Peace Corps Mali

Privyet blog readers! Sorry I've been lacking lately.  Lots-o-stuff going on.  But, I did see from one of my fellow PCV Ukraine friends that Peace Corps Mali was recently shut down.  It really hit home with me as I began combing PCV blogs of volunteers in Mali and read their personal stories of playing the waiting game: finding out what was going to happen to them.

Mali is currently undergoing a coup d'etat (a sudden overthrow of the government).  Often times, I live in my own little world here in Ukraine not looking at news.  Horrible, I know; it's true though.  So, as I lay in bed last night {unable to go to sleep}, my heart went out to each one of those volunteers whose life is now forever changed {in a very abrupt manner}.

These are a few blog posts I read that truly touched me and made me think about my past year in Ukraine...and what I would do if something were to happen and cause us to have to leave so abruptly.

A good overview of the situation: here
Summary of a PCVs timeline & how PC handled everything:  here
An overview of a PCVs entire time {summed up in 3 entries} in Mali: here
Saying goodbye: here

One of the first things some of these posts made me think of is how utterly spoiled I am.  Yes, I signed up for PC.  But, we sometimes refer to Peace Corps Ukraine as Posh Corps Ukraine.  It's not Africa.  It's not South America.  It's not Asia.  Yes, we have our own trials here, but still.  I'm not faced with 115 degree temps where I have to fetch my own water {although the -25F temps we experienced kind of make up for it a little...}.  I have a giant supermarket about 100 yards from my front door.  I have incredibly fast internet.  I don't sleep under a mosquito net.  I have a washing machine {or a washing agitator as it should more properly be called}.  I live an incredibly comfortable life with hot water and a flushing indoor toilet.  But, if push came to shove, I was willing to go wherever Peace Corps wanted me.  I knew in my heart it would be Ukraine and I was right.  I knew 8 years ago that I would come back to this country I grew to love.

One of the other things that fascinated me reading some of those blogs is how utterly different our Peace Corps experiences are.  Even here in Ukraine, my youth development work is completely different from one of my friends youth development work in a village.  In Mali, the volunteers met under a tree for 8 hours of language lessons every day.  In Ukraine, we plastered the walls of our teacher's apartment from floor to ceiling in verb charts, conjugations, vocabulary, etc. I wonder...in Mali, did they use verb charts and tape them to their tree each day? :)  Seriously.  Our experiences are so{ooo} different.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those volunteers and their communities they left so suddenly behind.  I can't imagine the emotions that every one of them is going through.  Jessica made a great summary, that I'll end with:

"The people of Mali are kind, silly, respectful, patient. They hate conflict, break into dance when they hear music, are afraid of toads, and laugh and smile no matter how terrible their teeth are. Sometimes their children have the startling wisdom of grown-ups, and their grown-ups have the infectious spirit of children. There certainly have been times when I longed for America. Here, their methods are outdated, their food is monotonous, their transport is literally hell on a set of wheels, and their 9 month-long heat wave makes you wish for death at times. But some things are unique to and only to Mali. What is happening right now is unfair to the people of Mali. They deserve a non-corrupt government, they deserve opportunities, they deserve peace. They don't deserve this. Please hope for the best for Mali."

Sending lots of love and happy thoughts to Mali.  And almost Happy American Easter :)
Love love, Lyd

Reason #831 I love my host fam's house

There's nothing like arriving home after being gone for a while.

Random Frost Family tradition: after a long trip, we return home to a Snoopy beach towel {that is probably 25+ years old, which is as old as I am btw, weird.} hung up in the bathroom.  The towel has something along the lines of, "Happiness is a warm blanket" written on one side, and my family is going to have to help me out with what's written on the other side! Totally blanked on it now.

Anywho, the home that I was talking about is my host family's home in Oster.  When I get off the bus and walk the 15 minutes down hill to their house, I know I'm home again.  The dog greets me at the gate.  The cats dart in and out of the open door.  Food is offered before I even have time to take off my jacket.  It's feels so good to go there and be home.

And then, there's my bed.  A queen-size bed that I can roll ALL over and still not use all of the available room.  It's glorious.  That's all.

I got to visit one of my old teacher's Lyuda.  She's a TCF (culture/technical teacher) for Peace Corps trainees.  It was fun to get to chat with her and catch up on life. I also got to meet the new group of volunteers that are living in Oster.  I can remember how excited we were the first time a real PC volunteer came to visit us during training.  The questions we bombarded them with were probably ridiculous. 

I got to say hi to a few of the babushkas who live in the apartment building across the street from my house.  They complimented my Russian {nice ego boost} and asked where all of my cluster mates live now.  Even though it was pouring rain when we stood outside talking, they still had to catch up on all of their gossip.  Babushkas in Ukraine are about as gossipy as a group of middle school girls.  

