christmas and beyond

12.30.2007 9:14

Holiday week 1 down 3 more to go. This week I went to a holiday party with at the children’s center, ate Christmas dinner started teaching English, began formation of a club I have been wanting to start, survived the holiday drinking fest at work, had a run in the police, made an ass out of myself in a restaurant, made friends with a little boy, got lost in the dark, shut out from basketball, and that about covers the majority of what my week was like. I will start at the beginning.

Monday, was the Christmas party at the children’s center I have been working at for the past 2 weeks. I skipped work so I could go early and help prepare the center with Farina from Germany and her 14 year old sister who came to visit her for the holiday’s. We all went the bank early that morning then off to the local store to pick up candy and cookies for the kids. I have become a regular at this one magazine close by to my house and of course went there to buy our sweets. The lady who works behind the counter is the mother of one of the boys who I instruct in weight lifting and now basketball. She surprised me by giving me a free bottle of water as a thanks for helping her son and possibly for bringing more business to her shop though I doubt she had marketing in mind when she gifted the water though it had its effect and if I can I will be doing my shopping there for now on.

At the party it was funny because Farina was stressing over what games we needed to come up with to entertain the children. She was getting all concerned about it, while I was calm explaining we will just make stuff up. We had a few songs we could sing locked down and a few games that we conceivably play and that seemed to calm her down a little. But as the children showed up they seemed content on playing cards or making faces. I participated in both activities and soon the time was flying by so much so that our “responsibility” to come up with games quickly diminished. The more senior women who works there with us sat all the kids down and had them all just take turns reciting poems and singing songs they knew until time ran out. Problem solved and our goofy games and songs never came out of the basement.

After the children went home there was another party for the local group of high school kids who have or do volunteer there time at the center mainly in the summer when they have more free time. They were a nice group of kids, but I found myself having to do most of the talking. We were seated around this table with nobody talking. Me, being the worst Romanian speaker at the table was forced to carry the conversation. I eventually formed the conversation to revolve around possibly forming a group that I had been wanting to start for some time that involves the group members coming up with ideas for what they volunteer the carrying out the projects from raising the money or committing the time. They seemed interested so I had them write there contact information down for future use. I was then approached by them to start tutoring English, so I agreed and will be doing this up to three times a week at the children’s center after it is closed.

Ok so Tuesday, I went to work like normal, but had the fortune of getting to ride in a car for about an hour to a nearby town and drop off a package of some sort with on of my partners. Then drive right on back. The scenery was really beautiful given this other town is surrounded by trees and all of the trees are covered in ice creating a type of icicle fantasy world. On the way back my partner who loves to fish stopped by the side of the road so we could walk out onto a lake and watch some strangers ice fish. My partner is very out going and this is not the first time we have stopped while in the middle of doing something to meander near a lake and see what size fish someone has caught. It was interesting though a tad dangerous given the thinness ice we were walking on. The men on the lake had these home made contraptions made with wire, corks and flags attached to nets placed in the holes in the ice they made to catch fish. When a fist swims through the net the tail of this device flips up letting the fisherman know he needs to run over to the net and get the fish.

By the time I made way back to work from the trip it was time for me to head home so I could be off to weightlifting then basketball. Weight lifting went smoothly but basketball was a different story. So I show up at the school door to find out its locked. So I sit take out a book and wait 15 minutes before some other kids show up to play. Then the janitor or care keeper of the school comes by inquires why we are standing outside, we explain he says… eh you only have 3 people if you get more ill open the school up for ya. So we wait another 20 minutes, 2 more guys show up and the janitor walks by again, opens it up and tells us we have 2 hours to play then he will come back and lock up. Given the kids are on school vacation I think the janitor and we proceed inside. We finally get in the gym to realize all the balls are locked up in a separate closet which of course we don’t’ have the key for. Dangit! So we play volleyball with some cloth ball thing sit around an watch one of the kids do flips and grab moves off the walls and make our way home after about an hour.

Wednesday, had work, actually stayed in the office for the full 4 hours then off to play with kids at the center. Normal day at the center but I was introduced to that little kid who I mentioned earlier who gets abused. The kid looks like he is 5 and after playing him chess I labeled him a child genius. Of course I later find out he is 10 and that instantly makes me feel better about myself and downgrades his mental capacities from genius to smart kid. Anyway after work Farina and her sister wanted to come over and use the internet at my house and the little boys house is on the way so he followed us. He came inside and continued to play games with me while they checked their mail. Because he doesn’t get to eat very much we bought him so food at the store and sent him on his way home.

