Lost in Translation

We went for an amazing run on our only day off of the week, Sunday. Tammela, Andrew and I met up at the bus stop to explore the little village of Kolychivka and boy, were we in for a surprise. Deep into the small road off the highway there was nothing but green vegetation and the smell of clean air. I absolutely fell in love with the tranquility of the place and have decided to make this run a two or three times a week thing (before it starts getting too cold). It’s amazing to see God’s beauty in not material things, but in nature. Kind of reminded me of Guatemala and seeing its natural beauty for the first time.



I know I haven’t been in Ukraine for long, but I’m finding it extremely hard to pick up the language (also having smart people in my cluster doesn’t help as they make me feel incompetent in my language skills). No matter how frustrated I feel though, I must keep going forward. So in the mean time, I’m having fun with the idea of charades and mime games as a form of communication.



Who knew a lot could be said without using words. So is the case between me and my host mama. The only time I get to see Valentina and spend time with her is at the dining table (what a surprise) and our conversations are enthusiastic. Somehow I’ve managed to tell her about my family back home in “Ameriki” and my fascination for cats (since she has one in the house). She tells me she has 2 sons, Vetelik, 27 and Sasha, 32 whom I met on Sunday afternoon. Both were very nice but did not speak a word of English, therefore forcing me to play the mime game with them. It was interesting to experience the younger son cook for us, but this was only because Valentina was not home and it was lunch time. I have no idea what I ate, but it was good.

Speaking of food…

Being a picky eater since birth has not helped me much in life, especially now. Peace Corps recommend their volunteers to be open minded in almost every aspect during service. Food etiquette applies to this and has now become my biggest enemy since lately I’ve been challenged to eat food I have never seen before.

Today (Sept. 30) after my cluster and I met up at my house to bake cookies for the 1st time (which came out delicious considering the fact that some ingredients were improvised), Andy and I experienced something unordinary. My mama served us (and herself) milk but it had a funky texture to it. I paid no attention to it since I figured it was the milk squeezed right out of the cow (which I have tasted already and it’s delicious) only when we tasted it, it was kind of SOUR. Apparently drinking sour milk is not considered an un-healthy thing or gross, or at least not in this family, but it was the most awkward thing in my mouth. Andy threw it out when she wasn’t looking… I took as many sips as I could before she realized that Americans don’t drink sour milk. I suppose I didn’t mind so much since I’ve accidentally done it a few times (once intentionally because I was craving cereal and there was no milk besides the expired one), but I wouldn’t do it on a daily basis.

Unfortunately this wasn’t the 1st time I encountered something unpleasant. When eating breakfast one morning, my mama had various foods at the table from which to pick. There was salami, Russian cheese, bread, oatmeal, and some other kind of cheese. I saw her grab a piece of bread and sliced a huge piece of the “kind of cheese” called Maslow, she served me a slice as well. When I went to bite into it, I realized this wasn’t another kind of cheese called Maslow; Maslow is the Ukrainian name for butter. I had a mouth full of butter with a piece of bread. I hid the face of disgust as I chewed into this butter sandwich and watched her happily add more butter to her bread. Not a spread, nor a sliver but a huge slice of it… no wonder I thought it was cheese.

I wonder what other unpleasant surprises I’ll encounter, but for now… you can never go wrong with chocolate.