10-23-07 11:32
Just got back from language class today. It was a shorter session so I have a little more brain left currently. It rained this morning, It was cold, wet, muddy, gloomy. I was in a good mood even though I was getting wet on the way to class. I came up behind an older man in his early 60’s or thereabouts who began talking to me. I quickly turned off the volume on my I-pod (that’s right plug for the I-pod) and asked him to repeat it for me (as if it made a difference that I had my volume on and that’s why I could not understand him). He quickly repeated what he said or should I say mumbled it a second time and I still had no idea what he was saying. He looked at me as if I was dense and this made me feel great because maybe this guy thought I was a local and was just trying to talk to me wondering why I didn’t understand him. He repeated a third time and this time with some miming as to say if you listen to music on your head phones you will go deaf. It was bad for my health to listen to it. As he is telling me this he lit up a cigarette and proceeded to go about taking care of his own health. I thought about countering by showing him the label on his pack but I thought better of it thanked him for his suggestion and kept my head phones off for the rest of the trip incase he wanted to say anything else to me. He didn’t which was good because early in the morning with no warm up in the language I fail even more miserably at the language.
Also despite the rain and cold and mud and the fact that the chickens ate my jack-o-lantern I made for some kids I was going to show what we do in America for Halloween. I carved it up and everything with my handy Leatherman knife. (that’s right pluggin the Leatherman knife). So despite all of this I was still in a good mood. Then I went through 2 hours of language class and began my 30 min fun stroll home along the main highway. And on this fun hike a couple of things happened, first I thought about why people were so gloomy when I passed by them. I always smile like a complete tourist and tell them hello and wonder why they are all pissed off. Then I look at the weather its crappy outside.. the roads are crappy.. some people are going to the wells along the street to get water frothier house because they have no running water and they are not happy about it. It begins to bring my mood down a little..i carefully avoid mud and puddles as I continue to make my way towards my house when I stumble and look down to realize I nearly stepped on a dead dog and then stepped in horse crap followed by no joke a semi driving on my left nailing a puddle of water and soaking the complete left side of me. At this moment my i-pod is playing “we didn’t start the fire” by Billy Joel and listing all of these people in the song. This gets me thinking about just how great America is by contrast. I go on thinking about all the opportunities you have in America, and how here people are pissed off because their futures are unclear and for the most part depressing. I, as an American can go anywhere in the world for the most part with my pass port, work anywhere, even AMERICA and make money. As a Moldovan it is very hard to travel, they can’t afford it and in most cases don’t’ have permission to really travel with their passports is what I have come to understand…. That little blurb doesn’t really capture everything I was thinking but its more then I would have remembered if I waited a week to write about it.
Just about 30 minutes ago I was down in the kitchen eating a meat roll, (some kind of meat in bread that just sits out on the counter all the time , no need to refrigerate it I guess…) when I noticed a rabbit carcass sitting in a bowl on the counter. I was a little grossed out about seeing it laying there while I was eating my meat roll but hey its just everyday life here. My mom asked me if I wanted to watch the next time they kill a rabbit. I declined for now and she asked me why showing the universal sign for crying with her finger under her eye and I just said ya that is why I didn’t want to see it because I would feel bad and cry.
Lets see ok, yesterday evening I had dance class with about 75% of the volunteers that wanted to do it. We had a “professional” dance instructor and accordionist help us with the music and dance steps. I learned the basics of the Hurrah? I don’t know how to spell it but that is how you say it. It was an experience that is all I have to say. I am glad that I am learning it though because it is the staple dance at any wedding or festival. I tried some of the moves at home last night after I got back after my family encouraged me to show them and then they all whooped and hollered as I completely butchered the dance. My mom said I dance like a little babe in kindergarten. Sigh… lets see what else.. Oh yes I have gotten Veronica my host sister here to play cards with me. She is one of the most boring people I have ever met (not in a really horrible way .. I say this in a joking manner because she is fun to hang around with as long as you find something to do). Every day I ask her what she wants to do she says she doesn’t have anything planned. She ends up doing her homework.. then watches tv and texts her friends the whole day. Every suggestion had been shot down for the most part because she just doesn’t want to do them and she doesn’t have any suggestions for what she wants to do…. Anyway I got her into the card game Egyptian Rat Screw. I don’t know why its called this but it is.. I have my own thoughts on this subject but the story doesn’t really make too much sense and will end up just confusing more people then it would help. Alright.. the point is she loves this game and has beat me every time we have played. I just don’t have what it takes.. I guess.
Also thanks Sarah for getting mom and dad set up with the web cam, it was great seeing you all Saturday. A note to anybody reading this.. once again I hear stories of other volunteers parents reading my blog and that makes me laugh. If anybody wants to chat online, possibly with a web cam if you0 have one I am on MSN messenger from time to time around 9pm at night my time so that would be 1pm central time. But that really varies. If you want to talk just let me know when you can get on and Id love to chat it up :--). My name on msn is just kylestremme@hotmail.com
Love Yall.
10-24-07 14:46
Some days the only way I can eat is to pretend I am William Wallace (From Braveheart) and I am sitting around with my fellow comrades eating the food we just caught around the camp fire talking about old war stories and planning our next attack. If i didn’t do things like this there is no way I would sit there and eat the organs of a rabbit or the head of a chicken. Wine with meals that are not quite as appealing as your host family thinks they are is also a good way of taking the edge off of something you would have never dreamt of eating and now the situation presents itself where if you don’t eat it you are insulting the people you have grown to love and if you do indeed it you might lose everything you ate on the table in front of everyone. I love days like these. On a side not I have begun the book “A Primate’s Memoir” by Robert M. Sapolsky and have laughed out loud 4 times and I am only on the 20th page. I highly recommend it. Ok.. I demand you read it.
Update 21:19
Since my last entry I was able to go visit my dads family. One of his coworkers with a car drove us for about 5 minutes saving us about an hour of walking in the mud witch really made the whole experience 20 times better. I met his mother and father and got to see their “betch” or cellar drink some wine and have a masa. His dad told me over and over again “bravo” American and how happy he was that I came here and how tall I am and how good I speak Romanian…. I have to say this because it really made feel great. I discussed with his mom about how old my mom was and my grandmother. I also watched my dad use a 40 year old sewing machine that you crank with your hand to repair some of his pants. I was impressed and I told him I learned the art of sewing when I was in 8th grade. He laughed but said it is important that I know it. I told him it was like 10 years ago and I remember very little but he said when the time comes ill learn again. I finished off the night with cards with veronica and a dinner then some language studying. Veronica beat me again at Egyptian rat screw… still I yet to win. My only excuse is that they only have 35 cards because the only games they play require 35 cards….
That’s it.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Picture Update
Photo on the top left is my future office I will be working in and out of for 2 years. That is my partner on the Elena on the bottom right of the photo and my other partner Alexei on the left. The photo to the right of the office photo is photograph I took of Lennin that is a huge statue right next to the building I will be working in. The photo directly below the office photo is a picture of me with my future host family, notice the height difference :0. To the right of that photo is a recent event I talked about having a masa at my current fathers brothers house. That is my sister Veronica on the left and Mother to her left. Then my fathers brothers family with little Misha in the center who received the flashlight. Finish it off I have a photo of Chisinau looking out of the hotel I was staying at about a week ago.Saturday, October 20, 2007
Awakward is the word
10-20-07 15:07
I failed again to keep this blog updated every other day. This time it was not because I did not have enough to talk about but because there was just too much going on for me to sit down and type this all out. The biggest problem with this is that I forgot a lot of the smaller details in what was going on but I will try my best to recap this last week.
Ok well lets see what happened this past weekend. I had an adventure getting into Chisinau for the festival of wine day. I was asked to go with some friends to hang out in the biggest city in Moldova for the festival of wine day. On this day I also had to clean my room from top to bottom including getting on my hands and knees to make sure that the floor was completely spick and span. My room needed it so it was good that I took the time to go over it all. After doing some cleaning I did some much needed reading. Currently I am reading “Three Cups of Tea” By Mortonson and really enjoying it. A big thank you to Jessica for lending it out to me.
It was fairly cold outside so the fam was sitting around the tv watching the festival of wine going on 20 min away in Chisinau while I was trying to convince them to go with me to meet my friends. They weren’t having any of it so I thought I would go by myself to meet my friends. This was my first time venturing out to Chisinau alone and I was looking forward to getting lost in a city that I had very little experience in. To be quick and brief I took an unreliable way of transportation and ended up somewhere on the outskirts of the city where I proceeded tot hen get completely lost and then found my way talking in horrible Romanian to passing strangers.
The festival was interesting. There was a large stage in the center of the city where traditional dances were being performed to traditional music. All around the stage was wine tents made up of different producers trying to win the passerbyers into buying either a small shot of wine or a whole bottle. Lets just say there were a lot of people having a very good time. I wondered around the city with my friends ate some really good food and then we made our way home.
The next day was judgment day. I was to travel again to Chisinau alone to meet with a PCV who has been working in Moldova for a year now. I met her so that I would travel with her to my future site in North Chisinau. The ride wasn’t too interesting but it was long. As soon as I arrived I was left alone with my partner who I just then met and driven to meet my first potential host family for dinner. My partner seems very nice and doesn’t speak a lick of English. I felt I did surprisingly well communicating with her and the family I was visiting. I was given some great food and then stayed the night at that house. It was a little awkward there with the first family for multiple reasons that I will not get into on this blog but it was an experience.
Monday I was picked up by my partner outside of the house and driven to “work”. I was able to sit in the office and talk with my future colleges… or try to talk as my language is about the equivalent of a 3 year old. For the first part of the day I went on some errands with my other partner which consisted of us driving to a gas station while he went in and had some papers signed. While he did that I was given the fun job of sitting in the car which I was completely comfortable doing because I it relieved pressure for me to talk with them or for me to understand what they were trying to say to me. We made several trips like this back and forth and then I sat in the office copying words off the walls where books hung translating with my dictionary words like horse, or cabbage.
