This is phil and I doing hard guy poses in burcurest ( i am diong the arnold flex)
This is is us walking up to the Bran castle or fake dracula castle as it is known...
Phil and I goofing off or going to war... you be the judge :-)
That was the view outside of our hostel in Brasov. Beautiful!
This is me in bucurest hanging out with the ladies ;-)
Phil and I once again doing hard guy poses in bucurest. the building advertisment was crazy!
4.27.2008 14:38
“Adeverat, Cristos a inviat”- It is true, Christ has risen
It is Easter today in Moldova. And as uneducated as I am here about religion I don’t know how much of the world celebrates this day as Easter. I know that 90 something percent of moldova is Christian orthodox and about 90% of Moldova is celebrating Easter today so I assume it is a Christian orthodox holiday ;-). I woke up this morning at 6 to the sound of the neighbors talking loudly in the hallway outside my room. I got up to see what the commotion was about and then remembered that it was Easter and that my host dad had gone to church at 4am or thereabouts and that everyone was coming over to eat a breakfast masa with lots of wine. So I jumped in the shower shaved to look presentable then we all masa-ed it up. And drank a lot of wine for so early in the morning. I then went back to bed and slept till noon. I watched an episode of the Sapranos (which I am in to now and allow myself once a day to watch an episode. Now I am sitting outside on this beautiful day outside wrting in my journal a little paranoid of this wasp flying over my head.
I had a good weekend. Friday I set off to chisianu for our baseball game the next day. I decided If I was going to go down to Chisinau I might as well have an adventure on the way. So I called up a volunteer to the south of me on the way to chisianu and said I was going to drop in and see what work was like for him and to see his city. That was easier said then done. It takes a good 3 and a half hours to get to chisnau and his city is close to being on the way and about an hour and a half south of me. So I have never been there before and having really no idea on how to get there set off about 8am on Friday. There was a problem for me finding a maxi taxi south and I had to walk the 45minutes to the bus station instead of just picking up one on the side of the road as they go by. Then I got quickly haggled into taking the bus to beltz which is fine because they have a big bus station and I figure it would be a sinch to get to get to that town from there. So I get there… stand around the station and asked a few people who told me to wait over there and there should be a bus sometime. I got tired of waiting and the busses to Chisinau from there didn’t want to bother taking me only 30 minutes on the 2 hour ride to chisnau and drop me off because it wasn’t worth there effort. I got sick of waiting when I see a buss drive by about 25 yards out that says the name of the town I wanted to get to. So I take off running after it and get on.
So I am riding on this trolly bus kinda thing crawling no faster then maybe 30km/hr (I don’t’ know the conversion here). But it was slow! And standing. We finally turn off the main drag and i watch everyone get off one by one then I realize nobody that was on the bus when I got on was still there but like one person. So I ask this women and she tells me we are in Singeri Noi. I needed to get to just Singeri. Crap… she said I could wait till 2 and there would be a bus there ( it was only about 11am) I said nuts on that is there another way. She said yes and then told the driver to stop at this intersection where I could getr off and hitch a ride from there to the town or atleast close to it. That’s what I did and I got off and walked for a bout a good hour until I found the town! 4 and half hours after I had set off. But I made it there and It was a really nice day out. Had a good chat with Gerald the volunteer there about life and how thigns are going for him. He is 53 and works in the same organization I do but in a different part of moldova. His place of work had an volunteer who ended up leaving because of how corrupt they were and how unwilling they were to work with him. The specificially asked for an older volunteer the next time and got one. Gerald has been having success at least in there eyes because he will write grants.
This brings me to the reason I went there. Not only for some good conversation because Gerald is a great guy and I like talking with him but because he had won a grant for a laptop and projector for his organization and my partner who has had nothing to do with me and has not included me in anything told me that Gerald had gotten a laptop and projector and now they want one and want me to write a grant for it. I don’t even want to get into how much of a problem I have with this but I said well see and went to visit Gerald to talk about how he won it and why he wrote the grant. We talked a while I gave him my reasons why I didn’t want to write a grant for my organization to get them a lap top. He understood immediately and then started second guessing his grant and said he would keep on eye on it and hope that his organization really needed it and used it accordingly.
After having lunch with Gerald I trekked it back to the main road and waited there with my arm out trying to wave down a car or bus or anything to get me into town. I got a bmw to stop for me and we flew all the way there going no slower then 170km/hr at any one time. I was a tad scared at times but I did have a seatbelt on which is more then I can say for anything else I have ridden in since I have been here and I didn’t really know how fast 185km/hr really was so when we were going that fast I just pretended it was 60mph :-) sorry mom don’t get worried here!
