birthday festivis for the rest of us

Here is my birthday masa, thats the host mom and the far left followed her friends and then my site mate on the far right Andrea.

Thats my host dad Johnny dominating the garden with this shot back. He is placing carrot seeds in that shot. to the right of that is a little part of onions and to the right of that is garlic yum. :)

Its the man him self Jackie Chan our dog just 3 months old. I dominated him into that pose too.

NEW videos --->> link videos Host mom 1 birthday and Host mom 2 birthday

3.29.08 10:05

Good morning! Update time. I guess I left this blog at last Thursday. Since then oh geez lets go down the memory lane here… My birthday came and went, my host moms birthday came and went, my site mates birthday came and went… I went on back to Chisinau for hep A or B shot… I don’t’ know which one I received. Hung out in Peresecina for a bit, talked with the new volunteers in an awkward speech at one of their training meetings, and came home and held another volunteer meeting with the local high school kids at my site… accomplished nothing but it feels like progress…

Host mom’s birthday was Saturday night from last week. That was an interesting time. 4 and a half hours or so of pure Russian. I understood really very little ..ok nothing for those 4 hours but kept busy trying to eat as much food as I could possibly fit in my mouth to counteract the celebratory vodka shots or putting water in my shot glass to act like I had water in it. ( a trick I learned from the older ladies at the table.. though when caught its pretty humiliating). I made a little video of it. I mixed the few pictures I took with some video footage to capture the moment. I tried to add a little humor in there with the subtitles and I mean no offence but there was a lot of alcohol.

After the party (my host brother who works in Chisinau and I went out on the town for a bit and had a classy drink at the restaurant Classic (mine was water ;-) and then headed off to the disco .. the place I tell everyone I never want to visit I visited. I told my host bro like 20 times no… no… no! but conceded after telling him I would stay no longer then 5 minutes. Went in stood there for a bit… choked on the smoke for a bit did a few head nods to some of the kids I knew in the town and then went on home after no more then 5 minutes. First.. last time going there ;-).

Sunday I went to Balţi to go play a little baseball. Failed to catch routiaria on time and ended up getting there a little late. (it was just practice) only 4 people showed up so I caught up with them for pizza and had a few laughs then came home in time to find out there was another “masa” for my host mom’s birthday where other friends came the couldn’t the night before. I came in on the tail in and show a few glasses of wine and ate some good food and fell asleep shortly after.

I think Monday there was no birthday masa for the host mom but I could have been mistaken. I spent the day at work… translating stuff working on my park bench project for most of the work day. Came home ate played a the children center with 1 child because nobody else showed up. We played soccer for about an hour then cup stacking game (speedstacking check it out on youtube some kids can do it with remarkable speed) for an hour or so then came home read a little ate and the sleep.

Tuesday was my birthday, My host mom baked me a cake and I got some deodorant and body spray package from them. SWEET! Smelling good now :). Went to work with the cake my mom baked in a plastic sack, oh did I mention it was a blizzard that day? I walked to the local store and bought a bottle of champagne and a cup, fork, and plate package and then trekked to work fighting to storm for the 25 minutes it took to get there. Once there did some work, helped my partner with some copy paste work and showed him the power of the print screen paste in paint edit picture and then paste in word document trick. If you know it you know how awesome it is and if you don’t you should learn :). Then we had a masa drank our champagne and ate our cake I went off to my language lesson then home. Then ate a small meal then off to the children center to repeat playing with the one child for a few hours before heading home to my birthday masa that was combined with another host mom birthday masa. Went smoothly and I did my best to eat more then I could to drowned out the vodka shots which I quickly faltered and said im not doing this again its too much. My site mate made me look like a little girl by continuing to take the shots with my host dad. That caused me some ridicule from him but I took it and enjoyed not waking up with a hangover.

