Grape Picking Day!

While some kids actually didn’t have school for a week because it was time for the grape harvest, I only got to participate in the festivities one day. I have an in with the family—my partner!
This is Nadya overlooking her family’s vines. The conversations with her and her family as we worked were akin to an “I Love Lucy” episode only in that they were ridiculously hard to follow and hilarious, not in that we actually stomped on the grapes. Lucy and her man only had two languages going for them. I counted four on the hill. However, once my origin was discovered, all I heard echoing around the valley was, “Do you talk to the Ameriiicanca?” “The Ameriiicanca’s dad is a teacher in the government. The Ameriiicanca’s mom works at the hospital.” “That Ameriiicanaca’s parents let her come to Moldova??” They never have to know I was in so much shock my first three days I couldn’t eat or sleep...

After the morning work, the crowd gathered for a jug of last year’s wine and fresh placinte (pastries/pies) Nadya’s mom cooked in a wood oven fresh that morning. We had placinte with cheese and dill, placinte with apples, placinte with pumpkin…

And back at the house, the juice pressing was underway. Ten days, and it will be wine. Though I hear tasting the stuff in between is pretty good too.

Enjoying the fresh air and munching on walnuts

Every Friday (starting about a week ago) the youth and I go to a center for children with disabled children and play games with the kids. This week we also broke in the Frisbees fresh from a care package. It was a blast and a game off 500 quickly developed with the older boys.

The Russian Capital of Moldova

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend a group tutoring session with the Peace Corps in Moldova’s second largest city. It’s not too far from my site, and armed with my map of the city scribbled on the back of an ATM receipt, I hit the town early Saturday morning. The artist behind the map, my official counterpart, and more importantly friend, Nadya, also gave me one other piece of advice. “Ask youth where you need to go. Only speak to youth.”
By this I thought she was trying to imply a cultural norm I should best abide, but alas, the truth is much more explicit. Due to a series of circumstances, it is the youth who would be most likely to speak something I understand. Most people speak Russian in this city, or a combination of Russian and Romanian that they do not distinguish as separate entities. Needless to say, her advice worked wonderfully.
I only observed a small part of the city, but I enjoyed the quiet atmosphere compared to the capital city. Lots more trees, a nice city center, and a theater I hope to attend when the new season starts. I hear the western-style grocery store also carries frozen broccoli and brussel sprouts, but I ran out of time before I could get there.
I won’t go on about all the amazing insight I took from a volunteer who let me crash on her couch late Saturday night. But here is one concrete idea worth sharing. This volunteer is one of the elite. The ones who are dedicated to being here for no other reason than to help, to serve, and to help others help themselves. These are the volunteers who after about 18 months of service, realize they aren’t ready to go. That in fact, they will tell you they can’t responsibly leave yet. These are the volunteers who will tell you, ‘it took me a year to get started and get my language to a level where I could be effective, so I really need a third year in Moldova to complete my goals.’
And now for that concrete idea…get to work, Melissa. I already know that extending my service is probably not in the cards. No way, four more years of school are waiting and I am still just a little too uptight to put that off again. Plus, we’re having a huge party for Mom’s big birthday. It’s no secret. So, returning to site for the work week was easy for me. So much work to do, only two years to do it.

Returning from the city...

If you think these pies (placinte) look tasty...just wait until you get to the bottom of this little story.

When things are too good to be true, is it better to enjoy it or doubt it? How about this: just roll with it. Not really knowing what time buses leave the city and come to my site, I was pleasantly surprised to see a bus to my town waiting at the bus stop when I arrived early Sunday morning. I was hungry, wanted to wash my face, and it was cold!
The second better than expected clue should have been that the bus fare was two-thirds of what I paid to come into the city. But whatever, just roll with it.
And roll I did…right into a village (which sits about two thirds of the way back to my town) by the same namesake as my town. In the future, I will insure that I read the whole placard in the bus windshield, not just the first four letters.
After a good laugh with the driver and a few humbling conversations with some elderly women headed to Church…I was told to wait for a second bus that would take me to town. In total, I paid double the standard fare, was even hungrier than before, and counted my lucky stars because I still had the sense to laugh at my situation. I guess I’m going to be alright here… And guess what, my host Mom was putting those cabbage placinte in the oven right as I walked in the door. Bliss wrapped in warmth. It was only 8:30 am.

So much to do, only two years to do it!

Thus far, my time in my community offered weeks bloated with activities, followed by weeks starving for activity. However, I think all that is about to change as I make my move to ensure the weeks ahead represent the former.

Last week my partners (two of the youth from the council) and I spent three days at a Peace Corps conference sharing experiences with other volunteers and attending various seminars. Though my words may fail me in my attempt to convey the incredible outcomes of something so plainly called a "conference," you should know that this event had a tremendous influence on my attitude about being in my communiy and working with the people in it. Simply put, I AM ECSTATIC!

