There must be some systematic plan to invite me to every young English teachers' house/apartment, which means basically every english teachers' home (of the English teachers, 7 are in their 20's, 2 are in their 30's, 2 are in their 40+'s). There are 11 English teachers at my school, two are on maternity leave (two years long in Ukraine), and two are taking this semester off to finish their teaching certification. I have already had a holiday meal with the families of Natalia, Irena, Irena, Hanna, and tomorrow will visit another Natalia. These are on top of the holiday meals I attend with my host mom, or that occur at our house. I sort of think my host mom set it up, since she is the assistant principle, and basically their boss, although they have all denied it.
Parents make no effort to give their kids unique names. Patronymics also don't help, since their fathers' names are also very repetitive, so there are multiple Irena Bohdanivnas etc. So I have to learn their family name also. I can now generally match any given combination of three names with one face. I don't think they're trying to marry me off, which is what's happening to every female volunteer I know, because many of these young teachers already have a husband and a kid or two. It has been really interesting to get a wider survey of Ukrainian homes, food, family interactions and hospitality. The last ranges from generous to super-generous. Whatever the cause behind this hospitality, I thank it.
I will try to repay each visit with my own invitation, once my kitchen is set up. Maybe I'll test the recipes first, because all of my cooking attempts in Ukraine thus far have been lacking (I've only tried pumpkin pie and tortillas, and I'll keep my confidence intact by dismissing those failures to lack of practice and ingredients/recipe). Recipes are for wimps.
The visit tonight was particularly interesting because instead of trying to dismiss religious questions as quickly as possible by saying that yes, I believe in God and Jesus and the Bible (for the record, I'm not sure what I believe), I explained that I was raised Quaker. Irena also has never talked about religion in English, so it was an unknown area in both of our second language vocabularies. I think I got them to understand that Quakerism is centered around non-violence, equality and simplicity. I managed to say that there is no preacher, icons, baptism, crosses or much of anything material. The doctor in the room was particularly interested in how the Religious Society of Friends stays organized, if there is no Pope to tell people what to believe in. I explained as clearly as possible that this was one of the central ideas. Quakers don't think other people can communicate more clearly with god, or know better what each individual should think about abortion. Not only that, but quakers don't have to capitalize things (am I mixing religious semantics with grammar?), or take off their hats to the king, because equality is central, which is why George Fox had it rough in 16th century England. Come to think of it, Quakers don't stay very organized, and Friends General Conference is only once a year. Maybe individual meetings only operate along certain "guidelines", as Jack Sparrow would say.
There is a huge ideological split between evangelical quakers and ____?__quakers. My experience has been only with the latter type, which has left me open to the realization that proselytization/evangelism has ripped many cultures and social fabrics (is my life in danger now?). The urge to spread the "truth" about whatever religion claims to know the truth has provided many excuses for invasions, genocides… Of course my quaker upbringing has taught me to respect all religions, and realize the impossibility of impartial judgments. Do absolute judgments (killing is wrong), or the concept of universal human rights, exist? Alas, even these are not impartial, and are beliefs just like any other (unless world wide consensus is reached, which will require quite a bit more equality/equity). Evangelical groups have provided a huge amount of humanitarian aid to countries around the world, countries that may or may not be suffering because of an initial colonization. Of course colonization blends the lines between religion and economic exploitation, both objectives using the other as a tool.
How can I spout off so many words guilt free while knowing virtually nothing? My yearning for knowledge has not dampened, but my access to it has decreased substantially with no English libraries nearby. I also did not realize how many of the excellent online resources I had access to at Haverford are not free, and now I am without. If there's anybody reading this at Haverford, please send me interesting academic readings via email, pdf, word, whatever.
Current events in Velyki Mosty? Spent yesterday in L'viv, beautiful day, beautiful city. Met Garrard and Caitlin from my cluster and Shannon who is another volunteer serving very close to Caitlin. We saw so many churches, climbed a hill to survey the surroundings, and visited a giant graveyard whose 400,000 remains include Ivan Franko. Had a wonderful gyro, and a general wonderful time speaking English, slang, abreves, slurring words, and all the things we do that people who haven't spend time in America can't understand. They all start teaching on Tuesday, Jan. 15, but I don't start till the 21st. I learned that they will have a week off sometime in May which I don't have off. It's good that I don't start yet, because I don't even have my books yet, a semester unit plan, any lesson plans, or a time/room schedule.
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| From Winter #1 |
