Special is one of my favorite words. Like interesting, it can mean so many different things. For instance, the Happy Children Club is pretty darn special. My counterpart came into my office yesterday and told me that I must name my English Club. I want to call it English Club. No, that is not acceptable. Ok, how about American Club? Also unacceptable.
What exactly is acceptable then, I asked? Something like the Happy Children Club, she answered. Right. That's a really special name. I thought about Freedom Club. We wanted to use "freedom" for all of our clubs and camps during training. Another volunteer started it by pointing out that there are only tornados in America – nowhere else. That soon turned into, "tornados hate our freedom!" and soon after, blue skies were (and still are) called Freedom Skies.
I really couldn't justify freedom skies club just because it sounded cool though. It also might imply that Ukraine doesn't have freedom which certainly gives off the wrong idea. So in two minutes, I came up with a phrase that captures the American spirit. "The Red, White and Blue Club!" Not only is it super awesome, but the words are easily translatable into English. It can also easily be recognized as an English learning class this way…not.
I actually kind of wish I had chose The Happy Children Club instead because it is so ridiculous it works. And I never could have come up with such an awe-inspiring name on my own. I was thinking about that for the fifth time today (along with the fact that it is 20 days into the school year and I still don't have a schedule – maybe tomorrow?) when the bell rang.
I have started to get a regular group of children that come into my office everyday between classes and after school. One of them – I don't know his name for sure but I'll bet on Sasha or Dima – likes to swear at me in Ukrainian and punch people. I would throw out ADHD but I think that is an understatement. At least when my office gets too crowded he punches people until they leave, making more room. There is also a group of giggly girls who like to point out that this child is bad and says bad things. The little ones also make their appearances, but being too shy to actually pass the threshold into my office, they mainly open the door and yell "My name is Sasha!" and then run away.
I decided today to call this crazy group of children the Happy Children Club because they are definitely special and I can't let the name go to waste. Today they walked me home from school. Before that one of them sat in my office and watched me color for five minutes without talking. I thought it was really weird so I pretended I had to call Peace Corps. They are also bragging to everyone that I can run 5k in 35 minutes. Yeah – those are some pretty awesome eleven minute miles. But the fact that I can actually run for that long amazes them.
So in short, today was pretty special. As was yesterday, when I was told there was no sports club. The kids showed up to my house at 6:15 to get me. I was sleeping. Every day is special here and every day holds some small kind of accomplishment. There is no reason for me to celebrate being here six months when I celebrate that I got through each day every night. I celebrate that I got through that conversation, that I was able to understand what Olia was saying and that I was able to refuse a second helping of borsch. Like I always say, it is the little things that get me through. The little things make each day special in the best sense of the word.
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