Interview with Emmery Brakke, August 7, 2020

Partial Transcript: Alright. Um, today is August 7, 2020. This is Candice Wiggum RPCV from North Macedonia 2009 to 2012, and today I am interviewing Emmery Brakke?

Segment Synopsis: Brakke is from Rhode Island. She studied music business in college and worked in the entertainment business for a few years. She worked for the Sundance Film Festival as a seasonal job and was looking for a new career path. She wanted to live in Eastern Europe because her family is from there and remembered Peace Corps as an opportunity. The sector was community and economic development but it was phrased for Ukraine as NGO advising volunteers and she had been working nonprofit so she felt qualified. She discusses her application process. She also discusses her family background and ethnic heritage in detail. She wanted to get to know her ethnic heritage better. She discusses her familiarity with languages.

Keywords: Film industry; Nursery rhymes; Songs; Work

Subjects: Belarus; Careers.; Community development.; Cyrillic alphabet.; Edmonton (Alta.); Europe, Eastern; Families.; Heritage; Language learning and language teaching; Motion picture industry.; Non-governmental organizations.; Nonprofit organizations.; Peace Corps (U.S.); Peace Corps (U.S.)--Ukraine.; Pronunciation; Rhode Island; Russia.; Russian language.; Soviet Union.; Sundance Film Festival; Teaching languages, literatures, and cultures; Ukraine.; Ukrainian language.; Women in community development

Partial Transcript: And where did you train?

Segment Synopsis: Brakke describes the city she trained in (Zhytomyr). She lived in a small apartment in the city with a host family. Her training was three months long. She describes how they learned where they were going for their service. She describes her city (Irpin), stating how it was only recently modernized. She describes a statue of Ukrainian icon Taras Shevchenko. She worked for the city council. She discusses her first counterpart, who was highly trained. After a year, she was reassigned to a new counterpart who was new in the city council and actually needed Brakke's help. Her new counterpart worked for a deputy mayor focused on education and culture. This counterpart wanted to go to project design trainings and networking, unlike the first counterpart, who didn't need the trainings. They wrote an SPA grant for a project in the schools. They did a program for female teachers, training them on how to design projects, how to teach environmental behavior, and how to design activities for students.

Keywords: Irpin (Ukraine); Kiev (Ukraine); Kyiv (Ukraine); Kyiv Oblast (Ukraine); Networking; SPA program; Small Project Assistance (SPA) Program; Small project assistance program; Zhytomyr (Ukraine)

Subjects: Apartments.; Careers.; City council members; Civil servants; Civil service; Community development.; Dwellings.; Economic development.; Education & culture; Education.; English language.; Environmental education.; Government employees; Housing.; Irpinʹ (Ukraine); Kyïvsʹka oblastʹ (Ukraine); Occupational training.; Peace Corps (U.S.); Peace Corps (U.S.)--Ukraine.; Schools.; Shevchenko, Taras, 1814-1861; Teachers--Training of.; Teachers.; Training; Ukraine.; Women in community development; Women in the civil service; Women teachers.; Work.; Z︠H︡ytomyrsʹka oblastʹ (Ukraine)

Partial Transcript: And what was your daily life like?

Segment Synopsis: Brakke says she didn't have set hours or a reliable schedule. She spent a lot of time working for the Peace Corps office, directly working with the project manager for community development. She traveled to other volunteers' sites, collaborating with them. In the summer, she was involved in camps. She didn't have a typical schedule until her last three or four months as a volunteer leader, which she later describes. She worked on training, helping make the content systematic. She lived with the woman who ended up being the deputy mayor of education and culture for six months, then lived in her own apartment. In her second year, a nice grocery store was built near her apartment. She would go to the bazaar on the weekends. She discusses her travel around Ukraine, mainly by train.

Keywords: Jobs; Kiev (Ukraine); Recreation; Schedules

Subjects: Apartments.; Bazaars (Markets); Buses.; Camps.; Careers.; Civil servants; Civil service; Community development.; Daily life; Education & culture; Education.; Government employees; Housing.; Kyïv (Ukraine); Occupational training.; Passenger trains.; Peace Corps (U.S.); Peace Corps (U.S.)--Ukraine.; Project managers; Scheduling.; Schools.; Teachers--Training of.; Training; Travel.; Ukraine.; Volunteers; Women in community development; Women in the civil service; Work.

Partial Transcript: When did you first hear about COVID?

Segment Synopsis: Brakke first heard about COVID-19 as a concept in the New York Times. A few days before the evacuation, she had a call from a friend saying they were going to be sent home. She was involved in a program called Destination Imagination and there was an announcement that the tournament was being postponed. The borders were shut down, which kicked off the evacuation. Their evacuation was before the global Peace Corps evacuation. They were asked to return to their sites, stay in one place and confirm their home of record. She went out with a friend and received the email that they were evacuating while she was out. After being told to be in the capital, it took another six days to leave.

Keywords: Destination Imagination

Subjects: Belarus; COVID-19 (Disease); Carpathian Mountains; Coping; Europe, Eastern; Evacuation of civilians; Health risk assessment.; Immunodeficiency; International relations.; Lʹviv (Ukraine); Madrid (Spain); Medicine, Preventive; National Democratic Institute for International Affairs; Passenger trains.; Public health.; Quarantine.; Russian language.; Social distancing (Public health); Transparency International; Travel.; Ukrainian language.

Partial Transcript: But, um, yeah for us it was just kind of like a lot of uncertainty but what were we gonna do about it?

Segment Synopsis: Brakke discusses the process of figuring out how to isolate for two weeks. She says it was nice to have a piano back that she was able to play to cope with the process. She discusses how she had to process what happened after the fact. She relates how her experience being cut off from her friends during her time in Peace Corps made the transition to social distancing and self-isolation fairly seamless. She was lucky because she actually finished her two years. She took advantage of extended college application deadlines and applied to grad school, but deferred it for a year. She's in Rhode Island with her parents, isolating. She isn't able to work because her parents are higher risk. She says Peace Corps has influenced her decision to get her Master's in International Affairs, in the comparative and regional studies program, focused on Eastern Europe. She wants to reconnect with her great aunt about her experience in Ukraine. She describes her family's visits to Ukraine.

Keywords: Comparative and regional studies; International affairs

Subjects: American University (Washington, D.C.); Belarus; COVID-19 (Disease); Carpathian Mountains; Comparative studies; Coping; Education, Higher.; Europe, Eastern; Evacuation of civilians; Families.; Friendship.; Health risk assessment.; Immunodeficiency; International relations.; Interpersonal relations; Lifestyles.; Lʹviv (Ukraine); Medicine, Preventive; National Democratic Institute for International Affairs; Passenger trains.; Pianists; Piano.; Public health.; Quarantine.; Rhode Island; Russian language.; Social distancing (Public health); Social interaction.; Transparency International; Travel.; Ukrainian language.; Women in higher education.; Women--Education (Higher)