Donetsk Regional Model United Nations

Below is a blog I wrote for the American Clubs in Donetsk, Ukraine.  It is located at http://www.amclubs.org.ua/

I, as a rule of thumb, am not one to rush into something.  That maybe why it took me exactly one month to write a recap about one of the most fantastic projects I have had the privilege of working on here in Ukraine.  This hesitation is also why I was initially uncertain of the feasibility of such a large and ambitious project as which I am about to describe.  But as is often the case with my all beginning jitters, people have impressed me and results have amazed me.  In December, 2013 Donetsk experienced its premier Model United Nations.  It was a pleasure to see the action first hand and to play a small part in the creation of this spectacular, international event. 

To give some background, we must first talk about the beautifully crafted city that is Odessa.   In August 2013, Peace Corps Volunteers held the first annual MUN (Model United Nations) in Odessa.  Our goal was to create an affordable, life changing experience that would allow Ukraine’s youth to learn about international relations, practice their English, and relax on one of Ukraine’s best beaches, all at once.   Just like the first ever DRMUN (Donetsk Regional Model United Nations), our camp was a success.   But how did the conference travel from Odessa to Donetsk, one may ask.  The answer is that a single student who had initiative took the matter into her own hands and contacted individuals in Donetsk that she knew already had experience with MUN.   The Peace Corps camp introduced her to MUN, but the peers whom she found at Donetsk National University were already deeply involved with MUN and other issues such as taking lead roles in their community and actively learning about domestic politics.

The result was a two day event that featured mostly local students from the Donetsk oblast but also included Ukrainians from the west and several foreigners including American, Australian, and African.  There were three committees that each tackled important contemporary issues such as privacy vs. national security, conflict borders, and matters regarding the UNSC (United  Nations Security Council).  Mock resolutions were passed which allowed the students to step into the shoes of powerful politicians from an array of diverse countries as they worked to better understand the most significant issues of our day.

It was an honor to work on this project with the Donetsk National University and their center for international studies.  Their students and staff proved very educated and professional, as did our Ukrainian and international participants.  I can only hope that this was not the last DRMUN and that others will consider joining us next August in 2014 in Odessa for the next installment of Model United Nations in Ukraine!

Please check out our website: 

 http://www.campmodelunukraine.com/

Yours truly - looking for Russian words

 Our Security Council

Our Human Rights Council

Our International Court of Justice

September to mid December, 2012.

Welcome and добро пожаловать to the first, and possibly last, edition of Have a Rest.

I wish I could say that I have delayed creating a blog so that I could allow myself adequate time to reflect on my experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer and form coherent thoughts and quirky quips about them.  Unfortunately this is not true.  It’s been mostly due to a lack of chutzpah.

This post will deal with the first three months I spent in Ukraine as a young, starry eyed, Peace Corps Trainee.  Back then everything seemed brand new in this foreign land.  I still had an excuse not to understand what was happening around me.

The first three months of any Peace Corps experience can be summed up with one little acronym: PST.  You’ll soon find out what PST means if you don’t know already, but first I wanted to shine a light on how ridiculous it is to attempt to “sum up” anything about Peace Corps.  My experience during PST was of course different from other newly arrived trainees' in Ukraine, and I can’t even begin to imagine what other trainees went through while in various countries across the globe, from Mexico to China, to Swaziland.  While languages, cultures, and nautical miles separate us, PST is the common denominator. Also food sickness.

That being said, PST stands for Pre-Service Training.  It’s a relatively short period of time where Peace Corps feeds us copious amounts of information, trains us, and essentially gets us ready to live, learn, and hopefully laugh in our new countries.  As my incredibly wise language teacher once said “when you arrive you are like babies.”  I want to say that she ended the quote by saying something like “when you are done with PST you are like grown adults,” but my memory isn’t so good and that quote seems quite apocryphal and just plain invalid on several accounts.

During PST we are split into clusters.  My entire group had just shy of 70 volunteers when we came to the country and my cluster consisted of 5 humans, two of which were married.  In all honesty, before I met these people I was disappointed to learn that I had been placed in a cluster with a married couple.  They quickly proved me wrong as they are both outrageously good people.  I get proven wrong quite a bit throughout this story.  It’s a learning process, I am told.

Moving on, PST is a very busy time for everyone.  I thoroughly enjoyed the 4-5 hours of intensive language class every day.  I consider myself to be a language enthusiast and long stretches of Russian class is as close to academic nirvana as I have come so far.  The only possible exception would be long sessions of German practice, übung macht den Meister!!  The one other possible exception being team floor hockey during the 12^th grade, but I do not know if that applies.  I never deal in certainties.

When we were not conjugating verbs or arguing over the possible nuances of elementary Russian, we were team teaching at a local school (see attached picture).  And when we were not teaching at a local school we were learning how to teach at a trainer’s house located close by in the city.   It should be noted that Peace Corps does an excellent job preparing us all to be great educators, but sometimes their methodology of praxis before theory or “learning by doing” can be quite the challenge; albeit invigorating.

I mentioned earlier how different our experiences during PST are.  Some trainees are put in a cluster of 4 people in a small village in only god knows where Ukraine, while others are placed in a large regional capital with a stellar group of people.  I belonged to the others.   My training site was a great city called Chernigov about 100 kilometers East of Chernobyl and two hours North of Kiev.  My host family was spectacular for many reasons.  Both the parents were as friendly as could be, and the children didn’t fall far from the tree.  They had three kids aged 7, 5, and 2.  Apart from being incredibly nice, fantastic hosts, and very welcoming, they were also quite well off and I got to have my own shower (read: no bucket baths like some volunteers).  I still don’t know if being sheltered from the rough and tumble life during PST was a blessing or a curse.  It certainly felt like a blessing, but I always suffered from a mild case of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).  Can you really be a Peace Corps Volunteer with hot showers, intermittent internet, and ample amounts of the infamous Ukrainian soup known as Borscht?

The words are filling up quicker on this page than was anticipated and I’ll leave you with the above questions to ponder… if anyone is still reading at this point then I say to you молодец (good job)!




Mixed emotions on the first day of teaching.



Chernigov



My host family.