Well the end just went too fast for me! I have been home for over a month already, and I never managed to write my last entry. I don’t think anyone even reads this anymore, but I am someone obsessive compulsive and need closure, so I’m writing it now.
My last month was a whirlwind of visiting friends, packing (complicated by acquiring things to bring home and giving things away), tying up loose ends, and cooking food for parties that I hosted at work, school, the club, and home. I spent as much time as possible with the people in my village, especially my host family, ate as much food as I could, and danced and sang whenever I could find the company, which was often! I also reflected on my last two years.
As one would expect, this experience has been life-changing. It was full of successes and failures, joy and despair, understanding and confusion. I was the only American in a small village where no one speaks English. I had a vague job description, few resources, and little understanding of the complex political, social, and economic forces at work in the community that I was supposed to ‘develop.’ This meant I had to adapt, to strive to understand the culture of the people who offended me on more than one occasion. I had to be a self-starter, to create my own job, figure out what needed to be done and a way to do it. I had to learn on the fly about things like project design, sustainability, measuring impact, and participatory planning. I had to learn a new language! I had to constantly ask questions, read things, and seek out information. By the end of my two years I was integrated into my community: the villagers bragged to others about how I had made myself a ‘Moldovanca’. I had worked with over 200 adults and youth on business development topics. I had inspired over 150 women to become leaders in their communities. I became fluent in Romanian, and picked up a fair amount of Russian. I gained a tremendous amount of information (and generated an equal amount of questions), leading to a decision to go to grad school for international development in the hopes of going back to make an even bigger difference.
Most importantly, I became a meaningful part of people’s lives. The night before I left my village, I finished packing up my bags and went into the two girls’ room, where I had been sleeping the last few weeks because it was attached to the fireplace (my room was not, and therefore not warm enough to sleep in once the cold set in.). My breath was taken away when I saw their wall: it was completely covered with sheets of computer paper, on which they had written: ‘Katie is the most loving, generous, talented, smart...’ and so on, until the whole wall was covered with adjectives. At the bottom they said they loved me and signed their names in a heart. I looked over at the two girls and saw tears sliding down their cheeks. I don’t think I can accurately describe the emotions I felt that night, nor can I justly sum up my experiences, so I will just stop here and say,
THANK YOU MOLDOVA!!! I will miss you and never forget you!
December 30, 2009
October 13, 2009
Fall Fun
These last few months have been flying! After a lot of work and tracking down receipts all over the country, I successfully finished reporting for the three project funders. I also finished all of my documents and reporting for Peace Corps, and did a final evaluation with the bee kids, so basically my work here is finished. I’ll be having a few more English classes and putting together some information for the economic planning center, but that is all! Now I’m concentrating on saying goodbye and doing as many ‘Moldovan’ activities as possible. A few days after writing about the sunflower beatings, I had the opportunity to partake in it myself. I went over to my counterpart’s house with my two host sisters, and together with her and her son and husband spent about three hours hacking away at 20 huge sacks of sunflower heads. This year was really dry, so the flowers were all crunchy and kept picking my hands. But it was a fun experience, and of course afterward we were served with lots of food and drink!
A few weeks ago was hram, the village day celebration, and I was fortunate to have several guests of my own this year. Two volunteers came, and randomly, two American women (Peace Corps Malawi volunteers in the 90s) who were traveling through Moldova on bicycles and just happened to be passing through my village on the big day. So it was a great opportunity for cultural sharing. After eating and drinking a lot, we put on some tunes and taught them the hora, and then we were off to some village friends’ house for more eating and drinking. After some singing and dancing in the house, we headed off to the dance in the center of the village, and had a grand old time. I think I was a little tipsy though, and I got all sad about that being my last opportunity for a good hora, and I didn’t want to leave, and the others were all tired.... not such a good host I guess.
I finally finished the blanket that I had been knitting since March, and I went with my handicrafts teacher to give it to Enesia, the social worker who had her baby back in April. (The idea was to have the blanket finished by then...ooops). Although not perfect, it turned out pretty dang cool, and we shared a few tears when I gave it to her. Then it was fun just hanging out with her and my teacher for the afternoon and laughing and gossiping. Unfortunately I had to rush out a little bit early to go to choir practice. It was raining, and the electricians were working on the side of the road near Enesia’s house. They offered to give me a ride to practice, at the other end of the village. Their truck, however, is HUGE, and there are no steps to get up, just the tire, so I looked absolutely ridiculous, and the young workers had a good laugh at my struggles. But I got to practice on time, and dry.
I had my last appearance as a Moldovan folklore star this past Sunday. It was the annual wine festival, and folklore choirs from all of the region were invited to perform in Soroca. So we sang songs about wine and young men, including my favorite ‘badisor de pe tractor’ – the cute guy on the tractor. The host of the local cultural tv show greeted me enthusiastically as always. I’m seriously a local celebrity. ;-) Anyways, it was sad to have my last concert. I’ll be having a little party with all the ladies before I leave.
I somehow managed to make friends in the last few months. Three guys (all named Andrei) who had been working or studying elsewhere until now, moved back to the village, and they have taken care to show me a good time before I leave. Most of the time is spent drinking coffee or hot chocolate from the automatic coffee machine at the 24-hr gas station at the edge of the village, but they’ve also taken me to the candle monument in Soroca in the middle of the night, gone for a middle of the night row on a lake, ran 5k in the middle of the night to the neighboring village, danced in the park in the middle of the night, and had a middle of the night bbq. So my sleep cycle is a bit messed up, but I have really appreciated their company.
I enjoyed a visit from a former college friend and rowing teammate at the end of September. I showed her around chisinau before heading up to the village, where I gave her the village and Soroca tours. She got a traditional mamaliga dinner with my host family, and met the ‘bee lady’ when I went to get some honey at the school. She also got a taste of the three Andreis for a couple of interesting nights. It was fun to catch up with her and share my Moldovan experiences. After all, that is part of my job! My fellow volunteers have given me the prize for the most visitors over the course of our service...four family members, four friends (separately), and three random couch-surfers. I’m glad I’ve had so many opportunities to see people that I love and to show them Moldova!
This past weekend I made my last fun trip to Chisinau. I took care of some business, and went to order copies of the book that I wrote as a present for my village. I spent the night with a friend from the village, who is studying in Chisinau to be a chef. She made me an incredible dinner and I got the chance to meet her roommates and hang out, which was a blast. But the biggest reason for my going to Chisinau was to gather with my fellow volunteers one last time as a group before we leave. The 21 of us M21s who remained put together a dessert bar for the Peace Corps staff, and used the time to say thank yous and goodbyes. We wandered all over Chisinau for the evening and in general enjoyed each other’s company. It is strange to think that I will probably never see over half of them again. We have been each other’s support over the past two years, and many of us have grown quite close. The first volunteers leave on October 21st and the rest of us trickle out after that up until Christmas. Ahhhh!!! 27 days for me.....
September 18, 2009
The End is Coming...
Last Saturday, Sept 12, 15 of the 21 of us who remain celebrated two years since the day we arrived in Moldova. Craaazy! We met up in a town where two volunteers live, and we just hung out together. We ate a lot, drank a little, and had tons of fun. We watched a slideshow of pictures from the past two years, and man was that a riot. There were pictures of the 19 volunteers who left early, there were pictures of things we don’t remember happening, there were pictures of great accomplishments, pictures of goofiness, and pictures that made us want to cry. It’s been a good two years.
A couple of weeks ago we had our Close of Service Conference, at which Peace Corps told us a list of ten bajillion things that we have to do before we can leave. Medical examinations, forms, reports, more forms, more reports, returning things, interviews, good bye parties, and oh, forms and reports. Plus they made us start thinking about – GASP – the future! Resumes, job applications, grad schools, etc. So anyways, I have 50 days to do all of that, plus I am planning a 19-day, 5 country trip on my way home, plus I’ve got regular work to do, and there are the usual Moldovan fall activities – village days, festivals, weddings, harvests, wine-making, etc. And I have a LOT of goodbyes to say. I carry my camera and a ‘master to-do list’ with me at all times. My official last day of service is November 6, and I’ll be home on November 25, just in time for Thanksgiving, my birthday, and the wedding of a dear friend. Up until now, I haven’t really been really thinking about the End. But now a part of me is screaming at time to slam on the breaks, and a part of me has what the Moldovans are calling ‘suitcase syndrome’ – I’ve got my ticket home, and all I can think about is leaving.
The 2009 TARE Development Course (aka, women’s empowerment camp) went pretty well. We had 62 women ages 17 to 24 over 5 days, who participated in 12 seminars on various topics relating to health, personal development, and gender roles, 3 discussions with ‘Women of Success,’ a vigil for victims of domestic violence, and a presentations by the International Organization for Migration about human trafficking and Catholic Relief Services about their work here. We also had fun activities like group games, pinatas, bracelet making, tie-dye, a bonfire with s’mores, and a talent show. The women came from all over Moldova, and when they return to their homes, they will be putting on seminars in order to share their experience and knowledge gained with the young women in their local communities. As with last year, it was a very rewarding experience because it was so tangible. We could see the young womens’ enjoyment and their change in attitude from the beginning of the week to the end of the week. The week was not without gliches. There was a sudden epidemic of getting their period and not wanting to go to lessons. The daily hot water that was promised us failed to materialize because the water pump mysteriously broke the day before we came. The camp was invaded by village boys (I was bad-cop on that one). Our main Woman of Success speaker cancelled at the last minute. And one night a key got stuck in one of the cabin doors (the upstairs level) and no one could get the door open, and the camp director didn’t want to help. So we called the DJ from the disco to come, and he climbed up a latter into the open back window and after trying in vain for an hour, he broke the front window, and the girls went in and out through the window for the remainder of the camp. But of course we handled all of these setbacks with speed, intelligence, and grace, and the camp went on wonderfully. I can’t believe it’s over. Now only the not-as-fun stuff is left – grant reports to funders, transferring the leadership to our Moldovan counterparts, and monitoring the results.
And now for a few random words on sunflower seeds. Moldovans love sunflower seeds and joke that eating them is a national sport. They have a handful in their pockets at all times. The other day I was waiting at the bus stop for a ride into Soroca, when a gas station worker from across the street walked over and into the field behind the bus stop. I thought perhaps he was going to the bathroom, but that would be weird because there is an outhouse by the gas station. A few minutes later he reappears carrying a huge sunflower head and returns to the gas station and begins eating the seeds. I guess his pocket stash ran out. The other day while running I stopped to witness a family doing a mass harvest of their sunflower seed crop. There were five of them crouched around a plastic tarp at their gate, each of them with a good-sized stick which they were using to beat the sunflower heads. The seeds fall out onto the tarp. So there was a huge pile of de-capitated sunflowers on one side of the tarp, and another pile of de-seeded heads on the other side. Interesting. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me while running.
Alrighty, I suppose that’s enough for now! Poka, poka! (bye bye!)
A couple of weeks ago we had our Close of Service Conference, at which Peace Corps told us a list of ten bajillion things that we have to do before we can leave. Medical examinations, forms, reports, more forms, more reports, returning things, interviews, good bye parties, and oh, forms and reports. Plus they made us start thinking about – GASP – the future! Resumes, job applications, grad schools, etc. So anyways, I have 50 days to do all of that, plus I am planning a 19-day, 5 country trip on my way home, plus I’ve got regular work to do, and there are the usual Moldovan fall activities – village days, festivals, weddings, harvests, wine-making, etc. And I have a LOT of goodbyes to say. I carry my camera and a ‘master to-do list’ with me at all times. My official last day of service is November 6, and I’ll be home on November 25, just in time for Thanksgiving, my birthday, and the wedding of a dear friend. Up until now, I haven’t really been really thinking about the End. But now a part of me is screaming at time to slam on the breaks, and a part of me has what the Moldovans are calling ‘suitcase syndrome’ – I’ve got my ticket home, and all I can think about is leaving.
The 2009 TARE Development Course (aka, women’s empowerment camp) went pretty well. We had 62 women ages 17 to 24 over 5 days, who participated in 12 seminars on various topics relating to health, personal development, and gender roles, 3 discussions with ‘Women of Success,’ a vigil for victims of domestic violence, and a presentations by the International Organization for Migration about human trafficking and Catholic Relief Services about their work here. We also had fun activities like group games, pinatas, bracelet making, tie-dye, a bonfire with s’mores, and a talent show. The women came from all over Moldova, and when they return to their homes, they will be putting on seminars in order to share their experience and knowledge gained with the young women in their local communities. As with last year, it was a very rewarding experience because it was so tangible. We could see the young womens’ enjoyment and their change in attitude from the beginning of the week to the end of the week. The week was not without gliches. There was a sudden epidemic of getting their period and not wanting to go to lessons. The daily hot water that was promised us failed to materialize because the water pump mysteriously broke the day before we came. The camp was invaded by village boys (I was bad-cop on that one). Our main Woman of Success speaker cancelled at the last minute. And one night a key got stuck in one of the cabin doors (the upstairs level) and no one could get the door open, and the camp director didn’t want to help. So we called the DJ from the disco to come, and he climbed up a latter into the open back window and after trying in vain for an hour, he broke the front window, and the girls went in and out through the window for the remainder of the camp. But of course we handled all of these setbacks with speed, intelligence, and grace, and the camp went on wonderfully. I can’t believe it’s over. Now only the not-as-fun stuff is left – grant reports to funders, transferring the leadership to our Moldovan counterparts, and monitoring the results.
And now for a few random words on sunflower seeds. Moldovans love sunflower seeds and joke that eating them is a national sport. They have a handful in their pockets at all times. The other day I was waiting at the bus stop for a ride into Soroca, when a gas station worker from across the street walked over and into the field behind the bus stop. I thought perhaps he was going to the bathroom, but that would be weird because there is an outhouse by the gas station. A few minutes later he reappears carrying a huge sunflower head and returns to the gas station and begins eating the seeds. I guess his pocket stash ran out. The other day while running I stopped to witness a family doing a mass harvest of their sunflower seed crop. There were five of them crouched around a plastic tarp at their gate, each of them with a good-sized stick which they were using to beat the sunflower heads. The seeds fall out onto the tarp. So there was a huge pile of de-capitated sunflowers on one side of the tarp, and another pile of de-seeded heads on the other side. Interesting. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me while running.
