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Dobray Vecher!
Well we rolled into the Kyiv train station about 10 this morning after
boarding our train in Slavske at 8:30 last night. As usual didn't sleep
well although I was in a coupe with Wini, Steve and Shane. So by the
time I got to Korostyshiv at noon today I was pretty beat. Ashya fixed
me lunch and Masha entertained me with all her new dances and routines
for doing numbers. She has started reading English on her own sounding
out the words! Amazing child.
Group 24 met in the Carpathian mountains at the ski resort of Slavske on
Wednesday, February 3, for our final conference to prepare us for
leaving Ukraine and our service in the Peace Corps. The setting was
spectacular and I will have pictures up by the end of the week. The
meetings were relaxed and detailed to the point that I feel very much
more relaxed about fulfilling all my obligations even though the paper
work is as daunting getting out as it was getting in, but that is
government. The food was excellent--the best we have ever had at a
conference. It was not sanatorium food! Most of all the camaraderie was
awesome. Most of my group (24), I had seen at least once or twice since
training 2 years ago, but some I had not. Since this was the last time
that most of us will see each other at least in Ukraine, we made the
most of being together. I must tell you I will miss this most generous,
courageous group of people more than I can express. Some people skiied,
sledded, snow boarded; others played board games or poker way into the
night. Always we talked, we shared our lives here and our hopes and
dreams for the future.
The next 3 months are going to be filled with preparing reports, getting
medical and dental exams, closing up our work so the time will fly. Many
of us including me will be leaving early. I have asked for April 30 and
will most probably get it. Many of the younger ones are going to travel
through the month of May before going home. At least 3 people are
staying--permanently--not as PC volunteers. They have found work, love
and friends that they want to continue. Two of our young guys married
Ukrainian girls after our first year in service and will be bringing
them home to the states. One young man will marry his Ukrainian girl
friend and as soon as she finishes her masters in the spring they too
will be heading home.
I have all the info I need to get Rah Rah home and am looking forward to
his meeting all of you. I am sure Beauty will have to get him in line
but once he learns about the outdoors and can actually touch the grass
and claw trees, I think he will be very happy and probably become a
little calmer. I definitely have to bring him home. Every time I leave
now, he doesn't eat for a day or two. Don't know if any of this makes
sense. I am very tired and very emotional. When I was preparing to leave
you all to come here and was feeling the separation so deeply I never
imagined the reverse would happen too.
Going to get myself to bed and catch up on sleep now. Have a wonderful
day.
Good morning everyone,
I know you will all be up in 2-3 hours. I just got back from the store
to pick up a few things because I chickened out on going to the bazaar
this morning. There was a sharp wind and it was snowing again. Last year
there wasn't much to winter here in Ukraine. This year is different. Up
until Friday the temperature had been hovering at -20 C or about 0-6 F
for over two weeks. Today is Walrus Day and we were going to walk down
to the lake to watch all the brave souls (fools) jump into the lake. It
has begun to warm up a little but still below freezing. Schools are
having a hard time keeping classrooms warm and grippe (flu) has hit very
hard so all the schools in Zhytomyr and Korostyshiv are now in a two
week quarantine--no classes.
I was a little disappointed because I had been teaching classes on
drugs/alcohol and tobacco during the week and was on a roll. Now the
teachers will not be able to have me in as they will have to catch up to
their required material. Yesterday, Therese, Kirstan and I went to
Zhytomyr yesterday to meet at the warden's apartment with all the other
volunteers in our oblast. (A warden is a PCV who is responsible for
contacting a group of PCVs in case there is an emergency evacuation,
etc). We had lunch at a nice restaurant and went to the new supermarket
Da Store. They are a chain from Germany and are pretty much like an
American one. The 7 of us went a little ape shit buying stuff we can't
get in the bazaar or in the stores in our towns. Besides we actually
could touch and had many brands to choose from. Vinnytsia has two of
them, but this one is even better.
Must tell you a bus story. This has happened several times but I never
remember to tell you. On our way to Zhytomyr, the bus pulls into a
filling station. Before it pulls up to the pump, everyone has to get off
and move to the other side of the station to a waiting area. After the
tank is filled, the driver pulls the bus over to the waiting area and
all the passengers get on. It's always amazing to me that busses and
marshrutkas will pull over in the middle of a trip and fill up.
