods I HAD to eat while I was in the States and overall, I think I did a good job. It only helped my cause that I was in Georgetown surrounded by tons of good eateries. In addition to food, I had a bunch of whirlwind visits with my friends. Danya came to DC the first weekend I was there. Elizabeth was in town for work my first week. My second weekend, I took a train to Connecticut to see the folks, family and friends. The third weekend I took the Megabus to NYC and caught up with my friends there. I was constantly busy. One of the days in NYC, I had a lunch date, followed by a coffee date, followed by drinks and dinner, followed by a jazz concert, and I crammed in a manicure all with different sets of friends. I definitely made good use of my time and still managed to eat a NY slice and NY bagel at some point.

In addition to all the travelling and visits, I also caught up with friends in DC and took some pretty amazing walks around the city since the weather was just starting to open up to Spring. I had an amazing roommate at the hotel who helped me keep things light and assisted me in taste testing the various cupcakes, cookies and pies in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. We bonded over trash TV and lounging on the couch. What could have been a very stressful experience was made all that much more comfortable by someone I just clicked with. It was a great three weeks and now, if I want, I have a PCV to visit in South Africa.

While all this sounds great and fun, I was also going through a barrage of tests that were neither easy, nor pleasant. I left Ukraine very uncertain about my health and almost certain that I wouldn’t be allowed to return to Ukraine and finish my service, but as it turns out I was perfectly healthy and all the cause for alarm was just dated mammography and ultrasound equipment in Ukraine. In DC, I got poked, prodded, biopsied, squished and scanned and everything turned out to be okay. So guess what? I was headed back to Ukraine. But the operative question was, where was I going when I got back to Ukraine?

Right before I left on medevac it was determined that I would be changing sites and moving somewhere else due to the problems I was having with my organization in Balakleya. I had emailed the Peace Corps the week before I returned, but to no avail since people were on the road travelling. So when I arrived I had no idea where to go, and as I soon learned, they didn’t know quite where to send me either. So the adventure continues.

Medevac'd!?! WHAT!?!

Whoa. That’s all I can say right now as I sit in the Amsterdam airport after what I can only describe as a whirlwind two weeks. I’m en route to DC. I’ve been medevac’d. I guess one could say that I am in shock.

After Egypt, I had these moments of clarity with my service where I had begun to see Ukraine in an new way. I was truly starting to appreciate it for what I consider oddities and I could find beauty in the strangest things. Instead of an exasperated UGH UKRAINE sigh, it was more of a light hearted chuckle and eye roll Ukraine. Things just started looking different, and I had hit my groove with my service. I felt like things were going to change in a monumental way, although, to be honest, this wasn’t the monumental change that I was expecting.

January was a really stressful month, because I was working to get my SPA grant finalized and submitted. There was some kicking and screaming, literally, not the kicking, but the screaming part in trying to get things done. Let’s just say, I wasn’t the only one screaming. Needless to say, it was a really stressful month, but I knew that the last week of January would bring with it Language Refresher. For roughly a week, me and my Russian speaking PCVs were getting together to well practice our Russian and get some additional language training in a FUN environment. So even though I was going through hell most of January, I knew that at least this would make it worth it. I would get to see my clustermates and some other good friends since we had strategically applied for Language Refresher all together on Thanksgiving. It was really going to be a hoot to be reunited.

That said, I left site and headed to Kiev a few days before language refresher to have a meeting and to get a medical appointment out of the way. Without too much detail, within the span of 5 hours that Friday, my life in Ukraine got turned upside-down. That’s not to say that what happened sunk in at that time. It didn’t. I had a busy weekend lined up with a trip to visit Kim in Ktop, followed by us travelling to visit our host families in Starry Belouse for two days considering the Language Refresher was going to be held in Chernigiv, and then, Language Refresher for the rest of the week. I hopped on the train to see Kim and chatted quite normally with a couple of friends on the phone and then realized what the heck had just happened.

The doctor had sat me down and explained things. He told me I was going to be medevac’d (although he didn’t say when, because he didn’t yet know) and asked me if I wanted any medication to help with nerves or sleeping or what not since he had just supposedly dealt me kind of a major blow. Well, clearly, I was in shock, because halfway through that train ride I was kicking myself for not taking him up on some drugs. At the time, I really didn’t believe the medevac was happening. I just thought it was a remote possibility. But on the train, I replayed what he said and I was like, Oh SHIT! I’m getting booted out of Ukraine.

I spent the weekend with Kim, on Sunday we headed to the host family, on Monday we went into Chernigiv to hang with Caroline, Vicki and Cheryl and to toast Vicki’s birthday at one of our old haunts. Then on a very packed marshrutka back to Starry B, I got the phone call to drop everything and go back to site, pack up, grab my documents and get back to Kiev ideally by Wednesday. WHAT!?! That was too much for comprehension and virtually impossible since it’s a 2 hour trip to Kiev and then another 12 hours back to my site… horrendous. Let’s just say, I freaked the fuck out. I had banked on Washington taking a few days to make the determination. Apparently, all it took was an email from Ukraine. Things NEVER happen that fast in Ukraine! NEVER.

