POTD 2: Friends

Although they are not Moldovan, my friends, especially these three ladies (Maggie, Ashley, and Kerry), have made my two years here amazing. We have celebrated our successes together and cried over our failures. There is no way I could have made it through this without them.

POTD 10: Natasha

This is my buddy, Natasha. She’s been a good friend to me my two years here in Criuleni. Although I haven’t had her as a student, we spent lots of time together outside school. She invited me to a young youth group meeting here, which was lots of fun. And her English is incredible. I think she gets a kick out of my silliness. I will miss her a lot.

POTD 46: EE Volunteers

My fellow EE volunteers that joined PC when I did and our program director and assistant program director, Nina and Lucia. My service wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Hram

September 19 is hram (town’s day) for Criuleni. And since I didn’t have school, I was able to celebrate with the rest of the town. Hram in Criuleni was basically a small carnival. During the day, there were lots of carnivals-type rides for the children, such as a moon-bounce and bumper cars. And there were a couple venders, selling things like glow sticks and yo-yos. But the celebration really began in the evening. There was a concert, featuring lots of singers and dancing. The audience often broke out into hora circles, including yours truly.

It was lots of fun. I ran into a lot of students, who were all surprised to see me dancing the hora. I left around midnight, but I could hear the music back at my house, and it sounded like it continued until 3 or 4 in the morning. One thing is for sure: Moldovan’s know how to party. 

Fish and Farmer in Cahul

I just got back from my first visit to a friend’s site. I was hanging out with my friend Maggie in Cahul, which is a southern city on the boarder with Romania. Its population is about 20,000, so much bigger than my raion, but not close to the size of the biggest cities in Moldova (Chișinău’s population is about 794,800).

It was so nice to see what another site looks like. I could see a huge difference in the kind of lifestyle you can have Cahul as opposed to Criuleni, but I could also see so many similarities. The general feel and flow of things are the same. The big difference is just that everything is bigger. There are many more stores and shops. The piața is large enough to find anything there that you need or want. There are many restaurants to choice to dine at (Criuleni only has one restaurant, but it’s very expensive). The grocery stores have a much larger selection.

It took a 3-hour bus ride from the southern part of Chișinău to get to Cahul and then another 45 minutes to get to the center of Chișinău. With pain of travel and the easy access to one’s necessities, I can understand why most PCVs who live in Cahul rarely travel to Chișinău. But regardless of the annoyance of travel, I really enjoyed seeing another site and visiting a friend. I will definitely be visiting more sites in the future.

Site Mates!!

I have finally found out that I do have site mates for this coming year. I’m so excited. Last year was so lonely, so it will be nice to have someone to help eliminate some of that loneliness. Her name is Laura, and she will be working with a cancer awareness project at Criuleni’s hospital.

I met with her today, and I found out that there are two others that live nearby. One lives a village right beside Criuleni on the route to Chișinău, and he can ride the busses that run to and from Chișinău, so he can come into Criuleni very easily. The other lives in a different direction, but still relatively close. The busses don’t run there as frequently, but this summer when I was still working in Chișinău, he would ride his bike to come into Criuleni, so it must be pretty close.

I haven’t met the two guys yet, but I’m so excited to have Americans near me. Having another person to turn to when it gets hard to cope will be incredible. Here’s to an easier year!

And Now One Year In Moldova

And today is my one-year anniversary of being in Moldova. And what better way to celebrate than to meet the new volunteers. The new group of volunteers came in yesterday, and today we had a picnic to meet them. It was pretty cool to talk with them, and they reminded me of what I was feeling this time last year.

Unfortunately, a consequence of working in PC is apathy. It’s a common coping mechanism for volunteers to deal with misfortune and difficulties. But I do not want to become apathetic. So talking with the new volunteers and seeing their passion and fresh perspective with being here helped me remember why I joined PC in the first place and how excited I was. Nice way to start my second year.

American In Criuleni

So I recently found out that there is another American here in Criuleni, but he’s not with Peace Corps. He is here independently volunteering. And you know how I found out about him? I found out because he is leaving Sunday, and the youth center asked me to teach the adult English class he had started. So I only learned about him because he is leaving.

Funny thing is that I thought I had asked about whether there were any Americans in Criuleni when I first moved here. The youth center often has volunteers from other countries: Italy, Romania, Russia, America, etc. So when I learned this, I asked around if there was an American here. I guess I just didn’t ask the right people.

