Last night we went to another American’s house to watch a tape of the superbowl and have a little belated party in honor of the game. We ended coming back to our apartment homesick – Dave for watching sports on TV and I for some fast food – the Taco Bell ads really got to me. Tacos are non-existent here. Today life goes on as usual, but though it was a balmy 40 degrees yesterday, today the wind howled and it snowed. Tomorrow is the first day of spring in Ukraine, and though the weather is less than springy, someone reassured me today that it will be spring soon and the only reason it’s cold today is because the seasons are fighting because winter doesn’t want to be done yet. Hopefully they’re right.
If winter does end up lasting another month, the one good thing will be that we’ll keep drinking tea to stay warm. Dave and I have discovered a whole new world of tea here in Ukraine. Entire aisles of stores are dedicated to it, as are quite a few stalls at the market. There’s tea from all over the world, and in so many different flavors. Our current favorite we discovered at our language lesson when Dave wasn’t feeling well and Marina, our teacher, made him a cup of tea. It’s a loose black tea made in Denmark, and it’s translated “Earl Grey,” but it’s nothing like the English Earl Grey I’ve tasted at home. It tastes like berries and is full of all kinds of interesting things – the ingredient list includes red saffron, blue cornflower and red currants. Marina directed us to a tiny tea shop located inside a pharmacy near the center of town to buy this special tea, and we’ll be returning soon. Behind the small counter are jars full of all kinds of fun flavors of tea, most of which we can only identify by the pictures on the jar labels – all the more reason to taste as many as we can!
It’s no wonder there are so many kinds of tea available – Ukrainians drink tea like it’s their job. At every meal and social gathering, as well as many times in between, there’s tea to be drunk and cookies to be eaten. Jam is also common base for “tea” – just add a couple spoonfuls to a cup of hot water, and it’s ready. But we think the teas we find here will be just as good iced as they are hot, so perhaps it would be all right if spring would hurry up and get here.
Laura
Monday, February 28, 2005
Friday, February 25, 2005
Summer English Intensive
As I may have mentioned before, part of my job here is co-coordinating DCU’s Summer English Intensive program. Basically, DCI offers all-day English classes to community members for two two-week sessions in July. The mornings are structured English classes taught by trained teachers, and the afternoons are a mix of conversation practice, songs, games, crafts and other hands-on activities that all focus on English learning. Evenings are optional, and usually include an English language movie or free time. This program draws every age of student from late elementary school through mid-40s, and quite a few staff members at DCU take classes. My biggest responsibility is to line up teachers and assistants from the U.S. to come to Ukraine to teach. Almost all of our teachers and helpers come from the U.S., except a few native teachers who teach the lower levels of English.
Although July seems like a long time away, since Christmas I’ve been communicating with prospective teachers and church groups about coming this summer. There are several regulars who come every year, but there’s always room for new people. We still have spaces open for both teachers and assistants – so if anyone is interested, let me know! I’d love to see some familiar faces at DCU. If you want more details, go to http://www.dcu.donbass.com/eng/projects/intensive.htm on DCU’s website. While you’re there you can also learn more about DCU and see some pictures.
-Laura
Although July seems like a long time away, since Christmas I’ve been communicating with prospective teachers and church groups about coming this summer. There are several regulars who come every year, but there’s always room for new people. We still have spaces open for both teachers and assistants – so if anyone is interested, let me know! I’d love to see some familiar faces at DCU. If you want more details, go to http://www.dcu.donbass.com/eng/projects/intensive.htm on DCU’s website. While you’re there you can also learn more about DCU and see some pictures.
-Laura
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
A Milestone
I just wanted to post a quick note about our counter. I was stoked to see that it is now a four digit number. I am sure that my periodic checking the counter reading accounts for most of those 1001 hits, but the math nerd in me knows that I would have had to check 9.8 times per day to account for this. The probability of this is quite low, I have not spent (wasted) that much time working towards my goal. Therefore others must also be accounting for part of the quantity. That's g-rate.
