We Got a Washing Machine!

One time, the four of us camp directors were waiting on a rutiera in Bălți (the second largest city in Moldova, in the north). It is not uncommon for beggers, often little girls, to come on the rutiera and ask for money. We were in the back row, and one girl came up and just stood in front of us for like 5 minutes, which is like an eternity. Finally I gave her two 1 leu bills in the hopes that she would go away. She backed up a bit and pulled out a huge wad of money and started flashing it around! So my colleague turns to me and says, ‘sucker!’ We all kind of chuckeled and said, ya, I’m a sucka! Then the girl looks and me and goes, ‘sucka sucka sucka!,’ laughs, and dashes off the rutiera! Nice.

Summer is here, things are really starting to grow, and I’m starting to realize just how ignorant I am about agriculture, and where my food comes from. I have no idea what fruits and vegetables look like when they are planted, and I feel stupid that I have to ask. ‘Duh Kate, those are carrots!’ Of course. And the trees! I didn’t know that peach trees have beautiful pink blossoms! Now that my host mom is working abroad with her husband (they have both been in the Czech Republic since the beginning of May), it is just me and my sister at home, taking care of the garden and the land on the outskirts of the village, so I’ve gotten my hands dirty once or twice. The first time I had to be told which were the weeds and which are the parsley. We Americans just buy everything at the supermarket and don’t even stop to think or question where our food came from. Now I can at least say that I know a little bit.

I love that I can just walk out my door and pick cherries off the tree or strawberries from the bushes. I had a great evening strolling around my partner’s huge garden with her daughter, stopping at every tree and just eating fruit until my belly was about to burst. I ate cherries (I climbed up in the tree to reach the best ones!), sour cherries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, and some weird yellow berry that I can’t even describe. It was glorious. Oh, and I ate peas and liked them!!! Picked ‘em right out of the pods that had been given to me by a neighbor as I was passing by on my way to work one day.

I also had a fabulous day harvesting honey at the bee lady’s house. (She’s also the one I helped with the sheep project back in February.) I walked over to her village with the crocheting and music teacher (who is always good for laughs), and together with the bee lady’s husband and two sons, we spun out about 140 frames of honey. The six of us were crammed in one little hot shed, working hard all afternoon, sweaty and sticky, but the end result was a huuuuge barrel of honey. And then of course we sat down and ate it with sheep cheese and homemade wine. Moldova rocks sometimes. But then I started talked to the grandpa, and we were discussing how no one can make a decent wage, and all of the young people are leaving, and then he started to cry! He said it just isn’t fair that he worked hard his whole life and is 80 years old and still has to look for extra sources of income because he can’t live off of his pension (not to mention the only option for saving for retirement is putting cash under the matress). And that his grandchildren can’t find well-paying jobs here and everyone’s families are torn apart because people leave and leave their children behind. Seeing this man cry was one of the most heart-wrenching moments I’ve experienced so far in Moldova. Something definitely needs to change here.

As far as my work is concerned, things are picking up. My partners and I have several ideas for big projects we would like to start working on. All the volunteers and their partners went to a 3-day project design and management workshop put on by Peace Corps back in May, so we have a better idea of how to approach things. My English kids want to continue through the summer, but less frequently. I’m working with the kindergarten still, to get them much needed education games and toys for physcial activity. I’d like to put together some kind of financial planning/cost benefit anaylsis seminar to address the problem that people never look farther ahead than the next 9 months or so. Also, a woman in the community (the bee lady) wants to teach an optional class in beekeeping at the school, and I might join her to teach business skills, kind of like a Junior Achievement course. And one of my two partners is the director of the regional rest camp, located right across the street from our village, so I’ve been called over to attend opening ceremonies, judge beauty pageants, and teach the kids American games. The first week she tells me, ‘it would be nice if you can come tomorrow to teach the kids some games.’ I said, ‘ok, what time?’ She says, ‘5:00. You have a stage, 250 kids ages 8 to 18, and one hour.’ I was like, oh geez, how in the heck do I plan for that? Luckily I was able to call in my trusty fellow volunteer from Soroca, and we did a bunch of relay race games (bat spin anyone?!).

