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.