Concerning my PST experience

My Week’s Worth of FB Status Updates and Random Thoughts of Amanda:
1. I have now made completely homemade ravioli- or at least the Ukrainian version. And even better, I am pretty sure I would be able to do it again by myself.
2. Apple-bottom Jeans is hilarious when translated to Ukrainian. Similarly, was kind of hoping that Evanescence would have been translated so that it might have been bearable.

3. I used to think I speak English and some Spanish. With further review, it turns out I speak Enspitgeukru. And that is a combination of English, Spanish, Italian, German, Ukrainian, and some Russian.

I am so unsure on where to start for this one! I wanted to start with the firsts that I experienced this last week, but then realized that I couldn’t legitimately post all of them. So maybe I will start with my language lessons. This week is the first time I made it through my tutoring without walking out completely drained, which is a huge accomplishment! Generally after tutoring, we all walk out feeling both incompetent and useless not to mention overwhelmed and exhausted. But this week, I walked out feeling better than I did walking in. Though, to be fair, I did have my minor break down in the middle, but my LCF is awesome and wasn’t going to let me beat myself up. AND she managed to get me to a point of semi-understanding when it comes to pronouns. We (my cluster mates and I) are still of the opinion that she makes up the grammar rules as she goes along, but through some interpretations of her explanations, our frustrations and blaming explanation of “it is because it is historical” we have come to the conclusion that the endings and pronouns can mostly be determined by the fact that one should pick the ending that “sounds better.” Personally, I think this is a subjective concept but I will roll with it because as a PCT “I am flexible.”

Last Sunday we played soccer with some local kids, super fun! And Sunday I also helped my host family with some of their kitchen garden work. Mind you, their “kitchen” garden is about the size of a small soccer pitch. And it would probably impress some of my Iowa relatives. We cleared out the plant remains from last year’s crop- so cutting down corn stalks (with a kitchen cleaver), digging up some roots of an unidentified vegetable and raking the vines and leaves all up. Then we burnt it. So yes, I was able to be a pyro and set fire to the field essentially. And my host mom was kind enough to lend me a head scarf that I assume was to protect my hair from smelling like smoke (since we don’t shower as often anymore) so I started off looking almost Ukrainian. (No, I didn’t get a picture, though it would have been classy- me with my head scarf, yellow Tank’s Army jersey and a field on fire for a background) However it was the one warm day we have seen and I wasn’t going to waste it by keeping my jacket on. Not that my family or LCF approved of my being outside without a jacket. But I couldn’t do it. Vitamin D I will absorb to the greatest extent possible. Not to mention that I had just learned how to hand wash (officially) that morning and there was no way that you could pay me enough to make my jacket proceed faster towards the wash pile. I shudder at the thought of having to hand-wash that thing!

Though, speaking of the newly washed clothes I did do. I have to rewash all of them. I hung them out to dry, and then my Dad courteously not smoking around me, decided that smoking around my wet fresh laundry was a better choice. So I did all that hard work done just for my clothes to end up smelling like cigarette smoke. Oh well, can’t win them all! 
Sunday for all of the busyness of soccer and farm work also brought fun stuff- my first call from home! Yay for talking to the parents! I have been way too busy to be legitimately homesick. But I do miss everyone back in the states and it was so unbelievably wonderful to talk to them. (And for anybody who wants to call, just email me so I can send you my number) And every day when I wake up and see my mementos from all of you I remember how much I am loved and I just hope that you know how much that is reciprocated!

Gah, I am going to town tomorrow and I know I should have internet (we are going to a “field trip” to the bazaar and depending on weather and timing we may stop for internet or just head home) so I want to get everything in this letter but there is so much! Like how squat toilet outhouses are normal for me, and how eating mashed potatoes, fish cutlets and grains are normal breakfast. Or that for my Self Directed Learning (SDL) I will be translating some traditional Ukrainian kids poems and trying to draw out some of their pictures (hopefully I will find colored pencils or water colors at the bazaar, since I pathetically didn’t bring mine) and that I will also be trying to learn cursive (I am slow at writing English print and Ukrainian is that much slower for me). Hmm, what else? Today it hailed so it is a chilly day. My lunch was borsch/soup and sweet noodles with chai, breakfast was fried eggs and leftover fish cutlets (which are made with this fish-meat paste stuff dipped in crumbs and fried. And apart from a lack of seasoning are actually fairly tasty, despite the ambiguity of fish).

I have been informed that a previous volunteer used pepper spray against a turkey and I am tempted to try the effects on the turkey we have here. It’s been dubbed chauvinistic by my cluster mates but I just call it dinner. That will be one delicious meal! I think one of our cats may be pregnant so maybe soon to have baby kitties here! I can buy Nutella at the market but haven’t found peanut butter. Which, to be fair, is not a surprise but is still highly depressing. I tried Birch Juice the other day- which is literally birch tree sap. Personally it just tastes like water with an earthy aftertaste, but it’s a big thing here and my little sister loves it. Though I suppose they don’t drink much water here so it’s different for them. (And the water from our tap is highly concentrated in iron so it definitely does have a taste and I guess there is a bigger comparison on that factor). Oh, and thankfully my stomach of rock has been so far been able to tolerate local water here. Not that I am drinking it regularly but it’s nice to know. And yes, I am knocking on wood as I type this.

Next week my cluster gets to decide what to do for our project- some ideas are working on starting an English club, soccer tourney, or simple fundraising event. It’s hard to decide though because our community is so small and we are only here for 3 months (or 2 and change if you are being specific). I can’t believe how fast time is going here! I guess I just have been too busy to realize it. But, the good side to that is that it will be even sooner for me to get an address that I can receive and send mail from! Yay!

The first market we went to- found some delicious stuff!
A picture of our Wall of Learning at our LCF’s house- this was all posted and ‘learned’ in about 2 hours. Hmmmm. I should probably take an updated picture for what it looks like now…..

Our school canteen- aka cheap and extraordinarily delicious lunch!