In the end, I kind of refused to leave. I wanted to go to Language Refresher and spend time with my friends, and then Conor and I had planned to spend the following weekend in Kiev. I mean, shit, I don’t know what is going to happen in DC. Let’s just say I created a little confusion at the Peace Corps office in Kiev when I went on the lamb by going to Language Refresher. I think more than one person would have liked to wring my neck on Tuesday. I want to return to Ukraine after they sort out my medical problems, but I can’t be sure that that will happen in the 45 days that I have to get well before I get medically separated. I might be saying goodbye to some people for good, and this was the thought that I had when I decided to just go to Language Refresher. I compromised by cutting the Kiev time short by one day. I got to see my peeps and we had a decent time considering there was this thing hanging over the time we had to spend together. Hopefully things will go well in DC and I will make it back post haste. I’m not done with Ukraine yet. It’s funny and very true that you don’t fully appreciate something until you lose it. Crap Ukraine, I don’t want to leave you yet!

Walk Like an Egyptian

What a whirlwind couple of weeks. My vacation was supposed to start with a medical visit to Kiev, broken up by a weekend visit to Kim in Konotop pre-Egypt to break up my appointments. Lucky for me, they changed one of my appointments so that they were both on Monday, so I decided to just head straight to Konotop which is on the way to Kiev for me anyway. It was great to see where Kim lives and to hang with the some of the other PCVs in Konotop. With the latest batch of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) volunteers Konotop now has 6 PCVs in town. Wow. Feeling a little left out in Balakleya where I am the one and only volunteer.

Kim and I made the best of it and managed to pack in a really full weekend. We both got great haircuts and pedicures (for Egypt), hosted a dinner/wine get-together for the lady PCVs in Ktop, got together for another dinner get-together Mexican night, and managed to squeeze in a trip to the banya (sauna) with Kim’s co-workers (which in the end turned out to be one co-worker plus me and Kim. Having not been to the banya since the summer, winter adds a whole new element of fun to the sauna experience. Winter means, running outside and rubbing snow on your body after sitting and sweating in the sauna. Actually, it was pretty fun. I can now kind of understand the Polar Bear Club… kind of. You are so warm from the sauna that you are still hot when you step outside. I’m thinking that the cold water is still a really big shock though.

I took an early train to Kiev on Monday and knocked out my medical crap. Then I just waited for everyone to gather the next day. By the time I was up and ready to go from my hostel, Cassie, Kim and Conor were all at the Peace Corps office. John came a lot later and met us for dinner. We had a family dinner at the Doctor Bar and got a reasonably priced steak (actually it was really cheap, less than 10 bucks). It was surprisingly really good. I will be going back there. The wait staff dresses in dirty nurse costumes and serve shots in little beakers in a basement restaurant that is off the beaten track and something you can only find with really thorough directions from someone in the know. (It’s in a back alley, in a basement, without signage to advertise – nonetheless, the place was packed).

The next day we headed to the airport extremely early to be there for a 6:30am flight. Conor and I managed to get seats in the Emergency Exit Aisle for his long legs, and apparently on Ukrainian flights/airlines there is a lot of clapping. Before the plane even hit the ground in Egypt someone had started off the whole plane clapping. I guess I have become so blaisé about flying that I take it for granted that I am in a gigantic silver tube hurtling through the air and the fact that I land safe and sound in a different destination is a small miracle. Well anyhow, Conor and I got a chuckle from the passionate clapping when we landed. No really, there was some seriously heartfelt clapping going on. And then, Hurghada…

The small back-story about Egypt is that from Ukraine you can get really good all-inclusive package deals to resort destinations such as Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheik (a woman was recently killed by a shark there). For flight, transport from the airport to the resort and back, and all inclusive food and beverage for 8 days and 7 nights we each paid a little more than $500 USD. That’s pretty amazing. So we planned a trip for our cluster to spend Christmas in Egypt. We figured we could use the resort as a base and visit the sites from there. We planned to go to Cairo for a couple of days to see the Pyramids of Giza and then to head to Luxor to hit up the Valley of the Kings and Queens. Kim and I put our heads together pre-trip and decided a flight to Cairo, a night train to Luxor and then a bus back to Hurghada and we would do all this in 3 days. Whirlwind, yes, but then we would have a couple of days at the resort to just chill in the sun before we headed back to the darkness in Ukraine.

The resort was nice enough and we got what we paid for. I really wish I bought some kind of mosquito repellant, because our room was filled with mosquitoes – and these mosquitoes loved them some Amy. Any thing that wasn’t covered by the blanked was covered in bites. I can still hear that traumatic high pitched buzz around my ears… Needless to say, I am very thankful that the mosquitoes were not malarial.

We spent a good day and a half chilling at the resort and the beach in the SUN. Yes, there was SUN in Egypt, unlike Ukraine where the sky is grey and the sun sets at like 4 in the afternoon. The resort had two restaurants and it was buffet-style eating. I have never seen the boys eat so much in the time that I have known them. It was really amazing what they packed away. There was also a couple of bars and alcohol was included in our package, unfortunately, the alcohol was served in tiny 2 ounce plastic cups like the ones that you get at the dentist to swish and spit with… yeah, guess how long a beer lasts in one of those cups? But, they also had hookahs or water pipes that we could smoke depending on what you call them. You get to smoke fruit flavored tobacco sans nicotine. Not bad, it makes for a fun group activity anyhow and oddly enough is really relaxing.

