fast rewarding

18Oct11

Passively watching the half-built/graffitied buildings that follow me home, I can’t help but feel that it actually is home – that in many ways, Ukraine is more my home than America is. I know that’s a complicated reality, and it’s not fully true. After PC, I’ll long for Ukraine in ways I’ve yet to long for America and I don’t know how to fully describe why.

Rewind and fast forwarding simultaneously:

After MASCOT, I had a small freak-out. Part of it had to do with realizing I wouldn’t be at the next year’s camp, and part of it had to do with realizing that mostly through a lot of error, I’d mastered certain skills within organizing and coordinating the camp and within the idea of using camps and seminars to explore civic engagement. I’d realized that the unabashed passion I had for speaking about civic engagement stemmed from my high school years, and that there was something more to what I wanted. If my life’s declared theme is to provide a space for transformation, then I could do that through any medium – but just what medium, I still don’t have an answer to that…

Which means that in working at the university, my projects have slightly switched to a new theme: using creative practices to transform the approach to society. I really love teaching at the university. It’s really great to talk about different intense theories in order to question what is happening. We had our first writing seminar a few weeks back and it’s been a series of learning practices since them. This seminar spiraled into holding a weekly creative writing club (starting tomorrow!). Next up: writing poetry and book arts! – That’s an interesting complex as well learning/leading a program similar to that which I was really intimidated and avoided taking at Evergreen.

The wild thing? This academic year doesn’t have any heaviness or weight to it – which is weird because it’ll be extremely difficult in May to transition back to America – to put down projects and my life here in order to step beyond what is now. I can smell the seven months that are meticulously dieing between me and May, where I’ll sniff and another reality will be thrust upon me.

There’s also a lead into the next step: soon, you’ll probably see updates for a project that will involve recording equipment – really basic and simple equipment, but it’s a good starting project. At the start of my invitation to transfer to the university, I was requested to work on a grant/project that will include creating an online resource library, and teach editing skills to students and teachers. One of the things I really love about the university where I am is the push towards using different venues of technology in the classroom, because it’s a definite need in education system here.

The scope of the project: purchasing 5 extremely basic camcorders, 1 decent camcorder and the best, most accessible, and reasonably priced editing software available so far. The plan is to train teachers in designing class projects using this equipment. The total cost of purchasing this equipment is about $910. We’re going through the Partnership Grant one more time, which means…

As soon as the project is posted online, we will need your immediate donations to the project. We absolutely have to have the project funded by early December in order to receive the funds, implement the project and complete project reporting by the time I leave…This means, please don’t wait or think about donating, please just go ahead and donate to the project. The faster this project gets implemented, the more we can do with the equipment.

In some version of 2-part summary. The space and presence of now is really great. I’ve been a part of the education system in some way my entire life. The projects I’m aware of and participate in stem from that environment. I’m happy to be at a different level – working in a Ukrainian university, exploring that reality, and will definitely be ready for a new reality post May. The question is, just what?

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