Is It September Already?

I’m not really sure what happened to summer. One minute it was here, and then it was gone. Unfortunately, after writing about all the cool stuff that was finally happening, I managed to get myself invalid status for two weeks. At the last baseball game I got drilled in the leg near my inside ankle really hard. Twice. I’ve been hit with a baseball before, and yeah, it stings, but no big deal, right? So I went back to site thinking it would pass. Well, by the end of the week, it looked like I had elephantitus of the foot, there was a huge elevated lump on my shin, and it was completely blue all the way down to my toes (luckily I had painted my toenails purple, so it matched). I also could barely walk. I had a rather pleasant Friday giving seminars to 12 girls in a fellow volunteer’s village, but I was on my feet the whole day, and by then I realized I needed to do something about this. It’s not a good sign when everybody has a look of horror on their faces after looking at my leg. So I went in to our doctor at Peace Corps, who had me get an x-ray. Not broken, no hairline fracture like I feared. Ok, so then we go to the ‘traumatologist’ at the local hospital (dark and scary!). His immediate response was ‘cut it open and let it drain out.’ I wasn’t so thrilled with that, so we settled on extracting the extra fluid with a syringe. So we did the ‘procedure’ back at Peace Corps (they proudly showed me all of the black goop they took out), and I began two weeks of sitting with my leg elevated and daily electro-therapy treatments. At the end of the two weeks, our doctor stabbed me again and took out the remaining fluid. By now my foot had returned to its normal size and color, and it no longer hurt to walk. Crisis over. But do you have any idea how hard it was for me to sit around for 2 weeks?! Peace Corps has an apartment next to our office in the capital where all of the volunteers stay for free if we are sick, or if we have to come in for a medical appointment and can’t make it back to our site in the same day. I managed to avoid this place for more than 11 months, and then wham! – 13 nights. The upside is that it is the nicest apartment I’ve seen in Moldova, located right above a convenience store, and there is usually at least one other sick person each night to play movie trivia, watch movies, or do puzzles with. I did as much work as I could without actually being at site, so that occupied me for about a day. For the first week I was able to watch the Olympics from 8-noon everyday on NBC, which we get in the volunteer lounge. I also watched 13 movies and 12 episodes of Saved by the Bell, read 3 books, and did most of a 1000 piece puzzle, and wrote a lot of emails. Conveniently, we also had a two-day language training during this time, so my whole group was in town for a few nights. But I obviously couldn’t run, or work out really at all, or do anything worthwhile. I felt like a lazy, worthless, blob.

Last week a supermarket opened in Soroca. A real one. Not huge, but enough that I felt like I was walking into Rainbow, or Copps. Now I don’t have to go to Chișinău to get my grocery store experience. However, we volunteers have been talking about the fact that we are here to help small business development, but then we are super excited any time we get to go to a large chain grocery store. This new store will definitely have its effects on the farmers and mom-and-pop convenience stores in my region. I was expecting a reaction to the opening of this store somewhat comparable to some of the Wal-mart protesting. However, so far I’ve only heard wonder and awe on the part of the Moldovan people. They are amazed at the space – not having to move through a throng of people and being bumped and pushed from all sides like at the piața. They love that you can pick everything off of the shelves yourself and see everything clearly and read the labels, without a salesperson having to get it from behind a counter or pressuring you to hurry up, as happens in the small convenience stores. They are amazed at the variety of options, the pre-cut, de-fatted and de-boned meat, the semi-prepared packaged food, the fruits and veggies out of season, the fact that you can absolutely everything you need in one place. They were pleasantly surprised that prices were comparable, or in many cases even lower than at the piața or in the convenience stores. And of course there is the lure of the fact that it is inside, which means they don’t have to go to the outdoor piața if it is raining, too hot, or too cold. A less tangible benefit is the pride or higher standard of living that it gives people. “See Kate?’ they tell me, ‘we are becoming civilized too!’