Our flight to Cairo was at 4:45am on Christmas Eve, so the plan was to get to Cairo, find a place to stay and see the pyramids as soon as possible. We were kind of walking around blindly and this guy came up to us around 7am and offered to show us around and brought us to a great locals stand to get an authentic Egyptian breakfast (butter bun with jam, falafel, and pita stuffed with what tasted like refried beans). He took us to a local’s alley to get coffee and eat our breakfast, and then took us to a hotel and helped us get a room. We got a passable room for 20 bucks each that included breakfast. Yes! And then he took us on public transportation to the pyramids. Riding the bus was fun. Apparently tourists don’t do it often, because we had a lot of interesting looks. We stopped off at a papyrus museum where he likely got a cut of whatever profit they made on us, but it was interesting to learn how to make papyrus (the paper that the ancient Egyptians wrote on). Then he dropped us at a place where we could rent camels to ride and get a guide to show us the pyramids. We tipped him handsomely, but really, I thought it was worth it since the breakfast was great, we would have bumbled around for a hotel on our own, and we would likely have taken a cab to the pyramids missing out on the local experience.

Riding a camel is likely a necessary venture if you visit Egypt, but it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Camels smell, they fart a lot, mine was constantly doing the shimmy when we stopped so I had to hold on for dear life, and Conor’s camel bit John. Granted the camel bit John’s cargo pocket on his shorts and technically bit the sunscreen in that pocket, but still, John VanGavree got bit by a camel. It was hilarious. Unfortunately, for me, the camels took away from the fact that we were seeing THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA. I spent a lot of time focusing on staying on my camel since he was a dancer. Thankfully Cassie and Conor took a lot of pictures. I had trouble getting my camera out of my bag since I had to use both hands most of the time to hold on.

The pyramids are huge and awe inspiring. I’ve read the articles in National Geographic and I have seen the photos, but seeing the pyramids with your own eyes is a whole new experience. Spoiler: the Sphinx is not that big. Sure it’s big, but in comparison to the size of the pyramids, it’s just a little thing.

After the pyramids we grabbed a quick snack then headed back to the hotel for a much needed rest, and shower (we all wreaked of camel). After a rest, we ventured out to find a restaurant called Farfalle, which was touted as an old traditional Egyptian restaurant with reliable food and a nice atmosphere. Sold. Christmas Eve dinner should be special. Unfortunately, we had a heck of a time finding it. After wandering around for a half an hour we asked someone and it was just across the street, right in front of us. We had an excellent, if not heavy meal, but we were all exhausted so after dinner we headed back to the hotel and passed out.

On Christmas we slept in, got our free breakfast and then ventured out to the Egyptian Museum and spent the better part of 3 hours looking at artifacts that were found in the tombs. Talk about sensory overload. Our guidebook said that you should try to tackle the museum in two days. I saw everything in 3 hours. Did you know they also mummified animals? Mummified crocodile anyone? After we grabbed some falafel at a local joint, we then happened upon the alley that we ate breakfast at the day before and ordered a hookah and some coffee and sat with the locals. This was pretty awesome. The beer we had at the locals bar after that was also awesome. Then we headed back to the hotel to meet our ride to the train station to catch the night train to Luxor to head to the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. (Night train was also awesome).

Luxor was pretty impressive, if not a bit of a blur. It kind of had the feeling of get in this tomb, hit this tomb, get in the van, next tomb, next temple, etc. I definitely saw some cool sights, but I honestly have no idea whose tombs I saw and which temples we visited. Our guide was a bit useless so we gave him the boot once we got our bus tickets back to Hurghada. We ventured off and happened upon a great lunch place. John, Kim and Conor got some awesome meat dish, which I passed on knowing that I had a 6 hour bus ride in my near future. Cassie and I got falafel, which was also awesome, but I kind of wish I got the meat dish. If I could trust my stomach at all, I would have.

Back to the resort and two full days to chill. Beach, pool, sun, relax, read, aahhhh. We did have some thoughts about renting dune buggies and going out on another tour, but at this point we were all toured out so we just chilled. When all was said and done, I read three books. It was great. Leaving Egypt was bitter sweet. I didn’t want to vacation to end, and I certainly did not want to say goodbye to the sun, but at the same time… I was exhausted from all the touts and people harassing you to buy stuff, etc. Strange to say it, but I was kind of excited and relieved when I got back to Ukraine. Great trip, great visuals, great weather, great friends. What more can you ask for… besides an extra couple of weeks in Egypt.

And yes, I did watch Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark when I got back.

Egypt Photos Are Up

Egypt 2010

Saint Nicholas Day

Here are Conor's photos from Saint Nicholas Day. His tutor Marina invited him to attend church for the day. The photos are an interesting example of the Ukrainian Orthodox church culture.

