05 and 06 October 2013

05 and 06 October 2013

Yesterday, I got up and walked down to my Tech Session. Saturdays are link days, so all 10 PCVs in Obukhiv were there. After a slow start, we got to work learning about teaching adults. Adults are very different than children, as they have many other responsibilities that they have to schedule their lessons around. They also learn differently – a child learner is more likely to take anything taught to them at face value, and will assume that what he or she is learning has no immediate use, while an adult learner had his or her own history and knowledge to bring to class, along with the belief that what they are learning has an immediate application. I noticed this when I was tutoring for the YMCA/Forsyth Tech – the adult learners wanted to do something like talk to teachers or doctors, or get a promotion at work. They didn’t want to discuss the use of red in The Count of Monte Cristo. We went over the challenges we will be facing, and some things that we can do to overcome those challenges. Then we went over how our week went, and what we thought of our respective schools. We observed completely different classes, with completely different teaching styles. Then we played a little game to see what we could remember about our Tech lessons from the last two weeks (which ended in a tie), and went over our schedule for the upcoming week. We all get to teach our first lesson this week. Mine is on Thursday, but I’m not positive on what the subject material is. I know it’s 7th form, and I think it’s prepositions.

After our tech session, we walked across the hall to our LCF’s apt, where we had our X/C session – resiliency. We went over possible problems or challenges that we think we might have to face and overcome, as well as some coping strategies. The PC is a organization where you (the PCV) might never see the outcome, as it will be in a few years. But, it will be there. It’s the little things that you have to look for. And, as the PC is a living example of Darwin’s adapt, migrate, or perish, we have to learn how to deal with, live with, and overcome some of the things that might be challenges to us. After that, Obukhiv 2 went to the bazaar, and we helped our LCF clean her apartment. I swept the carpet in our classroom, someone swept the hallway and kitchen floor, and someone else cleaned the stove. We were given tips as how to clean various parts of the apartment. We also went over our schedule for the week.

After that, another PCT and I walked to the market, as we wanted to get some supplies to teach our lesson on Thursday. We agreed to co-facilitate a Tech session on teaching vocabulary. We’re hoping to get the lesson planned on Monday, after Russian.

I returned to the apartment, checked my email, and was getting my homework prepared when host-Mom came back, with another bucket of mushrooms! She asked if I had had lunch (no), and asked why. I tried to explain that I had just gotten back, and hadn’t had time yet to figure out lunch. She set the mushrooms to soak, and we had lunch – bread, cheese, and homemade raspberry jam.

After lunch, I was taught how to handwash clothes. It was nowhere near as hard as people told me it was. Bit boring, and kneeling over the tub was a bit hard on my knees, but otherwise it wasn’t that bad. Now, I have clean clothes for a while! I was washing clothes when host-sister’s great-uncle came over, to have salted fish and beer and chat with host-Mom.

Host-sister came back shortly after he arrived, while I was rinsing my clothes, and we had tea together, after I hung my clothes out on the clothesline on the balcony. Before lunch, host-Mom had told me something that I thought translated to the fact that she didn’t think I should drink tea, as I have a cold, so I stuck to coffee. After our tea, host-Sister and I did our homework in my room, as she doesn’t like the smell of salted fish. Host-Mom baked a cake after her brother-in-law left. It was still in the oven when we all had tea. The misunderstand about me and drinking tea was that it is a Ukrainian cold remedy to drink raspberry or strawberry tea. It’s not herbal, it’s a few large spoonfuls of jam and hot water. It’s also very good. After tea, host-Sister and I put the icing on the cake. It’s a sponge cake, and we cut it in half, put a raspberry-sour cream-sugar mixture on both halves, thunked it back together, put more icing on top, followed by toasted walnuts. Host-sister and I watched Interview With The Vampire (her choice, she loves horror and supernatural), and had a tea break in the middle of the movie – a slice of cake and a cup of raspberry tea. After the movie, I spent some time online before going to bed.

This morning I slept in a bit. I got up, and made myself some coffee – I can now almost always light the match on the first strike. I then had a small bowl of the “icing” for breakfast – sour cream and raspberries make a very good yogurt-like mixture – with my coffee, before finished my homework. My TCF had given us a lot of homework on Friday, but most of it were reminders of what she wanted us to have done earlier in the week. I was mostly done when my host-sister got up.

She made Kasha for her breakfast and made some for me. I had it her favorite way – made with milk, with a few large spoonfuls of raspberry jam on top. It was quite good. After breakfast, we walked down to the market so I could buy groceries for lunch for the week. As we were leaving, the next-door neighbor was taking her younger sister for a walk, so they joined us. We walked through some clothes and shoe shops, as I had expressed an interest in what was available in Obukhiv. The answer is that I will likely have to go to Kyiv to get the shoes I’m looking for.

At the market, I spent just over what I’m allotted by the PC for lunches for the week (by 5g), but I did buy a bit more than I strictly needed (a few extra chocolate bars), and a small bag of cookies to have at tea, which were a bit hit. We all checked out and walked around the corner to a tiny, hole-in-the-wall bookshop, as host-sister wanted a gift for a friend. We wandered around the bookstore, which was awesome, and truly seemed to be bigger on the inside than it appeared outside. Host-sister found a book that she thought her friend would like, so she bought it, and we walked back to the apartment block.

Host-Mom was already home, and already cooking, when we got back. I was able to help her for the first time – I peeled potatoes. She was making soup and something that she called “Rago.” The neighbor, host-sister, and I had a late lunch together. The soup had a bit of curry seasoning, and the rago was eggplant and potatoes stewed in a slightly tomato-y sauce, with meat. We also had a slice of cake. While we were eating, host-Mom went to spend some time with her younger granddaughter.

After lunch, host-sister and the neighbor wrapped the book and chose a card. I went over my new vocab, and spent some more time online. Host-sister, the younger granddaughter and I had some tea together (raspberry for me), and walnuts. I asked where they got the walnuts – host-Mom roasted them in the oven – and learned that there is a walnut tree on the garden patch. They grow a lot of the produce we eat – the peppers, potatoes, grapes, plums, walnuts.

After a bit, I video-chatted with my parents (awesome!), and then had some (late) dinner. More rago, and the neighbor joined us for tea and cookies; I had more raspberry tea. It seems to sparkle as the sugar from the jam dissolves, which only makes it more fun to drink. Host-sister had to finish a powerpoint for homework, so she went to finish her homework, and the neighbor went home.

All-in-all, today was a very slow day, which I needed, as the week to come is going to be a long and stressful week. I get to teach my first lesson on Thursday.