First Project!!!

As a volunteer I am required to do outside projects, besides teaching. Although they can be teaching related, most volunteers choose to do other things.  Last week I completed my first project, which was helping to organize a spring clean-up at my school and nearby grounds.

I will be frank and tell you that there is a lot of trash on the ground in Ukraine. After the Soviet Union collapsed, there were not a lot of people around to pick up garbage and not a whole lot of garbage cans arround either. Needless to say there are a lot of environmental problems here, but I hope to tackle a few of them during my time here.

I got some help for a International NGO called Let's Do It, which gave my school gloves and bags. The purpose of Let's Do It is to get people, especialy youth involved in cleaning up and taking care of their environement.

Before we began the clean-up I decided that I should teach my students what they should and should not throw on the ground. 

One of my second form students deciding where to throw her bottle. She guessed right.   

Students running to pick-up garbage.

A group of students, my counterpart Sveta and I posing next to a poster for the Lets Do It ad campaign.

 The clean-up went well and we even managed to hold off some stormy skies. Spring clean-ups are common here as we are getting ready for Easter this Sunday and Monday.  Hopefully I will do some more environmental related activities with my students in the future. My goal is to create a recycling program at my school, which is very progressive for this part of Ukraine. As an incentive for my students, I made M&M cookies for them. They were a hit and hopefully the memory of them will encourage my students and fellow teachers to not litter.

My M&M cookies. I now know why my mom does not bake cookies, but my students and fellow teachers really enjoyed them.