Joey's final day in Ukraine

Written by Joey Raso

I can’t believe that it has already arrived....it’s time for my departure from the country I have grown to love so much. 5 months is not a long time, it certainly feels like yesterday that I arrived in the land of interesting architecture, minibusses, ladas, wheat and too many things soviet. I said my goodbyes yesterday to the Lutsk group, my time with them was unforgettable and I managed to spend most of the day with Ivanna and Marta, two people who have become so dear to me over my 5 months here. I did my best to hold back the tears when getting on to the train...but sometimes emotions get the best of me.

At the moment I am sitting in a cafe in central Kyiv where 200 m from me people are protesting the unlawful detainment of opposition leader Yulia Timushenko. I spent some time with individuals there; they have set up tents and are doing their best to project their voices to the powers that be. The crowd certainly is home to people who 20 years ago stood in the same place fighting to an independent Ukraine, and today that are fighting to uphold the laws and democratic gains they have made since then. It is sad to see that only 50m from them an "opposition camp" has been set up, with far fewer individuals and what looks like a more expensive sound system and flags held by no one. The ruling party is trying to drown out the voices of freedom, but if I know Ukraine as well as I think I do...the people will not be silent. Slava Ukraiini!

Back from Zigenhein! YMCA Tensing Festival

Hello :)

We have safedly returned from the European YMCA tensing festival in Zigenhein, Germany. It was a great week filled with tensing, singing and new friendships. The YMCA volyn group was joined by other Ukrainian YMCA tensing groups as well as over 2000 other tensingers from Europe (even one group from Brazil). I was happy to be the only representative from Canada at the event and everyone kept asking why the YMCA in Calgary doesn't have a tensing group!!! I was able to meet the head of YMCA europe as well as the international representative. I was in a good place and I was very fortunate to meet Peter, who informed me that he worked out at EauClaire Y when he visited Canada, he only had good things to say and he was very interested to hear about the partnership between Canada and Ukraine. I did a lot to spread the word about international partnerships and I made friends with as many groups and leaders as possible. We are currently working on improving the relationship between the YMCAs of Ukraine and Norway. I did my best to represent Canada and the YMCA, everyone was glad to have a Canadian at the festival and they were all proud to hear about the long relationship we share with Ukraine, hopefully this will influence them on connection with an international partner and supporting the development of YMCAs across the world.

As for the festival, well, I danced and participated when our group performed, I think I did well :) I have some photos that I will post shortly. Zigenhein was an interesting village and everything seemed so clean and efficient. It was nice to be in Germany, but its even better being back in Ukraine. The food at the festival was ok, they had a good vegetarian option and did their best to meet dietary needs. There were soooo many people from all over europe at the festival and it was hard remembering names and cities where the participants were from. I made good connections with YMCA groups in Russia and Belorus as well as meeting groups from other regions in Ukraine :) It was a great experience.

My time in Ukraine is almost coming to an end :( I have 23 days left here and its going to be hard to leave. participating in the festival allowed me to realize for the first time since I have been in Ukraine that this partnership is also about me. It is also about my relationships that I have been building with people here and the friendships that I hope will last for a very long time. Being with the group for one week, sleeping in gymnasiums and riding together on a packed and stuffy bus across Europe helped me to realize that I am part of the YMCA Volyn team not only as a volunteer working everyday with youth in the city, but also as a friend :)

Here is a photo of me and some of the kids I was running a camp with at School #8. This school is quite different for Ukraine because it is a mixed abilities and disabilities school, something which is not so common in Ukraine but slowly growing. We ran various activities and educational programs with the kids at this school and I had a lot of help from Roma and Olya (YMCA Lutsk volunteers) without them it would not have been possible. :)

Day Camps at the Teenager's House

Hello everyone, this is just a quick update about the camp I attended last week. The social services agency for Lutsk put on a camp for at-risk youth at one of my location sites. I was really thrilled to be part of the camp and it gave me the opportunity to meet more kids from the area I already know so much about. The "teenager's house" acts as a drop-in centre which is run by the social services department in Lutsk. It has been my primary location since I started running Kids in Motion earlier this summer. I took part in the day camp there and introduced them to games I learned in Calgary at Chief Hector and they taught me a lot about patience and the hard work necessary to work with at-risk youth in a foreign country. Although I have worked with at-risk youth before in an international context, each time is very unique and I am glad I got to experience what working with some of Lutsk's most underprivileged children is like at a more intimate level. Although the camp is over, I will return to the teenager's house tomorrow and continue with the programming I have been doing there all summer. I hope that the new kids I met over the last 2 weeks will return and continue the have fun.

