Awesome. It'd take three blogs to go over the last two days:
Regional Olympiads finished yesterday and included a lot of scuzzy judging. I'll write about it later.
Jon (climbing buddy) came in on the way back from his Ukranian language training and last night we drank way too much vodka in celebration of a birthday. We got up with three hours of sleep and hangovers to climb all day (and it was a gorgeous day) on cliffs covered with snow, taking breaks to stoke our pitiful fire. I'll write about it later.
What I want to write about is what I'm excited about: After climbing, Jon and I met with Tolic, head of ACET, a Ukranian HIV/AIDS awareness organization that has a lot of grant money and a small army of enthusiastic volunteers. Tolic is now completely on board with both our projects, and with his organzation we're going to get some major things done. Normally I keep things under wraps until they actually happen, but these are looking like sure things and I'm so pumped I want to talk about them:
My baby, which isn't as cool as Jon's: two week-long camps this summer for climbing and healthy lifestyles. When the kids aren't climbing or playing games they'll be sitting in on 45 minute lessons on HIV/AIDS, STDs, alcohol abuse, narcotics, etc. The two things I'm doing different from most volunteers (and let's hope they work):
1) It will be done in Ukranian and Russian. Most volunteer camps are done in English and usually only those students with the best English make the cut; this means volunteers are often only working with the best students, who probably least need our help. Our participants will be randomly drawn from those who apply, meaning anyone can participate. Tolic's people will be teaching the lessons and Polissya will be teaching the climbing. Currently there's only three Americans involved and we'll be teaching climbing in Russian or, in Jon's case, Ukranian. This, hopefully, will let the camp be sustainable. Diana and I had a long discussion on this because she feels that if Americans are there, English will be a draw. She hasn't quite understood that A) When it comes to climbing I don't want any language confusion leading to unsafe climbing, B) Any lessons on healthy lifestyles will be watered-down by a language barrier and C) I want this to happen even if every American were deported from the country tomorrow. So much of what we do in this country would collapse if we were to leave. I've only got nine more months here and everything I do now needs to be sustainable.
2) Also adding to the sustainability: the money for the camp will not come from grants (which many camps are run on and require reapplying every year) but from a fundraiser, in this case a car wash. Tolic's people went nuts (in a good way) because fundraising from Ukranians is never really done. They think I'm a little crazy, but I have a gut feeling it will work. Another volunteer I know in Poltava did a Christmas-gifts-for-orphans fundraiser that everyone said would fail: Ukranians don't donate, they said. They ended up with more gifts than they had orphans! The students who are a part of the camp will do a two-day car wash to raise the money for the camp itself. Hopefully this will empower them and can create a yearly event to sustain the camp after I'm gone.
Tolic also brought along Natasha to the meeting, who has been running a camp for the past four years for at-risk youth. She had a million organizational questions I hadn't even considered and a lot of good ideas. Jon has also worked as a camp director and has put together a whole book of camp games. This will be sweet. I may have a nightmare in store for me, but I see nothing but good things.
But although that is my baby, much of Jon and I's organizational and creative energy lately has been going into his: an across-Ukraine relay run from the eastern border to the western one to raise money and awareness for HIV/AIDS.
What Jon originally envisioned using only Peace Corps volunteers has now exploded due to a huge amount of interest from Ukranians who want to run. Right now it's coalescing as a bus that will go the whole route, plastered with corporate advertisements (the corporations will donate things like bottled water, tee-shirts, etc.) with runners getting on and off as they can manage, with a awareness team on the bus that will set up a booth and hand out brochures at every city center, and with a small group to coordinate food and sleeping, which will be done in tents donated for the run by Polissya. Each oblast raises money for one organization within the oblast and one large partnership grant (to which people in America can donate) will raise money for an AIDS orphanage.
We're now at the level of extreme excitement and fear. This is huge and we both know it, but we're getting enough people on board (Tolic's people will be helping coordinate in four out of eight oblasts), that it's looking feasible. Regardless, once that bus gets going and people start running, I guarantee the media will be covering it, even if its only local media in each oblast, and that will generate a lot of awareness. Right now the problem is not whether anyone will do it, but how to best direct the tide of interest we've been getting.
You know, teaching is great, the wall is cool, but I finally feel like I'm going to have done something worthwhile when I finally leave. I'm also really nervous, but I'm trying to just channel that into getting work done. Still, it's been a great day.