He actually doesn’t live in Criuleni; he lives in Chișinău and travels into Criuleni 2-3 days a week to volunteer with the youth center. He was teaching an adult English class and leading a youth English club there. He also worked with one of the Evangelist churches here, which I didn’t know we had.

Anyways, I met with him and his class to learn about taking it over. And tonight we celebrated his two-year service here with members from his adult class. He seems like a cool guy, and I’m upset we didn’t know about each other until he was leaving. It would have been nice to have someone to hang out with.

But I am excited about taking over his adult English class. I told them I would start teaching the class after spring vacation, which is this coming week, and I can’t wait to start. They seem like really kind and welcoming people. And I’m really excited about getting my own class and being able to teach how I want. Not to mention that it will be nice to know more members of the community who are older than 13 years.

Ready To Face Semester 2

So I just got back from a 10-day vacation that was wonderful. I traveled with five other volunteers to Istanbul. And it was beautiful!! This was a much needed and well-loved vacation. I was often noting how breathtaking Istanbul is. It is definitely a tourist spot, but I kind of liked that about Istanbul. I enjoyed visiting the museums and mosques, as well as just walking around aimlessly. This was just right to rejuvenate me and make me ready for the second semester.

My First Conflict

I was on my way from Chisinau to Cojunsa tonight, and I was riding the trolley with Jim and Natasha to the bus stop we needed (we have to take 2 buses to get to Cojusna). While we were riding the trolley, we were talking to each other. After about 5 minutes of talking, a man yelled at me for talking in English and how he didn’t understand. It was clear he was not okay with us talking in English. Needless to say, we were quiet the rest of our trip.

But before we got off the trolley, a Moldovan woman came and talked to us, saying how we shouldn’t believe that all Moldovans are like that and that she was sorry for his behavior. He was a drunk man with stupid ideas. It was comforting to hear this, considering I was not comfortable with being yelled at.

When we got on our next bus to go into Cojusna, we sat close to each other and talked more quietly so as not to attract negative attention again. However, I noticed a man staring at me for a good 10 minutes. In Moldova, staring seems to be a bit more accepted. People don’t look away necessarily if you catch their eye. Even knowing this fact, it still makes me uncomfortable. And I was afraid a similar incident was about to take place once more.

He eventually began talking to us (in Romanian), and asked where we were from and what we were doing. We explained we were from American and working with the Peace Corps. He immediately smiled and wanted to know more (although we couldn’t understand him most of the time). He was also intrigued by Jim’s beard, saying it was European or Italian, I couldn’t tell which he was saying.

It was interesting to have both incidents happening almost simultaneously. The first event was unnerving, but since both a Moldovan woman apologized for his behavior and another Moldovan man was friendly and interested in us because we were Americans, it made things seem better.

And it reminded me of how there are people in America who feel that those who live in America should speak English. Now, I didn’t agree with this before, but being on the other side now, I can empathize better with those who speak another language in America. Besides, some people with prejudices should not reflect a people as a whole. It was comforting having those kind Moldovans remind me of that.

Mel Brooks Is My Grandfather

So week 1 is complete. Even though I have been here more than a week, according to the schedule, this was the first week of the 10-week training period. And I have officially completed it.

I was reviewing the Romanian I have learned since I have been here and a lot has been covered. One of which is the names of family members. Nadia made a family tree using pictures of people from magazines to represent the members of a family. So we practiced saying each members name while pointing the members on the family tree. She tried to not use anyone famous, but Mel Brooks was the grandfather. In addition to learning family members, we have learned numbers, months, days of the week, telling time, basic introduction of oneself, describing our family members, and definite and indefinite nouns. I have not mastered everything yet, but I can sometimes pick out a word my host family is saying to each other!

Last night, the Cojusna trainees were invited to a masă with Lauren’s host family. Masă literally means table, but it’s used for feast too. And a feast it was. The food was yummy, and the company was great. My favorite part of the whole experience was despite the fact there was difficulty in understanding each other sometimes due to language, there was still a lot of laughing and fun. For future reference, always say yes to an invitation to a masă.

At dinner today, I was actually starting to understand some of the Moldovan. At the beginning of my time with my host family, I felt awkward sitting at the dinner table with them without being able to contribute anything except if they were looking for an English word. Now, I do not feel that awkwardness. And I listen to what is being said to try to pick out any words I know. Sometimes, I’m very proud of myself cause I can figure out the topic of the conversation. Other times, I doubt my understanding of Moldovan, because there was a point tonight when I thought “monkey” and “aunt” were said in the same sentence. But maybe they have a phrase like “a monkey’s uncle”!