First Snow at "Progres"

Radio Baba

I honestly thought “radio baba” was a joke among Peace Corps Volunteers. I had no idea Moldovans were the ones that let us in on it! The box that my friend is modeling so well is meant to hold all the youth council’s gossip, bad jokes, and hilarious memories. For the record, there are two others as well, one for Christmas wishes, and one for small greeting cards for fellow volunteers at the council. The contents of the three boxes will be revealed at the New Year’s party next week.

Radio baba is the most effective means of communication one has ever encountered that is no more technologically advanced than a touch tone telephone. Basically, let one baba know what you’re up to, and legend has it your whole town can know by the day’s end. In the training village, we witnesses this each morning as the babas delivered their goats to the field and proceeded to share their latest. Eat your heart out Twitter.

Winter culture note: Carpet cleaning

I never thought I would write a blog post about carpet cleaning, but believe me I have just witnessed (and participated in) my third method of carpet cleaning since I arrived in Moldova. I am here to say, this last method is bar far the most effective, and not just because it’s fun.

Last Saturday, we stripped our floors bear when my host mom announced “spălăm covoare în zăpadă!” (“We are washing carpets in the snow!”).

In the picture you can see, much like one of those really long saws used to cut down large trees, two people wield the carpet back and forth, pushing it deeper in the snow. I would not lie ladies and gentlemen… this was effective, as told by the stains left in the snow.

The second step in the process is the typical beating, followed by a day in the afternoon sun. I dare say those carpets took a better bath than me this week!

Winter culture note: Heating

I rather over looked this point of interest until I dropped the word “soba” on a phone call home and found the receiver quite confused. Most Moldovan homes, though not all and certainly not the apartments, are heated by a soba.

They all pretty much look the same, a little different than your average wood burning stove in the States. Here is the soba from the main corridor in our house. We just lit it for the first time over the weekend (our primary source of heat is gas). We burned wood and various bits of garbage (normal) including papers, old rags, etc. Families who use the soba as the primary source of heat tend to purchase coal if it can be afforded.

This is how the heat is conducted through the house. The adjoining walls (including this one in my bedroom) are tiled, and radiate heat into the room. Usually, the soba is lit once a day, and not stoked once it is finished. It is a lot of work! It took my host mother’s sister about an hour each time she lit the soba. Though no complaints here, I could probably grow an avocado tree in my room at night (well, minus the whole ultraviolet light necessity). Quite toasty indeed.

There is also a legend about the infamous “lejanca.” I have a colleague whose family has a bed built on top of a soba. It is a large, family style bed that has enough room for all. In the winter, many families are all about consolidation. Heating one room for all to sleep in is much more efficient than heating a whole house.

Back from Bohemia

Grad school? Not so sure… I am almost certain I actually aspire to be a bike messenger in the city of Prague. I would willingly spend my days peddling the intricate streets, taking in the individual stories of each architectural masterpiece, and noticing new characteristics in the statues every single day. There are, in fact, more statues in this city than any other in Europe. Before literacy (and the need to tax residences), the city actually used these statues in place of naming and numbering streets. This would be the life.

I can’t even begin to discern which of the 200 photographs I took of the Golden City are my favorites, so you can click below to view the full album. Also the little comment box turns on the captions. None of them do the city justice. GO TO PRAGUE!

My experience of Prague was most certainly influenced by my current mailing address. Moldovans and Czechs were both subjects of the Soviet regime, but their experiences and opinions of that era are not exact replicas. Add to this the Czech suppression by Hitler’s thumb, and the half dozen or so other parties over the last several centuries, and you can quickly appreciate the Republic’s current independence. Literally, only in the last three decades has this country been able to [finally] breath!

But the western world, by which I refer to the authors of my high school and college history books, barely even notice the events that took place in Bohemia. For example, only in my preparation for this trip did I learn that Martin Luther was not exactly an original thinker. Jan Hus, a Czech priest began preaching in the Czech language (not Latin) against the Catholic Church a full 100 years before Martin Luther made his stand. He was burned at the stake in Prague’s Old Town Square for his actions. His followers (known as the “Hussites,” and later “Bohemian Estates”) actually started the Thirty Year’s War by throwing two men out a window in Prague Castle in protest against the Catholic regime’s failure to deliver on promises of religious tolerances (both men survived thanks to a rather amenable pile manure).

