Life During PST

Life During Pre-Service Training

Contrary to what I tell people, I am not actually a Peace Corps Volunteer. I will not be a Peace Corps Volunteer until December 17. This is two weeks away from me (I am writing on Wednesday, December 2). Training life, from what I hear is different from the life of a regular volunteer. It is busy, it is stressful, and the work seems to be almost endless. Luckily, at this point, I have taught my last lesson of Training, so I will have some semblance of enough time in the average day. The past two weeks I have gotten a full night's sleep only once or twice. The rest of the time has been sent lesson planning, preparing materials for lessons, studying Ukrainian, Ukrainian class, watching my clustermates teach, and doing a lot of work on a Community Involvement Project we have organized . . . a conference for English teachers about teaching English without textbooks, and providing some activites which may be effective for their classes.
Sunday is our only free day each week. However, even on this free "Reflection day" I usually have two or three hours of work to do. My patience, work-ethic and sanity have definitey been tested during the past month and a half. Personally, my situation has been compounded by the fact that I arrived three weeks after the rest of the class, so I constantly am behind and trying to catch up. Luckily, though, the members of my cluster have been very helpful and accomadating for me. I hope the other Turkmenistan rejects have been treated as well.
Overall I am happy and in good spirits. However, the past month and half, for me, has been a study in the polarity of human emotion. I have incredible days in which nothing goes wrong, and then I have days when I just can't bring myself to do work. It is interesting how light my bad feels on my 20 - 30 minute walk on the good days, to how heavy it feels on the same walk on the tough days. I am sure it is a common part of adjusting to a new culture and community to sometimes feel isolation. It can be difficult knowing that my friends and family are a continent and ocean away.
One of my salvations has been my good old American music. I have been listening to a lot of country music since I've been here, and all the bluegrass that I have. Ryan Bingham, and Sam Bush have been on an almost constant loop lately, and Eric Church and Dierks Bentley are frequently thrown in the mix. Pop music sounds like pop music anywhere, as does the rock/alternative . . . it is country music that brings me home, and reminds me of America. It has truly been a saving grace. I just love songs about open doors, trains and leaving, I always have. . . Perhaps that is what sent me so many miles from home.
In my limited free time I have been reading. The last book I read was The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux. It is the story of a train trip which started in London, and went southeast through Europe to Turkey and around Asia. I am now reading Ghost Train to the Eastern Star a book in which Theroux revisits his inital journey thirty three years later. They are fascinating books, and I have really enjoyed them. It is comforting to read the stories of someone else out of their comfort zone, and out of their comfort zone by choice. Interacting and observing the way people in the world live. It is also funny, that in describing travellers he has very nearly pin-pointed some of my characteristics, or perhaps character flaws is a better word. Particularly the vanity, and self-indulgence travel like mine allows. Even only a month and a half into my stay I am positive this has been much more real an experience than any study abroad program which bases itself in a big city at an open-minded university. I am in a small village in Ukraine (read the REAL UKRAINE). It is true, I think, that even many travellers do not truly see the places to which they travel. Staying in resorts, and in big cities gives us a sterialized, and commercialized version of the particular places we want to see. And, while this version is undoubtably enjoyable, it is not the truth . . . but, then again, tourism as a business is generally one big smoke-screen. An effort to make a good first impression. A city doing the same thing a person does when they meet someone new.
My apologies for the inconsistency in these posts, and in the inconsistencies of the topics I write about therein. Everything in a post is somewhat related, albeit perhaps very, very loosely. But, I refuse to proofread these, and will not edit what comes out to start with, that is a warning I gave at the beginning. Whammy. This is about all I know for now, and if you have the patience to read all of this, and all of these posts, then God bless you, because I sure as hell wouldn't . . . except while I was still waiting to leave, trying to learn what it was like.

All the Best, and as always Go Friars!

Pete