Hello again, friends! I have a lot of catching up to do. When dealing with lots of information, I work best in lists. Here goes:
December
- My lessons were mildly ridiculous. Like I do with any other holiday, I insist upon leading activities relevant to the season. It’s a fun way for me to expose my students to traditions in other parts of the world (not just the U.S.), show them how to compare and contrast, and reinforce grammar topics we’ve been working on in a fun way. The highlight of the Christmas season was watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and getting candy canes from my mom. The kids adored the movie. Unable to find Russian subtitles, I just used English ones, and also typed out the text for the entire film for the kids with bad eyesight to read. (We have lots of kiddos who need glasses but don’t want them). I forgot how silly of a cartoon it is! Despite the language at times being way above the 4th and 5th graders’ levels, they understood a ton. They thought the dog, Max, was the cutest thing. We always had a discussion afterward about the meaning of the movie. It was definitely eye-opening to teach about the meaning of holidays. In this part of Ukraine, not everyone has a big celebration of Christmas. Christmas is a holiday for the religious, on January 7, going by their Orthodox calendar. The traditions of a Christmas tree, Santa Claus, and giving presents are done on January 1st. Trying to explain that “As long as we have hands to hold….Christmas will always be,” was difficult. The American idea of the meanings of holidays are a bit different. Luckily, I had a teacher who stepped in a saved the day with “More than anything else, we should value love, family and friends.” That made sense to them and got my point across. One of the best parts of our discussions was when a 4th grader told me that the film was “edifying.”
- Christmas! I hosted the Donestk Oblast Christmas celebration. It was pretty stressful while planning it, trying to make sure that I kept in line with Peace Corps policies, while knowing that my head was on the chopping block if anyone made some bad decisions. Luckily, everything turned out great! On Friday night we had a big spaghetti dinner then went out to our favorite dive bar. The next day, I baked a coffee cake for breakfast and in the afternoon we went to the market. Everyone drew names from a hat, and then had to buy a 20 UAH or less (About $2.50) present for the silly gift exchange that night. We stopped briefly at McDonalds (which is one of the cheapest and most filling options for food here) and then went back to my house where we cooked up a massive storm. We had: glazed carrots, green beans with onions, seasoned chicken with onions, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and apple pie! My kitchen is teeny and has no counters, so we rotated in and out of their, while giving people in the living room bowls and knives to peel the ingredients. After dinner we had our gift exchange. Some of the absurd gifts included: a magnet that said “Peace and Labor for you, Beer and Vodka for me”, a hat with devil horns, and dishtowels. I got a little plastic chest filled with 1 kopeck coins. The weekend was wild fun. It was nice to get to meet most of the new volunteers, although there are so many of them (9) that it was a bit overwhelming. All in all, it was a great success.
- I have a sitemate! His name is Adam, and he’s pretty freaking excellent. I know that living in a big city gives me lots of advantages over other volunteers, but the thing that gets to everyone is loneliness. It is super nice to have someone to hang out and run around town with. We get along really well, and it makes living in Donetsk that much more amazing.
- I got to write, give, and grade the semester exam for my 10th graders. This year, instead of having 2 days a week of basic English class, we have one day American/British culture, and one day American/British literature. Because I write the curriculum, I’ve gotten to do pretty interesting things, like reading and watching “A Tell-Tale Heart”, learn poems by Mary Oliver, and read a chapter from Huck Finn. (After the Twain excerpt, I was told that I speak like Huck Finn.) The test was difficult, but within their reach. About half of the students in the class hardly speak English. They’re not a specialized group, which means that they have had English for only a couple years and only for 2 days a week. The other half has had English since 1st grade, and for the past 5 years, they have it 5 days a week. This led to major differences in grades. More than half the students flat-out failed. That made me want to cry. But when I got to the last 3rd of the tests, I realized that they were consistently scoring above 83%. When I had a girl get 100% on her literature exam, I did cry! After all the frustrations of this semester with this group – not being able to truly teach half of the class, lack of motivation on their part affecting my personal desire to teach, and having the two groups struggle in class, one with boredom and the other with not understanding – I did teach something. The 10 students who passed with As and Bs showed me that.
- Most of my friends from the oblast traveled to other countries during their winter break. I was going crazy with boredom. It did give me a chance to meet and talk to the new volunteers, and hang out with people I don’t see enough, like my Ukrainain friend Yulia, and my Australian friends Ben and Angie.
- For New Years, a new volunteer, Rocky, invited people over to his place in Gorlovka. It was a small gathering, but very joyful. We made tacos (ish) for dinner, played games, and at midnight we wrote wishes on tiny pieces of paper, lit them on fire, threw them in champagne glasses and drank the ashes. (This is supposedly a tradition, but I think it might have just been a spell.) It was really nice to get to hang out with new people in a smaller setting, because it really offered the opportunity to get to know each other and become friends.
December was a fun month of sharing traditions and meeting new people! Stay tuned for January’s recap.
