There is a lot more to this project, and I can’t wait to write about it. I have loads of pictures from the kids saying ‘Thank you!’ and a few videos of them saying why they want to learn English so much. I still haven’t been able to fully express my gratitude to everyone for their support – so that’s coming up, as well.

Stay tuned and check back in a week (after the end of the year festivities and Courtney’s visit)!

Thank you! From 5-b

- I took a vacation. I went to Odessa, Ternopilska Oblast, and Lviv. It was really nice to get away and take a break. Not having a passport for a while meant I couldn’t travel and I had serious cabin fever. Check out the pictures of my adventures.

- My grant was funded! I am so grateful to everyone who donated and spread the word about the project. We put in the order for the books 2 weeks ago, and will hopefully receive them next week.

- Figured out that I’ve read a total of 84 books while in Peace Corps. That’s not as many as I thought I would read. Huh.

- I’m starting to get freckly again. Only a few more weeks before my freckle-stache returns.

- My pal Courtney Schonauer is coming to visit at the end of the month. She’s one of my oldest and dearest friends. I can’t wait to show Ukraine off to her.

- Spring is here. Actually, it’s almost summer. It’s only mid-May and already the temperatures are in the 80s. I love summer, despite the fact that I am constantly sweating.

- I’m coming to the end of my Peace Corps service. After July 27, 2012 I will officially be an RPCV. That’s crazy to think about. There’s a lot of work to get done before then and my head is exploding.

- I discovered fried apples and managed to actual develop real cooking habits.

- After I leave Ukraine, I’d like to take a trip. Right now, the plan is going to Georgia, where my friend Emma is living and teaching.

- I’ve been having Russian lessons again – making progress, too. I love teaching, but I love learning so much more.

The thing I avoid writing about and yet spend all my time doing is contemplating what comes next. I’m genuinely nervous to go back to the US. I want to, don’t get me wrong. I miss my family and my friends. I am ready for a change, and I can feel that it’s time for me to move on past Peace Corps. That’s scary, though. I still haven’t really figured out what I’d like to do next – although I’m trying to consider a lot of options. I think that might be part of the problem.

For now, I’m trying to focus on being here. I’ve only got 2.5 months left and if it’s anything like the last 2.5 years, it will fly by.

It’s a huge holiday and lots of people participate. I’ve never actually been to any of Donetsk’s ponds to witness the people plunging into the freezing waters, and that bummed me out this year. The holiday came and went and I somehow missed my chance to dive into freezing waters.

But then, a few weeks ago, while at my friend Angela’s birthday party, I heard a Ukrainian fellow talking about going swimming in one of Donetsk’s ponds. I expressed my interest and managed to get an invitation for myself and a few friends to join him for a dip in an icy pond the next day. My wish came true!

Please notice how terrifyingly covered in ice those stairs and railing are.

My toes are probably already numb.

Beginning to hyperventilate and freak out about being so cold.

It might as well have been a hot tub, Zhenya was so relaxed.

Ben, me, Stephanie, and Richard. All four of us braved the frigid depths of pond #2.

Defying the wisdom of all Ukrainian babushkas, I proudly rocked wet hair.

Pond Number 2

You can check out more pictures here: elisemstephens

Well, it was cold. My toes and feet were numb before I even got out all the way into the water, and I had to climb (fall) down the ladder without any feeling in my lower appendages. The water was intense but the real shock came when I pulled myself out of the freezing water into air that was no warmer than 5 degrees Fahrenheit. It literally took my breath away, and I started gasping hysterically (and embarrassingly). I couldn’t even wait to watch my friend Stephanie jump in the waters. I took off at a clumsy hobbling sprint to the boathouse where our clothes and a space heater awaited us.

It was probably one of the craziest things that I’ve done while in Ukraine. I’m so happy that I got the chance to! After being here so long, my every day life seems average to me. It is hard to remember that what I am doing is out of the ordinary. Experiences like this – something that is truly foreign to me – remind me that every single day I am here in Ukraine, is something that I want to remember.

