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Katherine in Ukraine

~ Adventures with the Peace Corps

Katherine in Ukraine

Category Archives: Romny

Happy Teachers’ Day!

05 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Food & Drink, Holidays, Romny, Teaching the English Language

≈ 1 Comment

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“I congratulate you on the Day of Teachers”

October 2nd marked my third time celebrating teacher’s day in Ukraine. What an awesome holiday. It is a shame that it isn’t celebrated in the USA although it is technically scheduled for the first week of May.

In Romny, Ukraine, the students go all out…

First, the older grades teach the younger students in the classrooms. This gives the students and excellent opportunity to understand the difficulties of being a teacher (planning the lesson, classroom discipline, frequent frustration) as well as feel the joy of successfully teaching a topic.

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Teachers’ room starting to pile high

Second, the students run around the school between lessons presenting their favorite teachers (or ones with which they need to up their grades) boxes of chocolates, flowers and other small presents. It is so much fun to see their huge smiles and nervous giggles as they approach each teacher. Meanwhile, the teacher’s room is piled high with colorful boxes and bouquets after just the first lesson. I received a bunch of flowers and chocolates but it was nothing compared to some of the more senior and strict teachers who receive so many that they need to take a taxi home!

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Katya & Vlada: two of my favorite students and best dancers in the school

Third, at my school this year they Student Government prepared something special for the teacher’s relaxation. In the Home-Education room, they prepared tables like a little cafe complete with cookies, tea and coffee that we could visit between lesson or in our free time. In addition, the students monitoring and cleaning the cafe talked with the teachers about their personal reflections on being a teacher.

Fourth, as usual, everything is celebrated with a concert. Our school is known for our epic presentations, beautiful stage (less than 2 years old with space for 200 people in the audience),  dance groups and amazing singers. They didn’t disappoint for us teachers. Our day was cut short (only 4 lessons) and we had a private showing of the concert at 11am. The students performed it later in the day for their families and students from other schools were invited to perform.

The 1st Grade wishing us happiness, love and health!

The 1st Grade wishing us happiness, love and health!

Fifth, we rented out the biggest and best restaurant in town and about 50 of the 70 teachers got together for a feast at 5pm. There was great food, lots of drinks, frequent toasts (of which I made 2…in Russian) and of course dancing! It was a great time but I also got very emotional when the Director was giving her toast. I realized how much I will miss these people when I leave in 2 months and after all the ups and downs we’ve been through, how much I feel at home with them and accepted in their lives.

The Director's toast
The Director’s toast
Some of the girls outside for a photosessia to cool off
Some of the girls outside for a photosessia to cool off
At the end of the night...dancing break from eating.
At the end of the night…dancing break from eating.
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SPA: Implementation & Conclution

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Cross Cultural Moments, Published after close of service as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Romny, Small Project Assistance (SPA) Grant

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One of my proudest accomplishments while serving in PC Ukraine, was the successful implementation of a bake sale. P1060917I know this doesn’t sound like much to be proud of or a reason to validate my 2+ year existence in a small town in Eastern Europe, but it wasn’t just your traditional bake sale and it wasn’t conceived through your traditional methods.

It started and ended with our USAID Small Project Assistance (SPA) grant. As I mentioned in previous posts about SPA, my counterpart Lesia and I wrote and received a $5000 USAID SPA grant to develop the capacity of our local community by building a project resource center and train its users in project management & design (PDM) and fundraising. Both training sessions were successful as we trained almost 100 youth leaders, community members and secondary school administrators & teachers. After that, the hard part started; the inspiration for the actual implementation of their new skills and ideas.

