Swearing-In Retreat

This brings us to our Swearing-In Retreat in Kyiv. The retreat lasted from Monday the 14th until Thursday the 17th, when we were sworn in by the United States Ambassador to Ukraine, John F. Teftt.

The Swearing-In Retreat was full of meetings about everything imaginable. We were first given our regions where we will be living for the next two years. As I mentioned in my last post, my new home is Zhmerinka, a town of about 37,000 in central Ukraine. It is home to a very large train station, and has lines that go to Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, and Simferopol, the cities I most want to visit while I am here. I am only 4 hours from Kyiv. Lviv and Odessa are between 6 and 7 hours, and Simferopol is far, but it is nice that it is accessible from here. My region of Ukraine is called Region 3. It includes the oblasts (Ukrainian districts similar to states or provinces), Kyivska, Vinnistka, Khelmitska, and there may be one more, but I am not sure.
The retreat was a great place to catch up with some old friends, and make some new ones. I was able to reconnect with all the Turkmenistan rejects which was a nice thing. I was also able to make new friends, I hope I'm able to keep in touch with even though we've been placed around the country. I went to my first cafe in Ukraine. It was basically a party tent with windows and a door, a bar, and a space heater. It was enjoyable people watching as well. The only regrettable aspect was that we had to be back in our dorm, and on our floor by 11:00 PM or we would be locked out.

The second day of our retreat we met our new counterparts. Our counterpart is a Ukrainian partner that we work closely with. Mine is an English teacher at School # 3, here in Zhmerinka.
We were able to spend some time together as well. This was followed by more and more meetings, about what I can't remember at this time.
Wednesday our time was spent undergoing PEPFAR training. PEPFAR is the United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. Quite possibly President Bush's greatest achievement during his term of office (though my friend Sam said there wasn't much to compare it to). This was designed to educate volunteers about HIV/AIDS and teach us some strategies about how to work in lessons on this topic. HIV/AIDS is a big problem in Ukraine. Ukraine has the highest infection rate outside of Africa. It is going to be an important part of service to help bring this to light, and avoidance topics.

Thursday, however, was the big day. It was the day of our official Swearing-In Ceremony. The ceremony was only about an hour long. Unfortunately, it was at 12:00 PM. Thus, my host-family from Kaharlyk was unable to attend, which was a bit sad. It was however, a very enjoyable ceremony. It was done in both English and Ukrainian. And, to be honest, I am extremely impressed with the translator's skills. Some of the speakers made long, complex thoughts before pausing to allow her time to translate but she was very good. The culmination of this ceremony was being given the Volunteer Oath. This was directed by the Ambassador. In complete honesty, and not a bit of irony, it brought my close to tears; taking an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. The full text is as follows:
“I, Peter Michael Meegan, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge my duties in the Peace Corps of the United States of America, serving Ukraine to the best my abilities and demonstrating the respect and consideration due its people. So help me God.”

This was followed by a round of applause and hugs/handshakes from our counterparts. It is common practice in Ukraine that men only shake hands with men, and women do not shake hands, so there were more hugs than handshakes. An oath to the United States of America is a humbling experience for me. I have such faith in the ideal of America that it was hard not to get choked up in the process of swearing my support and defense.

The Swearing-In Ceremony was followed by a short reception. We had to load our buses by 4:00 PM, though, so I only stayed for a little bit, and then got ready to load the bus and say goodbye to friends. There was a large snow-storm that hit Ukraine the day of our ceremony. It was snowing very hard in Kyiv, as well. After loading the bus, and pulling away from our dorm around 4:30 PM, we ended up stuck in traffic for two and a half hours. A large bus full of volunteers missed all of their respective trains. This sent us back to the dorm for one more night.

We decided to celebrate by eating Chinese food from a restaurant across the street from where we were. It was funny to have so many Americans in one place, trying to speak broken Ukrainian/Russian. One of my friends, knew Mandarin, so he was trying to speak Mandarin, and then finally the waiter attempted English, it was funny, delicious, and also more expensive than we expected. About $5.00 – 7.00 USD which is rather high amount here. After dinner we ended up back at the dorm, and sat around talking, shooting the breeze, listening to music, and having a beer.

And that's all I have to say about that!

Pete