Things are really getting going for our women’s camp. Lucky for me, the location was changed to Soroca, so it’s convenient. But that means I have to keep going to there to meet with the camp director, bring supplies, draw maps, scout out bus schedules, etc. We’ve also been very busy dealing with a minor budget crisis, due to the location change (the new place is more expensive), which also increased transportation costs since it’s farther away from the center (not to mention rising gas prices). And the dollar lost 8% since we submitted our grants two months ago (the grants were dollar-denominated, and we receive the money this week at the current exchange rate). Luckily we were able to come up with last minute donations, and the camp will go on! So many of my nights and weekends have been occupied with planning for this camp over the last 4 months, so it better be good!

So a few more notes about the rutieras. It’s really a love/hate relationship. The other day I went to Bălți, to do some shopping for our camp. It’s about an hour and a half rutiera ride away, but I clearly got on the rutiera from h-e-double-hockey-sticks. Since I hopped on in my village instead of the beginning of the route in Soroca, I had to stand. Usually this isn’t a problem because seats will open up as people get off in villages along the way. Unfortunately, hardly anyone got off, and more people kept getting on. And people have no regard for others whatsoever. No one moves back to make room, people who are sitting leave their huge bags in the aisles, people stop to smoke and then squish back in right next to me, there’s a bag with dead chickens in it, etc. My body was contorted at a weird angle to support myself among the throng of people. I wanted to throw-up from the jerkiness of the driving because of the severely pot-holed roads, and I wanted to pass out from the heat. And they yell if you open in the window for some air because the current will make everyone sick. No, actually that is precious airflow that will stop you from dying of heat exhaustion. I won’t even start on the smell...

But why I love the rutieras is this – it also doubles as a super express postal service! Yes, you can stop a rutiera, hand him a package, and for a small fee (50 cents - $2, depending on the package, obscureness of the drop-off location, and your negotiating skills) he will deliver it for you within the next few hours! As long as the package’s destination is along his route, it’s pretty much a sure deal. It’s remarkable. I once was in Ungheni, a city near the Romanian border, and my friend’s host mom says, ‘go to the bus station and wait for the 6:45 from Chișinău. The drivers name is Vlad.’ Sure enough, when the rutiera arrived, Vlad gave us a plastic bag with a little girl’s bathing suit in it. My friend’s host mom’s niece (got that?) had forgotten it in Chișinău, and she was due at rest camp the next morning. So now this past weekend, it came to be that I had 5 purple and orange nerf-floating-noodle thingies in my possession which were urgently needed by a group of volunteers in Chișinău the next day (no, you cannot buy nerf-floating-noodle thingies in Moldova). Well, it would require 6 hours and $13 if I were to bring them there myself, so I decided it was time for me to test out this system. I stood out on the side of the road at 5.45 the next morning, holding a bag of flourescent-colored nerf-floating-noodle thingies, waiting to hail the next rutiera to chisinau (all of the inter-city rutieras have signs in the front window listing the beginning and ending points, which often I can’t read until the rutiera is almost passing me by so then I quickly jutt out my hand to signal them to stop and they come screeching to a halt and then the driver glares at me or curses me under his breath in Russian). The 6:00 Soroca - Chișinău approaches, I signal him to stop (giving him an ample amount of time), give him my nicest ‘could you pretty please take these to the north bus station in Chișinău?,’ hand him 10 lei, and he takes them without even batting an eye and shoves them under his seat. Three hours later, a volunteer calls me to say she had made the pick-up. Success!

