(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . So, I started doing a good thing yesterday. [1] ['Thom Hartmann', 'Chitown Kev', 'Belinda Ridgewood', 'Bill In Portland Maine'] Date: 2026-08-25 I moved house and switched up my hustle earlier this year. And, as the dust settled, I started to look around at the world to find a place to put some “make the world a better place and be part of something bigger than me” energy. Being election season, I bugged a couple of campaigns with an eye to helping set up or organize somebody’s phone-banking efforts. That went nowhere. Maybe everyone I reached out to already had that covered. Then, I came back to Ukraine. In a consideration kinda way, not an international travel kinda way. A while back, when I was bit more flush, I sent money off a couple of times as part of the crowd-funding a war business. However, I have more time than money these days, so I searched for a thing I could do to support Ukraine and Ukrainians without having to travel there and without having to open up my wallet. I returned to Volunteering Ukraine, a site I had visited a while back when I had a notion of traveling to Ukraine to volunteer. Although most of the opportunities listed there are in person, I found a couple that were remote/ worldwide. I contacted Balakun. Contacting: What is Balakun? Lo and behold, someone in that organization figured that question might come up some day, so they made a nice little flyer with an answer. I could ramble on or I could just show you the flyer they already made. Balakun.org I reached out to Balakun about two weeks ago. I quickly got a reply asking to set up a little video chat so one of the on-boarding volunteers could ask a few standard due diligence questions and get some eyes and ears on me before turning me loose on a learner. Can I truly speak English? (yes, I can). Am I looking at this as professional teaching experience ? (nope). Why am I interested? (want to help). Am I super creepy or crazy? (not that I let on). Do I have ESL teaching experience? (not at all). Do I have any teaching experience (barely) Position on Crimea? (It is Ukraine) Foreign Language Skills? (poor) Stress Management strategies? (REDACTED) Ability to help with specific niches, such as Medical English, IT English, etc. (maybe a little bit in one or two of those categories). We spent a little time chatting about what would help make the experience work for me. For example, would I be comfortable with early learners or would I prefer an intermediate or more advanced learner. The interviewer also asked a few questions such as “What are some of your hobbies?”. Balakun works to set up long term one-on-one relationships between people, and there is a backlog of students looking for mentors, so they might as well get a head start on the next step: Matching. A couple of days later, I got matched with a learner. “Yay!”, “I about to going to start new adventure.”, “I’m going to add one little drop to some cosmic bucket of good.”, ” I am going to meet a new person.”, “I am going to learn a few things about Ukraine.”, “I am going to learn a few things about myself.”. “Oh, the places I’ll go!” and “Oh Crap.”, ” I don’t know how to teach English (I know, I know…, this is not teaching ESL, but still, I don’t want to waste anyone’s time by being lame)”, “How should prepare?”, “What have I gotten myself into?” Lucky for me, I am not the first person to volunteer for Balakun (they started a few years ago and have connected a couple thousand folks). They have support material. Webinar- style youtube videos. Written resources. Starter guides and reference guides. So, in the time between setting up the first mentoring meeting and actually having that meeting, I checked out some of these resources. Did it ease some of my nervousness? Sure did. Did it make me completely comfortable doing what I had volunteered to do? Nope. But, I reminded myself that I am generally a nervous guy and that: A good chunk of the people that have embarked on this journey also probably felt nervous going into it. Balakun has been around for a couple of years. They have set up connections that have lasted for as long as they have been around. There is a backlog of people looking for mentors. If they were not doing something right, there wouldn’t be a waiting list. There is personal support if I need it. So, after a short period of anticipation and butterflies, in which I checked out a few of the resources and also explored the google spaces they maintain (clubs for gardening or music, group speaking sessions around slang or some other language topic, etc), it was time for the main event: Meeting. Now, there is not too much to say about this, because I only had my first meeting yesterday. To be sure, I was slightly awkward. At least I hope it was limited to “slightly”. And a chunk of the time was taken up by intros/ housekeeping/ expectations, just like any first meeting with any new collaborator. But, we chatted. And that is point of this. By the end of our first session, I was feeling a bit more grounded. Do I still have a little worry that she is less than confident in my skills? Yes, but I’m neurotic. We set up our next meeting. The worst case scenario is that one of feels that the match isn’t working after a few meetings. The folks at Balakun make it clear that match-making is not a fail-proof practice and that the first match doesn’t always work. But at least on my end, I feel like this one can work out nicely. I also have a bit more of plan for Friday’s meeting based on yesterday’s meeting (they ask for at least one hour per week. We are settling on two sessions per week with each other). I plan to come prepared to to explain a bit about the distinctions between a few of English’s verb aspects, especially in the past tense. It’s a pain in the ass for many foreign learners and we scratched the surface yesterday. I have that in my back pocket, as well as a bit of vocabulary that is related to yesterday’s chat. So, I’m feeling good about the next meeting. I am ready to lead a bit of learning. I am also ready to just listen. To whatever she wants to talk about. Her dog, her job, the war, the weather. Whatever. Because it is really is that simple. Listen. And, as she requested, I will interrupt her if there are any big mistakes. And, as I suggested, I will give notes on minor things like style or awkward phrasing at he conclusion of a certain topic or story. I cannot answer many questions you may have about Balakun, since I just walked through the door myself, but dont let that discourage you from asking. I can always try to find that answer. And I do encourage anyone who has an hour or two per week to give and is looking to transform moral support for Ukraine into active support for Ukraine to explore this option. I look forward to providing an update now and again. Cheers. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/25/800089055/community/so-i-started-doing-a-good-thing-yesterday/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/