Alrighty, I suppose that’s enough for now! Poka, poka! (bye bye!)
August 13, 2009
Getting down to business
The summer once again flew by. After all of my visitors left, I spent a couple weeks studying for the GRE. It was hard to explain to the Moldovans why I was studying English vocabulary, but they understood that the test was important so they kept wishing me luck and telling me not to come to work but to stay home and study. At the end of July I went to Istanbul to take the test. (It is not offered in Moldova, and since I had to take it out of the country, I thought I ought to at least pick a destination to which I haven’t been yet.) I arrived at night and took the test first thing the next morning (man I’m glad to be done with that!), and then spent the next three and a half days taking in the sights. Istanbul is beautiful! I traveled around with my friend from home, Mary Linda, and we had a wonderful time. It was my first time in a Muslim country, which was interesting. We went into a few mosques, checked out the palace and the harem, smoked a water pipe (no tobacco! as I have never smoked before, that was a little tricky), and took a boat up the Bosphorus Strait to the Black Sea, where we stopped in a little fishing village on the Asian side to have lunch and hike up to the ruins of an old fortress. There is so much to see in Istanbul, and I would have loved another day or two!!
Now that all of my traveling is over, work has started to pile up. The rabbit project is going less than smoothly. My relationship with my old host family has been less than pleasant since I moved out, and now it is very difficult to continue the project as planned, since my old host mom was one of the two primary beneficiaries. Some of the rabbits died, which really stinks, since one of the main points of the project was to teach them how to raise them to not be susceptable to diseases. None of the 6 other beneficiaries have received their rabbits yet, and I’m have a hell of a time trying to track down receipts from all of the purchases to use for project reporting. Needless to say, it will be a headache trying to wrap this up before I leave. And I don’t want to just wrap it up so that I can report to the funder that we did everything we said we would, but to actually leave the project feeling like something was learned, and that these women are better off.
The bee project is going along fairly smoothly. The kids have been coming once a week all summer to take care of the hives, and the first harvest was last month. We had XX liters of honey from 3 families of bees. Before I leave, we will wrap up the business classes and make a plan for carrying on the business next year. It’s been a lot of fun to see how some of the youth have really taken responsibility and get really excited about the project.
Back in May I worked with two young entrepreneurs on putting together business plans, which were then entered in a regional competition. I helped them think about all of the things that enter into an income statement and a cash flow statement, as well as to better predict what their incomes will be. We also did a lot of research on where the best place to buy their supplies would be, as well as the marketing. Last week I was pleasantly surprised when one young girl told me that she and the other young man whom I had helped took first and second place in the regional competition! Their business plans have now been sent on to the national level, and if they place their, they will receive partial funding for their businesses.
English classes continued through the summer. Five girls showed up twice a week, and with all of my guests the past few months, they got a lot of practice speaking. I’m really quite pleased with how much they have been able to accomplish with so little time and resources.
Most of my work over the last month has been for the women’s development course. We ended up winning a grant from the Global Fund for Women, which is allowing us to do the camp as we had planned. We’ve been busy with training the counselors/instructors, signing contracts for logistical things, recruiting participants, developing activities and materials, and improving our methods of evaluation. The 5-day course starts next week, and I am so excited. We’ve got a great group of instructors this year – 10 Moldovans and 5 other peace corps volunteers. Four of the Moldovans are former participants in the TARE course, and it makes me so excited to see what TARE has done for them – the impact that they are having in their communities and the self-confidence and motivation they demonstrate in their daily lives. I can’t wait to give another 75 women this experience! Camp starts on Monday!
Now that all of my traveling is over, work has started to pile up. The rabbit project is going less than smoothly. My relationship with my old host family has been less than pleasant since I moved out, and now it is very difficult to continue the project as planned, since my old host mom was one of the two primary beneficiaries. Some of the rabbits died, which really stinks, since one of the main points of the project was to teach them how to raise them to not be susceptable to diseases. None of the 6 other beneficiaries have received their rabbits yet, and I’m have a hell of a time trying to track down receipts from all of the purchases to use for project reporting. Needless to say, it will be a headache trying to wrap this up before I leave. And I don’t want to just wrap it up so that I can report to the funder that we did everything we said we would, but to actually leave the project feeling like something was learned, and that these women are better off.
The bee project is going along fairly smoothly. The kids have been coming once a week all summer to take care of the hives, and the first harvest was last month. We had XX liters of honey from 3 families of bees. Before I leave, we will wrap up the business classes and make a plan for carrying on the business next year. It’s been a lot of fun to see how some of the youth have really taken responsibility and get really excited about the project.
Back in May I worked with two young entrepreneurs on putting together business plans, which were then entered in a regional competition. I helped them think about all of the things that enter into an income statement and a cash flow statement, as well as to better predict what their incomes will be. We also did a lot of research on where the best place to buy their supplies would be, as well as the marketing. Last week I was pleasantly surprised when one young girl told me that she and the other young man whom I had helped took first and second place in the regional competition! Their business plans have now been sent on to the national level, and if they place their, they will receive partial funding for their businesses.
English classes continued through the summer. Five girls showed up twice a week, and with all of my guests the past few months, they got a lot of practice speaking. I’m really quite pleased with how much they have been able to accomplish with so little time and resources.
Most of my work over the last month has been for the women’s development course. We ended up winning a grant from the Global Fund for Women, which is allowing us to do the camp as we had planned. We’ve been busy with training the counselors/instructors, signing contracts for logistical things, recruiting participants, developing activities and materials, and improving our methods of evaluation. The 5-day course starts next week, and I am so excited. We’ve got a great group of instructors this year – 10 Moldovans and 5 other peace corps volunteers. Four of the Moldovans are former participants in the TARE course, and it makes me so excited to see what TARE has done for them – the impact that they are having in their communities and the self-confidence and motivation they demonstrate in their daily lives. I can’t wait to give another 75 women this experience! Camp starts on Monday!
June 27, 2009
Travel Time
I went to Russia. It was awesome. My sister Anne came to Chisinau a couple of days early, and after touring around there and hanging out with other volunteers for a bit, we hopped on a plane to Moscow. My brother John arrived an hour later, from Chicago. We met up with a former Peace Corps Moldova volunteer who is now working in Russia, and he got us into the center, showed us how to get cards for the metro, took us to the apartment, helped me buy a phone card, and then took us to Red Square. Without him, all of that would have probably taken the entire four days that we had available to us!
We spent our days in Moscow mostly around the Red Square area, shopping and hiding from the rain. St. Basil’s Cathedral (the multi-colored, multi-onion-domed church that you always see in pictures) is really quite impressive, and Lenin’s masoleum is a hoot. It’s all dark in there, and he’s just laying there illuminated and stuffed, and if you pause for even a split-second while encircling his body, the Russia guards grunt at you to move along. The Kremlin is also quite impressive. I didn’t realize that it is actually a large fortress – a government compound encircled by huge red walls. We’re pretty sure we saw Medvedev or Putin race into the Kremlin in one of their sleek black cars with police escort and blocked-off roads. Inside the Kremlin walls is the world’s largest cannon that’s never been shot and the world’s largest bell that’s never been rung. Hmmm. That’s about all we saw before the skies opened up and we were forced to seek shelter.
During our walks throughout the city, I taught Anne how to read ‘the Code,’ aka, Cyrillic. It seems really complicated when you look at it, but once you know what sounds the letters make, you can sound out anything. So I would scan the buildings for words that are the same or similar in English and Russian, such as ‘Internet’ ‘Bancomat’ ‘Cosmetica’ ‘Baskin Robbins’ ‘Pizza Hut’ ‘Stop’ and ‘Sport.’ She said that once she figured it out, she didn’t feel so lost, and it is kind of like a game. After getting over his jet-lag from the first few days, John caught on too.
While we were there, Moscow was hosting the hugely popular ‘Eurovision’ song-contest, which meant there were extra tourists and Eurovision-related stuff all over. 25 European countries send an entry to the contest, which is a huge spectacle, somewhat akin to American idol. Russia won last year, so they hosted this year. This year Norway won, with some guy playing a fiddle and singing about a fairytale. While we were out and about in Moscow, we came across the entry from Denmark singing in the park outside the Kremlin. We thought they were pretty good, and happened to seem them compete in the finals on tv later in the week. They took 13th place. Moldova took 14th.
After wandering about Moscow, we took a night-train to St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is a city like none I have ever seen before! It has canals somewhat like those in Venice or Amsterdam, and huge palace-like buildings that you might see in Paris or Vienna. It is a relatively young city, being founded by Peter I in the early 1700s. We visited the fortress out on an island which was the built to defend the land from the Swedes. (St. Petersburg is located in the western most part of Russia, across the bay from Finland). Their main street is ginormous, and lined with huge buildings and multiple cathedrals. One of the palaces belonged to the Stroganovs, where beef stroganoff was ‘invented.’ There is also the world-famous Hermitage art museum, housed in the former palace of Catherine the Great. It is truly magnificent. We also went to see a Russian ballet – the Nutcracker. The best part of the trip was probably the last evening, when we took a boat ride through the canals and out to the river. By evening, I mean night. We started out at 1:00 am (about two hours after sunset – it is on the same latitutde as Anchorage, so the long days were starting already!). Around 1:30 the four bridges across the river open up to let the tall-masted ships through. For about a mile all of the buildings along the river are illuminated, and there are crazy flashing lights on the bridges, making it a truly an incredible sight.
Overall it was a great trip, but we had a few ‘interesting’ moments. Anne was stopped by the police once for taking a picture of a street sign. She was forced to delete it. The address we were given for the place where we had to register our visas was wrong, and we were met with blank stares from non-english-speaking uniformed men. Luckily one of them recognized the name of the travel company, and explained to me how to get to the place. My limited Russian allowed me to understand ‘white door’ ’50 meters ahead’ and ‘second floor.’ I was actually quite impressed with how much I was able to get by on my Russian. I was able to buy us the ballet tickets, easily navigate the metro, negotiate with a few street vendors, ask directions for finding an atm, and chat with a random guy on the boat ride. However, my abilities didn’t do me any good with the angry babas (old women) at the hermitage museum. It was cold, so everyone had coats. But you aren’t allowed to enter with your coats, so you have to leave them at the coat check. But the coat check was full. Baba after baba just yelled ‘nyet’ and told me to go to someone else. The group check lady was empty but she wouldn’t take them because we weren’t a group. There were cupboards, but those are only for bags. Dozens of people were running around trying to find a place to leave their coats, and the babas just yelled and didn’t do anything to find a solution. After running around for 15 minutes, I started to get upset. We paid for our tickets, the musem was going to close in less then two hours, and these cranky babas wouldn’t take our dang coats. Well, John and Anne and I were standing in a tight circle, and I didn’t think anyone was paying attention to us, so I said ‘fine, I’ll leave our coats here!’ and threw them down in the middle of the floor. Well, a nice baba somehow saw it and came barging in the circle and picked them up and brushed them off and kept saying ‘nyet, nyet, nyet.’ Then she took them behind a counter and somehow found a free hook for them. Well, now I know that in Russia I just have to throw a tantrum to get something done. Later, when John went to get the jackets while Anne and I were in the bathroom, he didn’t recognize mine and Anne’s jackets and tried to tell her that these weren’t ours. But she insisted, and then re-enacted my tantrum, throwing the jackets down on the counter. Then John was like, oh, yup, those are ours.
So that was Russia. Anne and I said goodbye to John, and went our way back to Moldova, where she stayed with me for two weeks. She happened to pick two great weeks, for there was a lot of stuff going on in my village. She came with me to work most days, but it was more socializing and eating than working. There was a big party outside the town hall to celebrate 650 years since the state of Moldova was formed. There was also St. Nicholai day, so we went to a friend’s house for a dinner because her dad is named Nicholai. There were two big birthday parties, a welcome dinner for Anne, a big concert in the woods at which I sang, and a graduation/last day of school ceremony at the school. We also were invited over for dinner at a couple different places, and made a few trips to see the sights in Soroca. One day, the group that I sing with made some music videos. A crew came from the regional TV station to film us all over the village – while singing about a tractor, there was a big tractor in the back, while singing about sheep and shepherds we stood out on the hill where all the sheep are out to pasture, you get the idea. The transportation between these sites was done by one car, three trips each time. There were 24 of us, plus the driver. The car has 4 seats plus the driver. You do the math. (Ok, it’s 9 people per trip, including the driver.) We ended in the forest and had a picnic afterward. When the director/host of the show on which these videos are to air found out that I am an American, she had to have an interview, and asked me about how our folklore and their folklore differ. She was like my best friend after that. It was fun, and funny.
Everyone in my village really took to my sister. She loved the fact that no one ever thought that she looked her age (she’s quite a bit older than I). My new host family especially loved her, and we spent a lot of evenings teaching American card games to the two girls (Moldovan card games were too confusing for us). We made them a pancake breakfast one morning and a taco dinner the last evening. When the time came for her to leave, they joked about stealing her passport so that she couldn’t. The youngest girl even woke up at 5 am and came running out in her nightgown to say goodbye the morning the we left for Chisinau. I thought that two weeks was going to be a long time for her to stay in the village, but it ended up being not enough!
We spent some time with other volunteers in Chisinau before catching our bus to Brasov, Romania. Wow, I’ve been in a lot of crazy mini-bus rides, but this one takes the cake. This guy had some serious road rage, and even the Moldovans were telling him to drive a little more calmly. But fortunately we arrived in one piece nine hours later, and even managed to enjoy the scenery a bit. The border crossing was less than pleasant, since we kept getting yelled at for trying to go to the bathroom while they were checking passports and baggage and stuff. They wouldn’t let us go at all on the Moldovan side, and then on the Romanian side they were like, you should have gone in Moldova. What is this, the international no-pee zone? The bathrooms are just there to taunt us?