A Letter to my Valentine

My jolly David,

You are so big and yellow. When I see you, I feel like a bear. You smell like ice cream. I like you so much, I want to give you 2 dollars.

Do you want to go with me to ocean on Valentine’s Day? There is a good restaurant there. They have chocolate salad and fry potatoes sandwiches. There is a swimming pool of black tea and in the park we can fly quickly.

I hope you can come! It would be so great!

From,
Peter, your little giraffe

A Letter to my Valentine

My funny Ashley,

You are so handsome and generous. When I see you I feel like a cat. You smell like milk. I like you so much, I want to give you 1 dollars.

Do you want to go with me to school on Valentine’s Day? There is a good restaurant there. They have nuts salad and barbecue sandwiches. There is a swimming pool of Coca Cola and in the park we can shake hardly.

I hope you can come! It would be so slow!

From,

Amanda, your little monkey

A few other memorable lines include:

We can kiss quickly. 

You smell like porridge.

You are so little and rad.

Please, if at all possible, make a donation to this grant! Every dollar counts. Just $15 will guarantee that one of the students will have a textbook to use until they graduate. However, any amount you can donate to this project will be greatly appreciated.  Also, please know that donations through Peace Corps are tax-deductible.

To donate, click here. It will take you to the official Peace Corps website, and to information about the project. It is called “English Textbooks and Maximizing Potential.” Then, enter the amount you want to donate and follow the instructions. 

You can also go to www.peacecorps.gov and click on “Donate to Volunteer Projects” on the left hand side. In the search bar, type in Stephens or 343-294 to get to my project. It is called “English Textbooks and Maximizing Potential.”  Then, enter the amount you want to donate and follow the instructions.  

***Please note, if you donate to the general fund of Peace Corps or Ukraine, the money will not go to this project.***

English Textbooks and Maximizing Potential

That said, I am not a person who has a huge posse of friends. I have friends; I have many friends, some might say. Although I enjoy large crowds of people, I prefer to make best friends with fewer individual people. With every transition that I’ve had in my 24 years, every change, experience and adventure – I latch on to a few people.

I have one friend from childhood. We got closer during high school, attended university together, and then both have been travelling around the globe since then. For me, our friendship is like a touchstone – talking with him connects my current self to the past, and then brings me full circle again. Every time we speak, I am overwhelmed by a familiarity that only old friends can bring.

I have a few friends from both high schools I attended. From university, I have friends from the different parts of my life there – life in the dorms, working at the cafeteria, Russian classes, misadventures in crappy houses. Each trip abroad developed more friends, imprinting my heart with the adventure and friendship simultaneously. I can’t separate the two; I can’t talk about my trips to Volgograd and Kaliningrad without smiling about the shenanigans I got into with the friends that I made.

My time so far in Peace Corps has been intense, as far as friendships go. We needed friends when we arrive, having just left behind everyone that we knew and cared about. The excitement of a new place and opportunities ahead combined with a silent desperation had us all reaching to each other. Or maybe it was just me, shaking hands with new people while mentally handing them my heart and emotions.

After training and a few months at site, I had a group of friends that I proceeded to spend lots of weekends with, and talk with for hours on the phone. Because I don’t normally have groups of friends it was exciting and moving, and very often made me feel like I was in the cast of Friends. (I have snagged a few other friends along the way: other inhabitants of my oblast including PCVs, Aussies, and Ukrainians, and a person the other side of the country who is not ashamed of being able to spend 3 consecutive hours on the phone.)

This group especially, our Donetsk Oblast group, has played a huge role in how I define my time so far in the Peace Corps. Sure, I have taught loads of kids and done very rewarding work, which I will cherish forever. But, I am a person who needs people, one who needs friends especially – and these people who I have just fallen in love with, who have let me into their lives and we have grown together in the past 2 years – our friendship is a crucial and vital part of my service.

Thus, when Katelyn and Jessica left, I fell apart.