I then awkwardly expressed my desire to see another potential host family that I would be living with when I did finally move up there. I was given blank looks by my partner even though I knew she knew what I was talking about. After some reluctancy she took me to see the second and final host family I was to see. It is a good 30 minute walk from work but it is worth it. The family is awesome. There is currently only the mom and dad living in the house because the daughter is married to an American and living In America and the son is working in Chisinau. Their ages are roughly 24-26. The parents look to be in their low 40s and very friendly. The host mother cooked some food that was out of this world. Really great food that I ate in mass quantities. After we then proceeded back to work where I sat for a while longer trying my best to look constructive when my new friend Andrea who is living in the same city came by to show me around the town and speak to me in English. She has been working in this town for just nearly a year and she showed me what kinds of things she has been doing as well as the best ways to traverse through the city. I was able to walk through a beautiful park that was even more beautiful because it is autumn and all of the leaves are colored. I took some pictures of what I could before my battery died. It made me think of my dad in America because of how much he enjoys autumn and how much he would have loved to see the trees in the park. (miss you dad). To my surprise guess what this city has? A gym full of every type of work out equipment I thought I was going to be without while serving in the peace corps. WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
After walking for nearly 3 hours and visiting her house and her adorable pets ( 2 eight week year old puppies and newborn kittens) we went back to that second host family’s house to eat dinner ( we had pancakes with syrup and an assortment of meets and vegetables (truly wonderful food). I then stayed the night there and in the morning was given a ride by my family there back to Chisinau with my partner for a kind of get to know each other conference with the rest of the 38 trainees. The conference was informative and it gave each my partner and me a good idea of what kinds of obstacles we are going to come up to with regards to the language barrier or just finding things for me to do during my first 6 moths of attempting to learn the language or local community.
I was able to eat my first piece of pizza in a good 2 months at a local pizza shop in the city with some friends and then the next day eat my first hamburger known as a “big mac” here in Moldova. If you order a hamburger you get a piece of ham on bread ;-).
Finally Wednesday I was able to come back to my village to my family who I missed and continue with the language class routine. It is going to be sad leaving my family. They keep asking why I have to leave and why I can’t just stay with them. A part of me doesn’t want to leave but then again I want to see more of the country. I hope I am able to visit them when I do leave.
Thursday passed without any crazy things happening but I was informed that we will be having the opportunity to learn a traditional dance that will be performed for all of our host families and peace corps at the end of our training. I am excited to learn some new dance moves given the sorry state I am in when it comes to dancing now.
Friday was just another day in language class followed by some work in the garden. I also took used this day to photograph my entire house in and out. I took some video with my camera as well of my family eating lunch. They got a kick out of themselves when they watched the video on my computer. I also took an excursion with my mom and sister down into the valley about 20 minutes from our house to my moms brothers house to watch my dad work. My dad works in construction was busy building a house when we arrived. We of course brought with us some beer and snacks. I greeted him and his fellow workers then played football with some of the cousins and their friends. I am really not very good at football (soccer) but I have the intimidation factor given I am 22 and they are anywhere from 10-14. My team got slaughtered and but we had a good time and I was able to teach my team the art of intimidation by beating our chest and making grunting noises before we took the field to show the other team we ment business but I digress.
On our way home from the valley we stopped by my fathers brothers house for a masa ( or a dinner thrown when guests arrive). I was first taken to the cellar to take a shot of wine with my uncle then we sat around for a good 2 hours eating and conversing. I busted out the camera and gave everyone a good laugh and gave one of my favorite little cousins one of my two flashlights. I decided to give him my flash light because I noticed when he had to go to the bath room he was getting scared because there are no lights outside of their house and it is a good 20 yards to the out house in the dark. He was clearly scared and I thought this guy needs a flashlight! Once he used it he came back with a big smile and I was like that’s yours now buddy J. Making a difference just one person at a time ;-). My uncle who the previous week I danced the hora with at the city festival gave me some Russian money the equivalent to 20 cents in American dollars and wrote his name on it and a message so that I would remember then when I went back to America.
I then crashed with the rest of my family back out our house at about 8:30 partly because of the wine and partly because of all the walking and soccer I played.
Today I have gone to language class, washed some clothes and am preparing to have a little frizzbee action going on in the near future. Hopefully I will be talking with my parents via web cam today 8:30pm my time and 12:30pm their time but I am not sure if they have gotten the message. If anybody would like to chat with me I will be on MSN messenger at 12:30pm central time under the name kylestremme@hotmail.com if your not on no problem, let me know another day that works for you and I will try to make it on.
At my new house I should have DSL connection which I can possibly make wireless with a router so I will be more available online to send pictures and videos online and even talk on skype J
Hope everyone is well, send me more emails… I want to know what is going on over there. Thanks to everyone who does send me messages.
_kyle_
I failed again to keep this blog updated every other day. This time it was not because I did not have enough to talk about but because there was just too much going on for me to sit down and type this all out. The biggest problem with this is that I forgot a lot of the smaller details in what was going on but I will try my best to recap this last week.
Ok well lets see what happened this past weekend. I had an adventure getting into Chisinau for the festival of wine day. I was asked to go with some friends to hang out in the biggest city in Moldova for the festival of wine day. On this day I also had to clean my room from top to bottom including getting on my hands and knees to make sure that the floor was completely spick and span. My room needed it so it was good that I took the time to go over it all. After doing some cleaning I did some much needed reading. Currently I am reading “Three Cups of Tea” By Mortonson and really enjoying it. A big thank you to Jessica for lending it out to me.
It was fairly cold outside so the fam was sitting around the tv watching the festival of wine going on 20 min away in Chisinau while I was trying to convince them to go with me to meet my friends. They weren’t having any of it so I thought I would go by myself to meet my friends. This was my first time venturing out to Chisinau alone and I was looking forward to getting lost in a city that I had very little experience in. To be quick and brief I took an unreliable way of transportation and ended up somewhere on the outskirts of the city where I proceeded tot hen get completely lost and then found my way talking in horrible Romanian to passing strangers.
The festival was interesting. There was a large stage in the center of the city where traditional dances were being performed to traditional music. All around the stage was wine tents made up of different producers trying to win the passerbyers into buying either a small shot of wine or a whole bottle. Lets just say there were a lot of people having a very good time. I wondered around the city with my friends ate some really good food and then we made our way home.
The next day was judgment day. I was to travel again to Chisinau alone to meet with a PCV who has been working in Moldova for a year now. I met her so that I would travel with her to my future site in North Chisinau. The ride wasn’t too interesting but it was long. As soon as I arrived I was left alone with my partner who I just then met and driven to meet my first potential host family for dinner. My partner seems very nice and doesn’t speak a lick of English. I felt I did surprisingly well communicating with her and the family I was visiting. I was given some great food and then stayed the night at that house. It was a little awkward there with the first family for multiple reasons that I will not get into on this blog but it was an experience.
Monday I was picked up by my partner outside of the house and driven to “work”. I was able to sit in the office and talk with my future colleges… or try to talk as my language is about the equivalent of a 3 year old. For the first part of the day I went on some errands with my other partner which consisted of us driving to a gas station while he went in and had some papers signed. While he did that I was given the fun job of sitting in the car which I was completely comfortable doing because I it relieved pressure for me to talk with them or for me to understand what they were trying to say to me. We made several trips like this back and forth and then I sat in the office copying words off the walls where books hung translating with my dictionary words like horse, or cabbage.
I then awkwardly expressed my desire to see another potential host family that I would be living with when I did finally move up there. I was given blank looks by my partner even though I knew she knew what I was talking about. After some reluctancy she took me to see the second and final host family I was to see. It is a good 30 minute walk from work but it is worth it. The family is awesome. There is currently only the mom and dad living in the house because the daughter is married to an American and living In America and the son is working in Chisinau. Their ages are roughly 24-26. The parents look to be in their low 40s and very friendly. The host mother cooked some food that was out of this world. Really great food that I ate in mass quantities. After we then proceeded back to work where I sat for a while longer trying my best to look constructive when my new friend Andrea who is living in the same city came by to show me around the town and speak to me in English. She has been working in this town for just nearly a year and she showed me what kinds of things she has been doing as well as the best ways to traverse through the city. I was able to walk through a beautiful park that was even more beautiful because it is autumn and all of the leaves are colored. I took some pictures of what I could before my battery died. It made me think of my dad in America because of how much he enjoys autumn and how much he would have loved to see the trees in the park. (miss you dad). To my surprise guess what this city has? A gym full of every type of work out equipment I thought I was going to be without while serving in the peace corps. WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
After walking for nearly 3 hours and visiting her house and her adorable pets ( 2 eight week year old puppies and newborn kittens) we went back to that second host family’s house to eat dinner ( we had pancakes with syrup and an assortment of meets and vegetables (truly wonderful food). I then stayed the night there and in the morning was given a ride by my family there back to Chisinau with my partner for a kind of get to know each other conference with the rest of the 38 trainees. The conference was informative and it gave each my partner and me a good idea of what kinds of obstacles we are going to come up to with regards to the language barrier or just finding things for me to do during my first 6 moths of attempting to learn the language or local community.
I was able to eat my first piece of pizza in a good 2 months at a local pizza shop in the city with some friends and then the next day eat my first hamburger known as a “big mac” here in Moldova. If you order a hamburger you get a piece of ham on bread ;-).
Finally Wednesday I was able to come back to my village to my family who I missed and continue with the language class routine. It is going to be sad leaving my family. They keep asking why I have to leave and why I can’t just stay with them. A part of me doesn’t want to leave but then again I want to see more of the country. I hope I am able to visit them when I do leave.
Thursday passed without any crazy things happening but I was informed that we will be having the opportunity to learn a traditional dance that will be performed for all of our host families and peace corps at the end of our training. I am excited to learn some new dance moves given the sorry state I am in when it comes to dancing now.
Friday was just another day in language class followed by some work in the garden. I also took used this day to photograph my entire house in and out. I took some video with my camera as well of my family eating lunch. They got a kick out of themselves when they watched the video on my computer. I also took an excursion with my mom and sister down into the valley about 20 minutes from our house to my moms brothers house to watch my dad work. My dad works in construction was busy building a house when we arrived. We of course brought with us some beer and snacks. I greeted him and his fellow workers then played football with some of the cousins and their friends. I am really not very good at football (soccer) but I have the intimidation factor given I am 22 and they are anywhere from 10-14. My team got slaughtered and but we had a good time and I was able to teach my team the art of intimidation by beating our chest and making grunting noises before we took the field to show the other team we ment business but I digress.