Now, I realize that may not fascinate all of you, so here is a short list of other things you might appreciate that started in the Czech Republic: the sugar cube, contact lenses, the bullets currently being used in Iraq, Pilsner Urquell (very impressive!), and one of Mozart’s most famous operas (apparently it didn’t impress me too much since I can’t remember which one!). In fact, the building (left) where Mozart debut his opera is actually the only place left in the world where the famous musician played before a public audience.

One of the oldest neighborhoods in the city is the Jewish Quarter. At one time, the city’s entire Jewish population was literally walled into this small area, which is why the old cemetery is so famous. Overcrowding soon took over and only one square block could be dedicated to the dead. So the bodies were literally buried in rows until the wall came down. The stories say they cemetery is as deep as ten graves in some places.

There are many other stories for this area of Prague. Almost every synagogue has a story behind its existence, the stories of Jewish children are displayed in a small museum near the cemetery (remnants of artwork a teacher managed to salvage after the children were taken away), and a statue of Franz Kafka literally guards the main entrance to the neighborhood. But the one story I would like to research more is the role of the Jewish Quarter in Hitler’s master plan. Hitler, according to our tour guide, actually planned to use the neighborhood as a museum to a dead race after his extermination campaign was complete. I want to find out why he would go through the effort to do that, and if anyone knows of some literature on this story, please forward it to me. But, at least we can saw this: He did not succeed.

Irony can add some sweet to the “bitter-sweet” story of Hitler’s presence in Prague. The man really did like Prague, and its classical music. Our tour guide told us the story of the day he ordered his men to remove a statue, of a Jewish composer, from the concert hall roof. These guys had no idea which of the four was the intended victim and decided to guess based on the size of one particular sculpture’s nose structure. The true victim was a Czech composer, Hitler’s all time favorite.

Night life in Prague lives up to its fame, and is popular with ex-pats. For example, chatted with a guy of FILIPINO descent who was born in the UNITED STATES to DUTCH parents and studied at university in LONDON. Though, he lived a good portion of his life in SWITZERLAND, where his kid sister was born. [Mom and Shirley: Doesn’t this remind you of Nadya? The waitress in Brussels with the Italian/Sicilian/Greek/French story!] Or how about the ENGLISH bar tender serving up Jen’s IRISH cider in a MEXICAN restaurant, in the CZECH REPUBLIC. That was actually our best meal of the whole trip… We also met lots of other Americans while we were out; students, soldiers, and tourists alike.

While it was great to catch up with some fellow yanks, I do wish we had a bit more interaction with Czechs while we were there. We simply were just too confined to the English Speaking Tourist Zone [with the exception of the post office, and let’s face it, that’s not all that much of a conversation starter]. In fact, despite that Jen and I learned how to say “thank you” in Czech within our first hour in the city, we probably thanked people in Romanian by accident more often that we attempted to use the Czech. English speakers have it so easy.

This was my first trip with a traveling companion in quite some time and I am grateful that Jen was along. It went something like this: I took control of the map, and Jen kept the key to the hostel. We managed to deck out our passports throughout the bus ride to and from the Golden City: Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, and Ukraine. And…I think that’s a wrap!

World Wise Schools Correspondent

I recently became a World Wise Schools (WWS) Correspondent, in an effort to help me fulfill Peace Corps' third goal. The program began as a basic pen pal matching service between volunteers in the field and U.S. classrooms. With the slew of technology available to us now, the program has evolved to anything the volunteer and partner teacher can create. It's totally in our hands.

I am partnered with a "9th grade Pre-Advanced Placement World Studies" class, in Texas. The teacher and I have devised a couple of methods to make the exchange. First, my blog will serve as a forum. Plus, a few of her students will actually become pen pals with the youth in my advanced-peakers Enlish club.

I am really excited to start hearing the questions from the American students. It is most likely that I will not know all the answers, and will be encouraged to do some further discovering of my host country.

WWS works with all grade levels. Check out this post from my colleage, who corresponds with second graders. No question is a silly question!

