Monday, October 23, 2006

My weekend in Stefan Voda

Well I found the right bus and even got the name of the driver who set me up right behind him for my two hour bus ride from Chisinau to Stefan Voda. It was for the most part uneventful.

I arrived in Stefan Voda to meet my Counterpart... Aliona - she is the lady I will be working with for the next two years. She started talking in Romanian and I was pretty much lost. I was able to pick up a word or two in between asking her to please slow down and she quickly realized my level of language was that of a 2 year old or less! Once she realized I'd only been in the country for one month the Bravos came more often!!! We walked through the PAVED streets of Stefan Voda in the cold rain to my eventual place of work. There we had tea and coffee and chocolates and cake and I tried to ask questions and hoped the answers were not more than I could handle.

After a little while we proceeded on foot to the home of the first host family. No one spoke any English and my Romanian is sooooo bad still ! She left me there and told me she'd call me tomorrow about going to the next family home. To my surprise the medic had two young grandchildren living with her. It is quite common here as most of the kids have good college educations but NO JOBS. So the 24- 40 year olds are away in foreign countries often leaving their spouses and children behind for years and years. The little girls fought and cried and coughed nearly the entire time I visited. I had to choke every morsel of food down as the kitchen facilities were anything but clean. I asked if she had some cream for my coffee and sure enough.. I think she went directly out to the backyard and milked the cow herself. She brought a bowl of milk with lumpy chunks that floated in my coffee no matter how hard I stirred.

When it was noticed that I wasn't eating much, she asked me what I would buy for myself if I went to the store. I told her ice cream and cake and pasta (macaroane) . Next thing I know she comes back from the kitchen with a ball of dough and starts to roll it out thin making pasta for me. She then directs her son to start shaking up a big jar which he shakes for about ten minutes and when finished he spreads it over some dry bisquits. Turns out it is smintina which is pretty much like plain yogurt. They layer it a few times, she gets some walnuts off of the tree in the back yard - crunches them up on top of the cake and a grated chocolate bar finishes off MY CAKE! It was so nice of them to try so hard, but the conditions were very depressing and I started to cry. In fact I cried into the next day.

My counterpart called to tell me that we would go to the next family at 5:00 pm on Sunday, so I just sat next to the soba (the in wall wood stove) and worked on a pair of mittens for Stefan until finally Aliona came to get me.

Fortunately House number 2 was immaculate and the accomodations are outstanding. the father even had a machine ah.. although I later figured out that he was a "chauffer" so the machina wasn't really HIS! They even have a bathtub! I still have to heat water on the stove, but during the winter when the house heat is on the water is also heated, so I will get to actually take a warm shower during the winter!!! Ion (John) and Nadia and their 5 year old son Christian also have a 24 year old daughter who will be coming back from a vacation in the United States and speaks English I guess.

Monday morning this family left for work and kindergarten so I had the whole morning to myself. I took a bucket bath and drank tea and leisurely got ready to go to "the office" at 2:00. Ion came home to pick me up as I had no idea where I was going in town. He heated up chicken soup for me and we drank a glass of cognac for the road... hmmmm... interesting way to start my day!

At the school I was introduced one by one to all of the professors and my counterpart having to go back to teach a class, left me with the Director of the School for an hour. The Director was sweet and understanding and after explaining in Romanian as much as I could handle about how things run there proceeded to sit me down in the posh chair of the Director of Rural 21 (another NGO in the school). She brought me coffee and cake and put a slide show on the computer for me.

Come to find out, a famous Moldovan opera singer Maria Biesu who is equivalent to our Luciano Pavarotti was born in a little village near Stefan Voda. She established and helps fund this Maria Biesu School of Art. It is wonderful! Seems that it is rather difficult to be able to study there. Potential students go through an application process and few are chosen. They are able to study dance (ballet to fox trot to samba) art (drawing, painting and sculpture) accordion, violin, piano. Although I do not work directly for the school, I will work for the NGO MUZA whose board of directors are all teachers at the school. One of their goals is to introduce through teaching and hands on experience the concepts of American Business to adolescents - (capitalism at its best... ) I'm excited about this prospect.

Of course I have to now visit the third family before venturing back to Chisinau for a conference. In talking with my counterpart, it was decided that since the third family lived in a Soviet Style Block Apartment with only 3 bedrooms and 3 children, if Family number 2 seemed to work, that is probably my best option. (Of course family number 2 had many comments to me to help sway my opinion!!!)