My apt. in April

My apartment in April

It was April and the last quarter of my service in Ukraine. It was the time to show results and prove the sustainability of all my work through the actions and reactions of my host community. Well, long story short, there was no action and only negative reactions. I felt like my colleagues and trainees were avoiding me so that I didn’t bring up the subject with them. Some encouraged me to extend the project implementation goals to next semester when there would be more time and energy. I was heart broken and felt immensely betrayed; once their personal creativity, energy and motivation were called upon, they wanted nothing to do with the project. They were tired, overworked and underpaid so I understood their perspective but I couldn’t accept it. As a Scandinavian, Axelsen and woman, I am stubborn, but sometimes this dangerous characteristic can have positive results. I wasn’t going to allow the project to fail and if I had already failed inspiring those around me to pursue its benefits, I needed to do something about it.

I didn’t give up on the project’s implementation but I let the topic rest for the better part of the month. I knew the school administration wanted to see results as much as me, but I also didn’t want to tattle-tale on my colleagues as the culprits of why no action had taken place. Finally, after a month of seeing only closed doors of opportunity, I found an open window: the class President, Valeria.

Valeria is a rockstar, brilliant, ambitious and stubborn like me. She was also expected to implement a class project as President and liked the idea of working with me to the same goals. We brainstormed some project ideas but I explained that my resources were exhausted and I needed her help inspiring action and choosing a project. It didn’t matter what we did as long as we used our new PDM and fundraising skills. Within the week, she had her entire student council of almost 50 students asking their teachers if their class could participate in Ms. Katherine’s European Fair!

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Valeria and I working together during the PDM seminar in February with other Specialized School No. 1 teachers.

WOooo! I was stoked!

In the meantime, my teacher colleagues had been tasked by the school administration to celebrate European Union Day on May 19th. Usually, this involves a school concert, a flashy powerpoint show, lots of missed class time for the students and headaches for the teachers. Therefore, we all quickly saw the benefit of working together to reach our common goals: the class president’s yearly project, the teacher’s European Union Day celebration and Lesia and I’s USAID grant project.

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Ukrainian: “Fair-Festival, European Countries, 17th of May, Welcome!”

Within a fortnight, about 600 students, 70 teachers, 4 European Union volunteers (guests from the Region’s capital), 2 Peace Corps volunteers and 1 Ukrainian counterpart gathered for Specialized School Number 1’s first annual European Union Day Fair. Each of the participating classes represented a country of the European Union and created a booth with traditional food from that country, decorations (and sometimes handicrafts), costumes and a trivia game. Each class had to develop a system of sales and monitoring of their booth so that they could sell their products while also enjoying the fair themselves. The top 3 classes/countries who earned the most money were given prizes of sport equipment from the administration to be used during recess.

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P1060885The weather was perfect and everybody had a marvelous time. Not only did each class learn about a country in the European Union through hands on experience, but the creativity and marketing skills of the kids completely wow-ed their teachers as well and the fair raised 100x the money that the administration, students and teachers expected. (A bittersweet result since the administration had promised to double whatever the students were able to raise at the fair.) They were speechless by their own success and amazing that the process had been so fun and rewarding.

After the fair, we offered a “Living Library” where kids could take optional lessons from each of our European Union guests and practice their French and German with native speakers. Our German and Belgian volunteers presented their cultures and our two French volunteers presented a special dance lesson and analysis of French sterotypes.

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The student government and school administration agreed to use the funds to better the school facade and garden (an idea that originated in our Fundraising Training). They bought 7 new benches with a flower box and spring flowers to match each of them.

I can’t tell you how proud I am of everybody who participated in this project. Not specifically because of the money they made or the successful conclusion report I was able to write to close the grant, but because in the end they amazed themselves and were proud their abilities.

I left the resource center’s future in the trusted hands of my counterpart. She is an amazing woman and I know she will do her best to keep its goals and sustainability alive. However, if its potential fades away, I just hope that one day the project’s participants will remember what they are capable of and believe in themselves to accomplish anything and everything. That possibility makes this bake sale one of my proudest accomplishments in PC Ukraine.

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Four 10th form girls, Me, my Counterpart, Class President, School Director, a young student, French volunteer, Belgium Volunteer, Alaskan PC Volunteer, German Volunteer, (front: two 5th form girls and French Volunteer) in front of Specialize School No. 1 after the European Union Day Fair.

