So I'm Here, and Here is Ukraine, Go Figure

So sorry about the tease of a post I left the other day. The story is the internet is really frustrating and it took me an hour to figure out how to find a back way into my blog, and then couldn't type in the text box. By the time I figured it out, I had one minute left, thus the onle line post. But now I have about 45 min. to get some thoughts out into cyberspace.

So I'm in a moderately sized town about an hour outside of Kiev. There are about 10,000 people. Those of you from Ringgold would appreciate it, as it strongly resembles at least Catoosa county. Imagine Ringgold with high rise Soviet Apartment buildings. No stop lights (or stop signs for that matter). But it is pretty cool, and I have warm water and electricity, none of which were guaranteed. As a matter of fact, I would classify the apartment I live in as much better than mine in Atlanta. And not only because it has a washing machine. But much of it's quality can be attributed to the care my family takes of it. It is spotless and impecably organized. Everything has a place, which seems impossible in such a tiny space. It has about three small bedrooms, a living room, kitchen/dining room, toilet, and bath. Don't get confused, the last two are separated. My host family is a mom, dad, and sister. The mom is a school teacher, the dad works in school administration for the county I think, and my sister studies English in Kiev, which is convenient since I have a personal translator at home. And yes, she lives in the apartment and commutes to Kiev everyday. She gets up at 5am. Crazy.

So for those of you itching to know, I'm learning Russian (yes!) and am training to be a secondary school teacher. Basically I will teach healthy lifestyles classes, IT classes, and work with extracurricular activities. I'll most likely plan a health/sports camp during the summers. The whole goal of my project will be to help youth gain employment, avoid unhealthy habits, and impart American culture and goodwill, not impose it. I still don't know where my final site will be, but I can guess that it will be at a much smaller city which will be Russian speaking. This narrows it down to the rest of Ukraine.

Training is incredibly intense. I haven't been so mentally tired, ever. Three hours of Russian language training a day, then visits to important community organizations or schools, often followed by a technical training session. After this I go home to an apartment filled with people whom I don't understand, and attempt to awkwardly communicate during dinner and often afterwards. Then there is homework and preparation for the next day.

I've actually had to change quite a bit. You knew me as a talkative, disorganized mess. Well, I make my bed every morning, iron my clothes, pick up my room, and barely say a word when around Ukrainians. There are just some points where it is impossible to communicate and I just give in to silence. I've read alot, journaled alot, and done morning and evening prayer. I've always wanted to spend time doing these things, but now realize I never did them because I spent so much time talking. I never realized how much I love communicating with people. Silence kills me. But no pain no gain I guess.

I do have a cell phone. I can call America for about 15 cents a minute, and text for about 10 cents. I can receive anything for free, so if you want my number, I'll send it to you through Facebook, since I figure it's the safest way to send such information. Not even sure if a cell number is sensitive.

I revise my statement of blog first email second. I really need to read stuff from home, so please send me emails, and consider my blog my reply maybe. I'll still try to reply to really specific stuff, and have no doubt, I will read any emails or Facebook posts or messages. I've really craved it these past two weeks.

That's all for now. Send me emails if there's anything you want to know and I'll put it in my next post.

Peace,
Ben