Winter Holidays in Moldova

There are so many religious holidays in my host country, that most of the time, no one really mentions them. Except of course, on the big ones, and St. Maria Day (because people bring my host mother roses from their garden in honor of her namesake). On these days, Moldovans can show respect by not washing, working, or eating meat. I have a few colleagues whose host families take this so far as to mean, no knitting. Even if it’s for recreation. But most often, the days are just like any other in my town. Back when I was in my training village, my host mother was much more likely to go to church on these days or observe the respective rituals.
In 2000, the religious make up of Moldova consisted of 98% Eastern Orthodox, 1.5% Jewish, and 0.5% Baptist (meaning all variations of Protestant). In fact, in the city just north of my town, there is a substantial congregation of Mormons as well.

I mention religion as an introduction to a discussion about winter holidays in Moldova. In a western style supermarket (in the capital city) I saw a few Christmas decorations, but that is all of the commercial hoopla I have seen thus far. I have not heard “jingle bells” or “silent night” once, not indulged in a gingerbread latte, or helped Mom put up the Christmas decorations (but I guess that means I don’t have to help take them down!). I don’t pretend to make any assertions as to whether this is good or bad, it just simply is.

Just last week, Moldova declared December 25 to be a “non-working day.” But this is a new and western shift in Moldovan culture. Following the Orthodox (“Old”) Calendar, means that Christmas is celebrated on January 7, and New Years on January 14.

New Years is something Moldova started celebrating on January 1 quite some time ago. I know for a fact, because I have seen the pictures, the youth in my town celebrate by building a bon fire from old tires on December 31. Wish me luck trying to open minds about this one! My host mother was also very sweet when she tried “educating” me about her family’s New Year’s tradition: champagne at midnight. “It’s very special,” she said.

There is a difference between our two customs worth noting for those who really do enjoy “jingle bells” and “frosty the snowman.” Caroling is really important during the winter, but it is done for the New Year, not Christmas. The youth I work with depend on this activity every year to raise money for the organization. They carol at the local intuitions and private homes, collecting money to sustain them through the next year.

The take away from what I learned to date, is that winter holidays in Moldova share a central theme. Both cultures place a heavy emphasis on spending time with family. Be it with special meals, events, or times of worship. Though I have to laugh, because my host aunt says those American families are just far too small!

Cross Culinization

After being out of town so much and visiting volunteers who live alone, I couldn't help but get a little gutsy in the kitchen this week. When my host mom said she had a long day coming up, I seized the opportunity to make dinner for her.

Knowing that I would never really achieve Emerald's Sesame Chicken, and I would not want to buy meat...I decided to stick to fried rice, a recreation of Jessica Noth's orange and cumin carrots, and because I had the stuff, a small curry dish too.

My host mom picked at the rice gently for a minute or two, was quite hesitant about carrots vegetables mixed with fruit in one dish, and said the curry dish smelled "picante." Yet, by the end of the meal, and her third plate of friend rice, she asked me to make the rice again in place of another dish called sarmale. Woot! And to be perfectly honest, someone got to the left over curry before I could. I smell more independence in the kitchen ahead!

Thanksgiving Weekend

No matter what, my first Thanksgiving weekend abroad was bound to be memorable. But I think overall, the weekend managed to stand on it's own as a memorable moment in my Peace Corps experience.

Friday night I hitched down to the city where some gal pals and I rented an apartment for an evening of girl talk, good food, tons of laughs, and little sleep. This view from the 14th floor gives the city a whole new identity at night time. If this was the only photo you ever saw of the city, you wouldn't recognize it in the day time. Cities are the same all over the world I guess. In the bottom right corner you'll note some juice boxes sitting on the window seal. Although there was a refrigerator in the apartment, there didn't seem to be anywhere to plug in the ancient contraption.

After a hot shower at the Peace Corps office and stopping to buy some OJ, I headed out to the main event in the southern city of Cahul. The bus ride down took about three hours, but in reality the trip is only two. The buses stop in several cities along the way, and in between to pick up waiting passengers.
It was really foggy on my way down, but I got the impression that the middle of the country is quite rich with hills that we don't have up north. On the way back up north, when it was less foggy, I was easily reminded of the agriculture dominated, rolling hills of the Palouse. Or, wait a second, was I just passing through the five stages of grief upon hearing this year's Apple Cup score....probably a little of both.