St. Nicholas Day

Interesting Winter Observation

Slippery walking conditions are a huge problem here in Ukraine during the winter. My guess is that they don't have the resources to put down salt/dirt or shovel in front of businesses to keep the walking paths clean. The obvious issue is that people walk a lot more here than in the United States. So walking from grocery store, to pharmacy, to bank, and back home is completely normal. People kind of plod along lightly and slowly on the ice, bracing themselves for a slip or fall. When it’s slippery and dangerous to be carrying heavy, bulky or just plain awkward packages, Ukrainians don’t carry them. They drag an old school sled with metal runners on it behind them and pile the packages on. Ha, amazing. Picture it, tons of people dragging sleds behind them packed with groceries.

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Somerman

Catching Up

It has been a super long time since I have written. A lot has happened, and I have a lot to catch up on. I don’t think I ever wrote about my amazing hiking trip to Crimea. I think time has given me a more positive perspective of the trip. It was beautiful, extremely beautiful, but also extremely physically challenging on several levels. My bag was too heavy for me to manage with the steep inclines and declines, the food bothered my stomach and made me sick, there were two really annoying teenage boys on the trip, and it was incredibly cold at night. But, on the bright side, I met some amazing people, I survived some daunting physical challenges, I did my very best to maintain patience and understanding, and I got to see a very different region of Ukraine. I think, all in all we hiked between 50 and 60 miles in 10 days. That was a pretty good feet, even more impressive when you consider the extra weight we were carrying on our backs.

November went by pretty fast. There were a few notable things that happened. I have a new friend in Ukraine. One of my students at the Lyceum has sort of taken me under her wing and has been inviting me to walk, or to have tea, or to watch movies. It has been great. She invited me to her very AWESOME 16th birthday party and it was a really memorable day. We met at the train station and took the electrychka 2.5 hours to Kharkov for a really packed day. It was me, two 16 year old girls, a 13 year old girl and my friend’s mom. Her mom actually lives in Kharkov, so I think she came all the way to Balakleya to ride with us on the train to make sure everything went safely. Ukrainians really take care of their own. And I’m glad the mom was there on the train, because of course we were speaking English so the girls could practice and a drunk man came over at a certain point and expressed that he had a problem with us speaking English. He was angry for no reason other than he was worried about foreigners taking over his country. The mom quickly told him off and he soon after got off the train. My Russian isn’t very good, so I don’t know if I would have been able to get rid of him so swiftly and the girls were obviously really uncomfortable with the situation. But in the end, all turned out fine.

Her mom armed us with a pocketful of metro tokens and we were set free in Kharkov on our own. We had lunch at a nice restaurant, then we went bowling, then we met up with the mom for a pizza dinner and cake, and then a dolphin show and a tour of the aquarium. The dolphin show was really something else. Picture a variety show with different dance sequences, singing, gymnastics, some water ballet and then the actual performances with seals, a sea lion and then dolphins. I was really worried ahead of time that it would be horrible, but it was actually really fun. We had a great time and then took a cab back to Balakleya (1.5 hours) with all of us squished into a car. It was great. At a certain point, I asked how old my friend’s mother was since she looked really young. As it turns out, her mom is 4 years older than me. I asked my friend how old she thought I was and she came out with 21 which of course made me laugh. Then 23, then 26, then 28… it took awhile and finally I just told her how old I was. She couldn’t believe it. She really thought I was 21 years old. This I find hilarious. 26, I have heard a lot… but 21? Gee.

I also made a trip to visit Conor in Khartsitsk. This was great, because in addition to seeing Conor and being able to swap movies and TV episodes on our hard-drives (Conor now has high-speed internet that a friend helped him jerry-rig), and finding a great store to buy a pair of Ukrainian jeans, I got to eat pizza at Xar Pizza. Xar pizza is the best pizza we have managed to find thus far in Ukraine, real pizza. (Note: what passes as pizza in Ukraine is often ketchup and mayonnaise instead of tomato sauce and to me is absolutely disgusting). But the real highlight of the trip was when we met with Igor, Marina, and Father Leo for dinner and a movie both Saturday and Sunday nights. Igor and Father Leo were friends we met on the hiking trip. Father Leo’s wife Marina, and their son, Daniel both speak English really well. Marina has taken Conor under her wing and has been tutoring him in Russian, but also teaching him how to cook Ukrainian dishes. Marina is a great cook and only uses natural ingredient in her cooking. She and Father Leo are vegetarians, but she will cook meat for her sons. We always walk out of there absolutely stuffed. One of the nights she introduced us to quail eggs. They are supposedly extremely healthy for you and you should drink them raw. Yes, I drank two raw quail eggs, and you know what? It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was actually pretty good. Will I go out and purchase quail eggs and drink them raw on my own? No. But I am certainly no longer afraid to drink a raw egg.

The other BIG occurrence in November was Thanksgiving. I decided that I wanted to be wherever Caroline was for Thanksgiving, because Caroline is a great cook. I figured if anyone could pull off a Thanksgiving dinner it was Caroline. And let me tell you, this girl did not disappoint. I had a few things sent from the states like brown sugar, coconut flakes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie spice. We managed to get together almost the whole cluster for a group trip to Lugansk + a handful of PCVs in the area. One of the cool things about this was that Conor, John, Kim and Arden all met up and got on the train in Konotop to head to Lugansk at about 7pm. I got on the same train at around 3:45am. I woke up around 7am to someone poking me in the butt. I thought it might be Conor, but I couldn’t understand why he was up so early. Turns out it was two 12 year old boys in the beds across from me. Jerks. They could have at least waited until 8am to poke me in the butt. Apparently they were part of a large group of young boys, perhaps a sporting team that took up half the train car. After that, I packed up my stuff and went to the next car to have breakfast with the others. When we arrived in Lugansk around 9:30am it was like a real home-coming. Caroline and Wyoming were waiting for us at the station waving their arms around and hooting and hollering at us. It was a great welcome back.