I came to pieces at first because I didn’t know who I would talk to. I didn’t know who I would visit on the weekends, who I would commiserate and laugh with about everything on the planet. Then, as the hole in my heart grew and grew, I cried because I didn’t know what Peace Corps would mean for me without them. I cried because they left and it meant that I would have to leave too, and this adventure of mine in the Peace Corps would have to end and I am so sad when things are over.

It has taken me a few weeks to gather my pieces back together and step back from all the wallowing that I was doing.

The night that Jessica left, Mattison was there with me – with hugs and reassurances and funny stories to cheer me up. After saying goodbye to Katelyn, upon returning to Donetsk, Nathan invited me over to bake cookies, drink wine from bunny-shaped bottles, and talk for hours. I was so caught up in the sadness of the girls leaving that it seems I forgot about everyone else.

So damn, am I lucky. First off, I am lucky to have these friends, both those that left Ukraine and those that are still here. I am especially lucky to have those who comforted me while I sank in a pool of misery wailing about loneliness, essentially ignoring their very existence.

That brings us to the present. I’m not so much sad anymore that Group 37 volunteers have left or are in the process of leaving, although I am still a little bewildered. I have always needed to mourn the changes in my life, but for now I am okay.  I do not regret having made the decision to extend, and I’m sure the positive feelings towards being here that used to pour out of me will return.

Today, I am content. I am where I want to be.  I am surrounded by friends who make me laugh, who are leaving impressions on my heart and taking steps alongside me towards the future.

I leave you with this, one of my favorite Story People by Brian Andreas.

There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other's cooking & say it was good.

After a fairly rough week at school, I am looking forward to gathering with my friends, making a shit ton of American food, and basking in our general adoration of each other.

For the time being, enjoy some Thanksgiving wishes from my 6th graders.

Happy Thanksgiving! From Vlad

Hello! Happy Thanksgiving day! My name is Darina. I live in Donetsk and I love this day because this day is very good and all the people smilling!

“My mother likes to cook a chicken.”

“I am a beautiful rice.”

“What is your foot?”

“I have low growth.”

“I am very sensitive.

“My character is difficult and intolerant.”

“I get the normal evaluation.”

“My hobby is jazz funk.”

Some of these are clearly misuse of an online translator. The person of low growth means to say that they’re short. The question about a foot is actually supposed to be about one’s favorite food. Difficult, well, is difficult, but by intolerant they mean impatient. I have no idea what a normal evaluation means, or beautiful rice.

The person being sensitive, you should know, is an 11-year-old boy. I love that. Here in Ukraine, being sensitive is not considered a bad thing. I adore that.

I had to laugh at the pupil who wrote about their mother cooking. I’m sure she’ll be glad to know what she does that is letter-worthy.

As for the jazz funk, I feel ya, girl.

Homework Lottery
Book Challenge
Update on Resource Center and an aside about my friend Lena
Pen Pals and World Wise Schools
Peace Corps Partnership Grant

Homework Lottery
This is an idea that I got from a teacher back in Okemos, Michigan. I volunteered in her ESL classroom for a year before coming to Peace Corps. Essentially, when pupils do their homework – they get to put their name in the lottery box. Then, every lesson they have with me, I choose the two students with the best behavior and participation and they get to put their names in the box again. Every two weeks, I’ll draw two names and give small prizes. My parents have sent me lots of stickers, candy, and silly bands that I intend on using as prizes.

It might seem silly to reward pupils simply for doing their homework. However, the idea of rewarding good habits isn’t really a widespread one. More often than not, I hear students get scolded harshly for doing something wrong, the best student is praised, and everyone else is ignored. There are so many eager kids who are excited to come to lessons and try their hardest, but because they really are just bad at English – they get yelled at for not understanding. I’m lucky to have small classes where I can give more individual attention than normal, but it isn’t enough. By the time they hit 10th grade, the eager kiddies in my 5th form will become the sullen teenagers who don’t care. They aren’t necessarily bad at English, but because they aren’t the best, their efforts were often ignored. After years of that, I’d probably be pretty pissy, too.

So, the homework lottery. Effort, behavior, and participation are rewarded and everyone has a fair chance to feel good about themselves. This week I made 3 boxes out of cardboard, taped them together, covered them with paper, decorated them, and explained the rules to the kids.
Back to list.