Anyways, we arrived in Brasov around 9pm and checked into the little guesthouse where I had stayed when I was there in September. I got to know the woman who runs it quite well, and we had been emailing each other, so I was looking forward to seeing her. We spent the next two days running all over Transylvania, hitting up all of the best Dracula/Vlad the Impaler sites. We went to a medieval walled city, Sighisoara, and saw the house where he was born. We hired a car and drove three hours into the foothills of the Fagaras mountains, where his fortress is and climbed up the 1500 steps to reach it. And we went to the tourist attraction castle at Bran, which is said to be where he lives but he actually didn’t. But it’s still a really cool castle and I would want to live there. In the evenings we explored Brasov, which I would have to say is my second-favorite city in Europe, after Vienna.
The last morning we said goodbye to the guesthouse woman, who is so awesome and gave us one night for free. She said that if I can take two years of my life to volunteer, the least she can do is give me a free night. I really appreciated that. At the train station we were hounded by a taxi driver who wanted to take us all the way to the airport in Bucuresti, which is about 80 miles away. At first we resisted, but then we added up the cost of the train tickets, and the taxi ride from the train station to the airport, and the inconvenience and wasted time, so we decided to go with him, on the conditions that he didn’t raise the price when we got to the airport, that he didn’t steal our bags, and that he didn’t drive like a maniac. He agreed to all conditions, and it ended up being awesome. We stopped in another mountain town, Sinaia, and visited the most magnificent palace I have ever seen, Peles. I liked it even better than, say, Versailles or Schonbrunn. Instead of expansive gardens, there are lush green mountains, and while it is lavish, it doesn’t go overboard. Absolutely loved it. And you can take a two-day hike over the mountains and the Bran Castle is on the other side! Anyways, our driver had special privileges and drove right up to the front, past where all the other cars had to stop. He knew everyone, and even got us into the bathroom at the restaurant that was only for customers, haha. Further along the way to the airport, he pulled over at an awesome restaurant so that Anne could eat ‘mici’ (meech), a traditional Romanian food made of meat. We chatted the whole time, and after he dropped us off at the airport, he gave us each a hug! So nice! He didn’t raise the price, but we did!
As if all this wasn’t enough, I had another visiter last week – one of my two American roommates from when I was studying in Vienna, Mandy. We went to Odessa, Ukraine, where we severely burned ourselves while laying on the beaches near the Black Sea. Odessa turned out to have a very beautiful center area, which we frequented in the evenings after having spent the days at the beach. After that Mandy spent a few days in my village as well. Needless to say, the past month and a half has absolutely flown by! I realize that I am so lucky and blessed to have the opportunity and ability to travel, to see and experience these things. I thank the Lord every day for it!
We spent our days in Moscow mostly around the Red Square area, shopping and hiding from the rain. St. Basil’s Cathedral (the multi-colored, multi-onion-domed church that you always see in pictures) is really quite impressive, and Lenin’s masoleum is a hoot. It’s all dark in there, and he’s just laying there illuminated and stuffed, and if you pause for even a split-second while encircling his body, the Russia guards grunt at you to move along. The Kremlin is also quite impressive. I didn’t realize that it is actually a large fortress – a government compound encircled by huge red walls. We’re pretty sure we saw Medvedev or Putin race into the Kremlin in one of their sleek black cars with police escort and blocked-off roads. Inside the Kremlin walls is the world’s largest cannon that’s never been shot and the world’s largest bell that’s never been rung. Hmmm. That’s about all we saw before the skies opened up and we were forced to seek shelter.
During our walks throughout the city, I taught Anne how to read ‘the Code,’ aka, Cyrillic. It seems really complicated when you look at it, but once you know what sounds the letters make, you can sound out anything. So I would scan the buildings for words that are the same or similar in English and Russian, such as ‘Internet’ ‘Bancomat’ ‘Cosmetica’ ‘Baskin Robbins’ ‘Pizza Hut’ ‘Stop’ and ‘Sport.’ She said that once she figured it out, she didn’t feel so lost, and it is kind of like a game. After getting over his jet-lag from the first few days, John caught on too.
While we were there, Moscow was hosting the hugely popular ‘Eurovision’ song-contest, which meant there were extra tourists and Eurovision-related stuff all over. 25 European countries send an entry to the contest, which is a huge spectacle, somewhat akin to American idol. Russia won last year, so they hosted this year. This year Norway won, with some guy playing a fiddle and singing about a fairytale. While we were out and about in Moscow, we came across the entry from Denmark singing in the park outside the Kremlin. We thought they were pretty good, and happened to seem them compete in the finals on tv later in the week. They took 13th place. Moldova took 14th.
After wandering about Moscow, we took a night-train to St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is a city like none I have ever seen before! It has canals somewhat like those in Venice or Amsterdam, and huge palace-like buildings that you might see in Paris or Vienna. It is a relatively young city, being founded by Peter I in the early 1700s. We visited the fortress out on an island which was the built to defend the land from the Swedes. (St. Petersburg is located in the western most part of Russia, across the bay from Finland). Their main street is ginormous, and lined with huge buildings and multiple cathedrals. One of the palaces belonged to the Stroganovs, where beef stroganoff was ‘invented.’ There is also the world-famous Hermitage art museum, housed in the former palace of Catherine the Great. It is truly magnificent. We also went to see a Russian ballet – the Nutcracker. The best part of the trip was probably the last evening, when we took a boat ride through the canals and out to the river. By evening, I mean night. We started out at 1:00 am (about two hours after sunset – it is on the same latitutde as Anchorage, so the long days were starting already!). Around 1:30 the four bridges across the river open up to let the tall-masted ships through. For about a mile all of the buildings along the river are illuminated, and there are crazy flashing lights on the bridges, making it a truly an incredible sight.
Overall it was a great trip, but we had a few ‘interesting’ moments. Anne was stopped by the police once for taking a picture of a street sign. She was forced to delete it. The address we were given for the place where we had to register our visas was wrong, and we were met with blank stares from non-english-speaking uniformed men. Luckily one of them recognized the name of the travel company, and explained to me how to get to the place. My limited Russian allowed me to understand ‘white door’ ’50 meters ahead’ and ‘second floor.’ I was actually quite impressed with how much I was able to get by on my Russian. I was able to buy us the ballet tickets, easily navigate the metro, negotiate with a few street vendors, ask directions for finding an atm, and chat with a random guy on the boat ride. However, my abilities didn’t do me any good with the angry babas (old women) at the hermitage museum. It was cold, so everyone had coats. But you aren’t allowed to enter with your coats, so you have to leave them at the coat check. But the coat check was full. Baba after baba just yelled ‘nyet’ and told me to go to someone else. The group check lady was empty but she wouldn’t take them because we weren’t a group. There were cupboards, but those are only for bags. Dozens of people were running around trying to find a place to leave their coats, and the babas just yelled and didn’t do anything to find a solution. After running around for 15 minutes, I started to get upset. We paid for our tickets, the musem was going to close in less then two hours, and these cranky babas wouldn’t take our dang coats. Well, John and Anne and I were standing in a tight circle, and I didn’t think anyone was paying attention to us, so I said ‘fine, I’ll leave our coats here!’ and threw them down in the middle of the floor. Well, a nice baba somehow saw it and came barging in the circle and picked them up and brushed them off and kept saying ‘nyet, nyet, nyet.’ Then she took them behind a counter and somehow found a free hook for them. Well, now I know that in Russia I just have to throw a tantrum to get something done. Later, when John went to get the jackets while Anne and I were in the bathroom, he didn’t recognize mine and Anne’s jackets and tried to tell her that these weren’t ours. But she insisted, and then re-enacted my tantrum, throwing the jackets down on the counter. Then John was like, oh, yup, those are ours.
So that was Russia. Anne and I said goodbye to John, and went our way back to Moldova, where she stayed with me for two weeks. She happened to pick two great weeks, for there was a lot of stuff going on in my village. She came with me to work most days, but it was more socializing and eating than working. There was a big party outside the town hall to celebrate 650 years since the state of Moldova was formed. There was also St. Nicholai day, so we went to a friend’s house for a dinner because her dad is named Nicholai. There were two big birthday parties, a welcome dinner for Anne, a big concert in the woods at which I sang, and a graduation/last day of school ceremony at the school. We also were invited over for dinner at a couple different places, and made a few trips to see the sights in Soroca. One day, the group that I sing with made some music videos. A crew came from the regional TV station to film us all over the village – while singing about a tractor, there was a big tractor in the back, while singing about sheep and shepherds we stood out on the hill where all the sheep are out to pasture, you get the idea. The transportation between these sites was done by one car, three trips each time. There were 24 of us, plus the driver. The car has 4 seats plus the driver. You do the math. (Ok, it’s 9 people per trip, including the driver.) We ended in the forest and had a picnic afterward. When the director/host of the show on which these videos are to air found out that I am an American, she had to have an interview, and asked me about how our folklore and their folklore differ. She was like my best friend after that. It was fun, and funny.
Everyone in my village really took to my sister. She loved the fact that no one ever thought that she looked her age (she’s quite a bit older than I). My new host family especially loved her, and we spent a lot of evenings teaching American card games to the two girls (Moldovan card games were too confusing for us). We made them a pancake breakfast one morning and a taco dinner the last evening. When the time came for her to leave, they joked about stealing her passport so that she couldn’t. The youngest girl even woke up at 5 am and came running out in her nightgown to say goodbye the morning the we left for Chisinau. I thought that two weeks was going to be a long time for her to stay in the village, but it ended up being not enough!
We spent some time with other volunteers in Chisinau before catching our bus to Brasov, Romania. Wow, I’ve been in a lot of crazy mini-bus rides, but this one takes the cake. This guy had some serious road rage, and even the Moldovans were telling him to drive a little more calmly. But fortunately we arrived in one piece nine hours later, and even managed to enjoy the scenery a bit. The border crossing was less than pleasant, since we kept getting yelled at for trying to go to the bathroom while they were checking passports and baggage and stuff. They wouldn’t let us go at all on the Moldovan side, and then on the Romanian side they were like, you should have gone in Moldova. What is this, the international no-pee zone? The bathrooms are just there to taunt us?
Anyways, we arrived in Brasov around 9pm and checked into the little guesthouse where I had stayed when I was there in September. I got to know the woman who runs it quite well, and we had been emailing each other, so I was looking forward to seeing her. We spent the next two days running all over Transylvania, hitting up all of the best Dracula/Vlad the Impaler sites. We went to a medieval walled city, Sighisoara, and saw the house where he was born. We hired a car and drove three hours into the foothills of the Fagaras mountains, where his fortress is and climbed up the 1500 steps to reach it. And we went to the tourist attraction castle at Bran, which is said to be where he lives but he actually didn’t. But it’s still a really cool castle and I would want to live there. In the evenings we explored Brasov, which I would have to say is my second-favorite city in Europe, after Vienna.
The last morning we said goodbye to the guesthouse woman, who is so awesome and gave us one night for free. She said that if I can take two years of my life to volunteer, the least she can do is give me a free night. I really appreciated that. At the train station we were hounded by a taxi driver who wanted to take us all the way to the airport in Bucuresti, which is about 80 miles away. At first we resisted, but then we added up the cost of the train tickets, and the taxi ride from the train station to the airport, and the inconvenience and wasted time, so we decided to go with him, on the conditions that he didn’t raise the price when we got to the airport, that he didn’t steal our bags, and that he didn’t drive like a maniac. He agreed to all conditions, and it ended up being awesome. We stopped in another mountain town, Sinaia, and visited the most magnificent palace I have ever seen, Peles. I liked it even better than, say, Versailles or Schonbrunn. Instead of expansive gardens, there are lush green mountains, and while it is lavish, it doesn’t go overboard. Absolutely loved it. And you can take a two-day hike over the mountains and the Bran Castle is on the other side! Anyways, our driver had special privileges and drove right up to the front, past where all the other cars had to stop. He knew everyone, and even got us into the bathroom at the restaurant that was only for customers, haha. Further along the way to the airport, he pulled over at an awesome restaurant so that Anne could eat ‘mici’ (meech), a traditional Romanian food made of meat. We chatted the whole time, and after he dropped us off at the airport, he gave us each a hug! So nice! He didn’t raise the price, but we did!
As if all this wasn’t enough, I had another visiter last week – one of my two American roommates from when I was studying in Vienna, Mandy. We went to Odessa, Ukraine, where we severely burned ourselves while laying on the beaches near the Black Sea. Odessa turned out to have a very beautiful center area, which we frequented in the evenings after having spent the days at the beach. After that Mandy spent a few days in my village as well. Needless to say, the past month and a half has absolutely flown by! I realize that I am so lucky and blessed to have the opportunity and ability to travel, to see and experience these things. I thank the Lord every day for it!
June 5, 2009
A Long Walk Home, and Other Things
I love good weather, because it means that people are out and about. I get out to run almost every day now, and I usually go the same route, about 8 km towards another village and back. It is not a main road, it simply links the main road to this other village. There are a few large farms along the way that belong to a company that makes juice and canned fruits and vegetables. This company buses in workers from all over the region to work in the fields. Well, the bus drives by at almost the same time every day while I’m running. So now the driver always taps the horn and waves, and some of the workers on the bus have even started waving. I also feel like I know the tractor drivers who also always drive by and wave, or give me a ‘thumbs up.’ Strange, I’ve never even talked to these people, and I see them (through a window) for 5 seconds each day, yet I feel like they are my friends. ‘Oh, there goes my friend the bus driver! Oh, and here comes my friend the blue tractor driver!’