On our way home from the valley we stopped by my fathers brothers house for a masa ( or a dinner thrown when guests arrive). I was first taken to the cellar to take a shot of wine with my uncle then we sat around for a good 2 hours eating and conversing. I busted out the camera and gave everyone a good laugh and gave one of my favorite little cousins one of my two flashlights. I decided to give him my flash light because I noticed when he had to go to the bath room he was getting scared because there are no lights outside of their house and it is a good 20 yards to the out house in the dark. He was clearly scared and I thought this guy needs a flashlight! Once he used it he came back with a big smile and I was like that’s yours now buddy J. Making a difference just one person at a time ;-). My uncle who the previous week I danced the hora with at the city festival gave me some Russian money the equivalent to 20 cents in American dollars and wrote his name on it and a message so that I would remember then when I went back to America.
I then crashed with the rest of my family back out our house at about 8:30 partly because of the wine and partly because of all the walking and soccer I played.
Today I have gone to language class, washed some clothes and am preparing to have a little frizzbee action going on in the near future. Hopefully I will be talking with my parents via web cam today 8:30pm my time and 12:30pm their time but I am not sure if they have gotten the message. If anybody would like to chat with me I will be on MSN messenger at 12:30pm central time under the name kylestremme@hotmail.com if your not on no problem, let me know another day that works for you and I will try to make it on.
At my new house I should have DSL connection which I can possibly make wireless with a router so I will be more available online to send pictures and videos online and even talk on skype J
Hope everyone is well, send me more emails… I want to know what is going on over there. Thanks to everyone who does send me messages.
_kyle_
Saturday, October 13, 2007
No thanks I don't eat that
10-11-07 20:45
Lets see what has happened in these past few days since I last wrote. Lets start with Sunday. That was our first free day as a PCV in about a week. We had no classes or trips to go on and most importantly no lectures. I enjoy a good lecture every now and then but its rough when you listen to one every other day about safety procedures or health procedures or even cultural procedures. They are all very necessary but all that information cramming is rough on a guy when he is being crammed with Romanian till its coming out of his ears.
Back to Sunday… no class or lecture… I woke up around 9 which was great to be able to sleep in and then proceeded to live my day out at the house. I was able to eat a nice breakfast then study get all of my homework done for language class done three hours. Then I roamed around the house for something to do or someone to hang with. I spent some time chatting it up with mama then watched as my brother and his friends attempted to combat a virus on his computer that he contracted from all of his pirated music and games finally teaching why nothing in life is free.
From after that strolled the 30 minutes to hang out with some fellow PCV down by their houses to the south of me. We were going to play Frisbee but someone, I won’t name names forgot it so we found our fun at a local bar. The rest of the day went on to be unproductive but fun.
I am having trouble remembering anything interesting that happened on Monday except maybe a conversation relating to what they would want from America. So mom if your reading this, I know you asked me what you should send in a package to me if you did send one and I have been thinking … you asked me if there was anything you could send to my family here so I asked them awkwardly at dinner where the majority of the fun conversations happen. After about 5 minutes of explaining in remaining and English that my mom was wondering if they wanted anything then we discussed about why in the world my mom would want to send them anything. They were hesitant to ask for anything but told me to write things down on a list and they would choose from that list what they would want.
I am open to ideas here on to what to put on that list… They need a new hair drier which I plan on purchasing for them before I leave here in the city… I dunno if anyone has an idea that they think someone in Moldova would want from America please let me know. I know I want a good towel. Not a large one because I don’t have room for it anywhere but a nice one that dries me because the current towel I am using which I purchased in the central market is nice and soft but really fails to dry me well. Also if mom would get the girls togather and take some pictures and possible a copy of our family portrait we took before I left and put it on a cd so that I can show my host family that would be great.
Wow did I digress from interesting things happening on Monday. Lets remember Tuesday. It was party time in our village and the day all the PCVs found out their assignments. Just so you know PCV stands for Peace Corps Volunteers. After going through language class and then a presentation on Jewish heritage and Romi heritage here in Moldova we were escorted outside behind the building with all38 pre service training volunteers around a chalk drawing of the map of Moldova with chair situated on top of it. Each chair and a name of a city on it and then one by one the director read aloud our names and we were escorted to our assignment. It was a little nerve racking but like I said in my interview the previous week I had no preference. I let them choose where I was going and what I am going to do. My placement is in the north western corner of Moldova. Romania to my west and Ukraine to my east. Fantastic! J. I will go more into that later.
After our announcements I went home and ate with the family a wonderfully large meal that had been prepared for sometime by mama. (mama is my host mother here because that’s what I call her and it is just easier then saying My host mother…plus she laughs when I call her that) At this meal I was introduced to something I had only heard about from loose sources around the village and from other volunteers…. What is it you ask? Chicken Jell-o. That’s right.. its jell-0 that is clear but it tastes like chicken. I should have taken a picture I really meant to. It is a plate with chicken in the middle with jell-0 surrounding it. It is really bizarre looking but it tasted fairly good. Not great because I can’t get over how weird the concept is to combine the two things but it wasn’t horrible by any means. Quite the delicacy. During this I took a couple of hits of wine with the family and that was that. The plan after that was to go the center of town with my brother and sister and her friend and then I would break off meet up with other PCV and then do our thing.
The telephone rang for me and it was the neighbors asking if I would please join them for a little bit in their party. I went over there took a hit of coniac with the family and their friends and rambled in my best Romanian for about 10 minutes. Sometimes I am very goo with the language and during that visit I was really on. I understood most of what was said and was able to respond fairly well that is a big confidence booster even if it was for such a short period of time. My sentences are now elongated because I learned the word “because, but, and, about. Now I can link up my nouns and verbs and elongate my sentences into even more obscurity. For example I could say… “I works in Moldova because I want to we help people but now I need to learn the language more good.” That sentence would fly out with some ease but as shown my grammar more good is not exactly correct nore is my conjugation. Oh well they understand me for the most part and I am happy about that.
After doing a fair well wine salute and telling them thanks for having me and how nice it was to meet them I headed off into town with the next door neighbor, brother and fellow PCV. I met up with some other friends there at the central party which was most of the towns teenagers and kids and parents all hanging out in this town square dancing to music in little circles doing the hurrah or just dancing around talking. For some freak reason our ground happened to run into several groups of adults and kids I had met with my family so I looked really popular in our town. I was greeting everyone with big hand shakes pats on the back and smiles accompanied by excited loud hello good to see you! Then introduce them to y colleagues and then proceed to dance with them. This all went on for several hours before I decided I had enough and went to back to my house and then to bed.
Wednesday was spent reading and hanging out with my family after language class. It was a relaxing day but nothing really to speak of except I did show my host family the town I was going to be staying in and working and explaining to them I would visit them when I did come by this way. My dad apparently works about 20 minutes away at a nearby city in the summers so I might have to visit him when I can. I also showed the neighbors pictures on my laptop of my family and they were very impressed. That reminds me, Mom take pictures of some of the food you make so I can show them what you types of foods we eat.
Tonight its Thursday, and the day went by fairly quickly. At dinner tonight we talked about my visit this weekend to my future site. I am taking a bus to the north part of Moldova to meet my partner and meet some possible families. This will be a extremely awkward time given that nobody I will be around will speak English and I am to make a choice of which family I will live with after sitting down the dinner with them and looking around the house. My future location is about 4 hours away from my current site and about 4 and a half hours from the biggest city Chisinau which is not spelled right and probably never will be by me. At dinner I looked at a chickens foot and shook my head that no I did not feel like eating any tonight and then I was asked if we ate them in America. My answer was No I don’t eat them in America and I don’t know anybody who does but I am sure someone does eat them. Another question that is fun to be asked and we get asked often is if it is raining right now in America. My answer is always yes because somewhere most likely it is raining in America.
I also listened to an earful from mama about my knuckles being all black and blue because I am starting to do knuckle pushups again. I laughed at her and told her my mom in America doesn’t like me to do them either and that for now on I will pad up my hands so that they don’t get all bruised up. Moms are the same everywhere in the world I have concluded.
That’s all I am going to say right now because I am tired and ready to get some sleep… lets see its about 1:45 in Kansas on a Thursday so my sisters are all in school and my mom is doing mom stuff and my dad is most likely at work. And I am in Moldova… how cool is that? Thank you to everyone who sends me emails with encouraging things to say I appreciate them I wish everyone well. I will continue to finish up my thoughts with much love to you all. I am a Ninja.
Lets see what has happened in these past few days since I last wrote. Lets start with Sunday. That was our first free day as a PCV in about a week. We had no classes or trips to go on and most importantly no lectures. I enjoy a good lecture every now and then but its rough when you listen to one every other day about safety procedures or health procedures or even cultural procedures. They are all very necessary but all that information cramming is rough on a guy when he is being crammed with Romanian till its coming out of his ears.
Back to Sunday… no class or lecture… I woke up around 9 which was great to be able to sleep in and then proceeded to live my day out at the house. I was able to eat a nice breakfast then study get all of my homework done for language class done three hours. Then I roamed around the house for something to do or someone to hang with. I spent some time chatting it up with mama then watched as my brother and his friends attempted to combat a virus on his computer that he contracted from all of his pirated music and games finally teaching why nothing in life is free.
From after that strolled the 30 minutes to hang out with some fellow PCV down by their houses to the south of me. We were going to play Frisbee but someone, I won’t name names forgot it so we found our fun at a local bar. The rest of the day went on to be unproductive but fun.
I am having trouble remembering anything interesting that happened on Monday except maybe a conversation relating to what they would want from America. So mom if your reading this, I know you asked me what you should send in a package to me if you did send one and I have been thinking … you asked me if there was anything you could send to my family here so I asked them awkwardly at dinner where the majority of the fun conversations happen. After about 5 minutes of explaining in remaining and English that my mom was wondering if they wanted anything then we discussed about why in the world my mom would want to send them anything. They were hesitant to ask for anything but told me to write things down on a list and they would choose from that list what they would want.