As for Thanksgiving, everybody brought something or contributed a couple bottles of wine. Caroline actually managed to find a turkey. One of the vendors in the market had real turkeys and Caroline was able to ‘order’ a 12 pounder for our Thanksgiving. The turkey took up her whole oven, but it worked. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, I made a family sweet potato dish with pumpkin instead of sweet potatoes (for a country that loves their sweets and potatoes, you would think they have sweet potatoes here, but no), the brown sugar, and the coconut flakes, a few other people contributed some family dishes, Caroline busted out with both an apple and a pumpkin pie. We had a traditional Thanksgiving feast and we had a great time with a great group of people. There were 14 of us, we ate, danced, sang, and laughed. I have to admit it was the best time and a great Thanksgiving with friends and PC family. I hated leaving Lugansk, we had such a blast with each other it would have been great to spend more time, but alas we were all expected back at ‘work’.

December has been barreling through at a fast speed as well. My organization and I have gotten together a project that we have started the grant-writing process for. Our project would be a 3-day intensive volunteer training camp that would train a group of youth volunteers about volunteerism and how to do volunteer projects in their communities. In addition, we have added an element of healthy lifestyles and HIV/AIDS education and awareness. It looks like a great project, hopefully we will get funding. We submitted our draft to Peace Corps last week, the final is due mid-January. So we shall see.

We have started a very important countdown at this point. December 18 marks 6 months at site. So after the 18th, we will have a year and a half to go. But the more important countdown for me and my cluster mates is the countdown to our trip to Egypt. Yep, that’s right, we booked a package trip for a weeklong trip to Egypt for our Christmas. We will be there from the 22nd through the 29th. We’ll get to see the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, but more importantly, we will get to spend the Christian Christmas holiday with good friends/Peace Corps family. I am really looking forward to this.

YakTrax

YakTrax are awesome. Recently, I was in Kiev without my YakTrax, the temperature was at freezing and it rained. The rain, of course immediately turned into ice and the sidewalks were just a slick sheet of ice. It wasn't pretty. I am really not sure how I didn't fall. Today as I ventured outside to go to work in a winter wonderland, I thought, wait, YakTrax... and I walked the entire 40 minute walk up and downhill with absolutely no problem. YakTrax give your feet supergripping powers. They will certainly improve my quality life here in Ukraine with the winter just starting to rear it's ugly head.

Thanksgiving pics are up

Thanksgiving Lugansk 2010

pics are up from Crimea Hiking Trip

Crimea Hiking Trip 2010

September 2010

Well, a month has passed since I was able to update the blog last. I am currently packing up my big backpack to go on a 10 day hiking trip with one of Conor’s secondary organizations. Well, this could prove to be rather interesting. There will be 10 people going including me and Conor. We are packing and carrying our food for 10 days. Water is a concern since we are going to be taking it from natural resources. This will be a real barebones operation. Food is a concern for me as well. Apparently, dried fish is a big part of the menu for the next 10 days… not sure I can partake in that since my stomach doesn’t take well to certain things. Another big part will be salo (the raw, cured pig fat that is a Ukrainian delicacy). Well, let’s just say it remains to be seen whether I will be able to eat anything that will be offered. I guess I will be toting my own supply of peanut butter, Nature Valley granola bars, and, well, does anyone know how long hard-boiled eggs keep without refrigeration? Temps are supposed to get down into the 40s at night. Well, this will certainly be an adventure.

As for the last month, things have kind of come to a head at my site. I am under a lot of stress right now that I won’t really go into. I am still waiting for the renovation in my bathroom that should have happened over the summer. The moldy wallpaper is a problem. It’s more of a health problem now that it is cold and I can’t keep my windows open all the time. I went to the PEPFAR conference in Kiev for a week and learned how to do trainings on HIV/AIDS and how to write grants, etc. I also got sick that week so ended up in bed for part of that training. I finally held my first English club at the high school. It went great and two of the girls took my phone number. So now I have two definite friends in town. I also have a budding romance with ‘Melvin’ the black kitty in the hallway in my building. I would love to adopt him, but am hesitant to do so since I travel so often and don’t really have anyone here I can rely on to take care of him when I am gone. He seems to do fine and doesn’t feel to skinny. He’s eating somewhere. So I guess I will just be satisfied with our hallway rendez-vous’ and hope that he belongs to someone as winter approaches. As I write this, it’s in the mid-40s. It’s October 8th, gee. Well, that’s it. Very brief, will have a ton to report after the camping/hiking trip. Keep your fingers crossed I make it!

