First illness in Ukraine is subsiding, just as the weather is turning for good to cold and dreary everyday all day. I knew that would be #1 on everyone's worry list.
Boring overview over the past week....parliamentary elections were held this past Sunday and as far as I know, nothing happened. Results won't be in for another few days though. One night my host mom asked me "Do you actually believe what candidates in the United States say?" I said, "For the most part, yes we do". She responded "Ah, we are lucky here. Here, we don't believe any of them". We all like to think that we can see through politicians' BS, but I think that Americans generally believe what candidates say. We wouldn't have such heated debates if at least two people didn't believe in what their candidates were saying. It truly is a different political atmosphere here. There's a whole lot of propaganda around but if you ask an individual what they think, they dismiss all candidates as liars and say it won't matter who gets voted in. At least that's been my experience. Visited the local train station today that was built during Stalin's era. Hammer and sickles seemed to be pretttty popular back then. Carved a Peace Corps pumpkin on halloween with clustermates & then attempted to terrify other clustermates in the pitch black stairwell of our LCF's apartment. Visited Kiev last week and snapped a pic with bugs bunny, just for my dad. And finally, I hand washed my clothes for the first time ever. Wringing out excess water requires the hand strength of a masseuse.
A few weeks ago I took my camera with me to class and snapped some pics of my stroll home. Let's take a walk.
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| a private little path i sometimes take to get home |
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| that leads to this. in america, this setting would scream criminal activity. in ukraine, it's just a friendly garage garden. |
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| first impression: dead bodies |
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| no post on sundays, harry |
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| the walking dead should be filmed here. took me awhile to feel comfortable walking through here in broad daylight without my rape whistle in my mouth |
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| more benign garages, allegedly. |
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| it's been "suggested" that we not step on any man holes because they might not be secure |
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| highlights task: circle something that doesn't belong in this picture |
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| every house is equipped with a gate/fence. i can say with confidence that trick or treating will not catch on here. |
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| welcome to my street, named "partisan"skaya. it couldn't be more perfect. |
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| actual size of street sign, on a house, behind a fence. smacks you right in the face. |
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| using full zoom |
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| flowers! along my street |
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| my дом! |
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| enter here |
Every sunday I attend an English club at my library. Here's one question I wasn't prepared for: "Do you actually believe the Americans landed on the moon?" The middle aged man that asked this question then firmly informed me that the Americans did not land on the mood before the Russians. I scoffed at this notion, in my head, and said that I did believe we landed on the moon in 1969 and we changed the subject. My initial scoff took for granted my American upbringing. What would I believe if I grew up during the cold war? If I was assured by my government/teachers/family that another country had faked its moon landing, and that same country was sabotaging our own space program. It would be enormously difficult to challenge a fundamental 'truth' you grew up with your entire life. And this is something so vital and poignant about the Peace Corps and diplomacy in general. Condescension is the worst position to take. Instead empathy is required, to realize there's layers underneath that opinion that I can't compete with. And it's not important/necessary for me to go into an English club and pass out new truths. It's my job to show him and everyone else, what it looks like to think independently. What it looks like to be a foreigner and to make me seem less "other" by spending time together. A lot of things about Ukraine make my life in America seem trivial and this was one of those moments. Instead of engaging in a facebook war regarding 'binders full of women', imagine trying to debate the moon landing..
Also, we've already had daylight savings time over here. A week before America's. I thought it was kinda cool.
Boring overview over the past week....parliamentary elections were held this past Sunday and as far as I know, nothing happened. Results won't be in for another few days though. One night my host mom asked me "Do you actually believe what candidates in the United States say?" I said, "For the most part, yes we do". She responded "Ah, we are lucky here. Here, we don't believe any of them". We all like to think that we can see through politicians' BS, but I think that Americans generally believe what candidates say. We wouldn't have such heated debates if at least two people didn't believe in what their candidates were saying. It truly is a different political atmosphere here. There's a whole lot of propaganda around but if you ask an individual what they think, they dismiss all candidates as liars and say it won't matter who gets voted in. At least that's been my experience. Visited the local train station today that was built during Stalin's era. Hammer and sickles seemed to be pretttty popular back then. Carved a Peace Corps pumpkin on halloween with clustermates & then attempted to terrify other clustermates in the pitch black stairwell of our LCF's apartment. Visited Kiev last week and snapped a pic with bugs bunny, just for my dad. And finally, I hand washed my clothes for the first time ever. Wringing out excess water requires the hand strength of a masseuse. 
