Dear Friends, Family, Supporters, & Congregation members,

Being into the New Year many of us take time to reflect on where we have been and where we want to go and with that I realize how important your support has been at getting me to this point. I am grateful for the many letters, emails, postcards, packages and messages I have received.

Nothing I think in my New Years of past compares to this year's festivities. I celebrated New Year's Eve with a fellow volunteer and several Peace Corps volunteers who also work in Munkacs. Within the context of "The Orange Revolutio" as the backdrop it seemed a much needed release for many people. The culmination of the craziness that ensues at such large gatherings came when I was hit with a misdirected rocket, which just bounced off of me, but my friend nearby wasn't so lucky. She had her corduroy pants catch fire, and thankfully extinguished without much effort, still it just seemed to fit in with everything.

This month's program focus is over the work that I am involved in with the youth group at the Munkacs Hungarian Reformed Church. This group has around seven to thirteen girls that come every week on Saturday Afternoon. The minister and his wife lead the youth group. As most youth groups I remember at home they begin sometimes with a small praise time of a few songs. At times I recognize the tunes, though the words remain a mystery to me but I am able to understand the message, which is the important part. Then we have the bible study portion of the meeting. At this time my involvement is more of just being present, which is something new for me when dealing with youth work. Though I have been involved in the ways that I can, I was their St. Mikolas, I helped make Advent crafts with them and even provide some much-enjoyed humor. I do have more hopes once my communication skills increase a bit more.

As many of you may already know Yushchenko (Our Ukraine) was sworn in office as the President of Ukraine on January 23rd, 2005. With his inauguration the events that were set into motion back in October have now been completed. As I write this letter their president is traveling to Russia and the European Union to share his goals for the future of Ukraine. Many things were said and done during the election by both sides and it will remain to be seen what will come of those promises and statements. I am constantly asked if I can feel the change starting but honestly nothing little yet has changed except the atmosphere of the peoples consciousness of their political identity. The real change will begin to be noticed within a year or so once everything has settled and it may even take until their Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's congress equivalent, elections take place.

I have been told that the harder you try not to let time go by the quicker it goes. So far I haven't done so well at trying to take it slow, as I would have like. It appears that I have passed the half-year point and I still feel like I am in the first few months. As with the New Year a time for reflection settles in. In reflecting I must take the good and the bad and move forward over the rest of the year. As much as I tried not to come with any preconceived notions or romantic ideals about what this year's service would bring I wasn't all together successful.

The most frustrating has been the language, and to be fair to the program I haven't put in the necessary effort to advance as fast as I would have liked. I say this part as a warning, Hungarian is difficult and learning it in a Ukrainian city a little bit more difficult. Though with that, I have spent a portion of January at my coworker Robi Mida's house in rural Hungary. My language skills are progressing a bit better than before and the hill that I stood in front of before doesn't seem so high anymore. I also let my romanticized thoughts on my year being focused on Roma Rights work envelope the openness that I should have had. Though I don't do much with Roma Rights I do now realize what my focus had been laid out for me, education.

The education system in Ukraine is a complex and troubled reality and when dealing with minorities it is discouraging and even more so with Roma. This initially was very intimidating but as time has continued I feel that I can at least wrap a thought around it. I hope that within the second half of this year to continue to work on educational issues and realistically that is a form of Roma Rights. The only drawback is that it took me a while to figure that out. Also with that the importance of sharing this knowledge with others in this context will strengthen the resolve, I hope, of the world community in aiding these issues.

If you came across this letter or given it by someone else and would like to be added to the list of people I send it out to then email me at Brenton_NI@Yahoo.com Also if you have any questions, comments, or anything feel free to send me an email at the above address. With the New Year I have updated another set of photos to my website http://Brenton-ni.blogspot.com Be sure to see the little Christmas angels from the Roma Reformed church and also the Christmas photos from the Ukrainian State School for the Roma.

Most importantly I want to thank you again for you continued prayers and support this year. If in your prayers you could remember Robi and myself for continued energy in our teaching and interactions in Munkacs.

Peace,
Brenton Thompson
Roma Project YAV