Today I had my first day as a PST in the city of Chernihiv (pronounced cher-NI-ghiv). My host family is incredibly nice and the apartment they live in is a million times nicer than the “resort” I was in last week, and certainly nicer than our basement. :) The family is a mama (Ina) a sistra (sister, Alena) and brat (brother, Dema). The kids are 12-year-old twins and the mom is only 32! Their father died two years ago, but they seem to get along fine. At least, they get along fine in front of me.
My family has hosted before, at least two times, for the Peace Corps. One of the volunteers was also from San Francisco so they were excited to show me the calendar she brought when I whipped out my picture book for them. Of course, now I’m wishing I thought to buy the book in Russian but ah well.
I’m slowly but surely picking up the Russian. I’ve been watching a LOT of soap operas with the kids in hopes of picking up the sounds. Alena in particular has been a big help in my learning. She knows very little English but it’s way better than my Russki.
The family is great. Ina is incredibly nice just keeps feeding me! I guess that’s what two famines, a couple of wars and living under collective farming does to you—a great appreciation of food. And it’s all very tasty. It’s a lot of meat and potatoes, but so far there’s always been some kind of cold veggies on the side (like tonight it was bell peppers, tomatoes and pickles) to balance out the heavier stuff. I’ve just gone ahead and eaten meat. I told my language coach who placed me with the family that I was vegetarian but I don’t know if the message made it to Ina. It’s fine, at least her food is delicious! Surprisingly, there’s a TON of produce here in the warm months. Ukraine only imports bananas and oranges I hear, so all the tomatoes, peppers (!), cabbage, watermelon, apples, etc. are grown in the country.
Alena and Dema are very sweet kids and typical 12 year olds. Alena is a fan of Shakira, Pink and Lady Gaga but says she doesn’t like “pop” music (I hadn’t the heart to tell her in the states her three faves are pop stars). She also belly dances and loves kittens, so I showed her a picture of my three. :) Dema has pictures all over his room of 50 Cent and plays Need for Speed II on his computer (no internet, but there’s a cafe nearby). He also has a hobby—he kick boxes, and the first night here he showed me a video of him winning a match.
Today I walked around the town with my language cluster (four other volunteers and me) with our coach to map out the city. Three of them bought cell phones today and i was about to get a sim card when I remembered I left the unlock code back at the apartment. (Along with all my cash moneys. The exchange is 8.4 grivnas to every dollar). Also, one of the other volunteers said that he was with AT&T and they waived his cancellation fee since he was going to PC, so I’ll have to call them and see if I can have the $130 reversed. Anyway, now that I’ve got the code and money, I’m hoping to hit a store again and get it sorted out. Or at least get to an internet cafe.
Alright I’m off to sleep. Hopefully I’ll have retained some Russian overnight.