The following is a story of my walk home one day. I really enjoy such days as this, when it seems like everyone is happy and glad to talk, when I don’t have to rush, and when I feel like just another member of the village:
I was waiting on the side of the road to try to get a ride home from Soroca. My village is only about 6 km away from the city, directly on the main road to Chisinau, but it can be impossible to get there sometimes! There are two mini-bus drivers who drive between Soroca and my village every day, but there is not a regular schedule. It is not uncommon to be riding with one of them when he decides make a detour to his house to pick up a snack or something. Also, they don’t go anywhere until the bus is full. So sometimes I could spend up to an hour just sitting in the bus waiting for more people to come. Sometimes hours go by and neither of the buses come. Then you just have to hitchhike. There is a parking lot at the edge of the city, across from the bus station, and everyone wanting to go to the surrounding villages waits there to hitch rides. If a car stops, it can be a mad dash for who gets the seats.
Anyhoo, I was waiting to get a ride, and it was a beautiful day, the mini-buses were nowhere in sight, and I was tired of fighting people to get to a car first, so I decided to walk home. It’s really quite a nice walk, the first kilometer is along the Nistru River (which marks the Ukrainian border), and then there is a huuuge hill. The road does a long switchback, but there is a path straight up through the woods, which I took. Then it is another 3 kilometers up on a hill, which overlooks the city, and endless farmland. Upon reaching the edge of my village, I decided to stop in and see my friend who just had her baby. I popped in, and we caught up on the events of the past two weeks, and I admired the baby. I then headed out, because I had to be at choir practice.
I took the shortcut through the woods and met up with the main road. I ran into the friend’s 7-year-old, who was munching on some popcorn on his way home. He stopped me and made me eat some, and I promised him I would bring him candy from Russia when I went there the following week. I continued on, but soon realized the my jacket had fallen out of my bag. So I went to retrace my steps to try to find it. As I reached the entrance to the woods, I heard a friendly voice call out to me in Russian. Two young men were working on a car on the side of the road up ahead. Ah, one of them was one of the only people my age in the village. He had been working in St. Petersburg most of the time, but due to the ‘economic crisis,’ there isn’t much work there anymore, so he came home. He had given me his sim card to use while I was in Russia, and he wanted to know how my preparations for my trip were going. I struggled through a few minutes of conversing in Russian, but then switched back to Romanian and told him about my jacket. He wished me luck, and I went on through the woods. No sign of it. I couldn’t figure out where I lost it. I made it all the way back to my friend’s house, and found her, her husband, and the boy sitting in the back room. They all started laughing when I entered. ‘Looking for something?’ The asked. The boy had found it in the woods on his way home. ‘Be careful not to lose my candy on the way home from Russia!’ he told me. And I continued on my way home. As I exited from the woods, I held up my jacket to show the two guys working on the car down the road and they shouted a congratulations.
A bit further down the road I met up with a woman who was coming out of the field carrying a huge burlap sack on her back. She was wearing one of the bright, floral-patterned bathrobe-like things that all Moldovan women wear, and a bright, floral-pattered head scarf, which doesn’t at all match the bright floral-patterend bathrobe. I didn’t know her, but she seemed to know me, which isn’t uncommon, I guess. She asked me if I walked all the way from Soroca, and I said yes, it’s a nice day, why not? She replied with ‘yeah, nice to exercise a little!’
Then, on the other side of the road, going in the same direction, appeared a horse-drawn cart. It was extremely over-loading with twiggy branches sticking out in all directions, and the two watchmen from work were sitting atop the pile. ‘Katerina!’ the shouted to me. ‘Where are you coming from?’ We yelled across the road to each other for a bit, and they continued on. A bit later, they stopped to talk to someone else, and I passed them and made the turn into my part of the village. A few minutes later I heard the cart approaching from behind, so I move as far as possible to the side of the road for them to pass me. It got closer and closer, and I kept waiting for it to pass me, but it never did. Finally I turned around to see why they were going so slowly, and the horse’s head was about an inch from my shoulder! I yelped a bit and jumped into a bush, and the two watchmen were sitting atop their branches laughing their heads off. I laughed to, and then continued on.
As I walked on, I greeted people with the required ‘Christ is risen!’ (for 40 days after Easter, instead of hello). I got enthusiastic responses and smiles from all. I turned on to my old street, and the old man who lives on the corner waved from his garden. A bit further on I turned onto my new street, and another jokingly asked me if I hadn’t lost my way home. Finally, two and a half hours after setting out from the town, I arrived home, in a good mood and with just enough time to grab my notebook and make it to choir practice!
So I’m really liking my new home. My partner and the girls are very interested in my ‘gymnastics.’ That is, my body circuit exercises – jumping jacks, squats, sit-ups, push-ups, lunges, etc. I do a lot of the exercises with a large medicine ball, which they love. One evening they all came into my room and I tried to show them how to do some of the exercises. There was a lot of shrieking and stumbling and falling off of the medicine ball. In trade for the gymnastics instruction, I was instructed on how to hang up my laundry. I did a very large load the other day, and I hung them up on the clothesline in the order that they came out of the washing machine. But apparently, I have to put the pants by the pants, shirts by the shirts, etc, and in order by color. Otherwise people might walk by and think that I don’t know how to do things right. Hanging up my clothes that way never even occured to me, but now that I know, I have noticed throughout the village that everyone does it that way!
Awhile back I really got to put my language skills to use. There was a soccer game between Switzerland and Moldova (I don’t think I need to tell you the outcome) here in Chisinau. After the game a bunch of us were out at a bar where there is live music, and one of the Moldovans who works at Peace Corps plays the harmonica there. Some Swiss fans showed up, so we talked with them a bit. Lots of the Moldovans in the bar also wanted to talk with them, being so obviously foreign, dressed all in red with big swiss flags. But of course the Moldovans speak only Russian and Romanian, and the Swiss only German and English. But I speak all four! So I got to be translator. Man, that was a riot. My Russian is very poor, but I was able to facilitate a Russian-German ‘hi, how are you, where are you from, what are you doing here, how do you like Moldova, do you want a beer’ conversation! I don’t know if I’ll ever again find myself in a situation where those four languages all come into play. Crazy. Fun.
Stayed tuned for tales from my adventures with both of my siblings in Russia, and with my sister in Moldova and Romania!
The following is a story of my walk home one day. I really enjoy such days as this, when it seems like everyone is happy and glad to talk, when I don’t have to rush, and when I feel like just another member of the village:
I was waiting on the side of the road to try to get a ride home from Soroca. My village is only about 6 km away from the city, directly on the main road to Chisinau, but it can be impossible to get there sometimes! There are two mini-bus drivers who drive between Soroca and my village every day, but there is not a regular schedule. It is not uncommon to be riding with one of them when he decides make a detour to his house to pick up a snack or something. Also, they don’t go anywhere until the bus is full. So sometimes I could spend up to an hour just sitting in the bus waiting for more people to come. Sometimes hours go by and neither of the buses come. Then you just have to hitchhike. There is a parking lot at the edge of the city, across from the bus station, and everyone wanting to go to the surrounding villages waits there to hitch rides. If a car stops, it can be a mad dash for who gets the seats.
Anyhoo, I was waiting to get a ride, and it was a beautiful day, the mini-buses were nowhere in sight, and I was tired of fighting people to get to a car first, so I decided to walk home. It’s really quite a nice walk, the first kilometer is along the Nistru River (which marks the Ukrainian border), and then there is a huuuge hill. The road does a long switchback, but there is a path straight up through the woods, which I took. Then it is another 3 kilometers up on a hill, which overlooks the city, and endless farmland. Upon reaching the edge of my village, I decided to stop in and see my friend who just had her baby. I popped in, and we caught up on the events of the past two weeks, and I admired the baby. I then headed out, because I had to be at choir practice.
I took the shortcut through the woods and met up with the main road. I ran into the friend’s 7-year-old, who was munching on some popcorn on his way home. He stopped me and made me eat some, and I promised him I would bring him candy from Russia when I went there the following week. I continued on, but soon realized the my jacket had fallen out of my bag. So I went to retrace my steps to try to find it. As I reached the entrance to the woods, I heard a friendly voice call out to me in Russian. Two young men were working on a car on the side of the road up ahead. Ah, one of them was one of the only people my age in the village. He had been working in St. Petersburg most of the time, but due to the ‘economic crisis,’ there isn’t much work there anymore, so he came home. He had given me his sim card to use while I was in Russia, and he wanted to know how my preparations for my trip were going. I struggled through a few minutes of conversing in Russian, but then switched back to Romanian and told him about my jacket. He wished me luck, and I went on through the woods. No sign of it. I couldn’t figure out where I lost it. I made it all the way back to my friend’s house, and found her, her husband, and the boy sitting in the back room. They all started laughing when I entered. ‘Looking for something?’ The asked. The boy had found it in the woods on his way home. ‘Be careful not to lose my candy on the way home from Russia!’ he told me. And I continued on my way home. As I exited from the woods, I held up my jacket to show the two guys working on the car down the road and they shouted a congratulations.
A bit further down the road I met up with a woman who was coming out of the field carrying a huge burlap sack on her back. She was wearing one of the bright, floral-patterned bathrobe-like things that all Moldovan women wear, and a bright, floral-pattered head scarf, which doesn’t at all match the bright floral-patterend bathrobe. I didn’t know her, but she seemed to know me, which isn’t uncommon, I guess. She asked me if I walked all the way from Soroca, and I said yes, it’s a nice day, why not? She replied with ‘yeah, nice to exercise a little!’
Then, on the other side of the road, going in the same direction, appeared a horse-drawn cart. It was extremely over-loading with twiggy branches sticking out in all directions, and the two watchmen from work were sitting atop the pile. ‘Katerina!’ the shouted to me. ‘Where are you coming from?’ We yelled across the road to each other for a bit, and they continued on. A bit later, they stopped to talk to someone else, and I passed them and made the turn into my part of the village. A few minutes later I heard the cart approaching from behind, so I move as far as possible to the side of the road for them to pass me. It got closer and closer, and I kept waiting for it to pass me, but it never did. Finally I turned around to see why they were going so slowly, and the horse’s head was about an inch from my shoulder! I yelped a bit and jumped into a bush, and the two watchmen were sitting atop their branches laughing their heads off. I laughed to, and then continued on.
As I walked on, I greeted people with the required ‘Christ is risen!’ (for 40 days after Easter, instead of hello). I got enthusiastic responses and smiles from all. I turned on to my old street, and the old man who lives on the corner waved from his garden. A bit further on I turned onto my new street, and another jokingly asked me if I hadn’t lost my way home. Finally, two and a half hours after setting out from the town, I arrived home, in a good mood and with just enough time to grab my notebook and make it to choir practice!
So I’m really liking my new home. My partner and the girls are very interested in my ‘gymnastics.’ That is, my body circuit exercises – jumping jacks, squats, sit-ups, push-ups, lunges, etc. I do a lot of the exercises with a large medicine ball, which they love. One evening they all came into my room and I tried to show them how to do some of the exercises. There was a lot of shrieking and stumbling and falling off of the medicine ball. In trade for the gymnastics instruction, I was instructed on how to hang up my laundry. I did a very large load the other day, and I hung them up on the clothesline in the order that they came out of the washing machine. But apparently, I have to put the pants by the pants, shirts by the shirts, etc, and in order by color. Otherwise people might walk by and think that I don’t know how to do things right. Hanging up my clothes that way never even occured to me, but now that I know, I have noticed throughout the village that everyone does it that way!
Awhile back I really got to put my language skills to use. There was a soccer game between Switzerland and Moldova (I don’t think I need to tell you the outcome) here in Chisinau. After the game a bunch of us were out at a bar where there is live music, and one of the Moldovans who works at Peace Corps plays the harmonica there. Some Swiss fans showed up, so we talked with them a bit. Lots of the Moldovans in the bar also wanted to talk with them, being so obviously foreign, dressed all in red with big swiss flags. But of course the Moldovans speak only Russian and Romanian, and the Swiss only German and English. But I speak all four! So I got to be translator. Man, that was a riot. My Russian is very poor, but I was able to facilitate a Russian-German ‘hi, how are you, where are you from, what are you doing here, how do you like Moldova, do you want a beer’ conversation! I don’t know if I’ll ever again find myself in a situation where those four languages all come into play. Crazy. Fun.
Stayed tuned for tales from my adventures with both of my siblings in Russia, and with my sister in Moldova and Romania!
May 4, 2009
Spring Finally!
The weather at last is nice! Trees are blooming, sun is shining, roads are dry, flowers are sprouting up, and there are baby rabbits, baby goats, baby sheep, baby geese, and baby people! Yes, baby people! One of my Moldovan friends, the social worker with whom I used to share an office, just had her second child, a healthy baby boy. I’ve been working (for a long time now) on knitting a blanket for him. I’ve been getting help from the home ec teacher, and I just have the border left. I hope to have it done in time for the baptism!
Work has been going along as usual – rabbits, bees, English, women’s empowerment camp, informal computer lessons, and random side projects. One of the random things I did lately was subbing for the civic education teacher for a day. She left the topic open to me, so I chose to talk about volunteersim, a relatively new concept here. The ninth-grade class was a bunch of brats, but the 7th-graders were really great. They decided that they wanted to get together a bunch of kids and clean up the cemetary before Easter of the Dead. (This is a holiday the week after regular Easter, in which families take elaborate picnics to their loved ones in the cemetary. They give gifts to the dead (usually a special round bread, a candle, and some candy), and the priest comes around and says blessings.) They asked me to help supervise, so one afternoon we met at the cemetary and picked up all the trash (sad, probably left from last year’s Easter of the Dead), trimmed hedges, hacked weeds, and fixed up benches. They worked for about 4 hours and didn’t get nearly as far as they wanted to. Well, some town council members saw what they were trying to do, and the town hall ended up paying some money to have it cleaned up for real. I was very proud of those kids for taking action and for leading others to take action!