Activities

Camp in Ukraine is just like camp in Canada in many ways. Here are some of the activities:

We got our hair done in elaborate french braids!

We played frisbee (Joey at the beach)

I showed them the "beaver tails game"

Here is one of the kids with a peace tattoo on his forehead for peace day.

The boys and I acted out a fairytale and the Hlopets and Divchatas (boys and girls) had to guess which fairytale it was.

Youngest camper, watch out she's tough!

Photos from camp

Canada Day Games

Photo Op with Flags!

It rained a lot

We still had fun!

Camp and tour of Zdolbuniv

Awesome time in Zdolbuniv. We met up with Oksana and Victor Melnik at the train station with 5 other scouts. We headed to the YMCA office to make preparations for camp and meet the other children and leaders. I had no idea they were having a camp, I thought we were just going to visit their site! We took the bus out and walked with the bags, tents and food through farmers fields. The camping site was great with a volleyball net from two trees and good cover from the sun (it was about 35 degrees).

The children accepted us instantly and we did avtivites with a career councilor for 30 minutes and then scouting guidelines, volleyball, cooking over the fire ichiban soup with sandwiches and of course tea! We fetched water from a farmers well and during our volleyball game 3 cows, and 2 goats were hearded straight through by women 2 elderly ladies straight out of the middle ages! The volleyball game was briefly postpones for use to cover the cow patties on the "court" with dirt! This didn't throw any of the children off and they wondered why I was taking a photo.

Last night we stayed with a lovely family. Three generations in one house. Grandmother and two daughters, one spoke english and had survived a winter while volunteering in Saskachewan. They each had a daughter, one 14 and one 2 years old who told Kaitlin in English to "eat porridge"! We discovered that the one daughters musician husband is from Austria, while my boyfriend Gernot is from Salzburg. She makes homeade soaps and gave us one to take home with a cd of her husbands traditional music.

Today we met Dasha and Vikusha who we know from the camp at Svityas. They gave us an amazing tour of Zdolbuniv and Revney. We went for tasty pizza, saw a wedding, checked out the shopping scene (as Dasha is a very fashionable girl), and many beautiful buildings and parks. Tonight we meet Natalia in Kiev for a brief visit and head to the airport to catch our 5AM flight. No rest for the wicked! Looking forward to sleeping in our own beds. See you all soon!

Dubno

We have had two quick nights in Dubno with a lovely host: Ludmyla (the previous Ukraine YMCA president). She is taking very good care of us and ensuring we get a taste of some traditional Ukrainian food!

We had many guides; Victor and Mikhael who brought us to their scouts cottage, and Ola who brought us to an old castle! We also met a young priest and his family and climbed the bell tower with his daughter to see a great view of the entire city!

The basement of the church has deep Soviet history; many Ukrainian patriots were killed here for demonstrating Ukrainian pride during the Soviet times here in Dubno. Ludmyla showed us some videos about sports day and Ten Sing performences.
Tomorrow morning we are off to Rivne to visit programs and visit Zdolbuniv. We are hoping to meet Viktor Melnyk tomorrow! We only have two full days left in Ukraine and we are trying to soak up as much as we can!

Kaitlin and Lindsay!

Hello from Lviv

Hello everyone!
We are waking up in Lviv this morning and accomplished a lot of sight seeing yesterday! We met Lesia and Oxanna yesterday and they were so kind and spent the day with us showing us the best parts of the city and talking about the YMCA here! We won't be seeing any programs in Lviv, most children are away for the summer and they are doing maintence on the toilet in the YMCA building.

(Kaitlin and Oxanna)

We also met a volunteer Peter who is involved in the music and dancing side of the YMCA. He plays in rock bands and is currently involved in a 500 person flash mob which will be performing in Kiev in september! He has asked Kaitlin to stay and dance and train with them all summer and be apart of the performance in September!