Book Challenge
This is something that is definitely in the baby stages. In the past 2 years, I’ve been requesting that people send me children’s books (This request is still standing! If you have children’s books you don’t want, we will gladly take them off your hands. Or you can donate through the International Book Project – see the link in the column to your right). We’ve collected somewhere around 200 books that are now in the school library. The kids love them. They are very excited to check them out and read them, but I’m not sure how much they understand.

I want to provide incentive for not just reading, but understanding and learning from the book. I’ve been talking with the librarian, who is very excited by that idea. I have my ideas, and she has hers, and likely I’m going to be the one to bend. I’d like a project where the kids could get points by reading books and showing what they learned from them. Each book would be worth so many points, and you could get to different levels by getting so many points.

To me it sounds awesome, but it would be a lot of work for an English teacher when I’m gone. The pay isn’t really a livable wage, so most teachers have to have private lessons for their students after school hours. I doubt that my project could be continued easily without me here because it would take up serious after school time. The librarian suggested [told me] that we should have much more simple book reports. Then we could take photos of the kids with the books, they could display their photos and written book reports in the library and the hall, and have them present the books to their classes. It isn’t what I wanted – but it’s sustainable. The librarian is interested and I think that it wouldn’t create much more work for the teachers.
Back to list.

Update on Resource Center and an aside about my friend Lena
Some of you might remember how last year I was ‘given’ a room at the school to turn into an English classroom and eventually a Resource Center. I did the best I could, with a lot of help. My mom sent me tons of posters and pictures to hang in the room. My stepdad, Terry, got his coworkers to donate even more kids books to fill up the shelves in the English room. My counterpart, Lena, and I shared the room. We made sure it wasn’t vandalized and kept it clean. There are two big sets of bookshelves in the room. One set holds a bunch of children’s books. The other holds teachers resources – American literature and reading books, dictionaries, teaching manuals – and class supplies like markers, crayons, pencils. The kids and teachers check out books all the time and I’ve noticed lots of teachers coming to pick up supplies for coloring during their classes.

Now that she’s out on maternity leave (for 3 years), I figured it would be my task alone to manage the room and its contents. However, the school hired another young teacher and gave her the room. I am still a little bitter and territorial. I keep trying to look at it this way – this young, motivated teacher has just been given a room to complete. She’s painting the desks this month, she washed the curtains I was too lazy to wash, and she brought in even more materials to hang on the walls. She loves learning and teaching English and although I’ve been ousted, it is for the better.

Not having Lena here at work with me has been really strange. I didn’t realize what a force of positive energy she was until she was no longer at lessons. I know that children are a blessing, and I am genuinely very happy for Lena and Slavik, but there is a little evil part of me that is super-duper jealous of that baby because it is going to get all of her time. (I’m a terrible jealous person. I am aware of this.) So work is different without her. Usually, when I have an idea on something, I mention it to Lena and she’s immediately on the phone rounding up the other English teachers and she’s already 10 steps ahead of me. I guess being able to do projects without her will just have to be thought of as a challenge. One more thing to learn to cope with – hopefully I’ll manage successfully.
Back to list.

Pen Pals and World Wise Schools
The exchanges and connection through WWS is actually something I’ve been doing for a while. Last year, my 7th graders exchanged letters with a group of students in Dalton, Ohio. It was really fun for the kids, but it was difficult to maintain and we decided not to continue. This summer I contacted the two high schools that I attended and the Russian teacher I had back when I was in elementary school (at Horizons) and asked to write to their pupils. If I couldn’t work out pen pals, at least I would be able to share my experience in Ukraine with a bunch of American students (Goal 3 of the Peace Corps!).