Unfortunately, planning for the women’s empowerment camp is going less than smoothly. Peace Corps has issues with its ‘sustainability,’ and we had to spend a lot of time convincing them. Also, due to the less than wonderful state of the economy, our two major funders will not be funding us this year. Hmmmm. Well, part of our long-term strategic plan was to become as locally-financed as possible, so I guess we’ll have to switch that over to our short-term plan, haha. We are exploring different options for corporate sponsorship, as well as applying to other funder organizations. The biggest cost is of course the feeding and housing of the women during the camp. Through fellow volunteers, we may have found a campsite that we will be able to use for free and only pay a minimal price for food. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will work out! We are also focusing a lot this year on working with our Moldovan counterparts (a young woman who was a previous counselor at the camp, and a youth development NGO in Soroca) to transfer more of the planning and implementation responsibilities over to them.
We (my local counterparts and I) also have been having problems with the local savings and loan. The new loan cycle was supposed to begin at the end of March, but because of the economy and the problems with the elections, the national bank didn’t distribute the money when it said it would. So 50 people in my village who were relying on around $1000 each in order to buy seeds to plant their crops, or to pay for weddings, or to buy animals, or what have you, have been left waiting. They were expecting the money at the end of March, and it is now the beginning of May, and they are just starting to receive it, but just a few people at a time. For those who wanted to buy seeds for planting, the time to plant has come and gone! What are they supposed to do now? People keep calling or stopping me in the road to ask when the money is going to come, and I don’t know what to tell them, since we ourselves don’t know when the bank is finally going to give it to us. I feel so bad, but I don’t know what I can do to help the situation, other than to sympathize with them and try to explain as best I can.
In other news, I recently switched host families. I decided it was time for a change, and with only 6 months left, I thought it would be good to see how another family lives. I’m now living with my counterpart and her family. The two girls (7th and 12th grade) learn English from me, and we get along great. My new host dad is one of the most talkative Moldovan men that I’ve met, and I appreciate that he’s always telling interesting facts and takes the time to translate the most important things when watching Russian television. And since I’m living with my counterpart, we’ll be able to work more often together. I’ll have to get used to new routines, new food, and different personalities again, but that’s what this adventure is all about. And it will be a lot easier this time around, since I already know the language and the family!
So next week I’ll be taking an 8-day trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and I can’t wait! I’ll finally get to see if all of my learning Russian efforts are going to pay off. I’ve been doing little lessons with the Russian teacher at the school, and many people in the village know that I’m going, so have been greeting me and making small talk in Russian to help me get ready. Also, these two cities are two of the main destinations for Moldovans trying to earn money abroad, so I was flooded with offers to meet up with husbands, wives, friends, neighbors, who are currently living there. I’m am armed with a cell phone sim card, and telephone numbers of these people, including a taxi driver. I also finally received my visa. I had to make two special trips into Chisinau and face the scary people at the Russian embassy in order to get it. And luckily I had help from a Moldovan friend, without whom I’m sure I would still be standing at the gate trying just to get in! Ooh, and the best part of all this is that my traveling companions will be my sister and brother!
Well, I suppose that is all for now, I wish I had an entertaining story or two, but I guess I have gotten so used to everything now, that nothing seems suprising or unusual anymore!
Work has been going along as usual – rabbits, bees, English, women’s empowerment camp, informal computer lessons, and random side projects. One of the random things I did lately was subbing for the civic education teacher for a day. She left the topic open to me, so I chose to talk about volunteersim, a relatively new concept here. The ninth-grade class was a bunch of brats, but the 7th-graders were really great. They decided that they wanted to get together a bunch of kids and clean up the cemetary before Easter of the Dead. (This is a holiday the week after regular Easter, in which families take elaborate picnics to their loved ones in the cemetary. They give gifts to the dead (usually a special round bread, a candle, and some candy), and the priest comes around and says blessings.) They asked me to help supervise, so one afternoon we met at the cemetary and picked up all the trash (sad, probably left from last year’s Easter of the Dead), trimmed hedges, hacked weeds, and fixed up benches. They worked for about 4 hours and didn’t get nearly as far as they wanted to. Well, some town council members saw what they were trying to do, and the town hall ended up paying some money to have it cleaned up for real. I was very proud of those kids for taking action and for leading others to take action!
Unfortunately, planning for the women’s empowerment camp is going less than smoothly. Peace Corps has issues with its ‘sustainability,’ and we had to spend a lot of time convincing them. Also, due to the less than wonderful state of the economy, our two major funders will not be funding us this year. Hmmmm. Well, part of our long-term strategic plan was to become as locally-financed as possible, so I guess we’ll have to switch that over to our short-term plan, haha. We are exploring different options for corporate sponsorship, as well as applying to other funder organizations. The biggest cost is of course the feeding and housing of the women during the camp. Through fellow volunteers, we may have found a campsite that we will be able to use for free and only pay a minimal price for food. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will work out! We are also focusing a lot this year on working with our Moldovan counterparts (a young woman who was a previous counselor at the camp, and a youth development NGO in Soroca) to transfer more of the planning and implementation responsibilities over to them.
We (my local counterparts and I) also have been having problems with the local savings and loan. The new loan cycle was supposed to begin at the end of March, but because of the economy and the problems with the elections, the national bank didn’t distribute the money when it said it would. So 50 people in my village who were relying on around $1000 each in order to buy seeds to plant their crops, or to pay for weddings, or to buy animals, or what have you, have been left waiting. They were expecting the money at the end of March, and it is now the beginning of May, and they are just starting to receive it, but just a few people at a time. For those who wanted to buy seeds for planting, the time to plant has come and gone! What are they supposed to do now? People keep calling or stopping me in the road to ask when the money is going to come, and I don’t know what to tell them, since we ourselves don’t know when the bank is finally going to give it to us. I feel so bad, but I don’t know what I can do to help the situation, other than to sympathize with them and try to explain as best I can.
In other news, I recently switched host families. I decided it was time for a change, and with only 6 months left, I thought it would be good to see how another family lives. I’m now living with my counterpart and her family. The two girls (7th and 12th grade) learn English from me, and we get along great. My new host dad is one of the most talkative Moldovan men that I’ve met, and I appreciate that he’s always telling interesting facts and takes the time to translate the most important things when watching Russian television. And since I’m living with my counterpart, we’ll be able to work more often together. I’ll have to get used to new routines, new food, and different personalities again, but that’s what this adventure is all about. And it will be a lot easier this time around, since I already know the language and the family!
So next week I’ll be taking an 8-day trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and I can’t wait! I’ll finally get to see if all of my learning Russian efforts are going to pay off. I’ve been doing little lessons with the Russian teacher at the school, and many people in the village know that I’m going, so have been greeting me and making small talk in Russian to help me get ready. Also, these two cities are two of the main destinations for Moldovans trying to earn money abroad, so I was flooded with offers to meet up with husbands, wives, friends, neighbors, who are currently living there. I’m am armed with a cell phone sim card, and telephone numbers of these people, including a taxi driver. I also finally received my visa. I had to make two special trips into Chisinau and face the scary people at the Russian embassy in order to get it. And luckily I had help from a Moldovan friend, without whom I’m sure I would still be standing at the gate trying just to get in! Ooh, and the best part of all this is that my traveling companions will be my sister and brother!
Well, I suppose that is all for now, I wish I had an entertaining story or two, but I guess I have gotten so used to everything now, that nothing seems suprising or unusual anymore!
March 20, 2009
Rain, Rain Go Away!
The weather here is ridiculous this year. Winter was too warm, barely any snow, but now it won’t warm up. The temperature hovers right around freezing, and I think I’ve seen the sun a total of 4 days in the last month. It is windy, rainy, muddy, and depressing. All of my pants have mud splashes at the bottom, and no matter how hard I try to preserve their cleanliness my boots are beyond help. Plus I have worn them so much on the rocky village roads that holes have been worn into the bottom, so if I happen to step into a puddle (every fifth step or so), my feet get soaked. Grrr. Not to mention it’s hard to run every day, as I’d like to.
But in other news, I’ve been pretty busy at site. The local savings and loan where I work gives out loans in cycles, and this month a lot of people had to make their last payments. In addition, we were collecting all requests for new loans, so that we can go to the bank in Soroca and take out one large loan. So there have been lots of people coming in and out. I’ve been busy explaining the crediting process to people, helping them fill out requests, and receiving payments on outstanding loans. With my counterpart I’ve been working on advertising the savings and loan, as well as on stream-lining the crediting process (eliminating paperwork, using the computer to make calculations, creating a database of members, etc.).
I’ve finally given in to persistent requests to start up another English group. But then it ended up being two more groups, since the age range was too large. So now I’m still going with my 7th graders that I’ve been working with for a year and a half now, as well starting from the beginning with two new groups, one of 10 5th-graders, and another of 10 students who go to high school in Soroca. It’s a lot easier with the older group!
The rabbit project is well underway now. On Sunday we took a full car-load of people down to a village near Chisinau where we purchased the first 14 rabbits (12 females and 2 males) and had a seminar. We were hoping to have purchased all the rabbits by now, but we didn’t physically receive the money in time, and now no one is selling because it’s breeding time. So in May we will purchase another 14 rabbits. In the meantime, the first two farms have been started, and we will be inseminating the females in a few weeks.
At the end of February beginning of March I spent a lot of time rehearsing with the village choir ladies. We had two performances within a short period of time, and it was kind of stressful for me, since I had to learn 8 songs within 1 week. And I didn’t even get to practice them...I heard it once, sang it once while reading the words, then went home and memorized the words, and tried to remember the melody. So I went to the concert having never actually sung some of the songs from memory. I had a bit of a freak out right before we got into the mini-bus that was to take us to the neighboring village where the concert was, but the ladies convinced me to go anyways. It turned out to be fine. We sang at the cultural activities hall, and there were about 75 people, mostly younger kids and older ladies, but a few adult men who part of a music group. It was a very casual and laid-back atmosphere, and afterward the men struck up an impromptu band and we danced a bit. Then just as we were leaving in the mini-bus (really just a large van), the 6 men in the music group crammed themselves in an started passing out chunks of bread with salami and vodka shots. Classic.
The social worker with whom I used to share an office has gone on maternity leave now. She’s due in May! I’m working on knitting a blanket for the baby, but it’s very slow going. I’m getting help from the home ec teacher at the school. I thought that it was going to be very sad at work now without her, but her replacement is another very nice lady, and we have already become quite good friends. She has already invited me over for lunch a few times, and a couple days ago I met her husband. He said he has been waiting a long time to talk to me because it is the first time he has ever talked with a ‘live’ American. So I spent about 4 hours answering all of his questions and looking at all the pictures in their house...about 500 hundred or so. And he showed me who was in each one and what the occasion was. It actually was pretty interesting when there were old black and white photos of him and his dad and grandpa in the Soviet army.
I suppose that’s about all I got for now...numai bine!
But in other news, I’ve been pretty busy at site. The local savings and loan where I work gives out loans in cycles, and this month a lot of people had to make their last payments. In addition, we were collecting all requests for new loans, so that we can go to the bank in Soroca and take out one large loan. So there have been lots of people coming in and out. I’ve been busy explaining the crediting process to people, helping them fill out requests, and receiving payments on outstanding loans. With my counterpart I’ve been working on advertising the savings and loan, as well as on stream-lining the crediting process (eliminating paperwork, using the computer to make calculations, creating a database of members, etc.).
I’ve finally given in to persistent requests to start up another English group. But then it ended up being two more groups, since the age range was too large. So now I’m still going with my 7th graders that I’ve been working with for a year and a half now, as well starting from the beginning with two new groups, one of 10 5th-graders, and another of 10 students who go to high school in Soroca. It’s a lot easier with the older group!
The rabbit project is well underway now. On Sunday we took a full car-load of people down to a village near Chisinau where we purchased the first 14 rabbits (12 females and 2 males) and had a seminar. We were hoping to have purchased all the rabbits by now, but we didn’t physically receive the money in time, and now no one is selling because it’s breeding time. So in May we will purchase another 14 rabbits. In the meantime, the first two farms have been started, and we will be inseminating the females in a few weeks.
At the end of February beginning of March I spent a lot of time rehearsing with the village choir ladies. We had two performances within a short period of time, and it was kind of stressful for me, since I had to learn 8 songs within 1 week. And I didn’t even get to practice them...I heard it once, sang it once while reading the words, then went home and memorized the words, and tried to remember the melody. So I went to the concert having never actually sung some of the songs from memory. I had a bit of a freak out right before we got into the mini-bus that was to take us to the neighboring village where the concert was, but the ladies convinced me to go anyways. It turned out to be fine. We sang at the cultural activities hall, and there were about 75 people, mostly younger kids and older ladies, but a few adult men who part of a music group. It was a very casual and laid-back atmosphere, and afterward the men struck up an impromptu band and we danced a bit. Then just as we were leaving in the mini-bus (really just a large van), the 6 men in the music group crammed themselves in an started passing out chunks of bread with salami and vodka shots. Classic.
The social worker with whom I used to share an office has gone on maternity leave now. She’s due in May! I’m working on knitting a blanket for the baby, but it’s very slow going. I’m getting help from the home ec teacher at the school. I thought that it was going to be very sad at work now without her, but her replacement is another very nice lady, and we have already become quite good friends. She has already invited me over for lunch a few times, and a couple days ago I met her husband. He said he has been waiting a long time to talk to me because it is the first time he has ever talked with a ‘live’ American. So I spent about 4 hours answering all of his questions and looking at all the pictures in their house...about 500 hundred or so. And he showed me who was in each one and what the occasion was. It actually was pretty interesting when there were old black and white photos of him and his dad and grandpa in the Soviet army.
I suppose that’s about all I got for now...numai bine!
February 18, 2009
National Moldovan TV debut!