The next day so Thursday I went to play with the kids at the center after workout by passing basketball all together until after Christmas vacation is over and hung out playing cards. Any who the boy follows me home again, my host mom serves us lunch/dinner given its now 4pm and then I let him use my computer to play computer games. After that I walked him home. He basically walked me to his home because I was utterly lost. It was really dark outside and I went to a part of town I had never been. After losing my guide I quickly realized I only thought I knew where I was and as I proceeded to walk in the direction I thought was house. So after some time getting lost I decided to go another direction… then another… I was lost, directionless, and cold… it was like 15 degrees F outside and I had not prepared to walk around for 2 hours. Lucky for me I had my trusty Yak Tracks on ( these are if I haven’t mentioned lime green glow in the dark attachment cleats for boots on the ice… did I mention lime green? They are horrible for cultural integration given everybody just looks at u like your freakin nuts here. The previous group of volunteers were given black ones… a much saner color but for some reason they thought we needed the added safety aspect of glow in the dark to completely make them unwearable unless we wanted to be ridiculed and labeled “not from moldova” on ourselves. ). They work great on the ice and I was lucky to have them. I found my way eventually and vowed never to walk around in the dark in places I have never been again, unless I am properly equipped.

Friday went smoothly as I guess it could. Because it was the last day of the week of work before we have a week off for the holiday’s we had to celebrate at work of course. I had no idea what was going to happen, but I went to work prepared with a gift for the office. I went to a random store of the side of the street and purchased some vodka for the office to go along with a calendar purchased in America with pictures of Kansas. The funny thing about this calendar is that the pictures are unbelievable. They are beautiful, with pictures of waterfalls… lakes… amazing rock formations… places I have never been or seen but it sure makes Kansas look way more amazing then it is but whatever. I go to the office, sit down and translate for a couple hours until im invited upstairs to some random office I had never been before. There I sit with the head people in the agriculture industry for my Rayon. The party started with this women dressed up like … I dunno kinda like santa clause but with Pajamas on. She only spoke Russian but seemed happy enough. She got people dancing around and the preached to us all about something that I couldn’t follow. After that we all sat down and ate. There was a big spread of food, of course I forgot my camera… but it was good. Knowing I was going to be going to the Children’s center later that day I laid off the drinking as much as I could. It was funny there were about 25 of us in all and a good 15 of them gave toasts explaining their hopes for next year.

I felt like I was in the mafia hanging out with this people… I dunno why but it just the appearance of higher society… above the law kind of stuff. For example the personal driver for the president of Agriculture in the Rayon was being given drinks in which he refused of course, but the mere thought of him drinking was alarming. Mainly because unlike America where I think you can legally have one beer then drive here if you have any type of drink and drive you are arrested hands down. I expressed this concern my partner and he looked at me like I was crazy saying.. hes the driver for the agriculture boss… the police can’t touch him…. anywho between every toast you were required to drink the vodka or wine or whatever you had in your cup. Not wanting to drink or get hammered I just acted like I was drinking it or sipping the vodka in very small increments which is gross and not fun to do. I got some shit from the guys around me but I explained to them im working with kids whos parents are alcoholics and some of them abuse their kids and it wouldn’t look good for me to be drunk and then to go play with them. They seemed to understand and stopped pressuring me. I gave a toast in English and Romanian Apologizing for my inability to speak Russian but they understood. After that, spent some time at the center with the kids and finished off the night listening to music and Rocky 6.

Saturday I spent running errands with other peace corps volunteers who came in to my city to get some things done. We developed some pictures, shopped the market and ate at the local bar. Two things happened this day in the course of an hour that made me feel like an idiot. The first was walking around the market where a police man very friendly like grabbed me and asked me if I would come with him. now im nervous because I am leagal in this country as of 3 days ago but I need to go to chisnau and get my document that says this. Until then all I have is an expired passport. He kept telling me not to worry and not to be afraid and he seemed very reassuring. What the hell I thought, im caught ill go with him maybe he’ll go for a bribe. I go with him he asks me to stand on a chair and look at some electrical box. For him… ok I get up on the chair find some money on top of it ask him if that’s what he wanted he says no and explains he wants me to read it. Its in Russian.. this guy doesn’t know Russian and he thinks im Russian! Haha! I tell him sorry man I don’t understand Russian and he looks at me like im crazy and asks me what language I speak cause im not from here. I say I speak English and he laughs with his friend and send me on my way. .. I was confused.. nervous.. but utterly relieved after the fact.

So not more then 30 mintues after I go to this restaurant, sit down get my menu sit for a bit trying to decide what I want to eat. Realize across from my table there are three guys all getting up to leave and one leaves his hat. I jump up grab the hat and follow the guys outside saying here did u leave ur hat? They look at me like im freakin nuts… tell me something in Russian..i take that as its not thiers… so I walk back inside.. this waiter looks at me like im nuts… I put the hat back. Then after about 1 minute it clicks.. they aren’t done eating they are just taking a smoking break… and about 2 min later they all come back in… I felt like such an idiot. The waiter laughed at me. Sigh.

Also last night Saturday night… I met my host sister who lives in America with her husband and their son. And my host brother who lives in Chisinau. They all came in and we all ate together. It was a great meal, and I volunteered to do the dishes so they could spend time catching up and what not. That about finishes up this week I think. This next week is the new years and vacation week from work. So I will have to find stuff to keep myself occupied.

Happy new year.