Well, this past week, the French teacher approached me. (A side note, this woman is probably my favorite teacher in the whole school. She’s so professional; she just exudes this aura that makes you want to stand up straighter and be someone who she can respect. Everyone in school likes her and she gets stuff done. She’s strict with the kids and yet they adore her. She loves her job. She is the teacher I want to be.) She had been talking to the director and decided that it is ‘high time’ for us to make good connections with some schools in the states. Basically, she wants schools to be in contact with each other in order for friendship and brotherhood to develop between the children, since they are our future. This woman is a Peace Corps Volunteer’s dream come true. The one downside: She doesn’t speak English. Oh well, I’ll get lots of Russian practice in.

This week I sent out emails asking each of the schools that I communicate with. I wanted to find out whether in the future they would be interested in moving past single letters and emails into something bigger – Skype chats, video blogs, pen pals, teacher collaborations. It sounds like so much, but I think it is possible – we’ll start small and diligently move forward. Ideally, we’d get the little ones sending Christmas and New Years cards as a class to each other. The 6th form will be the youngest for pen pals, and I’m willing to do that this year. We will have to find teachers who are will to proofread letters for 7 and 8 forms, and then 6 once I leave.

As for the older students, we will offer pen pals but thought that they could be in charge of more technical tasks. They could take videos interviewing other students or showing what their school or city is like, and use a blog or Youtube to show it to the other schools. If possible our teachers hope to have Q and A sessions via Skype, for both students and teachers. They really want to talk to teachers in the states and find out what it’s like to be a teacher there.
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Peace Corps Partnership Grant
This might seem a familiar topic, if you are an avid reader of mine with a good memory. I tried to start this last year. It completely fell apart in front of my face. The biggest reason, I believe, was that I didn’t know how to stick up for myself. Ukraine is very grounded in the ideas of a social hierarchy and a chain of command. Things hadn’t really been going my way for a while, and I was too timid to stick up for myself and say anything. Information was getting lost in the channels.

Finally, last May, after a rough spring, I went to the director and told her what I wanted to do for the next year. She said to me “Okay, fine. I am aware of what you’re doing – usually Lena comes and tells me.” I told her that I’m glad Lena is relaying that information, but that I would be coming to her with it as well. I needed her support directly. I needed her to gather the teachers for me and to show that she supports my projects.

Fast forward a few months, and I walk a bit taller in my school. I’m not afraid of doing anything wrong – I know that the director supports me because I asked her to. I wish I had been brave enough to do that earlier.

Anyway, this time around, I am writing a grant applying for money to buy English textbooks for each of the classes, teacher manuals, and a few other English learning resources for the teachers. As I explained last year, the books that are available to Ukrainian public schools are terrible. Sometimes classes aren’t even lucky enough to have one per pupil. If they do have a book, it doesn’t help them much anyway – the books are full of mistakes. It’s as though no one proofread them. There is little logical flow to the book, and it is hard to tell what information is connected with what.

Because of this, a lot of Ukrainian schools try to get the parents to buy British or American textbooks for the students to use each year. However, the books are really expensive for Ukrainians – we’re talking $12-16 for the student’s book and workbook. (I make less than $175 dollars a month as a teacher. I don’t have an apartment, bills, and other mouths to feed and I struggle with that amount.) Plus, the parents contribute to the school repair fund to help fix the roof and windows and everything else in the school. It is truly difficult for parents to find that money every year.But, we need textbooks. The teachers don’t have resources to teach the class. Most teachers are using their own money to make materials for classes since there just isn’t anything at the school useful to learn with.

So, I am writing a grant to help out my school. The way it works is that right now, I am writing loads of pages about how much books will help our school and how we will progress with them. This week, we’ll work on the budget – how many books will we order, which books specifically, etc. Hopefully by the end of this month, the application will be approved and go online to the Peace Corps website. From there, I call and email everyone I can think of in the states – friends, family, local companies, Returned Peace Corps organizations – and ask them to donate online to our grant.

Ideally, we will get our grant funded and the books bought by the end of the school year! The textbooks would provide the teachers with an solid foundation on which to build an excellent curriculum. The extra resources would give them the opportunity to be more creative in the classroom and grow as educators. These women have taught and shared with me so much, if something I can do will make their lives, as well as the students’, just a tiny bit better and easier – I want to do it.
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