Hi there 50 (or 51 or 52…),
You’ve basically been bombarded with information since you got your invitation, and maybe before. I’ve watched the facebook group fill with questions about medical clearance that have turned into questions about language and packing and shared joy/distress about how soon staging is. I don’t want to add to that emotional load but I did want to take a few minutes and write to you about my experience and a few words of not-quite-wisdom from someone who was there recently and lived to tell the tale.
Peace Corps is about making friends. Here’s a goofy picture of me with my new pal Ігор the stuffed boar.
Regarding packing: Don’t stress.
No, but really. It’s hard to think about fitting everything you need for two years into two suitcases and a carry on, but the reality is you don’t need to. You can buy the same toothpaste and shampoo and coffee presses and other such sundry here as you can in the US. Everyone says that they wish they’d brought less stuff because it’s true. You don’t need much. Bring things that make you happy or that you feel really strongly about, whether that’s your teddy bear, a favorite t-shirt, or your hippie shampoo (guilty).
That being said, the things I’m really glad I brought include: nice thermals and warm socks (I wore them until the end of May, but probably only because I’m a cold weather wimp), good quality pens, a bigggg bag of Starburst to share with host families, friends and for those days when I needed a little pick-me-up, card games, my Chacos, a 1 TB hard drive with some of my favorite movies and shows, taco seasoning and hot sauce. A RPCV from Ukraine told me she was glad she packed another whole set of underwear to bring out at the one year mark, so I did the same and think I’ll be thanking her for that bit of advice in a few months. I also brought three adapters (one of these, two of these that I already had), and that’s been more than enough for my computer, phone, and kindle.
Fashion in Ukraine is pretty similar to the US, just maybe a little more colorful, shorter, tighter, sheerer, sparklier, and with more surprising English sayings. Bring your Converse, Keds, or Nikes if you have them, but if you don’t you can buy knock-offs here for pretty cheap. Ignore that bit in the cultural reader about everyone wearing black… I see more bright colors here than I saw anywhere in the States except Hawaii. My work site is pretty casual, so the work clothes I brought don’t really “match”, but I do get to wear jeans, so it’s not all bad.
One other thing about the cultural reader: if you have visible tattoos, don’t worry. Tattoos are fairly popular younger generation, both male and female, and I haven’t heard any negative experiences from volunteers who have them.
I wish I’d spent less money before I came because there really aren’t that many things I bought that I couldn’t get here for the same/less money, and I could definitely survive without all of it. Your dollars go far here, but only if you have them. If you don’t have any money saved up, don’t worry about that either. You get plenty from Peace Corps for necessities and a little fun every month.
If you have a smart phone, get it unlocked and bring it with you. Babusyas have the old Nokia brick type phones, but most of the younger generation have smart phones, and it’ll make it easier to communicate with people in your community and with people back home if you have one.
Get a power of attorney before you leave because if you try to get one notarized here it’ll cost you almost as much money as you get for a month during PST, and will require a trip to the embassy. #personalexperience
Before getting here, I threw these on my keyboard, bought a digital copy of Learn to Read Ukrainian in Five Days, and did Ukrainian Duolingo every day on my commute. Having the alphabet mostly down definitely helped the first few days of language classes. Since I’ve been in country, I found that practicing typing at this site helps me feel productive when my brain can’t handle studying the language any more, but feel free to one-up me and know how to type in Ukrainian before you show up. You’ll amaze Ukrainians, who I’ve noticed generally use the pointer finger typing method.
Read the news. Things have been very interesting in Ukraine the past few years, and it’s helpful to have some idea of what’s going on. I follow EuroMaidan Press and Kyiv Post on facebook, which are both English language newspapers that do a pretty solid job helping me understand. If you have time, read Borderlands and watch Winter on Fire.
The PC Ukraine staff is amazing. They’re super organized and want you to be here and succeed and will provide you all the tools they have available to make that happen. They ask for feedback constantly because they want to make things better for you and for the groups that come after you. Don’t tell the other countries, but our staff may be the best in the world. 😉
Pre-Service Training is rough. I don’t remember hearing about it before I went, probably because by the time someone is well into their service or home from their service, their memories of the hard parts of PST have been replaced with happier ones. Adjusting to a new culture is challenging, and then you add in hours and hours of language, cultural, and technical training, and spending a lot of time working with a small group of people and all the group dynamics that come along with that and it only gets harder. Luckily, it’s only three months and then you get a whole new set of challenges!
This is all from me, and if you asked each of the hundred and twenty or so volunteers that are already in Ukraine, you would probably get a hundred and eighteen different opinions. Take all of them with a grain of salt and know that все буде добре, even if you forget 50% of what’s on your packing list, don’t know the difference between В and Б, and think you know how to dress yourself (your мамаor бабуся will disabuse you of that one pretty quickly).
Feel free to ask any questions here, via email, or on facebook and I’ll be happy to share my perspective on all the things I shouldn’t be writing about in a public setting.
To close, I want to say “Welcome!” You’re lucky to be coming to such a great country, and at a really pivotal time in its history. You can survive packing and saying good-bye and will make it here! You’ll survive PST! And if you’re really, really, really lucky, I know a school in the best city in the best oblast in Ukraine applied for a teacher from your group, and I hear your future site mate is pretty okay.
Good luck!
You Borscht Believe It 