December

The  Church of the Monestary, Starobelsk, in December.  

December blew in like the roar of a lion, the Lion of Winter: wind and cold and falling temperatures, icy puddles and hazardous walking. A few nights ago, while the town was sleeping, we had our first snow. I looked out the window and discovered whiteness all around. Very pretty, a dusting of snow over rooftops, trees, and streets. It was also bitter cold, probably about -10 celsius, about 15 F. Winter blew in from Kiev, via Europe, which was blanketed in snow. At one point the Kiev airport was closed, not good news for those of us traveling in a few weeks. Let's hope we just have normal winter weather and the airports stay open.

December has become grant month at Victoria's. We finished the application to the Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation for the project to preserve the ancient decorative folk paintings of the Slobovodya region (last blog). Now we're working on the second one, a Democracy Grant to the U.S. Embassy. Like the preservation project, I'm working from Vera's Ukrainian translation and revision of my first draft in English, and it's really a challenge. The project aims to expand and sustain the "Know Your Rights!" project (booklet at left) and build a strong Community Resource Center where people have access to information and help. Vera also wants to start a crisis hotline, an ambitious goal. I hope this application gets done next week, before I leave for Kyiv and Egypt, weather permitting, God willing. Vera's project is really important. No one else is doing what Vera is doing in the human rights and local government transparency areas in this part of Lugansk oblast. And the situation is getting worse.

December is the deadline for reading and rating Edmund Muskie Fellowship applications from Ukrainian students who want to do graduate work in the U.S. It's a great opportunity for young activist students who want to learn modern methods and best practices in public administration, public governance or NGO/nonprofit management (the latter a new field in the former Soviet republics). This is the first time I've been a reader and I found it fascinating. I wanted to give high scores to all the applicants (I read 54 applications), but it's a highly competitive program. Out of 200 or more applicants in Ukraine alone only 15 are selected, the best and the brightest (Muskie fellows are from all the NIS, Newly Independent States.) These students will become the future leaders of Ukraine, and that is what gives so much hope.

These kinds of programs can be transforming. For example, Georgia is far ahead of Ukraine in economic transformation, fighting corruption, and instituting transparent governance. On every index and economic and political indicator Georgia is at the top of all NIS countries, Ukraine near the bottom. Why? According to Alexa Chopivsky, in "Can Ukraine Follow Georgia's Lead in Reforms?" (FreeEurope/RadioLiberty, rferi.org/articleprintview/2232963.html), it's because, in part, Georgia's young leaders, starting at the top with president Mikhail Saakashvili, have studied abroad, they speak several languages, they are open to new ideas, and they are adapting modern practices to government. Saakashvili himself, 42, studied at Columbia University Law School in NYC, the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and George Washington University in DC. It is a sharp contrast to the current leadership of Ukraine, which today "remains partly unchanged from the 1990s and in in some cases, Soviet times."

So exchange programs like the Muskie Fellowships, while not a panaea, certainly give broader opportunities to bright and talented young people in Ukraine and hope for positive change. There are many similar opportunities in countries throughout Europe. My friend Vovo is earning an MA in city management in Sweden; others I know are studying at universities in Berlin, Amsterdam, in Poland, Belgium, and other countries. Leaders who have studied in Beijing and Hong Kong, like the president of Kazakhstan, are also making a difference. It all adds up to an interesting process in the complex question of change and reform. The Muskie Fellowships are an important part of the hope for change.

December in Starobelsk is just another month, and so far not even the Christmas Tree in front of the Cultural Center is up. It's something to look forward to. This year, living in the center, I'll be able to walk a block to watch the lighting of the tree, an awesome sight no matter where you are in the world. My favorite bookstore, where the manager and workers are always as happy see me as I am to see them, has stocked up on Christmas decorations this year. My face lit up when I saw them. “Oh, these are beautiful,” I exclaimed! The store manager stood next to me, smiling. He handed me a little ornament and said “Here, for you.” “Oh, no, I can’t take that.” “A present,” he said. I plan to go back in a few days to buy some ornaments for our English Club tree.

December at the English Club means talking about holidays and Chanukah and Christmas, making decorations for our holiday tree, and learning and singing Christmas carols, because they bring back so many memories of childhood and Christmases with my kids. My dad would be playing Christmas music now. Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby would be serenading us. We would be seeing another version of the ever-stalwart "Nutcracker.” We would be buying and wrapping presents to put under the tree. The tree would be full of lights and covered with new and antique ornaments, with Mom's exquisite antique angel, ever youthful, adorning the top. It's such a nostalgic and beautiful time of year, a time when I miss home and family more than ever.

December also means six months to go in my term of service with the Peace Corps in Ukraine. It means a trip to Kiev for a mandatory health exam and a flu shot and for closing two grants (the Small Project Assistance Grant and the Partnership Grant). It means a trip to Egypt. It means Christmas in Kiev with a niece of Jud’s, whose husband is with the army or foreign service, and then flying to Cairo the day after Christmas. It means New Year’s eve in Luxor on the Nile. We plan a night and a meal under the stars in the desert. Sounds like an Arabian dream.

December! The last month of the year, full of enough activities, special holidays, and hope to spin us off into the future. Like the Lion of Winter, December sends us off into a new year with a blast of energy, a force of nature, the blessings of the season.