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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Swine Flu epidemic arrives in Ukraine...

At the bottom of this post is an email we received today regarding the recent declarations about H1N1 flu here in Ukraine. Most cases have been in the western part of the country. Yesterday, they declared that all schools in the country would be closed for the next 3 weeks. I didn't think the decision would actually affect KCA, being as we are an international school, but once it moved to the Kyiv city level, it affected KCA, Kyiv International School, and Pechersk School International.

We are taking this one step at a time...

I'm not frustrated like a teacher in the States would be -- "We have to cover all this content by the time of standardized tests!!!!" I'm not exactly looking for a week of not teaching, of not seeing my students regularly, of not being able to help them learn together, and show them examples. I am willing to have my high school classes over to my apartment, or to meet at school, or even to meet over Skype. I'm not sure how some of my 6th graders will do, but I hope that their parents will be able to teach them.

Right now I'm frustrated primarily because I'm not being FLEXIBLE. I'm willing to be flexible, but I didn't exactly expect this. What exactly am I going to do in the meantime? (Okay, never mind, I can think of plenty of things to do like pay bills, clean, cook, etc.) Most of this comes with how we are making up the days we miss -- ideas mentioned have been to take away days from extended vacations. However, I am flying back to the States for Christmas -- I'm willing to just add a week at the end of the school year, which seems easiest, since I haven't booked my return flight yet, but not many other people are. I know of a teacher that might possibly be in Kiev that could cover my classes, besides anyone else at the school.

All that I can do right now is to trust God, that this will work out according to his plan and will, and not according to my preferences. Gotta leave it all up to Him.

Please pray for....
*Those making the "big" decisions regarding the schools
*Those already affected by swine flu
*Patience and creativity in creating "plan b" or "plan c"....or even up to "plan z"
*Health of our students and teachers

Praise God for...
*Two KCA parents who are doctors who are giving the (regular) flu vaccine to KCA families
*Delicious juice that I can buy at the store (so yummy--especially the strawberry-apple)

*****************************************

Dear KCA Parents,

Because of the Ukrainian government decision to close all educational facilities for three weeks, KCA will be closed to students next week.

Teachers will come to work on Monday at 9 am in order to plan for the week. We would like to send students assignments via email or Sycamore as much as possible. On Monday teachers will organize their classes and then communicate with you regarding assignments which students will be asked to do at home. We are considering organizing high school classes to meet “off site” a few times next week.

If you need to collect textbooks or materials, KCA will be open and administrators will be on site in the mornings. Guards will be at the school at all times.

We will decide what we will do the following two weeks next weekend, as the situation unfolds.

We encourage you to communicate with teachers and administrators via Sycamore, email, or by phoning the school. If you need help using Sycamore, call Cathy on Monday morning.

We will be in touch with you on Monday. Let’s be thankful for this situation and trust that God has all this in His hand.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

A Day In the Life

To all my supporters and prayer partners,

Hello from Kiev, Ukraine!

First, I want to thank you for your continued prayers throughout my time here in Ukraine. I also enjoy hearing from you, whether it is a card in the mail, an email, or a simple Facebook message.

In this update, I thought I would give you a glimpse of what my day to day life looks like.

Each morning I wake up around 6 am and prepare to leave for school. After riding the bus for 20-25 minutes, I get there around 7:30am, which gives me plenty of time to do last minute preparations for my classes. My first class isn't until around 9:15am (2nd period), so I spend that time looking over notes and lesson plans, and making photocopies if necessary. Sometimes I consult other teachers on instructional ideas or ways to help particular students.

I teach 3 classes in a row, and they are all math classes. My students come from America, Korea, Holland, Canada, and Taiwan, and a number of them have been adopted from Ukraine or Russia. During second period, I teach all the 6th graders. This class has 14 students. After a short break, I teach geometry to 13 ninth and tenth grade students. This class is the most challenging for me, because I have never been very good at proofs and my lowest grade in high school math was in geometry; I also must make a lot of accommodations in this class for various kinds of learners. My last "real" class of the day is Algebra 2, during 4th period, just before lunch. This class has 12 students, mostly 11th graders, but there are some sophomores and seniors.

Teaching a lesson to Algebra 2

My lunches typically are leftovers (yum!), sandwiches, or hot Ukrainian meals prepared by a woman named Zoya.

During 5th and 6th periods, I generally plan for the next day(s), create overhead transparencies, grade homework, or make photocopies. The past two weeks I have begun Russian language lessons during 5th period on Wednesdays with another teacher. During 7th period, I supervise some high school students during their study hall, and often end up answering math questions.

When the students are dismissed, I continue working on more grading and preparation (the work never seems to be finished!) until I am ready to go back to my apartment. Once there, I prepare dinner, do a little more schoolwork, watch TV episodes online, and/or clean and do laundry.

