Saturday, October 31, 2009
One Month In
I've been a little nervous about starting a blog about my service in the Peace Corps. I've read a lot of great blogs by volunteers who have served their entire two years, sometimes longer, but it seems that majority of blogs I find are by idealistic people who detail everything from the day they filled out their application through their interview, their nomination, their invitation, medicals and everything else all the way up until staging. Sometimes it goes a little beyond that, but not usually. There are all sorts of these abandoned blogs by would-be volunteers, and to tell you the truth, I'm terrified of having a half-assed blog floating out in the ether were I to abandon my service.
Not that I'm going to quit. I can't quit! I've wanted to do this forever! Why would I quit? Well, on any given day I can think of a few reasons, but excuses are always ready to be found if you're looking for them. Besides, all the resources Peace Corps gives you do a good job of letting you know that all your fears and anxieties are quite unoriginal and not unique at all. People before you have gone through the same thing. You aren't the first, and you won't be the last. I'm actually quite happy here, and even though it's only been a month and I'm not even out of training yet, I look forward to the next two years with eager anticipation. Life is an adventure, why shouldn't I look forward to mine?
So yeah, I've been here a month. I live in the city of Chernigov with my host mother Natasha, an elderly woman with three daughters who lives by herself in a small one-bedroom apartment, which she kindly gave up to foster me. She's nice, though she speaks zero English. Sometimes she'll ask me how to say certain things in English, and when I tell her she sneers and waves her hand dismissively. It's quite sweet.
She feeds me a ton of food, mostly haute Ukrainian dishes like yushka (fish soup) and salo, which is like bacon except without the meat. All fat. And sometimes it's served raw, with mustard. Yeah. Can't say I'm not eating authentic Ukrainian food! I'm my host mother's first volunteer, and from what I've been told by the volunteers with more experienced host parents, they believe Americans prefer an exclusive diet of hot dogs and potatoes.
The city is nice, but it's a little hard to manage on my meager Peace Corps allowance. I've never been a very good manager of money, but I'm slowly starting to learn how to do it out of necessity. Gone are the days where I could just teach a private or pick up a server shift and refill my wallet in no time at all. Daily marshrutka rides and coffees at the internet cafe take their toll in no time at all. Recently, however, I've discovered an internet signal I can hijack if I sit on the desk in the corner of my bedroom, so I can start cutting out internet cafe expenses.
I also found a local mixed martial arts gym to train at, which is fantastic. I trained at least four times a week back home, and I can't imagine not being able to train. I was here a week before I started to go crazy from inactivity. The next Monday I was kicking pads in a basement gym that is a little bigger than my bedroom, but I couldn't have been happier. Training martial arts is a part of my core, and even though my Russian language skills are crap, I'm fluent in the universal language of combat.
Teacher training has been going well. I've taught three lessons up until this moment, but Ukraine has just gone on a country-wide lock-down due to an outbreak of swine flu. All schools are closed for the next three weeks and I'm restricted to my site and barred from going to any places where there might be large groups of people. This includes restaurants and bars. Dang it.
Still, I'm keeping my head up. All my fellow trainees are great, and all the volunteers I've met that have been here a while all seem really enthusiastic about what they've done throughout their service. All of it gives me tons of hope, and I know that as long as I keep an open mind and my chaos surfboard handy, I will do just fine.
I feel like I should have written a lot more, but this will have to do. See you whenever!
Not that I'm going to quit. I can't quit! I've wanted to do this forever! Why would I quit? Well, on any given day I can think of a few reasons, but excuses are always ready to be found if you're looking for them. Besides, all the resources Peace Corps gives you do a good job of letting you know that all your fears and anxieties are quite unoriginal and not unique at all. People before you have gone through the same thing. You aren't the first, and you won't be the last. I'm actually quite happy here, and even though it's only been a month and I'm not even out of training yet, I look forward to the next two years with eager anticipation. Life is an adventure, why shouldn't I look forward to mine?
So yeah, I've been here a month. I live in the city of Chernigov with my host mother Natasha, an elderly woman with three daughters who lives by herself in a small one-bedroom apartment, which she kindly gave up to foster me. She's nice, though she speaks zero English. Sometimes she'll ask me how to say certain things in English, and when I tell her she sneers and waves her hand dismissively. It's quite sweet.
She feeds me a ton of food, mostly haute Ukrainian dishes like yushka (fish soup) and salo, which is like bacon except without the meat. All fat. And sometimes it's served raw, with mustard. Yeah. Can't say I'm not eating authentic Ukrainian food! I'm my host mother's first volunteer, and from what I've been told by the volunteers with more experienced host parents, they believe Americans prefer an exclusive diet of hot dogs and potatoes.
The city is nice, but it's a little hard to manage on my meager Peace Corps allowance. I've never been a very good manager of money, but I'm slowly starting to learn how to do it out of necessity. Gone are the days where I could just teach a private or pick up a server shift and refill my wallet in no time at all. Daily marshrutka rides and coffees at the internet cafe take their toll in no time at all. Recently, however, I've discovered an internet signal I can hijack if I sit on the desk in the corner of my bedroom, so I can start cutting out internet cafe expenses.
I also found a local mixed martial arts gym to train at, which is fantastic. I trained at least four times a week back home, and I can't imagine not being able to train. I was here a week before I started to go crazy from inactivity. The next Monday I was kicking pads in a basement gym that is a little bigger than my bedroom, but I couldn't have been happier. Training martial arts is a part of my core, and even though my Russian language skills are crap, I'm fluent in the universal language of combat.
Teacher training has been going well. I've taught three lessons up until this moment, but Ukraine has just gone on a country-wide lock-down due to an outbreak of swine flu. All schools are closed for the next three weeks and I'm restricted to my site and barred from going to any places where there might be large groups of people. This includes restaurants and bars. Dang it.
Still, I'm keeping my head up. All my fellow trainees are great, and all the volunteers I've met that have been here a while all seem really enthusiastic about what they've done throughout their service. All of it gives me tons of hope, and I know that as long as I keep an open mind and my chaos surfboard handy, I will do just fine.
I feel like I should have written a lot more, but this will have to do. See you whenever!