Weekend in Khartsitsk back in early September

Well, now that the summer is over and signing up for summer camps to hang out with Conor is a thing of the past, I figured I had to go for the gusto and try the haul to Hartsitsk for just the weekend. It’s an overnight 5 hour train ride and then roughly another hour of travel via bus to Conor’s city. Unfortunately, we don’t have a straight shot between my town and his city. In the grand scheme of Ukraine though, it really ain’t bad. I would leave my town at 12:30 am, and get to Markeevka at 5:30 am, take a cab across town to the bus station, and then take a marshrutka to Hartsitsk, arriving at Conor’s around 6:30/7am depending on whether the train arrived on time.

The funny thing is that technically speaking we are only 130 miles apart. But due to poor infrastructure travelling takes a lot longer than it would do in the states. I think I heard somewhere that the train speed maxes out at 40 miles per hour, so slow travel it is. Actually, we are really lucky we are only 5-6 hour apart. I’m a good 8-10 hours from John and Kim and around 15 hours from Cassie. I live relatively far East, so it is more than feasible in Ukraine that it could take me 30 some odd hours to cross a country the rough size of Texas. It really puts things into perspective. As much as travel in the states can be a hassle, our roads are in good enough condition for me to travel at 90 miles per hour if I want to take that risk. My train ride from Penn Station in NYC to Windsor, Connecticut is two and a half hours to travel roughly 120 miles. Faster if you take the Acela to Hartford. It’s faster for me to train to Kiev and fly home to NYC than it is to travel to see some of my friends in the outskirts of Western Ukraine. It’s mindboggling.

The Friday before I left, was actually chock full of activity. At some point over the summer I had showed my office mates my photos from Lugansk. We were cooking with Caroline and I was chopping up cilantro (kinza in Russian) to add to fresh made salsa. My boss saw that picture and demanded that I make that for the office. Knowing that fresh tomatoes will likely be a thing of the past soon, I figured I had that I had to jump on making the salsa soon. So last Monday, I pointed to the picture again and asked when he wanted me to make the salsa. He said, how about Friday. And then the discussion turned to something where everyone would contribute something to a feast. I heard the words shashliki (shish kebobs) and kartoshka (potatoes) so I had an idea that we were going to have a big lunch.

Turns out we were having a picnic. I’m glad I wore jeans that day. Our office is in the forest, so we didn’t have to go far for a picturesque place to picnic. We chose a place across the street by the river. There was a little shack set up expressly for the purpose of barbequing. So we took over the shack. Tony cut potatoes in half, inserted a piece of salo (raw bacon) between the two halves and wrapped the potatoes up foil. Then we just threw the potatoes in with the coals. They were delicious. The pork that we marinated for the shashlik was amazing. We had watermelon and we used bread to eat my salsa (corn chips and tortilla chips are a rarity here). And of course there was plenty of beer and vodka to go around. It was a great day bonding with my workmates. It was extremely difficult, because it turned out to be a 4 hour affair in only Russian, so I had a lot of trouble understanding most of what was going on. I’m still at a point where I understand a lot of words, but not the context. It’s exhausting.

My train trip to Hartsitsk was relatively uneventful, however, it was freezing. I was wearing jeans, socks, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a pretty warm hoody. I wore the hood on my head all night. After I made my bed, I went and asked the train attendant for an O-day-ya-lo (a blanket) which I totally botched the pronunciation while holding my dictionary. Thankfully, there was a pile of blankets that I could point at, but the jig was up, I gave it away that I was a foreigner. The train attendants either love this or hate this. This guy loved it. I think the male train attendants feel protective of solo female travelers, especially if they are foreign. He woke me up about a half an hour before arrival with Pra-see-pie-yoos (wake up), and then we will arrive in Markeevka in half an hour. He said it really slow, so I understood every word. I got into the station, took a cab to the bus station, took a marshrutka to Hartsitsk, and the walked into Conor’s building, gave him a call and told him to let me in.

When I bought the tickets to Hartsitsk, I envisioned a relaxing weekend just hanging out. It turned out not to be the case. Conor’s town was apparently having a weekend chock full of festivals and being Peace Corps volunteers with part of our job description being cultural exchange, he was required to attend. So after about an hour long nap and breakfast we had to hit the road. The first festival we attended had something to do with chickens. It’s still not clear what it was we were celebrating, but there was a lot of ‘chicken specific’ artwork up and many signs that said something about chickens. That one was a bit of a mystery, but after we met up with the deputy mayor and he took us in a car to the Kazak festival that was being held in a large field.

The Kazak festival was great. People wore traditional costumes, served traditional food from a war canteen, there was a ring for traditional wrestling, sword-fighting, and horses. There were army tents set up and tables filled with defunct army gear. I got a couple of great pictures with Conor’s camera of a little girl wearing an army helmet and playing with a dead landmine. From there we headed to another festival in the park celebrating all the couples that got married in the past year. And after that, we seemingly were free. We stopped on the way home for a bowl of the Okroshka that Conor has been raving about. Then a much needed NAP. With very little sleep after a freezing train ride and a day full of activity, I was seriously pooped. Post-nap, we shared a bottle of wine then went to grab some pretty decent pizza for dinner. Overall a good day.