Good thing because I woke up at 5 am to catch the 6 am bus taxi to Chisinau for my hep a or b vaccination. Did that, hung around Chisinau with the other volunteers till around when I left with old host mom to go to Peresecina to stay the night there because its free and its always fun to see the family. Plus my program manager said I could stay the night out of site if I would give a little how my service has gone so far talk to the new volunteers. That night was fun, ate a birthday masa with some relatives. Guess what I got for my birthday present? Jeans! ;-). My host mom knew my size because she had at one point washed my clothes for me and like all moms looks at sizes. Anyway she brought home 3 pairs with her and had me try them on. I the host sister, bro, mom and neighbors judging which fit the best and what not, it was ridiculous. It was expensive and I felt a bit bad for accepting it but my host mom basically said I had to take them ;-)

The next day I didn’t have to be at the hub site meeting till 1 so I just hung around the house with the old host dad and did some bonding. We walked around the garden and he pointed things out to me and joked around for a bit. We then ate lunch and nearly fell asleep watching a movie before I realized I had to be at the meeting. So I ran to the hub site hung out a bit did a little talk about my experiences ( might have been too pessimistic on my work but a few guys came up and thanked my for my honesty because they wanted to know what it really was like at site. I remember saying the same thing to a guy that came and talked and didn’t sugar coat it though I ended my speech with I am optimistic and looking forward to the future which I am :-).

Friday or yesterday was a good day. I went to work at 9 and worked till 2:30 on my planned meeting I was going to have with the volunteer group. I had done a lot of thinking about how I wanted to run the meeting and I had done a lot of work to get prepared for it. I had 6 show up and 4 tell me they couldn’t make it. Not the best of numbers but at least I had some show up. The bench project is underway. After our last meeting the kids said they were lazy and didn’t want to write the project and asked me to do it. I told them no but compromised by organizing the thing. This way I divvy up duties to the volunteers so they all do a part in the plan and I am there to advise and guide them when they need it.

We met up and one of the kids said she heard the mayors office was already repairing the benches or would this year. So for about 30 minutes we tried to get a hold of the mayors office to get some info and failed. We resorted to walking to the park together and asking the workers who were cleaning up some branches and trash. They said go to this other building because they didn’t’ know about any benches. We walked another 20 minutes to the building that had the people responsible for the clean up and finally tracked down our guy. He said nope nobody wants to pay or do the repairs and gave us a big smile and a POFTIM! (that means go for it). So after everybody was tired… I quickly divided out material and objectives for them to start on before our next meeting. I formed a marketing group ( in charge of spreading the word and raising money.. or figuring out how…) then a bench design group who will come up with the budget and plans for how we are going to go about doing the repairs and then a group that takes their info along with some of their own work for write out a plan which we will use to get permission for the mayors office or raise money for local businesses! Its on!

After that I came home to find my host dad just came home from work. He threw his back out the night before working in the garden and was waddling around. I told him if he wanted to plant the carrots I could help he just needed to tell me what I needed to do. He was pretty stubborn and did most of the work but finally his back would not let him anymore and let me do some stuff though I did mess the rows for the onions leaving us with too many onion bulbs and not enough space so I had to destroy my work and start over. I still messed it up and he did it. We raced the sky as it was getting darker by the second and we have to be able to see the spacing for the bulbs and which side has the “virf” (that’s a Romanian term but I don’t know the English term because ive never done any of this before) or the part that points up. We were rushing as fast as we could to beat the darkness and accomplished just as we could barely make out the details. I hope I did it right or the will grow upside down and I assume that doesn’t work ;-)

I just got back here about an hour ago. I was at my Romanian language lesson. Holy crap that was difficult. Its grammar time now so enough with me listening to random stories about my tutors life and me answering with the affirmative da.. but this was participatory as it could be. Mainly because I had no idea what she was trying to teach me and neither did she. Shes not a Romanian teacher and her first language is Russian I gather. So she has her manual out trying to teach me the grammar using my langage books and hers in the collaborative mess. For two hours I debated and asked her why this was so and what not. We got very little accomplished but i do have some homework now and I think we are on our way to making me make a whole lot more sense when I talk. I was gonna have my bud Darren come visit me today but he called and said he had to cancel. His partner called him and asked him if he could talk about strong women leaders in America in a five minute speech on Sunday and he needed to go to his tutor and work on it. He was freaking out as I would be to. I wouldn’t want to give the speech in English let alone Romanian. ;-)

So I will go and play in the garden. Clean up the field a little and build a dirt fence under the now small fence to keep our German Shepherd puppy from running and playing in the crops and thrashing my host moms flowers. At least it will keep me out of the house which is my goal every day not to be in. I will attach some pictures to this entry. Also I added two new videos which are from this year… so in the last 3 months one of my old host moms birthday and one of my new host moms birthday. Keep on rolllin.

red bull!

