By Flat Stanley - with help from Mark & Ginny Pulver Disclaimer: This is not an official publication of the Peace Corps. Content is personal & does not

By Flat By Flat StanleyStanley

- with help from - with help from Mark & Ginny Mark & Ginny

PulverPulver

Disclaimer: This is not an official publication of the Peace Corps. Content is personal & does not reflect the position of the US Government or the Peace Corps.

Flat Stanley's Ukraine Tour 2006 2

Hello! I am Flat Stanley!About 30 years ago, Jeff Brown wrote a book called Flat Stanley. It explains how I became FLAT! I soon discovered I can travel in an envelope!

Since then, I’ve been all over the world! You can visit the official website & read about some of my other adventures:

www.flatstanley.com

This summer, with the help of some great elementary students & their nice teacher (Ms L. in Chicago, IL), 21 of us Flat Stanleys traveled in a big envelope all the way to Ukraine where we spent time with some Peace Corps Volunteers & their friends!


Where in the world are we?

We started our visit on the eastern tip of the Crimean Peninsula on the Kerch Strait between the Black Sea & the Sea of Azov.

From Kerch we can look across the water & see Russia!

The 21 of us Flat Stanleys visited Ukraine, a country in Eastern Europe where most people speak Ukrainian, Russian & sometimes Tartar.

Did you know the Black Sea is NOT

Black! It is a lovely blue – kind of

makes me think of Lake Michigan!


Here’s some geography facts…Ukraine is a country, but it’s

about the size of three US states: Nebraska, Kansas & Missouri.

The climate & land are more like Iowa or Minnesota. It gets very cold in winter & pretty warm in summer.

It’s above the 50th parallel – about halfway between the equator and the North Pole!

That’s Chicago, Illinois! We Flat Stanley's are from there. Did you know that many Ukrainians live or have family in Chicago!


Each Flat Stan keeps a travel journal…Most days we each

write in our journal, but our 1st hosts, Mark & Ginny, thought it would be fun to help us use the computer to tell about our travels & show some photos.

You can read our journals & get lots of details, but this show will give you an idea of some of our adventures!

Isn’t the paper money pretty?

It is called “hryvnia”

My

journal!


Our arrival in Ukraine…

Dear Journal,I am sure glad to get out of that envelope & stretch my legs! Traveling by mail is a cheap way to get around, but it is not exactly comfortable!

Our first stop in Ukraine is with Mark & Ginny. They welcomed all 21 of us to their 1-room flat in Kerch. As Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) they are expected to live like the local people live so their whole place is smaller than my bedroom back in the USA!

Thank goodness they have indoor plumbing & running water! Some PCVs in Ukraine, especially in rural areas, have outhouses & have to draw water from a well. Some of them even chop wood for heat!

Your Friend,Stanley


Time to get out of the envelope…

Here at

last!


Our PCV host family’s flat…

Peace Corps Volunteers spend about 27 months living in the country where they serve.

They live modestly, much like their local co-workers would live.

In Ukraine, many families live in small apartments or flats. The flats share a central courtyard. The courtyard has lots of flowers & people hang their laundry to dry

there.


The Internet Center…

This is the scientific library where the Internet Center is. That’s Mr. P’s Peace Corps project! He has learned enough Russian to teach classes & do other work – he even types in Russian!

The sign says “Internet Center”


We visit the Library in Kerch…

The Library staff, where Mr. P. works as a PCV, welcomed us & so did some of the English Club regulars! There was a party with lots of finger food, toasting, speeches & singing! We had a great time!


Shopping at the bazaar…Dear Journal,We went to the bazaar today. It is a big outdoor market. Venders sell everything from fruit & veggies to clothing & books. There were big piles of raw fish & chunks of meat hanging from hooks, lots of dogs & cats begging for food & many older women wearing headscarves selling sunflower seeds & peanuts.

Mark & Ginny bought beets, cabbage, carrots, & potatoes. In the winter those are almost the only fresh veggies available. Now that summer is here, there will soon be lots of tomatoes & cucumbers to harvest from the garden. People here cook from scratch - No boxes of mac & cheese, Dominos pizza delivery or McDonalds burgers here in Kerch!

For dinner tonight we had Russian pelmemi (it’s kinda like ravioli!) with butter & sour cream, fried cabbage, carrot salad, black bread & juice. Mark’s a good cook!

