Everything is Illuminated

Hi all,

So, I know I just posted about going home and thanked everyone for taking this journey with me, blah blah blah, but I have one more really cool thing to show everyone before I leave Ukraine for real!

Last weekend, my friend Alia and I went to visit my great-grandmother's birthplace. I had done a little research in the past 2 years and knew the my grandfather's parents were born in Ukraine, and asked one of my cousins about the exact details, because he had done a detailed family tree a few years back. He didn't know much, and my internet wasn't fast enough to allow me to really research, but when I was visiting my host family last week (for the last time-SAD!), I had the time and internet to do some serious research. And, with my cousin's help, here's what we found out-

My great-grandmother's name, before she immigrated to America, was Malke Sirota. She lived in Bratslav, Ukraine, which is about 3.5 hours away from my town (Berdychiv). Her father is buried in the cemetery in Bratslav. I even found her name and information on her ship's manifest on the Ellis Island website and sent it to my grandfather (who didn't really know any of this information either). Here's the link to that manifest- http://www.ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup_weif_5a.asp?src=%2Fcgi-bin%2Ftif2gif%2Eexe%3FT%3D%5C%5C%5C%5C192%2E168%2E100%2E11%5C%5CIMAGES%5C%5CT715-0436%5C%5CT715-04360105%2ETIF%26S%3D%2E5&pID=102503080855&name=Malke%26nbsp%3BSineto&doa=Mar+15%2C+1904&port=Hamburg&line=0008

So, once I found all of this out, I decided it was time to visit Bratslav. The town itself is only 6,000 people, so it's small and there's really nothing to do there but visit the cemetery. But seeing as it's one of the birthplaces of my ancestors, I wanted to see it anyway. And share it with all of you. Alia and I called this my "Everything is Illuminated" trip. For anyone who doesn't understand that reference, you should definitely see that movie. Just sayin'. So, instead of me telling everyone about Bratslav, we thought it would be fun to video tape it. So here you go!

I have tons of pictures too, but they don't really show as much as the videos do, which is why I didn't post them. But, if anyone wants to see them, let me know!!!

Can't wait to see everyone! 3 more days!

So, I only have 12 days left here!!!

Things have been wrapping up smoothly. I've been travelling around the country saying goodbye to my friends and Ukrainian family who live in other parts of the country. Since I'm leaving soon and am really bad at writing reflection pieces, I figured I'd make a list of things that have happened to people and places near and dear to me over the past 2 years:

One of my friends got pregnant AND had a baby.
2 of my friends (one from high school and one from NY) are pregnant and about to pop.
My host mom had a cutie patootie baby who's now 1.5 years old.
My sister arrived AND left Cambodia AND found a job.
My brother got a grown up job.
When I left our economy was ok.
2 of my friends have gotten married (and one more is getting married the week I get back).
Love.


I feel like all the other things that have happened to me are reflections just for myself- sorry.

It's been a great journey, and I want to thank all of you for taking it with me. I love you all.

My First Ukrainian Passover Seder

Last night was the first night of Passover, and since I wasn’t in Berdychiv last year for Passover and the town is full of Jews, I figured hey, I might has well try out a seder in Jew town. I actually ran into the Rabbi’s wife on the street and she told me that the seder would start at 9pm. My first thought- “oh crap. This is going to go on forever!” And it did. We didn’t actually start until 10pm and I got home at 3am. I have to say, a bunch of drunk Chabads trying to pressure my new sitemate David into missing work the next day to go to services is pretty friggin’ entertaining. Now, for you Jews out there, or others who have been to a seder, you all know that you have to drink 4 glasses of wine. The difference? Well, in my family at least, we “drink” the four glasses, meaning me take sips. Last night? We poured red wine to the top of juice cups so that it spilled over, and then each glass we had to chug. And let me tell you, chugging red kosher wine is not fun! But it gets you drunk! Especially since you don’t really eat until the end of the seder. So by the end, everyone was singing and laughing and having a great time. It was mostly men, but as long as we avoided the topic of religion they were super nice. Although there was a bunch of innocent teasing the Americans.
I have to say, my favorite guy there was this Chabad named Zalman. He was a student of the Berdychiv rabbi’s (there used to be a Yeshiva in Berdychiv) and is this cute little 50 year old. The first thing I noticed were his prison tattoos from being in a Soviet prison. He was taken there for being an enemy of the state, aka. a Jew, and kept talking about how no one could understand the problems and terrors of the Soviet Union unless they’ve lived through it. He kept talking about the Soviet Union and how it felt to be a Jew during that era. Then he started speaking Yiddish to everyone at the table, and kept forgetting which language he was speaking. It was the first time since training that I truly didn’t understand what anyone was saying, because Yiddish is not anything like either Russian or Ukrainian.
Zalman and the rabbi’s other student, Israel, then started talking to David about how he should miss class the next day to go to synagogue. David said he couldn’t miss school, and Israel went on to talk about how he and Zalman would go to David’s school and tell the director that he couldn’t come to school because it was a Jewish holiday. David and I looked at each other and both whispered, “this should be interesting to see.” I wonder how that one’s going to turn out!
At 3am the Jewish boys walked me home like the nice, drunk guys that they were and asked me to come to seder again tonight. Actually it was more of a demand. That demand is going to be one that I follow willingly (I know you’re all shocked to hear me say that, and I’m sure I wouldn’t if David wasn’t going to come to help take some of the “American Jew” blame for me- it’s nice to have other Americans around because I don’t get as harassed as I used to).
Man I have a hangover.