When I arrived at my colleague's apartment in Cahul, some PCVs were still lounging in their PJs, the turkeys were being pulled out of the oven, the mac and cheese (which tasted like it's value in GOLD!) was being topped off, Na'Ima was prepping her cornbread for stuffing (I am now, and forever will be on team corn bread stuffing), the scent of sage was filling the whole apartment, Suzette jumped in to peel fresh yams, Kyle was making both of his pumpkin pies with lots of love, and Pan arrived shortly after to start pouring the homemade peach brandy. This spread was overwhelming even before Jessica and Vince arrived with homemade Pecan pie and carrots sauteed in organge juice and cumin. The fastest way to a PCV's heart is through his or her stomach. No doubt about it!

As we sat and ate, we discussed, with no apprehension or sense that this conversation was a-typical of a holiday movie, the things we were thankful for in our lives this year. Among the most popular responses were our friends and family back home who care about us, support us, and send us amazing care packages. Peace Corps staff was up there too, along with a general consensus that we were all happy to be together on this holiday. Shortly after we dove into one of the most intense game of charades I have ever been a part of, followed by two rounds of Mafia (another game), before the sleeping bags were pulled out and we found our respective places on the floor, pull out furniture, and air mattresses. The following morning we lounged for a couple hours drinking coffee, eating pumpkin pie and apple crisp, and thanking Na'Ima for having us! Could not have asked for a better weekend!

Work Update and Thanksgiving Greeting

I planned to wait and write a little Thanksgiving note later this week, but now I can't wait. I just found out, we won the grant to facilitate volunteerism seminars in our district's villages. We plan to help develop local youth councils in the villages of our district. As the local youth council in our town has shown, an active youth population greatly affects the attitude of the community.

Writing grants is, in my opinion, not one of the most sustainable means of fundraising because the community doesn't always have to support the project, the writer just has to be pursuasive. However, our project is among those that invests in human capital, neither infastructure nor material. We are hoping to educate young people about their opportunities to facilitate their own change. Afterall, "if you don't manage your change, your change will manage you." On one hand I am very excited about this project, but I do not neglect the responsibility that comes with us receiving this money. It will be a great lesson in accountability for the youth I am partnered with. I will keep you all updated as the project progresses and would love to answer any questions along the way!

This news comes just in time for Thanksgiving. A holiday I won't actually celebrate until Saturday with my colleagues, but can't help but celebrate all week since I'm accustomed to having a whole week off from classes for it! Oh how I miss that drive from Pullman! I know, crazy...but true!

I am incredibly thankful for all that I have experienced and learned since this time last year. Five different mailing addresses, a second language, and a taste of the D.C. political arena...Oh, and I guess somwhere in there I graduated college. Did that really happen? HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Swine Flu in Moldova

I'm glad I don't own a television, because I'm sure the media is living on the swine flu situation right now. In Moldova, there have been a few deaths, and of course, the number of cases continue to grow each week.

Peace Corps is certainly taking care of Volunteers, but this situation has also given Volunteers an opportunity to learn more about traditional medical beliefs. Namely, the ability of onion and garlic to prevent the flu. The New York Times even picked up on this story. You can read about it here. It's a good thing I don't mind the extra kick in my soup!

Think globally, act localy, focus daily.

The publicity material didn't lie. The Peace Corps is one of the most challenging things I've done in my short life. But not because I'm breaking my back every day with manual labor or anything queite that measurable. Rather, it is the task of developing understanding and enthusiasm among people that is proving so difficult. Specifically, developing understanding and enthusiasm about the future of my community. I cannot, and will not, declare myself and expert and simply force direction and goals on my community. Though, this would be easier, it would not be sustainable or successful over the long term.

As a PCV and member of the millennial generation (which means I like to be efficient), I am learning to cope with the somewhat reduced size of my daily successes. The bumper sticker once read "Think globally, act locally." But I would like to print some new ones that read, "Think globally, act locally, focus daily."