I am open to ideas here on to what to put on that list… They need a new hair drier which I plan on purchasing for them before I leave here in the city… I dunno if anyone has an idea that they think someone in Moldova would want from America please let me know. I know I want a good towel. Not a large one because I don’t have room for it anywhere but a nice one that dries me because the current towel I am using which I purchased in the central market is nice and soft but really fails to dry me well. Also if mom would get the girls togather and take some pictures and possible a copy of our family portrait we took before I left and put it on a cd so that I can show my host family that would be great.
Wow did I digress from interesting things happening on Monday. Lets remember Tuesday. It was party time in our village and the day all the PCVs found out their assignments. Just so you know PCV stands for Peace Corps Volunteers. After going through language class and then a presentation on Jewish heritage and Romi heritage here in Moldova we were escorted outside behind the building with all38 pre service training volunteers around a chalk drawing of the map of Moldova with chair situated on top of it. Each chair and a name of a city on it and then one by one the director read aloud our names and we were escorted to our assignment. It was a little nerve racking but like I said in my interview the previous week I had no preference. I let them choose where I was going and what I am going to do. My placement is in the north western corner of Moldova. Romania to my west and Ukraine to my east. Fantastic! J. I will go more into that later.
After our announcements I went home and ate with the family a wonderfully large meal that had been prepared for sometime by mama. (mama is my host mother here because that’s what I call her and it is just easier then saying My host mother…plus she laughs when I call her that) At this meal I was introduced to something I had only heard about from loose sources around the village and from other volunteers…. What is it you ask? Chicken Jell-o. That’s right.. its jell-0 that is clear but it tastes like chicken. I should have taken a picture I really meant to. It is a plate with chicken in the middle with jell-0 surrounding it. It is really bizarre looking but it tasted fairly good. Not great because I can’t get over how weird the concept is to combine the two things but it wasn’t horrible by any means. Quite the delicacy. During this I took a couple of hits of wine with the family and that was that. The plan after that was to go the center of town with my brother and sister and her friend and then I would break off meet up with other PCV and then do our thing.
The telephone rang for me and it was the neighbors asking if I would please join them for a little bit in their party. I went over there took a hit of coniac with the family and their friends and rambled in my best Romanian for about 10 minutes. Sometimes I am very goo with the language and during that visit I was really on. I understood most of what was said and was able to respond fairly well that is a big confidence booster even if it was for such a short period of time. My sentences are now elongated because I learned the word “because, but, and, about. Now I can link up my nouns and verbs and elongate my sentences into even more obscurity. For example I could say… “I works in Moldova because I want to we help people but now I need to learn the language more good.” That sentence would fly out with some ease but as shown my grammar more good is not exactly correct nore is my conjugation. Oh well they understand me for the most part and I am happy about that.
After doing a fair well wine salute and telling them thanks for having me and how nice it was to meet them I headed off into town with the next door neighbor, brother and fellow PCV. I met up with some other friends there at the central party which was most of the towns teenagers and kids and parents all hanging out in this town square dancing to music in little circles doing the hurrah or just dancing around talking. For some freak reason our ground happened to run into several groups of adults and kids I had met with my family so I looked really popular in our town. I was greeting everyone with big hand shakes pats on the back and smiles accompanied by excited loud hello good to see you! Then introduce them to y colleagues and then proceed to dance with them. This all went on for several hours before I decided I had enough and went to back to my house and then to bed.
Wednesday was spent reading and hanging out with my family after language class. It was a relaxing day but nothing really to speak of except I did show my host family the town I was going to be staying in and working and explaining to them I would visit them when I did come by this way. My dad apparently works about 20 minutes away at a nearby city in the summers so I might have to visit him when I can. I also showed the neighbors pictures on my laptop of my family and they were very impressed. That reminds me, Mom take pictures of some of the food you make so I can show them what you types of foods we eat.
Tonight its Thursday, and the day went by fairly quickly. At dinner tonight we talked about my visit this weekend to my future site. I am taking a bus to the north part of Moldova to meet my partner and meet some possible families. This will be a extremely awkward time given that nobody I will be around will speak English and I am to make a choice of which family I will live with after sitting down the dinner with them and looking around the house. My future location is about 4 hours away from my current site and about 4 and a half hours from the biggest city Chisinau which is not spelled right and probably never will be by me. At dinner I looked at a chickens foot and shook my head that no I did not feel like eating any tonight and then I was asked if we ate them in America. My answer was No I don’t eat them in America and I don’t know anybody who does but I am sure someone does eat them. Another question that is fun to be asked and we get asked often is if it is raining right now in America. My answer is always yes because somewhere most likely it is raining in America.
I also listened to an earful from mama about my knuckles being all black and blue because I am starting to do knuckle pushups again. I laughed at her and told her my mom in America doesn’t like me to do them either and that for now on I will pad up my hands so that they don’t get all bruised up. Moms are the same everywhere in the world I have concluded.
That’s all I am going to say right now because I am tired and ready to get some sleep… lets see its about 1:45 in Kansas on a Thursday so my sisters are all in school and my mom is doing mom stuff and my dad is most likely at work. And I am in Moldova… how cool is that? Thank you to everyone who sends me emails with encouraging things to say I appreciate them I wish everyone well. I will continue to finish up my thoughts with much love to you all. I am a Ninja.
10-11-07 20:45
Lets see what has happened in these past few days since I last wrote. Lets start with Sunday. That was our first free day as a PCV in about a week. We had no classes or trips to go on and most importantly no lectures. I enjoy a good lecture every now and then but its rough when you listen to one every other day about safety procedures or health procedures or even cultural procedures. They are all very necessary but all that information cramming is rough on a guy when he is being crammed with Romanian till its coming out of his ears.
Back to Sunday… no class or lecture… I woke up around 9 which was great to be able to sleep in and then proceeded to live my day out at the house. I was able to eat a nice breakfast then study get all of my homework done for language class done three hours. Then I roamed around the house for something to do or someone to hang with. I spent some time chatting it up with mama then watched as my brother and his friends attempted to combat a virus on his computer that he contracted from all of his pirated music and games finally teaching why nothing in life is free.
From after that strolled the 30 minutes to hang out with some fellow PCV down by their houses to the south of me. We were going to play Frisbee but someone, I won’t name names forgot it so we found our fun at a local bar. The rest of the day went on to be unproductive but fun.
I am having trouble remembering anything interesting that happened on Monday except maybe a conversation relating to what they would want from America. So mom if your reading this, I know you asked me what you should send in a package to me if you did send one and I have been thinking … you asked me if there was anything you could send to my family here so I asked them awkwardly at dinner where the majority of the fun conversations happen. After about 5 minutes of explaining in remaining and English that my mom was wondering if they wanted anything then we discussed about why in the world my mom would want to send them anything. They were hesitant to ask for anything but told me to write things down on a list and they would choose from that list what they would want.
I am open to ideas here on to what to put on that list… They need a new hair drier which I plan on purchasing for them before I leave here in the city… I dunno if anyone has an idea that they think someone in Moldova would want from America please let me know. I know I want a good towel. Not a large one because I don’t have room for it anywhere but a nice one that dries me because the current towel I am using which I purchased in the central market is nice and soft but really fails to dry me well. Also if mom would get the girls togather and take some pictures and possible a copy of our family portrait we took before I left and put it on a cd so that I can show my host family that would be great.
Wow did I digress from interesting things happening on Monday. Lets remember Tuesday. It was party time in our village and the day all the PCVs found out their assignments. Just so you know PCV stands for Peace Corps Volunteers. After going through language class and then a presentation on Jewish heritage and Romi heritage here in Moldova we were escorted outside behind the building with all38 pre service training volunteers around a chalk drawing of the map of Moldova with chair situated on top of it. Each chair and a name of a city on it and then one by one the director read aloud our names and we were escorted to our assignment. It was a little nerve racking but like I said in my interview the previous week I had no preference. I let them choose where I was going and what I am going to do. My placement is in the north western corner of Moldova. Romania to my west and Ukraine to my east. Fantastic! J. I will go more into that later.
After our announcements I went home and ate with the family a wonderfully large meal that had been prepared for sometime by mama. (mama is my host mother here because that’s what I call her and it is just easier then saying My host mother…plus she laughs when I call her that) At this meal I was introduced to something I had only heard about from loose sources around the village and from other volunteers…. What is it you ask? Chicken Jell-o. That’s right.. its jell-0 that is clear but it tastes like chicken. I should have taken a picture I really meant to. It is a plate with chicken in the middle with jell-0 surrounding it. It is really bizarre looking but it tasted fairly good. Not great because I can’t get over how weird the concept is to combine the two things but it wasn’t horrible by any means. Quite the delicacy. During this I took a couple of hits of wine with the family and that was that. The plan after that was to go the center of town with my brother and sister and her friend and then I would break off meet up with other PCV and then do our thing.
The telephone rang for me and it was the neighbors asking if I would please join them for a little bit in their party. I went over there took a hit of coniac with the family and their friends and rambled in my best Romanian for about 10 minutes. Sometimes I am very goo with the language and during that visit I was really on. I understood most of what was said and was able to respond fairly well that is a big confidence booster even if it was for such a short period of time. My sentences are now elongated because I learned the word “because, but, and, about. Now I can link up my nouns and verbs and elongate my sentences into even more obscurity. For example I could say… “I works in Moldova because I want to we help people but now I need to learn the language more good.” That sentence would fly out with some ease but as shown my grammar more good is not exactly correct nore is my conjugation. Oh well they understand me for the most part and I am happy about that.
After doing a fair well wine salute and telling them thanks for having me and how nice it was to meet them I headed off into town with the next door neighbor, brother and fellow PCV. I met up with some other friends there at the central party which was most of the towns teenagers and kids and parents all hanging out in this town square dancing to music in little circles doing the hurrah or just dancing around talking. For some freak reason our ground happened to run into several groups of adults and kids I had met with my family so I looked really popular in our town. I was greeting everyone with big hand shakes pats on the back and smiles accompanied by excited loud hello good to see you! Then introduce them to y colleagues and then proceed to dance with them. This all went on for several hours before I decided I had enough and went to back to my house and then to bed.
