What Does a Peace Corps Volunteer Do?

One of the top questions on your minds might be “What does a Peace Corps Volunteer do?”  I’m still not very sure about the answer to that, but here’s a little bit about what I do so far.

In Ukraine, Peace Corps Volunteers serve in three programs: Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), Youth Development, and Community Development.  TEFL involves, as you might guess, teaching English. Youth Development works with schools and other youth-focused organizations to promote healthy lifestyles, education, and all-around well-being of youth. Community Development is probably the hardest to define of the group. Basically volunteers use their skills to support capacity-building of the community. As I have no idea what I’m doing yet, I must be a CD volunteer!

Capacity-building is such a vague term. What does this mean? Basically, my job is not to do things for people. My job is to help the community learn skills and start programs that they can continue on their own that will improve the well-being of the community.

One of the biggest challenges for me so far is that I’m the first volunteer my community has ever had, and they don’t particularly know what to do with me. I can’t even explain what I’m supposed to be doing very well in English, let alone in Ukrainian! As is common with many other CD volunteers in new communities, my organization has no idea what do to with me except to ask me to teach English and write lots of grants. So it’s up to me to give them direction in what I can do and help them figure what we can work on together.

So far, I have a small class of adults that I’m teaching English. They’ve all studied English at some point in their past, but don’t use it and don’t remember much of it. I’m not much of a teacher, but I’ve got a core few people who stick with me! The best thing about this class is that most of them are teachers of other subjects at the local schools. I am having a great chance to get to know them now while they’re not busy, then when school starts again I have some ideas for projects I’d love to work on with them.

Beyond that, I am working with the local village government on various grant ideas and projects. As is the problem of many small communities, there are a lot of needs but not enough money to go around. We’re working through various ideas to submit for some international grant opportunities. This is where the language barrier is the hardest. As a beginner to the language, I know lots of vocabulary about food and the weather, but you have to study a language for a long time before you get into the vocabulary for land rights and sanitation issues! I don’t work with anyone who speaks enough English to be able to translate, and we’re trying to figure out different ways to communicate. So far, Google Translate has been my very good friend.

Where Am I?

My site for the next two years is a village in the Zakarpattia Oblast. An oblast is like a US state. Ukraine has 22 oblasts, and Zakarpattia is the farthest southwest. It is bordered by four countries: Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.

The main feature of Zakarpattia is the Carpathian Mountains. The name Zakarpattia actually means behind the Carpathians, and the geography has given it a different character than a lot of Ukraine. Most of the cities and towns are on the other side of the mountains from the rest of the country, and in general it's actually easier to get to other countries than to get to the rest of Ukraine. This has given the region a much more European feel than a lot of Ukraine.

The main industries are forestry and tourism, and in general it's a wealthy region. A lot of people from this region also work abroad, primarily in Germany or the Czech Republic, and send money home to their families.

The language here has a very distinctive sound. They primarily speak Ukrainian, but with a sampling of words from Russian, Romania, and Hungarian. It's a distinct dialect, and people I've met here complain that when they go to Kiev no one understands them because of their accent!

Time is a very interesting topic here. There are two ways to tell time. Officially, the entire country is in the same time zone, Eastern European Time. Government offices all work according to this time. However, geographically, the region is in the Central European Time zone, and unofficially keep to that time. To make it even more complicated, official time follows daylight savings but local time does not, so currently local time is two hours behind the official time which we call Kiev time.) Whenever making plans, you need to clarify whether or not you are referring to Kiev time or village time!

The character here is very open and friendly. People are very proud of their region and identity, and particularly very proud of the freshness and beauty of their landscape. There are many conversations about how fresh and good the local food and water is and bemoaning the state of things in other areas.

Being in a village is more culture shock to me than just being in another country. I have always lived in cities, so suddenly living in a small farming community with livestock everywhere is pretty hard to adjust to! But so far everyone has been very friendly and welcoming, and I'm looking forward to getting to know this region better.

Here is a photo of the local kids.

Is This Thing Still On?

Sorry for the silence. Training was a crazy experience, but it was a lot of routine and not much of note to blog about. I have now been a volunteer for one month, and I am in a village in the Carpathian mountains, near Romania.

Serving as a volunteer is so dramatically different from training. In training, everything was scheduled for me, and I was surrounded by people providing support and speaking English. As a volunteer, no one seems to have much idea what I should be doing, and I'm having a hard time finding people who speak much English at all. Socially I can muddle by with my three months of Ukrainian, but at the office it is much more of a challenge. I don't understand much about the projects they are interested in, so I'm having a hard time getting started on anything. However, with help from Google Translator, I know I will get through!

