I think it is safe to say that few volunteers have developed a closer relationship to Ukraine than Kavita Pullapilly. She stayed with her host family all 3 years of service, became the godmother of her host siblings’ children, still regularly Skypes with her host mother, and even served as Peace Corps Ukraine’s interim Director of Programming and Training before the evacuation in 2014. Kavita served with group 26, 2006-2009, as a “Business Advising” volunteer in Kolomia, Ivano Frankivsk Oblast. Even though she entered service with substantial professional experience and financial expertise, she had to learn the importance of chai and pechyvo when it comes to finding resources for community development projects. Kavita is currently serving as a Peace Corps Country Director in East Timor.
~Elena Krajeski Board Member, RPCV Alliance for Ukraine
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Peace Corps.
Describe your pre-PC life. What was your education? What was your work experience?
I grew up in South Bend, Indiana as a first generation Indian American. My father immigrated to the US in the early 1960’s as a Catholic priest, but later left the priesthood when he met my mother. He raised my siblings and me to have a sense of service. Summers were always fun because we got to travel. My dad’s academic focus was in Renaissance Reformation, so we often visited Europe as well as India and many states in the US.
When I got to college, I really wanted to study International Relations, but my parents were like, Indian parents–you can either become a doctor, engineer, lawyer, or business person–that’s it. Even as progressive as my parents were, they were worried that with a degree in IR you will never find a job. So, I did business and finance. I worked for General Mills for 8 years after that, then I went back to get my MBA through the management program at Kellogg. I was working full time while studying and commuting 2 hours everyday both ways on a compressed schedule of classes. I got really burned out. One day I was sitting in an interview with one of the consulting firms and they asked me, “What’s the value proposition of Walmart?” and I kept thinking “I really don’t care what it is…” I really needed a break, so I decided to do something completely different which, for me, was to join the Peace Corps.
What was your PC assignment? Tell me about the work you did in Ukraine.
I interviewed for the sector which was then called “Business Advising” but they later refocused several different projects into “Community and Economic Development.” It was difficult to be in Business Advising at the time in Ukraine because the only businesses were mom and pop stores and no one is going to talk to you about marketing and management and show you the books on how to improve financials. Most of what we ended up doing was teaching business practices to NGOs and schools and that’s how it turned into the current structure.
My site was Kolomia, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and my main project was constructing this youth center with an EU grant that my NGO had won. I extended a 3rd year to finish up this project and it was self-sustaining for 10 years until the city took the building away. They are still trying to figure out how to reopen it.
I remember when we were doing the youth center project, we had to go to city hall for the building permit. We had to go in front of the city council and beg for a lease that was super cheap (about a dollar per year?). [My coworkers told me] “You have to speak to them!” I replied “I’ve only been here for 5 months, I don’t think my Ukrainian is strong enough!” They persisted and eventually I complied.
So there I was at the rayona rada in front of about 50 councilmen, including Ivan, my host father. I got up and talked about how important it is to have a youth center in my broken Ukrainian. When I had finished, my host father stood up and said, “My daughter is right!” That was the first time he ever called me his daughter and he did it in public. After that, everyone called me Kavita Ivanivna.
You seem to have a close relationship with your host family. Tell me more about those relationships.
It was amazing because I have this picture of my host brother and sister and me sitting in front of the New Years tree [during my service] and we were so young. Now they have children of their own, but we are still close. Last year I was in Ukraine because I am the godmother to my host sister’s son now. My host mom made matching vyshyvankas for all of us. I still talk to her about every two weeks.
During service, my brother, sister and parents came to visit me. My brother, Anand, stayed with me and my host family for 3 months leading up to the start of his medical school in Poland. He became part of their family too. His girlfriend at the time (who is now his wife) also came to visit.
When I COSed, I took my host brother back with me to the States and he stayed with my sister for 6 months. His English improved so much during that time and has opened so many doors for him. Now he’s the General Manager/Sales Lead for Cargill’s Premix & Nutrition in Ukraine.
I connected my sister-in-law’s brother, Flo with my host brother, Igor as Flo wanted to travel in Ukraine. Now Igor and Flo are also really close. Now they are kume (Flo is the godfather of Igor’s daughter), so it’s this multiple family connection.
What was your next move after you COSed?