Can't wait to go back and visit my host fam's house again soon.  Christy {one of my host sisters} showed me how to make a bead bracelet I've been dying to learn how to make.  Super excited to buy more beads and start making them.  

It snowed/sleeted/rained/hailed in Oster today.  Nice April Fool's joke, eh?  Not so much.  

I splurged and had Domino's pizza today in Kiev.  Super yummy margarita pizza.  If only I could get some Papa John's garlic sauce or Kraft Ranch Dressing.  :) 

My energy level is still lacking after the pneumonia.  Walking for 10-15 minutes has been tiring me out. I feel so old having to sit for a while and recuperate after something as simple as going to the store.  

Gotta get going now :) much love. 

Pimp My Ride, Ukraine Style.

Had a good and fairly uneventful ride to Kiev today {as opposed to my last ride home from Kiev, described here}.  Not only did I get my favorite seat, the front passenger seat, but this was the most pimped out van/marshrutka I have ever ridden in in Ukraine.  The sliding door on the side where all of the passengers get on/off was automatic and controlled with a button next to the driver {never seen that here in Ukraine!}.  Our driver had a radar detector, a GPS, and a very nice stereo system. 

The view from my seat--the sign reads "KIEV" on the front so that we can pick up people in villages along the way if there are extra seats.

Why yes, that's a giant fake tarantula. This was the one con to the ride.  Remember this story?

The personal video screen in front of me, in addition to a mini-screen on the cd/dvd player.  BTW, it's totally normal for Ukrainian drivers to decorate their dashboards with crap hanging from them, no matter how distracting.  

We lucked out and got to watch a Russian western for over half the ride.  I listened to Glee.  The driver watched the screen in front of me too.  Surprisingly, he was one of the best driver's I've had since I've been in Ukraine.  Driving, texting, talking on the phone, watching a movie, and eating sunflower seeds the entire ride.  Totally normal as well.  

Upon arriving on the outskirts of Kiev, we were greeted with stand still traffic which made us 30 minutes late.  We took a different route than we normally do, and I'm guessing it's because they are doing road construction on a highway for Euro 2012 which is in a short 2 months.  Traffic was brutal.  And then on top of it, our driver randomly got pulled over by a cop for random search/questioning.  On the plus side, because of the random route we took, we happened to pass very close to my hostel and I was able to get out there and not have to take the metro.  Nice surprise :) 

Mary Kathryn {from my link cluster days in Oster} was in Kiev today too.  So, we met at the hostel and headed out to a favorite eatery: Chinese food.  I hated Chinese food in the states but absolutely love getting it here in Kiev.  

Mary Kathryn, with our dominated spread: veggie fried noodles, spicy fried tofu, and a spring roll.

the fried tofu is to die for.  

I'm exhausted now.  And I have to get up early to be at the Peace Corps office for blood work {and it's fasting blood work at that}.  Hopefully last tests to monitor all my blood levels and make sure the pneumonia is gone.  The past few nights I haven't gotten as much sleep because we just had daylight savings time on Sunday.  I still don't have all my energy back from the pneumonia. That thing literally sucked the life out of me...for weeks!  I hope none of you have to experience it!  Night night.  Much love :)

Surprise Care Package time!

That's right folks.  When I went to the Post Office today expecting something from Peace Corps, instead I was greeted with an unexpected package!!!!!!  My dear brother and sis-in-law sent this baby and man was I excited to open it.  

I literally SQUEALED when I saw the pop-tarts sitting there. Even better?  They're the confetti kind which is a limited edition I saw online and have yet to try. 

So many goodies!!

Thank you thank you Jeremy and Tina.  The design mags, notepad, Easter goodies for my kids {let's be real: the Cadbury min-eggs are for me.  I'm not sharing my fave Easter candy...}, a mini-umbrella, and a Zippo hand warmer!  Oh, and a card that plays the ENTIRE Boomer Sooner song! I can't wait to show it to my friends.  I loved the Easter card too, which I'm guessing my brother had something to do with.

Am I right, Jeremy?  :)

I wrote on my sis-in-laws' facebook wall at 4:30 pm saying that I was trying my best not to open the mini-eggs yet.  

That lasted a whole 'nother hour before I opened the bag.  Turns out I have no self control when it comes to food from home.  Whoops.  I am putting the pop-tarts away for a rainy day though!

Speaking of precipitation, it snowed today. For a lot of hours. Didn't stick very much.  I am not getting out my winter coat again.  Nuh-uh.  No way.

A birthday shout-out is in order for today as well :)  March seems to be an incredibly popular month for my friends to be born?!  Today is Miss Britney's birthday--a dear friend with a true servant's heart.  