A summer walk through Kiev & Romny

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Romny, Travel in Ukraine

≈ 1 Comment

In the nature?!?

In the nature?!?

Sumy's Babushkas
Sumy’s Babushkas
Last Bell
Last Bell
Kiev
Kiev
Home
Home
Romny's Lenin
Romny’s Lenin
Last bell with the girls

Last bell 2013 with the girls

Romny
Romny
Romny's Sithian Mounds
Romny’s Sithian Mounds
Kiev
Kiev
Kiev
Kiev
Camping
Camping
11th Form graduation ceremony

11th Form graduation ceremony

 

День Победы (Victory Day)

09 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Holidays, Romny

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Old Soviet Victory Day postcard

Old Soviet Victory Day postcard. The soldier is writing on the wall, “Victory, May 9, 1945”, the text on the bottom reads, “I remember…I am proud…” and the medal is inscribed with the word, “Glory”.

Today, Ukraine and many other post-soviet countries celebrate their 1945 victory over Nazi Germany in WWII or as it is commonly referred to here, The Great Patriot War. This is considered one of the grandest and most important holidays for many Soviet Russians. Recently it has become a more somber event because the number of veterans commemorated each year is drastically decreasing. In my town of Romny, we lost almost half our veterans this year. Only ~20 were present at our memorial event.

Romny's Victory Day Memorial event
Romny’s Victory Day Memorial event
My students dressed up as soldiers of WWII
My students dressed up as soldiers of WWII
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SSSR 60 cent stamp commemorating the victory with a soldier waving a flag with Joseph Stalin. The text reads, “Long live our victory!”.

There are many symbols that are seen during these memorial events. One of the most prominent is the orange and black striped St. George’s ribbon. This ribbon is often worn on clothes and affixed to cars as a sign of respect and remembrance. The pattern was designed to symbolize fire and gunpowder and is one of the most recognized symbols of military valour in WWII. It was conceived from the Order Of St. George established in 1769 by Catherine the Great as the highest military decoration in the Russian Federation. Red Carnations are often seen at the memorial events to symbolize the red of the Soviet flag and blood of the fallen soldiers. They are always placed in an even number at graves or memorials to symbolize mourning and rememberance. An odd number of flowers always symbolize a celebratory event. Lastly, the Red Star Medal is a military distinction for bravery.

St. George's Ribbon & Red Carnations
St. George’s Ribbon & Red Carnations
Red Star medal
Red Star medal

Most memorial events conclude their services with a parade to their eternal flame. Nearly every WWII memorial has an eternal flame near a group statue of soldiers.

Eternal flame of Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in Southern Russia.
Eternal flame of Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in Southern Russia.
Protector of the Motherland Statue of the WWII memorial in Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in Southern Russia.
Protector of the Motherland Statue of the WWII memorial in Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in Southern Russia.

Below is a selection of photos showing Victory Day events and Veterans throughout post-soviet countries…

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“Look at that moon. Potato weather for sure.” – Thornton Wilder

06 Monday May 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Cross Cultural Moments, Food & Drink, Romny, Village Life

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potatoes

I helped a friend’s family plant potatoes today. Row after Row till it got too hot. We then dutifully followed the tradition of resting with a beer, enjoying leftover Easter food and downing three shots of cognac (for our appetite) before 3pm. Good Day.

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One World Classrooms: Global Art Exchange

25 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Cross Cultural Moments, One World Classrooms: Art Exchange, Romny, Teaching the English Language

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I signed Lesia’s 5th form class up for a really cool art exchange program with One World Classrooms and the experience has been great. It was even free to participate as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine. The program connects classrooms from all over the world by gathering and sending out collections of K-12 student traditional artwork. So for example, 25 of my students each drew a traditional picture of Ukraine. We took photos of each student with their piece of art, wrote a description in both English and Ukrainian and then attached it to the picture. We then sent them all into the One World Classroom headquarters. In a few months we will receive 25 pictures form throughout the world along with a picture of each student who drew it and a description in English and their native language.

