Roger Merritt's Home Page

Kiev School 135

The building on the left is School 135, where we taught conversational English. We tried to get there at 9:00AM and usually stayed till 7:00PM, four days a week (9:00 to Noon on Fridays). This schedule became quite rigorous after a while, but I managed to stick with it, and was usually exhausted by the end of the day.

Here is the classroom where I taught one-on-one with my Ukrainian students. I am pictured with Nick Ostrovsky, who had a good command of the English language already, as did several of my students. We engaged in Bible reading, and much conversation about life in general, especially comparing similarities and differences between life in the Ukraine, England, and America.

School 135 was located in central Kiev, not far from the University metro station. It was a typical elementary school building in a lot of ways, with children coming and going, but after school was out for summer break it was quieter. The English department allowed us to use two of their rooms, and a small auditorium for our lessons. The school graciously met our needs, and we spent a lot of time there, although, we occasionally incurred the wrath of the infamous key lady, for misplacing the keys! As our daily schedule became routine, we got to know our students more, and more. Some of them were math teachers at the polytech, doctors, computer software developers, journalists, engineers, and some where college students, shop workers, or unemployed. Some of my lessons were straight by the book, and some were more personal, depending on the student. Most Ukrainians were very open, easy to talk to, and showed a great amount of curiosity and appreciation. I learned a lot about Ukrainian people, and have the utmost respect for them.

Every Thursday night we held a party for our students at the school. Each week was about a different theme of "American Culture"--country western, Disney, the 50's, etc.--and the turnout was always very good. This brought about many invitations to visit with Ukrainians at home, some of which could be accepted, but many could not due to our busy schedule.

This is School 53 where the Kiev church met. As you can see, it was a school auditorium with limited space, but they could seat as many as 70 people, sometimes more. I was impressed with the way the Ukrainians conducted the services. The talks were usually translated into English or Russian, and we sang in both languages. The Ukrainian brethren were mostly young people who loved to sing and learn new songs.

Click here for a map of Ukraine