Just When I Thought I'd Experienced It All

Just when I thought that Ukraine couldn’t throw any more surprises, it goes and gives me a taste of the Ukrainian hospitals. Last week I experienced stomach pains like I had never felt before. After about 5 days of thinking that it would just go away, I was finally convinced to call the Peace Corps doctor. The doctor I talked to was concerned that I had appendicitis, so she told Luba, my Ukrainian counterpart, to take me to the hospital in Berydchiv to see a doctor there and determine whether it was appendicitis or not. So, we walked to the polyclinic, which is the outpatient part of the hospital. Before I begin the adventures within the hospital, let me describe how the hospital is set up. Basically, there are 5 buildings, including one new women’s center. The polyclinic is probably one of the oldest buildings, and therefore makes the least about of sense. The rooms that should be next to each other (for example, the blood analysis room and the urinalysis room) are floors apart on opposite sides of the building. And, as you may have noticed already, each analysis has its own room. I’m guessing that’s so they can employ more people, but who knows.

But I digress. So, we are at the polyclinic, and I’m following Luba around while she’s asking where the correct doctor is. We finally see the doctor, who says that it’s not appendicitis. Whew. But he tells the Peace Corps doctor that he wants to do blood and urine tests to make sure that everything else is okay, and since it’s all for free (because I’m an American and everyone wanted to make a good impression, I wasn’t charged for any of the lab tests or consultation), Peace Corps said okay. So, I followed Luba not to the blood lab but to the pharmacy on the first floor. Why, you ask? Well, to buy alcohol swabs, rubber gloves for the technician and the little razor thing that pricks my finger, of course! All of this came to about 1 hyrvna, which is about 12 cents, but I thought it was odd that I had to buy all that stuff. Then I realized that the reason I had to buy it is so that I know that it’s clean and sanitary. So, I was a little reassured. After buying all these supplies, we walk to the 2nd floor and I swear I felt like I had entered the 1940’s. All the technicians were wearing white, and each technician had a table with glass viles on them (for the blood). This 19 year old comes up to me to take my blood, so I sit down. She puts on the gloves, wipes my finger, and sticks it, and then realizes that she doesn’t have any cotton, so she leaves me sitting there with a bleeding finger while she goes to find cotton. When she finally comes back with cotton, she takes a long tube (longer than the ones that they use in the States), and puts the end on my finger to suck up the blood, turns to an empty vile, puts her mouth on the tops side of the tubs, and blows to get the blood from the tube into the vile (kinda like howyou spit soda through a straw- it’s the same idea). She does this twice. Then puts a Band-Aide (which I had bought) on the finger. Luba then informs me it’s time to go pee.

In order to pee into a cup, we have to walk up 2 flights or stairs and go to the other side of the clinic. We enter this little room, where Luba asks where the cups are. The woman says, “they’re right behind you”. I turn around and what do I see? MASON JARS!! Of course they would use mason jars. So, I take one, and ask where the bathroom was. She responds that it’s on the other side of the floor, because why would it be logicial to have the urinalysis room next to a bathroom? I walk to the bathroom with my mason jar and it’s one of the dirtiest bathrooms I’ve seen in a while. There’s not toilet paper, there’s no soap, so I’m left to my own devices. Afterwards, I walk with my pee-filled mason jar down the hall in front of all these people who are waiting to see a doctor, and give it to the lady.

After a lot of analysis, the doctor says that it’s not a stomach problem, it’s a “woman problem”. Of course the guy would think that. Although I knew it wasn’t. So I had to go see the gyno too, which was a whole other experience, but I don’t really feel comfortable telling that part of the story here.

Luckily, everything’s okay. I had to spend a night in the Peace Corps office and have an ultrasound. Everything looks a-okay, and they think that I was just having intestinal spasms, so now I’m on a bunch of meds and am feeling SO much better! AND, I got a good story out of it!

Halloween!!!

