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!