Oh, dear, terribly neglected blog…I’m sorry for taking so long to finally write an update!
Since the primary reason I haven’t written in so long is because I’ve been incredibly busy, I won’t waste any more time with apologies. I’m just going to write. So here we go!
In early January, my parents came to visit. It already seems like it was forever ago that they were here even though it’s only been two months. Their visit was amazing and I’m incredibly lucky and thankful that they were able to come. I looked forward to their visit for so long that it didn’t seem real until I was at the airport picking them up. I’ve never gone so long without seeing my family before (it had been a year and four months) and it was both bizarre and completely normal to see them again when it finally happened.
While they were here, we visited Kyiv and L’viv and then spent the majority of their visit in Chortkiv, where they met pretty much everyone I’ve ever met in Chortkiv—including the shopkeepers and janitors at my school. It was so nice to be able to show them in person all the things that I’ve seen and done here—it makes this experience seem somehow more real, knowing that other people connected to my life back home will now always be able to visualize what I’ve seen and done here. I feel like now they know what I’m doing here…instead of just imagining and getting a good idea because of what I write or explain on the phone. It was interesting, too, to see Ukraine again through new eyes and it gave me a fresh perspective on a lot of things.
I didn’t realize how much I missed them until they were gone. I don’t think I ever let myself miss them. I remember feeling really sad about not being with my family during major holidays during those first few months—the first Thanksgiving away from home was hard. After that, I just tried not to think about what was going on at home while I wasn’t there. But then they were here—really here and I was seeing them again for the first time in so long. And I remembered how much I like them and how much I enjoy spending time with them. So saying good-bye at the airport was tough—even just the few days leading up to their departure, I had to fight a sort of sadness I can’t even put my finger on. Even just writing about it makes me cry without understanding why. I’m so lucky to have parents that I love and respect and whose company I truly enjoy. Spending time with them here was like spending time with friends—travelling with them was an eye-opening experience that I’m happy I got to have. I hope (and I think) they enjoyed their trip too. And I wish we could do it again!
For pictures of their trip (we didn’t take a lot, unfortunately), check out my January Picasa album (https://picasaweb.google.com/laura.ruth.ward).
After my parents left, I got so busy with school and projects that I’ve hardly even had time to breathe, not to mention write.
During the first week of February, I went to a week-long HIV/AIDS educational training with my counter-part (Ira), my site-mate (Shelby) and her counter-part (Halya). It was hosted at a beautiful hotel on a lake in western Ukraine. It was an intense, busy week. We learned a lot about HIV/AIDS and we were trained to become HIV/AIDS educators. Part of the goal of the training was to develop a community project that we could take back to site. When we went into the training, we had planned to learn more about HIV/AIDS so that we could teach about it at a summer camp that we’re currently organizing. We left the training with a huge project that will entail a number of teacher and student trainings in Chortkiv. These trainings will hopefully enable and inspire community teachers and students to conduct further trainings around town. The project will culminate in a day-long concert and HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. Ukraine has the highest rate of HIV infection in Europe (if you don’t include Russia. If you include Russia, it has the second highest rate)—and so it’s a huge issue that affects the general population much more than many people think. Our goal is to help increase awareness in our town in order to help slow this epidemic.
For more information about HIV/AIDS in the world and in Ukraine, take a look at http://www.unaids.org/en/.
I’ll definitely be updating more about this project in the future, so stay tuned!
After this training, I came home and finally began teaching spring semester classes. Teaching has been going really well—I love my students and I’ve been enjoying working on a number of smaller projects with them. It took some convincing, but nine of my students participated in Ukraine’s first-ever International Writing Olympics (http://iwoukraine.wordpress.com) wrote some interesting and creative compositions. It was the first time they’d ever been asked to write entirely free, creative responses to some seemingly bizarre prompts (e.g. What does a caged bird think about all day?). They were a little stumped at first. They wanted to know if they should really write their own thoughts and opinions and they were extremely nervous about their grammar and spelling, no matter how many times I tried to insist that creativity was what we were really looking for. After they wrote for an hour, they put their pens down and proceeded to talk and laugh about the experience. Later on, when I was leaving school, I overheard a group of them reading their essays to one another and I couldn’t have been more proud.
I’m also hoping to get some of my third-year students involved in the cause to stop mountain-top removal. We’ve been talking about environmental problems and issues in our conversation class and when I brought up the issues of mountain-top removal, they were horrified to find out that this practice really happens. After I had finished explaining the purpose and process of mountain-top removal to a group, one of my start students shouted out “But maybe we can do something!”
Of course, that’s the kind of response that a teacher loves to hear. And so hopefully we can do something.
I plan to continue educating my students about the dangers of mountaintop removal, but I’d like to do something more than that. I’d like to get them involved in activism. I want to teach them that it’s important to support causes you believe in, even when they don’t appear to directly affect your own life.
Volunteerism and activism are underdeveloped and underappreciated in Ukraine—years spent living in the Soviet Union and the chaos that ensued after its collapse have led most Ukrainians to believe that they should only worry about themselves and their own families, lest they receive undue attention and scrutiny. One of the goals of the Peace Corps is to help empower host country nationals to make change and this means teaching people how to become active, engaged citizens. Of course there is plenty they can do on the home-front, but I want to help my students see the bigger picture. I want them to see that they are just as connected to the problems that result from mountaintop removal as I am, having spent my entire life before Ukraine in Kentucky—a state I am (usually) so proud to call home.
So my students are going to join me in writing letters of complaint to the governor of Kentucky and hopefully together we can get involved in supporting the cause to end this terribly destructive process with some grassroots organizations.
If you want to join us in this cause, visit http://ilovemountains.org/ to learn more about mountain-top removal and to see how you can help.
Those are just a few of the things I’ve been up to lately—there have also been summer camps and day seminars to organize and plan, other projects with the Environmental Working Group, and a semblance of a social life. It’s been a busy year so far. I can’t believe it’s already March. In fact, as I typed that sentence, I actually typed “I can’t believe it’s almost March,” forgetting that it’s already almost mid-March!
Although I wish I had more time to write and update here, in some ways I’m actually glad I don’t have time to write because it shows that I’m so busy with the projects that are my priority. It’s a good feeling to be so busy with projects that I’m passionate about—I feel like I’m doing the work that I’m supposed to be doing, the work that I came here to do.
A few years ago, I went on a hike with my dad and a friend and on our way back home, my dad said “Now, I know you might not want to hear things like this from me…but I want to tell you something: life is too short not to do the things you love.” I always try to remember that in everything that I do and it’s always a thrill when I realize that I am doing what I love to do. Not everyone is so lucky and I’m incredibly thankful that I have parents who are supportive of my choices—so supportive in fact, that they came halfway across the world just to see what I do. And what I do makes me so happy that I never dread going to work because it doesn’t feel like work—it’s what I’d want to do one way or the other. And that’s a good feeling.
