The First Day of School

September 1st of every year is the Holiday of Knowledge in Ukraine. This is the day that all kids, from the youngest thru college, go to school for the first day of the year. At the Secondary School and Gymnasium, there was the ringing of the first bell, a playing of the national hymn, and speeches by local administration officials and the director of the School. After the celebration and invitation from the oldest students to lead the youngest students into the school, we had one lesson. Then the holiday truly begins.

Since the first fell on a Friday, that meant after the ceremony, one lesson, the next course of action was to get together with the teachers and celebrate at a local restaurant. One thing that truly is great here are the meals together with groups. Different courses just keep coming and coming, and the traditional drink here is vodka. This is basically consumed in shots which are accompanied by toasts. The toasts range from good health, to good friendship, and a good, productive school year, but in some cases it takes like 5 minutes to say just that. It really is a good time and you definitely could drink too much if you tried, but with all the salads, bread, meat, potatoes and candy, it would definitely take some effort.

The orphanage in Zalishchyky celebrated the first day of School on the 3rd of September and we were invited to take part. It was very much like the celebrations at the Secondary School and Gymnasium in town. The ceremony involves playing the national hymn, a parade of the flag, and the ringing of the first bell. It was really neat to see the oldest students welcoming the students to the first form. They provided them with their first notebooks, pens, and the class received a globe and games. You could see the kids light up with excitement over the whole procession. During the ceremony, members of the local administration spoke, the director welcomed everyone, a local priest blessed the day, and Scott addressed those in attendance. The celebration ended with the oldest students leading the kids into their classrooms so they could get things settled. Afterwards, we met with the director, the priest and nuns, and others from the orphanage for a small gathering afterwards. It was so memorable to see all the excitement in everyone’s faces, from the children to the director.

Scott is assisting with English classes as the Secondary School #1 while the staff finalizes the school schedule. Beth is co-teaching Healthy Lifestyles at the Gymnasium and assisting with English classes when needed. We are both establishing English clubs for interested students at our schools. In addition to our schools, we have committed to 4 hours a week at the local orphanage for special needs children from the region. The children have no or little knowledge of English, so we are starting from scratch and enjoying our time these special children.