Good news – the rabbit project was funded! So now I’ll be busy with organizing technical seminars for the women, as well as working with them on marketing and tracking expenses. Right now the rabbit houses are being built, and in a few weeks we’ll be going down to a village near Chisinau to buy the rabbits. This week I’ve also got another business lesson to teach to the bee kids. The subject this time is Management, with a focus on goal-setting. Saturday I have a meeting with our new counterpart for the empowerment camp. We’re going to get them up to speed on what the camp is all about, and start with our advertising and planning for this year.
Last week I taught a budgeting/financial planning as part of a business planning seminar series in a region in the south of Moldova. The audience was about 15 40- to 50-year-old men who want to expand their rural businesses – buy tractors, build greenhouses, etc. So the audience wasn’t the usual women and youth that I’m used to, so I was a bit intimidated. I taught for two hours and we only got through half of the material. Going through the process of thinking about and calculating all of the initial costs and operating costs, and projecting income is not something that most people do. If they are looking to get funding via credit or grant, it usually goes something like this: ‘Put down 20,000 lei (Moldovan currency) for the equipment. Yeah, that sounds right. Oh, and another 10,000 for seeds. Yeah, that should do it.’ And that’s about it. There’s no researching vendors, no market research, no thinking about smaller costs that add up. Just one large estimation, which means they either end up paying interest on money they didn’t need to borrow, or they end up short and don’t have enough to get the business off the ground. So anyways, at the seminar we went through a sample budget for the construction of a greenhouse, which seemed to get them thinking, and I was able to leave lots of materials and some excel pre-formula-ed worksheets to help them in their planning.
I made my Moldovan national TV debut last Sunday. As I mentioned last month, my village choir sang at the 20th anniversary celebration of a tv show that discusses rural/agricultural issues. There were 4 musical groups from throughout the country who performed, as well as 4 famous Moldovan singers. I of course didn’t know any of them, but the ladies in my group were clearly star-struck being in their presence. We took a rutiera down to Chisinau early in the morning, and when we first got there we recorded our two songs. Then we sat around all day (seriously, like 6 hours) while they filmed the show, which consisted of important people talking about agriculture in Moldova, broken up by these cultural acts. There was the Minister of Agriculture, the mayor of Chisinau, and some other big wigs, but truth be told, I was kinda bored (and hungry). We finally went on in front of the cameras late in the afternoon, and more or less lip-synced while our recorded tracks played. I had learned our two songs to perfection by then, and being all dressed up in Moldovan national costume, you couldn’t even tell that I was an American. Good experience, but I have no desire to be a star....
While there are a lot of things here that really get on my nerves (like the horrendous customer service), I’ve had a few surprisingly pleasant experiences lately. For example, I was at the bus station in Soroca last week to buy a ticket to Chisinau ahead of time, and headed toward the ticket booth. There was a rutiera just pulling out, one that I have taken many times. The driver saw me, assumed I wanted to go to Chisinau, and sent someone out to run after me to see if I wanted him to wait. I said no thank you, but I would leaving later in the day. I was shocked – usually the case is that I come running up trying to flag one down, and they take off anyways. Another example, the driver who took me and another volunteer down south for the business planning seminar heard that we were in need of some art supplies when we got back to Chisinau. We asked him where we could find them (straws and cotton balls), and not only did he tell us, but he actually made two stops and made sure we found them before dropping us off at Peace Corps. Had we gone alone, it could have taken all day; instead, thanks to his kindness, we accomplished the mission in less than 15 minutes!
So the local grade school/middle school won a grant for a project to do activities with the students whose parents are working abroad. This week was the opening of the project, and all of the kids without parents from grades 1-9 gathered together to talk about their experiences. In a school of 250 students, 123 kids are living with grandparents, neighbors, aunts/uncles, or even alone. One 14-year-old girl hasn’t seen her parents in 13.5 years! Most of the kids say they think their parents have left them so that they can give them a better life. But in the end, they would rather have their parents home than to receive the candies, laptops, and clothes that their parents are sending them. I knew all this, but to see them all gathered there and talking about it, and realizing the true magnitude of this problem, was really heart-wrenching.
A happy event, on the other hand, was the ‘English Song Contest’ at the high school in Soroca. I and two of my colleagues were asked to be judges for this event, and it was awesome. There were 11 contestants, ranging from a quartet of girls singing ‘Sway’ to a lone young punk trying to rap to Eminem, to a girl singing Listen to Your Heart with 3 back-up dancers and two dudes who lifted her onto their shoulders during the climax of the song. Great stuff, really great stuff.
Last week I taught a budgeting/financial planning as part of a business planning seminar series in a region in the south of Moldova. The audience was about 15 40- to 50-year-old men who want to expand their rural businesses – buy tractors, build greenhouses, etc. So the audience wasn’t the usual women and youth that I’m used to, so I was a bit intimidated. I taught for two hours and we only got through half of the material. Going through the process of thinking about and calculating all of the initial costs and operating costs, and projecting income is not something that most people do. If they are looking to get funding via credit or grant, it usually goes something like this: ‘Put down 20,000 lei (Moldovan currency) for the equipment. Yeah, that sounds right. Oh, and another 10,000 for seeds. Yeah, that should do it.’ And that’s about it. There’s no researching vendors, no market research, no thinking about smaller costs that add up. Just one large estimation, which means they either end up paying interest on money they didn’t need to borrow, or they end up short and don’t have enough to get the business off the ground. So anyways, at the seminar we went through a sample budget for the construction of a greenhouse, which seemed to get them thinking, and I was able to leave lots of materials and some excel pre-formula-ed worksheets to help them in their planning.
I made my Moldovan national TV debut last Sunday. As I mentioned last month, my village choir sang at the 20th anniversary celebration of a tv show that discusses rural/agricultural issues. There were 4 musical groups from throughout the country who performed, as well as 4 famous Moldovan singers. I of course didn’t know any of them, but the ladies in my group were clearly star-struck being in their presence. We took a rutiera down to Chisinau early in the morning, and when we first got there we recorded our two songs. Then we sat around all day (seriously, like 6 hours) while they filmed the show, which consisted of important people talking about agriculture in Moldova, broken up by these cultural acts. There was the Minister of Agriculture, the mayor of Chisinau, and some other big wigs, but truth be told, I was kinda bored (and hungry). We finally went on in front of the cameras late in the afternoon, and more or less lip-synced while our recorded tracks played. I had learned our two songs to perfection by then, and being all dressed up in Moldovan national costume, you couldn’t even tell that I was an American. Good experience, but I have no desire to be a star....
While there are a lot of things here that really get on my nerves (like the horrendous customer service), I’ve had a few surprisingly pleasant experiences lately. For example, I was at the bus station in Soroca last week to buy a ticket to Chisinau ahead of time, and headed toward the ticket booth. There was a rutiera just pulling out, one that I have taken many times. The driver saw me, assumed I wanted to go to Chisinau, and sent someone out to run after me to see if I wanted him to wait. I said no thank you, but I would leaving later in the day. I was shocked – usually the case is that I come running up trying to flag one down, and they take off anyways. Another example, the driver who took me and another volunteer down south for the business planning seminar heard that we were in need of some art supplies when we got back to Chisinau. We asked him where we could find them (straws and cotton balls), and not only did he tell us, but he actually made two stops and made sure we found them before dropping us off at Peace Corps. Had we gone alone, it could have taken all day; instead, thanks to his kindness, we accomplished the mission in less than 15 minutes!
So the local grade school/middle school won a grant for a project to do activities with the students whose parents are working abroad. This week was the opening of the project, and all of the kids without parents from grades 1-9 gathered together to talk about their experiences. In a school of 250 students, 123 kids are living with grandparents, neighbors, aunts/uncles, or even alone. One 14-year-old girl hasn’t seen her parents in 13.5 years! Most of the kids say they think their parents have left them so that they can give them a better life. But in the end, they would rather have their parents home than to receive the candies, laptops, and clothes that their parents are sending them. I knew all this, but to see them all gathered there and talking about it, and realizing the true magnitude of this problem, was really heart-wrenching.
A happy event, on the other hand, was the ‘English Song Contest’ at the high school in Soroca. I and two of my colleagues were asked to be judges for this event, and it was awesome. There were 11 contestants, ranging from a quartet of girls singing ‘Sway’ to a lone young punk trying to rap to Eminem, to a girl singing Listen to Your Heart with 3 back-up dancers and two dudes who lifted her onto their shoulders during the climax of the song. Great stuff, really great stuff.
January 30, 2009
And then there were 184 more holidays...
So I reported on my two thanksgivings. Well then I had 2 Christmases, 2 New Year’ses (I’ve never tried to make New Year’s plural before...), and 2 Saint’s Days. Let me just say that it’s a bit of a miracle that I’m only a little bit fat right now. The Christmases and New Year’ses were pretty standard; I spent them in the village with extended host family, which was nice and relaxed. I cooked dinner on my Christmas, and helped out with food on their Christmas. Saint Vasile Day (the last of the holidays!) was probably my favorite. I have the fortune of knowing 3 Mr. Vasiles, so I got to go to 3 celebrations. (The tradition is that if you are named after the saint whose feast day it is, you are supposed to put together a meal for your family and friends). Well Saint Vasile is the largest feast day of the year, so these celebrations were all a bit over done. Especially on the eve of the feast day, because this is also Second New Year’s. The tradition on Second New Year’s is for the high-school aged kids to go around the neighborhood dressed up in weird clothes and painted faces, yelling poems and in general just making noise. The idea is to be thankful for the harvest and the year that has passed, and to wish people well for the year that is coming. So on the eve of Saint Vasile/Second New Year’s, I started at my host dad’s brother’s; about 20 people, 3 hours of eating and drinking and (loud) singing. As soon as I got home, I walked down the path (falling down once due to the ice) to my counterpart’s house. Her husband’s name is Vasile, and she always has good parties. I’ve met most of their relatives now; they always come from other parts of Moldova for various celebrations at my counterpart’s house. There were also some neighbors that I know, and the village choir director. So I knew almost all of the 25 or so people, and it was a pretty jolly atmosphere. A few large groups of students came by to yell poems at us, so we would all push and shove to get outside and watch their merry-making. The dad of one of my English boys told me that he likes it that I run, because when I run past when they are working out in the fields, his son works harder. Hehe. So anyhoo, the next day I had barely recovered from the evening’s festivities before we were off to another Uncle Vasile and 5 more hours of eating and drinking. Whew. They tell me it’s all over now, and yes, it has been about two weeks since I’ve stuffed my face.
Since things have somewhat gotten back to normal now, I have been quite busy. We had a lot of reporting to do for Peace Corps, and my two counterparts and I had a brainstorming session to evaluate the previous year and discuss what we want to do this year. I gave my second business lesson, on entrepreneurship, for the beekeeping project. We’ve had more English lessons than usual, and I’m working on updating the English manual that we currently use, which is available to all volunteers. This week I found out that one of the girls in my class, an 8th-grader, has been in turn using her free time to teach English to some of the 4th-graders! She always surprises me with how much she goes above and beyond, and how much she manages to learn on her own. Good for her.
I’ve spent a very large amount of time lately working on a rabbit-farming project. The idea is to train 20 unemployed or under-employed village women in all aspects of rabbit farming and to provide them with a few high-quality rabbits, known for the quality and quantity of meat, in order to start their own small farms next to their homes. We will also be working with them on the business side, especially on marketing and financial management. The idea is that even small farms will be able to provide supplementary incomes, as well as give the women something to do and feel pride in. I’ll be going with host mom tomorrow to Chisinau to present the project to the grant committee and convince them that it is a good idea to fund us. I’ve also been working individually with 3 people from the village who would like to start or expand their own businesses. I’m hoping at least one of them will get off the ground. Finally, I’ve also started working with the ‘Youth Eagles’ group at school, to help them improve their volunteerism/community involvement program. Oh, and of course, there is always women’s empowerment camp stuff to do! We’re currently searching for a new Moldovan NGO to work with this year, to which we can eventually turn over the reigns of control to on all aspects of camp planning and implementation.
So the weather here is a bit ridiculous right now. While those of you back in the midwest are experiencing blistering cold and extra-normous amounts of snow, we are experiencing temps in the high 30s, even low 40s, and extra-normous amounts of mud. I have never in my life experienced a January like this one. One of my fellow volunteers joked that we should make mud-walking an official sport, with points for speed, amount of mud on shoes, and cleanliness of pants. And I’m pretty sure Romania hates me. While I was there in September to go hiking, it was too cold and we were snowed out of the mountains. Now, I had planned a trip for this week to go skiing, and it is too warm and we we will ‘mudded’ out of the mountains. Seriously?
Just for fun this month I thought I’d pass on some Moldovan superstitions (I am making no judgments on said superstitions, but simply putting them out there):
-If a girl sits at the corner of a table, she will never get married
-If you sit on the floor your ovaries (if you have them) will freeze
-If you stand in the ‘current’ you will get sick. In fact, most sickness is caused by the current
-If you forget something you can’t turn back to get it or you will have bad luck
-If someone doesn’t recognize you as you approach them, you will have a good-looking spouse
-50 grams of vodka cures anything
In other news, I’m still singing with the village choir. Rehearsals are a stitch because the 8 or so ladies are always arguing and yelling at each other and gossiping. Generally, we don’t actually start rehearsing until about 45 minutes into rehearsal, and then they start arguing again about the grammar of the song or whether there should be a pause after the second verse or not, or if we’re really going to sing that at the upcoming concert or not. I have to say that the actual singing is a bit of a challenge. This next week we’re going to Chisinau to sing at a large 20th anniversary celebration of some TV (that I’ve never seen) that broadcasts from Chisinau. We are singing two songs, neither of which I had heard before last week. But of course the 8 women know them by heart and have sung them a million times. There is of course no music, so I copied the lyrics out of one of the lady’s notebooks, listened to them sing it once to learn the melody, and then tried to sing. But it was really fast, and the vocab is rather strange so I wasn’t that familiar with it, and my tongue just got all jumbled up. I get eyed with disdain from one of the older women, but the rest just told me to shake it off. I’ll know it all just fine by Thursday. Might take a few private lessons, but I’ll get it....
