Simple as 123

It is funny how the word family always takes on new meanings. The word family has become so fluid and applicable to any new situation a person might experience. We run through life meeting people, important and less... but then somehow we always manage to create this thing called family. Maybe there isn't a mother or a brother or a cousin, but we have taken this word to mean so much more. Sometimes even the traditional family loses the right to the definition of family.

There's the families that we make for ourselves when we need to, and the struggle that appears when family becomes default and not anything more than just a meal and a bed. Or a family that listens to you when you are feeling alone or excited or needy or silly, or a family that you have never met but just speaks a familiar language (Hebrew, perhaps, in the middle of Ukraine).

The word family will again take on a totally new meaning in three weeks time when I am sworn in as part of Peace Corps Ukraine. My family will be volunteers, other teachers, PC faculty, locals and even my future students. And probably a few other unknowns.

Fortunately, this experience (so far) has allowed me to meet interesting people that not only I can call my friends, but few have already become family. I have been living all day everyday with the same four people, and then at least once a week I interact with another five. This family is 9 strong, and I am happy to say that they are mine.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! I hope that you and your family, whoever they are, enjoyed this holiday. I can say that mine surely did in our own very special way.

continuum

The countdown officially begins! Our time spent in Vasylkiv officially outweighs our total time left here. Anyway, so, that is really unimportant because it hardly outweighs anything else. On to more important thoughts!

This past summer I used to teach my campers about the important of Shabbat (a la AJ Heschel) concerning the idea of "space." We, as humans, according to Heschel, love space, want space, conquer space, find space to fill, make space spacious (does that even work?)... And then on the Sabbath we are commanded to take a step back and say "I am now conquering time." We devote these 25 hours to the time we have with ourselves, our friends, our family - we learn to leave space and embrace other parts of our existence. Amazing fantastic book with a lot more to say, and has truly made me love Shabbat more than I could ever say in words.

Well, I would love to go back in time and have a discussion with Heschel about space because being in Ukraine makes me think about this idea even more. The obsession I have (as an American) with space is quite obviously depicted in the room Тамара has given me - my clothes are sprawled everywhere, along with papers and notes and books and chargers. Back home, during the holidays, my mom and I complained about our lack of counter space for cooking, and yet, Тамара manages to cook three course meals with a kitchen that has the square footage of a standard dining room tabletop. What is our need for space? Would Ukrainians have more if there was more space to put more in? Do we have enough? My thoughts on time are so mixed up in my head that I think leaving them out of this already messy web would be better for both you and me.

I am almost done with my teacher training portion of the "semester" and then I will be focusing my energies on my individual project (a cookbook), a community project with my group-mates and learning Russian. We are running a teaching seminar where we are presenting a handbook of games and role plays that we wrote ourselves for the English teachers in our community. Should make for an exciting and beneficial contribution.

The weather has been incredibly moody lately, but I am hearing snowstorms are ahead and that the warm weather that has been forcing me out of sweaters is saying goodbye. Goodbye flip-flops!

Rivers to cross

This whirlwind of training has pushed me into a moment of reflection. Every day I wake up and step out into a cold atmosphere followed by a small patch of mud, leaves and/or various water puddles filled with any combination of dirt, grass or garbage.

How do women keep their shoes clean here? I struggle to keep my boots black and clean, yet women here walk with ease through the streets of Vasylkiv and Kyiv without even making a scratch. Now, one cleverly might respond with "Avital, why have you not bothered to shine your shoes?" but I am not referring to the every night routine to which I must accustom myself. I am talking about that unfortunate and consistent run-in with mud, water and leaves that dirties my shoes between Russian language class and teaching English. Once I master language, I will learn the secrets of clean shoes. Until then, I must deal with the confused Ukrainian looks of "what is this girl walking through?"

This past week I cooked with Тамара as a part of my self-directed project (SDL is part of the Peace Corps Training process). I have committed to collecting various recipes that I love, and I am going to share one that is fairly simple and delicious.

Морковь Покорески (Korean Carrot)

0.5 kilo of carrots peeled and shredded

1 head of garlic (12-15 cloves) minced

add:

65 g. sugar

1 T salt (not heaping! - без горький)

1/4 t pepper

65 g. oil (sunflower seed, vegetable, etc.)

65 g. "уксус 9%" - Vinegar (white)

0.5 c cold water

Mix it all up and enjoy! (keep in fridge)

Thankfully no one wears shoes inside the house. What would Тамара say about her girl?