Smiles, Laughter, and Hugs

Well, September has come and gone. I accomplished almost everything I was hoping to. We sent out the survey and informational brochure for the Economic Planning Center, and already we have seen results. Many people have come in to run ideas by us, and more people have just randomly been approaching me in the village to say hi and see what’s up. Hopefully I will find a few solid entrepreneurs to work with to really get a business going over the next year. My partner and I revised the business plan (a web design business that we had originally tried to get going in the summer) and were able to pull all the necessary materials together to submit the entire proposal to the agency running the grant program in time. Now we’re just waiting to hear if we win the money for the initial investment in the business. The fall issue of the TARE newsletter (for all past participants of the women’s empowerment camp) will be ready to go out this next week. We heard back from many of the young women from this summer’s camp who have already done seminars in their villages. A few of the girls who live in a larger village are even working to put together a monthly seminar series to share what they learned with the other women in their village. We’ve heard success stories of getting into universities or study abroad programs or starting clubs in their villages. This is of course all great news, and a point for us in the dreaded ‘sustainability’ column!

English lessons are going well so far this year. I have it down to one group of 12 students who are really committed to learning. I was able to procure some manuals for us to use this year, which I think will be a big help. The third lesson of the school year Kirk was in the village, so my kids were able to show off their skills a little bit. I was very proud of how well they were able to converse with him, and despite the long summer vacation they improved greatly from when my family was here in May. The beekeeping class is almost ready to go. That grant proposal should be approved and up on the website within the next two weeks or so, and then YOU can help us out by donating. The idea is for the students in grades 7-9 to learn business and beekeeping through a hands-on approach. They have very few options for extra-curriculars, no exposure to ideas of business until the university level, and no opportunity to learn the skill of beekeeping, which not only can be a source of income from the sale of honey and wax, but is necessary for every community that relies on agriculture as its main source of income because pollenation leads to higher crop yields. The class will meet once a week and cover all the soft and hard skills, and the kids will have responsibility for 5 families of bees, all the way from the hiving to the harvest of the honey. We need money for the procurement of the bees and equipment. The instructor, space, storage, and lecture materials will all be provided by the community. So, if you want to help make this project a reality, stay tuned to find out how you can donate!

As for the yard work...we canned 7 jars of marinated tomatoes, another 10 of marinated peppers and tomatoes, 4 of egg plant, and a million of jam. We got rid of all the tomato plants in the garden, and have two large bins of garlic and onions. So I thought we had done pretty well. Well, my host parents came home, and after one week the yard looked completely different! They got rid of all the weeds and dead plants, picked the grapes and trimmed up the vines, and cleaned out the path to the outhouse. There are now two piglets and a handful of chickens. There is also a car in the garage and a new stove/oven. I guess they were pretty successful and saving money while they were working in the Czech Republic! It’s nice that they are home, but now I’m going to have to get used to not having all of the freedom that I enjoyed while it was just me and Natasha.

Our one year celebration was a lot of fun. About 25 out of 34 of us made it to the campsite for the two days that we had festivities. I won the grill competition – melted beans and cheese on toast. Oh yeah. It was rainy and cold the entire time, but our spirits were high. We had a lot of good memories and compliments to share with each other, and encouragements to give for the coming year. I feel truly blessed to be a part of this group, because we have all bonded really well and been so supportive of each other. I definitely have some lifelong friends here. The few times that I’ve been overwhelmed by life here I was picked up so quickly by them.

I almost didn’t make it to the one-year celebration because on the morning I was supposed to leave I got locked in the outhouse. Talk about a nightmare. I mean, I was literally locked IN THE OUTHOUSE. There is a little piece of wood that spins on a nail on the outside of the outhouse, and when we are not inside we twist it so that it covers the opening and the door won’t swing open in the wind. Well....this piece of wood was getting pretty loose, and when I went in the outhouse, it swung back on it’s own into the locked position, and I couldn’t open the door from the inside!!!! I was home alone, natasha gone for work for the day and my parents still in the Czech. I could see the neighbors in the garden off aways, but they were hammering and couldn’t hear my pleas for help. I discovered that the roof could be lifted off a bit, and I tried shouting through there, but no one heard me. I tried climbing out, but there was nowhere to put my feet to hoist myself out. I tried jiggling the door, sticking rolled toilet paper through the crack, but the wood wouldn’t budge. I started to panic. What if I was in there all day?! The people at work knew I wasn’t coming in that day because I was going to Chisinau, so no one would know that I was missing until that evening. Finally I noticed that the door was made up of plastic panels surrounded by a wood frame. I forced out the top panel and stuck it through the opening and pushed open the lock!!! Genius!! I survived 20 minutes locked in the outhouse - I’m ready for anything now!

As for my vacation, it was great! Kirk got a tour of Chișinău (thoroughly covered in about 30 minutes), and we met up with a bunch of volunteers and went wine tasting at one of the larger wine cellars a bit outside of Chișinău. We spend a day picking grapes in the village where I had my training, which was a great experience. We walked up at 10 am and, in typical Moldovan fashion, were immediately given two shots of vodka and some placinte to get us going for the day of work! The weekend in my village was hram (the celebration of the village), which meant lots of eating. So we had two nights of eating and vodka, and my host parents were back from abroad, so there was extra hoopla at my house. By the end of the evening, I was selectively translationg what was being said. ;) Unfortunately the town dance was cancelled because of all the rain we’d been having.

After 5 days in Moldova, we headed out to Romania for what we hoped would be some good trekking. But unfortunately the weather was not on our side, and we only got in about 2 days. Dracula’s castle in Transylvania was a rather large disappointment, and we had a few mishaps along the way, but overall it was still a fun trip. We went out to the Black Sea for a day, and wandered around Buchareșt, and for my sake, we spent a day at the mall, bowling, and the movies. And I went to Pizza Hut three times. We met some awesome people throughout the travels, which I always think of as the best part of any trip. One nice man drove us all the way from the mountains back into the center of Brasov and told us the real story of Dracula (or Vlad the Impaler). An 83-year old energetic man led us to a trail head one day, and he told us how he walks every day and climbs the hill 3 days a week. We stayed in the guesthouse of one really nice woman who spoke German and let me borrow her personal shampoo. Another nice young man let me use the internet on his phone to try to find a hostel while we were on the train to Buchareșt (there was something fishy about how he was obtaining this service though...). A waiter at a mountain cafe pleasantly informed us that the cabana we had been searching for had actually burned down 6 years ago. Two older gentlemen on the bus back from the airport kept me company and made me feel better when I was homesick and sad about parting from my friend. A nice girl saved us from getting fines for not punching our bus tickets (we tried, really we did, it was confusing.) And so on. The world is full of great people, and someone always seems to come along at just the right moment to say the right thing, or just to put a smile on your face. :)

To me, smiles, laughter, and hugs are three of the greatest things in life. And luckily, they are (mostly) universal!