The four of us camp directors now have a favorite taxi-driver in Chișinău. We’ve been staying a lot in an apartment (the one from the ‘hahaha, nyet’ story) that requires a taxi ride from the center. We now always call this driver because he will go out of his way to bring us through the McDonalds drive-through to get McFlurries on our way to the apartment at 11:00 at night.

I went to a mass exorcism and slept in a monk’s bed. Just throwin' that out there.

And the last thing, there is now a washing machine in my house! I have gotten used to almost everything here that we would consider uncomfortable back home (I actually like holes better than toilets now), but I really had begun to loathe hand-washing my clothes. I don’t care that we don’t have a dryer, I just need something to wash, rinse, and wring out my clothes better than I can. I used the machine for the first time this week, and it was glorious! I’m telling you: appreciate your washing machines! Yes, try to buy one that uses less water and energy, and so on, but really, a washing machine is a good thing!

Bine Ati Venit in Moldova

This entry is a guest entry, written by my family members who visited me from May 12-19:

Moldova Visited
By Agnes, John J., and John F. Biese
(comments by me)

Mixed emotions was the perfect term for the rampage of feelings we experienced during the six week period from the time we decided to visit Katie until May 1st, the day we departed.

Anxiety had to be the leading emotion as we worried about the complex travel arrangements Expedia prepared for us – four different flights each way also, three different airlines each way. That, combined with the media reporting all the problems our airline companies were having, especially Delta, our major transport across the big pond, definitely made anxiety the king of emotions. Added to that was the task of finding accommodations in Vienna that weren’t astronomically expensive. (We can lecture on that topic for hours.)

Anticipation was next on the list as our 19 day trip would include visiting Vienna, Prague, Salzburg and Berchtesgaden before spending a week in Moldova.

And finally, excitement for seeing Katie for the first time since she left on September 9th 2007. During that time she had experienced so much that we wondered if it had changed her noticeably. (If we forget to mention it later, it did not. She’s the same old loveable Kate.)(Yes I am!)

The trip to Vienna where Katie was going to meet us was a looonnng one. It was caused by a canceled and a replacement flight that left us with a nine hour layover in Atlanta. We were supposed to leave Appleton around 11:00 AM and instead, left at 6:00. After our 10 day stay in Vienna we were on our way to Moldova. Katie left Vienna two days before we did to attend a weekend conference and would be waiting for us at the airport in Chisinau, the capitol city.

Arriving in Chisinau one and a half hours late, we slowly processed through customs and - the lost baggage department – Agnes’ bag never made it from Vienna. Fortunately she had judiciously packed her backpack-carryon for just such an occurrence as she would not retrieve her suitcase for five more days. (I was very impressed by the way my mother handled this situation – she wore the same clothes 3 days in a row and didn’t complain once!)

John F’s first memorable moment of Moldova was going out of the air terminal and seeing Katie in the face of three, male, taxi drivers, attempting to haggle them down on the price of a ride into town. She lost – they all stuck together and we were stuck with a high tab. (I beg to differ – I put up a dang good fight, and got them down from 200 lei to 150!)

We stayed that night at a hotel the Peace Corps uses for its meetings. The first thing Katie did after we arrived at the hotel was give us some do’s and don’ts for life in Moldova. First, do not flush the toilet paper. Roll it up and place it in the basket/bucket next to the commode. Next, always have a leu (10 cents) or two handy in case you needed to use a public toilet. Most countries in Europe charge to use public WCs – Water Closets. (In Vienna we needed a half Euro [75 cents]). Also, if we wanted a hot shower we had to take it betwixt 8 and 10 in the morning since that was the only time hot water was available.

The next morning we took our bags to Peace Corps HQ for storage while we trekked to Katie’s village for three days, carrying just enough clothing and supplies for that time period in our backpacks.