(Art Museum in heart of L'viv)

This morning we are meeting up with Yulia who will show us around a bit more and discuss the YMCA in greater detail. This afternoon we are taking the train to Dubno to see some programs there, hopefully they are running! The hostel here is lovely and we were fortunate to have a seven person room all to ourselves because it is mid week. One of the workers here told us we were the first canadians to stay here, so she was very excited! We have 4 days left here and are coming up with some great ideas for our presentation when we get back! See you soon!

(On top of hill overlooking L'viv)

Kaitlin and Lindsay!

Camp is over - an update from Lindsay

I received this update from Lindsay via email. Dan

Kaitlin and I are back from camp! We spent the last 10 days at Lake Svityaz with 36 kids (and no WiFi). The bus ride out to camp was the first opportunity to get to know the kids, although it was challenging with the language barrier (can anyone make of the word hot dog in the picture?).

We got to stay in a new building that has been completed since Dan and Analu were there 2 years ago. It was very peaceful as not many people, other than the Y, were at Svityaz due to the rain.

At camp the counselors had many amazing ice breakers that we’ll be sure to use in Canada at staff training and children’s camps.

The days had different themes such as Pirate Day (where Joey was the lead pirate as Jack Sparrow), Water Day (a national holiday), pyjama day, and reverse day (some of the older teenagers became counselors that day).

One of the highlights of camp was the talent show on the last evening. Groups and individuals all had a chance to perform skits, songs, jokes, poems, traditional dancing, and TenSing (modern dancing and singing).

We did an introductory game with some Canadian culture and flag freeze tag (with Canadian flags that they got to keep). Marta also had us lead English camp songs!

The counselors and children did very well with the rain, setting up a big tarp for eating under and heading off to the disco during the day for games and dancing. It rained for 7 days straight and suddenly we had great weather the last 3 days (35 degrees on the last day)!

Finally we had an opportunity to swim and Kaitlin taught lessons to groups of 7-8 campers. This was a big hit just like in Canada, the only difference being that she had a translator and was teaching in open water! She started with getting them to blow bubbles, as many of the kids were new to swimming, and worked up to front crawl.

I had the opportunity to teach 4 different fitness segments. This was well received by the older campers who wanted to work off Paulina’s excellent cooking, and the younger ones who love to move. One of the teens later told Ivanna that she hopes to be a fitness instructor one day! I played a lot of sports with the kids when we had free time, such as Frisbee and soccer. Sport is a great way to build relationships. One morning I even brought out the TRX to show the older teenage girls. Many of them are interested in being more active. I hope the YMCA in Ukraine can start a female floorball team!

Joey has been an excellent host while we’ve been in Ukraine and invaluable at camp. We were able to talk to a lot more kids with him around. He helped us with travel preparation and educated us on personal safety in Ukraine. We got to see a program he started at school and play reverse checkers and table tennis with the kids.

Today we are off to Lviv and then Zdolbuniv. I’m looking forward to some teenagers from camp who will be showing us around their home town! We hope to write more posts in our last 5 days now that we have internet again. Papa (bye-bye)!

A Video from the Ukrainian Floorball Championship

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTYOC4dTGok

This video was taken after our second match over the weekend, my interview skills are clearly terrible and I wish I could have said more. It doesn't make much sense at some points but it is a cool video :) I was exhausted at this point in the tournament, I'm glad I didn't fall down. Playing with the YMCA Lutsk floorball team has been amazing.

A beautiful scene from the Slooch River

Rafting in Novhorod-Volinskii

I went to meet Viktor Melnyk on friday night, we went to Novhorod-Voliniski (in the Zhitomir Oblas) from Rivne on an overnight train which arrived at 3:30 am. We slept on the train and then the 7 of us were escorted to the river by a local drunk man who missed his train (the one we got off of) and walked us the few KMs to the river. At first I was worried that he could take us to some place where we could be robbed or worse, but then we arrived at the river, made some breakfast and had some ealy morning beers. We had 2 large rafts and used them to go rafting down the slooch river :) It was a great experience, I hitch hiked back to town yesterday and took a bus to lutsk from Novhorod-volinski...what a great experience, I was standing in front of an abandoned collective farm that was built in 1983...it was a really intimate experience, I couldn't help but stare at this farm for some time, to see the windows boarded up and the kids riding their bikes through the farm to go fishing in the river, it was hard to believe that almost 30 years ago that farm was a product of Soviet collectivization and I could only imagine that hard labour that went on there. But there was some peacefulness in all this...life in the Ukrainian village seems friendly and still carries a sense of cummunalism, most people we met in the small towns along the river were very friendly, we asked them for water and used their wells. They told us stories and gave advice about the river (where to go and where to be careful). It was a lot of fun, a part of the country not many foreigners get to visit. I wonder how many diplomats in Kyiv from Canada hauled water from a well in some of the smallest villages in Zhitomir Oblas.

