Rolling in Another Year of Life

"Well, in out country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" Through the Looking Glass, Chp. 2

I don't know if that is an appropriate catch line for this particular entry, but you know me, I love Alice in Wonderland and the quote- if not entirely suitable for the entry, is pretty ideal considering the relevance to amount of running that one must do in Ukraine for projects. For better and for worse.

And as much as I would love to go into that topic, I know that it would just let me start rambling and I think I will spare you that at least for the present. Instead I will just talk to you about my Thanksgiving and my Birthday. (Yup, yours truly is another year older, and hopefully fractionally wiser).

For Thanksgiving (a.k.a. the best American holiday ever) one of the PCVs near me decided that she would host. Both because she loves the holiday as much as I do and because she has a housing situation that would facilitate a large gathering (unlike my tiny dorm/apartment). We- being her cluster group, a few PCV's from our region and other close PCVs got together to celebrate by having a "real" Thanksgiving meal (complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, melintsi, blinchiki, beet salat, and of course that drink which comes to mind when you think Ukraine) on Saturday.

But before we get into the dinner, let's take a moment to discuss the activities of the Friday before (what normally should be Black Friday). We went to a sauna. I know what you are thinking. She is a PCV she is supposed to be living the hardship life and all that? So a SAUNA?! Well, let me just explain what "sauna" really means for us here in Ukraine. It means sitting in a room that is 100*C (something about 212*F) for a few minutes, stepping out, showering in ice cold water and repeating until you are sufficiently blotchy and light headed. (Totally safe right?) Then we were given some nice warm (well hot, but in comparison to the room, it was only warm) tea to drink. Then, one by one we were lead back into the sauna, stripped then beat with leaves. Yes, you heard me. Stripped, then beat. The lady that ran the sauna made us lie naked on the bench and took a bunch of sticks and leaves, dunked them in water then started hitting us. Just when the awkward wore off, she made us turn over and then beat the other side. Granted there was a bit of a massage in there somewhere, but still. And then, going back out to the waiting room and cooling off again we decided that maybe we actually did feel some of the "freshly detoxed" feeling she was telling us about. Granted, it may have been more along the lines of relief about being done and not having to go back into the oven-like sauna. So prior to roasting and eating a turkey, we were roasted and prepared too. It put a little empathy into the sacrifice those turkeys, willingly or not, make for us. And, hey, it was definitely a great Ukrainian experience!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that your holidays were as awesome and as memorable as mine, and that you have many things to be thankful for! I know I am thankful for the friends and family back in the States who helped me become strong enough to take on the challenge of PC and who support me endlessly while I am here. And I am thankful for the new friends and family I have met here, I wouldn't have made it this far without you!

And speaking of how far I have gotten, as of last Saturday I get to claim another year to my record! Almost catching up to Allyssa again (0r at least for another 9 months! Ha!) and ticking one more fun birthday of the countdown. I can't say that I feel old, PC has definitely put us all in a strange limbo. We get older, and we gain experience but when we go back to the States it will be that we are all at least two years behind the normal curve. Just out of college mindset but two years late. Strange situation, but so far, very worth it!

As for how I brought the birthday in, well we started off with a busy week getting ready for World AIDS Day on December 1st (Did you wear your red ribbon? Do you know YOUR status?) where we went to the center and did a "flash mob" type information distribution. I had painted two large Ukraine maps that depicted the HIV growth rate over the last 10 years- so the first map was painted in lighter colors- yellows and oranges with a few red- and the second map for the 2011 statistics showed predominantly darker colors- orange, red and blue.

And while we did not publicly announce anything, people walking by were invariably drawn to see what that maps were. Partnering up with the Center for Family and Youth we also distributed informational flyers, condoms, red ribbons, and balloons. My office also presented to the various press representatives about the importance of getting tested and knowing your status. Overall an awesome success! And of course I will take a minute to thank all the PCVs in Ukraine and around the world who put on HIV/AIDS Awareness activities and who work diligently to fighting for the cause of awareness, education, and prevention. And of course to all people, organizations, governments and business who proudly stand up to help this cause.

Going back to a lighter subject, my birthday was a blast. I had a few close PCV friends stay over at my place for the weekend and got to go around the city for an excursion (one of the friends being a PCV from the other side of Ukraine) and had dinner with PCVs and Ukrainian friends at a cafe in town. Celebrating with awesome people is one of my most favorite hobbies and having the awesome friends that I do just makes celebrating with them that much better! And Sunday we celebrated in true Amanda meets Ukraine shenanigans style- we went to a "Shooting Range" run by a Baba in a little shop under the bridge. Found out that my shooting skills are so-so and found out that one of my friends is a sniper. Even the Baba was impressed! Though that might have been from our decent shooting, our broken Ukrainian and Russian, or from the fact that she happens to have sons she would like us to meet. Good times either way!