The next day we had more festivals to prepare for. We had to be somewhere so that Conor could take pictures, but then it turned out that we either weren’t needed or had missed something. So we took a long walk instead and found a sushi resto that Conor had been to at some point in time with the deputy mayor. It was alright, but over-priced. The beauty of sushi is that it is pretty much the same wherever you have it in the world. A salmon roll is a salmon roll, a tuna roll is a tuna roll, as long as they don’t sneak mayonnaise in, it tastes alright.

In the end, Conor had to be in the town center for a big concert that was supposed to celebrate his town. Apparently, a famous Ukrainian singer was coming to perform, and he was supposed to meet with the Deputy Mayor and meet the singer. I had packed my backpack to be ready to catch a cab to the train station. It was pretty hectic with tons of people. Not exactly cool to be weeding through tons of people carrying a backpack with your laptop in it. In the end, I decided that maybe it would be better to leave for the train station a bit earlier since I was dragging around all my stuff. So we said goodbye and I jumped in a cab. It was a good, but busy weekend.

The Last Two Weeks of Summer

At the time I started writing this, I had been away from site for approximately 2 weeks. For the first 5 days I was in Kiev attending a training on volunteerism with my new counterpart and then following that, Conor and I travelled on to Krivoy Rog to help out at Camp Lead, a camp that teaches leadership skills while practicing the English language. The cool part about the whole experience was that I got to hook up with my entire Cluster and some of my Peace Corps peeps over the course of the entire two weeks. Even cooler, I got to hang out with Conor the whole time. Maybe not as cool, I have a real new found appreciation for McDonalds. (Hey, it’s reliable, you know what you are going to get, it’s fast, and now they have McCafé with decent Latté, Cappuccino, Espresso and Americano).

The trip started off without a hitch. My counterpart met me at the train station a little after midnight and we got on the train. At least I tried to get on the train. The car attendant didn’t put the stairs down and wanted us to climb on. Easy enough for my counterpart who wasn’t carrying much, but I had a HUGE backpack packed for two weeks, and I was carrying a good 10-15 pounds of magazines that I was going to share. I tried to step up and smashed my knee because I lost my balance. The train attendant looked at me and said something along the lines of… ‘Well if you weren’t carrying that huge backpack…’. Gee, thanks.

We seemingly had the compartment to ourselves. We made our beds and went to bed and two hours later 4 people came into our car, turned on the light and were talking loudly. Mind you, this is at 2 in the morning. I was pissed. Half of the group ended up getting off. I got the gist that the two that got on were not Ukrainian, potentially Dutch or from the Nordic, I had trouble placing the language. The woman was polite enough, trying to keep her husband quiet, but he insisted on having a full on conversation with her for a half an hour after the train took off. Grrrr.

Turns out my fellow PCV from Lugansk that I had endured the Baptist camp with was in the very next train car. So at 7am, she sent me a text and told me to come and visit. Since I was asleep when she sent the text I waited a bit, but after that, I was up. So I grabbed some of the breakfast I brought and headed over. We had some breakfast, chatted up some random people who wanted to practice their English. We drank tons of coffee and whiled away the rest of the train ride.

The training was awesome in that we got reunited with a lot of our group mates, both the Community Development Volunteers and the Youth Development Volunteers. The training was designed to train both the volunteer and their counterpart in both English and Ukrainian in how to recruit and motivate volunteers in Ukraine to do community projects. We had moments of separate trainings where they split the Americans and the Ukrainians up, and then we came together at points to come up with a joint project idea. This was DIFFICULT! This is where the language abilities or lack thereof really came to light. The Peace Corps provided a few translators, but it wasn’t sufficient. Everyone was battling for translators.

The training was useful in that we got to compare our sites and speak English freely and be around Americans. We got some forced working time with our Ukrainian counterparts. And the Ukrainians got to meet other Ukrainians hosting Americans to network and compare their trials and tribulations as well. I think the lesson that you aren’t the only one in this boat was useful for all parties. Getting to see my American peeps really gave me the perk up that I needed. It was kind of invigorating to see the ole ‘family’ again. Our cluster was really lucky. We had 4 out of 5, or rather 5 out of 6 since Natasha (our Language teacher) was there as well. Cassie couldn’t make it, but as it turns out, Cassie lives in the city that Conor and I were heading to next so we would get to see everyone, just in parts.

The last day in Kiev, Conor and I were kind of ambling around trying to figure out what to do before our train trip south. At a certain point, I think he said something along the lines of… ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to get a Couples Massage’? I looked at him and said, ‘Where the heck do you think you are right now’? But, this set us off on a search. I mean, it never hurts to look, right? So we happened upon a Chinese medicine and meditation center, but their masseuse was out of town on holiday. We started walking and looking at interesting architecture. And we saw a street sign that said Radisson Hotel some odd meters away. I looked at Conor and said, ‘You know, I bet they have spa services at the Radisson’. Let’s go check it out.

We walked up to the front desk and I asked if they had spa services and the reception dude said something along the lines of, ‘Well yes, of course we do. Go up to the 3rd floor’. They did have a masseuse just sitting around with nothing to do. The tragic part was that they only had one so Conor made the ultimate sacrifice and let me have her and went and walked around for an hour. I got an hour long massage. It was a great massage, a well-needed massage since I had a knot in my shoulder that felt like the equivalent of getting stabbed in the back slowly on and off. They gave me a HUGE fluffy white robe to wear and slippers and there was a nice shower in the dressing room. It was great. And it only cost the equivalent of around 60 USD. This was a huge indulgence in Ukraine, but a very necessary indulgence from my perspective.