Funniest thing I saw this month: at one of the many celebrations, forgot which one, there was a bowl of mini-marshmallows sitting on the table. They were left over from when I had made sweet potatoes on Christmas. My two-year-old baby cousin tried one. And then another. Nice, she likes them, but I didn’t give it much thought. Well, we turn our attention back to her two minutes later, and the entire bowl is empty, and her cheeks are stuffed with mini-marshmallows, just as if she had been playing ‘Chubby Bunny’! HAHAHA! Ok, maybe you had to see it, but trust me, it was hilarious.
Since things have somewhat gotten back to normal now, I have been quite busy. We had a lot of reporting to do for Peace Corps, and my two counterparts and I had a brainstorming session to evaluate the previous year and discuss what we want to do this year. I gave my second business lesson, on entrepreneurship, for the beekeeping project. We’ve had more English lessons than usual, and I’m working on updating the English manual that we currently use, which is available to all volunteers. This week I found out that one of the girls in my class, an 8th-grader, has been in turn using her free time to teach English to some of the 4th-graders! She always surprises me with how much she goes above and beyond, and how much she manages to learn on her own. Good for her.
I’ve spent a very large amount of time lately working on a rabbit-farming project. The idea is to train 20 unemployed or under-employed village women in all aspects of rabbit farming and to provide them with a few high-quality rabbits, known for the quality and quantity of meat, in order to start their own small farms next to their homes. We will also be working with them on the business side, especially on marketing and financial management. The idea is that even small farms will be able to provide supplementary incomes, as well as give the women something to do and feel pride in. I’ll be going with host mom tomorrow to Chisinau to present the project to the grant committee and convince them that it is a good idea to fund us. I’ve also been working individually with 3 people from the village who would like to start or expand their own businesses. I’m hoping at least one of them will get off the ground. Finally, I’ve also started working with the ‘Youth Eagles’ group at school, to help them improve their volunteerism/community involvement program. Oh, and of course, there is always women’s empowerment camp stuff to do! We’re currently searching for a new Moldovan NGO to work with this year, to which we can eventually turn over the reigns of control to on all aspects of camp planning and implementation.
So the weather here is a bit ridiculous right now. While those of you back in the midwest are experiencing blistering cold and extra-normous amounts of snow, we are experiencing temps in the high 30s, even low 40s, and extra-normous amounts of mud. I have never in my life experienced a January like this one. One of my fellow volunteers joked that we should make mud-walking an official sport, with points for speed, amount of mud on shoes, and cleanliness of pants. And I’m pretty sure Romania hates me. While I was there in September to go hiking, it was too cold and we were snowed out of the mountains. Now, I had planned a trip for this week to go skiing, and it is too warm and we we will ‘mudded’ out of the mountains. Seriously?
Just for fun this month I thought I’d pass on some Moldovan superstitions (I am making no judgments on said superstitions, but simply putting them out there):
-If a girl sits at the corner of a table, she will never get married
-If you sit on the floor your ovaries (if you have them) will freeze
-If you stand in the ‘current’ you will get sick. In fact, most sickness is caused by the current
-If you forget something you can’t turn back to get it or you will have bad luck
-If someone doesn’t recognize you as you approach them, you will have a good-looking spouse
-50 grams of vodka cures anything
In other news, I’m still singing with the village choir. Rehearsals are a stitch because the 8 or so ladies are always arguing and yelling at each other and gossiping. Generally, we don’t actually start rehearsing until about 45 minutes into rehearsal, and then they start arguing again about the grammar of the song or whether there should be a pause after the second verse or not, or if we’re really going to sing that at the upcoming concert or not. I have to say that the actual singing is a bit of a challenge. This next week we’re going to Chisinau to sing at a large 20th anniversary celebration of some TV (that I’ve never seen) that broadcasts from Chisinau. We are singing two songs, neither of which I had heard before last week. But of course the 8 women know them by heart and have sung them a million times. There is of course no music, so I copied the lyrics out of one of the lady’s notebooks, listened to them sing it once to learn the melody, and then tried to sing. But it was really fast, and the vocab is rather strange so I wasn’t that familiar with it, and my tongue just got all jumbled up. I get eyed with disdain from one of the older women, but the rest just told me to shake it off. I’ll know it all just fine by Thursday. Might take a few private lessons, but I’ll get it....
Funniest thing I saw this month: at one of the many celebrations, forgot which one, there was a bowl of mini-marshmallows sitting on the table. They were left over from when I had made sweet potatoes on Christmas. My two-year-old baby cousin tried one. And then another. Nice, she likes them, but I didn’t give it much thought. Well, we turn our attention back to her two minutes later, and the entire bowl is empty, and her cheeks are stuffed with mini-marshmallows, just as if she had been playing ‘Chubby Bunny’! HAHAHA! Ok, maybe you had to see it, but trust me, it was hilarious.
December 17, 2008
2 Thanksgivings!
The last month and a half has been pretty eventful. I suppose the biggest event was that I went home (home home) and surprised my (real) parents for thanksgiving. That’s right, they went over to Anne’s (my sister’s) for Thanksgiving dinner thinking they were going to call me, but there I was, hehe! It was awesome. I hadn’t planned on going home at all, but in September I got pretty homesick and decided I wanted to go home for Thanksgiving. But by then I had already convinced my parents that I wasn’t coming home, so I decided to make it a surprise. I did enlist the help of two brilliant agents (my brother and sister), and we successfully completed the mission. My parents didn’t have a clue. I was able to pack a lot into my 8 full days at home, and I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep on this trip. But it was wonderful to see some friends and spend so much time with my family.
Was it strange to be back? Not really. It had been 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day since the last time I had been in America, but in a way it felt like I had never left. There were things I appreciated more – like good roads, streets lit at night, hearing English everywhere, taking a shower every day, drinking water from the tap, not having to build a fire to heat the house, a toilet indoors, etc. But there were things that clearly just seemed wasteful – how much energy and water we consume, how much we drive unnecessarily, how much we throw away, how unnecessarily big everything is. I knew that we are a wasteful society before I even went to Moldova, but after experiencing the two lifestyles, the contrast is striking.
The second major event of late was Thanksgiving #2. I thought it would be a good idea to cook traditional Thanksgiving food for 50 Moldovans. It was. I billed the event as my 25th Birthday/Thanksgiving/American Christmas, and invited everyone who works at the school, my extended host family, all of the people working at the town hall, my partners and their families, and some random other villagers whom I have gotten to know over the last year, as well as 7 of my volunteer friends (no way could I do this myself). So I was prepared to have almost 60 guests. I was able to find most of the ingredients at the new supermarket in Soroca, but I had planned ahead and brought back a few items from home. It took a full week of preparing – gathering all ingredients, making sure I could use the space (the school cafeteria), writing my speech, preparing the entertainment, and of course, making all the food. We had one turkey (which was brought over the morning before, killed my my host dad, plucked my friend Lauren, and gutted by my neighbor), 8 grilled chickens, 8 batches of cornbread, 2 pounds of cranberry sauce, 14 cans worth of green bean casserole, 6 large bags of stuffing, 15 bowls of jello with floating fruit, 2 gallons of gravy, 25 pounds of mashed potatoes, 5 apple pies, 4 pumpkin pies (my first attempt at making a pumpkin pie, and with a pumpkin from scratch!), candy corn and candy canes, 4 liters of vodka, 20 liters of house wine, and 24 liters of water and soda. Whew. The liked the green beans and the stuffing, were interested by the cranberries (they don’t have them here), and loved the pies. We read some Thanksgiving facts, sang Christmas carols, put up turkey hands on the wall, and told about the various foods they had never seen. We laughed, we cried, we talked about how much we like each other. I got so many flowers my room is like a green house. The Moldovans all wished me a handsome husband and healthy children. They gave me a gift wrapped in 25 sheets of newspaper. We sang some more. They were amazed at how much the American guys helped out with everything – making food, serving the food, and cleaning up afterwards. All in all, it was a successful cultural exchange, and a feel-good afternoon. And my fellow volunteers were awesome; they made food, cleaned up, ran to the store and back, sang songs without complaining, and made me look good. I couldn’t have done it without them.
I had my ‘mid-service’ crisis in October (according to my manager), and while I still am not thrilled with me work here, at least I feel appreciated. When I went to my English class for the first time after having been gone for 2 weeks at home, the kids were all waiting outside, lined up on the front steps outside the school. As I approached from around the corner, they began singing Happy Birthday! It was so nice!! And they each gave me a kiss. My friend Lauren was with me, as this was the day that we were baking all the pies for Thanksgiving, and she was very impressed by how well the kids were doing with English, so that made me proud of them too. And the 50 Moldovans I invited to the party all chipped in a bought me a pair of really nice gold earrings – they know I love earrings, and they wanted me to have a pair that will last forever so that I will always remember Moldova! Wow.
The beginning of November was pretty relaxed. I spent a lot of time fighting with Windows Movie Maker while trying to put together a 10 minute film of my experiences in Moldova to be able to share with people at home. (My father now has a copy of it if you care to watch.) I put together more information for the Xavier choir, prepared and had my first business class with the kids in the bee project, took care of a lot of logistical items for that project, worked on some TARE preliminary planning (including choosing the new directors), continued with English lessons, translated and worked on improving a grant proposal with one of my partners, and studied for and took my Romanian language exam (I’m advanced now!). As a side project I edited my Austrian friend’s 180-page thesis on international business ethics (written in English). That in a way made me glad I’m no longer in school, and in a way made me wish I were still in school. It also made me miss Vienna terribly. There was also hram (village day) in the neighboring village, the opening of Mall-dova in Chisinau (looks like a real mall, but outrageous prices -- $150 for Lees jeans??). And I finally got Natasa (host sister) to come out with a bunch of volunteers – salsa night at a club in Chisinau. A good time was had by all, and I think I will have no trouble convincing her to come out in the future! ;-) Also, I’ll be singing with the village adult choir for the Christmas season. We’ve had a few rehearsals already; the director says I sing beautifully, hehe!
Well, I wish you all a very merry and blessed Christmas season. Enjoy the time spent with your families as we celebrate Christ’s arrival!
Was it strange to be back? Not really. It had been 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day since the last time I had been in America, but in a way it felt like I had never left. There were things I appreciated more – like good roads, streets lit at night, hearing English everywhere, taking a shower every day, drinking water from the tap, not having to build a fire to heat the house, a toilet indoors, etc. But there were things that clearly just seemed wasteful – how much energy and water we consume, how much we drive unnecessarily, how much we throw away, how unnecessarily big everything is. I knew that we are a wasteful society before I even went to Moldova, but after experiencing the two lifestyles, the contrast is striking.
The second major event of late was Thanksgiving #2. I thought it would be a good idea to cook traditional Thanksgiving food for 50 Moldovans. It was. I billed the event as my 25th Birthday/Thanksgiving/American Christmas, and invited everyone who works at the school, my extended host family, all of the people working at the town hall, my partners and their families, and some random other villagers whom I have gotten to know over the last year, as well as 7 of my volunteer friends (no way could I do this myself). So I was prepared to have almost 60 guests. I was able to find most of the ingredients at the new supermarket in Soroca, but I had planned ahead and brought back a few items from home. It took a full week of preparing – gathering all ingredients, making sure I could use the space (the school cafeteria), writing my speech, preparing the entertainment, and of course, making all the food. We had one turkey (which was brought over the morning before, killed my my host dad, plucked my friend Lauren, and gutted by my neighbor), 8 grilled chickens, 8 batches of cornbread, 2 pounds of cranberry sauce, 14 cans worth of green bean casserole, 6 large bags of stuffing, 15 bowls of jello with floating fruit, 2 gallons of gravy, 25 pounds of mashed potatoes, 5 apple pies, 4 pumpkin pies (my first attempt at making a pumpkin pie, and with a pumpkin from scratch!), candy corn and candy canes, 4 liters of vodka, 20 liters of house wine, and 24 liters of water and soda. Whew. The liked the green beans and the stuffing, were interested by the cranberries (they don’t have them here), and loved the pies. We read some Thanksgiving facts, sang Christmas carols, put up turkey hands on the wall, and told about the various foods they had never seen. We laughed, we cried, we talked about how much we like each other. I got so many flowers my room is like a green house. The Moldovans all wished me a handsome husband and healthy children. They gave me a gift wrapped in 25 sheets of newspaper. We sang some more. They were amazed at how much the American guys helped out with everything – making food, serving the food, and cleaning up afterwards. All in all, it was a successful cultural exchange, and a feel-good afternoon. And my fellow volunteers were awesome; they made food, cleaned up, ran to the store and back, sang songs without complaining, and made me look good. I couldn’t have done it without them.
I had my ‘mid-service’ crisis in October (according to my manager), and while I still am not thrilled with me work here, at least I feel appreciated. When I went to my English class for the first time after having been gone for 2 weeks at home, the kids were all waiting outside, lined up on the front steps outside the school. As I approached from around the corner, they began singing Happy Birthday! It was so nice!! And they each gave me a kiss. My friend Lauren was with me, as this was the day that we were baking all the pies for Thanksgiving, and she was very impressed by how well the kids were doing with English, so that made me proud of them too. And the 50 Moldovans I invited to the party all chipped in a bought me a pair of really nice gold earrings – they know I love earrings, and they wanted me to have a pair that will last forever so that I will always remember Moldova! Wow.
