So my birthday is commin' up...

I know a burning question in all y'alls minds right now is, "what to get Mr. Matt for his birthday?", well I have a potential answer that'll make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to boot.

I'm currently fundraising for a grant project I've started for my community. In a nutshell, it's to ideally create a new English textbook and resource center as well as updated needed technology in my small school.

My project can be found through the Peace Corps Donation page and seraching for my project code:

 www.peacecorps.gov/donate

343-358

Literally any bit you can donate will help towards realizing this project. Not to mention donations can be tax-deductable.

If you have any further qusetions, feel free to let me know via email and I'll try to get back to you in a timely fashion. Feel free to share this with friends or family that you feel might be interested in also supporting my community.

Here are some of the kids you'd be assisting for most of their public education!

Again, thanks for your support!

ATTENTION: Poltava Leadership Camp in need of some Amurican Assistance

Just a quick update seeing how I'm failing at the whole blog posting this recently.

But... there is a camp is in the works for students (including my own) from all over my oblast, Poltava that will take place this summer. It hopes to facilitate leadership and help develop project design and implementation skills for future leaders of Ukraine (aka my students and others in da best oblast).

So... if this catches you eye and you got some bucks to spare (however big or small), feel free to pop on by to this link:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projdetail&projdesc=343-307

The directors of the camp are a pair of cool cats and some of my good peeps (sad attempt at an Easter pun) in country right now. 

So please, any and all assistance that is possible would be awesome. 

Austrian Adventures

verdict

Being just two hours away from Budapest, why the hell not pop in. We spent two and a half days there and I feel we could have done a lot more. 

Vienna is cool/hip/modern with interpreted old things. Example, every other street was a Canon or Nikon store and literally there would be a Rolex store and then an old Catholic church. 

But I guess if you count the museums, palaces, theme parks, and being served iPads for menus, I think we coved a lot of ground. It was a tad more expensive than it's Hungarian brethren but the Euro was a currency I was much more confortable converting and managing over the Hungarian forint (my meal was 2500HUF, wha?). 

The city is remarkably clean and organized, so if you know anything about me, that makes me smile. Their biking system was ridiculous, with separate roads, lights, and sounds. Portion sizes were good and we managed not to get lost.

Our only regret was meeting an American on the train who suggested we visit the Secession Museum - that man owes me 8 Euro. You know I'm one for modern art but when it's just like sticks stuck in the white floor or large white boxes that flicker, I'm sorry, I don't get it.

Anyways, verdict = check it out!  

venue

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voyage

holla back дід мороз

cultural update

ukraine and russia's bedazzled santa clause (дід мороз - father frost) with his granddaughter (снігуронька - snow maiden) who takes style tips from queen amidala are the stars of the new years and christmas holiday season here in ukraine.

Myrhorod rang in his arrival with a free concert that i accidentally fell into - молодець мені

i will have these skillz mastered

Dec 1: World AIDS Day

What some of you may not know about the country where I currently serve, but Ukraine has the fastest growing HIV rate and the largest population of reported HIV infected individuals in all of Europe. Sadly it's a very hushed/controversial subject (understandably) where even in schools the main aspects regarding HIV transmission is just overlooked and untaught. Furthermore, a large proportion of Ukraine's older generation is under the pretense that this issue isn't one of Ukraine's, but of that of other third world countries.

1.4% of Ukraine's population is reported HIV positive
1% is the minimum requirement to be considered an epidemic

the tourism regions of the south are highly affected

While working in Kozelets, the lesson I taught on HIV/AIDS had to be "edited" due to sensitivity issues. I was glad to hear that in my new school had an open policy and a faculty mentality that all the information should be available for it's students to hear. 

 anti AIDS posters students made at my school

The HIV/AIDS working group provided lots of material and ideas to jump start my lessons and trainings I have sense held on the topic. Using my school as a gauge, I have sense held Healthy Lifestyle training sessions on HIV/AIDS, stigma/discrimination, smoking, and alcoholism at what I think is up to six different schools in neighboring villages! While obviously I don't teach in perfect Ukrainian and I'm thankful for my Ukrainian partner to back me up, it's been a great way to meet and reach an audience of students outside my own school. Not to mention utilize some of my micro bio knowledge!