3.20.08 6:52

Here we are at the old host familys house doing the masa thing. thats phil lower left followed by darren, johan, angela, new voluteers i forgot thier names... i think that guy on the right is thomas and then sarah next to my host mom. sarah is the new voluteer at my old house.

Is this wierd or what. thats the old host parents when they were younger holding veronica as a baby.

I will start with yesterday and work backwards because going the other way is too difficult. Hopefully by the time I need to remember what happened over a week ago my brain will start working. So yesterday I had work… I had a red bull upon waking up because I get one caffeine drink a week though it has been more or less a month or more since the last time I had one. I then took myself to the school to do my jungle gym workout routine that I have begun to grow fond of though it was really cold yesterday morning and my hands were nearly frozen to the bar.

On my way there I met some soldiers outside of my house looking for something though I never did find out what. They looked at me a little strange in the early morning and asked me something.. I answered im sorry what did you say? The guy repeated and I said I had no idea and don’t understand, this made the guy a little un trusting like I was hiding something. And they walked with me as I headed to the park. They asked where I was from and upon telling them they answered awww that’s why you don’t understand, hes not hiding anything hes just American. I left them with a hand shake and a nice have a successful day!

Well back to the red bull I was way to awake for my own good. On the walk to work my brain was on overdrive thinking about my future here in moldova and what I was to accomplish or do here. Needless to say a little red bull goes along way. I brainstormed on the way to work and by the time I got there said my hellos then went right to the desk to write out my thoughts on a little chart.

I decided on the way that I wanted to have two goals. One with my current organization or partners and then another with the community. For the community I decided I would lead a youth empowerment group. Kinda rally the students who are wanted to enact change but don’t know how or have the means to do so. I will educate them in project design, give them the confidence to just go out and do it and then send them off. Sounds all fine and good but there is more to it then that but until I do it im not writing to much more on it. Working with my organization and my new found knowledge from this weekends meeting with peace corps and the other volunteers is that my organization is going down the drain in 2010. They are not getting funded anymore. So its all about sustainability for them. I am really not a fan of their set up now and either are they so I think it will just fall apart so my goal is to get all there set up with work for the future. Because one of my partners is an enterprising man he has ideas on what he wants to do.

For him it will be the dried plums or a fish farm he already has the plans for. I will try to get him hooked up with credit at a low credit rate that a couple of world wide organizations offer to encourage entrepreneur ship because credit here is somewhere around 30% a year. Combine that with a small business startup grant that this organization Soros offers I think we can get him funded. My other partner is interested in green houses and has most of one built he just needs a way to heat it. So we will decide on what kind of heater and go from there with his plans and funding.

Earlier this week at work I also poked around and one of my partners to help him with excel again. I might get involved walking around the piatza (the local market) and gathering price information and putting that information into a spread shit with a graphs showing historical trends. Really easy but also really fulfilling given my lack of contribution thus far.

At the center for children that same day I drank the red bull I played chess after the kids left with farina. I was pretty down trodden. Farina had my queen both bishops knight and one rook. It was not looking good for me but with the power of the red bull I came back out of nowhere and dominated here again.

It was also my site mates birthday so I gave her a couple of diet cokes and a bar of chocolate. She loves diet coke and shes giving up chocolate and coke for a month before her vacation so I thought she might as well drink it all down tonight before she goes on her fast. It was fun, a volunteer from the south came up to hang with her, farina and I came over too and they made spaghetti. Wow it was great with beef and everything. First time I have had it like that since last summer cooking in my apartment. I had quite the case of homesickness after it but what are ya gonna do.

Ok so I just remembered I dreamed last night that my host mom in perescina died. How awful is that? I was crying in my dream and it was just a really horrible dream… I think there was also ww2 bombers hitting the coliseum as I was running through some jungle. Must have been the red bull.

