9th day April 13, 2010

Today I had my workshop for district teachers. The first of two (one for tomorrow as well). I can't say I feel great about it, as I think the English language teachers had difficulty seeing how some of the strategies I used could be applied to their lessons, which seem mostly to focus on straight memorization and no critical thinking or discussion. They were polite and tried some of the activities with a measure of bewilderment. I'll make some adjustments that Lyuda and I spoke about afterward and hopefully tomorrow's group will get more out of it. I think that the fact that I am an English literature and writing teacher trying to give foreign language teachers some strategies is difficult, let alone the translation element. I felt that many of these teachers did not have as strong of English skills as does Lyuda.
In the afternoon, Lyuda's 5th and 7th forms performed some English language skits and songs about springtime. The students were delightful-- so wanting to do their best, so proud of their lovely costumes. Afterward, the visiting teachers, Lyuda and I all took a shuttle bus downtown to "The Olymp", the same restaurant as last night, for a genuine feast: borsh, of course, two kinds of salad (with lots of mayo as usual--their salads are not green salads as we would expect, but more like our potato and pasta, rather heavy, usually with peas and/or carrots), a chicken and mushroom dish, and a main course of chicken and mashed potatoes, wine and coffee or tea.
After everyone left, we went around the corner to the little office supply store (I still can't get used to the lack of visibility of businesses. You never know what is inside any building you walk into.)and bought more supplies for tomorrow's workshop. One of the things we should be grateful for in our school is that we have basics like paper and copy machines. Lyuda had to print everything on her home computer and had to buy all the workshop materials with grant money.
From there, we visited the district office, where Lyudmila made sure to tell me to notice how they were paid to sit around and do nothing but tell others how to do their jobs in the schools. In the large, open room with about a half dozen desks, there were only three people there. They spoke with me for quite awhile, mostly admiring the 4 or 5 phrases I have learned in Ukrainian and laughing at my complete inability to pronounce "hryvna", their word for their money. Next, we visited the public library "for adults only". There I was shown their "resource room" which came in 2001 from American grant money: 3 computers, a printer, and free internet access. They were rightly proud of it!
Finally, we returned to Lyuda's home, relaxing with some Bailey's (her favorite) and MORE chocolate. We planned the changes to the workshop and discussed the next 48 hours as I would be leaving Novoukrainka soon. Packing, transportation, luggage, etc. until Oleg returned from his classes in Kirovograd. I wish I'd been able to spend more time with Oleg, but he was gone these two weeks for his recertification coursework. He's a sweet man, but Lyuda lovingly chastises him for not remembering his English from his school days and that if he had studied and practiced more he could speak with me and travel to America as she has.

8th day April 12, 2010

An incredibly busy day, with many lessons about my school and visitors from other classes joining in. Children doubled the class sizes and spilled over into the aisles-- changing lesson plans at the last minute and looking for electric cords, which are in short supply here. (Lyuda had to rent a projector screen and a television, whereas I supplied the laptop and projector brought from the states). Having rented the TV and DVD player, it took 20 minutes to get set up, with the remote difficult to work, but we could only show 10 minutes of the DVD about US National parks. That was frustrating and didn't go as well as we would have hoped. Nevertheless, we know everything isn't going to go perfectly as planned, and both Lyuda and I are flexible!
At the end of class with the 7th form, I handed out some Easter candy I'd brought (Peeps), which they seemed to enjoy. I wanted to bring something different than just chocolate. I felt pulled in all directions today--sent to eat lunch by myself when Lyuda had a teacher's meeting. She didn't get any lunch at all and has been so busy running around trying to get everything organized. She's worked so hard, I really appreciate all that she's done! Finally after lunch, we took the 7th formers to the "food products plant" where they make breakfast cereal (Kasha-- meusli)Once we were allowed in, it was very interesting, but when we first arrived they kept us standing outside in the cold for about 10 minutes while waiting for the appropriate approval or something. Beurocracy!It was quite cold and drizzly all day, and Lyudmila kept checking to see if I was chilled. The cold made me really wish for a convenient washroom-- if I could change one thing about this country it would be the availability of modern bathroom facilities!
After the tour, we went to Lyuda's home for a snack of smoked fish, kasha and tea. As we warmed up, we planned the parent meeting for this evening about a "Healthy Way of Life." I was to do a Powerpoint presentation about American food and eating habits and the students had some ideas to share. About 12 mothers came to the school, but it got off to a tense start when they began arguing about the school uniform. In their presentations, all of the students emphasized eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, though I haven't seen much of that in the meals I've eaten. Certainly the most common vegetable is the cabbage in the omnipresent Borsh soup. Also, students understand that fast food is not healthy, but they have no access to it here, only in the big cities, so it really is an exotic luxury they may only have a few times a year. Later we (Lyuda and I) met up with the Peace Corps volunteer Natalie at the restaurant (I think it's the only one in town)and had a lovely meal. Small world, Natalie is from the Portland/Vancouver area and knows Moscow.

