We are smack dab in the middle of our week of wrapping up our training. On Monday morning we all said goodbye to our Chernigov host families and departed for Kiev where we are spending three days in our last pre-service meetings to prepare us for our sites. On Thursday we will have the Swearing-In Ceremony and depart for our permanent sites immediately thereafter. We arrived on Monday morning since we only had a 2½ hour bus ride from Chernigov. It was really nice how many of the families actually came to the send-off site to wish their respective volunteer’s good luck and see them off. Tanya had to go to work on Monday, so we were both OK with a quick goodbye just before the taxi whisked me away for the last time. I arrived to the theatre in Red Square just after 7:00am and everyone else soon followed. We got to Kiev just before noon and started with all sorts of meetings and conferences. This wasn’t so bad because we got our LPI results and our site placements first thing. First was my LPI result. This was the Language Proficiency Interview that I took last week. I was interviewed in Russian to determine my current language abilities. As I opened the envelope, I reminded myself that my goal was intermediate-mid, which is a pretty lofty goal considering I have only been studying Russian for 11 weeks, but this is what Peace Corps designs your language learning to accomplish. I have had no job, per se, for the past 11 weeks except to learn Russian. I think, for myself (not judging others) that anything less would be a failure (although we are assured that no one has ever been sent home for not speaking the language!) As I opened the envelope I was thrilled to see that I had indeed reached intermediate-mid. Even though some of my friends were able to score at intermediate-high, I was perfectly happy with my result [6% scored novice high, 33% intermediate low, 43% got intermediate mid, 15% intermediate high, 3% advanced lowßthese people all placed at intermediate mid or better 11 weeks ago due to previous study of the language]. Next up were site placement announcements. This country has 24 oblasts (like states) and one autonomous region, Crimea. Many of the volunteers think that any assignment in Crimea would be the ultimate placement. It’s pretty much known as a tourist area and highly desirable worksite and has milder weather than the rest of the country because of the geography. The Regional Managers announced site placements by region and I was informed that I would in fact be serving in Crimea. The town is called Роздольное [Rozdolnoye] (rahz-dole-gnaw-yeah) in the northwest of the peninsula and 8km from the beach. There are supposed to be about 7,500-10,000 people, and I am being assigned to work with the Central Library of Роздольное. I don’t know anything about working in libraries, but I can learn, right? I embrace the assignment and looked forward to meeting my counterpart on Tuesday. The counterpart is someone who works for your host organization and is your first line of resource to get things done, whether professional or personal, the counterpart is one of the most important people in the next two years for me. We know nothing about them until we meet them.
On Tuesday around 11:00am, we were led into the conference hall where we met our counterparts for the first time. Her name is Lenara and she works for the library that I am assigned to. She introduced herself in fully fluent English! What a thrill to have the language not be a barrier to my work (at least right away). I mean, some of my intermediate-low friends met counterparts who speak zero English, which has got to be very challenging. Lenara and I have only met for about an hour, so I can’t say I know much yet about the job or her. What I can say is that I am excited about getting to know her and working with the Central Library of Роздольное.
As we swear-in, this marks the end of our training period. Looking back, this has been a crazy past 11 weeks. When I think about starting to meet everyone back in D.C., it seems so long ago. But, just 11 weeks have passed and in that time I have made some really great friends, learned a new language, and was part of the very first team of trainees ever to present their community project to an Oblast Administration (equivalent of a U.S. state level governmental office). We got some great Peace Corps feedback for that accomplishment in itself. I have started to work on my video project, editing all of the video footage I have shot over the past 3 months into a memory montage for myself and the group. I have had a great couple of nights spending time in Kiev with these people that I may or may not ever see again. I am reminded that I enjoy almost nothing more than sitting somewhere, having good conversation and drinking a beer with people I enjoy spending time with. Here’s to my new Peace Corps friends that I will spend more quality time with in the future. Thanks for everything. I am glad I didn’t have to do it by myself since I will have enough of that in the next two years!
Congratulations...again, and again.
ReplyDeleteFYI - You're never alone...I always think about you.