Oh Sunshine.

Hello to all!

Greetings from Kivertsi, Ukraine! I hope this post finds you all happy and healthy. The snow is coming down now, just when I thought it was over. This week we had a day of wonderful sunshine that just made my heart all warm inside. But Ukraine is Ukraine so the snow had to make another appearance. Now we have at least a foot of snow. I enjoy it though, being from southern Oregon and all, I don't get to see much snow on a daily basis so I am learning to appreciate it's beauty more and more. It's nice to look outside and see the snow falling as I sit all warm inside my house. It's relaxing.

This week I taught my first lessons solo. I taught  a couple 9th forms, a couple 11th forms, a couple 7th forms, a 5th form and a 6th form. I absolutely loved it. The students are so eager to learn english and I try my best to make it as enjoyable as possible. I feel the students picking up on that aspect and they, in turn, are equally as excited as I am. I had my 5th formers drawing up their own jack-o-lanterns. It was wonderful to see their creativity and to see how much fun they had while doing the activity. I am discovering that I enjoy the younger forms quite a bit, I can't help but smile when they greet me so warmly. They are so curious and have an infinite amount of questions for me everyday about my life, family, friends and the United States. I encourage them all to visit America one day and the more I am there, the more eager they are to visit one day. I love seeing that kind of enthusiasm especially in the younger students.

I ate Holy Supper with my host family and it was delicious. Earlier that day, my host family took a large jug of water to the church to be bless. After Holy Supper and the entire next day, we could only drink from the Holy Water jug. It was the best tasting water I had ever had in Ukraine. I felt privledged to be taking part in such a sacred holiday. I will always be grateful to them for inviting me and considering me to be apart of their family.

On Saturday, I ventured to Lutsk to meet up with other volunteers to participate in a Collaborative meeting. Twenty volunteers, including myself, met for about 2 hours and discussed grant writing opportunities, community project ideas and other options available for us to conduct in our communities. I found it to be extremely helpful and encouraging. I got some great ideas about different projects I can do in my community. I want to get some new books for the 11th form and I was informed about a grant I can write to do just that. I am very excited and anxious to get going on some amazing projects. I have some good ideas brewing.

I hope the States are wonderful and I miss you all dearly!

Much love.