Week #4

This week was bananas. We made visits to the Chamber of Commerce and met with the heads of all the youth organizations and NGO's in the city. Our visits are now all done. Yesterday our mission was to analyze all of our visits and come up with 6 community projects based on these organizations' needs. We came up with HIV/AIDS, NGO Advising, Professional Women in Ukraine, Sister Schools in America, Youth Development and my idea was an Employment Assistance seminar. I got 5 people to join my project. We are meeting tonight to discuss the details, but right now the plan is to put on a seminar in a few weeks in which we assist young people and unemployed citizens on interviewing skills, putting together resumes, etc. I am glad there was interest in this because this is what I wanted to do out here since most of my experience is in this field.
Today I had my first evaluation. They pretty much just drilled me on safety, health, language and community integration and asked what my concerns were. It sounds as if they want to break up our cluster and break us into 2 groups, but none of us want to leave.
Wednesday, we had some people over and we played cards with a Ukrainian deck...it was like learning all over again. Olga and her kid spent the night and it was a late one.
Yesterday we were supposed to go to a Russian sauna. Those of you who haven't heard, I guess they get you completely naked and beat you with a birch branch. You then diuve into ice cold water. It sounds insane, but I hear the next morning you are a changed person. I hope they mean that in a good way. At any rate, the girl that made our reservations screwed up and we have to reschedule.
We are talking about traveling to Kyiv next weekend. Some people are going this weekend, but the demonstrations in the capital are bacoming violent and Peace Corps is recommending holding off. On top of that, I am running low on cash this pay period. I have been buiying a lot of groceries. I store them in the kitchen, but the next day it is all gone. That kinda stuff is considered rude in the states, but obviously not here. I have come to the conclusion that I either need to store it in my room or at our language instructor's apartment. Most of my money goes to minutes for my phone and food. It was nice to talk to Shawna (briefly), Jessica and my family this week. Julie, I will try this weekend.
Tomorrow my host family wants to have some Americans over so I invited about 10 people over to play games and then we are all going to the disco...again. It should be a blast if all goes well.
There is an American here at the internet club right now. It's kinda weird to hear an American voice.
Chernihiv is finally starting to feel like home. I am not scared to walk down the street or ride the buses anymore and that is a good sign. It's going to suck when we have to move again after making friends and establishing ourselves here.
Until later
До Свиданю И До Завтра