My weekends generally consist of attending KCA soccer games, relaxing at home, visiting friends, going to church, and catching up on school work. This weekend I was at Evie's for a sleepover with most of the 9th grade girls--our lunchtime discipleship group. I enjoyed hanging out with them, seeing them outside of school, and watching Pride and Prejudice with them.


Most of the middle/high school students at Fall Retreat

If you would like to see photos of some of my students, my surroundings, and the school, feel free to visit my Facebook page, including the photo links that are on the right of this blog page.

Prayer Requests
*That I would continue to learn to "Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always." (Psalm 105)
*Upcoming medical relief/evangelism trip to the Philippines--the team consists of 12 from Ukraine (missionaries, Ukrainians, and doctors), along with a group from Susanville, CA
*Provision of the last bit of my funds--the most recent total is $8,647.29.

Praises
*Safe return to Ukraine for missionaries Cliff and Heike
*A wonderful sleepover at the Keatings with most of the 9th grade girls
*A working kolonka (hot water heater that also heats our apartment)!

Thank you again for all your support!

In Christ,
Jessica

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Destructive Streak

Just for amusement, I thought I would list the things that have been broken during my time in Ukraine. Some of them are not wholly my fault, if at all.

I really am not *trying* to break things, but this just keeps happening.

Summer 2008
*Fried my battery charger from the States
*Broke my sunglasses while they were in my purse
*"Broke" Bob's van--we ran over something that was in the road. He claimed it was my fault because earlier in the day, I told the story of when I ran over something that was in the road in NY, and damaged my car, just a few months prior.
*The ceiling tile above the fridge at Dana's (now my) apartment fell thanks to a leak from upstairs (not our fault!)
*Outhouse door hinges at Gorodkivka--the morning of the last day we were there, two girls were out there, and broke one hinge. Later in the day, the other one broke. Neither time was I in the outhouse, though Cliff claims it was partially my fault, by virtue of being there and using it that week!

Fall 2009
*Washing machine stopped working--a repairman came to fix it and clean out the filter
*Somehow managed to break my battery charger between my apartment and Fall Retreat
*Kolonka (hot water heater) has stopped working every so often within these past 2 weeks
*Watch band broke yesterday

Sigh. As Pastor Vova said, I just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lisa said it's about time for things in this apartment to start falling apart, since Dana lived here for 2 years and before that, there were other people living here.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Ukraine District news

Recent news article from Nazarene Communications Network....

(Vinnitsa, Ukraine, about 2 hours from Kyiv)

October 7, 2009

Scripture and Language

Scripture:
Every Sunday at church, Pastor Vova has people read various passages of Scripture. These are generally an Old Testament passage, a Gospel reading, a New Testament reading, and another passage in the Old Testament (like Psalms or other poetry-type books). He will announce the location of the passage first in Russian, then in English, so a few of us English-speakers can follow along. Last Sunday we read Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Psalm 22:1-15; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31.

In the Russian Bible, I hear that the organization of the books is very different (at least in the New Testament), and in the Old Testament, they've named 1 and 2 Chronicles (I think) as 3 and 4 Kings instead.

If you are ever interested in following the same Scripture passages as I am hearing/reading each week, visit this webpage: http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/.
Currently we are in the Season after Pentecost, and last Sunday was "Proper 23". This webpage lists the corresponding calendar dates, so that you can find the readings more easily.

Language:
They say that learning your third language is easier than learning your second. I sure hope that's the case with Russian!

Today I had my first formal Russian lesson with Masha, one of the teachers at KCA. The other day, she reviewed some basic vocabulary with me to see what I already knew.

Masha started first with the alphabet--always a good place to begin, right? :) She showed me a few of the letters in cursive, and what sets similar-looking ones apart from each other, so it doesn't look like a bunch of arcs. According to her, people write in cursive because it takes too long to write in print. I suppose I can see that, but I'm not looking forward to this practice. But, here goes!

Next Masha showed me the difference between word endings for masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural nouns. Conveniently enough, feminine words end in А or Я (ya), which is similar enough to Spanish for me to remember. That's about all that can help me there. It's pure memorization right now.

We then focused on the basic conjugation of verbs, primarily in "first conjugation"--these are verbs that end in -ять or -атъ. She quizzed me on the various endings for each pronoun (I, you familiar, he/she/it, we, you formal, they). "Second conjugation" verbs end in -еть, -ить, or -ютъ. They follow a different pattern for each pronoun, just as -ar verbs in Spanish have different endings than -er or -ir verbs.