Wednesday was spent reading and hanging out with my family after language class. It was a relaxing day but nothing really to speak of except I did show my host family the town I was going to be staying in and working and explaining to them I would visit them when I did come by this way. My dad apparently works about 20 minutes away at a nearby city in the summers so I might have to visit him when I can. I also showed the neighbors pictures on my laptop of my family and they were very impressed. That reminds me, Mom take pictures of some of the food you make so I can show them what you types of foods we eat.
Tonight its Thursday, and the day went by fairly quickly. At dinner tonight we talked about my visit this weekend to my future site. I am taking a bus to the north part of Moldova to meet my partner and meet some possible families. This will be a extremely awkward time given that nobody I will be around will speak English and I am to make a choice of which family I will live with after sitting down the dinner with them and looking around the house. My future location is about 4 hours away from my current site and about 4 and a half hours from the biggest city Chisinau which is not spelled right and probably never will be by me. At dinner I looked at a chickens foot and shook my head that no I did not feel like eating any tonight and then I was asked if we ate them in America. My answer was No I don’t eat them in America and I don’t know anybody who does but I am sure someone does eat them. Another question that is fun to be asked and we get asked often is if it is raining right now in America. My answer is always yes because somewhere most likely it is raining in America.
I also listened to an earful from mama about my knuckles being all black and blue because I am starting to do knuckle pushups again. I laughed at her and told her my mom in America doesn’t like me to do them either and that for now on I will pad up my hands so that they don’t get all bruised up. Moms are the same everywhere in the world I have concluded.
That’s all I am going to say right now because I am tired and ready to get some sleep… lets see its about 1:45 in Kansas on a Thursday so my sisters are all in school and my mom is doing mom stuff and my dad is most likely at work. And I am in Moldova… how cool is that? Thank you to everyone who sends me emails with encouraging things to say I appreciate them I wish everyone well. I will continue to finish up my thoughts with much love to you all. I am a Ninja.
Lets see what has happened in these past few days since I last wrote. Lets start with Sunday. That was our first free day as a PCV in about a week. We had no classes or trips to go on and most importantly no lectures. I enjoy a good lecture every now and then but its rough when you listen to one every other day about safety procedures or health procedures or even cultural procedures. They are all very necessary but all that information cramming is rough on a guy when he is being crammed with Romanian till its coming out of his ears.
Back to Sunday… no class or lecture… I woke up around 9 which was great to be able to sleep in and then proceeded to live my day out at the house. I was able to eat a nice breakfast then study get all of my homework done for language class done three hours. Then I roamed around the house for something to do or someone to hang with. I spent some time chatting it up with mama then watched as my brother and his friends attempted to combat a virus on his computer that he contracted from all of his pirated music and games finally teaching why nothing in life is free.
From after that strolled the 30 minutes to hang out with some fellow PCV down by their houses to the south of me. We were going to play Frisbee but someone, I won’t name names forgot it so we found our fun at a local bar. The rest of the day went on to be unproductive but fun.
I am having trouble remembering anything interesting that happened on Monday except maybe a conversation relating to what they would want from America. So mom if your reading this, I know you asked me what you should send in a package to me if you did send one and I have been thinking … you asked me if there was anything you could send to my family here so I asked them awkwardly at dinner where the majority of the fun conversations happen. After about 5 minutes of explaining in remaining and English that my mom was wondering if they wanted anything then we discussed about why in the world my mom would want to send them anything. They were hesitant to ask for anything but told me to write things down on a list and they would choose from that list what they would want.
I am open to ideas here on to what to put on that list… They need a new hair drier which I plan on purchasing for them before I leave here in the city… I dunno if anyone has an idea that they think someone in Moldova would want from America please let me know. I know I want a good towel. Not a large one because I don’t have room for it anywhere but a nice one that dries me because the current towel I am using which I purchased in the central market is nice and soft but really fails to dry me well. Also if mom would get the girls togather and take some pictures and possible a copy of our family portrait we took before I left and put it on a cd so that I can show my host family that would be great.
Wow did I digress from interesting things happening on Monday. Lets remember Tuesday. It was party time in our village and the day all the PCVs found out their assignments. Just so you know PCV stands for Peace Corps Volunteers. After going through language class and then a presentation on Jewish heritage and Romi heritage here in Moldova we were escorted outside behind the building with all38 pre service training volunteers around a chalk drawing of the map of Moldova with chair situated on top of it. Each chair and a name of a city on it and then one by one the director read aloud our names and we were escorted to our assignment. It was a little nerve racking but like I said in my interview the previous week I had no preference. I let them choose where I was going and what I am going to do. My placement is in the north western corner of Moldova. Romania to my west and Ukraine to my east. Fantastic! J. I will go more into that later.
After our announcements I went home and ate with the family a wonderfully large meal that had been prepared for sometime by mama. (mama is my host mother here because that’s what I call her and it is just easier then saying My host mother…plus she laughs when I call her that) At this meal I was introduced to something I had only heard about from loose sources around the village and from other volunteers…. What is it you ask? Chicken Jell-o. That’s right.. its jell-0 that is clear but it tastes like chicken. I should have taken a picture I really meant to. It is a plate with chicken in the middle with jell-0 surrounding it. It is really bizarre looking but it tasted fairly good. Not great because I can’t get over how weird the concept is to combine the two things but it wasn’t horrible by any means. Quite the delicacy. During this I took a couple of hits of wine with the family and that was that. The plan after that was to go the center of town with my brother and sister and her friend and then I would break off meet up with other PCV and then do our thing.
The telephone rang for me and it was the neighbors asking if I would please join them for a little bit in their party. I went over there took a hit of coniac with the family and their friends and rambled in my best Romanian for about 10 minutes. Sometimes I am very goo with the language and during that visit I was really on. I understood most of what was said and was able to respond fairly well that is a big confidence booster even if it was for such a short period of time. My sentences are now elongated because I learned the word “because, but, and, about. Now I can link up my nouns and verbs and elongate my sentences into even more obscurity. For example I could say… “I works in Moldova because I want to we help people but now I need to learn the language more good.” That sentence would fly out with some ease but as shown my grammar more good is not exactly correct nore is my conjugation. Oh well they understand me for the most part and I am happy about that.
After doing a fair well wine salute and telling them thanks for having me and how nice it was to meet them I headed off into town with the next door neighbor, brother and fellow PCV. I met up with some other friends there at the central party which was most of the towns teenagers and kids and parents all hanging out in this town square dancing to music in little circles doing the hurrah or just dancing around talking. For some freak reason our ground happened to run into several groups of adults and kids I had met with my family so I looked really popular in our town. I was greeting everyone with big hand shakes pats on the back and smiles accompanied by excited loud hello good to see you! Then introduce them to y colleagues and then proceed to dance with them. This all went on for several hours before I decided I had enough and went to back to my house and then to bed.
Wednesday was spent reading and hanging out with my family after language class. It was a relaxing day but nothing really to speak of except I did show my host family the town I was going to be staying in and working and explaining to them I would visit them when I did come by this way. My dad apparently works about 20 minutes away at a nearby city in the summers so I might have to visit him when I can. I also showed the neighbors pictures on my laptop of my family and they were very impressed. That reminds me, Mom take pictures of some of the food you make so I can show them what you types of foods we eat.
Tonight its Thursday, and the day went by fairly quickly. At dinner tonight we talked about my visit this weekend to my future site. I am taking a bus to the north part of Moldova to meet my partner and meet some possible families. This will be a extremely awkward time given that nobody I will be around will speak English and I am to make a choice of which family I will live with after sitting down the dinner with them and looking around the house. My future location is about 4 hours away from my current site and about 4 and a half hours from the biggest city Chisinau which is not spelled right and probably never will be by me. At dinner I looked at a chickens foot and shook my head that no I did not feel like eating any tonight and then I was asked if we ate them in America. My answer was No I don’t eat them in America and I don’t know anybody who does but I am sure someone does eat them. Another question that is fun to be asked and we get asked often is if it is raining right now in America. My answer is always yes because somewhere most likely it is raining in America.
I also listened to an earful from mama about my knuckles being all black and blue because I am starting to do knuckle pushups again. I laughed at her and told her my mom in America doesn’t like me to do them either and that for now on I will pad up my hands so that they don’t get all bruised up. Moms are the same everywhere in the world I have concluded.
That’s all I am going to say right now because I am tired and ready to get some sleep… lets see its about 1:45 in Kansas on a Thursday so my sisters are all in school and my mom is doing mom stuff and my dad is most likely at work. And I am in Moldova… how cool is that? Thank you to everyone who sends me emails with encouraging things to say I appreciate them I wish everyone well. I will continue to finish up my thoughts with much love to you all. I am a Ninja.
Monday, October 8, 2007
10-8-07
10-07-07 0:39
Well it is Saturday night here. I will attempt to recap my week the best I can because I have neglected to write anything for a week now. Alright well lets see a week from tonight I went to the Discoteca. Myself and some other volunteers in my village got together around 9 or so to play some hearts (my new card game of choice) and listen to music. This went on for a couple of hours until we were escorted to the club about 5 minutes from my house by my host sister and her boyfriend. I was not really thrilled about the idea of going to this but went to it with a little optimism telling myself that it is not going to be as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Boy was I wrong. We show up and the place is exactly like I would have pictured a Moldovan dance club to be. Snazzy dressed teenagers violently thrashing their bodies to what else? (American pop music mixed into techno with some Romanian pop techno songs thrown in. I am not much of a dancer as it is but I can sit there and mingle in with a crowed if I have to without making a complete fool of my self under normal circumstances. This was not normal circum stances. I was with 3 other Americans and all eyes were on us. I stood on the wall just taking in the scene for a while with my friends and my sister nagging me to go dance and have fun.. and then why am I not dancing.. am I having fun.. why am I not dancing…
After about 20 minutes of feeling creepy and bored and I just left the disco to stand outside while some of my friends attempted to move to the music. I followed my sisters boyfriend outside to see where he was going then found a new crowed of people hanging out there. It was here that I my sisters boy friend asked me to go over to his car so that he could attempt to speak in his best English that I should not attempt to mess around with his girlfriend or else he would have to get hostile with me. After a fun little lost in translation moment where upon I told him I don’t appreciate hostilities pointed in my direction with a few choice words and preparation for a fight telling him I have no intention of stealing his love but if he wants to have a go at me he is more then welcome to do it now. He quickly changed his tone realizing I was A: sincerely not interested in his girlfriend and B: didn’t take too kindly to intimidation and he could not bully me or C: he had no idea what I said . The end result was him patting me on the back telling me he and I would be friends and then we proceeded about our night as if nothing happened.