I tell Aliona that she can call family number 3 to let them know that I have already chosen my family. Family number 3 is a Priest and his wife and three children. He says that they have already planned for me for dinner and they understand but they would just like to have me over for dinner and visit for awhile which I agree to do. Robertino (father) comes to the school to get me and we stop and pick up his wife and we all walk together to the apartment. I stayed for almost four hours! We had such a good time together. The place, although nice was small. They were soooo nice and I know we will visit many more times in the future. I have been invited to join them at the BISERICA in a little village outside of town caled ANTOINESTE. They also have a home there that they stay on weekends. It was good that I had a chance to meet them.

So I will live in the home of Ion and Nadia. I have my own bedroom quite separate from the main living quarters... the kitchen is quite modern and there is an indoor toilet, although I have to go to the kitchen to plug the pump in before going to the bathroom so that I can flush it. They have a pump hooked up to their well in the back yard. They have hot water radiator heat although there is no insulation on any of the homes, so it is quite cold inside. I sleep in many layers and am soooo thankful that Bonnie bought and encouraged me to bring my fluffy pink bathrobe. It is a luxury item that I very much appreciate having now!

My language skills jumped slightly to a new level after the weekend but I was EXHAUSTED speaking only Romanian. It made me realize that I have a long way to go to anything resembling proficiency! -but it will come!

We had a field trip yesterday and briefly - I must report that we joined a community celebration for 15 minutes and the people there appeared star struck seeing all of us Americans... they were asking for autographs and taking pictures. When we walked away altogether to go to a museum in town, 50 people followed us down the street! One girl kept screaming I love America!!! Crazy!



Feel free to leave comments and/or write me at binksink@gmail.com

WORDS AND LANGUAGE

As I go through my days here, I find so much humor in the language ( or sometimes the lack of it) What first comes to mind is that the Romanian language has so many borrowed words... for example... blue jeans in Romanian is bluj.... What is the name for a car??? Machine-ah. The size of towns here is measured in the number of hills it covers... I guess our town is about 1 and 1/2 hills. (It has less than 5,000 people. ) the words for punctual and fantasy and khaki are the same only with a romanian accent. When you take a shower it is a douche! Poftim is the word which seems to universal meaning. It can mean thank you and you're welcome and excuse me and enjoy your meal and here it is and I didn't hear you. When I first arrived my most widely used phrase was foarte bine!! Now it seems to be mai tirziu ( pronounced my teer- zoo) which is driving my "mom" crazy because it means later!!! "Yeah, I'll drop myself in a little bitty bucket and call it a shower - LATER!" "Yeah I'll bring my clothes outside and rub them in freezing cold water until my knuckles are raw -LATER!" "I'll get to that Romanian Language Homework - LATER!" You get the picture. I know if my real Mom is reading this she will more than relate to the frustrations of Rodica my Moldovan mama. She wants me up and out of bed so that I can first enjoy the morning air on my way to the outhouse and then in to wash up with a cup of cold water and have breakfast and sit for a half hour before school drinking cafea. Anyone who knows me well knows that aint gonna happen, here there or anywhere! So I am usually flying out of the house slurping my coffee on the way out the door. I just tell her it's the American way!

Feel free to leave comments and/or write me at binksink@gmail.com

Friday, October 13, 2006

Va fi cum va fi

IT IS AS IT SHOULD BE


Today is not only Friday the 13th but it is officially one month in country... things are beginning to settle down a bit. Today I had my first language assessment. It was painful to listen to myself fumble through the description of Kaye Kelli and Michael, their ages, occupations, and names... Conjugation does not come easily, so my old mind is doing overtime. I feel sorry for the poor assessors who have to listen to each of us... I am glad that is behind me,

This weekend comes the next hurdle. I have received my permanent assignment. For the next two years I am slated to work with an organization called MUZA. Their focus is to develop student leaders ages 12-17 throughout the Stefan Voda region via intellectual and creative means! I will live in the regional center ( population 7.000) which probably means access to internet, indoor toilets (just in time for the impending winter snows!!!) and running water.

Although I must tell you that it was very exciting to arrive at home yesterday and my "sister" had a big surpize for me... Running water!!!! Tate meu Sergiu needs to get a part to get the hot water heater hooked up so for now only cold... but it is nice especially for brushing teeth in the morning... As usual I am always running late... I am driving mama mea Rodica CRAZY!!!! Actually it will be very sad for all of us when I have to move on... we enjoy each other very much!

So... from Corpul Pachii (Peace Corps) I have received my assignment, three families from which to choose and the name of my counterpart in Stefan Voda. It is now my responsibility to get on a bus first to Chisinau (the capital) and then a two hour bus ride from the Central Bus Station in Chisinau to Stefan Voda... Hopefully I will get off at the right stop and my counterpart will be there waiting for me... she speaks no English so that puts the pressure on me!!! I can always resort to telling her what color my shoes are! My conversation is quite limited... fruit, vegetables, colors, and names of public buildings! I will stay one night with each host family and then choose the one which I would like to stay for the next 6 months. After that I am free to choose my own housing. None of them speak any English, so once again... oh momma!!!