I brought so many ideas back from the conference and though my romanian still holds me back a little, the youth are constantly inquiring about my opinion on projects and ideas. I think I've achieved another one of Emerson's measures of success: to gain the affection of children (to laugh often and much is his other measure that I've "managed" to accomplish). Remember people...the little things count too!

So what's in the fire right now for my work? What's keeping me busy?
-The youth want to renovate an abandoned lot into a basketball facility. We are exploring the ways to make this as sustainable a facility as possible. I'm looking into this whole recycled shoe conept...but the vice-mayor already granted us the space. A step in the right direction!
-Romanian lessons. Now that my teacher has her school schedule set, we are working together four hours a week. That's 20 hours of lessons in total before my next Language Proficiency Interview, in October.
-Translating some documents for a youth volunteer who is aplying for a grant.
-Going to the center for youth with disabilities. We're going to play sports outside before the last bit of summer fades away!
-Attending meetings with various NGOs in Moldova about their work and how working in Moldova is different than working in the United States.
-Finishing up the repairs to the center before winter.
-Preserving more food for winter (I'm a little concerned about that cheese...foarte interesant! very interesting!)
-Planning a celebration for retired teachers.

Can't wait!

My first facilitation in Romanian!

This weekend I facilitated my first solo activity (though, I am quite grateful for the presence of another English speaker who was able to help her colleagues understand my special brand of Romanian). It was fun to be back on this side of things after having spent the summer as a participant in many training exercises.

The activity is called “community mapping,” and it helps different groups identify different resources in communities. For instance, the group was able to identify a lot of institutions in their community, but soon realized they have actually worked with a few. We conduct these kinds of activities to help facilitate “asset based development” rather than relying on outside funding and resources. Onward!

The easy part

Manual labor is by far the easiest Peace Corps work. There is hardly any language required of you, so you can just work and listen, then chime in when it’s a topic you feel comfortable discussing. Like the weather. That’s an easy one. Right now we are in the process of tearing down the wall paper in the center. I’m a bit sad to see it go, but certainly don’t mind helping out!

Juice making take #4

Since I arrived in Moldova I’ve made sour cherry juice (my favorite), apple & mint juice, cranked out grape juice to be used be used in the wine making process (though it is quite delicious as is), and now tomato juice. My host mom asked me to tell you all that this machine is thirty years old and still going strong!

First day of school = Really big deal!

(For some reason the pictures won't load, sorry!) Parents bring children to school dressed to impress. Everyone brings flowers for the teachers. The school director gives a speech. Representatives from the local government speak. The national anthem is played. Bells with big ribbons tied to them are rung as the first graders march around the yard. There are so many people standing around just to watch the procession!
For added insight to the event, here the first line of the school director’s speech: “We are here to terminate the vacation.” Ouch.

Sunday is the day of resting

The afternoon following the garbage program (see below), we headed out into “the forest.” We made a small picnic, the boys swam in the lake, and played a few games until darkness started to settle in on us.

Of course, a highlight of the afternoon was making smores. Yea, that’s not a typo. The last volunteer mailed a package to the center in June containing all the fixings for smores as a graduation gift for some of the youth….complete with the cinnamon graham crackers just like we use in our backyard. Yum! A bittersweet ending to the summer is starting to settle in, I hear we will soon be watching the rain fall and temperatures plummet.

Don’t pass over your mistake, learn from it…

…this was the message the youth presented to the community over the weekend. Over the course of three days we worked on the last ecological project of the summer (school starts September 1st). After spending only two hours collecting garbage in the park, we came back the next day to the crowded marketplace and literally built a mountain of trash in front of the entrance.

The youth did a great job presenting the activity and its mission. They stopped observers to talk about the problem of garbage in our town. They explained they were holding the demonstration as a way to raise awareness of the problem and hoped they could make people think the next time they threw a plastic water bottle on the ground.

In the few hours we were there, most people thanked the youth council for their work. The local radio station heard about the event and even came down to interview some of the youth.
So after hearing about the great programs the youth are already doing, you might be wondering…why do they need Melissa? Well, the majority of my work will be behind the scenes of the organization and the incredibly motivated youth that are there. For instance, this week we are working on a database of the group’s past projects. As of now, there are no written records of the past programs and activities. Having a database that can be continuously updated will help the organization in a variety of ways. Most importantly, when the group is applying for funding, scholarships to seminars and conferences, and other resources. The database will serve as proof of activity. Additionally, we plan to use the database in conjunction with a new visual aid (okay in simple terms…a piece of poster board on the wall with a chart on it) to help members of the council be accountable for his/her programming requirements. Every member is required to participate and manage a certain number of activities (To my res-lifers out there….does this sound familiar?).

These two tools are my first contributions to the organization’s sustainability, but certainly don’t make for very interesting photos and blog posts like fabricating a mountain of garbage and holding a peaceful demonstration.