Perpetual Change

Ukraine, a Country of Extremes

This text was most of an article that I wrote for "English," a private weekly magazine for English teachers in Ukraine. They devoted one March issue to Peace Corps for our 45th Anniversary!

When I think about what Ukraine means to me, there are many ideas that come to mind : inquisitive and anxious students, young and old; service without a smile; friends on every corner; warm summers; cold winters; active political movements; lack of utilities. And I am always struck by the contrasts. Here is a country where you can regularly see a very expensive SUV parked next to a horse; where I live in area known all over the former Soviet Union for its water, and yet my tap doesn't have water almost as often as it does; where the town to the southeast charges $400 a night for a hotel room and the town to the southwest suffers from drugs and depression because of the lack of business; where people are fiercely patriotic, but tell me to buy goods written in Polish because they are of better quality.

Coming to Ukraine to be a Youth Development volunteer, I really didn't know much about Ukraine or what I was to do. I had read about the Orange Revolution, and I knew that I was to strengthen the skills of IT, business, health, and citizenship among youth. But what does that mean? Having lived here a year, I realize that there is no way that I could have known about Ukraine or my job; if I had 5 more years, I could start to get the idea. The thing I have learned the quickest though is that the stereotype of Ukrainian hospitality is very true. People have been very warm and incorporated me in many parts of their lives. This has led to my biggest role being that of a teacher in many of the schools, in my town of 70,000.

The other day one of my students asked me how I chose to be a teacher. It was a funny question for me, because I have always tried to choose NOT to be a teacher, contradictory to many opinions, and yet I always seem to find myself teaching. Ukraine has taught me that all my fears of teaching inside a classroom are true, but at the same time, they are not so bad as I thought. My time here has also taught me that I would like to keep on imparting knowledge no matter what work I do next, but maybe not in a school context.

I think my greatest successes will be the people I have met. They have surely touched my life, and I think I have touched theirs. My lasting effect here will certainly be through them and their work, perhaps on the topics above; but more importantly, I hope they have the skills to identify and plan projects on the topics of the greatest importance to them and the community; to coordinate their efforts in development. Ukraine is always changing; I think over the centuries, it has always been this way. People are not afraid of change, and yet they do not really embrace it, which leads to some rather noticeable discrepancies in development. Learning to coordinate their efforts will bring great advances. English will help this, as will their social characters, but the desire for improvement will be the greatest impetus. I think this innate desire in the Ukrainian people is what has made the Peace Corps program in Ukraine so strong, and I feel that encouraging this motivation is an important part of my work here.

Being completely autonomous to choose your work and projects is awesome in so many ways, but not the least of those, is the responsibility you have in their success. Peace Corps is amazing because of the people that you meet and the experiences that you have. Hopefully, people are learning as much from me as I am from them.

posted by jjs @ 1:48 PM