After Conor and I got on our train headed to Krivoy Rog. We had splurged for Lux tickets. Our compartment had only two berths and we didn’t have to share it with anyone else. Let’s just say we had fun in our private compartment. We did some berth surfing with the door locked. It was a fun ride. Unfortunately, we got in at 7am, so we slept most of our time away in our private compartment.

We made our way to the hotel that Frank and Carol (the camp directors and Peace Corps Volunteers) live in. Frank and Carol’s apartment was nice, but the hotel was definitely creepy. It was a bit ramshackle and had long hallways with empty rooms. And not to waste resources, the lights were off. It felt kind of like the Soviet version of ‘The Shining’. I was waiting for creepy twins to appear at the end of the hallway.

The camp was an English language camp for motivated youth. Camp Lead [insert link] taught leadership skills and went through the process of how to design and implement a project in their communities. The kids seemed pretty pleased with it, minus the food situation. We served the Ukrainian version of luncheon meats for both lunch and dinner to these kids for 5 days. What’s the Ukrainian version of luncheon meats? Sausage, all different kinds of sausages. I have never seen so much sausage in my life. It was maddening. Each day we would oversee and manage the food prep for over 200 people. Now imagine how much sausage it takes to feed 200 people, twice daily for 5 days. Let’s just say, I don’t want to eat another sausage for a long time. I had a meltdown over the sausage one day. It wasn’t pretty. Everyday Conor and I left smelling like lunch ladies.

The highlights of the week made all that sausage harassment worth it though. We got to see Cassie. And we got to go to the banya twice. This banya was different from the one in Starry Belous. It had a small pool for us to jump into after the sauna. What a treat! We also went out for sushi twice with Cassie, and weird pizza once where the waitress kept trying to push us to put peach on our pizzas. Conor made it his quest to eat Okroshka (cold cucumber and dill soup) everyday. I drank as much freaking cappuccino as I could. We also visited Costco, or rather Metro, which is a German owned version of Costco in Ukraine. Conor found hot sauce and bottled salsa (Heinz, more like spicy ketchup, but per usual he had high hopes for it). I also got to copy TONS of movies and television series onto my hard-drive. I am slowly stockpiling media for the winter. All in all it was a great trip.

We also got to check out Cassie’s org ‘Shelter Plus’ [insert link]. It is a great organization housed in a super cool building with a gym, multiple recording studios, instruments to jam, a stage, a video lab, a computer lab, a crash pad, and a cafeteria. The gist of it is that it provides a safe place for youth to hang and explore their creative sides as well as other healthy lifestyle choices (i.e. working out). Let’s just say, Conor and I were super envious of Cassie’s situation. We want to go hang there for awhile. At night, there is always someone at the Shelter to guard the place, because it is that cool. So if we go to visit Cassie, we can stay there and play all night with the costumes on stage and in the gym.

The train ride back was pretty harmless, although a bit strange. I got a top berth in my compartment and for a couple of hours I was all alone. But then a family of 5 came in. Mind you there are only 4 bunks and I was on one of them. It was a mother, father, a teenage daughter who was my size, an 8 year old boy, and a baby. I was wondering how this was going to work, but apparently the teenager and the boy shared the other top berth and just laid head to feet. The father had his own and the mother and the baby were together. We all got off the train in Kharkiv a little after midnight. Then I had to wait in Kharkiv for two hours for my one hour train ride back to my town. Apparently there are various waiting rooms that you can pay for entrance too. I didn’t realize this until I was leaving, otherwise I would have paid the 30 HRV (3.50 USD) to sit in the Luxury Lounge instead of in general population where both to my left and right there was someone hacking up a lung. I am really hoping I don’t get TB by association while I am here.

My train ride to Balakleya was only an hour, but kind of eventful. Since it was only for an hour, I decided to ride Platzkart which is considered 2nd class. The car is open, but there are berths and bunks to sleep on just kind of all over the place. There was some interesting snoring, some interesting smells, but it felt really safe. I guess the safety in numbers rule applies here. In the Koupé compartments that I have ridden in thus far, it’s a closed compartment with 4 bunks. I guess if you have the wrong compartment mates, you might get trapped with people you don’t really want to be with. The compartment lady was really nice. She came over to wake me so that I was ready to get off the train and then realized that I didn’t speak Russian. She came over twice more, I think just to check on me, with the last time being to tell me to get ready to get off the train. I like that this happens, it makes it less likely that you will miss your stop, especially since it isn’t always obvious where you are getting off.

I got in at 3:45 in the morning so I took a cab. I told the cabbie my address and when we got to my building as he pulled towards my entrance (there are several), I said, ‘This is it, right here’. He said, ‘I know’. Apparently word has spread that there is a foreigner in town that lives in my building, speaks horrible Russian, and takes cabs to and from train station. I thankfully found my apartment exactly as I have found it. Apparently, I have a security system in place that I am not yet aware of. Or perhaps, people just don’t break into people’s apartments in Balakleya. Either way, that gives me some piece of mind seeing as I will likely travel a lot over the next 2 years.