Another challenge for me is that I'm in a village. It's a large village, just under 10,000 people, but still a village. I have always been a city girl, so dodging goats and horse poop is very big culture shock for me. The upside is that my food is amazingly fresh. I have met the chickens that laid the eggs I eat!

I'm still waiting for internet in my apartment, and I don't like spending too much personal time on the internet at work, but I will try to keep up and post more about my region soon. For now, here's a photo of the view from my kitchen window (and my laundry drying during a rare break in the rain).

What Am I Doing?

Peace Corps language training is a pretty intensive process. We spend 18 hours per week in training with our language facilitator, then another 1.5 hours in tutoring (1 hour is one on one training and the half hour is business specific language). Then we are all living with host families, so we get to go home and practice what we learned. 

I have only been in Ukraine for a week and a half, but it's amazing what I have already learned. I still feel like a child trying to get along, but I think I've made it up to third grade level. I have already learned past and future tense! I can't use it very easily, but it will get there. 

Living with a host family is challenging but very rewarding. I have been used to living on my own and being very independent, and it's quite different to live with someone I can't always communicate with very clearly. I am amazed at their generosity in opening up their home and family to me, and it makes quite a difference in my ability to learn the language.

Every Day is an Adventure

I am sorry for the delay in updating! My internet access is somewhat limited, and it is pretty difficult to know where to begin.

It has been just a week since arriving in Ukraine and only my fifth night with my host family but it feels like so much longer. I was feeling quite frustrated by my inability to communicate and feeling like a child, but I think I made a very big advance in my language lesson today. We learned pronouns and little of verb conjugation,and I am thrilled that I can compose sentances instead of just regurgitating memorized phrases.

Living with a host family is quite a challenge for me. I went from being married for almost 10 years to living on my own for a few years,and I became rather set in my ways and addicted to my independence and privacy. My host family has been everything warm and welcoming, but it definitely is a challenge. Add language bariers to that,and it is quite the adventure!

Living here is fascinating. I have traveled before, but never from the perspective of a long term resident. It is amazing to have the opportunity to devote myself completely to studying the language and culture! The more I can do now, the easier it will beon me in June when I go to my final site.

I have quite a lot to say about the language situation in Ukraine but that will have to wait for anoher time. The short version is that while I knew people spoke both Russian ad Ukrainian here, I had no idea it would be such a completely bilingual country. I am studying Ukrainian and living with a family that,when alone,mainly speaks Russian,but are still perfectly able to speak with me and correct me in Ukrainian. Ok,except for the six year old child. He gets confused by my mangled Ukrainian sometimes and keeps answering me in Russian.

It has only been a week, and I am already going through a roller coaster of ups and downs, but I find this a very interesting place to be.

Welcome to Ukraine!

After a crazy bit of travel, I am finally in Ukraine. My training group met up in Washington DC for a brief training and orientation, then we embarked on what felt like an endless journey to Ukraine. We are settled in for a couple of days of introductory training, then we will be split up into smaller group to begin our two months of training.

It has been confirmed that I will be studying Ukrainian instead of Russian, which makes it likely that I will be placed in the West part of the country. I'm happy about this because it puts me closer to my family in Poland.

The next couple of days will provide some introductory language training and a bit better idea of what to expect in the rest of training and in our service. I'm looking forward to it!

I miss my friends and family at home, but I'm excited about this new adventure!

The Final Days

I haven't been posting much lately. I've been busy packing, getting my mind in gear and saying my farewells to the people and places I love here in Chicago. I'm not too worried about the time I'll be gone, however. When I think about how much my life has changed over the past two years and how fast it has gone, I know the next two years will also move quickly.

My suitcases are packed and my apartment is almost empty. I'm going tomorrow to take one final load of things to store to my mother's house, then all I have left are the things I'm taking with me and a few last things to throw away.

As frustrating as it has been to try to figure out what I might need over the next couple of years, it has been a great process to go through everything I own and decide how important it is. I have acquired a lot of things purely for the sake of having things, and eliminating a lot of them has been very liberating. I think two years away from the things I'm storing will do a lot to break my ties with more things and help lead to an even more simple lifestyle, I hope!

Beyond that, it's a bittersweet time. I'm sad to be leaving the people I care about, but I know it will be easier to keep in touch than it was the last time I lived abroad. And I'm very excited to finally be entering the next stage of my life.

Next update, from Ukraine! I probably won't have much time or opportunity to update for my first few days, so don't expect to hear much from me for a little while.