Ukrainian Presidential Elections

I thought I'd post an update on the unfolding drama regarding the recent presidential election Ukraine, as it is very big news here. We don't know how much coverage this issue has gotten in the U.S., but here everyone's talking about it, and the outcome might produce big changes for Ukraine. Viktor Yanukovich is the candidate aligned with a closer relationship with Russia. He is the current prime minister under outgoing president Kuchma, whose term has been full of corruption and human rights abuses. Yanukovich himself has several criminal convictions and is supported by the mafia, as well as some people on the eastern side of Ukraine. He also has many supporters in our area of Donetsk, which is where Yanukovich is from. Viktor Yushchenko is aligned with the west and favors moving Ukraine towards a more western-type democracy, with possible membership in the European Union, less governmental corruption, etc. Last Sunday was the runoff election between the two and although exit polls showed overwhelming support for Yushchenko, "official" results declared Yanukovich the winner by about 3 percent yesterday. Apparently the election was rigged, with Yanukovich supporters receiving multiple absentee ballots, voting in multiple precincts, and Yushchenko voters being intimidated and harrassed. Since the election, several hundred thousand protesters have gathered in Kiev outside the parliament and camped there, demonstrating for Yushchenko and a fair election tally. No winner has officially been determined, because we've heard that several officials on the election commission have refused to endorse the "official" election results that name Yanukovich president. Protests are taking place in other cities throughout Ukraine, especially in the western part, where Yushchenko is widely supported. So far, all has been quiet in Donetsk. We and others here get our news from the Internet, as all Ukrainian media here is controlled by the Yanukovich camp. The variety of news sources and different information coming out produce many rumors and hearsay, and our Ukrainian colleagues are always talking about it.

Laura

First Day of Class

I just finished teaching my very first class of Exploring Theological English, and I'm happy that it is now behind me. It took a lot of time to prepare for my first class - not only the first class I've ever taught, but also the first class I've ever taught to Russian-speaking students. I'm sure I'll learn more cultural differences as we go along, but things today went pretty well. I have seven students, all seniors in their course of study except for two juniors. They are a very energetic and talkative bunch, as long as they understand what I'm saying. If not, I get blank faces and lots of chattering in Russian. Today already I had one diligent student reminding the others to speak "English only!" With such a small group, it's easier to see who's understanding and who's not, which is a plus. I did do a lot of repeating and clarifying. Since there is only a month left in the semester, we will have to cram a lot of information into a short time and students will have to study a lot. However, other English teachers have told me that students work very hard and end up surprising teachers in the end by how much they learn and understand. I'm looking forward to getting to know my students better - at this point when Dave and I speak little Russian, it's hard to make connections with students.

Laura

Going to the Market

I will begin this posting with the promise that we will have some pictures posted early next week. We know that a lot of you like visuals and we will try to be accommodating. Sometimes it is a struggle to pull out the camera and be a tourist, but we will try.
Laura and I went to the market this morning. Our friend Sergei, a New Testament teacher here, took us there and helped us with a lot of purchasing. It was an outdoor market similar to the few that I visited in Guatemala. There was a small canopied area with lots of little shops. There were also vendors all around the perimeter of the place selling almost anything you could imagine. There were lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. I tried to purchase a few things on my own, but again realized that I am pretty helpless. I was excited to find that carrots and cabbage only cost $0.21 per kilogram and these crazy mushrooms that we had never seen before were also very cheap. We hope they are edible.
Tuesday will be a big day for us. Laura will be teaching her first English class and I have a meeting with the academic dean to discuss possibilities for my time here. I also have my first language lesson that day. We thought we might have a lesson last Thursday, but we just met the teacher, Marina. She seemed very friendly as well as qualified. I am going to have lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Laura will have them on Saturdays.
Thursday we took the bus to town (alone) with little difficulty. We tried to take it home as well, but it was dark and we had not paid close enough attention to landmarks for our stop. We got off a stop too soon and ended up walking an extra mile or so in the misty darkness. The walk and conditions lent themselves well to open communication. We are getting along well. I wish I had a cool way to sign off the postings, but I don't.

