Trick-or-Treats

My life leading up to Peace Corps has been a lot of things, and it may even be said that it was my fate to end up in PC because of my life. Being comfortable living in a new city, making friends, working in NGOs and volunteerism, and generally having a pretty open mind when it comes to foreign cultures and countries for that matter.

But where I failed was in taking some of that knowledge and applying it to Ukraine. Specifically, what I learned in India at the bazaars and markets. Number one rule, if you see something you like, buy it then and there because you will not see it again. Or at least, when you go to look for it with the intent to buy, it won’t be at that particular stall or even the same bazaar for that matter. Case in point, this applies to Ukrainian bazaars too. So those awesome yoga pants with the Euro Cup 2012 logo on them that were at every other stall two weeks ago are not there anymore. We (well mostly Maria, because her language skills are phenomenal) even asked many of the shopkeepers about them. And granted, they legitimately may not have understood us, but at the same time our details should have rang some bells. So chalking it up for a loss, but still looking for those pants, I shall now attempt to make up for the fact that I have sorely neglected my blog.

Let’s see. Halloween seems like a great place to start. So as most of you know, I was planning on hosting a cross-cultural Halloween party with my office to show them a bit about myself and introduce them to one of my favorite American holidays. I planned on showing pictures of Halloween pictures- both personal ones of costumes and decorations in the house and then a few from stores- the displays and general American consumerism still astound Ukrainians when I talk about Target or Wal-Mart (man, do I miss those places!). Then I figured we could bust out candy- American and Ukrainian- and munch on snacks while watching a traditional Halloween movie (Casper, in Russian). I had even spent the English lesson the week before in teaching them some basic Halloween vocab (pumpkin, witch, candy, Trick-or-Treat etc.) and made up some fun Bingo cards with those words on it to play on Monday. I even made it an extra treat to bring in some of my Florida/America souvenirs (postcards, key chains, Florida quarters) to pass out as prizes (which they loved).

Where it was super awesome was the fact that they planned a surprise on me- they had all carved their own Jack-o-Lanterns, bought Halloween decorations (there is a novelty – meaning expensive- “American” store in the mall) for the office, and made costumes. Wow. And (since of course, it gets better) I told them all to bring some candy, they took that to mean bring food (hey, it is, after all, Ukraine) so the snacks of candy that I had in mind actually turned out to be голубці (holuptsi, or cabbage rolls), meatballs, meat wrapped something (maybe chicken breasts wrapped around a liver paste) and of course we had both a potato salad and beet and mayo salad. So, with my candies and spiced cider, it was a thoroughly cross-cultural party. And instead of watching Casper, we spent the time debating what was better Candy or Meat. Trying to convince the meat-loving Ukrainians that on October 31st the obligatory answer is candy and chocolates didn’t really go very far. But it was a lively and interesting debate to say the least!

And for my life since then, well busy would be the only appropriate word. I am starting to work with another organization The Foundation of Regional Initiatives which is essentially a youth based volunteer organization. We are working on introducing new, more accurate, history books to the schools, volunteering with the youth in foster homes and orphanages, and are working on some English lessons for teenagers. (Who knew that I would be teaching English as much as I am?) I am also working with Laura on getting OHALOW underway for 2012 (yay!), we have a partnering organization (yay!), a good grip on funding (YAY!), and are pulling in a pretty awesome staff- both PCVs and Ukrainians (yay!).

And now it is November so gearing up for Thanksgiving (best holiday ever) which will be here in Rivne oblast, and my birthday of course! Well, this plus really gearing up for the colder weather- today walking to work from the center, it read 3°Celcius and according to my FB newsfeed there are reports of snow in other regions of Ukraine. Winter, here we come!