Perhaps I'm overreacting. Or maybe just reacting
poorly to cultural differences. The English teacher
came to me and asked that I come to her class after
teacher tea. Ever the obedient, I entered her class
just as she was telling them about a lecture I would
be giving the following day to 40 teachers from the
rayon. Huh? She then handed me a copy of my speech
in English. I needed to memorize the speech today and
be ready to give it at 8 am the following morning.
Uh-huh.
"There are many scientists on the USA, they directly
occupy protecting lodgers of oceans and seas." Occupy
protecting lodgers? How? Anyway, besides that
amazing line, the speech is about a Peace Corps
program "Ecology of the Earth." It describes its
goal as protecting the earth, our home and the need
for clean air and water. Good ideas, but
unfortunately, no program called Ecology of the Earth
exists. The made the program and all of its
information up.
I did what any reasonable person would do. Freaked
out on them. "I need to call my manager. Now." "No,
you are not allowed to call your manager." They know
that my manager always sides with me. I called my
manager who agreed that one day notice to memorize a
speech on something I know nothing about was
ridiculous. She talked to Enna, the English teacher
and then the director.
In the end, they won. They changed the program to
America in general and tried to make me feel guilty
about it all. "She is part of the team! It would not
be right if she didn't speak." Right. If I was part
of the team you would talk to me and invite me to
school events.
Yes, I'm overreacting. This is part of Ukrainian
culture. It is normal for people to give last minute
speeches and I really can't expect them to understand
my point of view. I can ask them how they would feel
if asked to give a last minute speech about a topic
they know nothing about in America, but they still
wouldn't know how it would feel unless they were
actually there in the situation. They can empathize
and agree that life here away from family and friends
can be difficult, but they will never truly understand
what life for me is like – good or bad.
So tomorrow at 8 am I will enter school and give
wonderful speech about how my ambassador just gave
10,000 bird flu protection suits to Ukraine. I'm
still considering throwing in a few lines, maybe about
how the polar bears are coming ashore in Ukraine
because their ice is melting or how "thisisridiculous"
moss is taking over Black Sea coral.
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