She drives a red bug in real life!  Not just this mini one... :)

Lydia, Britney, Grace--Mexico 2010

I first got to know Britney during the summer of 2010 on the 3-week mission in Mexico called Juners.  During those weeks, I watched Britney come out of her shell and truly become a leader for the younger ones on that trip.  She was always willing to lend a hand, no matter the {nasty} job.  Her love of life is truly contagious.  And, she has a wonderful sense of style :)

She also looks great in corn-rows.  

after a week of corn-rows, we were sad to take them out.  

an ex-gymnast.  look at that form!

I've never met a red-head who could tan like she does.  She's darker than me, which isn't saying a lot, but we won't get into that now...

at Passion 2011

Passion girls going to see Beth Moore

Hope your birthday is filled with love and lots of things that make you feel special today, Britney :) sending you a hug from 5500 miles away!  

Happy Birthday, Miss Carruth :)

Happy birthday, to one of the funniest and longest friends I've had in Nompton :)  Miss Amy Carruth.  

She's a great kindergarten teacher.  Don't you agree?

Amy isn't one to carry a camera with her...she usually depends on others to take the pics.  Lucky for her, I've got just a few {hundred} pics of our awkward moments, wonderful trips, and social events to show y'all.  Without further ado, happy birfday, Miss Carruth.  Here's to the next quarter century of making memories :)  much love.  Enjoy the show!

 

BASIC retreat 2002.  Wow.  

Choir Tour 2002 to DisneyWorld

Amy, Karen, Sarah, Meghan

Bennett, Mark, Anna, Rose, Swenson, David, Lydia

waiting in line at Tower of Terror

My first trip to Ukraine!  Eastern Europe Choir Tour 2004

Karen, Amy, Lydia, Anna, Lydia

Hanging out in Prague--2004

Kimball, Anna, Amy, Rose, Lydia Karen

Semi-Formal 2005--props goes to Anna for making the layout :)

Karen, Anna, Lydia, Amy, Rose

Senior Prom 2005--this pic makes me laugh every time :)

Prom 2005

Graduation Party 2005!

Lydia, Rose, Karen, Amy, David, Anna

David, Amy, Susan--IB program 2005

Hanging out in OC--2005

Disneyland 2005

Darren, Swenson, Melissa, Scott, Karen, Amy, Lydia, Anna, Rose

Sea World in San Diego 2005

Darren, Steph, Mandi

Swenson, Amy, Lydia, Karen, Brooke

Seniors at the home concert (where we left moments later for our senior trip to Cozumel! If only I had those pictures on this computer...)

Venita, Rose, Karen, Amy, Lydia, Anna

Bennett, David, Darren, Mark

Seattle Summer Mission 2005

Amy, Anna, Lydia, Karen

On top of the Space Needle in Seattle

Karen, Lydia, Gracie, Amy

OCU for the weekend with Amy and her suitemates :)

Happy 21st Amy!

Anna's big 2-1 celebration

What a gem :) Darren and Amy--2007

JUNERS 2008

Lydia, Taylor, Amy, Brooke

Lydia, Taylor, Schlegel, Amy

Monterrey 2008

Amy, Taylor, Orelio, Lydia, Brooke {stay tuned for a great video at the end of this post}

JUNERS 2008 chicas

Amy and Lydia working...while Chris and Schlegel watch.  :)

mu-mu time!

Amy and the 'rents 

And right after we got home from the 3 weeks in Mexico, we got back in a van and headed off on the middle school mission trip to Boulder!

Pirtle, Amy, Chris, Lydia, Scott, Tino

Winter Park, Colorado--2008

Fulfilling one of her dreams--driving a bobcat.  

exhausted.

The JUNERS who went to Boulder

"Do you think you guys can build a 60' sidewalk for me?"

dirty.

wedding season 2008

Opies fun!

Amy, Rose, Rachel, Karen, Lydia, Nan

Tacky Christmas Party 2008

Amy, Karen, Anna, Lydia, Rose

Saltillo, Mexico, College Mission 2009

this picture will probably make Susan cry...

Hanging out in Mexico

Amy, Swenson, Ruthie, Lydia, Melissa

This is Amy's face when she's tired of taking pics :)

Anna, Lydia, BERT, Amy, and Rose at Blake's wedding

dress-up time at Jacey's photobooth--2010

Karen, Nora, Lydia, Amy

Journey song?

And one of the co-conspirators of my surprise going away party.  PS--I want to play with your cricut when I come back to the states!!!!

teaching each other self-defense.

Hope your birthday has been nothing short of fabulous, Amy K :)  Sending you a big hug from halfway around the world!

The last gem :) a song we wrote for one of our maestros in Mexico.  Click on the video (anywhere on the screenshot) to make it play.  Much love, Amy poo.