For those of you who have been following my blog over the past year and half, you may remember Halloween last year in Harkiv, where I had giardia but still dressed as fire (the best of the 4 elements). This year was even better than last! First of all, there was no Giardia. My friend Rachel didn't allow me to eat anything leading up to Halloween that would even risk me getting sick. Second, we had the best costumes ever! Who can forget the classic scene in "Dazed and Confused" where Parker Posey and the other Seniors initiate the freshman by humiliating them? Well, we figured that the group before us completed their service and were beginning to leave, we were officially Seniors. And because of that, we were allowed to initiate the baby Freshman (aka. the group 2 groups below us). Which is exactly what we did. And it was sooo much fun! It was like the high school senior year we weren't allowed to have :)

Here are some other killer costumes from this year's festivities.

Old Soviet "Boy Scouts" (I cannot for the life of me remember what they're actually called)

Sasha, the Ladybug, Alia, Flavor Flav, and me (yes, I am wearing make-up)

Alia as Flavor Flav

I also took photos of my class' Halloween party, where I was dressed as Mickey Mouse and my friend Megan was Minnie Mouse, but in the chaos that was the Peace Corps party in Harkiv, I lost my camera. Boo. But there was "pin the tail on the pumpkin", pumpkin carving, decorations (thanks Mom and Dad for buying those), and Halloween Bingo. We also went trick-or-treating, something that none of the kids had ever done.

Next up. . . Thanksgiving! We're already planning a feast here at the office with all of my classes, and I'm sure someone will dress up in costume as an Indian (because they think that's PC, and there's no use trying to change their minds). And then I'll be off to Rachel and Alia's site, where we're having our Peace Corps Thanksgiving (about 15 people will be there), complete with canned cranberries sent from America!!

Other than that, nothing is new. I'm in the process of writing another grant for a media center that Luba and Oksana (my Ukrainian counterparts) want to start in one of the rooms in the office. We just won a grant to start a volunteer newspaper, and celebrated with cognac on friday in the middle of the day, in which we were calling a "business lunch". Of course, that was my idea :)

The Train!

Hey all,

I really don't have any real updates from the Antarctic (that's right, it's already 25 degrees at night). So, I've been trying to describe the train situation in Ukraine to my friends back home for a while, because they're nothing like anything I've ever seen before, and I finally found a youtube video to do it for me! Enjoy! (Aside from the music, everything the guy is saying is pretty much a direct quote from constant "conversations" and instance I've had on the train.



Ps. If anyone's in the DC area right now, I'm back until Friday morning, so call me!!! 202-997-4748

Quick Update

Hey all.

I know, I know, I haven’t written in forever, and I’m a slacker and a terrible person. But really only two of those things are true. I’m totally a slacker and haven’t written forever. The terrible person thing, I’d like to counter with something my new site mate told me the other day- “Jessie, you’re a saint”. So there.

The real reason I haven’t written is because things have kind of plateaued as of late and nothing new is going on. It’s the end of summer, and I’m back at work, doing 3 English Clubs, conducting trainings at local schools about financial management and NGO Theory, and have been getting back in touch with my friends in the city who I haven’t seen in a while, since I’ve been away or hanging out with other PCVs or otherwise unmotivated to do anything. My main project right now, however, is my sitemate. His name is Bernie, he’s 79 years old (turning 80 in January), and has no idea how to use either a computer or cell phone, not to mention his ipod. So, I’ve taken him under my wing and every week I work with him a little bit to teach him the basics. I have to say, it might be the most frustrating thing I’ve done while in Peace Corps. Even though I grew up before cell phones and ipods, I have always had some sort of computer in the house, and I adapted extremely easily with the technological movement, as did my grandfather (I had to teach him the basics over the phone, but that was years ago). It’s hard to remember that when Bernie was younger there was no such thing as a computer, there were only landlines, and people still wrote letters. So to have to spend 3 hours teaching him how to save a document or delete something from his computer. . . . well, it’s challenging. But I’m keeping my patience, and as a reward, he takes me out to dinner once a week. AND, I get desert out of it too!! So, it’s a win-win situation!!!

Other than that, nothing new has been going on. . . . it’s weird to think that I only have 9 months left. That means I actually have to kind of start thinking about what I’m going to do next! Okay, let’s face it. .. . in reality, I’m not going to sort that all out until I’ve been home and slumming for a month or so. . . let’s be real. But I still have to figure out where I want to live, what I want to do, etc. You’d think I have had 2 years to figure all this stuff out, but I haven’t figured out a freakin’ thing. Guess that’s what happens when you put your life on hold- it’s still there waiting for you when you get back, even if it’s a weird demented version of the same life. I guess only time will tell if that’s the life I want to come back to, or if it’s time to start fresh in a new city. Suggestions, anyone?