My friends ended up coming out of the disco because of the horrible music and interesting dance moves that were in abundance inside there ro they just wanted to see me. I stood around outside talking to some kids I had met at one time or another on the street or met through my host siblings and then proceeded back in to the dance arena with the promise to my sister that I would dance to 5 songs then I would leave along with the other PCVs who were ready to leave as well. I went in did my dance moves with all eyes on me because I am so freaking tall and because my dance moves had to have looked ridiculous as they looked nothing like the dance moves of a Justin Timberlake or some current American Pop star they were comparing me to but more of a mixture of Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby (meaning I kept it conservative with a few crazy moves thrown in every once in a while to keep things interesting for the spectators.
I quickly went to bed after making it home. The next day Sunday our group met up with our mentors for a tour of the big city Chisinau. This was a fun time and I was able to purchase a cell phone along with some other amenities. The day was uneventful for the most part but I did get to do a great deal of walking and talking in which has become a staple here for me.
The rest of the week really just consisted of more language class in the mornings followed by some technical training in the evening followed by studying at night then repeating that again and again. Some highlights of this week were going on a site visit to the south of my current location about an hour where we met up with a current volunteer at his site. We got to hear him talk about what he does there and how things are going for him. What I got out of that visit is; initiative is a key ingratiate in success. Without it nothing really gets done here, and because my goal here is to facilitate some degree of change or positive action I plan to use a lot of it.
Lets see yesterday an interesting event graced me with its presence. I was sitting in language class whooping it up as usual when the lights go out ( witch is not too odd an occurrence) and my teacher goes to the front to investigate a sound she heard. She comes back all excited jumping up and down until we run to the door to see what has got her all jumbled to realize that the power box has exploded to a small degree and flames and sparks are dancing from it. I quickly do the most appropriate thing I could think of and that is to save all of our shoes underneath the flaming spectacle. After grabbing our shoes and throwing them behind us we watch the flames and smell the see smell of a burning electrical fire. A college of mine comes out with water which we quickly suppress before we all die watching her throw water into an electrical fire. Someone gets a smart idea to grab dirt and throw it at the fire so we all do and that was the end of the fire. The owner of the house came home about an hour after the ordeal without much surprise on his face as if this kind of thing happens everyday . we seem him later on that day with some wires and tools as he goes to repair whatever caused our fun earlier that morning.
Yesterday night I would also like to throw in I ate chicken organ stew. This “stew” consisted of a skillet placed in the middle of the table and in it were cooked potatoes and what looked to be some kind of meat. After consuming a good portion of it I began to question what it was I was eating. My family then explained to me that they had killed three chickens that day and we were eating a very tasty meal that consisted of the hearts, livers, stomachs and anything else you could pull out of a chicken that I had yet to eat ever in my life or thought about eating in my life. It was not all that bad but I did have a rough time getting down to get what I have come to accept as the stomach after I found out what it was.
Also at this meal I was able to provide my sister with a first. Let me give you a little background on this first by telling you that the previous night to last night I asked her if she had ever laughed so hard milk came out of her nose. She responded no a little surprised that this would happen to a person or why this would happen. This really made me sad that she had not experienced this fun situation or seen anybody that had. I am to assume that in her 17 years nobody made jokes while liquids are being consumed.
Any back to last night after the organ stew my mom and sister were sitting around the dinner table “communicating” with hands and broken English/Romanian when I made a comment which I recall to have something to do with my pants that I brought with me were too large and that I had too many pairs then something about how maybe their father would like a pair if he could fit in them. I must have really butchered my Romanian at this point because in the middle of a sip of tea my sister performed her right of passage into taking liquids in through the mouth and out through the nose/eyes/ hysteria.
Today all most all of the Pre service training volunteers took a 3 hour bus ride south to visit a museum and listen to some traditional music and watch a very impressive dance spectacle that that local performers did for us to show us their culture and heritage. I was in awe at their dancing. It was just like you would expect from a former soviet union culture with the fur caps and squatting and extending of the legs followed by some shouts and rhythm.
GREAT FUN, This week is going to be a big one. I find out where I am to be stationed in Moldova for the next two years and what organization I will be loosely working with, our village has a horram ( Not spelled right but that is how it is pronounced) which is a big party where everyone visits each others houses and drinks wine and eats till they can’t walk anymore. Directly following that night is a language assessment examination in the morning… of course.
I hope everyone is well who is reading this… all three or four of you : - ). I also want to thank personal emails I have been receiving from a few good friends. That makes me feel good when you take the time out of yoru day to send me a message. I also apologize for the delayed responses but I do read them and think about you so just to let you all know I appreciate it.
I did eat at McDonalds this week In the city and to quote their most recent marketing slogan that is global. “I’m Lovin it”
Here is a picture
Well it is Saturday night here. I will attempt to recap my week the best I can because I have neglected to write anything for a week now. Alright well lets see a week from tonight I went to the Discoteca. Myself and some other volunteers in my village got together around 9 or so to play some hearts (my new card game of choice) and listen to music. This went on for a couple of hours until we were escorted to the club about 5 minutes from my house by my host sister and her boyfriend. I was not really thrilled about the idea of going to this but went to it with a little optimism telling myself that it is not going to be as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Boy was I wrong. We show up and the place is exactly like I would have pictured a Moldovan dance club to be. Snazzy dressed teenagers violently thrashing their bodies to what else? (American pop music mixed into techno with some Romanian pop techno songs thrown in. I am not much of a dancer as it is but I can sit there and mingle in with a crowed if I have to without making a complete fool of my self under normal circumstances. This was not normal circum stances. I was with 3 other Americans and all eyes were on us. I stood on the wall just taking in the scene for a while with my friends and my sister nagging me to go dance and have fun.. and then why am I not dancing.. am I having fun.. why am I not dancing…
After about 20 minutes of feeling creepy and bored and I just left the disco to stand outside while some of my friends attempted to move to the music. I followed my sisters boyfriend outside to see where he was going then found a new crowed of people hanging out there. It was here that I my sisters boy friend asked me to go over to his car so that he could attempt to speak in his best English that I should not attempt to mess around with his girlfriend or else he would have to get hostile with me. After a fun little lost in translation moment where upon I told him I don’t appreciate hostilities pointed in my direction with a few choice words and preparation for a fight telling him I have no intention of stealing his love but if he wants to have a go at me he is more then welcome to do it now. He quickly changed his tone realizing I was A: sincerely not interested in his girlfriend and B: didn’t take too kindly to intimidation and he could not bully me or C: he had no idea what I said . The end result was him patting me on the back telling me he and I would be friends and then we proceeded about our night as if nothing happened.
My friends ended up coming out of the disco because of the horrible music and interesting dance moves that were in abundance inside there ro they just wanted to see me. I stood around outside talking to some kids I had met at one time or another on the street or met through my host siblings and then proceeded back in to the dance arena with the promise to my sister that I would dance to 5 songs then I would leave along with the other PCVs who were ready to leave as well. I went in did my dance moves with all eyes on me because I am so freaking tall and because my dance moves had to have looked ridiculous as they looked nothing like the dance moves of a Justin Timberlake or some current American Pop star they were comparing me to but more of a mixture of Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby (meaning I kept it conservative with a few crazy moves thrown in every once in a while to keep things interesting for the spectators.
I quickly went to bed after making it home. The next day Sunday our group met up with our mentors for a tour of the big city Chisinau. This was a fun time and I was able to purchase a cell phone along with some other amenities. The day was uneventful for the most part but I did get to do a great deal of walking and talking in which has become a staple here for me.
The rest of the week really just consisted of more language class in the mornings followed by some technical training in the evening followed by studying at night then repeating that again and again. Some highlights of this week were going on a site visit to the south of my current location about an hour where we met up with a current volunteer at his site. We got to hear him talk about what he does there and how things are going for him. What I got out of that visit is; initiative is a key ingratiate in success. Without it nothing really gets done here, and because my goal here is to facilitate some degree of change or positive action I plan to use a lot of it.
Lets see yesterday an interesting event graced me with its presence. I was sitting in language class whooping it up as usual when the lights go out ( witch is not too odd an occurrence) and my teacher goes to the front to investigate a sound she heard. She comes back all excited jumping up and down until we run to the door to see what has got her all jumbled to realize that the power box has exploded to a small degree and flames and sparks are dancing from it. I quickly do the most appropriate thing I could think of and that is to save all of our shoes underneath the flaming spectacle. After grabbing our shoes and throwing them behind us we watch the flames and smell the see smell of a burning electrical fire. A college of mine comes out with water which we quickly suppress before we all die watching her throw water into an electrical fire. Someone gets a smart idea to grab dirt and throw it at the fire so we all do and that was the end of the fire. The owner of the house came home about an hour after the ordeal without much surprise on his face as if this kind of thing happens everyday . we seem him later on that day with some wires and tools as he goes to repair whatever caused our fun earlier that morning.
Yesterday night I would also like to throw in I ate chicken organ stew. This “stew” consisted of a skillet placed in the middle of the table and in it were cooked potatoes and what looked to be some kind of meat. After consuming a good portion of it I began to question what it was I was eating. My family then explained to me that they had killed three chickens that day and we were eating a very tasty meal that consisted of the hearts, livers, stomachs and anything else you could pull out of a chicken that I had yet to eat ever in my life or thought about eating in my life. It was not all that bad but I did have a rough time getting down to get what I have come to accept as the stomach after I found out what it was.
Also at this meal I was able to provide my sister with a first. Let me give you a little background on this first by telling you that the previous night to last night I asked her if she had ever laughed so hard milk came out of her nose. She responded no a little surprised that this would happen to a person or why this would happen. This really made me sad that she had not experienced this fun situation or seen anybody that had. I am to assume that in her 17 years nobody made jokes while liquids are being consumed.