Stanley


Photos at the bazaar…

One of our first days in Kerch, we walked to the local bazaar to shop for journals. We each bought a small school notebook to write our travel stories in. Mr. P. also bought some groceries here. (That’s him in the black hat!)

The bazaar is pretty exciting. Most of the venders are outside (not much fun when it rains or snows!). They sell fish & meat, vegetables & fruit, flowers, paper products, household goods, clothing…No peanut butter though!

There are hundreds of venders. Everyone in town is there talking, laughing & buying things.


More scenes from the bazaar…

There are lots of really fresh fruit and vegetables in the market now that it is summer, but in winter it is hard to find anything except carrots, potatoes, cabbage & apples.

Ms P. says many PCVs learn to can foods so they will have some variety in the cold months.

See the fresh meat! You can even buy live rabbits and chickens at the bazaar!


Going to the bazaar…

To get to the local bazaar, you cross this bridge. There are venders on the bridge too, so it is very crowded.

Sometimes the canal under the bridge floods & the bridge is underwater!


More scenes from the bazaar…

Look at the hungry pup at the meat market! Stray dogs are everywhere here. Pretty soon someone will throw him a scrap!

The black bread is really good here – there are about 77 kinds of bread. Maybe this is why Ukraine is sometimes called the breadbasket of Europe!


Swimming, kvas & whistling… Dear Journal,Today some of the Stanleys went swimming in the Black Sea. It makes me think of Lake Michigan, except there are dolphins in the Black Sea! We swam at a cool bathing platform right in the middle of the city, but there are nice beaches on the edge of town.

We drank Kvas afterwards: it is kind of like root beer, but it is made from black bread. It sounds strange, but it is really good on a hot day! They don’t use ice around here. People think cold drinks & drafts from an open window will make you sick.

I learned 2 things about Ukrainian life today. One is that you should always take off your shoes & put on slippers whenever you go into someone’s home & you should never whistle inside a house or all the money will go out the window! Ginny says that is an old saying here, but I stopped whistling, just in case!

Your Friend,

Stanley


Swimming in the Black Sea …

Here we are at the local bathing platform for a swim. Some of us rented paddle boast. Kerch is a port town, so there are no

beaches in the city center. Other parts of Crimea have beach resorts though.


A picnic in Kerch…

Dear Journal,Today we had a picnic on top of Mitridate Mount. That is a big hill in the center of town – it is 90 meters high. I am not sure how high that is, but Mark says that’s about how long a football field is. (Our teacher, Ms L, could help us use math to figure out exactly how many feet it is!)

There is a really long stairway with about 450 steps to walk up. I was out of breath when we got to the top! And I was really ready to eat! A pair of huge griffins guard the stairway. They look like a cross between an eagle and a lion. They are really cool looking.

On Mitridate Mount there are ancient Greek ruins & also monuments to the Great Patriotic War (We call it WWII in the USA). The view up there is great too – you can see Russia across the strait & lots of ships. You can also see the ruins of a Turkish fort on the northern tip of the city & another fort on the southern end of the city. The water is soooo blue!

Guess Who!

Stanley


Mitridate Mount steps & monument…


Mitridate Mount views…

You can see our host’s flat from here! We like the Griffins – they are the city symbol of Kerch! There are

two guarding the stairway to Mitridate Mount.


Lots of history in Kerch…

All 21 of us visited an ancient tomb & also saw the 2,600 year-old ruins of the Greek city

Panticapaeum on Mitridate Mount in Kerch. See the archeologists at work in the digs?


No electricity or water… Dear Journal,Today when we got out of bed, the electricity was off. And the water was off too! Ginny couldn’t rinse the clothes she soaked in a bucket of water overnight. (Lots of people here do not have washing machines & there are no Laundromats either!) We couldn’t bathe or wash dishes or even flush the commode. Mark says sometimes people are without water or power for many days. This is because the “infrastructure” (that means support systems – we looked it up!) are very old and need repairs. There is not much money in the city budget & repairs take time so people just learn to cope.

Not many winters ago there was no heat for five years! In the winter it is as cold as Chicago here, but none of the buildings had heat. People slept in their coats & fur hats. Brrrrr!!!

Your Best Friend,Stan the Man


We visit a dacha…

Mark’s Russian tutor took us to her Babushka’s dacha. Babushka means Grandmother in Russian & a dacha is a small rural garden plot, like a farm.