Photos from Floorball Championship

Just over a week ago, Joey posted a report about helping his local YMCA win the regional Floorball Championship. Below I have posted photos that I received from Ivanna Gorbachuk, president of YMCA Volyn.

YMCAs in Ukraine introduce new games and sports to their communities as way to build relationships with more children and youth, providing more healthy lifestyle options. For example: Frisbee, Handball, Aikido, Intercross (similar to Lacrosse), and Floorball (similar to floor hockey).

I wonder if the other teams knew that YMCA Volyn had ringer from Canada on their hockey team!?!

Calgary Ukrainian Festival

The Festival on Saturday was a huge success! Dan put up a great display board of our partnership with the YMCA in Ukraine and our previous trips. Kaitlin and I toured the many booths and enjoyed the amazing dancing and singing. I can't believe how high the guys can jump! I really enjoyed the perogies and cabbage rolls. I hope someone will show us how to make perogies when we go. I'll just have to chat up the cook. We are both looking forward to the trip and are still working on preparations.

AIDS Walk in Lutsk

Each year, YMCA Volyn organizes an important event in their city to create awareness about HIV in their community and to remember those who have already died of AIDS.

Many Canadians don't realize that Ukraine has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in Europe, and one of the fastest growing in the world. For more info, see the "Why HIV/AIDS in Ukraine matters to us all" blog post from YMCA Calgary CEO, Helene Weir.

The AIDS Walk is also an important community event, as it was one of the first ecumenical events in Lutsk to bring together leaders of various churches.

This year's event was held on May 16, 2011. As you can see in the photo above, Joey was involved and even carried the banner for awhile.

Subotnik on a Tuesday

In the Soviet Union, citizens were encouraged to use their saturdays as a day where they would work voluntarily for the betterment of communist society and to assist in the forward direction towards a socialist utopia. Also know as a day for Lenin, dedicated to the first leader of the Soviet Union Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin, saturdays saw the cleaning up of local parks, harvesting collective farms, and even cleaning the communal apartment...this is no longer an official day in Ukraine, but today volunteers of the YMCA got together to clean and organize the local YMCA. It was a great day filled with hard work, laughs and Ukrainian friendship, and in the end, the YMCA looks wonderful for the 1st of June children's day concert celebration. I am very proud to have taken part in cleaning up the YMCA building, from scrubbing window to cleaning ceilings it was a perfect day. There was talk about soviet times, and of course I had to throw in some useless facts that I know about the Soviet Union and Ukrainian society from my undergraduate studies...sometimes i feel like an outsider because I know more facts about Ukrainian history (well mostly Soviet) than many Ukrainians. :) What a great day and it was so much fun to share it with some of the YMCA's hardest working volunteers.

Box of crayons left at my doorstep....

This is strange...but after my shower this morning there was a ring at the door, I went to see who it was and i could barely see someone going down the stairs, I opened the door and there was a box of crayons sitting there.....strange...not sure if I should be worried or just draw a picture. I really hope this isn't the Ukrainian equivalent to a horse's head in someone's bed...

YMCA Lutsk Floorball Champions!!!

We went to Lviv on the weekend to play the last games of the season for floorball. I am proud to say that I was able to play with the team and I did my best to contribute to their championship win. We worked hard since I arrived in Lutsk and the floorball leader Roman was very excited about the win. It was a great game and we battled the entire time, we beat two very strong teams and we were awarded 1st place medals and a nice trophy...looks like the YMCA need to build a trophy case here :) My internet connection is too slow to post any photos at the moment, but once it picks up I will post a team photo. Very proud of the boys for all of their hard effort, the three a week practices really paid off :)

Trip Preparation

Deciat, Deviet, Veeseem, Seem , Sheest, Piat, Chotere, Tre, Dva, Odin. Counting Down the days until we travel to Ukraine! Analu has been helping Kaitlin and I with basic Ukrainian. Many Thanks. We have a lot of work to do.

