Well, I am in Ukraine. Flew to Miami for 2 days of orientation and then onto Ukraine via a 12-hour plane ride. Three days of more orientation and focus on language, adjusting to time difference (10 hours ahead for me), eating new foods and bring to figure out where to store all my stuff.

I have been placed with a great host family in Chernihiv, a city of about 300,000 in the norther (Western Ukraine) part of the country. We are close to Chernobyl, the Belarus and Russian borders. This is a great city and lots to explore. My host family has a 6-year old boy a 17-year old son and a 23-year old daughter. The son is away at Technical school and the daughter works each day. I have a very large room and very comfortable.

We had our first class today with our LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator) to give us the rundown on the daily schedule - it is intense. There are four other volunteers in my group all around the same age.

So today is a holiday, Maskenitka. It is the celebration for the end of Winter and start of Lent. Guess what? It is snowing, cold and windy. Guess someone forgot to tell Ma Nature about the end of Winter.

Well that's it for awhile. I will post pictures on my next writing.