Dave
Before we came to Ukraine, I was a high school math teacher and girl’s basketball coach in a large public school in Phoenix, AZ. Coaching was one of the highlights of my teaching experience, and I thought it could be similar for me here. The first several times I went to Our Home, Andrew Geddert was there and he was able to assist and translate for me. It was enjoyable since the kids really respected him and his language ability made it easy to run a basketball camp. His term ended and, in September, I began traveling to the center twice a week to try to coach on my own.
It has been a difficult adjustment. My language knowledge is not at a place where I am able to explain drills and correct things when I need or want to. And it seems that these kids are a bit less motivated to develop their basketball skills than my players were in Arizona. The 2+ hours have evolved from rather intense skills development into doing a random drill, then forming teams and playing until everyone is too tired to play anymore. This has been a difficult adjustment for me as skills development was the focus of our practices in Phoenix and that is the way to get the most improvement. But the kids seem to be a lot better players now than they were a year ago.
Sasha Gritzenko is in charge of evening sports/activities at Our Home. He is also an assistant pastor at Light of the Gospel church in Makeevka and his pastoral responsibilities usually occupy him on Monday/Thursday nights, so it is fortunate that those two nights I am able to help the kids burn a little energy by playing basketball. During my own childhood I remember some (typically winter) days when I would drive my parents crazy from being cooped up in the house too long. My father’s favorite solution was to assign me to run laps around the house. The more annoying I had been, the more laps I had to run. I would usually return to the house with a new sense of peace/calm. I can’t imagine how crazy the house would have been with more than 30 kids in it. But I hope that some of the kids are a bit calmer after an evening of basketball.
I know that the basketball efforts are appreciated. Even though the kids continue to make fun of my Russian pronunciation and lack of vocabulary, my trips to Our Home have become the highlight of my job here. Breaking up the occasional fight or sometimes halting the game for a technical foul is still difficult, but watching the kids interact with each other and comparing
this interaction with what I sometimes see on the street makes me never want to miss an opportunity to interact with them. When I have missed a practice or two several kids never fail to ask: “Why haven’t you been here for so long?” It makes me feel like my limited efforts are appreciated. The other day Stas proudly told me that his teacher told him that he was the “best basketball player in his class as well as the class above him.” And Tolik, Christina and Vova rarely go a full evening without telling me “basketball is my favorite sport” at least once each. Just last Monday in a rather intense game, Nastya made the first two baskets that I have ever seen her make. Joy was written all over her face and after the game she told me that she had never been on a winning team before.
I usually arrive at Our Home around 6:00 p.m., which is about an hour after the daytime employees have left. Oftentimes Valentina Chernova, director of Our Home, will still be working in her office and will come to check on how things are going. Even though she admittedly doesn’t know much about basketball, she listens intently to my instructions and repeats them, while encouraging the kids to participate in a way only Valentina can do. One day she found me and said I needed to come to her office because she had something to show me. I almost had to run to keep up with her and, upon arriving in her office, she showed me a small trophy. The girls had won the biannual Makeevka internaut basketball tournament. I could even see a hint of pride on the face of one of the most humble people I have ever met.