It was a kick when I brought the three choices of families out to the kitchen table for my mom and her crazy sister. They were jibbering away in Romanian and every so often I'd catch a word... usually related to someone's line of work or the funny names of the kids... they decided for me that I should live with the 55 year old female doctor (doctors don't make much here but they are very respected... I think bus drivers might make more money!!!!). She has a 16 year old son and lives in her house with all of the amenities. The other options are a priest and his wife and 3 children but they live in a "bloc" - some sort of apartment, I guess. The third choice is a young family with a 5 and 12 year old. He is a chauffer and she works at a magazin. I will be in Stefan Voda until Tuesday. I am trying to go in without prejudice.

It was rare, but there is an agricultural volunteer from my group also in the same town. I am sure we will lean on one another from time to time.

If you look at the shape of Moldova it looks a bit like a boot pointing west... I will be in the heel of that boot.. Only 1 hour from the Black sea resorts and beaches!!!!! I have to travel through Ukraine to get there, but I understand they do not have any visa requirements, so it is easy to do so. I hope that will be a perk for me.

I am excited to finish out the training, be sworn in as an official volunteer and start my work!

Feel free to leave comments and/or write me at binksink@gmail.com

Friday, October 06, 2006

Wine Wine and more wine

October 5th, 2006

Well the most important thing going on around here is WINE. There are barrels EVERYWHERE!!!! You can smell grape juice everywhere in the village. Last Wednesday was some kind of Holy Day – of course NO ONE goes to church, but since the wine is intrinsically linked to Religion here… According to ????Scripture, the grapes hold within them the light and energy of the sun just as the light of God and …drinking it …well… you get the picture. The Holy Day means to some people that it is now time to get the grapes from the field and start the wine making process. So on Friday we meet with the priest at the basilica here in Milestii Mici to discuss the history and role of religion in Moldovan Society. He meets us at the front door with a comfortable smile; he’s dressed in black jeans a black button down shirt and boots! He opens the door and goes behind the altar to change into his priest outfit. The church is exquisitely filled with beautiful icons, murals and gilded crosses. We have an interpreter with us and we have many questions answered eloquently from this man of the cross. As we were winding down, he noted that it was a bit frigid in here and he has just the thing to take the chill out. He proceeds once again to the back room and comes out with a beautiful bottle of vintage (‘86) wine and a box of chocolates (they tasted like snickers). He pours the wine and we talk some more and before you know it I have finished my glass, I put it down on the table and he fills it up again. I have not really drank before this and I sort of forgot the rule of the empty glass around here, but this wine was sweet and going down pretty easily and it was the middle of a sunny afternoon and before you know it I get it filled up one more time and I am getting a buzz! It didn’t last long as I had to wipe the grin off of my face while listening to his last remarks. It seemed…. so… Moldovanesque I had to chuckle!!! I went home for a three hour nap!

On Saturday my family went to their vineyard to pick grapes and now we have two barrels fermenting in the back yard. I was unable to go as we have six days of lessons and only Sunday free. Today we drank the moosht… which is just the carbonated juice from the fermentation process, it holds no alcohol yet, but it is delicious. I looked into the barrels and it is bubbling. The whole process reminded me of my wild rice gathering days. So much of life here is similar to the people and places I’ve been before! It makes me think of all of you often!!!

This weekend is the big Wine Festival in Chisinau… sounds like a gigantic State Fair sized wine tasting party. While I am definitely interested in tasting different wines, I do not know if I will attend or not. I’ll be a fair weather attendee for sure. Milestii Mici is in the Guinness book of World Records for the largest underground Winery. We have not yet toured this claim to fame, but there will be many wines from Milestii Mici to taste at the Festival.

Today, with the help of mame mea (Rodica), I washed clothes. I went to the well… dropped the bucket down and wheeled it back up… filled a plastic bucket, brought it into the house, transferred it into a metal bucket which I placed on the gas stove to heat. Once heated, I brought it and a bucket of cold water out in the sunny backyard among the chickens and roosters and scrubbed them in a plastic basin, rinsing in another. She performed the rinse “cycle” and she had to show me how to hang my underwear VERY NEATLY on the clothesline… appearance really matters around here. Hey wait a minute!!!! This story contains no reference to wine!!!! Well… most likely I had a wine stain or two on my clothes after church!!!!! Tonight I have a date with my “mom” to watch Desperate Housewives!!! It will have Romaneste subtitles so I figured that counts for language practice!!! I can’t wait! Maybe I’ll drink o sticla of wine!!! (In English that’s a bottle!!!) You’ll never know!! Ha! Ciao!