When I was still in service, I applied to be a Director of Programming and Training (DPT) with Peace Corps and was lucky enough to be offered the position. I worked my 5 year term as DPT in the Philippines and Guyana until my service timed out. After than, I went on to become a film producer with my sister and my brother-in-law. We launched their first feature film, Beneath the Harvest Sky, (link below) about small town life in Maine. It was a quality independent film on a shoestring budget, which caught the attention of Hollywood. Now they both work in Hollywood as directors. They are working on a couple of film projects as well as some pilots for Amazon.
How did you become DPT for Ukraine?
I was back in Ukraine for my host sister’s wedding in summer 2013 and I stopped by the PC office. Some of the staff members told me how urgently they needed a new DPT because they hadn’t had one for 8 months. I wrote a letter to the country director and 3 months later I was back in Ukraine to serve as DPT. Unfortunately, about 2 weeks later we were evacuating volunteers. It broke my heart to see that. I could tell that volunteers didn’t understand why because they felt perfectly safe in their communities. The Country Director [Doug Teschner] did an amazing job with the whole evacuation process. He absolutely made the right decision because 2 weeks later Crimea was annexed and the oblasts of Luhansk and Donetsk were overrun. We had many volunteers in all those areas.
How did volunteers at the time respond to the evacuation?
In the end, I think what all the volunteers understood was that PC makes these decisions at the right time. You might question them, but you don’t know all the information that the agency knows. What surprised me was how dedicated those volunteers were because when we reopened, a good 30 of them applied for reinstatement which is unheard of. Normally when a program is suspended for [18 months], very few volunteers apply for reinstatement.
I also want to give credit to the amazing staff over there. The Ukraine team is very experienced and innovative. They know how to respond to volunteers and be dynamic with changing groups and changing times. Plus, Ukraine loves Peace Corps. My home base is Chicago now and whenever I hear Russian or Ukrainian I always ask them if they are from Ukraine. If they say yes, they ask me what I was doing there. When they hear Peace Corps, they say, “Oh, I had a teacher” or “There was a volunteer in my town.” It is a widely-known and beloved organization there.
What skills or knowledge did your PC experience give you to prepare you for the work you are doing today? Humor me, even if it’s a little on the nose for you!
In terms of knowledge: patience and perseverance. I’ve definitely become more observant of situations around me. Not for safety reasons, but more for observing people’s reactions and how it gives you a lot of insight of how things are going to play out. That has helped me greatly in managing my staff and PC posts.
In terms of skill: how to connect with a community and motivate people to help with projects. I’ll give an example. After 3 years of PC service and 5 years of DPT service, I was working as a movie producer. We were working in a small town in Maine. This was a low-budget independent film. We were trying to make it with movement and flow.
We shot at about 60 locations and used about 30 actors and we were doing it on a really tight budget. We had to do a lot of begging and pleading to get people to support the film that we were working on. It felt a lot like being a PCV where you are trying to gather in-kind contributions from the community. I remember we needed a boom lift to film a party scene from above. I had to call all over the state of Maine to get one. I used all my community integration skills like, “Do you know so-and-so?” “Oh yeah, I do! We should all get coffee sometime!” Long story short, we got the boom lift for free. I’m telling you, this really works.
Engaging with people is everything—helping to catalyze them for a cause. For the locals, the cause was Maine pride. They wanted to showcase their state in our movie.
I talk to a lot of my volunteers and ask them why they joined PC, and they say “I’m thinking about the Foreign Service” or “I want a career in International Development later,” but in the end we all come to this realization that it wasn’t about that. It was about this feeling of connection.
What would be your advice for returnees who want to stay involved?
Stay connected with your [Ukrainian] community and your host families. That is an important bond and they will always remember you. You can stay involved in people’s lives so much more easily these days though technology. If you want to stay involved in the development of Ukraine, you all have that seed of service in your heart. Find different ways to be of service. Join Alliance for Ukraine, join NPCA.
Peace Corps is one of the strongest networks that you could ever have and we are everywhere in the world. Utilize that network whether it’s to find a job, figure out what you want to do, or just to connect. RPCVs are always there to support one another. Never forget that and always pay it forward by being there for recent returnees.
Beneath the Harvest Sky, a film produced by Kavita.