Well the previous day I got my hair cut. I walked to the frizeria (hair cut place) about 9:15 and sat down to wait. As I sat there I called my work and told them im getting my hair cut and Id come in later. They responded with oh don’t’ worry about it your getting your hair cut today. Whatever … so I sit there.. an hour goes by and 2 people had gone infront of me. They turn on the Russian television and I wait another hour watching the tv understanding nothing. I swear 2 people cut me in line but I don’t know cause they all were speaking Russian. And I was getting a little heated but I had already waited 2 hours so I could not very well leave. Long story short I didn’t get out of there until 12:30 but my hair looks pretty good. (very Moldovan, or too normal according to farina).

Later that day I had a masa with my host mom and her friend from Chisinau her friends daughter. Her daughter was very pretty and I could tell this was a set up for me to meet her. I made convo with the daughter and ate a little bit. Then my host mom points to my forehead (I have a huge zit) and gasps with this oh what is that!. I look at her in disbelief and just say what do you think it is? She starts fretting over it and goes to the med kit to get some ointment or something I tell her its fine its not mortal ( though at this point my confidence with this girl is mortally wounded). She backs off finally only to have the subject revisited at dinner that night with my host dad where upon they lecture me on how to use medicine on my face for zits. I could only imagine what they would do if they knew me in high school when I really had an acne problem.

Going to try to skip around here and wrap up this entry. I can’t really remember anything that happened last week all that well but that only means it was just normal days flowing entirely to fast for my liking. This last weekend I was in Chisinau and played baseball. We got destroyed by a local team here. We were playing actually baseball like I did in high school. Fast pitch full 90 ft plate distances and everything! It was really great. I caught the first 3 innings before my body just couldn’t take it anymore. My back acted up towards the end. I felt like it was just yesterday I was playing ball in high school sitting behind the plate there catching. I threw a guy out at second but made my share of over throws to first and third in attempt to catching overzealous base runner leadoffs. I even hit a line drive down third base and stole a couple bases. It was a good time.

I also got to visit the old host family and hang out with a couple of the new volunteers. Phil came down with me along with Darren and angela and johann (who are all in my group) we had a masa at my old house and just shared stories and laughed. Awww good times.

That’s all I have.

things are changing.

Did I mention I am learning the Harmonica...

3-9-08 16:49

Let me brainstorm a little here on my week so I don’t forget anything really important. Well… work with dried plums, letting boxing go as well as the computer. Met up with some friends in balţi, stayed at other volunteers place in neighboring village, continued to dominate farina in chess, started my new gymnastics bar routine program, looking forward to summer, finished reading not a drop to drink, recommend it, watched a few good movies also recommend them, played with the puppy, helped partner with some excel functions, tried to put myself out there to help, still not sure how I can… I guess I have some time to figure it out. Translating material for this NGO out of Canada on project design, time consuming though rewarding. Going to begin learning Russian given the amount of time I am around it, and the new computer rule, might as well use an hour a day… or try to use an hour a day for it. I am open to suggestions here… and guests.

Ok that is really all that came to my mind there, ill put it down into words now to explain it. I guess if you don’t have time to read my entry just read that little description to figure out where I am and ask me questions from there.

Well Sunday after my last entry I ended up going to this concert in my town. It was a combination traditional singing with some comedy. It cost about $1.8 to go so my expectations were not all that great. I went with Farina and Andrea the other volunteers nearby. I went in thinking I would understand nothing, given I am supposed to first understand the langague then understand their humor. It was fun. To be fair I understood most of what the comedian’s said until the punch line came because the one guy seemed to speak really fast and had a style the he would almost mumble the punch lines while speaking faster. So I would sit there hang with the story and build up of the joke then miss why it was funny and just laugh with everyone else. Two comics did skit together wehre they stood next to one another while one said something in the clear Romanian language, then his buddy would repeat it but in Moldovenesc or Moldovaski (Which is Romanian slurred and mixed with country talk and Russian to form an almost completely different language). I laughed hardily as did the rest of the audience at this because things are funny when they are true.

