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My favorite places in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine

May 1, 2020 Randi

Man. Things have been… weird.

I’ve been doing a whole lot of nothing lately. Waiting to reinstate? I guess? Coming up with contingency plans if I can’t? Maybe? I’ve been doing a lot of job searching, hoping to find something temporary like contact tracing or freelance reporting so I can bide my time until this all passes over and I can go back to Ukraine.

In the mean time, I just keep ~~crying~~ looking through old photos, talking to my host family, studying Ukrainian…

…pretending this will all be over soon.

I think this is the first Peace-Corps-but-post-Peace-Corps post I’ve written since our evacuation (parts one, two and three) happened. It’s been hard to really think too deeply about.

But, I digress. I wanted to take a second to share a few of my favorite places in Khmelnytskyi with you. Yunno. Just in case you ever find yourself in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine.

What’s up reverse culture shock? Yep, that’s a real thing.

April 21, 2020 Randi

OK so I definitely didn’t think reverse culture shock was a REAL thing.

Like, what do you mean reintegrating back into U.S. society will be jarring, hard and strange? I spent 30 years here! How uncomfortable can it be?

Um, well, turns out, it CAN be hard.

PART 3: MY COVID-19-INDUCED PEACE CORPS EVACUATION FROM UKRAINE (Kyiv to Madrid to Washington D.C. to Detroit to Ypsilanti)

April 12, 2020 Randi

OK, well, where’d we leave off in the traumatic saga that was the COVID-19 global Peace Corps evacuation? I think we were just taking off and leaving Ukraine’s borders.

In case you missed it, part one of the evacuation saga (detailing the process leading up to evacuation and leaving my actual site) can be read here and part two of the evacuation saga (detailing our week-long attempt at getting out of country) can be read here.

So, that leaves us at part three: leaving Kyiv, and stopping in Madrid for a short layover, Washington D.C. for one night, Detroit for all of 30 seconds and then finally back to Ypsilanti, where my sister lives.

Part 2: My COVID-19-induced Peace Corps evacuation from Ukraine (Kyiv… to Kyiv… to Kyiv… to… Kyiv — a full week of HELL in Kyiv)

April 11, 2020 Randi

In case you missed it… this is a continuation of my Peace Corps evacuation story. I published part 1 — about getting the call to evacuate and booking my train out of Khmelnytskyi — yesterday.

Today’s post will talk about how — what should have been a simple flight out of Kyiv — ended up as day after day of COVID-induced delays, flight cancelations and hotel shuffling.

Update for all who have asked: I am in Kyiv for the night. Peace Corps has chartered a plane for all Ukraine volunteers. Our flight to D.C. leaves at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow. From D.C., I will fly to Detroit.

Haven’t slept in 36 hours or eaten in 12. Exhausted.
— Randi (@RandiMShaffer) March 15, 2020

Part 1: My COVID-19-induced Peace Corps evacuation from Ukraine (The call to evacuate + Departing Khmelnytskyi)

April 10, 2020 Randi

Well, here we go.

I gave you guys a short post explaining that I was evacuated from Ukraine and my Peace Corps service was closed out due to COVID-19. I wanted to elaborate more on that and talk about the evacuation process, now that I can almost, kind of, collect my thoughts.

This is a long one, folks. I’m going to split it into a few posts for the sake of both brevity and my sanity. Buckle up.

My Peace Corps service is over. I’ve been evacuated from Ukraine due to COVID-19.

March 25, 2020 Randi

This is the hardest post I’ve had to write.

I’m still numb. Shocked. Confused. I’ve written and rewritten this post and I can’t seem to find the right words to say. None of this feels real.

But, my Peace Corps service is apparently over, 20 months early. Every single volunteer worldwide has been evacuated from their country of service and given COS status.

The shortest ever trip to Ternopil (+what the eff is going on?!)

March 14, 2020 Randi

You guys, excuse my language, but what the FUCK is happening?

We got an email on the 13th explaining that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. I’m watching the U.S. fall apart via my Twitter feed (??) and here — short of another three-week quarantine period from school* — everything is normal?

*Even this is normal. Ukrainians shut down schools for two weeks every flu season for “quarantine.”

We’re no longer allowed to travel outside of Ukraine — including back to the U.S., and now that there’s no school for the next few weeks, I’ve suddenly got a LOT of unstructured free time.

I needed a distraction, so I ended up booking a last-minute cheap platzkart ticket to go visit Rachel at her site in Ternopil.

Who run the world? Girls! (A new chapter of ‘I Am That Girl’ for female students in Khmelnytskyi)

March 5, 2020 Randi

I’m so excited!

I’m finally well enough into my Peace Corps service that I can start implementing side projects and clubs.

Back in mid-November, one of the wonderful girls that routinely attended my Window on America speaking club, Marina, approached me about re-starting a local chapter of “I Am That Girl,” which is a spin-off of a book written by Alexis Jones, focused on helping women find their passion and purpose.

A former volunteer at my site had started a local IATG chapter during her service, but sadly, it fizzled out once she ended her service and returned to the U.S.

Marina approached me and Crystal, the other female volunteer in Khmelnytskyi, and asked if we’d have any interest in restarting the club.

The answer was a very obvious “of course!”

My adult English club at Window on America and – Peace Corps English club ideas!

March 3, 2020 Randi

Hey future Peace Corps Volunteerss! If you’ve somehow stumbled upon this post thanks to the miracle of Google and SEO, this post is for you!

Today we’re talking about adult English clubs – including some Peace Corps English club ideas.

Even if you’re not an English teacher, odds are that — at some point — you will be roped into hosting and organizing various English conversation clubs for the members of your community.

Смачний! That’s right, it’s a post about UKRAINIAN FOOD!

February 28, 2020 Randi2 comments

OK let me just preface this by saying that I’m writing this on an empty stomach, and it physically pains me.

During my first few months here in Ukraine, I gained somewhere between 25 and 30 pounds. No joke. Ukrainians take their food seriously. I’ve mentioned it before, but if you’re not familiar with Ukrainian history, there’s a backstory. In the first half of the 1900’s, Joseph Stalin forced Ukraine into a manmade famine called the Holodomor. Millions of people died, and it changed Ukraine’s outlook on food as a whole. Because of the Holodomor, Ukraine prioritizes food like nobody’s business. This country has a super interesting cultural relationship to food that I find absolutely fascinating.