I stayed the night with my old host family then went into chisnau for our baseball game the next day Saturday. (yesterday) I hitched again into town.. I am beginning to like hitch hiking now that I can communicate well enough that I can tell them where I need to go. I got the game and had a great time. We played the same team we had played the previous 2 times. The first game losing by over 20 the second by about 3 or 4 and this game we won! Not to brag or anything but I kicked some butt. I threw out 4 guys. 3 of them at second base. I feel like I am playing better now then when I was in highschool. My arm is a lot stronger and I don’t have a problem winging over to second. I was able to play the full 7 innings up and down as catcher mainly because I have been running doing lunges and squats out on the track every other day and it has really helped my back. Because the first 2 games I could barely play 2 innings without having to come out and get a sub because of the back pain. This game I had no pain and played great. I also hit a ground roll double to the out field and scored every time I got up to bat. We all played really well. It was just our day and we needed it! I had a good time Chisinau after the game we all went out for pizza and laughed about that game. I ended up not even leaving until 6:30 that evening and because of the lack of busses the night before Easter I hitched a ride in the back of this tiny car with 3 guys smashed against the door. We had good conversation and were surprised when I said I was American and all congratulated me on learning Romanian and how many Russian speakers still don’t’ put the effort to learn it when they been here for over 18 years since they broke off from Russia.
This week had its ups and downs. As usual. ( sorry for the poor transition). My bench repair group of high school students did come through with the signatures. We have over 500 names and signatures who support the project. We will use this to go the mayor and ask for some money for the materials while we supply the labor and time. We might also use it for local business with our plan to hopefully promote marketing for their business by them supporting the community. And even asking the high school kids to cough up 5 lei a piece (50cents) to support the project which could easily pay the bill for the benches. (just on the signatures a lone that would be $250 and could repair around 5 benches at least with new paint wood and everything).
Work is slow as all heck. I spent more time at the children center helping poor vegetable oil in 1 liter bottles out of a 20 liter barrel. Messy operation that was. The center gave the poorest of the kids noodles and vegetable oil for Easter. Thursday I got to go to a village with the organization down the hall. They worked with the other former peace corps volunteer and had a better reason for getting a volunteer outside of being a grant writer. I got to go to a seminar provide my laptop so they could show pictures to a group of farmers in the nearby town. It was part of a sharing experience program where they had a local farmer go to Romania and learn some techniques they use over there and share there experience. To help his presentation they used my laptop to show pictures of his experiences. It looked somewhat productive and I enjoyed the experience. They keep telling me I should just go work with them and how if my organization doesn’t have anything for me to do they could sure use me. This is getting a little touchy because my organization sees this and is very protective of me. And I have built up relationships with my coworkers and feel about about the whole situation. I almost want to offer them a deal in where I write them a grant for thre time and trouble with me and then leave. We will see it might motivate them to do something with me. But I have had it with sitting in that office. And will spend my time out of the office for now on, may it be just walking around in the local smaller villages by myself or working with another organization or what not. I have been getting negative on my organization and angry with the peace corps for my place ment but its not my directors fault. We have to many volunteers to place and not enough places to put everyone. I will find my own way here and for now I am learning.
I am going to travel more around moldova see more learn more and hopefully find my role here.
“Adeverat, Cristos a inviat”- It is true, Christ has risen
It is Easter today in Moldova. And as uneducated as I am here about religion I don’t know how much of the world celebrates this day as Easter. I know that 90 something percent of moldova is Christian orthodox and about 90% of Moldova is celebrating Easter today so I assume it is a Christian orthodox holiday ;-). I woke up this morning at 6 to the sound of the neighbors talking loudly in the hallway outside my room. I got up to see what the commotion was about and then remembered that it was Easter and that my host dad had gone to church at 4am or thereabouts and that everyone was coming over to eat a breakfast masa with lots of wine. So I jumped in the shower shaved to look presentable then we all masa-ed it up. And drank a lot of wine for so early in the morning. I then went back to bed and slept till noon. I watched an episode of the Sapranos (which I am in to now and allow myself once a day to watch an episode. Now I am sitting outside on this beautiful day outside wrting in my journal a little paranoid of this wasp flying over my head.
I had a good weekend. Friday I set off to chisianu for our baseball game the next day. I decided If I was going to go down to Chisinau I might as well have an adventure on the way. So I called up a volunteer to the south of me on the way to chisianu and said I was going to drop in and see what work was like for him and to see his city. That was easier said then done. It takes a good 3 and a half hours to get to chisnau and his city is close to being on the way and about an hour and a half south of me. So I have never been there before and having really no idea on how to get there set off about 8am on Friday. There was a problem for me finding a maxi taxi south and I had to walk the 45minutes to the bus station instead of just picking up one on the side of the road as they go by. Then I got quickly haggled into taking the bus to beltz which is fine because they have a big bus station and I figure it would be a sinch to get to get to that town from there. So I get there… stand around the station and asked a few people who told me to wait over there and there should be a bus sometime. I got tired of waiting and the busses to Chisinau from there didn’t want to bother taking me only 30 minutes on the 2 hour ride to chisnau and drop me off because it wasn’t worth there effort. I got sick of waiting when I see a buss drive by about 25 yards out that says the name of the town I wanted to get to. So I take off running after it and get on.