Monday I went into the office with the idea that I am going to work with my partners this week and they are going to let me help them. I walked in stood around a little bit without getting my computer out to start translating trying to make small talk. I asked my main partner if we could kinda set up a schedule for when he would have a seminar or something important that I could sit in on or attend so I didn’t make plans in the future. He said he had nothing going on that week but he would be gone in Chisinau 3 out of the 5 days and just to find something to do. So I hung out a little with my other partner the Russian speaking one as he played on excel for a bit. I noticed he was having some difficulty and taught him a little about how to use addition formulas and a few other basic ones. He had never learned and found the whole program confusing. He is required to use it because it had has a template he needs to fill things in and then send it into the corporate office but they did not really teach them how to use the program. I did help him a little and felt great that I could do something in the office! I also walked with him to hand deliver some paper to the president of our rayonal district’s secretary in the middle of town so we get to get out of the office and walk around and “shoot the shit” with some guys fishing next to the pond in the park.

On this walked I expressed my utter desire to be involved in the organization and that if there is anything I could do I am game. I mentioned if he had any project ideas I could advise him on writing the plan so he could get money for it. This sparked his attention so he told me about how he wants to expand his fruit trying operation he has going on at his house. When we got back to the office after about 2 minutes he just told me lets go well be back. He took me to his house and showed me what he had and then had his sun who speaks Russian like him translate his ideas about what he wanted and showed me some plans. I told him to write the plan up and we will see where we are at. I will give him a template of things he needs to have in the project design before I will help him. Because I could see he just wanted me to write it in English. He fed me some soup and nuts at his house and then drove me around the town a little bit. So a possible direction for me will be studying up on what he wants to do and how to go about showing him the best way to get the money for his fruit dryer. (I think it is feasible to do with credit, we just need to run the numbers… and understand what we are saying to each other because Romanian is neither of our first language and we are both on near equal standings with it though I think he is better then he puts on).

This was also a week of new beginnings. I have decided to end my boxing career here in the Peace Corps. I have made this decision on the combination of two issues. The first one is the time commitment that is required. I did not join come here to Box and train while volunteer on the side I came to volunteer and box on the side. But the way things are going it is about a 9 hour a week time commitment just getting there and back and the actual time I am there boxing plus during those times I have class I give it priority over traveling or doing something else maybe more productive. The second reason is that this boxing thing is dangerous. This method of learning but doing is rough. I am nearly 23 and trying to learn a new language. Getting hit in the face repeatedly and very hard I might add I think can only hinder my progress with learning. Monday I nearly had my nose broken. It hurt most of this week and the day it happened I was almost certain it was broken or at least a small fracture. This boxing has become less about learning how to box and more about just trying to beat the ever living crap out of the other guy technique be damned. I have always had a problem with boxing given the fact that I don’t’ enjoy hurting people. During sparring I find my self apologizing to my opponents after delivering a good punch or if they are in a venerable position I pull my punch and don’t hit them for fear of hurting them. Don’t get me wrong once I take a few I get enraged and hold my own with out the feeling of remorse but all the same that’s not why I am boxing, to hurt the other guy, but to learn how because I really enjoy the sport and the technique aspect not the street brawling aspect these guys participate in. So without further ado I am throwing in the towel. This will be set in stone after I have gone to practice and told the trainer and the guys my decision .. I am a tad nervous about doing, and really the biggest thing that kept me from quitting so far.

I am also thoroughly dominating farina in chess. I know I have said this but I just want to further put it out there that I am doing so and have yet to lose. I am all that is man. I am not really that arrogant and I talk about his all in good fun because it is something that I do look forward to doing almost everyday. I have also started up this random program of running every morning at 6 and jumping rope. I am going back to my gymnastic days ( from 1st grade) and working the bars. Working on pull up strength and core training as I fool around on the pull up bars. Its fun and its keeping me in shape plus keeping me centered while leaving me the whole day to go about my business.

Friday I went to work as usual but at lunch time we had a big masa with the rest of the building. They toasted and did vodka shots. I refused the vodka shots but did have a couple of small plastic cupfuls of wine so I would not seem rude. This one guy kept calling me bill Clinton and throwing out random celebrity names that he knew, was a good time.

I went and met up with some other volunteers in the 2nd biggest city in all of Moldova. It is about an hour away from me. The name of the place is Balţi (beltz if you won’t want to sound like an American when pronouncing it). That place is almost completely Russian speaking as most of the citys and large towns are. I met up with them, bought a base ball cap, ate some pizza then went off to andrew’s place to the west of me. His village borders Romania and you can literally see the river that separates Moldova from Romania kinda cool. He lives in a smaller village like what I lived in during PST. We were celebrating Female day. Its like mother’s day but for all women not just moms. Anyway there was a small party where the vodka flowed like water and everybody generally had a good time. ( I refused as much as humanly possible and for my insistence on not having a hangover and taking about one shot for every 2 of theirs I managed to wake up this morning headache free.

