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