Dave

Figuring Things Out

Laura and I used public transportation to get downtown for the first time yesterday. Igor, an Old Testament teacher at DCU, was kind enough to show us where to get on and off the bus. He also showed us around town a little bit before taking us to a church meeting in the city. It was informative and fun. Downtown Donetsk is very modern and maintained and should allow us to do all the exploling we can handle. It is about a 15 minute walk to the bus stop and about a 30 minute ride (for only $0.07).
We will travel there again this afternoon to meet our Russian teacher and maybe even have a short lesson. We are excited to learn the language so we can begin to understand what is going on. Many people at the university speak English well and can translate, but they are not always around and we need to learn the language to be effective (or at least feel like we are being effective).
We are getting settled into our apartment and it is starting to feel like home. It is somewhat small and empty, but it serves our purposes. It is located in a building where many other faculty members live and that is very nice. We eat breakfast and supper there but we eat lunch in the cafeteria. The food is good even though there are some meals we are not accustomed to eating. The main course yesterday was liver over rice and it was pretty good. I never thought I would hear myself say that liver was good.
After one week in the country, I can finally say that Laura and I have fully recovered from jetlag. It was crazy to wake up in the middle of the night and totally feel like it was time to wake up. I had never experienced that before. The sun begins to set at 3:30 (or 15:30 as we now refer to it) and that makes for a long evening.
We were invited to spend (American) Thanksgiving afternoon with some other teachers from the States and are looking forward to that. Hopefully Laura will have a class or two under her belt and will be feeling well and I will be able to ask "Where is the bathroom?" in Russian.

Dave

In Donetsk

We have now arrived in Donetsk and moved into our apartment at Donetsk Christian University. We'll spend the next few days getting settled and learning our way around. The University is on the edge of Donetsk, and currently has about 70 full-time students and 30 part-time students. We've been told that although DCU was one of the first Christian universities to open (in 1991), many more have opened since and enrollment has declined over the past couple years.
I will begin teaching a class called Exploring Theological English next week, to a group of seven students. It is a fairly advanced class (taught completely in English) in which students learn theological vocabulary and how to read theological literature written in English. I'm looking forward to the challenge of teaching for the first time, and appreciate the notes and plans that have been left by previous teachers!
Dave will be starting Russian lessons and working intensively through December, until a more specific job is estblished for him. I will start learning Russian on a less rigorous schedule. Our tutor is a professor at the national university in Donetsk, and has gotten good reviews from previous MCCers.

Laura

Zaporozhye Stopover

We arrived in Ukriane Thursday afternoon. We made it all the way from Philadelphia without too much trouble. It was a 18.5 hour trip with about 15 hours in airplanes. We found it difficult to sleep in planes (and especially difficult to turn down an airplane movie). By the end of the trip we were exhausted. When we got to Ukraine, we slowly negociated our way through passport control and customs. We found the customs officers very helpful (I was a bit worried that would not be the case) and all of our luggage made it safely (at least we think it did). Liz Harder, fellow MCCer in Zaporozhye, was there waiting for us and drove us to the MCC office. The remainder of the day consisted of balancing exhaustion and friendliness while meeting a lot of people and trying to make positive first impressions.
We have spent the last two days trying to figure out some MCC FSU basics while seeing the sights and recovering from jet lag. The scenery is different and will take some getting used to but we are excited. We head to Donetsk tomorrow and that is when we finally get to unpack our suitcases and say "we're home."

Dave

Leaving Akron

Dave and I have spent the last two weeks in Akron, Pennslyvania, at MCC orientation. We've learned more about our assignment, cultural differences and MCC as a whole. We've been with a group of about 20 other orientees from all over the U.S. and Canada and it's been fun getting to know them before we all scatter to our service locations. On the weekends we've done some sightseeing and hiking in the area, and visited some friends and family. Last weekend we headed to the Washington D.C. area and took a day-long tour of the capitol. And now we're ready to leave! We fly out of Philadelphia to Washington D.C. to Vienna to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where we'll be picked up and head to the MCC headquarters in Zaporozhye. We plan to spend the rest of the week in Zaporozhye recovering from jetlag (Donetsk is eight hours ahead of the Central time zone), meeting fellow MCCers and doing a little sightseeing. Sunday afternoon we'll head to Donetsk and move into our apartment and get settled. We've lived out of a suitcase for a long time, and are excited about unpacking in a place we'll call home for the next three years.

Laura