PC Ukraine Group 14

[Luise Faber]

Hi there,

YALTA 2011, the time for the grand party! It will be ten years since most of our group left Ukraine. What a time to see each other again! You don't want to miss it.

People seem to be shooting for dates close to June more or less with plans for a Black Sea Cruise and/or visiting places close by.

You all know by now that this all started from the photo I took some years ago and sent out recently of Harry, Peter, Karen, Avis and Carolyn from group 17 enjoying Yalta . Harry always comes up with these good ideas, doesn't he?

I finally got my pic uploaded to this website and the instructions are very easy. I just had to wait longer because my machine is so slow. Hey try it and let's get your pics on this website.

Hope to make it to Yalta in 2011 and I promise to be there without my furry friends.

Cheers,

[Harry Stevens]

The year 2011 happens to my 55th wedding anniversary and college reunion -- both of which I will celebrate (along with three or more other major anniversaries, as mentioned below) -- at least electronically now, if not physically then -- with friends, classmates, fellow volunteers and family -- at a great place where I served in the Peace Corps (PC):

Nikita Botanical Gardens in YALTA
Crimea peninsula on the Black Sea

Eight of us, one of whom is in Yalta, will begin having quarterly toll-free audio Skype conference calls on this Sunday, 17 May 2009, at 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. PDT) to set the schedule for PC-founded'61@50, PCUkraine@20, FoU@10 and PCU Group 1-35 reunions in June 2011.

We can handle up to 25 on such calls, so say HERE & NOW if you're Skypable then. If you can't join us Sunday and have ANY interest, please say so via REPLY ALL so others will know your preferences. What we think so far that many prefer is described in the next couple of notes from me as the convener of the first two Yalta-in-2011 Skype calls. Those plans are 100% flexible now but may harden quickly. So, if you want to be there, please say so soon.

First, in a 2nd note (coming after this note & thanks to grants from FoU and from MNrpcv), there is a PC-third-goal opportunity ( to "BRING your Peace Corps experience home to the US") to get neighbors, friends & families of volunteers who serve(d) anywhere -- to learn about the biggest US PC country in the world, Ukraine -- not in 2011, but in 2009, via 10 video 1-hour Skype calls, live from a MN Sister College in Kherson (where I taught in PC}. All one need do is to get up early enough (6 a.m. PT, 7 MT, 8 CT, 9 ET or wherever) to be online for one hour ten times, beginning in late September and ending in early December of this year, 2009. Your Skype links can be tested in early June, a few weeks from now. (If you haven't done so, download free & toll-free http://skype.com software to start enjoying audio/video communications with family and friends, independent of whether or not this opportunity interests you.)

If this of interest say say so HERE & NOW. If your computer is already set up for video Skype, then please consider forwarding the next two notes to invite someone(s) to participate -- at your place or at an office, a nearby college, school or maybe a library -- for an hour/week in this course on Ukrainian culture by Petro in Ukraine.

He will also next year offer conversational Russian and survival Ukrainian online to anyone preparing to travel to southern Ukraine. These developmental courses at only $90/person (or per couple) might be offered as credit courses in 2010-11 but be five times more expensive, when he expects to join others already here, from his University in Ukraine at their sister college in southern Minnesota.

In a 3rd note, we have good news for those not wanting in May-June 2011 to switch among hotels nor find PCV pads on which to crash: -- a good price on taking a cruise down the river from Kiev to the Kherson sister college of Riverland (of Austin, Owatonna and Albert Lea, MN) College and around the Black Sea from Yalta to Odessa.

Please at least scan those next two notes. While 2011 seems a ways off, the fun via Skype begins now! Please read on.

I'll wait to post the next two above-mentioned notes here AFTER a few folks first comment here.

What we need to see here are specific plans developing here just for our Group 14 reunion, which I assume will take place in Cherkassy, where we received training, as well as in Kiev, Yalta, Odessa and other places where we served.

Will you try returning to your site, Luise, while in Ukraine in 2011?

[Luise Faber]

Harry asked if I intended to return to my site if I am fortunate to be in Ukraine in 2011: I already emailed Eleonora, who was my counterpart to let her know of our plans. Hey you never know, I may be able to connect with a few
people I knew "back when".

[Harry Stevens]

Four or five from Group 14 -- Peter, Yvonne, Luise, Avis and I -- will "attend" the Friends of Ukraine annual meeting on Saturday, 26 Sep, "from" Savannah, GA via Skype. I'm bringing a laptop computer to use for that purpose.

Luise, once both the DC and GA meeting sites get settled, could you email our entire Group to ask them to join us in-person in DC or GA or on Skype or on a TOLL-FREE phone conference call that maybe ROSS can set up with AT and T a month early so you could include the 877 number in an email to Group 14 next week?