Perpetual Change

Internship at the Employment Center

So I mentioned that I have an internship. All of the trainees are in different sites, most at schools, but I am in an Employment Center. As would be befitting a formerly socialist government, they have some great social services. This agency is state (well-) funded and a lot more than a resource center. The agents actively strive to place individuals regardless of how motivated those individuals are to actually work. All registered companies (which is most, but I can’t figure out which are required) pay a percentage of ALL employee salaries as a tax which supports the work of this agency. My local office was a network and database of all jobs in the Kyiv region. My internship is supposed to focus on youth (with which the agency deals minimally), and computers (of which theirs far surpass my skills –the only place yet where this has been the case). So what I am doing here has been a bit ambiguous. However, trying to find an interpreter hasn’t been ambiguous at all.

Both the site and the trainee are supposed to search out a teacher, student or other in the community that can serve as a translator. Well my agencies first tactic was to call up one of the non-working English teachers in the database. Only I didn’t know this, so the first day after the hour we had previously agreed upon (with the help of a translator), I was about to leave to go to language class where we were having a test, when they communicated that I could not go! Finally I understood (remember this was my second week in the country), and they assured me she would be there in 5 minutes. I was a bit taken aback when she did come in – tall and pretty but rather overproduced she had a very forward demeanor, and she kind of massaged my hand when she shook it (or more specifically, held it). The little English she used to change the pre-set time of my meeting the next day, made it clear why she was out of work, but I had other things to worry about so away I went.

That afternoon our adopt-a- cluster PCV showed up. Teresa was great; she has been here for almost 2 years, Katia was her LCF and she had adopted our group to just come visit, support and offer any advice or answer any questions. And she offered to come with me the next day. I was quite please with the proposition. So the next morning we met, I briefed her about my so called translator and we went in to meet her. This morning the office was quite busy, my contact person, the assistant director, was trying to follow us around but she was getting behind with the people in the office (her and most of the other staff work kind of like guidance counselors and they have a certain number of people assigned to them that then may come to speak with them. My translator took center stage, spoke so everyone could hear her (and almost only her), kept calling me David, and conducting Teresa and me on a tour the director had already given me. When I tried to turn it back to something constructive, she translated it into a rather forward comment towards the assistant director.

This only went on for about 10-15 minutes, before I think she got bored and started asking me about my family, and telling us about her father who had been a Russian pilot. The director got quite fed up at this point; he had always been a very composed man, but now, on the edge of yelling, he told her to leave and asked Teresa and I to join him in his office. In a very agitated Ukrainian with all most of the English words he knew, he said that this was not working, and he asked me to come back tomorrow with our TCF (Technical Cultural Facilitator, Tetiana, a Ukrainian who sets up everyone’s internships and is fluent in English and Ukrainian). I said that would be no problem, and we left, but the Russian woman is now outside the door and telling us what a bad man this director is.

Teresa helped us get away, and I had been very glad to have her for the very quick and frantic morning. Tetiana helped me clear everything up the next day. We all agreed that the Russian woman was not someone that could translate objectively and since the internship (although I am still sometimes misdirected) has been very well.

posted by jjs @ 7:53 AM