Oops!

I spoke way to soon on the grant stuff. I found out yesterday that my grant is not being funded on a technicality, that USAID doesn't fund US registered NGOs. A fact which any number of people could have told me at least a month ago but didn't figure it out til the day funding decsions were being made. So there goes two months of hard work and giving my self an ulcer over the stress. I am trying to look on the bright side in that now I can apply for a grant in the next round in two weeks for my school instead of doing a different type of grant. But I am pissed and it really isn't truly anyone's fault. It was all doomed from the beginning but I am mad becasue there isn't even anything to learn from this situation, I was asked to do this grant, I did it, but it was always never going to happen. (insert a temporary case of Terets syndrome here).

Wine and Alligators

As they stand right now things are pretty good. It looks like my grant for camp will be funded, not fully, but they aren't funding anyone fully as they got lots of great projects and less money than they usually have. But that is a load off my mind. I am so happy to be contributing to the camp and to have a successful grant on my resume will be no small thing either. I have put a lot of work into the grant and it is nice to see it pay off.
This past weekend was Lasagna Night at Linda's in Ternopil. It was a great time. I made lemon bars for the first time ever and they were a hit, the lasagna actually approximated lasagna very well which is not always the case when recreating favorite foods in Ukraine and the red wine was flowing all night long. Moldovan and Georgian Wines are the favorites among Peace Corps volunteers in the west as they are reasonably priced and quite good but they came on to our radar screen about a year ago when for political reasons Russia, by far the biggest market for these products, blocked their import over the restricted rights of Russian speaking enclaves in these countries. So the stock was dumped on the Ukrainian market and we are glad to drink it. It was great night of conversation and debate, which is what happens when you get a group of intelligent, proactive people with way too much time on their hands to read get together. World politics, the role of the UN and other aide agencies, linguistics (which I know just enough about to get myself into a heated debate on but get my ass kicked by Matt who has a masters in the subject, I just never learn), the peace corps and Ukrainian culture are frequent topics as is a discussion on how best to make your own cheese in your own kitchen. Any one who is interested in the subject is welcome to e-mail me for more details, but the way you know you are doing it right is that you haven't dropped dead from bacterial infection yet.
I spent most of the rest of the weekend with my friend Paul. He and I took a mini vacation to the Aqua Park in Ternopil. The Aqua Park is part of a very nice and modern complex in Ternopil which has a casino, dance club and bowling alley (a very expensive activity in Ukraine). The complex called "Alligator"(except you say the "g" like an "h" as there is no hard "g" sound in Ukrainian). Alligator is frequented by the local businessmen and oligarchs and is not a place for the general public although it is technically open to all. It is down the most ruined street I have ever been on in my life. It was technically paved, probably around WWII) but there were more potholes than than road and you have to walk as the road is so bad no buses or cars will go on it.
It was very fun to swim laps which I haven't don for over a year and half. There were also water slides and a Turkish Sauna. I felt great afterwards and it truly felt like a two hour vacation. It was reasonably priced as it is not the big draw for the complex and I plan to go back when I can.
This week is relatively normal. I am doing a lot of research for my country studies class on Morocco at camp and mostly just having some nice me time. This weekend is May day, so it will be a five day weekend. I will go down to Mandi's for a Cluster reunion and next week is Softball weekend in Kirovograd in central Ukraine. A bunch of volunteers will get together to play against a Ukrainian team and we will do a program and at orphanage.
Well thats all for now I hope to have many adventures to report in the future but for now it feels nice to have little of note to report.

My Last Easter in Ukraine

This past weekend was Easter Weekend and it was one of the nicer set of days i have had the pleasure to spend in Ukraine. My friend Paul came down to visit as I believe I said before. We went on Saturday night and got the food blessed, decorated eggs, bread etc. And we got a free shower from the priest as he is a guy who likes to "over-bless" with holy water so he has to stop and refill often. There were hundreds of people lined up outside the churc and it was very windy so after getting blessed we were all freezing. We at the blessed food the next day. Paul and I always racing to say "Chirst is Risen" to people first as the response "Truly He is Risen" is in old slavonic and very difficult to say.
Later in the day Paul, the host fam, some friends and I took a three hour hike through the forest. Spring is springing here in western Ukraine and the friut trees are flowering, the forest floor is a wash in yellow and white. The long dead trees are starting bud and the sky is full of picturesque puffy clouds. My host family always amazes me becasue when we go to the forest they don't just see a sea of vibrant green on the forest floor they know every plant. They showed me a lettuce type plant that we ate, it tastes like it is infused with garlic and onion (great in salad), I also learned about a plant that is poisonous to animals but is used to treat TB, and a plant called "horseshoe" that is boiled in soup to induce vomiting for neasua, often after a night of drinking. The wonders never cease.
And I did by the way have all the food I needed for the weekend. Paul and I also watched "An Inconvenient Truth" which was fascinating and depressing but we didn't feel so bad as we inUkraine lead very low impact lives.
We also went to the now famous house of culture disco with my host brothers and some friends. It was a great time but now that I think about it this will be my last Easter in Urkaine. So strange to think how my time here is dwindling.

