Oster Summer Camp continued...

Since I was lazy yesterday and didn't want to upload pics from my camera, here are the pictures from our 4th and final day of Oster Summer Camp at the gymnasia.

Jamie and I teaching his lesson on being active during the summer.

Me with our technical teacher Lyuda

Game time! Make yourself a mummy...

Sack race time...

and leap frog! Mark and Jamie...

The Oster cluster with our TCF (Techinal teacher). L to R: Mark, Brendan, Lyuda, Cassi, Lydia, Jamie

Me with some of the 7th grade girls. So cute :)

The Gymnasia teachers (Lydia, Brendan, and Jamie) with the 7a class. Can you find Cassi and Mark too?

In other news, there are only 3 days of Russian language class left for us. That is mind boggling...and I don't think my brain could handle much more Russian at this point. The Peace Corps really knows how to run these language programs...and 3 months is about the limit that my brain can hold information wise. We had a visit today with a person from the PC Ukraine office telling us about our last week here in Oster and the tests that we have to do, saying goodbye to people, packing up, departure, and then what all will be happening at the swearing-in retreat in Kiev (June 13-16). It all really hit home for the first time that come June 16, I will be completely alone in a city knowing no one...and not speaking the native language. It's not like this was news to me, it simply sunk in that I really need to enjoy these last 10 days with my cluster here in Oster. We have been pretty blessed to have a supportive group of 5 complete strangers that more or less get along everyday and actually enjoy being with each other. I know some people's experiences during pre-service training can be pretty miserable if you don't like your group members (keep in mind you're with these people a minimum of 5 or 6 hours every DAY for THREE months). Enough being sappy now...

Tomorrow is our last cross-cultural session with our link cluster, Kozelets! Weird. They will be coming to Oster. Oh, and to answer a few of the questions my brother always asks about in the comments spot:

1) yes, English shirts are everywhere here. So are belt buckles. I actually had a student come up to me at the kid's protection day in the park on Wednesday and ask me what her shirt said... it made NO sense at all in English.

2) It is advised that PCVs here in Ukraine do not drink the water. It is suggested that you filter it and then boil it (or vice versa...can't remember). My host family drinks filtered water at home, but I have 2 or 3 pitchers of water that my amazing host mom keeps full all the time of my special boiled water. The large bottles of water that you see in the pictures cost around 5.5 grieven which is maybe 75 or 80 cents? However, that adds up rather quickly. They do not recycle the bottles in small cities (like Oster). I have seen recycling bins in Kiev I think. However, bottles get reused for other purposes (other than water). For instance, my host dad made homemade rootbeer the other day (he saw the recipe for it in the newspaper and tore it out...and made it later that day in a GIANT pot. wish I liked root beer to try it...) and had saved up 5 or 6 big water bottles to put it in. People also keep water bottles to store water in for when the water goes off without you knowing it's going to be shut off. That leads me to a third point...

3) It is garden time right now in Ukraine. My neighbor (who is probably in his late 50s or early 60s) gardens all day long. I know that some of my cluster mates host families do the same. My host family has cucumbers in their garden, onion, and I think tomatoes (sidenote: we now have a salad every night that consists of cucumber, tomatoes, green onion, and maybe dill? with salt and vegetable oil. I like the cucumbers...but it's still hard for me to eat the tomatoes...especially when they're dripping in oil.). But, with all of the gardening being done, it means that water is being used around the clock to water these intense gardens. At Jamie and Brendan's houses, from 5 or 6 pm until 11 or 12 at night, they may not have any running water at their houses because everyone is using water to garden. I know that Cassi sometimes has issues with water pressure as well at her house in the evening. So, there's something to chew on.

4) I have switched from drinking tea to coffee now. I usually have one cup in the morning (instant...they don't have coffee makers here) with two small spoons of sugar. And if I'm feeling super beat in the afternoon and we have 3 or 4 hours of language, I might have another cup then. However, our classroom gets the afternoon sun in it and is INCREDIBLY hot during that time of day. My bedroom at home also gets the afternoon sun...and my great host family surprised me by putting up a new piece of fabric that must block light in some way because when I came home today and saw it in my bedroom...my room was at least 10-20 degrees cooler. Amazing :)

5) Gonna go ahead and hit publish post. Happy Friday and happy weekend! Thinking and praying for the JUNERS group as they head to Chicago for 2 weeks. Sad I'm not with y'all!