I did a showing of A Closer Walk which features Ukraine as one of the three countries it focuses on in regards to the AIDS crisis. If interested, I highly recommend you to watch it - my students found it very personal.

Herbology Lesson

Currently listening to... Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know

So coming from the sheltered California "force field", "bubble", "electromagnetic field", we sometimes miss out on where stupidly common things actually comes from. 

Take for instance this pictures - one may or may not question what the Dr. Seuss looking topiary is. Well, I  "what the'd" the tree with balls. Since mid-fall to early winter, you couldn't not see these guys sprouting up everywhere. As a biologist, I assumed it was just some strange tree's economical technique of seed dispersal / genetic transmission.

Well it comes to find out... drum roll please... it's mistletoe. Which turns out is a parasitic plant that roots itself into a variety of tree species while it matures and steals water and nutrient resources. 

Ironically with this stuff everywhere, there is no tradition here of couples kissing under mistletoe. Though I'm sure Ukrainians would love the concept, seeing how it could potentially lead to marriage. 

My favorite response when I began to ask PCV's if they knew where mistletoe came from was from a fellow Poltavian PCV Alvi, where she responded with "Walgreens". 

Fievel Goes West... but just for a week

This be what hot beats I be listening to On'n'On - Justice

I'll be frank, if you don't know what movie this post is referencing, we probably shouldn't be friends / the film warrants a spot in your Netflicks queue or at least an illegal streaming.

So truthfully if you remove Fievel's jacket, cow boy hat, gun (because they're outlawed for the public to own), and add a mustache he could probably pass as a Ukrainian cossack. I'm now realizing I've put way too much thought into this - maybe I should go to bed?

Anyhoo...

So schools in Ukraine celebrate autumn by taking a week off, or in the case of my school, two weeks. So in light of a week with nothing planned, I decided to go visit my clustermate Mary-Kathryn at her site in Chernivets'ka Oblast and help her at her work for a couple days and then do some site seeing in the area. 

Starting off at her site, the Jamaican sounding town of Kitsman, I managed to take only 1 photo (which MK was not too pleased about) however I feel it definitely encompasses all that is Kitsman. 

While in Kitsman, I/we managed to...

• cook mac and cheese for her work English club
• "correct" her apartment
• meet her cool sitemate who also is fond of making fun of midwestern accents
• be presumed as MK's Romanian "man"

Like any good excursion, I had to check another Oblast center off the list. With my guilde book not prompting any real excitement for what could be found in Chernivtsi, and I quote, "with Chernivtsi such a jumble of sights, and perhaps only the university a crucial one...", MK showed me around. Chernivtsi isn't any major city in Ukraine but it was very pleasant. I always seem to time weather in the West because it was an awesome day. My one word description of the city would be pastely, and it has a crazy university. Examples can be found below:

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From there, we moved on into the Ivano-Frankivs'ka Oblast. The place with the giant egg (an annotation I added to my guidebook), or to Kolomyia was our next stop. Kolomyia is actually home to our first of many LCFs, so we got an expedited locals tour because he had to be on our way to Ivano later that day.  

symmetry makes me smile

Ivano is like a mini L'viv, with tourism slowly building. A stronger ability in the Ukrainian language is needed here over L'viv, with English rarely heard. Speaking Russian here would definitely grant you a few stink eyes - which I kind of enjoyed. I've observed that certain regions claim more pride to their Ukrainian heritage over others. Coming from a region where both Russian and Ukrainian is spoken interchangeably, communication is often more complicated. Anyways, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

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surprisingly good food

a young Shevchenko

safety first

 Good times followed on our train back to Kyiv, platskart (4th class) you never let me down.