Perpetual Change

Flat Stanley I – The trip to John

Many of you have asked what I do here in Ukraine. Well this was a fun project that I did with a class near Chicago. There is was a children’s book many years ago about a character named Stanley. One day he was squished flat by a falling billboard, and was very distraught, but then he discovered that he could be mailed, and off he went on great adventures. And enterprising teacher turned this into an elementary class project, and now Stanley travels all over the world, keeping a journal, and goes home to tell the class about it. I kept one (of 21) that were sent to another PCV here in Ukraine for a few months this summer. I think you might find it interesting and it is easier to explain about what I do and about Ukraine when you read it from day to day. My school year is much the same as the summer; it is just more constant, where here I have days of nothing really that I have to do, and then weeks of extreme activity. During school it is more balanced. There is always something going on, but it isn’t usually as intense.

The first part is by Eartis, the student in the states that sent this Stanley. The next part is by volunteers in Crimea, Mark and Ginny Pulver ( www.pulverpages.com), that received them all and then mine. I have taken out all the place names where volunteers live as is requested by Peace Corps for our safety; sorry if that makes some things more confusing. Baba Halya is a paper grandma that the Crimean volunteers included along with a paper cat.

Please excuse my switching of tenses, and spelling mistakes. I have tried to type just what was in the journal by all those that wrote (Eartis is in 4th grade, I think). I will try to intermix Stanley posts with the real blogs I prepared on the various events, and one day maybe you can see the photos with Stanley in them. I have quite a few.

May 25, 2006
Dear Journal,
Hello my name is Eartis and I have a friend named Stanley. Today Me and Stanley rode the bus to school. It took a half hour to get there. A couple of weeks ago, me and stanley had field day. Field day is when three different schools go against each other. Here’s the things we do. We do long jumps, high jumps, softball throw, ball socket throw, 50 yard dash, 220 race, and cross country. Me Eartis I was in the 220 I got in first place. Oh I forgot to tell you about what we learned we do divied, multip, adding minus and we read, study spelling words. We have recess. We wacth movies sometimes. When it rains we have recess inside.

Yesterday it had started to rain I was at in the house borad. I said to myself what can I do my little sister was mad yesterday, because I couldn’t find her jump. I said there’s nothing to be mad at because it’s raining now so it’s to late. Then that’s when my little baby cousin came in and said I wants to watch backyardagains he’s only 2 years old to. So I put backyardagains in the DVD player. Then he said Eartis watch backyardagains and while I was watching backyardagains I was thinking what am I’m going to do on my summer vaction so now every in school I think what am I’m going to do on my summe vaction. What are you going to do? Love, Eartis

Dear Journal, 11 June 06
Today we went to the bazaar in Crimea. This is a big outdoor marketplace. Boy was it crowded! I bought this journal to write about my vacation in (Editor’s note: the previous entries were on loose-leaf paper. They don’t have that in Ukraine. All students keep notes in little soft cover notebooks which is what this one was.)

I am staying with a nice couple who live only 1 block from the Black Sea. I hope I can swim there.

I will write more tomorrow. I am very tired – I think I have jetlag.
Stanley

Dear Journal, 12 June 06
There are lots of stray dogs and cats here. I like dogs and cats but it doesn’t seem safe for them to live outside running loose. There are about 15 cats in the courtyard where the Pulvers live. I saw about 10 dogs. People feed them scraps and no one seems afraid of them.
I can write my name in Russian letters станлый = Stanley

Some of the letters look backwards to me, but the Pulvers showed me on the alphabet chart. Russian is like a secret code! I wonder if I can learn to speak Russian if I study. Maybe Eartis will help me!
More tomorrow - Stanley

Dear Journal, 13 June 06
We did lots of stuff today but my favorite thing was helping Mr. Pulver with his video project on the computer. He showed me lots of tricks people use to make movies. The video he is editing is going to help Ukrainian teachers be better teachers. Teachers from the USA are part of the Peace Corps to help teachers in Ukraine. Tomorrow I will tell you about the fort and other stuff. Good night! Your friend, Stanley

Dear Journal, 14 June 06
We visited Mithridate Mount today. There is a stairway up the mountain and it has 432 steps! We were all out of breath when we got to the top. We had a picnic there and enjoyed the view. There used to be a Greek City on the mount. Now there is a tall monument to WWII. It looks like the Washington Memorial in Washington DC. We took lots of pictures.
Your friend, Stanley

[editor’s note: I had two Stanley’s at first, but I passed one along; from comparing the two I surmised, and later checked, that Virginia kept 21 separate journals for 4 days. That is a LOT of work, even for short entries. Each journal was different]

July 8
Today I met my new host, John. He is from Florida, but now he lives in a town in the Lvivska region of Western Ukraine. It borders Poland and they speak only Ukrainian in this area. It is near the mountains and is very different from Crimea where I stayed with Ginny and Mark.
We traveled by overnight train to a camp in Kharkiv which is a Russian-speaking area rather far from where John lives. He had never been to an area like that in Ukraine so he went to help with a camp. He wanted to see how things were different in Eastern Ukraine.

The camp was put on by other Americans but all the campers were Russian–speaking Ukrainians. We broke into teams that represented different countries. I was on the team of South Korea. At the end of the week all the teams came together and pretended to be the United Nations. We had to solve different world problems.
We also taught the campers how to play Ultimate Frisbee. They liked it very much. We played on the beach of the lake, where the camp was, almost every night.

July 14
After the camp, we took the “Marshrutka” back to Kharkiv. A marshrutka is a small mini-bus that carries about 15 people. They get very crowded and hot in the summer. Ukrainians are afraid of draft breezes, so they don’t open any windows.

When we got to Kharkiv, we had to wait for our train for awhile, but in front of the station there is a big water fountain that had lights and water that changed along with popular Ukrainian Pop music. It was interesting to watch and listen to as we waited. Then we got on the train. There are two classes of train cars for sleeping. One has little rooms with 2 sets of bunk beds and a small table and window in between. It has a door you can lock and the bathroom is at the end of the hall. The other is just a long train car with bays of bunk beds. Each bay has six beds. There are no doors or privacy so this class is cheaper.

posted by jjs @ 2:51 AM