-Dave
-Dave
MCC Staff Photo
We had retreat last weekend. One evening the staff went out to eat in a cafe. Most of our coworkers were on this photo. They are: (from left) Zlata, Lyuda, and Andrei Zolotaryov; Mary Raber; Doug Wrenn; Andrew Geddert; Laura; Amy Goerzen; and Elisabeth Harder.
MCC Staff Photo II
Here is the other side of the table. They are: (from left) Elisabeth Harder, Dave, Ionka Hristozova, Katie Hengeveld, and Zlata and Lyuda Zolotaryov. (missing from both photos is Alexandr "Sasha" Zhirov)
Possible DCU Garden
This is the future site of the DCU garden. We hope to focus on growing tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, dill, and parsley. The ground is not worked up yet and the nearest water access is about 450 ft. Those are the two main problems we are hoping to get in order soon. DCU has a significant amont of unused land and we hope to use some of it as a garden.
Possible DCU Chicken House
This is the small building that we hope to convert into a chicken house. We have not been able to decide whether we will have laying hens or raise birds for meat. Students are researching the market and the input costs and we hope to go from there.
Chkolova Farm
This is a picture of a farm that MCC has supported over the past 5 years. They have a chicken operation of about 1000 laying hens and have been operating for a few years. They have also rent around 800 hectares of land and raise some hogs. It is located in Priazovia, just a few kilometers from the Sea of Azov.
Inside the Barn
Here is a photo iside of the barn (the red one in the previous picture). They have partitioned the building and are raising laying hens in one part. I have more photos (for anyone interested) but thought I would post one so people can see that they are only a few years behind technology in the states. We may try to replicate this operation on a significantly smaller scale.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Strangers
We spent the last weekend in Zaporozhye experiencing our first "Winter Retreat." It went well and we were able to relax a good deal and reflect on our past 3 months as well as listen to other MCCers reflect on their past six months. It was interesting and helpful in getting a better picture of what MCC is doing in the Former Soviet Union as well as think back on what had happened in our own lives.
This morning, we arrived at the bus station early with hopes of getting on a marshrutka (small bus). We talked to the driver, but he kept asking us if we were on something that we did not understand. We figured out that he had a list of passengers that called him last night to reserve seats in the van. He thought the van was full, but a group of around 6 people waited outside the van just in case. We spent the next 45 minutes speaking broken Russian to a very nice lady outside the van. She was very interested in what we are doing here, where we are from, how long we are staying and the other traditional questions. She was very friendly and patient with us.
As the departure time approached, the driver walked past and she spoke very rapidly to him and gestured in our direction. He said "I know, I understand...." and gestured for us to get in the van. A few minutes later we realized that the lady, who had been waiting longer than we had, was not going to get a seat. We have concluded that she was kind enough to tell the driver to give the last two seats in the marshrutka to us. As we drove away, we saw her standing there, waiting for the next marshrutka, which left two hours later.
In the past few months, the election situation has caused us to be very deliberate in not broadcasting the fact that we are Americans. We have tried to talk as quietly and little as possible in public because of anti-American sentiments in our area. Today we were reminded of the kindness of strangers.
-Dave
This morning, we arrived at the bus station early with hopes of getting on a marshrutka (small bus). We talked to the driver, but he kept asking us if we were on something that we did not understand. We figured out that he had a list of passengers that called him last night to reserve seats in the van. He thought the van was full, but a group of around 6 people waited outside the van just in case. We spent the next 45 minutes speaking broken Russian to a very nice lady outside the van. She was very interested in what we are doing here, where we are from, how long we are staying and the other traditional questions. She was very friendly and patient with us.
As the departure time approached, the driver walked past and she spoke very rapidly to him and gestured in our direction. He said "I know, I understand...." and gestured for us to get in the van. A few minutes later we realized that the lady, who had been waiting longer than we had, was not going to get a seat. We have concluded that she was kind enough to tell the driver to give the last two seats in the marshrutka to us. As we drove away, we saw her standing there, waiting for the next marshrutka, which left two hours later.
In the past few months, the election situation has caused us to be very deliberate in not broadcasting the fact that we are Americans. We have tried to talk as quietly and little as possible in public because of anti-American sentiments in our area. Today we were reminded of the kindness of strangers.