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A sample of our 25 pieces, ready to be shipped out around the world.

I love this program because it gives my students a chance to proudly share their culture and use their English as a truly global language. When receiving artwork and English messages from children their own age in China, Africa, Mongolia and South America, how can they deny the potential their languages classes can provide them? We are scheduled to receive our global collection in June.

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SPA Fundraising Training

11 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Romny, Small Project Assistance (SPA) Grant

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Lesia and I hosted the second seminar funded by our Small Project Assistance (SPA) grant today. There were 68 students and teachers in attendance. To compliment our first seminar on Project Design & Management (PDM) this seminar taught about Fundraising: what it is, how to do it and what to expect. This concept is entirely foreign to most Ukrainians and often considered an unachievable feat simply because it involves finding money where there is no money to spare. I cannot thank Lesia enough for trusting me that this topic was essential to our overall project idea and not a waste of time. I was frequently, almost always, met with laughs when explaining to my community that it is possible to fundraise in our community.

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A friend of mine from a the eastern city of Lugansk and her counterpart presented an excellent seminar. The majority of our time focused on community fundraising but grant writing was also touched upon. The highlight of the presentation was giving examples of successful fundraising events that other Ukrainian communities have done. The idea that a cohesive group of trustworthy people can change the bad into good from their own initiative is sometimes too difficult to image without a proven base. This fearful first step is often the hardest obstacle I encounter when working with Ukrainians.

Our next goal is to use our new skills to host a fundraising event. It was decided at the seminar that the funds we raise will be used to refurbish our school garden.

масленица и женский день

09 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Cross Cultural Moments, Holidays, Romny, Weather

≈ 1 Comment

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Garrett and I in front of my favorite Church in Romny

Ukrainians celebrated two holidays this past week. Maslina (масленица) and Women’s Day.

Maslina is a time to welcome the Spring and say goodbye to the Winter. To commemorate this day, a straw fertility doll is burned and men compete by climbing up a slick telephone pole. I’m not quite sure why either of these things are done, but both are fun to watch. Unfortunately, Romny’s celebration of Maslina was dampened by a think snowfall this year.

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Part of our usual fearsome foursome, Bohdan, Garrett and I. Vova is taking the picture. You can see the holiday crowd gathered in the background as well as the slick telephone pole that men try to climb each year.

The main Boulevard of Romny, lined with picnickers and our statue of Taras Shevchenko sulking proudly at the end.

The main Boulevard of Romny, lined with picnickers, babushky and our statue of Taras Shevchenko sulking proudly at the end.

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Our biology teacher preparing the table while the other men gather the women

Women’s Day, or more commonly referred to as the 8th of March is actually an international holiday. Its a shame I had to come all the way to Ukraine to discover this, but now that I know, I will be sure to bring the tradition back home with me. The day is slightly equivalent to the USA’s Mother’s day, although young girls, sisters, lovers and classmates are also included.

The male teachers at my school celebrated the school’s women by buying all the teachers a box of champagne, heaps of candy and oranges. Of course, nothing was done without wishing each other health, wealth, beauty and love (although Ukrainians are much more poetic about it).

My school has a huge group teachers who have graduated from University within the past 4 years. Here is most of them, although we are missing the beautiful Alina and sweet Liza.

My school has a huge group of teachers who have graduated from University within the past 4 years. Here is most of them, although we are missing the beautiful Alina and sweet Liza.

The streets of Romny were lined with flower salesmen despite the grubby weather,

The main streets of Romny were lined with flower salesmen for the 8th of March despite the grubby weather.

I also personally celebrated the first case of food poisoning in my life by hugging my toilet for a day. That was definitely not the highlight of my week. I blame a jar of home conserved vegetables I bought from an old lady at the bazaar. When I told my colleagues about this purchase, they were very upset and scolded me for even considering to buy this food…so much for integration through food exploration. Last time I tried to chase vodka with raw pig ear, it didn’t work out so hot either. The third time might kill me.

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Small Project Assistance (SPA) Grant – first step of implementation!

