From Bama to the Borderland: Here lately

Hey guys! I know it's been awhile, since my last update, but it's been incredibly busy over here in Ukraine. I start my last week of training this week! This means that I've been here for over 2 months. Weird, huh?

Anyways, here is a quick re-cap of what I've been up to:

-On Wednesday and Thursday we had our summer camp at the school. Each day had a schedule that included lessons such as American culture and environment. We had also planned to play a bunch of sports with the students. Well if I've learned one thing in Ukraine so far it's that nothing ever goes as planned. Last Monday we were informed that instead of having the students from 9 a.m to 1p.m. on those days, we were only going to have them for a little while. This was because the teachers had decided to take the students to the movies on Wednesday and to the river on Thursday. Needless to say, my group and I were definitely a little frustrated since we had put so much time and effort into planning our summer camp. However, another thing I've learned since being here is that you have to go with the flow. So, as frustrating as it was, it all ending up working out and the time we spent with them was amazing! We taught them to play kickball and I so wish that I had pictures to document that experience. I also taught them some super cool dance moves such as the running man and the sprinkler. Those got a lot of giggles. They ended up loving the game once it was explained to them! So even though everything got changed at the last minute, it still ended up being a successful and fun summer camp!

-On Friday we had our community project which was a Carnival. It was a huge hit! We had several games such as sack races and a scavenger hunt. We also had a kissing booth and face painting. The kissing booth was a hit since so many of the girl students are pretty in love with my American guy group members. I, luckily, did not have to take a turn because the boy's were doing such a great job. We also had a raffle and a pie-in-the-face contest in which the volunteer who received the most money in his or her jar got pied in the face. Again, I lucked up and didn't get pied. My group member Zach was the lucky winner on that one! We ended up raising 535 hryvnia! That, plus the proceeds from the bake sale we had a couple of weeks ago, (650 hyrivnia) means that we raised 1185 for the school to purchase a new laptop! I gotta say that we are all pretty proud of ourselves and also so happy that we were able to help the school discover new ways of fundraising. I am pretty pleased with the results of all of our hard work :)

So, tomorrow starts my last week of training which means my last week of being in Radyanska Sloboda. In just 2 and half months, this place has become my home away from home. My host family has been so great. They are such a loving and fun family! I definitely lucked up getting to live with them for the past two months. I have also completely fallen in love with the school. It's a small school, but the students are all so great. They are so brilliant and so interested in learning. It was such a pleasure to teach them and I can only hope that where ever I end up will have students just as great. I am really sad to leave, but I'm so excited to find out where I"m going to be living and working for the next two years!

So, I will be leaving for Kiev next Monday. On Monday night I along with the rest of group 41 will FINALLY be told where we are all going. We will have conferences and events for a few days, and then on the 16th we have our swearing in ceremony. It's going to be extra fancy this year, because it's the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps this years. I'm pretty excited about it! I'm definitely nervous, but I feel like my experience thus far has been so great and I only hope it will continue to be that way.