7th day, April 11, 2010

This morning on the train from Lviv, we spoke with another guest worker; this man works in Poland, and he was on a two day journey to his home in southern Ukraine. Lyuda says many people work abroad and often don't see much of their families, as there are no jobs in Ukraine. Even her son Sasha works as a dance teacher in Moscow, not Ukraine.
On our way to Novoukrainka (we changed trains somewhere!), we met Vika, Lyuda's daughter, in Kirovograd. She is delightful, sweet and full of smiles and jokes. She obviously loves her mother very much. A journalist, she has lived in Kirovograd for 13 years. When we arrived, Lyuda's husband Oleg picked us up at the station and from there we went to several cemeteries for ancestor day. One where Lyuda's father (2005) and the next was in the village where her mother (2001) lay. Many people were there from the village;this is a social event that occurs within two weeks after Easter, and the yerd was crowded with well-wishers. We spent about 1 1/2 hours there, eating a standing picnic next to the grave, from a little table attached to the fence which surrounds each plot. People lay elaborate artificial flowered arrangements as well as food and sweets on the ground in memoriam. Wine, a sweet one they call church wine, and vodka, again. We met several of Lyuda's old school mates. We placed flowers on the crosses, as they stand at the site, they put the small bags of sweets and Easter bread, but then when they leave they find someone who knew the deceased relative, and give them the sweets and a hand towel for men or a small scarf for women. I don't know if I'm conveying this exactly right. We also visited Lyuda's granny's grave and her uncle's, then we drove to another cemetery to where her brother was buried, outside of Novoukrainka (2005)Her father and brother died within a month of each other and she misses them greatly.
After this we went out to the sanitorium where we filled many large water jugs with mineral water free from the faucet within the building. No one was around, and I wondered whether everyone does this. Certainly the tap water is undrinkable.

6th day April 10, 2010

I forgot to mention the young man we met on the train to Lviv. His name is Roma and he was on his way with a group of students to Lviv for a shooting competition. He had been listening to music the night before, but in the morning he overheard our conversation in English and wanted to "ask one question"- if I was English. I understand that it is rare here for students of English get an opportunity to practice with a native speaker. We talked for quite a while. His English was quite good; I gave him my card and hope to hear from him.
Saturday morning,we awoke in our hotel and went to the breakfast buffet, which had a much more extensive, more American style breakfast with eggs and sausage. I most enjoyed the COFFEE!Then we took the tram to the town center to purchase more of the tiny painted eggs at the market, but most of the stalls were not yet set up. We finally found some and I also bought a shawl from a wizened old lady after bargaining a bit. Back in the square, we caught the tram to go out to Shevchenko forest on the outskirts of town. We climbed up a hill in a nice area of town to finally arrive at the forest at the top. In amongst the birch, oak and fir trees stood many transplanted cottages from the Carpathian mountains originally from the 19th century, a living museum, so to speak. These were wood shingled churches and homes with thatched roofs. Each house had a large square hearth, with flat bench areas to sit next to the fire to tend it, and a flat surface above and behind the fireplace for sleeping. Many of these homes had no chimneys, as these as well as windows were subject to taxes. I can only imagine how sooty everything became! The small chapels were of dark wood, with gleaming icons and rose-colored windows.In one cottage, we tried on the peasant clothes and posed for a dozen pictures, looking very domestic--baking bread and serving food, etc. This was all great fun. Lyudmila has such a wonderful sense of humor, that she's a terrific travel companion.
The entire day it threatened to rain and became quite cool at times, but it held off for awhile. We returned on the tram, where Lyuda was scolded and fined for not stamping our tickets in the little machine that we didn't know we were to use. Lyuda called the two chastising women "snakes" each time she referred to them! When we returned to the Opera plaza, we found an expensive new shopping center tucked in the buildings, a gleaming 4 story arcade with cafes, luxury clothing, and "La Piazza" where we ate German sausages and garlic soup to warm up. Before we left, we went down to the bottom floor to the small market for coffee and yet another sweet!
After lunch, we began to walk to another tram stop, but we had to stop again for a sweets shop. Lyuda loves these chocolates. We stocked up with several small bags of goodies for the train ride home. The trip back on the train was really interesting. Some construction workers were returning to Russia after being home for Easter for a visit to their families. Their trip would last 2 1/2 days, so they came well prepared with plenty of food and vodka. By the time we got on the train, I had gotten chilled from the rain. However, the "builders" offered some vodka to warm up. I find it interesting how readily strangers break out the food and drink to share, so much more so than in the states, where everyone ignores each other. They are more willing to talk to each other as well, but for the most part they talk quietly and try not to disturb others. They don't gesture much either. Though they can get noisy when drinking, (later that night they kept us awake a bit) it could have been much worse. One of the workers spoke with us for a long time. Unhappily, he was leaving his wife and young son behind. He had a 6 month contract and had been paid only intermittently. Life is hard for those who must work abroad.

