Життя Update

So as you can tell from the lack of recent posts (besides ones I myself did not write), I've been very busy. On top of our language lessons and teachings, we've had our summer camp / community project implementation to plan, scratch, re-plan, correct, and plan again. It happens to be next Monday, Tuesday, Thursday - so there is obviously a lot to do and a little stress in the air. Not to mention it's hard to focus when you want to change out of your sweaty nice school attire into your Adidas shorts, GREY tank top, Chaco's, and Ninja'd glasses.

But in the midst of craziness and in true Peace Corps style, we've managed to have some fun along the way.


The weekend of May 14th and 15th was pretty jam packed. The 14th was my host mother Natasha's birthday! I will not disclose her age because I know she'd kill me if I did (some cultural norms do translate). The previous volunteer, Adam, who lived with Natasha came to visit that weekend as well so it was fun to listen to each others experiences / his saxophone. We had Ukrainian BBQ for dinner which I've grown quite fond of, many traditional Ukrainian beverages (use your imagination), and sang Happy Birthday in English while Adam played it on the sax.

I have two major loves in life - California Burritos and Volleyball. And on the 15th, both were satisfied. The Community Development PCV's in Chernihiv put on a large community picnic that we as a cluster + LCF attended. We decided it would be ideal to go grocery shopping when we arrived and might I say, It was like we struck gold. They had everything from Tortillas to Oreos. I dropped a fair bit of my monopoly money and ate way too much. I then proceeded to play volleyball - which was glorious, I need to buy one at some point.

When I got home from Chernihiv I made my host family traditional CA Burritos - and by traditional, I mean with what ingredients I could find, however it definitely hit the spot.


Last week we had Youth Development's PST University on Wednesday and Thursday in Chernihiv. While is was informative - it truthfully was just a excuse to hang out with all the other YD volunteers and catch up on the internetz.

While the brief retreat seemed like a weekend in itself, the real weekend following was a bit toasty. We ended up having a "study" social at the river. It ended up being another excuse to jump off things :)

One last thing, I'm slowly being eaten alive by mosquitos - and I saw a bee looking insect that was the size of a mouse... Ha ha - but really what the? I should have brought the Africa bed net.

Wish me luck!!