May I Kiss This: Tales from the classroom

So today I was teaching a fairly average lesson about dangerous health habits. Lots of new vocabulary, fun words like "habits," "enviornment," and "non-smoker." But the boys in this seventh grade group, very smart but total punks, which makes me very angry as they tend to waste my time and theirs. But two of the boys kept hitting each other. They are friends and were sitting next to each other. Now Ukrainian children ask permission to do everything, they stand when I walk in the room, though ironically they talk when I am talking. It is all in my opinion a form of false respect which doesn't work for me becasue they don't scare them the way their other teachers do. But the one boy Oleh, was beating the crap out of his friend Andriy with the text book. And I am yelling to stop. It was a rather good natured beating given the circumstances. So Andriy hits back. They are fighting in English which please me no end. And they are saying "Miss Kate may I hit him?" As they are hitting which pretty much negates the question mark. "Yelling, I hit you, I hit you, I hit you." Once he is through with the play by play, Oleh grabs Andriy around the neck and puts his fist up and says: "Miss Kate, may I kiss this?" I know he means "kill" but I burst out laughing and all of the smart and attentive girls in the class get the joke to. The boys are very embarassed. Serves them right for not studying.

Paska: The Sequel

So this is my second and final Paska aka Easter in Ukraine. And now that I am experiencing things for the second time around I have gotten smarter. Here's how:
First, "easter weekend" is not an official, but very institutionalized thing here in Ukraine. Last year I assumed that the dates posted on the teacher's room wall for Easter weekend were accurate. Oh how silly of me. Technically we only get the Monday after Easter off, but no one sends their kids to school or opens their businesses, government or otherwise on the Friday before or the Monday or Tusday after. And none of the shops where one might procure food are open at all on the weekend. Last year I learned this the hard way.
Laste year my friend Mandi came to visit on Easter weekend. We spent a lot of time with my host family and a lot just hanging out. We were going to see the host fam on Saturday in the early afternoon and wanted to bring a bottle of wine and some chocolate. But all the stores were already closed and remained closed for the next two days. So not only did Mandi and I not take anything to my host family we were also stuck eating what ever happened to be in my cupboards for the next two days.
This year my good friend Paul is coming down to see a real village Paska and I am so much the wiser. This morning I ran around purchasing anything we might need, including food and gifts for the host fam. I am also at the internet for the last time til Wednesday as that is the next day the internet club will be open.
This year Easter in the US and Paska (orthodox easter) here are on the same day, last year they were a week off. So Happy Easter. Hkristos Voskres(Christ is Risen). Enjoy your time with your family and hopefully great traditions and great weather.

George's Very Dictionary: "Village Busy"

Village Busy is more a state of mind than a state of activity. Activities inculde: lots of thinking time, puttering around the house, cooking, writing, reading, listening to the radio, planning to get organized, dancing in my PJs, yoga in my front hall way, home imporvment, napping, insect murder, sweeping, singing at the top of my lungs and any number of things that could be done at any time, but I must do them now!!!!!!!!!

I Quickliest

As many of you know I have two host brothers here in Ukraine: Arsen and Bohdan. Arsen is 19 and attends Ternopil State Economics Institute in, you guessed it, Ternopil. And Bohdan is 15, so he is starting to get one of those scary boy mustaches and his voice drops daily. He is one of my 9th graders. I adore these two, almost as much as my brother Phil.
I love my host family, I now longer live with them but I try to see them often. But sometimes I don't go often, I make myself "village busy" and don't particularly want to have to converse in Urkainian. I acustomed to it but sometimes I find it exhausting. But everytime I go there I wonder why I stayed away at all. They are the most wonderful people and my brothers make me laugh. But my general love for them makes me a very bad teacher. They are both very smart and know a lot of English, the language we generally speak at their request, but they make a lot of grammar mistakes. But I find these mistakes so charming and them in general so charming that I don't correct. Bohdan has a habit of saying "I quickliest." Whenever he beats me in one of our little competitions, as he often does. And I love that express so much I never correct him. Both boys omitt the "to be" verb in the present tense (am) as there is not word in Ukrainian or they forget to use articles (the, a, an) as they also are absent in the language and their teachers taught them to translate directly from one language to another which I can tell you only causes problems when I do it from English to Ukrainian.
It drives me crazy when Ukrainians make these mistakes, but not when the boys do it.