Last Bell and School-Leavers (end of May/beginning of June)

On the last Saturday in May, I went to the citywide graduation ceremony on the square, and it poured right before the start. The girls wore evening gowns, doves were released into the sky, Patricia Kaas blared from the loudspeakers, ceremonial bread was gifted—due pomp and circumstance were observed. I stood with Sasha, whose niece was graduating, and marveled at how American his friend looked: a casual t-shirt over an ample belly, flip-flops, neatly buzzed hair and a baseball cap. Afterwards, I went to the concert for School #5, which consisted of everything I have come to expect in a Ukrainian concert: song, dance, flowers, skits, and speeches, with the whole shebang lasting several hours.

The first week after classes ended I went to school until noon each day, like the other teachers. I prepared for camp, and typed up test questions for the 9th form exam. Kamilia let me do laundry at her place. I also tried on jeans in the back of an unmarked van at the bazaar. Huzzah for impromptu and slightly inappropriate changing rooms! Stalker boy (the one who tricked me into the interview-date) struck 5 times in the night, with consecutive calls and mysterious texts: “Ketlin! Your very buatiful nise and big head GIRL.” I do not appreciate multiple calls at 3 am, and if I ever run into this kid again, I will tell him so. I’ve made friends with the water lady at the bazaar, who likes to chat when I come to fill up my 6 liter bottles. On the way to work I saw frogs plop into the pond, taking me back to the days when my brothers and I would catch them with butterfly nets in the ponds we named Mike and Ike. In the middle of yoga I got fed up and took a pair of craft scissors to my bangs—they survived the assault. My carpets took a worse beating, when I decided finally to drag them out on the balcony and take a stick (which was actually the hose of my non-functioning vacuum cleaner—how’s that for irony?) to them. Beating carpets is hard work! I’m also pretty sure I broke all the laws of carpet-beating etiquette, by raining dust down on my neighbors from the 3rd floor.

The second week of June I had my own English Camp at site, with a solid crew of about 20 kids, mostly 7th formers. A PCV friend stayed for the week to help me, and Kamilia was able to come for a few days also. I stole the format and content from other volunteers, who adapted it from the old volunteer at my site, so it’s a tried-and-true formula! We played games and solved riddles and had contests in English, and on the last day we had a picnic feast and played their favorite games. They gave me an entire smoked fish as a thank you present and begged me to do an extra week next year, so I’ll count that as a success!