Where's the Strawberry?

I believe a few words should be devoted to describing the tv programming here. For one, it is 90% from Russia, and therefore not of use to me. But as that is all anyone watches, that is what I watch, usually staring blankly at the tv and thinking about something else. The main event each weeknight is ‘Tatianas’ Day,’ a soap opera that all the ladies talk about at work and my last host mom loved. She would explain to me how Tatiana Razbeshtina was in love with Tatiana Dakhova’s husband, Sergiu, and stole her baby and said it was hers and Sergiu’s while Sergiu was away in Moscow for nine months so that when he came back he would love her again. Uh huh. The music is very dramatic anyways. There are a few programs that are possible to enjoy without understanding – such as the Russian version of American Idol, ‘Star Factory.’ Or the skating show where well-known personalities are matched up with professional skaters and the pairs compete every week with new creative routines. Or the talent competition to win a million-bajillion rupies, with judges who all seem to be hard to please. I thought the old man wearing pink make-up playing the saw was pretty dang entertaining, but they gave him a definite ‘Nyet.’ Then there’s the show where teams of three wear silver spandex body suits and helmets and have to contort their bodies into the shapes that are cut into a foam wall that comes from behind a curtain and moves toward them rapidly – if they don’t fit their bodies through the shapes as the wall reaches them, it knocks them into a pool. And there is another show where four teams – the US, Russia, China, and Kazakhstan - compete in the most random contests ever. Like wearing huge ostrich costumes and pedaling tiny bikes and then mounting a large spinning platform and trying to knock down baby bottles hanging from ropes with their beaks. What?!!

The English classes are not a total disaster. If I have a little time to prepare, I can come up with something to do for an hour. The kids are so cute and eager to learn. They have real problems pronouncing the ‘Th’ sound, and it is not uncommon for French or Russian words to slip out (being that English is now their 4th language). I don’t know how much I can teach them when the only resources we have are one hour per week, a few pieces of chalk, and a small blackboard, but I think there is some sign of understanding and progress in just two weeks. At any rate, these few lessons are helping me become more integrated into the community.

I went to a two-day conference in Chişinău with my partner. It was about revising the village’s 5 year strategic plan. Because the topics covered were very familiar to me (mission, vision, SWOT, goals, objectives, etc.), I was able to understand almost everything, even though it was all in Romanian at warp speed. I’m really starting to get the hang of it! But then there are days that I feel like I really don’t have it at all. So I suppose it’s time for me to tell about some of my more comical linguistic slip-ups. Back in PST, I mixed up the word ‘fond’ with ‘fund’ and instead of saying ‘I need funding,’ I said ‘I need ass.’ The other day when I wanted a stapler, I kept saying, ‘Unde este capşuna?’ and was met with confused looks. Turns out I was asking where the strawberry was. The word I was looking for was capsator, not capşună. Oops. Or one time I wanted to say that after a year maybe I will know some Russian too, but instead I said I will know Russian after an hour. I was wondering why they all started to laugh. Finally, I was at a restuarant and asked what the placinte (little pasty-like thingies) were stuffed with, and she said ‘curechi.’ To me, this sounded like ‘cu urechi,’ which means ‘with ears.’ Huh? That doesn’t sound very tasty! Turns out curechi is another word for cabbage.

So on the rare occasion that I use an actually restroom (such as during my stay in Chisinau for the aforementioned conference), I always seem to have a problem finding the light. The light switch never seems to actually be located in the restroom. It’s somewhere outside, hidden. I usually just push every button I can see within a 10 meter radius, and more often than not I end up turning off more lights than turning any on. Or sometimes there is a switch inside the little room with the toilet, but it’s actually for the room with the sink, whereas the switch in the room with the sink is for the room with the toilet. The other day at a restaurant I never found a switch at all, and finally just gave up and peed in the dark.

Since it snowed a couple of weeks back, my village and the surrounding land have been extra beautiful. The snow lays a little different on each different plot of land, so you can see the checkerboard of fields on the hills, and the trees have held some snow. The main road in the center of the village has turned in to the sledding hill for the kids, who form chains with their runner-sleds. Unfortunately with the snow came ice, and my walk to work is treacherous. I’ve had a few really close calls, and running is pretty much out of the question unless I wear the hideous bright yellow yak trax provided by peace corps.

So now that I’m actually an official volunteer, what is my typical day like? Well I usually wake around 7:30 and putz around in my room for a bit. (Sometimes I get up at 7.00 and go for a quick 5k.) Sometimes I eat breakfast alone, sometimes with the rest of the family, usually consisting of bread and brînză (goat cheese), sometimes fried eggs and salami, and if I’m lucky, a really delicious oatmeal porridge concoction. I get into work around 9:00, in my little office at the primăria (town hall). I chat with the social worker who shares the office, I study language, I visit some of the other 7 people who work at the primaria, they come to visit us, I translate random things into English for random people, I have language lessons twice a week, I teach English lessons twice a week, and I talk with the people who come in to take out or pay off a loan. (My NGO takes out large credits from the bank in Soroca and then gives out smaller loans to the community members.) Sometimes I have little field trips, such as when I was invited to go to watch the kindergarten Christmas show – so cute! I usually get home between 4-5, and I chat with my sister or dad, and we make dinner (or rather, I try to help make dinner, but usually they just tell me to sit and relax and talk to them). I enjoy dinner because we talk a lot and the food is delicious. After dinner we go into the living room to watch TV (as described above), I usually read (I finished Harry Potter in Romanian and have moved on to a novel in Romanian that I haven’t read in English – I’m really challenging myself!) or I write or play on my computer or learn a few Russian words just for kicks (reading in Cyrillic is kind of like a decoding game!). Perhaps a relative or neighbor will stop by, but usually more on the weekends. At 8ish, we go back into the kitchen for tea and sweets. Well, we girls eat sweets, and my dad eats bread slathered with butter. This is my favorite time of day, along with dinner. It is so nice for everyone to sit together and talk, something that rarely happened at home. However, since it is dark at 5 now, it’s not like anyone has any place else to go. It will be sad when my dad goes back to the Czech Republic and my sister finds a job and moves to Chisinau. But I know that my sister is getting anxious to find work and not have to sit around home all day doing nothing. That is a horrible feeling. So even though I will miss her, I am praying that after the holidays are over, she will be able to find a good job. Getting back to my day, at 9.30 I run out to the outhouse one last time and then retire to my room, where I usually do a body/ab circuit and try not to make too many grunting noises as I exert myself. I read for a bit and hit the sack around 11. So not extremely exciting, but each day is a bit different, and each day there is something worthwhile, be it meeting a new person, or understanding a joke.

Well that's all for now, stay tuned for tales from Christmas!