There was a list of commonly-used regular verbs in first conjugation, and Masha had me read the verbs, and then see if I knew what they meant. I could read/sound out most of them, but about half of them, I had no idea what they were. (Such is my Russian understanding as I walk down the streets--I sound out words but I have no comprehension. That will change...

Russian homework:
*Practice writing letters in cursive
*Write personal pronouns for each verb conjugation
*Memorize verbs and meanings and conjugate them for various pronouns
*Practice a little each day

Scripture and Language:
I'm sure you've noticed before that in English, the Psalms don't exactly rhyme--primarily because they were translated from Hebrew to English, but also because they may have been written without a rhyming scheme.
On Sunday, when someone was reading from Psalms, it sounded to me like they had more of a rhythm and a rhyme. Turns out that this is because of the noun cases in Russian. Noun cases in Russian are the same type as those in Greek, as I understand it. The endings of nouns change based on whether an action is done FOR that object, FROM that object, etc. There are 6 noun cases: nominative, dative, accusative, genitive, and 2 more that I can't remember at the moment--currently I could not tell you what the difference is between those cases.

Psalm 22:1-15 in Russian--For a few of these lines, you can (if you have any skills of sounding out the Russian language) see where a few lines rhyme. Otherwise, if you can't read it, you are getting a taste of what it is like to look at signs and merchandise that you don't fully understand!

Hebrews 4:15-16
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

sounds of the city. (part 1)

Written as I sit on my apartment balcony with the window open...

Instrumental music coming from somewhere across the courtyard, or maybe from someone's car.
Birds cawing to each other in the treetops.
Mothers playing with their children.
Children crying or talking.
Cars driving past.
Techno music booming from cars.
Neighbors talking to each other as they walk
The swooshing and crunching of fall leaves.
A siren in the distance.


Thursday, October 8, 2009

Today...

Today I....

~saw Lisa wearing an ENC summer min t-shirt that I had left in Dana's apartment (aka mine now) in July 2008.

~went to the produkti that is right across from our neighborhood (I'd never actually been there before) and bought a kilo of flour (an hour ago, I didn't know the word for flour. But thanks to the KCA cookbook, I was able to recognize the Ukrainian word when I got to the store).

~mixed up some zucchini bread and popped it in the oven! We'll see how it tastes...

~finished off the last of the "Southwest Casserole" I made on Monday. It's been nice just pulling dinner out of the fridge and microwaving it...yum. This casserole consisted (I'm using past tense now that I just cleared my plate) of phyllo dough, rice, sour cream (too much, though), kidney beans, cheese, corn, and "salsa." Next time I make it, I'm going to minimize the sour cream and add some peppers/onions.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

A long overdue update...

Hi everyone,

This afternoon I just returned from KCA's annual Fall Retreat, held in the village of Vorzel, just outside of Kyiv. The entire student body (middle and high school students) looks forward to this time of strengthening friendships, enjoying a bonfire, times of worship, and traditions like singing "The Happy Song" on Saturday night.

I enjoyed helping with some games (like Ninja tag!), interacting with the students outside of the classroom, seeing them interact with their friends, spending time with the other teachers, and even seeing the oldest students interacting with the youngest students. Many of the seniors had leadership roles, primarily for the group games and discussion groups.

The theme for the weekend was "Growing in Grace," and Mr. McDonnel (father of one of my students) described grace as God's active, loving, presence. The students were also definitely showing God's grace to each other in their group activities and other interactions. Three of our students were not able to come, and we hope and pray that they will not feel drastically "out of the loop" when it comes to the memories/bonds made this weekend.


Culture snapshots....
*When you buy groceries at the store, the clerk will ask you if you want any bags--if you do, you have to pay a few kopecks for them. My roommate and I try to remember our own bags or simply cram what we buy into our school bags.
*Since I don't have a car here, I take public transport or travel пешком (peshkom--by foot) to get anywhere I need to go. After a 15 minute walk, I can be at the metro/bus station, where I can catch a bus that will drop me off at the front of KCA. It's quite convenient, but not so fun in the rain or when you are carrying a heavy bag.

Prayer Requests:
*My students with their diverse learning, emotional, and spiritual needs. Many of them have parents traveling at any given moment (whether to/from the States or within Eastern Europe), and some who have been adopted have additional emotional needs
*Traveling safety for others within the Nazarene team--the Skinners and Robyn A. are currently in the States, and Josh A. is in Kosovo.
*Finances--Already God has provided (through you) about 70% of my needed support for the year. Please pray that God would continue to provide. If you would like to contribute online, please visit web.nazarene.org/goto/ukrainejh.

Praise God for:
*No major injuries this weekend at Fall Retreat
*Students' mingling with each other and drawing closer as a community

In Christ,
Jessica

Next update: "A Day in the Life"