On June 4th we'll be participating in the Calgary Ukrainian Festival and learning more about the rich culture we'll be visiting at the end of June.

Joey, if there are any creature comforts you'd like us to bring, please let us know (eg - socks, favorite junk food) and thank you for the generous offer to host us in Lutsk!

Kaitlin is looking forward to being at a beautiful lake helping the children swim and I know I will enjoy the contagious energy of tensing and meeting new people of all ages!

That is all for now.

Papah!

Excited to be going to Ukraine

Hello All,
I snapped this photo of Lindsay and Kaitin at our meeting today. It is one month until they go to Ukraine.

Lviv floorball and train ride (dieseled train...a real proletariat train!)

We went to Lviv on the weekend for the under 16 floorball tournament, roman and I were coaches and the boys played well...although they lost both games. It was alot of fun walking around Lviv with the young guys....they were full of energy and had 2 servings at McDonald's haha...Big Mac combo never tasted so good. It was a really nice day and despite the overnight train ride on a train which makes the C-train look like God's personal train, we had a good time. The "elektritchka" as they call it is a train which links the western cities, although it takes twice as long...it's super cheap...less than the price of coffee in canada to ride over 200kms...sounds like a deal. The seats are uncomfortable, it smells like someone boiled urine and then dumped it in the train, it shakes like a roller coaster, it has frequent stops with people coming and going, but the view...the Ukrainian countryside is possibly the most beautiful thing in the world....sticking my head out of Lenin's train rolling through the countryside and seeing all the small villages made it worth the 1.25$ lets say I'll do it again....actually next weekend we are going to Lviv for the 1st league tournament, which i will be playing in :) we have high expectations and plan to bring home the gold...or whatever it is we will win. till next time...

Local TV star...and then run-in with the police

Sooo all of a sudden yesterday I was asked to do an interview with a local tv station which would air a program about charity work in Lutsk. Naturally I was chosen to speak about the YMCA and my time here in Ukraine. it was really funny, the TV building looked like a bomb hit the side of it over 30 years ago and no one cared to fix it, then out walk probably the two most beautiful women I have seen in Lutsk, and one turns to me and gave me a wink and raised her eyebrows...it seemed she wanted me to follow her...but I had no time to go with her into whatever dark place she would drag me...i'm sure I'll see her around. So, then the interview took place outside, in front of some blooming trees...I said alot of good things about the YMCA and about the volunteers invloved with the YMCA, it aired about an hour and a half ago and will air again 2 more times!

Also, this evening, the police stopped me. I was running across the street soo I looked suspect...one of them ran after me and kindly asked me to stop...and i'm really serious he was pretty kind. I recognized him since i live in the building where the police station is...soo i see them most days walking around. I told him that I am Canadian and then the 2 other officers walked over with a 3rd guy...their friend it seemed...imagine police in Canada walking around doing their jobs while their buddies tagged alond...strange right? then one of them asked me what I am doing in Lutsk? I said working with the YMCA, then he said something i couldn't understand, I said my passport was in my room, he said some things in english and said "go to your home" and i gladly left and went up the stairs to my place haha aahhh what a daaayyy

Easter in Lutsk...good food and good friends :)

Here is some news about Easter in Lutsk! well, the week before Easter seemed like everyone had already started their holiday. Most people weren't working and everyone was talking about preparing for the Easter weekend. Most of the young people will help out at home, and clean their place and help shop for food...soo in that spirit i cleaned my apartment and went grocery shopping...although no one came over to visit me :( but I was invited to Easter morning church service and then to a brunch at Marta's parent's place..which was really nice :) One thing that was interesting is that people go to church from 10pm saturday night before Easter and stay until 9 or 10am!!! standing most of the time...they do this to have their bread, meat, and eggs blessed by the priest (everyone carries a basket containing these items to church) I actually saw an old woman walking to the church at 1am...it was really neat. On monday a large group of us got together and went to the park for a picnic lunch and played some games..it was relaxing and fun and definitely gave me an opportunity to talk to some new people. I am making friends here and it seems that my nights are always packed with going to different cafes or walks though the downtown. I have been jogging in the park and its best to do it in the morning, in the evenings its full of people and everyone stares...because who wouldn't stare at the guy in the team canada Sydney Crosby t-shirt??? well that and the fact that there are few people who actually run in the park...but I plan on changing that :)
cheers from Ukraine

Lutsk living...

