back...

So, after 10 days in the mighty west I am back... well, at least in Kyiv. The last time i wrote i was on my way to a 10 day summer camp in just outside of Kosiv, in far-western Ukraine, and now I am finished with probably the best week I have had in Ukraine.
Kosiv is in the south of Ivano Frankivsk Oblast, and right in the heart of the beautiful Carpathian Mountains. I took a train out there with some other volunteers and we arrived Sunday, June 29th in Kosiv. From there, we had to hike the 80 minutes to our camping site. Now, you have to remember that for the last 6 months i have basically just been in Lugansk, where a. it is flat, b. its kind of dirty and c. its dry So i was blown away by hiking up the side of a fairly steep, wet, but absolutely beatiful hillside to our camp for the next 10 days.
Now, I'm not sure how many of you usually go camping with 50 people, but let me tell you, they do it a little differently here. The theory of "leave no trace" is unheard of, so when we arrived at the top of the hill we bypassed the already set up campsite to go into the maddle of a large meadow, and immediately started cutting grass with a scythe (seen in pictures). That stuff is hard work. We had to cute places for the tents, paths to water, etc. We also had to build 3 different toilets (digging toilets and foodpits in thick clay is a good time!!) We also designed some pretty cool firepits and made sure everything was ready for the campers to arrive on Tuesday. Over the next 9 days we taught about 3 lessons a day to 30 campers, ranging from camping, to ecology, to first aid. The rest of the time was spent hiking up and down the hill to a beautiful (well, the water was clean, even if there was trash everywhere) river or hiking into town to prepare food for 50+ people, always a good time.
We also were able to hike Pip Ivan, the 4th highest mountain (2,023meters) in Ukraine, which tooks us 8 hours in total (hiking with 50 people is an entirely new experience. While we were there we were fortunate enough to celebrate a holiday called Ivana Kapala, kind of like a mid-summers holiday which celebrates love. We had some great roasted meet and practiced our jumping over there fire to create good relationships between people.
About 4 days it poured, and many of the students tents failed to pass the test of keeping them dry, but overall, it was amazing. I am exausted as well, and am looking forward to going back and resting a bit in Lugansk before my next big camp in August.
Great to hear from you all.
With Love,
Seth