Fall Festival in Ukraine (Nov. 11)

I know I didn’t do a good job at explaining exactly what it is I’d be doing during the 3 months of training, mainly because I didn’t know so myself. Now I can tell you what my weekday has been like for the past month and a half. The schedule has been consistent with 4 hours of language lesson, teaching and observing lessons at school, penciling in language tutoring/lesson planning/homework, and sometimes special visits from the office; all of which times vary and some days are longer than others. But on top of trying to master the language and succeed in teaching multiple classes, as a cluster we are to work on a community project.

Just like how each community is different in its population and amenities, the same goes for its needs. Therefore, each cluster is to observe and ask questions to community members about the necessities in the area and plan out a project that will help them obtain (or facilitate) that necessity. We thought it logical to ask the teachers in the school we work at if there was anything they were lacking as far as textbooks, chalkboards, and other materials. Of course, the school is lacking English/Ukrainian dictionaries for the “English department” (there is no English department but I’ll just call it that) and 10th grade textbooks.

With weeks to brainstorm a way to raise money for the dictionaries and reading materials, we thought it would be nice to bring a little bit of America to Ukraine. Halloween just passed and Thanksgiving is just weeks away, so we came up with “Fall Festival” in which we introduced the children to both holidays.

I had my doubts at first because I didn’t think anyone would want to pay to come attend our “lame” festival. I know, I shouldn’t have been thinking pessimistic about it but when I think of a festival, I think of multiple game stations, food, sumo costumes (my favorite), and much more. Here, not only were we limited with supplies but also with people to work each station. To add to my worries, only 1 out of the 4 stores we wrote letters to asking to donate candy were nice enough to contribute to the festival.

Game Day
The Fall Festival was such a success. Even with 15 minutes left to finish setting up last minute touches to the auditorium, children were starting to come in. We had Katarina kindly ask them to step outside for the remaining time, and they waited anxiously. As soon as the doors opened, there was no line formed because they all barged in at once. “один Гревен”, Andy charged one by one. We instructed them to take a seat as soon as they entered and we waited until the last person arrived.

Standing from the stage, I took pictures of our audience. Andrew presented a brief summary of our American fall holidays, followed by each of us reading a sentence in Ukrainian to translate. They all clapped and quickly made their way to our stations to start the fun.

The business accounting man Andy worked the door and also sold raffle tickets that he made himself. Tammela worked the “I’m thankful for” booth where she explained how on Thanksgiving we say at least one thing we are thankful for. Students made turkeys out of their hands and wrote what they were thankful for (in English). Andrew worked the Trick or Treat booth, pretty much handing out candy to kids. Kate was in charge of musical chairs, which was the busiest station throughout the event. And I worked the Arts & Crafts booth where kids would trace ghosts and pumpkins and color them in however they wanted. I underestimated the amount of paper I had to cut, so within 20 minutes of our festival, I found myself cutting more paper. It was nice interacting with my 7th and 8th grade students outside of class. The only weird thing was this time they were allowed to speak Ukrainian and I was the one who was struggling to speak (funny how they roles change).

There must have been between 40-50 people in that room, some playing games and others posing for pictures with the best dressed student. At one point, I had one of the 6th graders dressed as a zombie ask me if she could take a picture with me. It was sweet considering the fact I wasn’t even dressed up yet she wanted to take a picture with me. Boy do we love the 6th grade and it’s misfortunate that we aren’t allowed to teach them because the school says they’re preparing for their national exams.

I must say that besides this event turning out to be better than expected, one of my highlights was having my host sister-in-law and nephew come support. My 3 year old nephew is too young to attend school, yet he’s a very social Russian speaking kid. He’s over at my house almost every day of the week as if he doesn’t live in Chernihiv (that’s where he and his parents live). Marina, my sister-in-law, is my only true Ukrainian friend whom I hang out with at home. She’s only 4 years older than me so she understands me a bit better than mama Valentina (as far as interests go). So for them to come out and meet my cluster mates, LCF and TCF, it meant a lot. The feeling would be even greater if my real family were here to see me emerged in this culture/community… but that day isn’t too far ahead.