-Dave
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Church
Moving to a new place and finding a new church can be difficult for anyone, let alone us foreigners in Ukraine. However, we are happy to say that we have now found a church that we call home. There are no Mennonite churches in Donetsk, so we attended a variety of churches in the first couple months, and have settled on a Ukrainian church with Baptist affiliations. The people at our new church, Light of the Gospel, make us feel quite welcome. Even on our first visit we were greeted with many hearty handshakes (for Dave) and kisses from babushkas (for me) along with “Privyetstoyu,” the traditional Baptist greeting. Our church located in the nearby town of Makeevka and it takes us about 45 min. to get there by bus. I would guess that there are about 150 people who attend the morning service, a good mix of young and old, and quite a few familiar faces from DCU. We meet in a square, two-story, gray building with green trim around the windows that doesn’t look much like a traditional church from the outside.
Of the churches we visited, this is one is the most traditional with the least American influence, which can be both good and bad. That means that the entire service is always conducted in Russian, and few people attending the church speak any English. It’s hard to understand now, but good for our Russian practice. We sing from a songbook (hymn-like songs) and accompanied by the piano most of the time, but sometimes will sing more contemporary songs, some of which are familiar, but only the melodies. All songs are in sung in Russian. A choir sings every Sunday, and there’s usually at least three other individual “special music” solos throughout the service. Usually soloists accompany themselves on the guitar and sing songs in a folksy style. Dave and my favorite soloists, Andrei and Tanya, sing duets while Andrei plays guitar and sometimes harmonica. We’d like a recording of their music. Music is definitely the highlight of church at this point, although poetry recitations also make the service interesting. Many Ukrainians are amateur poets, and several recite their original poetry each Sunday, or sometimes a memorized chapter of the Bible or two. Sermons at Light of the Gospel are long and generally unintelligible to us, and there are usually at least two during the two to two and half hour morning service. Recently we’ve been catching a few more things, since one of Dave’s Saturday English students, Oleg, attends our church and sits next to Dave to translate now and then throughout the service. Before Oleg was there, Lyuda, Oleg’s mother and the secretary at DCU, would help us out from the choir loft. Whenever the hymn number was called out, she would not very inconspicuously hold up her fingers to show the correct hymn number. We felt like dumb foreigners, but what else is new? We really appreciated it.
Laura
Of the churches we visited, this is one is the most traditional with the least American influence, which can be both good and bad. That means that the entire service is always conducted in Russian, and few people attending the church speak any English. It’s hard to understand now, but good for our Russian practice. We sing from a songbook (hymn-like songs) and accompanied by the piano most of the time, but sometimes will sing more contemporary songs, some of which are familiar, but only the melodies. All songs are in sung in Russian. A choir sings every Sunday, and there’s usually at least three other individual “special music” solos throughout the service. Usually soloists accompany themselves on the guitar and sing songs in a folksy style. Dave and my favorite soloists, Andrei and Tanya, sing duets while Andrei plays guitar and sometimes harmonica. We’d like a recording of their music. Music is definitely the highlight of church at this point, although poetry recitations also make the service interesting. Many Ukrainians are amateur poets, and several recite their original poetry each Sunday, or sometimes a memorized chapter of the Bible or two. Sermons at Light of the Gospel are long and generally unintelligible to us, and there are usually at least two during the two to two and half hour morning service. Recently we’ve been catching a few more things, since one of Dave’s Saturday English students, Oleg, attends our church and sits next to Dave to translate now and then throughout the service. Before Oleg was there, Lyuda, Oleg’s mother and the secretary at DCU, would help us out from the choir loft. Whenever the hymn number was called out, she would not very inconspicuously hold up her fingers to show the correct hymn number. We felt like dumb foreigners, but what else is new? We really appreciated it.
Laura
Friday, February 11, 2005
Birthday Cards
My little sister and brother both have birthdays in the next two weeks. Laura and I thought that they would be interested in receiving Russian birthday cards. On Tuesday, we were in the city for language lesson and we thought we would swing by the store and pick up a few cards. We knew the translations of the key words: brother, sister, happy birthday... so we were set.