Any back to last night after the organ stew my mom and sister were sitting around the dinner table “communicating” with hands and broken English/Romanian when I made a comment which I recall to have something to do with my pants that I brought with me were too large and that I had too many pairs then something about how maybe their father would like a pair if he could fit in them. I must have really butchered my Romanian at this point because in the middle of a sip of tea my sister performed her right of passage into taking liquids in through the mouth and out through the nose/eyes/ hysteria.
Today all most all of the Pre service training volunteers took a 3 hour bus ride south to visit a museum and listen to some traditional music and watch a very impressive dance spectacle that that local performers did for us to show us their culture and heritage. I was in awe at their dancing. It was just like you would expect from a former soviet union culture with the fur caps and squatting and extending of the legs followed by some shouts and rhythm.
GREAT FUN, This week is going to be a big one. I find out where I am to be stationed in Moldova for the next two years and what organization I will be loosely working with, our village has a horram ( Not spelled right but that is how it is pronounced) which is a big party where everyone visits each others houses and drinks wine and eats till they can’t walk anymore. Directly following that night is a language assessment examination in the morning… of course.
I hope everyone is well who is reading this… all three or four of you : - ). I also want to thank personal emails I have been receiving from a few good friends. That makes me feel good when you take the time out of yoru day to send me a message. I also apologize for the delayed responses but I do read them and think about you so just to let you all know I appreciate it.
I did eat at McDonalds this week In the city and to quote their most recent marketing slogan that is global. “I’m Lovin it”
Here is a picture
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Finally I can Post!
I am up and running. Slow connection so pictures will come at a slower pace but at least i can post my blogs :). Please let me know if you are reading, by adding comments :)
Be advised my blog is censored and my views do not necessarily reflect the views of the Peace Corps or the other volunteers. We can be sent home for writing negative things on our blog… scary :).
This was the best choice I could make in my life. After meeting everyone and then listening to supervisors it really is a wonderful opportunity and I hope to represent American’s proud as a whole.
Until I have something of interest to say …. Goodnight.
Also if my grammar is poor or spelling is off please excuse it Id rather write with my thoughts flowing rather then think about what I am going to say and then write it. More honest this way.
9-11-9-14: 23:20
Be advised my blog is censored and my views do not necessarily reflect the views of the Peace Corps or the other volunteers. We can be sent home for writing negative things on our blog… scary :).
9-10-07
The pre-service training briefing was great. I got to stay in a nice hotel in Washington D.C. and meet some great people who have been running the organization for our program class. The 40 other volunteers are great people. I am glad to be serving with them and after only two days with them I feel as if I have made a lot of friends. We are all antsy and can’t wait to go. I will fly to Germany tomorrow then off to Moldova. Is it weird that we are flying on September 11? Wish me luck. Please I hope you can all comment on this blog if you read it and feel like communicating with me. If not just hit me up on face book or email
This was the best choice I could make in my life. After meeting everyone and then listening to supervisors it really is a wonderful opportunity and I hope to represent American’s proud as a whole.
Until I have something of interest to say …. Goodnight.
Also if my grammar is poor or spelling is off please excuse it Id rather write with my thoughts flowing rather then think about what I am going to say and then write it. More honest this way.
9-11-9-14: 23:20
Guess where I am? Chisinau… that is probably not spelled right and I am too lazy at the moment to look it up. The flight was not to exciting, we slept on the floor in Frankfurt Germany for a couple of hours after we got in from D.C. then sat around in the restaurant eating, talking and playing cards for 5 hours or so eating breakfast and then lunch without getting up. I had wiener schnitzel… greasy veal yum! Blah blah blah I made it to Moldova and we were greeted by a cheering crowed of current peace corps volunteers and the local staff. From there a quick briefing and then pizza and beer with some current volunteers. Then bed.
Hotel is nice all things considered. I have a good view of a street and a statue of someone who is either Stalin or Stephen Cel Mare, their hated former leader or their hero from the past. We met the staff and language instructors. We also met our program director and were briefed on some basics like our emergency action plan and how our stay is going to go while here.
Blah blah blah the women in Moldova are outstandingly beautiful! I would venture to say that 9/10 girls near my age are amazing. The guys are all drooling over them as they walk by and give none of us the time of day. The country is poor… infact the poorest country in all of Europe but this city paints a different story. Most everyone on the streets we see wear designer jeans pointy shoes for the guys and high heals for the girls complemented with a very sharp and clean appearance. Despite this the buildings look as though they are falling apart on the outsides, the roads are pot hole city and the sidewalks cracked and broken. There are stray dogs running freely through it all dodging the crazy drivers in tiny cars and maxi taxis or vans with a sliding front door packed full with people.
Everyone is so somber looking, I guess communist rule and then the collapse of it really wears on a person. Everyone looks as though their dog died, their spouse cheated on them and they lost their job and they found out putting a horrible scowl on their face which they are happy to share with any passersbyer they see on the street or as they attempt to run over you in their James bond cars.
I commented on their poor moods to our language instructors and one of them said : “they are frowning and looking angry all the time because they save all their smiles for their family”. Positive thinking at its finest.
Our language teachers are really good. They are enthusiastic and very patient with us. We have been divided into groups of 5 students per one teacher and are going to have our lessons from 8-1 every Monday Wednesday Friday Saturday Sunday. Tuesday and Thursday are for technical training and field trips. This will last around 10 weeks. I am assigned a host family for PST (pre service training) for those 10 weeks. The family is made up of 4 people. Mother Maria, Father Stephen and Brother Tudor 14 and sister Valeria 17. I move in on Saturday and then will be taking classes in the village there. They don’t speak English and if they do they are instructed not to speak it in my presence so that I learn Romanian. Talk about emersion. I am a little nervous about it and I can see sitting around the dinner table being the most awkward conversation ever as they try to speak to me and I just sit there going “no inteleg!”.
No plumbing is a given where I am going and I hope power is working, I am told I might be able to get dial up internet but that is wait to be seen. I will try to write as soon as I can but as I am doing now I will continue to just log my work on word and post it when I get a connection.
9-17-07: 17:58
I have made it. I am living with my first of 2 host families. What a great fit. I am stationed in Perisechnia that’s how it is pronounced and once again to lazy to figure out how to spell it. Perisechnia has a population of about 7,500 people and is primarily an ag based community. I went into this with no expectations for the most part with the mindset that I would take it however it was. I had preconceived motions and thus far they have been mostly smashed.
My family is made up of Stephan, Maria, Veronica, and Tudor. English translations for Tudor is Ted J and Maria is Mary or so they tell me. They were very happy that my mother has the same name as theirs and I feel as if we have integrated wonderfully. They have been extremely nice to me. Of course they laugh at me as I do no speak any Romanian for the most part and do funny gestures to relate to what I want from them and vise versa. I am quite the mime and have thought about a new profession to fall back on…. I will be a force to reckon with in charades let me tell you ;-).
The ages of the family are around early forties for the parents and 17 for the girl and 14-15 for the boy. The girl has been taking language classes and is fairly fluid in English witch helps me out greatly but might hinder my performance in language class if I rely on her too much. This could also strain our relation ship because all of the family asking to translate for them and vise versa. I buy her chocolates for her services and continually say thank you for her help.
The house is very nice, very clean at all times, with no dirt that I have spotted anywhere. We are required to take our shoes off which helps. I have my own room upstairs where I think I have put out Veronica who now sleeps in her brothers room and I feel awful about that, another reason for the chocolates and thank yous. The family owns a very nice computer and the son and I have had fun sharing games and knowledge of how the computers work. He is very impressed with my flash drive which he borrows from time to time so that he can transfer music to his friends with ease. He has taken most of my music from my computer and I have sampled some of his as well. He is very into techno pop music and American rap J.
The toilet is outside in the outhouse and is a simple whole in the ground. The house has plumbing and running water but I have to use the distiller on it witch takes up to 6 hours to prepare 1 gallon for me. They even have a shower with hot water though I did not know how to work it and took the most frigid shower I have ever experienced to date. Veronica and Stephan the father showed me how it worked after and laughed as I displayed how cold it was for me.
The food is excellent! I assume they grow and raise everything they eat. In the backyard they have a small vineyard and a chicken farm and rabbit farm. The food is wonderful and they have a great variety. Stale bread is the staple in any meal along with some type of soup and meat mixed as one. Some great salads and potato dishes have me asking for more as well. They have two dogs chained to the fence which are adorably small and cute but we are not allowed to touch because like the rest of Moldova they believe the dogs carry disease and that they are dirty. I named them both Maggie because they did not have names and they had a good laugh about that.
I showed them pictures of my family and they were very complementary on just how good looking they all were. Veronica who enjoys taking tons of pictures of her self on her cell phone snapped a few of my sisters with her phone so she can show her friends. I have distributed a potato peeler and calendar along with flower and chocolates to the family thus far as gifts for allowing me to stay with them.
Yesterday I played soccer with the neighbor boys for around 3 hours and then went to a family gathering. This could because it was Sunday or because of someone’s birthday or for me I have not deduced which. The grandma is 83 and they are very impressed my grandma’s both made it to 83 as well. I entertain the children with simple removable thumb tricks and the sticking my finger in my ear using my tongue on my cheek to act as if it goes through. They all laughed historically and reenacted it repeatedly. They might take that to school then pass it around until the entire town has seen this some what immature trick.
At the family gathering I had the chance to blow out a candle and sit with the family around a large table with a ton of different types of food. They had everything from sardines and other fish to rabbit. The wine is excellent though this is somewhat of a gray area for me. The father pushes it on me constantly to drink it with great affection but the host daughter Veronica (who is basically my mom telling me to stand up straight and to fix my hair and even how to look both ways before crossing the street) read the contract they signed before taking me in written by the peace corps about how I should not consume too much if any alcohol. She is very strict about this and if I have a glass she makes sure I only have a little and that I do not tell anybody about it. The mother is the same and I have not signed or read the contract so I am unsure if it says I can’t have any or what but I will not test the rules… too far that is J.
Back to the dinner with the family and extended family I was given the task of going with to little kids who are my new friends Michi and Stephen to get the grandmother’s cow. This involved walking 10 minutes to get the cow which consisted of watching little MIchi run to the field and slap the cow and then it led us all the way back to the house. For this task the grandmother milked the cow for me and gave me a bottle. Ahh MILK!!!!!! I told her she will have to teach me this art of milking and she agreed smiling broadly.