fifth day April 9, 2010

I slept only intermittently on the overnight; the bedrolls are thin and the train noisy of course. The toilets are, as Lyuda says, "stone age", but I've seen worse. I wish I'd rolled up my pant legs a bit before going in, though, as the floor was very wet. The countryside is steppe, flat farmlands with poplar and birch trees breaking up the landscape. We talked about schools, education reforms, employment, and garbage problems in her town. The this morning at 10 AM we left the train and were met by a shuttle driver on the platform. He took us directly to the hotel Ryker, which means "train". This hotel is beautiful and new, set back from the street so it is also private and quiet. The restaurant is classy, but on the whole, expensive. After a bite eat, we met with hour English speaking tour guide for a 3 hour tour of Lviv. Igor was very well spoken and knowledgeable about the city; when I asked about his English, he said he had not lived abroad, but was a "brilliant student" of English. Though he was a mathematician, he earned most of his income by being a guide. He told us there were 68 churches in Lviv, and I think he may have shown us most of them!! They are beautiful,Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or a combination. We saw the inside of several and then up the City Hall tower where we had a view of the entire city. He also took us through the Jewish quarter and the Armenian quarter. At the end of our tour, he took us into a shop where I bought a lovely doll (matonka) for around $30 (250 Hr). I wondered if it was too much but paid it anyway. Later we went to the outdoor market with many goods for tourists: post cards, magnets, painted eggs, traditional Ukrainian blouses and embroidered linens. There I bought several things: a blouse (vyshyvanka), belt, and headband(chichka); a tablecloth; several wooden eggs (pysanka); ukrainian military pins and hats for the "boys"; a doll for my sister; some amber jewelry I'm going to pull apart and distribute amongst my beading friends; post cards; playing cards with scenes of Lviv; spikey wooden clubs for Dmitri and Angus (bulava). After an hour at the market, we went to the main square in front of the beautiful opera house. After another bite in an uninspiring cafe, we walked back to the hotel, stopping along the way for coffee (instant) and a beer. It was an odd little place, not uncommonly tiny-- about the size of Rick's study at home. Having finished the coffee, we returned to the hotel, dropped our things and then ventured further down the street to the nearby Catholic church and the Stepan Bandera monument at sunset. We finally returned to the hotel, exhausted, for long hot showers in the wonderful bathroom. The trip was expensive but worth it. Lyudmila did an amazing job planning everything!

fourth day April 8, 2010

Today was another busy day with many lessons, first visiting Natalia Tretiak's English classroom. To apologize for missing her lesson yesterday, I brought her some US chocolate cherries from Washington. Her class was very busy with many activities planned; students created dialogues about being a tourist abroad and they had some of the quietest group discussions I had ever seen. I even had to video record it! (see the video post). In Oksana's classroom, she taught a Ukrainian language lesson, but I had trouble understanding the sequence of the activities. In one part she worked with them on numbers, using proverbs and sayings to help them learn. In Lyudmila's 9th form, there were only 9 of 19 students, as the rest had gone to the hospital to get their vaccinations. We worked on the "This Land is Your Land" lesson here and then later with the 7th form, who seemed more interested in the lesson and trying to pronounce things correctly. I videotaped them as well (see video post). I was so proud of how well they did! I also showed them some pictures of NYC, Moscow, and MJHS. Students seemed really interested in the skate park, the pool, and how clean the town was. They liked all the parks, too.
After this, we left school to get ready for our train trip. I returned to the hotel, packed, and rested until time for dinner. The hotel owner and his friends were "socializing" in the adjoining room; one of them came out to use the toilet and began trying to talk to me, and when he discovered I was from the states, he said "Utah" and "morman". Then the owner discovered him talking with me and had quite the time trying to get the rather drunk friend away from me. He was very apologetic, not that I knew exactly what he was saying, but I got the idea!
Soon, Lyudmila came to pick me up and we headed to the train station for our 7:30 pm train. There we got on, and found our seats in the middle of the 6th compartment, 2 benches with a small table between and a bench above each side and then a third, higher shelf for goods. Across the corridor were two small seats and a table with another sleeping bench above. Lyuda is always concerned that we have enough chocolates to eat, so much that I'm almost sick of chocolate! I thought that was impossible!