If you have a dacha, you can grow fruits & vegetables, raise chickens & have a cow for cheese & milk. Then you do not have to buy these things! It is hard work of course.


More Kerch sites…

This church is one of the oldest in Eastern Europe – during the Soviet-

era, people were not allowed to practice their religion. Now the

churches are full of people worshiping!

This is the Adzhimushkai monument honoring the 15,000 soldiers, men, women & local children who hid in this

underground quarry for almost 6-months during the Great Patriotic War (WW II).


A visit to Yeni Kale…This cool fort called “Еникале” in Russian. It is in the north part of Kerch.

This is where the Sea of Azov & the Black Sea meet. The fort was built to keep the ”enemy” from getting into the Black Sea.

We picnicked & hiked here.


Russian Alphabet… Our hosts have this alphabet

poster on their wall. It is the Cyrillic alphabet.

It sure looks lots different than the alphabet we use for reading & writing English!

There are 33 letters in their alphabet!

The one that looks like B is pronounced V; the one that looks like H is pronounced like an N; the one like a P is pronounced like an R. Some of the letters look like they are written backwards, but they are not.

This language would take some getting used to!


Dear Journal,

The official language in Ukraine is Ukrainian, but lots of people can’t speak it or understand it. Kind of funny huh? Here in Kerch almost no one speaks Ukrainian.

That’s because Ukraine has only been a country since about 1992. For a long time, they were part of the USSR, so most people spoke Russian. Now kids study Ukrainian in school & hear it on the radio & on TV.

Here’s an example. In English we write Kerch, Crimea but the city sign here is in Russian so it says Керчь,Крым and in Ukrainian, it is written like this: Керч Крим.

Your Pal, Плоский Стэнли Flat Stanley

Russian Language…


Ukrainian Folk Costumes & Music…

Dear Journal,

We went to a folk festival & saw a band of bandura players wearing Cossack costumes.

Cossacks are soldiers from the olden days – they rode horses & were fierce fighters. They also like to sing & dance. They often wear red boots, big baggy trousers & have long mustaches.

Every part of Ukraine has a special folk costume. Most of them have lots of red & black embroidery on them. The girls wear flowers and ribbons in their hair.

There was lots of dancing & singing. We had a great time!

Your Buddy,Stanley


Festival Photos…

I wish you could hear the music!


Flat Cat & T-shirts…Dear Journal,

Today we got souvenir t-shirts. Mine says: “I Crimea” - only in Russian! Some Stanleys got shirts with other sayings.

We also had another surprise today. We each got a Flat Cat to take with us! There are so many cats in Mark & Ginny’s courtyard, so they made arrangements for us each to have one. Won’t the students back in Chicago be surprised to meet our pet cats?

Tomorrow we will take our souvenirs & our Flat Cats, climb into an envelope & get mailed of to our next host. I hate to leave Kerch, but I bet I’ll have fun wherever I go next!

Sincerely,

Stanley


Cats in courtyard…

No one “owns” the cats & dogs living in the courtyard, but everyone gives them scraps to eat. We found some Flat Cats!

Many courtyards have benches like this. Older women like to sit there in the sun & visit with friends, watch the children, & feed the

local cats.


Time to travel to another place!Mr P took us to the local post office where he mailed us off!

Yep, the 21 of us flat guys split up to have our own individual adventures with other PCVs throughout Ukraine!

Some of us will go to summer camps, some will be in small villages, and some will be in cities. You will have to read our individual journals to find out about our other adventures!

I sure am glad we got to come to Ukraine!


We all want to say a big thank you to the Peace Corps Volunteers in Peace Corps Ukraine.

We had such a great time with you & learned so much too.

The people we met in Ukraine (and Armenia!) learned a lot about the USA from us & we made so many new friends.

You PCVs also made our travels so much fun.

Thank you for helping us with our journals & including us in your activities. Thank you for the souvenirs, postcards & photos. You are very special people!

Thank You!


Want to know more about Peace Corps?

• Official Peace Corps web site:

http://www.peacecorps.gov

http://www.peacecorps.gov/kids

• Read more about Mark & Ginny’s experiences at:

http://www.pulverpages.com

Disclaimer: This is not an official publication of the Peace Corps. Content is personal & does not reflect the position of the US Government or the Peace Corps.

Documents

By Flat Stanley - with help from Mark & Ginny Pulver Disclaimer: This is not an official publication of the Peace Corps. Content is personal & does not