я не понимаю!

If Ukraine's taught us anything, it's how to "play it by ear" or "go with the flow". We are both planners by nature and we've never been the type to hop on a plane when we see an incredible last minute airfare or jump in the car for a road trip on a whim. If you'd told us two years ago that we would one day be able to pack for a two-week trip in less than thirty minutes and in only one backpack, we would have laughed but that is something we do very well now!

This week has been one of our most unpredictable weeks in Ukraine (speaking of unpredictability, after typing this whole entry and trying to publish it, the internet went down, we lost all our work, and had to start from scratch -- twice. Boo!) and required a lot of flexibility on our part . Since it's Lauren's fall break, we had decided to take the time to visit Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk, two Eastern Ukrainian cities we have yet to fully explore. We didn't really do much planning in the way of overnight accomodations or travel plans, other than checking on bus and train tickets, and we still didn't have a concrete plan the day before we were scheduled to leave! That turned out to be a good thing though because in the end, we didn't end up going anywhere at all.

You see, Lauren's Fitness Center was scheduled to have its grand opening next Friday and while she'd been trying to plan it with her colleagues for over two months, her school had been pretty cavalier about the whole thing. At first, Lauren thought that maybe the opening was going to be low-key after all but she should have known that this was just typical Ukrainian procrastination! As we've inched closer to the big day, the plans have gotten grander and grander and what started as "let's show off our equipment" has turned into a 2-hour event, complete with a school assembly, a ribbon cutting ceremony, numerous speeches, a PowerPoint presentation on nutrition, and a tea party. Did we mention that the mayor will be there to cut the ribbon? As you can imagine, we canceled our travel plans so that Lauren could help get everything in order for the big day.

Enter Epidemic 2009. It seems that since October 19th, almost *gasp* 30 Ukrainians have died from a mysterious virus, which may turn out to be the swine flu. So far, these deaths have only been in Western Ukraine but nine oblasts have restricted travel and schools will be closed nationwide for three weeks, starting on Monday (which will make for four total, when you include this past week's fall break). In addition to that, all mass gatherings have been forbidden nationwide which means that the Fitness Center grand opening has been canceled and will likely be rescheduled for the Friday following Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that is right smack dab in the middle of when we are supposed to host a bunch of other PCVs for Thanksgiving so Lauren is desperately trying to get the opening pushed back yet another week!

In light of the fact that there's just no way to tell when this long awaited Fitness Center will finally open, we thought we'd share with you a few pictures from the final product. The goal of the Center is to provide a place for our town's secondary students to have something fun and positive to do after school, while building leadership skills in a small number of selected youth. 60 students, 30 boys and 30 girls, will have the opportunity to engage in an hour of fitness, three times a week for a small monthly donation. The Fitness Center will be staffed by eight student volunteers, who have been trained to monitor the Center's activities and to lead fitness classes.

Thanks to a grant funded by USAID (aka your tax dollars), we were able to buy a flat screen television, speakers, and stereo system so that the student instructor will be able to either play her own mix along with a self-created routine or play a fitness video. We bought enough fitness balls, step platforms, stretching mats, ab rollers, and handweights for 10 students:

We also purchased self-training equipment, including an elliptical trainer, a stationary bicycle, a sit-up bench, a bench press with leg extension, a multi-purpose weight station, and two pull-up bars with leg lift and sit-up extensions:Here's a full shot of the Center from behind the bench press, just to give you an idea of the overall size of the space:

We are very pleased with how the Center has turned out and hopeful that it will truly be able to meet the needs of the targeted youth -- whenever it becomes available, that is!

We're off to Kharkov in just two hours for a weekend Halloween party with other PCVs. We hope to have some fabulous costume pictures to share when we return so stay tuned.

In closing, we'd like to wish a belated happy birthday to Michael's sister, Melissa, and his mom, Betty, who both celebrated birthdays in the past 10 days. We'd also like to pass on our congratulations to our good friends, Keith and Leigh, who got married this past Saturday and to Lauren's best friend from childhood, Casey and her husband, Kerry, who welcomed their first child on Tuesday -- a baby boy, Emmitt Foster. Exciting times!

And on a final note, we'll leave you with this picture of Halloween 1985. From l-r, Lauren as an angel, in a handmade costume made by her mother; Casey as Rainbow Brite, in a handmade costume made especially for the occasion; and for our FBC readers, Matthew Hinson as Big Bird: