March 11, 2003

Today I received my site assignment. I will be living and working in Kiev (yes, the capital city)! I will be working for Counterpart International, an international humanitarian aide organization. They are based in Santa Monica, CA and here in Ukraine work on providing direct assistance to urban and rural poor populations, and to develop conections between Ukrainian cities and US cities.

Although the office is in Kiev, they do work all over Ukraine with small, grassroots organizations, and I'll be able to travel all over Ukraine as part of my work. I'll be working on research, report writing, fund raising, and I'll even get to do some website development. This job will start in June.

For the next eleven weeks, I'll be living with a host family in a town outside of Kiev, Borospol. (Actually, the airport is there so just think Burlingame). I'll be studying Russian for four hours a day, and working on a to-be-determined internship. The intership will be done in collaboration with a few other Peace Corps volunteers. We actually get to research a few different organizations and design our own internship.

Oh, and when I move to Kiev I'll also be sharing an apartment with another Peace Corps volunteer, Susan, and she will also be working with Counterpart International. She'll be working in Marketing, is 28 and from Florida. She seems super nice and has also never lived alone.

That's all for now. Even though I only left San Francisco ten days ago, it seems like a lifetime and I miss everyone already! Come visit! (But wait until September, at least).

Best wishes, Delilah

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