Perpetual Change

Teacher, teacher

So much to say and so little time. In just two weeks, training will be over. We will have Swearing-In in Kyiv, and we will be off to our sites for the next two years. (In actuality this happened several weeks ago, but I am just now posting many entries that I had written at the time and saved to a disk. I will try to post a couple every few days until I am caught up.) I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. I am excited and nervous, now that we are on to the real thing, and we have a much better idea of what we have gotten ourselves into. I will be sorry to leave my training community and family, but we are planning on my return for a weekend at the end of August so I can help dig up potatoes and can tomatoes.

So for all of you who have told me I should be a teacher, you have finally won. I will teach civics, which is a new class (and concept), at the liberal arts magnet high school in my new town. There is a saying in Ukrainian, “Teaching is not a profession; it is a diagnosis.” That part of my assignment should only take about 30 percent of my time. The rest, you ask? Well, since I am part of a new project here in Ukraine, and the idea is to develop youth, they are leaving it to us to fill the other 70 percent however we see fit such as community groups, clubs, American sports, etc. Basically, whatever we want to keep youth and ourselves busy. It should be interesting.

posted by jjs @ 4:45 AM