Americans are so used to drivers doing it ahead of time. As far as
emptying out the bus, I know and appreciate it is a safety factor
especially as nearly all Ukrainian men light up a cigarette the minute
they step out of a bus.
Preparing slowly but methodically for departure. Besides getting
packages ready to send, I am deciding on who gets what of kitchen
utensils, household goods, etc. The new PCV, Kirstan will move into her
own apartment April 1st so plan on giving her most of it. Drahalchucks
want and are insisting on taking me to the airport. I protested that it
is so early, but they politely told me to shut up; end of subject. I am
very grateful. It will be so much easier handling Rah and all my
baggage. I am going to give a party (at a restaurant) for all my friends
here to say goodbye. I don't know if I have mentioned it or not, but it
is a Ukrainian custom to give your own birthday or any other party. It
will be fun for me to do.
I got pictures of the holidays up on the web site. It's called Holiday
Celebrations. Enjoy. Love, hugs and wishes for warmth, and
happiness.
Za Darobia
( Good Health)
What a week weather wise. It started warming up which meant the snow
started melting BUT it also kept right on snowing, very wet, sometimes
rain every day usually all day and far into the night. That meant there
were huge, I mean deep and wide pools of icy water trapped on the
surface and on the roads. It was truly uzhashno--a mess! Then on
Wednesday night a water main broke so the entire town was without water
and heat for 36 hours (heat is boiling water pumped to the apartments!
Glad it had warmed up because the temp in the apartment wasn't bad and
my little heater kept me comfy. Fool that I am though, I had not filled
up water jugs from the last outage several months ago like every good
Ukrainian does. So I had some for flushing but not enough and I needed
to wash dishes. That meant a trip to the spring with two 5 liter
bottles--down the icy, slushy hills. I made it without a mishap thanks
to my florescent green yak trax. Didn't have to go back and I filled up
extra bottles as soon as the water came back on!
Not a lot of work at office and no teaching since the schools were
closed all week and will be closed this week. Did work on things to be
mailed home. I had 6 small boxes packed and labeled and Natasha took me
to po to check on process. The one and only clerk who handles packages
told us that we had to use PO boxes so I shelled out the money for them;
that I had to fill out forms in triplicate for each box listing all the
contents of each in Ukrainian AND she didn't like the looks of the
packing peanuts, but maybe and of course bring them open to the PO. Also
told me I couldn't send magazines in box. They had to be mailed in heavy
envelope--from the PO. Bought one of those. After Natasha translated all
my lists and we filled out two forms for two boxes, she read the back of
the form which is in English and French. I could actually read the
French! We both read that the items list had to be in the language of
the country to which they were being sent. So we went back. She gave the
regulations book to Natasha and said Ok fill it out in English, but she
can't ship the lotion in the box. It's against the US regulations to
ship cosmetics into the country and lotion is cosmetics! Anyway I
have 4 bright yellow boxes weighing less than 10 KG (20 pounds) ready to
ship this week by SAL. It will take two months so they should be there
about the time I am. I am saving two boxes to ship later by air of last
minute things.
Natasha is making a movie of me in my apartment, job, town etc for me to
bring home. It has been fun making it and I think you will enjoy it.
Therese and Kirsten were over Friday and Saturday night for movies and
will probably come over tonight for another one or a game of scrabble. I
picked up about 11 videos from friends in Lviv and have to return them
before April 1st.
Well, it's 9 in Boise and 10 in the midwest so you may be ready to read
this. It's time for my supper and Rah Rah's so he is looking up at me
with that pitiful meow, meow. Oh the life of a cat!
Love you all. Keep warm
Chaslevuie!
(Happiness)
It is still winter here although not the below freezing weather we had
for a while, it is still cold and it snows a little every day.
Thankfully the icy pools are gone and streets are pretty well cleared. I
had more work than I thought and was glad of it. But I did finish up the
reports on my litter reduction project and Therese and I finished up
writing the grant for Gymnasium #5. Tomorrow Therese and I will go there
to see the new ecology center and talk to the kids about the water
testing project that the youth ecological club has developed and for
which we helped them apply for the grant. I surely hope they get it as
they wrote a well developed plan for analyzing the water of a hundred
water sources here in town and in 5 villages that is so much needed. Got
some flack from the PC grant director who is a total idiot anyway about
ordering the testing kits from Russia.
