A Photographic Trip to Kyiv 57 School

George W. Bush visited Kyiv 57 School

Teacher desk...hmmm a bit neater than mine!

11th Form girls in their normal school dress

This is Nick.  He came right up to me, held out his little hand and said, "Hi I'm from Tampa"!  Yes, he actually is from the U.S!

The photos above are students in Form 1 (they are about 7).

  

My small tour group and our tour guides.

A project by students in a design class for Euro Cup 2012!  They will enter this in a contest.  WOW!  Would you have the patience to design and build this?  Any engineering students want to try?

The school cafeteria with cups of tea and bread waiting for students.

Our tour guides Dima and Daria, Form 11 students who will graduate in May.

Football (soccer) field

The school newspaper

An English class.  Students wait until teacher tells them to sit and remain engaged until even after the bell rings!  This class was amazing!

This morning we met again at the IREX office and our guide Iryna shared information about Ukrainian education system.  I have so much information and I will share only a small portion here.

School is compulsory until the age of 15.  Most students continue with their studies in what is considered ‘higher education’ or they attend a vocational – technical school.  There are 15 different types of schools and a normal school year is 196 days.  In the U.S., school systems are governed by individual states (OH is different than KY) but in Ukraine, the governing body is the State (which is equivalent to our federal government).  Textbooks are contracted by the State and all students in Ukraine should be using the same textbooks but there are abuses.

Of interest to teachers in the U.S.: 

·      The central government (the State) determines salaries and it is independent of years of service and qualifications.  The average teacher salary is $250 US/month! Most teachers spend 18 hours/week in the classroom but receive salary bonuses (a way to offset the low wages) participating in class guidance and grading written assignments.

·      Students spend only 2 hours/week studying science in their early education.  When they reach form 5 – 9 (essentially middle school), the time spent studying natural science is 1050 hours/year and in form 10 – 11 the hours drop to 210 hours/year! 

Much more to come regarding assessment, teacher training, getting into university, etc.  I will share this information with you when I return to Mercy.

After another excellent meal, we were welcomed at the U.S. Embassy.  I have never been to an embassy and the security was very high.  In fact, we were told to erase the photos we took.  I am including one here.  Embassy officials took photos of us inside the building and I will include those at a later date. 

We met with Public Affairs, a gentleman from Cincinnati, who discussed the role of the Embassy in Ukraine.  The U.S. recently celebrated its 20^th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Ukraine!  We also met with representatives of the political and economic divisions.  Of special interest is the arrest and imprisonment of Julia Tymoshenko and several members of the opposition party (the Orange party).  The U.S. has denounced the imprisonment, which has strained relations with the Central Government.  So, Mercy students, tell me more about Julia Tymoshenko and why we should be interested in her arrest and imprisonment.

It is now 11:30 p.m. in Kyiv.  What time is it in Cincinnati?


This evening we attended a performance of the Kyiv Ballet.  They performed "Carmen" and "Scheherazade".  Wow!

For lunch I had 'pie'.  The pie on the left is mushroom, potato, and cheese.  On the right is cherry pie!

The U.S. Embassy (sign).  Could you pronounce the words in Ukrainian?

The Kyiv Opera House where we saw the ballet.

Posing with a Ukrainian police officer!

A True Cultural Experience!

After an introduction to Ukraine history and the people of Ukraine, we took a tour of Kyiv, the capital city.  Ukraine is a country rich in history and diverse in geography, politics, language, and culture.  Ukraine borders 7 countries and 2 seas (can you name the countries and seas?).  The country has a rich history including the Golden Age of Kyiv Rus (9c – 12c), a period of invasions (Tatars and others), a liberation effort (think of the Cossacks),  an age of empires (Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russian Empire, Soviet Empire), a brief time of Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Ukrainian National Republic and, what is probably most familiar to us, the Republic of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1922.  In 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved, Ukraine became independent.  At question is the vision of the Ukrainian people.  How do they envision their new country?  How do the people want to be governed?  Think of our Fourth of July when the U.S. gained its independence.  The formation of the government we recognize today took many years to develop.  This is where Ukraine is today, a young country with so much potential.  In 2004 the Orange Revolution occurred that fought for citizen rights (such as freedom of the press and the right to vote in elections).  Who was the first president after the Orange Revolution?  Who is the current president of Ukraine?  What did the Orange Revolution accomplish for the people of Ukraine?  The first Mercy student to correctly answer these questions in a comment will receive a really cool souvenir!

Most of the day was spent touring the city and eating three incredible meals!  Ukrainians know how to cook and present a meal!  I have included photos of the food I've eaten plus several photos of sites with very brief descriptions.  If you want to know more, ask!  It’s been a very long day…goodnight.

My breakfast.

First lunch course...vinegret (mixed stewed carrots, beets, potatoes, and pickled cucumbers).  Excellent!

Dessert after the vinegret....cheese pancakes (like crepes).  So delicious I cannot even describe them!

My first Orthodox cathedral.  I lit candles for the deceased in my family.  It was an incredibly moving, emotional experience for me!  Members of the Church have a  traditional of lighting candles for all sorts of reasons and one select area of the cathedral is set aside for the deceased.  

St. Michael

Saint Sophia

This is the Ukraine equivalent of our White House, though the president does not actually live here.  It is where all presidential business takes place.  There were no restrictions on how close we could get to this building or any of the other buildings surrounding it!

For my Human Biology students!

Pysanky Eggs as decorations for Orthodox Easter.

The arena where the 2012 Euro Cup final will be played!

The first Ukraine bird I cannot identify.  Anyone know what kind of bird this is?

A young Ukrainian boy who wanted us to take his photo!  He was so excited that we did!

The sequence of events described in the previous post did not happen!  Yes, this is how an adventure begins!  The first leg of my trip was cancelled making me miss my connection in Washington, D.C.  I ended up flying to Chicago, then to Munich, and on to Kiev.  Though I traveled without benefit of the the company of other teachers, I did have Cynthia the bobcat.  Here are a few photos of Cynthia the bobcat occupying her time in the various airports.

                   Cynthia insisted on coffee during our 5 hour wait for a new flight out of Cincinnati!

She also read the NY Times cover to cover.  Note Cynthia's 'wings'!  The United/Lufthansa agent felt sorry for her because her initial flight was canceled!

In Munich, Cynthia tried a fancy coffee.

I arrived in Kiev at 4:30 in the afternoon where I was met by Iryna and driven to the Hotel Rus.  I had 15 minutes to get myself ready (after being awake and in the same clothes for almost 24 hours)!  We ate a traditional Easter meal full of pickled vegetables, meats, pancakes, homemade sausages, potatoes with mushrooms and onions, and borsht!  We started the meal with cake (yes, a tradition on Easter!) and boiled eggs with beets and horseradish!  We smashed our eggs into each other's eggs and tradition says if your egg remained unbroken, you will have a year of good luck!

We ended the meal with a sweet and a cognac toast!

A wonderful first day on this adventure! 

Ready to go...well, almost!

In a few hours I will leave Cincinnati for Washington, D.C. where I will rendezvous with several teachers accompanying me to Ukraine.  We will fly to Frankfurt, Germany and on to Kiev.  A very long day awaits us and I know I need to get to sleep but I am too wound up, too excited to close my eyes!  All day my students asked if I was excited.  I told them "Once my suitcase is packed, I'll get excited".  Had to have Cal come over to help me weigh the suitcase because I could not lift it!  And yes, I was over the weight limit by 5 pounds so I did some re-adjusting.  Mercy students, you will be glad to know that Cynthia had a bath and is now ready to leave on her big adventure.  More to come....