In Moldova there are three methods of transportation: Rutieras, taxis, and private autos. Rutieras are minivans you can stand up in and have seating for nine to twenty or so passengers. The joke among the PC people is: How many people can you get into a Rutiera? The answer: “Always one more.” There were 39 people at one time on the 22 seater we took to Volovita. (The worst part is that even though it’s suffocating in there, Moldovans refuse to open the window for fear of the dreaded current.) Another PC “game” we learned about is to trying to see how long you can stand up in a Rutiera without holding on to a part of the vehicle.

Katie’s village is a small community of about 1000 people located on a hill in northern Moldova. It has two blocks of paved streets, the rest composed of dirt and whatever the weather makes them. The only businesses I saw were a gas station and small café. (For the record, there are 3 tiny convenience stores.)

Shortly after arriving in the village we met her Moldovan partners Svetlana and Angela. It didn’t take long to realize why Katie liked working in Moldova. These ladies were wonderful and you could tell by the way they talked how much affection they had for Katie. Later that day we met Katie’s host sister Natasha. She is just a year older than Kate and is a really good friend. She has a degree in International Relations, can’t get a job or a visa to leave the country to get one, so she studied cosmetology hoping for success in that arena. While we were there, Natasha was replacing her mom where she worked – her sister and husband’s business – while she was visiting her husband in Prague where he was working. (Since we returned from our trip we learned that Natasha’s mom also got a job in the Prague area and we assume Natasha will continue to work for her.) Natasha did take her cosmetology exam using Katie as her model. How did she do? (Very well, considering she had the ‘ugliest client and most difficult task of making her look beautiful’ – yes, I endured 3 hours of women calling me hideous and advising Natasha on how to hide all of my 'imperfections'.)

We enjoyed the hospitality of several families, much to the chagrin of our waistlines. We tried every type of food we were served: roasted rabbit with wine, mamaliga (a type of corn bread) with wine, pork with wine, chicken with wine, sheep cheese with wine, – and many more dishes I cannot remember. We do think that they kept it pretty conventional for us – no head cheese, filet of tongue, meat jello etc. (The meat jello is actually quite tasty.)

Almost every family has a large garden and a menagerie of small animals – rabbits, chickens, and geese to sustain themselves. A few have cows and pigs. One we visited had bees and milking sheep – the latter obtained with Katie’s help.

Did I mention that wine is the number one agriculture product of Moldova? Everyone we ate with demonstrated that fact again, and again, and again. BURP! Her host sister even had the “nerve” to bring out the (home-made) vodka after a scrumptious meal she and her cousin prepared for us.

It would take another page or two to talk about the countryside – beautiful land to support agriculture; nearby town of Soroca (about 5 km) which has adequate stores, a fortress built in 1494 and a lot of gypsies; and Chisinau, the capitol city. But space is limited. Oh, what the heck:
The most crowded, cleanest restaurant in Chisinau with neat, uniformed workers – Mc Donald’s. Prices were as high as in the US – which was not the case in other restaurants where the prices were much lower.

The smallest businesses in Chisinau - old ladies sitting on a stool on the sidewalks next to a bathroom scale. Weigh yourself for a leu (pronounced “l-yo”). I weighed 85 kilograms on one.
The largest wine “cellar” in the world – just outside Chisinau – 650,000,000 liters of wine contained in 1,300 barrels (big ones about 8’ in diameter, 2,200 vats, and 2 million bottles. This is stored along 55 km. of underground streets that you travel on with autos. They make wine only when the grapes are good – they were in 2007, but not in several previous years. We bought a .7 liter bottle for $2.55. A nearby display case had .7 liter bottles for prices ranging from $1,237.50 to $2,475.00.

During our short stay we met several people and families Katie either lived or worked with and we realized that big hearted, friendly, and giving people surrounded Katie. These warm experiences of Katie’s village went a long way towards allaying this mother’s worries about her daughter in a far away land.

Our six day visit to Moldova was rewarding and reassuring and also gave us a greater understanding of Katie’s blogs – in summary, a tremendous trip. We still miss Katie however (I miss you too), but we worry much less.

Visit again next year????? Possibly (They’ll be back)