third day April 7, 2010

This has been a long day! It started off well, with the owner of the hotel giving us a ride to school because I was bringing all of my video equipment and we were about to take a taxi. We arrived at school in plenty of time and I began to set up, when I realized to my horror that I'd left my small bag of all the connecting cords back in my room. With no taxi available, Lyudmila persuaded a colleague to take me back and pick them up. However, he misunderstood and thought we were waiting for her to come with us, so I was standing around as he threw out the ball to his gym class. Finally, he went to get her and she told him where to go (apparently, very few people even know there is a hotel in town, let alone where it is). I was able to return in time to do the lesson, but I had missed the lesson the other English teacher had prepared for me to observe, and this made her very upset. The students were disappointed as well. This was not start I wanted!How embarrassing! After that rocky start, I taught the 5th formers "Home on the Range". The lesson went very well and the students worked hard.
Next, I visited a Ukrainian language class, with 2nd or 3rd formers. Many of the girls were very nicely dressed with fancy white ribbons in their hair. Later I had lunch in the cafeteria with borsh soup and mashed potatoes and chicken, tea as well. The children clean up after themselves and are very orderly. The cafeteria in the basement is small but still light and airy, and the cooks wear tall hats of white linen.
When I needed to use the bathroom at lunch time, Lyudmila seemed quite embarrassed to tell me the regular ones were outside (outhouses). I used the only inside one off of the kitchen, which I still did not sit down on it and it only used gravity and a scoop of water from the calcified scoop and tub of water from the room next to the WC. What we don't bother to appreciate at home!!!
After lunch we went to a short teachers' meeting where they spent 20 minutes in intense debate over which style of uniform to adopt for the school children. We met in the computer lab (the only one in the building, with 12 computers) in order to see the choices on the internet. Lyudmila tells me the internet is very slow. I don't think anything was settled.
That afternoon, the school prepared for a folk performance in my honor. They have no central auditorium, so the main corridor in the upstairs was cleared out and Lyuda displayed the girls' embroidery work. After core classes, the girls go to the equivalent of Home Ec, and the boys to "labor training" classes. I saw no evidence of many of our elective style classes-- art or music, etc. They have some opportunity for these in after school volunteer programs. The students presented their hour long show with several skits and songs, the youngest performed about the coming of spring; older students acted out tales of a young woman who turns into a poplar tree as she yearns for her lover, and another story about a girl who is promised to marry the csar. The acting style was very theatrical and demonstrative, and it was evident that they had worked very hard.
At the end of the day, we left the school and were driven outside of the city-- the director of the region, whom I had visited yesterday, had arranged for a car and driver to take us around. Lyuda, like most of the women, does not drive, and her husband was cone to Kirovograd for certification classes each day for these two weeks, so the arrangement was really helpful. First the driver took us to see a new hotel being built on the edge of town; they call it "green tourism" when referring to country/recreational trips. The new building is a nice brick 2 story place with large garden areas and a fountain which will overlook the river. The river area is very pretty, but much of Novoukrainka is terribly littered with garbage. Lyudmila says that while there is a garbage collection service, no one has the money to pay for it, so they just toss it everywhere. The banks of the river, the parks and the city streets are strewn with piles of garbage.
From there we drove out to a village where Lyuda met with a former director of the region, now a wealthy farmer with 5,000 hectares. His office was in a very non-descript building (very few businesses have obvious signs, so it is difficult to tell if there is anything inside and there are no large window fronts on the buildings). Serge drove us himself, in his "very nice car" (his Lexus, with a GPS tuned to somewhere in Florida-- it seemed to be only a conversation piece), to his ostrich farm. Serge had spent 6 months learning American farming in Indiana and toured 21 states. He spoke some English, and Lyuda said the was a very good "master"-- not just as a businessman, but as a philanthropist who donated money. At the ostrich farm we met his father, and got close up to his 20o ostriches. I boldly asked him for ostrich feathers and received one black and one white. From there, he proposed we head to an adjacent forested area (mostly birches), where we sat at a picnic table amongst the blooming violets and drank Crimean cognac and at hazelnut chocolates. What a lovely way to spend the afternoon! Afterwards we returned to his office and met up with the first driver who took us further out to the "sanitorium", where we walked round the building along the river and among the lovely oak trees.
Finally, at the end of the day, we stopped by the market (about the size of Otto's produce) for a few things as I had not ordered dinner back at the hotel.