The beginning of November was pretty relaxed. I spent a lot of time fighting with Windows Movie Maker while trying to put together a 10 minute film of my experiences in Moldova to be able to share with people at home. (My father now has a copy of it if you care to watch.) I put together more information for the Xavier choir, prepared and had my first business class with the kids in the bee project, took care of a lot of logistical items for that project, worked on some TARE preliminary planning (including choosing the new directors), continued with English lessons, translated and worked on improving a grant proposal with one of my partners, and studied for and took my Romanian language exam (I’m advanced now!). As a side project I edited my Austrian friend’s 180-page thesis on international business ethics (written in English). That in a way made me glad I’m no longer in school, and in a way made me wish I were still in school. It also made me miss Vienna terribly. There was also hram (village day) in the neighboring village, the opening of Mall-dova in Chisinau (looks like a real mall, but outrageous prices -- $150 for Lees jeans??). And I finally got Natasa (host sister) to come out with a bunch of volunteers – salsa night at a club in Chisinau. A good time was had by all, and I think I will have no trouble convincing her to come out in the future! ;-) Also, I’ll be singing with the village adult choir for the Christmas season. We’ve had a few rehearsals already; the director says I sing beautifully, hehe!
Well, I wish you all a very merry and blessed Christmas season. Enjoy the time spent with your families as we celebrate Christ’s arrival!
November 2, 2008
Pumpkins
Autumn is my favorite season. I love the crisp chilly air, the colors, the smells, the food! And in rural Moldova, there’s another whole element: the harvest. October turned out to be a beautiful month, with as much sun as there was rain in September. Everyone was out on their pieces of land, gathering their corn, or grapes, or potatoes, or whatever they had out there. Busloads of kids are taken from schools to work in the larger orchards, and everywhere you look you see horse-drawn carts stuffed with corn stalks and some dude sitting way up on top.
I’ve been spending as much time as possible outdoors, whether running or just walking around the village, trying to figure out who I could help. I spent one afternoon helping an older woman shuck her corn. She was sitting there on a little stool, with a huuuge pile of corn stalks from which she was removing the ears of corn and building smaller piles of the remaining stalks. The corn will feed the pigs in the coming year, and the stalks will go to the cows. Anyways, I had finished work early for the day, so I offered to help her out for awhile. We talked about everything, but she mostly chattered on about her family, which I didn’t mind hearing about. I admired her large pile of beautiful pumpkins in the back yard (we all know how much I love those!). After we finished for the day due to darkness, she of course invited me in for a tea, and as I was leaving she gave me the best pumpkin of the bunch! Woo hoo!
I spend another whole afternoon collecting mushrooms with one of my counterparts. We just took a pocket knife and plastic bag each and marched off into the woods across the street. The mushrooms are a big deal here. Everyone is always asking, ‘oh, did you go collect mushrooms yet?’ or, ‘I heard the Alexander Bun forest has better mushrooms than the Voloave forest!’ They are all trading recipes and methods of preserving them. It’s funny to see all these babas coming out of the forest with big bags of ‘shrooms. Anyways, my counterpart and I went aways back, since the woods had been pretty picked over already, and she showed me the difference between the good and bad mushrooms, and gave me tips on where to look. Well, I struggled at spotting them at first, because the forest floor was covered with leaves and the mushrooms blended in. But I started to get the hang of it. I had about a quarter of a bag and thought I was doing pretty good when I went over to check in with my counterpart, and she already had a whole huge bag and was well on her way with the second! Jeepers. But by the end of the day I had a whole sack, and my host ma was so proud of me when I dumped them out for her at home!
Last weekend I went with the whole host family to my host dad’s home village about 30 minutes north of my village to help his brother collect apples in his orchard. This was also a (mostly) pleasant experience. The weather was perfect, and the surrounding countryside beautiful and colorful. The orchard was about 15 rows, each a bit longer than a football field. There were 15 of us, and after a full day’s work, we managed to cover about 2/3 of it. It went like this. About 3 people per row went down one time and just picked the good apples, putting them in buckets, and then transferring them to larger sacks, which were then picked up by a man driving around the rows in a Lada. He then brought the apples to the edge of the orchard where he dumped them all in a huge pile. The second time down the row, we picked absolutely everything, even the fallen ones half-eaten by rabbits. These apples are destined for the juice factory. The work wasn’t too bad, although the weeds hadn’t been controlled, so I had so many scratches and burrs and thorns, and it was hard to find the apples that had fallen to the ground. I banged my head on branches so many times, and a lot of the time someone would just shake the tree to make the apples at the top fall, and I didn’t always hear the ‘get away’ signal and was thus bopped on the head more than once. The overall atmosphere was jolly, and of course there was food and vodka involved! At noon they spread out the food on top of the old Lada, and someone asked me, ‘I bet you don’t have this sort of uncivilized eating where you are from!’ And I said, actually we do, but we eat out of the trunk! Later in the afternoon we were busily working when all of a sudden a large chocolate cake appeared and everybody just rushed over, over-turned their buckets in between two rows, and dug in. It was pretty delicious, and welcomed.
Halloween was nice. I turned down various volunteer get-togethers for some chillaxin’ at home, and a mini party with my English kids. I told them about our trick-or-treating tradition, gave them some candy, and they came over and we carved pumpkins outside my fence. They were all pretty proud of theirs, but they all agreed that mine was the coolest, hehe. Well, since we couldn’t actually go trick-or-treating, they decided to take their lit jack-o-laterns and walk around the village scaring people. Well, I had made the mistake of singing that dumb kids song, you know the one -- ‘trick or treat, smell my feet....i’ll pull down your underwear.’ I gave them a rough translation, and then made it clear that we wouldn’t actually sing that at anyone’s house. Well, at one stop, there were a few older teenagers hanging out outside, and one of my girls, who usually is very quiet, yells out, ‘give us some candy or we’ll pull down your pants!!’ It was so incredibly hilarious, especially coming from her. Ya, I'm a real good influence on the kids over here.
Another fall event was the anual Wine Festival. There were small celebrations in each of the regional centers, and one large festival in Chisinau. A rather large number of us volunteers gathered on a gorgeous Saturday, took over an area of tables set up in the park, and just sat around talking all day, buying wine and food from the numourous exhibitioners in their booths surrounding the main square, listening to the music being played by different groups on the huge stage, moseying around the arts and crafts exhibits set up in the park, and talking with people from all over. I was ‘cheers-ing’ in about 6 different languages that day. And so we celebrated Moldova’s most prized product. Good times.
Have I done any actual work this month, you ask? Well yes, as you can see from the previous entry, we’ve finally gotten the beekeeping class up and running. I begin my business lectures in a week, so I have been preparing those. I have been preparing a bit better for my English classes, now that we have manuals that we can work with. My kids brought me apples last week, it was so cute. What else...my co-directors and I have had some strategic planning sessions for our women’s camp. I’ve been doing the occasional research/advising for various community members who have come into the office asking for information. There are a few women who would like to grow mushrooms (seems a little less risky than just going out to pick them, know what I mean?). I’ve also worked out a deal with the Xavier (my high school) choir to trade Moldovan music and culture for a little bit of financial support for the children’s music group in the village. So I’ve been busy putting together music and information for them.
I’ve also been busy adjusting to life with parents again. As I mentioned last month, my host parents returned from the Czech Repbulic, so it is a full house. I had just started to be really comfortable with my life just me and Natasha, and then all of a sudden it was like I was back to being a guest. I no longer make dinner, wash dishes, sweep, clean stuff, feed the dog, etc, because they just do it all while I’m at work. So I feel like a lazy worthless bum at home. Sometimes I manage to convince them to let me wash the dishes. And it’s strange hanging panties out on the line right in front of my host dad, ya know? And if Natasha and I want to talk girl-talk, we have to switch over to English, which is strange since we never spoke English before. But I’ll get used to it all, I suppose!
Well that’s all for this month folks, thanks for reading!
I’ve been spending as much time as possible outdoors, whether running or just walking around the village, trying to figure out who I could help. I spent one afternoon helping an older woman shuck her corn. She was sitting there on a little stool, with a huuuge pile of corn stalks from which she was removing the ears of corn and building smaller piles of the remaining stalks. The corn will feed the pigs in the coming year, and the stalks will go to the cows. Anyways, I had finished work early for the day, so I offered to help her out for awhile. We talked about everything, but she mostly chattered on about her family, which I didn’t mind hearing about. I admired her large pile of beautiful pumpkins in the back yard (we all know how much I love those!). After we finished for the day due to darkness, she of course invited me in for a tea, and as I was leaving she gave me the best pumpkin of the bunch! Woo hoo!
I spend another whole afternoon collecting mushrooms with one of my counterparts. We just took a pocket knife and plastic bag each and marched off into the woods across the street. The mushrooms are a big deal here. Everyone is always asking, ‘oh, did you go collect mushrooms yet?’ or, ‘I heard the Alexander Bun forest has better mushrooms than the Voloave forest!’ They are all trading recipes and methods of preserving them. It’s funny to see all these babas coming out of the forest with big bags of ‘shrooms. Anyways, my counterpart and I went aways back, since the woods had been pretty picked over already, and she showed me the difference between the good and bad mushrooms, and gave me tips on where to look. Well, I struggled at spotting them at first, because the forest floor was covered with leaves and the mushrooms blended in. But I started to get the hang of it. I had about a quarter of a bag and thought I was doing pretty good when I went over to check in with my counterpart, and she already had a whole huge bag and was well on her way with the second! Jeepers. But by the end of the day I had a whole sack, and my host ma was so proud of me when I dumped them out for her at home!
Last weekend I went with the whole host family to my host dad’s home village about 30 minutes north of my village to help his brother collect apples in his orchard. This was also a (mostly) pleasant experience. The weather was perfect, and the surrounding countryside beautiful and colorful. The orchard was about 15 rows, each a bit longer than a football field. There were 15 of us, and after a full day’s work, we managed to cover about 2/3 of it. It went like this. About 3 people per row went down one time and just picked the good apples, putting them in buckets, and then transferring them to larger sacks, which were then picked up by a man driving around the rows in a Lada. He then brought the apples to the edge of the orchard where he dumped them all in a huge pile. The second time down the row, we picked absolutely everything, even the fallen ones half-eaten by rabbits. These apples are destined for the juice factory. The work wasn’t too bad, although the weeds hadn’t been controlled, so I had so many scratches and burrs and thorns, and it was hard to find the apples that had fallen to the ground. I banged my head on branches so many times, and a lot of the time someone would just shake the tree to make the apples at the top fall, and I didn’t always hear the ‘get away’ signal and was thus bopped on the head more than once. The overall atmosphere was jolly, and of course there was food and vodka involved! At noon they spread out the food on top of the old Lada, and someone asked me, ‘I bet you don’t have this sort of uncivilized eating where you are from!’ And I said, actually we do, but we eat out of the trunk! Later in the afternoon we were busily working when all of a sudden a large chocolate cake appeared and everybody just rushed over, over-turned their buckets in between two rows, and dug in. It was pretty delicious, and welcomed.
Halloween was nice. I turned down various volunteer get-togethers for some chillaxin’ at home, and a mini party with my English kids. I told them about our trick-or-treating tradition, gave them some candy, and they came over and we carved pumpkins outside my fence. They were all pretty proud of theirs, but they all agreed that mine was the coolest, hehe. Well, since we couldn’t actually go trick-or-treating, they decided to take their lit jack-o-laterns and walk around the village scaring people. Well, I had made the mistake of singing that dumb kids song, you know the one -- ‘trick or treat, smell my feet....i’ll pull down your underwear.’ I gave them a rough translation, and then made it clear that we wouldn’t actually sing that at anyone’s house. Well, at one stop, there were a few older teenagers hanging out outside, and one of my girls, who usually is very quiet, yells out, ‘give us some candy or we’ll pull down your pants!!’ It was so incredibly hilarious, especially coming from her. Ya, I'm a real good influence on the kids over here.
Another fall event was the anual Wine Festival. There were small celebrations in each of the regional centers, and one large festival in Chisinau. A rather large number of us volunteers gathered on a gorgeous Saturday, took over an area of tables set up in the park, and just sat around talking all day, buying wine and food from the numourous exhibitioners in their booths surrounding the main square, listening to the music being played by different groups on the huge stage, moseying around the arts and crafts exhibits set up in the park, and talking with people from all over. I was ‘cheers-ing’ in about 6 different languages that day. And so we celebrated Moldova’s most prized product. Good times.
Have I done any actual work this month, you ask? Well yes, as you can see from the previous entry, we’ve finally gotten the beekeeping class up and running. I begin my business lectures in a week, so I have been preparing those. I have been preparing a bit better for my English classes, now that we have manuals that we can work with. My kids brought me apples last week, it was so cute. What else...my co-directors and I have had some strategic planning sessions for our women’s camp. I’ve been doing the occasional research/advising for various community members who have come into the office asking for information. There are a few women who would like to grow mushrooms (seems a little less risky than just going out to pick them, know what I mean?). I’ve also worked out a deal with the Xavier (my high school) choir to trade Moldovan music and culture for a little bit of financial support for the children’s music group in the village. So I’ve been busy putting together music and information for them.
I’ve also been busy adjusting to life with parents again. As I mentioned last month, my host parents returned from the Czech Repbulic, so it is a full house. I had just started to be really comfortable with my life just me and Natasha, and then all of a sudden it was like I was back to being a guest. I no longer make dinner, wash dishes, sweep, clean stuff, feed the dog, etc, because they just do it all while I’m at work. So I feel like a lazy worthless bum at home. Sometimes I manage to convince them to let me wash the dishes. And it’s strange hanging panties out on the line right in front of my host dad, ya know? And if Natasha and I want to talk girl-talk, we have to switch over to English, which is strange since we never spoke English before. But I’ll get used to it all, I suppose!
Well that’s all for this month folks, thanks for reading!
October 15, 2008
Help!
Ok, folks, my beekeeping and business project is posted on the Peace Corps website! Here is the link to my project: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=261-176. Instructions for donating and tax stuff are on the website. Anything you can help us out with would be greatly appreciated!! Even if you can't donate, you might want to take a look at the site and you can get an idea of the type of projects that I and the other 8,000 volunteers across the world are doing. Thank you!
October 6, 2008
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!
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!
September 3, 2008
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!
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!
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