Control

So Ukraine has it out for me to teach me about dealing with control. If you know me well enough, you know that pretty much nothing happens in my life unless I let it happen, and I get a little freaked out when I feel like my grip is loosening. I know it appears on the outside that I live pretty loose and carefree, but just take my word for it, it's organized chaos.

Four weeks ago, on a Monday, I am talking with my counterpart and she nonschalantly drops the hint that my director wants me to go to a rest camp. That's all she said, and so I figured I'd let that one play itself out when the time comes. I was happily getting into a routine and setting up shop in my new apartment. No need to complicate things. The next day, I'm meeting with my Russian tutor who also works at my school, and she tells me I'm to go to the rest camp until the end of August. At this point I realize I might be screwed.

So after prying from my counterpart that a rest camp is actually a children's camp that I would really be expected to work at, I ask for more details. She did not have more details, she would call me later that day and let me know. When she did call me, she informed me that I would be leaving on Thursday and I needed to pack my things so I could go raise children at this camp until the end of August. When I asked her for more information she had none. So the next day I tried one more time to get complete information, and nothing worked.

I didn't know where I was going, what I was going to be doing, what to pack, how long exactly I would be there, how I would get there, nothing. So I buckled and called my regional manager. He calls and gets more information out of my director, and attempts to negotiate a shorter stay, and a more definite job description. When he calls me back he is a little flustered. Apparently my director cannot understand why I wouldn't want to stay so long since it's such an amazing camp. But my regional manager asked me one more time if I thought two weeks was a better time frame, regained his resolve and made another attempt on my director.

In the meantime, on Thursday, I got a call from my counterpart telling me to be at the train station on Friday morning. I packed my big backpack with as much teaching material as I could fit, took a general selection of clothing, my frisbee, and med kit. Not knowing where negotiations stood at that point, I boarded a train and headed off to camp with the assistant director of my school. When I arrived at camp I was warmly welcomed and was given a document to sign. In my best attempt at Russian I deciphered that I was signing a paper defining the length of my stay at 2 weeks. I quickly signed and then began the process of figuring out exactly what I was supposed to be doing at this camp. I later get a call from my regional manager who is still flustered and tells me he still hasn't finalized anything with my director, but to go ahead and head to camp and we'll work it out later. To his surprise I inform him that I'm already there and have signed a document agreeing to our demands. He gives his blessing and wishes me a happy two weeks.

I wish you could have read my mind through that entire process. I had just reigned in all the confusion and complication involved with moving to a new apartment, in a new city, in a foreign country. The next two months were set. I was happy, comfortable, feeling accomplished. Then out of the blue I was told to uproot and head off into the unknown. I seriously about freaked out. Especially when I couldn't get solid information, and felt like I had no say in the matter. But as you will see in the next installment of my blog, this was about to be one of the best things that could happen to a newly initiated Peace Corps Volunteer.