I leave for Peace Corps Staging in roughly 22 days, so I believe it is high time for me to explain a little more about where I’m going and what I’m doing for all of you non-PCers out there (especially those of you who appear to be permanently bewildered about my decision to cast off from my native shores for 27 months in a heretofore un-visited land.)
“Do you know where you’re going yet?”
I do! I’ve been invited to serve as a volunteer with Peace Corps Ukraine.
Map of Ukraine via HRW World Atlas
“Oh! The Ukraine?”
“No, it’s just Ukraine. No article necessary.”
“Okay. Where is Ukraine? Somewhere by Russia, right?”
Right!
As you can see, Ukraine, or Україна, borders Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
According to Wikipedia:
Ukraine is the world’s 44th-largest country (after the Central African Republic, before Madagascar). It is the largest wholly-European country and the second largest country in Europe (after the European part of Russia, before metropolitan France).
“It’s near Russia? Aren’t you going to freeze to death? Siberia is totally cold, you know.”
Siberia is indeed a very cold place, however I’m moving to Ukraine, which fortunately is not Siberia. Ukraine’s climate is really not that scary.
Ukraine has a mostly temperate continental climate, although a more Mediterranean climate is found on the southern Crimean coast. Precipitation is disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west and north and lowest in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine, receives around 1,200 millimetres (47.2 in) of precipitation annually, while Crimea receives around 400 millimetres (15.7 in). Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland. Average annual temperatures range from 5.5 °C (41.9 °F)–7 °C (44.6 °F) in the north, to 11 °C (51.8 °F)–13 °C (55.4 °F) in the south.
I think I will manage to survive! But I appreciate the concern. 
“Whoa 27 months… that’s like more than two years. What on earth are you going to be DOING for 27 months?”
Well, I’ll tell you. I’ve been invited to serve as a Secondary Education Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Teacher Volunteer.
“What’s a TEFL Teacher Volunteer do?”
According to my Welcome Book:
Peace Corps TEFL project assists Ukrainian educational development efforts in several areas. In both secondary and higher education institutions besides their major assignment – teaching students – PCVs provide colleagues with English conversational practice, present formal workshops on communicative language teaching techniques, and work with students on extra-curricular activities in addition to their teaching duties. All Volunteers also acquire texts and resources for their schools by requesting donations from publishers, institutions, and individuals.
Peace Corps is the only organization in Ukraine, which provides trained teachers to schools outside of Kiev for an extended period of time.
At the moment more than 170 TEFL PCVs are working mainly in smaller towns and villages of Ukraine.
The Peace Corps seeks full time primary jobs for Volunteers. For teaching assignments this means each week that school is in session the Volunteer should teach 18 hours of classroom instruction inside the school’s core curriculum. For all potential Volunteer assignments, the organization requesting a Volunteer should define carefully the reasons for requesting a Volunteer, the tasks that the Volunteers will be asked to fulfill, and the accomplishments that will be expected of the Volunteer.
So that’s the where and the what. Hopefully that will answer some of the questions you’ve all asked in varying forms over the past two months (and will no doubt continue to!) Stay tuned for information about Ukraine’s history/politics/culture/language. And remember, it’s UKRAINE, not THE UKRAINE.
