Hi guys.
So, uh. Yes. I am alive.
It’s been a hot second!
To be honest, Peace Corps Pre-Service Training was very, very draining and time-consuming in a way my four-jobs-and-an-80-hour-work-week self wasn’t expecting.
So, I kind of dropped off the face of the earth over here.
The general exhaustion — coupled with writer’s block, poor WiFi and a slew of work/life responsibilities here — kind of got to me.
But, we’re here now!
So, where did I last leave off?
Mmmmm, Pre-Service Training. Oh yes.
If you’re not familiar with Peace Corps Pre-Service Training, lemme give you the 411.
Basically, prior to ACTUALLY serving, every volunteer goes through what is called “Pre-Service Training.” PST begins at Staging, which is when all the volunteers consolidate in one U.S. city (ours was Los Angeles) for one day to conduct icebreakers and learn logistics before we all fly out together.
At Staging, volunteers sign paperwork. Once you sign that paperwork, you’re considered a “Peace Corps Trainee.”
It isn’t until you complete your training and swear in that you’re technically considered a “Peace Corps Volunteer.”
(We’re all pretty casual though. It’s not like we referred to each other as “trainees” before swear-in or anything. It is what it is.)
So, “Peace Corps Service” is the actual two years of volunteer work that you will do at your site — which is the Peace Corps-assigned location you’ll be living and working in for two years.
Before that service starts, you have two-to-three months of Pre-Service Training — known as “PST” for short.
I’ll eventually publish a guide to all the dang acronyms we use over here.
PST was surprisingly busy! Volunteers first attend what’s called “Arrival Retreat” outside of Kyiv. At arrival retreat, we adjust to the time difference, and learn alllll about Peace Corps policies and procedures. We learned about everything from travel policies, to how to use our foreign debit cards, to how to reload our lifecell SIM cards, to how to obtain drinkable water, to how to avoid insulting our host families, etc.
Then, we were taken to our training cities. I was placed in Zhytomyr. We were given a “cluster” and a “link,” we were sent to live with a host family, and we were given a school for our practicum teaching assignment. I talked a little bit about it here!
At PST, we learned everything from language, to cultural norms, to how to buy food at the bazaar and use the public transit here, to how to teach English as a second language. (Most of us know this, of course, going into the program. But some of us don’t, and it’s a formality.)
Our PST was a little less than two months. The days were so long, but the training period itself absolutely flew by.
Here’s what a typical week looked like during PST.
We usually had “class” from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Every week — and by the end of PST — we had a certain number of hours we had to hit for everything. X hours of Ukrainian language classes, X hours of language revision, X hours of technical training, X hours of intercultural training, X hours of self-directed learning, X hours of field trips, X hours of hub sessions, X hours of one-on-one tutoring, X hours of practicum work at the school… etc.
Ukrainian language/ revision is pretty explanatory, as is technical training, tutoring, self-directed learning (basically a training-long homework project) and intercultural training.
HUB sessions were once-weekly seminars with ALL the TEFL volunteers, where we would learn about everything from medical safety to sexual assault prevention to Peace Corps policies to teaching strategies to… whatever.
And field trips were a good excuse to learn how to live in Ukraine. We took the most basic field trips ever. One week we took a field trip to the train station and learned how to read the schedules. One week we took a field trip to the bazaar and learned how to interact with vendors and purchase products using Ukrainian language and the metric system.
…we actually bought the products and then used them to make borscht, vareneky and kompot for lunch that week.
At the end of every week, we would sit down with our LCF and plan out our next week.
It went on and on and on until it was over.
Of course, outside of “class,” we were busy studying the language, exploring the city, spending time with our host families, keeping in touch with friends and family back home, and making connections with other volunteers.
Just a reminder that I was BLESSED. I absolutely adored my host family: Olya, Sasha, Masha and Roma. They were incredible and I have every intention of staying in touch with them for the rest of my life.
When I wasn’t in class, I was usually with my host family. The were SO good to me. They took me around their city to explore. We went to the city’s carnival, celebrated Independence Day around the city, went jet-skiing at a nearby lake for a day, went out for dinners, went out for drinks, spent nights at home watching movies, cooked dinners together, ugh. They invited their friends to spend time with me. They were just phenomenal.
Here are some highlights. Prepare for a photo overload!
When I wasn’t spending time with my host family, I was doing my best to get to know the other volunteers a little bit better.
I spent a LOT of time with my clustermates, James and Ryan, my LCF Yuliya and my TCF Lena, of course.
Some of that time involved things like making inside jokes during language training and spending time with each others’ host families.
Aside from spending time with my clustermates, I wanted to figure out which other PCVs I meshed with so I’d have friends to talk to and visit during my service.
This was made easier, of course, by vodka shots.
Hanging out with other PCVs was kind of tricky, because we didn’t all live in Zhytomyr. A majority of us did, but a lot of us were placed in neighboring towns, or outlying villages.
Everyone did end up making it into Zhytomyr for HUB days, though, so it was the one chance everyone had to try to make fast friends and figure out those connections.
It was kinda like high school, tbh. Drama and all.
But, hey. I did meet some other kickass PCVs that I now consider good friends.
Anyway.
Once PST came to a close, the LPI was conducted, gifts were exchanged, goodbyes were said, and buses were boarded.
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I had an amazing time and met so many amazing people… but also, there’s no lying. PST was one of the most exhausting and emotionally draining things I’ve ever done. Going from living alone and controlling everything about your life to living with another family — one you can’t really communicate with — is stressful and crazy in a way I can’t even explain!
It was frustrating and chaotic at the time, but looking back, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
This post is full of photos from my experiences, but not much about my training city itself. I’ll have a post coming soon about Zhytomyr and what it was like/ what there is to do, but I wanted to start with a post about the people I met during PST, because they’re the reason this experience is what it is.
До побачення!
This post was originally published Jan. 30, 2020. Its timestamp has been updated to better reflect the timeline of my Peace Corps service.