To wrap up this entry we had school today from 8:30-12:30 language class then 3-5 technical training. The language is intense and I need to begin my homework soon then go out and get a game of Frisbee started. I hope to get on the internet sometime soon and post this to the blog, but who has the time to find out things like that? Not me J. Much love to everyone reading this.
9-21-07 22:20
Another full day of action packed Pre Service Training (PST). This week has been monotonous as the language classes take up most of the day. From there we have our lunch break where I get to walk from school 30 minutes for a 2 hour break until we start again with something else in the afternoon. The language is killing me. I have a rough time learning a language to begin with but at the pace we are moving at it is really difficult to take it all in. At home I am very good at communicating with my family with gestures and sounds but outside of saying a few words like chicken or dog or eat drink please thank you with a question or statement if necessary I am fairly hopeless with the language.
I am going to spend a lot of time this weekend studying in review of what we did this week. I have a hard time finding time to study when I have a family here that loves to communicate and there is always something to do or talk about (miming if necessary) .
In class this week during one of our cultural learning events we were briefed on the situation here in Moldova as a country. The quick history is that Moldova had a capital system until 1945 when Russia took it over. Then all private land became communal and any wealthy owners were deported to Siberia, many of whom never returned. Through that the system of communism ran through the country where everyone had a job and land to work together with a specific job. Moldova has very rich soil and produced up to 1/3 of much of the food for the soviet Union during their union. Moldova had the latest farming techniques of the times and had a wonderfully functional system for farming that put it among the worlds most advanced farming communities.
In 1991 Moldova got its independence from the Soviet union where the people where then in a weird state having nobody to tell them how much to produce or when to produce anything. For a few years they made due but needed help taking their country private. The United states volunteered a plan to help the country and began enacting it in 1994.
This plan consisted of a lot of complexities I will not go into and do not know about but the quick and dirty version is that of the communal farms that existed before the monetary value of all the equipment was split between the farmers not in money but in equipment. Not in whole equipment either but in pieces, for example one person might receive two tractor wheels, half a wagon and 300 horse shoes. His buddy receives the tractor engine, 3 horses and a sheep. As long as they are equal who cares right…. Uggg. This is also how the land was split up. The private zoning is set up so people live in villages and then own farm land out in the country. But not conjoining land… people all own the same amount of farm land from the communal farm but they are not located as one piece of land. The land is mostly 10 miles or more from the village and then split up in strips so that you own maybe 6 hectares of land in 4 different locations of a 50 hectare land plot. All your neighbors have the same thing going on so you end up with this weird zoning problem. That is just the start of the problems with this plan to privatize land in Moldova…
We also had some volunteers talk about what they were working on. One guy talked about how he worked on the micro finance side and set up funding for entrepreneurs with this program called keva. It sounds like a great program and it seems to be having success. This gives a positive outlook on a future potential job for me but who knows what I will end up doing.
Today the group of all 40 of us… (39 because one of us left for the states after one look at his house or living situation so goes the rumor but I digress… )had language class in the morning then were driven to this park where we were set free for a while to play Frisbee or football and even soccer. I was happy with my skills with all three devices of fun and showed off my skills as a renaissance sportsman.
Today was team bonding day. We did the usual trust games and puzzles in teams to get to know each other more as we swapped stories of our living conditions and funny stories that we have encountered. The most popular topic of conversation is do you have a toilet? Is it outside or inside? Does it work? Do you have a hole in the ground for a toilet? A shower? Running water? Do you have the runs?.. I digress. Over all it was a fun day that was topped off with a spectacular meal of all different types of meat and salad. I ate so much meat I just know im going to be spending some time at the hole more then I want to ;-).
I am so tired… time to go to sleep. Good night.
The weekend is over, and this week is half over. I am trying not to write when nothing is really going on so I have been writing more infrequently. A quick recap of what happened these past few days… lets see language class on Saturday morning topped off with a short cultural lesson pertaining to the history of Moldova. I learned that Moldova has been tossed around as a country. They were apart of Romania for a time as a province of Romania … along with Transylvania and Romania as a kind of tri-power country. From then the wars came Moldova became part of the soviet union and with it came communism. We were given first hand accounts on the positives and negatives of that situation. The positives included always being fed, with full employment so nobody was left without a job and for the most part people were happy. On the opposite side there was mandatory respect for the country and sessions weekly that would give the history of Lennon and his party and its rise and where it was currently. Other fun stuff like all the of intellectuals of Moldova were shipped off to Siberia never to be seen again and land owners stripped of their land…also when the soviets were in power Russians were sent to Moldova to all parts of Moldova to integrate the two counties better. To this day some parts of Moldova are primarily Russian because of this and they will refuse to speak Romanian because they still think of themselves as Russian…
The rest of the day I spent with my family and the neighbors. I finished off the night with some poker with a fellow PCV and some neighbors and listened to some awful techno. Also that night Jess (another PCV) invited me to join her to “pick corn with her family” that next morning. I woke up at 6:45am so I could leave by 7:15 to begin my fun walk to her house where I was greeted with a large breakfast which I quickly consumed. From there we loaded into the Uncle’s car 6 of us in a tiny little LADA (I with my seat belt of course up front) and off we went to their field. The family that Jessica lives with consists of 2 girls and their mother. Their father works in Moscow and sends money home which is not uncommon here. They hired a guy who has helped before to help out as well. We drove about 10 minutes to our field and once we found it I was in awe. It looked like Kansas… corn fields and sunflowers as far as you could see minus the village down the hill in the valley. Then I was handed a small hatchet and given a quick lesson in cutting down the corn. I picked it up fairly rapidly and began to perfect my technique for the next 3 hours. After cutting them down and putting them in piles I helped shuck the corn? Or pull the corn out from the plant itself. This was a long job but a social one as we could all do this while sitting next to one another. Next we piled the corn and bagged it finishing off with pilling the rest of the plants to be burned or left. We helped the neighbors put theirs into a big truck and then hitched a ride back to town in it. I was then fed a wonderful meal of spaghetti and cookies and arrived home around 6pm just in time to eat again with my family! I just don’t see myself losing weight here J. I have some good pictures from this adventure that will be posted when I have the ability to access some internet with some kind of speed or the time to wait for it to upload.
At home I have just been bonding with the family working around the house when I can. I did some hoeing with my brother in the backyard for a couple of days and a couple of hours. I helped take a ton of grass (or what looks like just long grass) from a trailer to the back yard then with pitchforks and towels carried it next to the rabbits where it will serve as their food. The rest of this week has been intense language classes. I am having a rough time still but I hope that positive attitude and determination will get me through it, it has always worked in the past so I am counting on this to work now J.
I really don’t want to leave my current host family and I secretly hope that I just stay in the town that I am in and I can do my work out of here. I enjoy the town very much and about 8 out of 10 people that I say hi to respond with at least a mumble. ( I have taken up saying buna ziua to everyone I pass on the street). My family is really great and I can’t see my next family topping them. My sister told me at dinner tonight that she had a dream that the 3 months were finished and my stay with them had ended and she was crying in her dream. How nice is that? I responded the best I could to that with, “Bine, Am vistat despre strugrii” (I had a dream about grapes).
Much love.
9-28-07 22:40
I thought I would just type in some more thoughts tonight because there is a lot on my mind. First of all I am going to be able to milk a cow in the next week or so and possibly a goat as well. My brother and sister here both have yet to do either and this has made me lose just a bit of respect for their awesomeness. On the note of being awesome I am a being just that as for the past two days I have learned to hoe and pitch fork various things around the house. I helped my brother “mow” the back yard with the hoe for several hours. On top of all this fun we are given projects from peace corps on top of our language classes.
Our first project was to map the city and pick out key locations in the town. We felt like spies as we are walking around with cameras asking people if they have maps of the town and if they might tell us the most important locations in the town. Then we sketch out maps on the street and continue acting like spies. One group had a man point to the sky and say sputnik inferring they were mapping their town by satellite, we all had a good laugh at that.
Our new assignment is to locate the resources that our town processes. Such as any infustructure, natural lakes, highways and what not. We are supposed to come up with a need of the town and then what assests we should use or could use to solve this problem. I had a indepth conversation with my family tonight. Veronica my sole link through language and also my sister got bored of the conversation or frustrated as she found her self in the middle of a conversation she didn’t’ want to be in and left. I was then left to communicate with my very limited communication skills, miming and my favorite friend the dictionary to finish the conversation. What I got was depressing. It really wasn’t more then I already knew but it was the look on my parents faces when they talked of the corruption that was going on all around.
Their number one want is a sewer system. Currently all bath water goes into some tank I am told and emptied when it rains onto the street is what I have come to understand. They think this is awful and I totally agree with them. They say the bigger cities have it and it would really make things better. They also mentioned that they need some type of irrigation set up because when they have a dry season their crops really suffer. I witnessed this while cutting corn and the corn barley got up to my chest.
I explained that putting a sewer system was on to vast a scale for our little project but I will see what the other members in my group come up with. It sounds like a worth project but one that I have no experience in and can not even fathom the cost or feasibility of such a plan.
I asked why the government had not come in and done it but they just shook their head and said one word that explained it all. Russi Mafia. Along with that phrase the mom use the universal sign for ringing out clothes to explain their choke hold they have on Moldova. How do you fight that?
They asked me what I thought of Moldova and I said I liked it, I do in my sheltered little experience it has been wonderful. But they described it with a word I had to look up. It translated into English as tiresome, over worked, strung out. That is how they describe their country. My father wants to leave and work in Alaska or somewhere else in America and work for a couple of years to take care of his family. Currently he works in construction and I have witnessed to be back breaking work for little money. Everything is f-ed up. It is depressing to think of the whole situation and I continue to stay optimistic that there is something I can do for them, for any of them in the coming future. Compassion is not something I lack and this could really take a toll on me the longer I am here. Positive attitude is the only way through this.
How lucky am I to have been born with so much opportunity. If I can make some difference to those with less opportunity then I have leveled that whole life is not fair saying.. or atleast tipped the scale a smidge.
Love to all. Kyle
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