I also have been doing some reading. I finished not a drop to drink that my dad sent me. Good book, and recommended for anybody interested in whats going on with our natural resources and the continued evidence that America is a huge resource glutton. It also had a nice chapter on global warming and reiterated a demonstration I remember seeing in that al gore video of how Americans view the coming crisis of global warming like a frog continually heated water. He points out that if you put a frog in boiling water he jumps out immediately but if you put him in lukewarm water and gradually heat it up to boiling he will stay in there until he dies. American’s or people in general have all the signs that disaster is on the horizon if we don’t change but as long as its gradual like our glaciers melting or hurricanes becoming more intense as the years go by but the time we reach that critical point where we have unchangeable circumstance it will be to late and we will all be dead…. Great analogy, it also made me want to boycott beef though for different reasons. Good book recommended.

Also Charlie Wilsons War, funny, interesting has tom hand and Julia Roberts in it, and No Country for Old Men. Recommend both of those films. Also Eastern Promises because it points out a huge problem that eastern Europe is going through which is human trafficking.

Last but not least I am giving up the computer until after 8 at night when I am not using it for translating or other volunteer related work. It is to easy to sit and watch movies in the middle of the day during down time or to play a computer game here and there. Not as if I really had free time before with boxing and basket ball until after 8 but not that I dropped boxing I am not going to let myself fill up that time with pointless watching of movies. I intend to learn Russian, read more, or just spend that time walking around talking to people, playing with the puppy or using it to plan projects or whatever.

I find myself wrestling with this constant drive to do and accomplish something. I knew that would be the biggest challenge going into the peace corps and it really has been. I just have to keep point the first two goals of learning about another culture and lifestyle and teaching them in return what is to be an American over coming here to help people. I think the inadvertent helping of others will be my greatest reward and being content with that is the first step to a successful term here in Moldova.

I miss you all. I do miss America. Unless you have been outside it for sometime you don’t know how great it really is. I also have no problem paying taxes. I know its beurocracy and what not and ya some tax dollars get wasted but for the most part things run on time. The roads work, there are public work programs, police that do their jobs for the most part, how about the promise of starting your own company. The access to credit markets that gives you the feeling that your future is in your hands… and a long list of things I always took for granted.

winter has fled

03.02.08 9:45

Wow… 2 weeks have really flown. Again this writing in the journal thing is starting to die off and even causing me a little stress because the longer I wait to write in it the more I forget to write about. I guess I just don’t have the motivation. I am also slacking on my letters to friends… im sorry for those who are reading this and are like… he had enough time to blog this but not enough time to respond. I have time I just have to be in the mood to do so. Most of the time I get back from boxing or supervising basketball and I am just tired. I would rather just sit down after a shower and meal and watch a movie until I fall asleep rather then blog or such.

All those excuses aside ill do my recap though as of now I am not even in the mood… so I might just quit halfway through and continue later… Lets see last week after that great meeting I had with the volunteers I spent most of that week preparing for the meeting for Friday. I have been doing a lot of thinking about the best way to go about discussing project design from a more sustainability level but its hard. The students want to do these projects that are massive and I just don’t fully understand all the resources we would have at our disposal. For the last meeting they all chose a project out of their 5 ideas and we did a few exercises like a problem tree to brain storm ideas on what is the causes of the this problem they are trying to solve and what are the effects of this problem on the community. Then we went over the basics of a SWOT analysis to try analyze their solution to their problem and to really strengthen their ideas. The meeting went well, though they kids were kinda bored from the information towards the end but the seemed positive about it.

I guess on the other side of that I was getting pummeled in boxing. I am really not in good enough cardiovascular strength to go and spar for 2 minute rounds switching from one guy to the next just yet but I was doing it. I think I was having problems because I was so tight that I was not breathing correctly and holding my breath a tad to long forcing the oxygen out of my body and giving me a heck of a time. As I was telling my dad last week just to survive with these guys in the first 30 seconds or so I really look mean, I hit as hard as I can to get them to fear my punch then I just fake it and block only hitting when I really have to till I get through the round without passing out. They guys I am sparring with are about 30 pounds lighter then me (with the exception of a few guys that are my size but rarely come) and they are just faster. If I throw anything at them an miss I am punished for it and because of their quickness this is not a rare occurrence.