So I am riding on this trolly bus kinda thing crawling no faster then maybe 30km/hr (I don’t’ know the conversion here). But it was slow! And standing. We finally turn off the main drag and i watch everyone get off one by one then I realize nobody that was on the bus when I got on was still there but like one person. So I ask this women and she tells me we are in Singeri Noi. I needed to get to just Singeri. Crap… she said I could wait till 2 and there would be a bus there ( it was only about 11am) I said nuts on that is there another way. She said yes and then told the driver to stop at this intersection where I could getr off and hitch a ride from there to the town or atleast close to it. That’s what I did and I got off and walked for a bout a good hour until I found the town! 4 and half hours after I had set off. But I made it there and It was a really nice day out. Had a good chat with Gerald the volunteer there about life and how thigns are going for him. He is 53 and works in the same organization I do but in a different part of moldova. His place of work had an volunteer who ended up leaving because of how corrupt they were and how unwilling they were to work with him. The specificially asked for an older volunteer the next time and got one. Gerald has been having success at least in there eyes because he will write grants.
This brings me to the reason I went there. Not only for some good conversation because Gerald is a great guy and I like talking with him but because he had won a grant for a laptop and projector for his organization and my partner who has had nothing to do with me and has not included me in anything told me that Gerald had gotten a laptop and projector and now they want one and want me to write a grant for it. I don’t even want to get into how much of a problem I have with this but I said well see and went to visit Gerald to talk about how he won it and why he wrote the grant. We talked a while I gave him my reasons why I didn’t want to write a grant for my organization to get them a lap top. He understood immediately and then started second guessing his grant and said he would keep on eye on it and hope that his organization really needed it and used it accordingly.
After having lunch with Gerald I trekked it back to the main road and waited there with my arm out trying to wave down a car or bus or anything to get me into town. I got a bmw to stop for me and we flew all the way there going no slower then 170km/hr at any one time. I was a tad scared at times but I did have a seatbelt on which is more then I can say for anything else I have ridden in since I have been here and I didn’t really know how fast 185km/hr really was so when we were going that fast I just pretended it was 60mph :-) sorry mom don’t get worried here!
I stayed the night with my old host family then went into chisnau for our baseball game the next day Saturday. (yesterday) I hitched again into town.. I am beginning to like hitch hiking now that I can communicate well enough that I can tell them where I need to go. I got the game and had a great time. We played the same team we had played the previous 2 times. The first game losing by over 20 the second by about 3 or 4 and this game we won! Not to brag or anything but I kicked some butt. I threw out 4 guys. 3 of them at second base. I feel like I am playing better now then when I was in highschool. My arm is a lot stronger and I don’t have a problem winging over to second. I was able to play the full 7 innings up and down as catcher mainly because I have been running doing lunges and squats out on the track every other day and it has really helped my back. Because the first 2 games I could barely play 2 innings without having to come out and get a sub because of the back pain. This game I had no pain and played great. I also hit a ground roll double to the out field and scored every time I got up to bat. We all played really well. It was just our day and we needed it! I had a good time Chisinau after the game we all went out for pizza and laughed about that game. I ended up not even leaving until 6:30 that evening and because of the lack of busses the night before Easter I hitched a ride in the back of this tiny car with 3 guys smashed against the door. We had good conversation and were surprised when I said I was American and all congratulated me on learning Romanian and how many Russian speakers still don’t’ put the effort to learn it when they been here for over 18 years since they broke off from Russia.
This week had its ups and downs. As usual. ( sorry for the poor transition). My bench repair group of high school students did come through with the signatures. We have over 500 names and signatures who support the project. We will use this to go the mayor and ask for some money for the materials while we supply the labor and time. We might also use it for local business with our plan to hopefully promote marketing for their business by them supporting the community. And even asking the high school kids to cough up 5 lei a piece (50cents) to support the project which could easily pay the bill for the benches. (just on the signatures a lone that would be $250 and could repair around 5 benches at least with new paint wood and everything).
Work is slow as all heck. I spent more time at the children center helping poor vegetable oil in 1 liter bottles out of a 20 liter barrel. Messy operation that was. The center gave the poorest of the kids noodles and vegetable oil for Easter. Thursday I got to go to a village with the organization down the hall. They worked with the other former peace corps volunteer and had a better reason for getting a volunteer outside of being a grant writer. I got to go to a seminar provide my laptop so they could show pictures to a group of farmers in the nearby town. It was part of a sharing experience program where they had a local farmer go to Romania and learn some techniques they use over there and share there experience. To help his presentation they used my laptop to show pictures of his experiences. It looked somewhat productive and I enjoyed the experience. They keep telling me I should just go work with them and how if my organization doesn’t have anything for me to do they could sure use me. This is getting a little touchy because my organization sees this and is very protective of me. And I have built up relationships with my coworkers and feel about about the whole situation. I almost want to offer them a deal in where I write them a grant for thre time and trouble with me and then leave. We will see it might motivate them to do something with me. But I have had it with sitting in that office. And will spend my time out of the office for now on, may it be just walking around in the local smaller villages by myself or working with another organization or what not. I have been getting negative on my organization and angry with the peace corps for my place ment but its not my directors fault. We have to many volunteers to place and not enough places to put everyone. I will find my own way here and for now I am learning.
I am going to travel more around moldova see more learn more and hopefully find my role here.
1 comment:
gosh you are cool. love the harmonica, very nice.
the zit story was hilarious too.
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