I am eager for you to see the video that Yura and Natasha are making.
Not only do they have me hamming it up in the apartment and the office,
but they have beautiful shots of the center and the park and it is set
to music. They are going to wait until spring when the trees leaf out
and finish it. I finished putting up the web pages of our COS
conference. Really going to miss these friends, these wonderful men and
women. The first big group picture was done by PC staff. It really is a
good one. www.fluidlight.com/collins
Pam, who knows me only too well, asked me how many times I had packed
and re packed my bags. Well I have lost count and that includes packing
and re packing the boxes. I began sorting and separating what I
was going to bring back and what I was going to leave the beginning of
December right after I got back from India. I packed my red duffel bag
with my summer and traveling clothes and souvenirs from India and gave a
lot of clothes away. Because I know how long it takes to do anything in
Ukraine, I planned on what I was going to mail and Asya began checking
for me at the PO in the middle of January. I told you last week about
having to rewrite forms, buy different boxes and pulling out newsletter
and lotions. Well that was not the end of the story.
Since Natasha has been off work every afternoon for the past two weeks
(no school because of quarantine) she has made it her mission to get the
boxes mailed. On Tuesday we took two of the re packed boxes back to the
PO, with the 3 forms per box done in English this time. I have spread
out the books among the 4 boxes so they will all be under 5 kg (11pds).
She takes one look and says, "No, you can't put books and photos
with anything else. They must be packed separately." Then she
starts saying that she thinks I can't send CDs or my Walkman and on and
oh. She looks for the rule book--they only have a page or two of it. She
calls the oblast PO to verify on the books. Then when Natasha asks her
if she asked about the Walkman and CD, she says no, but she can't call
back because she has used the allotted call to Zhytomyr! Says I have to
send each of the other things in its own box! That could mean 20-25
small boxes and a hell of a lot of expense. After an hour of this I am
so angry I am fighting back tears. Angry because they don't really know
anything and don't have the regulations; angry at the stupidity of it;
angry that she hadn't said a word when the list was in Ukrainian about
the books.
Natasha got me home and kept telling me, " not to cry. We will ask
Zhanna. Surely PC can help." I waited until the next day, then
pulled everything out of the boxes and the suitcase. I rearranged 3
boxes to contain only books and photographs and two with only clothes
(they will mail clothes no problem); packed all the other stuff in the
suitcase. I really don't want to mail my clothes and most of the
souvenirs are ceramic or glass and I think they are really libel to
break in the suitcase and I may have gone over weight in it. I did email
PC and the guy in charge of shipping is meeting with me Friday. I might
be able to send the stuff out of the Kyiv office. Anyway I am waiting.
It takes 2 months for boxes to get to US so I wanted to have them on
their way around the 1st week of March.
Yesterday morning Natasha, Yura and I took the 3 book boxes to the PO.
No forms this time as they are not required for books! Natasha had
checked with them on Friday and she said they greeted her like family.
Told her they had the stamps and were all ready. Yeahhhh! There was a
long line as usual and only one woman of the 3 was actually waiting on
people--normalna! But the line did move along in about 30 minutes. I
weighed the boxes in the meantime--all under 5 kg. When it's our turn,
the clerk starts asking where the stamps are for the boxes--cost 93
griven (17$) for each. Nobody knows. Even calm, nonplussed Ukrainian
Natasha almost lost it at that point. After about 10 minutes they found
the "stamps" a bar code that they have to order in advance. As
the lady is taping the boxes (all boxes have to be brought in open) she
tells Natasha and me that when I bring in the rest not to tape the
bottom and sides. That they have to have official PO tape! I said aloud,
" How the fuck can I keep the boxes together if I can't tape
them." If there is one English word Ukrainians understand it is
"fuck." They may not think the American is so nice anymore and
you know that I don't give a . . . . Anyway the books and
photos are mailed. The books are my journals and books about the places
I have traveled.
I know you are looking forward to more PO stories. Next installment next
week.
Good morning and have a cup of good brewed coffee for me!
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