But what does this mean for the small guy? Those hundreds of people who sell their produce at the piața, or who own the smaller convenience stores? Some of them will make it, but certainly not all of them. And for many of them, that is absolutely all they have for income! What will they do? Sure, this new supermarket will provide jobs to maybe 100 people, but hundreds more will lose out. Not to mention the fact that the supermarket is of course foreign-owned, meaning that the profits are flowing right on out of the country. Unfortunately, such is the reality of globalization. What the solution is, I have yet discover. And should I feel guilty for enjoying the fact that I can go to the supermarket this winter and buy avocados instead of getting cabbage at the piața? I feel like I’m back in junior religion class when Mr. Mauthe convincingly argued that it was a sin to eat at a restaurant....

On a happier and less complicated topic, September 1 was the first day of school here, and coincidentally, my first day back to work after my two-week foot debacle. It was a great day, one that made me glad to be here. I started by going to the opening ceremonies at school. The whole gang from the mayor’s office was there, and they were all thrilled to see me, going on about how much they missed me, that it was a different feel without me around, what are they going to do when I leave for good next year, etc. (Do you see my head inflating?) And then some of my English kids caught sight of me and came running over. I had been hiding in the back of the crowd, but all of a sudden I was a crowd. I had decided that this year I only wanted to work with the 6 students who I knew were actually learning and studying the language each week last year. I am not here to teach, and I don’t really know how, and I don’t want to spend my time teaching them the same words, and dealing with a classroom of rowdy kids, when I could be helping those few who really could learn something over the next year. To be honest, I’m not really sure why there are so many who kept on coming last year, and who want to keep coming this year. Surely the novelty of the American has worn off? So anyways, the point is, I had decided that I only wanted to take 6 kids this year, but then no less than 20 were so excited that classes would start up again and kept asking me when. And there were more parents who were asking me to take their kids this year because they had learned a bit of English in Moscow, or in Balti or where-have-you. And seeing the excitement and enthusiasm on their faces, I couldn’t say no! So we’ll see. First class is Friday, and I’ll be laying down ground rules for this year. So anyways, the kids and I stood in the back of the crowd, giggling and talking about this at that, while the priest was up there blessing everything in sight and spraying holy water. After the ceremony, most of the teachers came up and said hello, asked about my foot, said they were looking forward to this or that thing that I was going to help them with in the near future. And so on throughout the day. Whenever I was walking anywhere, I ran into people I hadn’t seen for weeks, and so I would stop to talk for longer than usual. The day was really an ego-booster. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t done anything for two weeks, they were just glad to see me. I also just like being back in the village, where everyone greets each other. I called out a greeting to a baba (an older woman) pulling water from a well, and she turned around so quickly with a smile, eager to return the greeting to whomever had greeted her. I called out a ‘Lord help you!’ to a man working in his garden, and he gave me an appreciative thank you, a big smile, and a wave. Home sweet home.

So not only did summer fly by, but September already has a full agenda. My counterparts and I have created a survey and an informational brochure for the Economic Planning Center that we run. It will go out to all the families in the two villages that make up our community. We want to make them more aware of the services we offer, as well as to get an idea of what kind of projects and services they would be most interested in. So that needs to get out within the next week (the logistics of printing, copying, and distributing have been more time consuming than the actual creation of the materials!). I also have the next issue of the TARE newsletter to work on, the beekeeping class to get up and running, and English lessons and materials to prepare. We are also revising the business plan I mentioned in my last entry in order to submit it for a different grant program. In addition to that, there still is some canning to do, the garden needs to be cleaned up, and the grapes need to be picked and the wine made (that can take a week itself). Also, hram, the annual day of the village is on the 21st, and that involves a lot of cleaning and food preparation, many guests, and in general, craziness. AND, September 12th marks exactly one year since arrival in country, so our entire group (or rather, the 34 of us who remain) is spending a few days together to celebrate. Woo hoo! Oh, and on the 18th I receive my first non-family visitor! Kirk is coming to check out Moldovan life for a few days, and then we’re hitting the mountains in Romania for a week at the end of the month. Woo hoo again! So I guess I’ll have a lot to write about next month!