I was delt a nice fat black eye that lasted all of a week to show everyone that didn’t know that I am getting punished in boxing. To be fair though I am doing alright. I mean these kids spar and learn technique while sparring I was always the other way around having sparred very little in the past. So this is really a wake up call. I can hold my own with about everyone there except these 2 kids that have been doing it for a long time though one of them I got the best of yesterday to really give me a confidence boost.

My boss or program manager came to talk to me last Friday and we had a meeting with my work partners to see how everything is going. I told him that I don’t really do anything in my office because I am told I by them that I just need to wait till spring to do anything so I sit in the office and read about agriculture and prepare for my project design group. My program manager wasn’t thrilled at this and encouraged my partners to work with me more. I am fine in the current situation but I guess I will start pushing my partners more to include me. They said they thought I was too busy with other activities to work with me. I am there nearly 4 hours every day and I told them after that I find other things to do because I have nothing to do here. We will see if we go anywhere in the coming months.

I received my package from my parents thank you! The shirts all fit so thanks for sending them. The pictures were a great addition so thank you for that. I have so many books right now that I am neglecting that I am starting to just picking up a book here and there and reading about 20 pages from each. I started reading that Water book “not a drop to drink” from my dad and to be honest it is interesting but repetitive. But it does make you look to future and shows you the effects of the population growth and the effects of irrigation in farming on the water resources of our world. I will think about this before doing any irrigation projects here in Moldova.

Well last weekend I went to Chisinau to hang out with most of the members in our group that I went through training with. I am so lame with taking pictures so I am sorry I took none. I will pick it up sometime and I am sorry for those of you who wish to see what’s going on over here. Maybe I will do some walk around videos. It was great meeting up with everyone and hear about everyone’s lives. Though it is really rough on the wallet to visit Chisinau its worth it. So I stayed in Chisinau Saturday night with everyone then hung out in town most of Sunday walking around and killing time till I left for Peresecina to visit my old host family. That was a good time though kind of depressing when I left because I realized how much I miss having kids in the house to hang out with.

Wednesday I went back to Chisinau to meet up with the new volunteers who were just arriving from the airport from America. Their journey is just beginning and it was fun to cheer them all in when the came in. Met most of them talked with them and found out where they are were from. There is this girl who was working in my Home town for a year or so and lived 2 blocks from my parents house, I thought that was a little crazy.

Also my mission in meeting the volunteers was to take a picture of the new volunteer living with my old host family and the volunteer living in with the host family across the street so I could send the pictures to them so they know what they look like 2 days before they would normally see them. I got phone calls of anticipation from the family checking to see how they were and what not. They seem like really good people so I anticipate no problems.
Oh one new thing… We got a new puppy. I think his name is Jackie Chan, aka Jack and Jackie. He is only 2 months old and adorable as can be. He is going to be a big boy. Right now his body is way to big for his legs and he just falls down in all directions as he tries to come and play with you.

My hair is staying long as of now. It is starting to get in my eyes which I can remedy if I just go and buy a hat. Why am I keeping my hair you ask? Why am I not cutting it? I hear these questions often from the Moldovan’s here. Because as I have begun to point out I am doing a survey to every girl that I have any acquaintance with and asking them if I should grow my hair out longer or cut it shorter… It is hands down let it grow out. I am a student of business and I know who my target market is… I give the customer what they want :).

The weather here has been unreal! It has been near the 50s for a couple days on and off and really pretty out. All of the frozen lake is nearly thawed. On that note, I walked around with my language tutor through the park where she showed me some things I had never seen before. I saw a mini amphitheatre that was all smashed and over taken over by undergrowth, Ferris Wheel rusted and missing the seats between the trees. Old bath houses, old dance floors wells… it was really sad. All I hear about is how pretty our park used to be. How it was the prettiest park in all of northern moldova before the fall of the soviet union and now its all gone to ruins. I felt like I was looking at all roman ruins of a great city from the past.