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It's been a while since I've written anything here (January to be exact), and there are plenty of reasons (or excuses) why. Perhaps mainly there hasn't been anything I've felt like writing about. That's not to say nothing has happened over the last 6 months. It's just that I was never motivated to write. If I chose to write something in January, I probably would have whined and complained about not being able to run because my knee was swollen and inflamed. Or frustrated at the lack of answers about why left hand was still screwed up (I found it was broken two months after the injury- that's Peace Corps medical follow-up!). From February until April it was planning for YMLP camp, Model UN meetings, and starting my graduate school project. In the case of the latter, it ended up as one of the biggest disappointments of my Peace Corps service, but explaining why isn't really interesting to me. I'd rather write about things on the other end of the spectrum.

First, YMLP camp a few weeks ago was awesome. It was a ton of work, starting months before the campers arrived in late June, but I have to say it was overall one of my best experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer. I think one of the highlights was the Day It Poured. We as coordinators feared this day throughout the planning process, and despite our efforts to borrow a large canopy tent for rain protection we could not find an organization help us out. So we went into camp knowing that we were at the mercy of Mother Nature, and if it poured, then we'd just have to deal and hope the campers don't call Mom and ask for a ride home. Well, on the Day It Poured, it really did. Tents and sleeping bags were drenched thanks to shoddy waterproofing (and some people leaving the tents themselves open....). The main 'parade ground' in front of the mountain house facility turned into a mudpit. But the one thing I remember from that experience was during the Karate class held by a volunteer from visiting YMCA West Kent. At that point it had not yet begun to rain, so the instructor and around 10 campers were busy practicing (loudly grunting) their karate moves. All of sudden, the skies opened up and it became a monsoon. Hearing the rain, I walked outside and watched as they continued, not bothered at all by the downpour, and actually having more fun than before. It was like watching a Karate Kid movie, like they all needed the rain for more dramatic effect. At that moment it was clear that the vast majority of the campers really wanted to be at this camp, and a little rain wasn't going to stop them from having a great time.

Tajmiste, near the campground.

Morning announcements at camp.

So camp ended about two weeks ago, and since then I've been prepared for a trip that I've thought about doing for nearly 4 years, ever since my first trip to Krakow in December 2009. Before I left for that unforgettable trip (still one of the most memorable of my entire life), I was curious about whether my family still had relatives in Poland and whether there was a chance I could meet them. I learned from a relative that my Polish great-grandfather Piotr came to America from a village called Potik Zolotyi in what is now part of western Ukraine. This area was always a mix of ethnic Poles and Ukrainians, and after World War II the borders changed, and it became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. This region, called Eastern Galicia, was 'ethnically-cleansed' by Stalin, forcing nearly all Poles in the area to either relocate west in the communist Polish Republic or head to Siberia or Central Asia. I say nearly all because according to family history my great-grandfather's younger sister Anna remained while the rest of his siblings made their way to America before the outbreak of World War I. I have no idea why she stayed behind, whether she had kids and family, or whether there are others with my family name (Basamanowicz) still today living in western Ukraine. So my goal is to find out about Anna, and of course anything else about my great-grandfather and his siblings, and just see where it leads me.

My great-grandfather's naturalization papers.

My route. While most of the trip is in Ukraine, I could not miss a chance to see more of Poland while I was nearby...

Some of this information I've gathered in the years after my first trip to Poland, but I knew before going to Krakow that I couldn't simply 'drop in' to see my great-grandfather's village and hope to get some kind of deep meaning out of it. I needed to have enough time and help. Time meaning a flexible schedule where if I had to, I could stay 10 days. By saving my last 15 days of Peace Corps vacation for this trip, I can afford to stay in the area basically as long as I need to. I'm planning to go to L'viv, Kyiv, Warsaw, and Gdansk as part of this trip, but that assumes a 3-4 day stay in the general vicinity of my great-grandfather's village. Next, and most important, I needed some help to pull this off. So last fall I started contacting Peace Corps volunteers who either were serving in Ukraine or recently completed their service, and thanks to one incredibly helpful volunteer I eventually was put in touch with a Ukrainian university student (majoring in English), who agreed to not only act as my translator, but also opened up her house for me to stay during my visit. Not only that, my translator's family is going to drive 2 hours to pick me up at the train station in the city of Chernivtsi! I haven't even arrived and I am already overwhelmed by their generosity and hospitality. With the help of a local translator (who happens to live 50km from my great-grandfather's village), I really feel like if there is anything to be found about my family in the area, I will find it. On the other hand, there is a chance I will find nothing too. After my great-grandfather left, two of the worst wars in human history ravaged the area, so the records could have been destroyed or lost forever. Nevertheless, the story about Anna gives me hope, since she would have survived both wars, and supposedly outlived the Soviet Union too. What I do know for certain is that this trip is not like any other I've made before. I have no idea what to expect. But as my first experience in Krakow showed me, I tend to have the best trips in these situations.

When I return on August 7th, expect a full recap and lots of photos. And then expect me to start writing more often because I've been inspired to write about running after reading Haruki Murakami's book about the subject. I'll be training this fall for the Valencia marathon in Spain, and I've realized there are a lot of interesting stories to be told from the runner's point of view...some funny, but many just weird or odd. And of the course the obligatory being-chased-by-giant-dog stories.