06 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Romny, Small Project Assistance (SPA) Grant

≈ 2 Comments

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My happy face!

Awhile back, I mentioned that I spent most of my free time in September dreaming, planning and writing a SPA grant with my counterpart. Well, guess what? WE GOT IT!

The grand plan is to host two professional development seminars (1) Project Development & Management and (2) Fundraising, for teachers at my school, students in our student council and active community members. To facilitate the use and further development of these new skills, we will build a resource center in our school that can be used by all community member/teachers/students for miscellaneous projects. To guarantee the sustainability of our resource center and use of our new skill set, all seminar participants will help develop an annual city wide fundraising event in late spring. The groups that participate in this event who raise the most money, will be able to use all the money raised in a way of their choosing.

Our project team was awarded ~ $5000 for this project from USAID. You can read more about the grant opportunity HERE. You can also read our fully funded proposal HERE.

On February 26, 2013 our project team successfully hosted our first seminar on Project Development & Management (PDM). In attendance were two administrators of School Number One, four student representatives, one member of Romny’s Center for Handicapped Children, one member of Romny’s Orphanage, and twenty teachers of Romny’s School Number One.

The whole PDM group!

The whole PDM group!

We had two trainers, each from the Lugansk Center of Postgraduate Education located ~20hour train ride to the east of Ukraine. The main trainer was a professional methodist who executed the training the Russian Language. Her assistant was a Community Development Peace Corps Volunteer who has extensive experience in business and strategic planning.

One group and their project

One group and their project

The seminar started with a bunch of wide eyed participants completely overwhelmed with the PDM theory upchucked in their laps. Myself, I was worried we started our project with the wrong seminar, that it was too abstract or theory based for the concept to be introduced in our first round. However, about 45 minutes into the seminar, the practical application began. We divided the participants into 5 groups who were each responsible for creating their own project ideas, goals, SWOT analysis, and objectives. At this stage, all the smiles came out. Great ideas flew around the room and each participant seemed to enjoy being there.

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In the end, our project team considered the day a success. We gave ourselves big pats on the back and turned our eyes towards the next step of our grant implementation…building the resource center.

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Coverdell World Wise Schools – Pen Pal Exchange

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Katherine Axelsen in Cross Cultural Moments, English Club, Romny, World Wise School

≈ 4 Comments

My school’s Coverdell World Wise match is finally progressing. After a couple set backs, we have been able to establish a regular Pen Pal exchange between the most active of my 5th, 6th & 7th formers with a 5th grade classroom in North Hollywood, California, USA.

MapToCalifornia

All the way from Romny, Ukraine to Hollywood, USA

I am so excited about this program because it gives my students an opportunity to use their English language skills outside the classroom. Not only is this an excellent communicative activity for them, but they can also interact with students their same age on the other side of the world!

So far, we have received two batches of ~25 personally addressed letters, pictures & drawings from our partner classroom in California. Our school has sent them a video introduction of our school/English club as well as a batch of reply letters.

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It is so exciting to see the expression on the students’ faces when they receive their letters. At this early stage of the exchange, most of their conversations are basic and only discuss simply likes & dislikes. However, I hope that these kids will be able to continue this exchange far after I leave Ukraine and maybe one day, be able to meet each other in person!

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Ukrainian National Anthem

Ukraine is not yet dead, nor its glory and freedom, Luck will still smile on us brother-Ukrainians. Our enemies will die, as the dew does in the sunshine, and we, too, brothers, we'll live happily in our land. We'll not spare either our souls or bodies to get freedom and we'll prove that we brothers are of Kozak kin. We'll rise up, brothers, all of us, from the Sain to the Don, We won't let anyone govern in out motherland. The Black Sea will smile yet, grandfather Dnipro will rejoice, Yet in our Ukraine luck will be high. Our persistence, our sincere toil will prove its rightness, still our freedom's loud song will spread throughout Ukraine. It'll reflect upon the Carpathians, will sound through the steppes, and Ukraine's glory will arise among the people.
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