Since I've spoken with my colleagues about this, I know, I'm not the only one struggling to identify and celebrate the small successes. Thus, I have developed "the bucket" (see photo) which hangs in my bedroom.

In this bucket I pencil in the small drops of activity that I think I can do. Things that would be a success if I managed to accomplish them. Once they are completed, the tasks become successes and I go back over them in pen. They are permanent, transparent, visible qualifiers of my time in Moldova.

Laugh all you want at my coping mechanism, but it's your tax dollars that are allowing me to be here. I am obliged to make my time as effective as possible.

In case you can't see them well enough to read them, here's what I hope to accomplish in the near future, my potential successes: English Club Winter 2009, computer classes with my partner, scoring "advanced-low" on my next language exam (February), building a website with the youth for the center, and raising enough funds to build a playground at the children's center.

Wish me luck!

Moldova and Me

I am on "The Dating Game" and I just chose bachelor number two. For the sake of the story, let’s assume bachelors number one and three were graduate school and an entry level government job, respectively. But Bachelor number two found a way to be both intellectually stimulating and adventurous. Let the courtship commence!

You see, coming to Moldova, I understood about as much as one can about one strange man among three behind a semi-translucent screen. I knew how old it is (at least the modern system of governing), what languages it speaks, and what religion follows. But that’s not exactly enough to buy a bridal magazine over.

The past couple of weeks I’ve been trying to do that thing that most Type A personalities do after the first few dates—define the relationship. This has literally consumes every spare second. Moldova and I have been together for five months now, but the last few mornings have felt like blind dates all over again. What do I have to offer Moldova? Ce noi putem sa facem impreauna? What can we do together?

Work with my primary partnership has slowed down considerably, though we did have our first English club session. The youth have been clamoring for this. I am not a teacher, but I’m doing my best. The rest of my time has been divided among some more centralized Peace Corps projects among volunteers, and working at the children’s center.

Talk about blind dates! The director of the children’s center and I thought we were going to see some playground equipment the other day. To get to the manufacturer, a small furniture factory, we rode a bus to a village neither of us had ever been to before, crossed some really big railroad tracks, walked through a vodka factory, stopped to look at some ostrich and deer—no joke, just some ostrich and deer hanging out in a vodka factory attached to a furniture factory in Eastern Europe—and finally arrived at the correct office to find out that the man we wanted to speak with wasn’t there. At least that’s how I think the story should be interpreted, it all happened in Russian. But is that not how most relationships go? Some days it just seems you and your partner don’t speak the same language?

Aşa e viaţa! This is the life!

Halloween comes to an end...finally!

A week after our first Halloween "celebration" of the season, we ended it with another on our weekly visit to the children's center. Here, you can see the kids racing to "mummify" the youth volunteers. This game is much harder here than in the states because the toilet paper is of a different quality, and doesn't exactly come on a "roll" like we are accustomed too.

In any case, it was much fun. The center and schools are closed this next week due to H1N1, but the director of the center and are are planning to take the time to create our plan for building the new playground this spring. Stay tuned....there may be a way for you all to help!

I hope you are all well and starting to enjoy the holiday season!

End of training dinner

To the left, is a scene from our end of training dinner. The toasts. Respectively, you have the American Amabassador, the Director of Peace Corps Moldova, myself, and my colleague. Can you pick out the two WSU COUGARS? The Ambassador was born and raised in Pullman, Washington! We talked for several minutes about the Cougar family, football, and his recent trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon. Go Cougs!

These are just a few more of my peeps. Jen (p.s. we bought tickets to Prague this morning!), me, and Janel (I don't hold it against her that she may or may not become a Husky after this).





And these are the Ann Arbor hopefuls. Craig also goes by the name "Sheldon." Poftim.

My Marylin

This lady is a trooper! I want to be her in 50 years.

Back in the training village for fall...

The Five Month Challenge

We are coming up on the five month anniversary of my arrival in Moldova, which has been marked by one of the more emotional moments of my experience thus far. I prepared for this day by visiting the local market and scoping out the selection, carefully considering my options with regard to prices, colors, and flavors.

In the end, I chose to purchase a product without much sparkle or shine. It’s packaged in a simple red box which promises to meet my needs. Anti-cavity protection. That’s right folks. I have consumed the last of my CREST anti-cavity, regular paste, 20 ounce tube of toothpaste.