We bought two cards. One said "To my sister" on the front and the other said "Happy birthday means it's time to..." with several cute, animated frogs saying some verb we didn't know on the front. We assumed it meant "to celebrate" or party or something like that. On the two cards, there were only a handful of words that we didn't know (which is a lot better than usual) and we thought we got the gist of them.
We came back and showed the cards to one of our Russian, English-speaking friends. She said they were really cute. We asked for literal translations and were informed that one said: "To my sister... from mother's favorite daughter." Oops. She didn't think that was too big of deal because: "They can't read Russian anyway." We also found out what the frogs were saying. They were saying "To get drunk, to get drunk, to get drunk." Who would have thought that those cute little frogs would say such uncouth things? Anyway, I took out my trusty sharpie and crossed out the words in the dialogue bubbles and wrote in the verb "to celebrate" and all is well. We hope they like them.
Dave
We bought two cards. One said "To my sister" on the front and the other said "Happy birthday means it's time to..." with several cute, animated frogs saying some verb we didn't know on the front. We assumed it meant "to celebrate" or party or something like that. On the two cards, there were only a handful of words that we didn't know (which is a lot better than usual) and we thought we got the gist of them.
We came back and showed the cards to one of our Russian, English-speaking friends. She said they were really cute. We asked for literal translations and were informed that one said: "To my sister... from mother's favorite daughter." Oops. She didn't think that was too big of deal because: "They can't read Russian anyway." We also found out what the frogs were saying. They were saying "To get drunk, to get drunk, to get drunk." Who would have thought that those cute little frogs would say such uncouth things? Anyway, I took out my trusty sharpie and crossed out the words in the dialogue bubbles and wrote in the verb "to celebrate" and all is well. We hope they like them.
Dave
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
In a Hurry
One of the things that really excited me about doing a term of MCC service was the exposure to different cultural norms. I thought that exposure to one of these might end up being especially beneficial to me. I was excited about a non-North American view of time.
In the last few years, I have been fortunate enough to be able to keep a lot of things on my plate at one time. The excitement of having to hurry to finish one task so I could get to my next one really kept me going. And things moved at about the right pace most of the time. However, there were significant drawbacks to always hurrying. When things did not go as planned, I became frustrated rather quickly. I also spent a significant amount of time being very tired. I was very excited to go to a place where schedules were not so important.
In Ukraine, it is oftentimes a bit more difficult to get from point "A" to point "B." The public transportation system does not pride itself in its timeliness. Things almost never start on time. In general, it seems that people are not as animate about being punctual. I can't tell you how many quizzical looks I have already received as I was almost running to get to my language lesson or some other appointment on time.
The weather also slows things down greatly. It has snowed around 2' in the last week, yet many roads and sidewalks have not seen a snowplow or even a shovel in that time period. People just walk and drive where they think they can make it through.
The intent of this entry is not only to complain (or inform), but it is also an attempt to predict. In the next 3 years, I might learn from the people here and adjust to their lifestyle. At this point in time I may be getting frustrated frequently, but I am working at taking things as they come.
-Dave
In the last few years, I have been fortunate enough to be able to keep a lot of things on my plate at one time. The excitement of having to hurry to finish one task so I could get to my next one really kept me going. And things moved at about the right pace most of the time. However, there were significant drawbacks to always hurrying. When things did not go as planned, I became frustrated rather quickly. I also spent a significant amount of time being very tired. I was very excited to go to a place where schedules were not so important.
In Ukraine, it is oftentimes a bit more difficult to get from point "A" to point "B." The public transportation system does not pride itself in its timeliness. Things almost never start on time. In general, it seems that people are not as animate about being punctual. I can't tell you how many quizzical looks I have already received as I was almost running to get to my language lesson or some other appointment on time.
The weather also slows things down greatly. It has snowed around 2' in the last week, yet many roads and sidewalks have not seen a snowplow or even a shovel in that time period. People just walk and drive where they think they can make it through.
The intent of this entry is not only to complain (or inform), but it is also an attempt to predict. In the next 3 years, I might learn from the people here and adjust to their lifestyle. At this point in time I may be getting frustrated frequently, but I am working at taking things as they come.
-Dave
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