Hello Canada, first I would like to say...its cold here too! no snow, but there were flurries on saturday morning. I have arrived and am all settled into my rather large but very soviet apartment. Its right off one of the main streets here, I wouldn`t call it a downtown but perhaps the centre of the city...or err large town. All the classic Soviet style buildings and designs are right outside my window, and from my room I can actually see part of the old castle....really cool. I have been making connections here and meeting alot of really nice people. Everyone is busy so I have alot of time to myself in the evenings. I read and work on my ukrainian...since most people here speak Russian it has been pretty easy, but they prefer Ukrainian so i am going to work on that. the YMCA building looks nothing like anything we have in Canada, sooo take one of our really nice YMCA buildings, age it 70 years, turn off all the power, including heating, introduce the smell of mould and decorate the outside with alcoholics and hooligans...and maybe you can get a sense of what this Y building looks like here. But, besides this, they make it work! everyone is energetic and full of life, they all love to volunteer and I have been able to take part in a few of their programs, Tensing and floorball, I have a floorball parctice tomorrow night :) ok, thats all for now, i will try to post some pics soon :) i miss you Canada, especially your toilets :((( whats the deal with squat pots

What you are missing in Calgary!

Today, Joey finally arrived in Lutsk on the overnight train from Kyiv. That train ride alone is an amazing adventure, but I'm sure there have been many this week, as Joey...
- participated in YMAP Camp at Camp Chief Hector last weekend
- flew to Toronto on Monday for the final pack-up and farewells with his family
- left Toronto on Wednesday, flying through Frankfurt, to arrive in Kyiv on Thursday
- had a day and a half in Kyiv, staying one night at the famous Hotel Ukraine, and meeting with some folks from the YMCA Ukraine National office.

Marta met him at the train station this morning, they had breakfast together at her house, and the day was full of plans to see an apartment, attend a TenSing practice, play floorball (like floor hockey), and have a "Canada Party" with our friends from YMCA Volyn!
--
Joey, I'm sure your time here in Calgary seems like a distant memory. After all the cold and dreary cloud cover you experienced here, we had a few days of beautiful sunshine and plus temperatures this week.

This morning, however, we awoke to 10cm of snow, and it is still falling! Enjoy spring in Volyn...but don't forget about us here.

You made many good friends during your training here, and we'll be excited to read your updates on this blog. This photo is a picture from my back window. And now you are our window to our friends in Ukraine.

Leaving for Ukraine in 5 days

These are my last few days in Calgary, then off to Toronto for a short while, then finally heading to Ukraine!! hopefully there is some sunshine on the other end....tired of this snow

IYIP Intern Selected!

We are pleased to announce the selection of Joey (Giuseppe) Raso as our 2011 International Youth Intern to YMCA Ukraine!

With a Masters in European, Russian and Eurasian Studies and an undergraduate degree in History and International Development, Joey has a strong interest in post-Soviet countries. He has followed up this interest with two previous trips to Russia, where he honed his Russian language skills and volunteered for various non-governmental organizations as well as the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Joey also has excellent experience creating wellness opportunities for youth. In Russia, he assisted with a program providing after-school programs and activities for street youth in Moscow.

In Ontario, he volunteered with the Choices for Youth program assisting at-risk youth to return to school and worked as a Healthy Living Coordinator with Ottawa Independent Living Resource Centre. As part of our partnership with YMCA Ukraine, Joey will intern for YMCA Volyn as a Youth Community Outreach Coordinator from April through August 2011. While there, he will help to develop and implement a new community leadership program for disadvantaged children and youth similar to YMCA Calgary’s Kids In Motion.

Joey will be in Calgary for 3 weeks of training in March.

Note: This International Youth Internship Project is undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). For more information, visit www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/iyip or contact Dan Taubensee, International Director of YMCA Calgary.