We will be apart from one another for a minimum of 20 more months. The replacement being a “fabricat in Romania” variety of something known as “Colgate.” So far we are getting along well…but no paste will every truly fill the bristles of my brush quite like my fallen CREST.

Back to School

The month of October flew by, in part, because the latter half of it was spent back in my training village with my colleagues. The days were packed in with great technical sessions and language classes with our favorite teacher, and the evenings spent getting reacquainted with one another and our host families (I learned so much about them know that I can actually understand them!).

This is the first time that “pre-service training” has been broken into two parts for PCVs in my program. But it proved incredibly effective. After spending three months at site, we have a greater understanding about what our communities and partner organizations need. As our program manager said, this allowed us to ask more direct questions and be most effective in this training time. For this blog’s avid readers (haha!) this pertains to that “behind the scenes” work I plan to do to make my organization more sustainable. Once again, I am going back to site with a long to-do list and a set of recharged batteries. So much to do, and less than two years to do it!

While we were back at training two rather “distractiv” or “fun” events went down. The first being my first birthday abroad. My fellow PCVs, host family, and teachers really made it special. One for the books!
The second event, was our village’s annual celebration to commemorate its founding. We partook in some homemade wine, laughed A LOT, and danced the hora with children until midnight. It was a blast. Moldovan music is definitely starting to grow on me!

My first REAL Peace Corps Project!

This is my first REAL drop in the bucket towards helping my partner organization become more self-sustaining in the long run—the heart of my work here in Moldova. Unlike the many events I’ve helped the youth with, this was an event the youth had never been exposed to before, and I helped them orchestrate it. Needless to say, I finally feel like I’ve contributed something!

The situation is something like this. The youth want to do lots of great projects (like building a playground and helping surrounding communities build youth centers), but they do not have any sources of income. In a planning discussion with some of the youth leaders, we decided to take advantage of the large amount of people who would be coming in for our town’s wine day and sell something. Raising the money ourselves is far more sustainable than grant writing, plus the money is easier to appreciate when you have to work for it!

So what did they want to sell? It went something like this: “Melissa, do you know how to make those cookies from America with chocolate?” And off we went…

A week before our chocolate chip cookie sale, I taught seven girls how to bake the cookies. Then each boy from the youth center purchased and donated an ingredient to the girls. Each girl was responsible for baking a batch of cookies at home the day before the event. The result of our bake sale, the first-ever for the youth, raised a quarter of a teacher’s monthly salary in just over two hours! Everyone went home happy.

In addition to the monetary gain, here are a few other successes of the event. The youth did a new kind of fundraising, and interacted with people from the whole raion in doing so. They had the opportunity to tell people who they are and what they want to do with the money that will help the community. They educated people about the concept of donating to good causes, and saw that the youth were working for their money. So many people were new to this idea!

We discovered two significant cookie selling strategies at this event. First, the youth had to be energetic. When they danced the hora with customers, and made themselves noticeable, more people came over to see what was going on at our booth.

This gal, Vica, would earn a free trip to summer camp for cookie sales if she only had that little green uniform. She was dancing all over the place to attract customers, taking platefuls around to all the exhibitioners, and had a sales-pitch that only a kid selling newspapers on a soap box could compete with! Way to go Vica!

And, about 40 minutes into our cookie sale, and through a series of discussions unknown to me, I ended up on stage with 500 pairs of eyes staring at me while I explained who I was, why I helped the youth prepare these cookies, and the great plans for the money that we will raise (for the next two days people stopped me on the street to ask how long I’ve studied Romanian. Compliment or criticism???). By the time I made my way back to the booth, I couldn’t actually get through the crowd. We made close to 100 lei in the ten minutes immediately following my little announcement. Overall, the event was a huge learning experience for the youth.

The best way to wrap this up is to quote my partner’s reaction. Mind you, this is a translation. But the last word of the quote is the same in English, just that the “u” is pronounced with something more like an “oo” sound and the “er” is more like the word “air. Try it, it will be more meaningful.

“Melissa, this was a good idea. I was a pessimist this morning, but that was super!”