Volunteer-like happenings

On the last Thursday and Friday of April, I went to Vinnytsia to volunteer at the Special Olympics, which basically entailed us setting up plastic darts, bowling (the pins kept blowing away), and mini-basketball as entertainment for the kids who weren’t playing, and then sitting around in the sun eating the McDonalds hamburgers and pies the event coordinator kept bringing to us (Micky-Ds was a sponsor). Not ideal—we would have liked to be more useful and less ornamental—but as a volunteer you learn you can’t change everything right away, so we’re hoping for better things next year. The most disheartening part was that kids who lived in orphanages or had learning/mental disabilities could play too, so the teams were mostly filled by able-bodied kids, who shouldn’t really have been playing in Special Olympics, and the kids with more limited abilities sat on the sidelines. Unfortunately competition took over the spirit of the games, and I heard one kid who got a ribbon for 5th place shout in frustration, “This isn’t worth celebrating.” On Thursday my marshrutka home broke down, and we sat for half an hour waiting for a different one to take us back to Kozyatyn, while I chatted with an English teacher from School #3 who I had met in December at the Olympiad, but hadn’t seen since (she had gone to Vinnytsia to Mike and Matt’s English club, so she got a lot of practice that day!)

On Friday Megan came with me to site after the SA and before GAD the next morning in Kiev, so we ate peanut butter and chocolate frosting and watched/exchanged movies. We watched another movie on her laptop on the morning train ride to Kiev, fascinating all the people around us, especially a little girl who kept peeking around the corner but not saying anything. GAD was epically long but inspiring and productive as usual. I worked on the GADFly newspaper and helped figure out Camp G.L.O.W. logistics. Afterwards a bunch of us went to a Middle Eastern restaurant for dinner, and I reveled in the wonders of chickpeas. I took the train home that night, making for an exhausting weekend of travel where nonetheless every night was spent at home.

The first Thursday in May, my friends Andriy and Pasha came to my school to give their HIV/AIDS lectures to the 9th-11th forms, and I sat in on a few to observe. Both are very charismatic speakers, but I objected to a few of the stereotypes that got a good laugh from students and teachers alike, about boys wanting girls who haven’t slept around (the metaphors used were the ideal fairy tale princess and a pair of old shoes, plus a jab at homosexuality by referencing the absurdity of a prince wanting to marry another prince). The teachers were in a meeting during the big break, but Natasha had locked the English classroom so I couldn’t get in to give the 8th formers the exam I had written, and the meeting continued for almost the entire lesson, so I was stuck in the hall with the kiddies, improvising. Then, unexpectedly, three boys from School #1 showed up for my English club, so I rearranged things there as well.

Thursday the 13th we held an all-day HIV/AIDS training for 15 school psychologists and health teachers, facilitated by a PEPFAR trainer I invited from Kiev. Open Heart, the local NGO Kamilia and I work with, provided lunch and technical support, and Kamilia organized the whole thing. In the morning I had my doubts: we had a last minute room change, things people promised would be done weren’t done, many people couldn’t come because of poor timing (at the end of the year, when everyone has to prepare for exams)…but somehow it all came together, and the participants even delayed going to lunch because they were asking us questions about how we could work together, and discussing specific points from the lecture! Yay enthusiasm!

After the Botanical Gardens, I got off the train, went to bed, woke up, and got back on the train the next day to the town of Bar. To get there I had to catch a bus from Vinnytsia, and I’m not used to buying tickets in advance for buses, so I just sat down until someone informed me I was in her seat. Luckily there were two seats near the driver for stand-bys, and I almost bounced out of mine a couple of times as we careened over epic bumps and potholes. The volunteer in Bar had organized a baseball weekend for her students. She worked in a lesson on HIV, which we then jokingly tied to baseball metaphors for our own amusement. Ten volunteers showed up to help, and we taught the kids how to throw, catch, and bat, plus what the heck you’re supposed to do when you put all those things together and make a game. We were supposed to give a demonstration in front of the mayor, so we lugged all the equipment rented from Peace Corps (who knew the office had batting helmets?) through the streets of town, wearing most of it to lighten the giant babuysia bags the stuff came in. Abbey and Grace made stir-fry for dinner in Abbey’s awesome host family house, and then we played Catch-Phrase all night. Oh how I’ve missed being a dork with other dorky Americans! I hadn’t planned to spend the night (in fact I thought it was a one-day event), but there was an extra bed and I borrowed a contact case and solution, so I figured Chomoo nee? The answer might have been furnished by my fellow marshrutka-riders on the way home the next day, after wearing the same clothes for 48 hours straight, including overnight and several hours of baseball in the rain on Sunday.

What do YOU think the role of a TEFL volunteer should be in her local community and host country?