Friday, July 23, 2010

28. Mushroom Farming

I do not know much about mushrooms, other than I like to eat them.  But a few weeks ago I learned about mushroom farming from my neighbor.  The best part is, not only did I learn, I was able to help.

The first step was to put a bunch of sunflower seed hulls in the large tank below.  Then a fire was started underneath it, which I am guessing is to increase the decomposing process.  The next day the sunflower seed hulls were taken out to cool, which is what the man in the blue is doing.  Sunflower seed halls are used because there are a lot of sunflower seed oil grown in the country and a few large sunflower seed oil processing plans in Moldova.  In my experience, 90% of the oil used in Moldova is from sunflower seeds.


After the sunflower seed hulls are cooled to touch they are put into plastic bags.  In the red pot are the mushroom spores.  These spores were purchased from Ukraine because the quality is higher and the price was lower than purchasing them in Moldova.

We would put a few handfuls of sunflower seed hulls into the bag and then a handful of spores into the bags, trying to keep the spores close to the side of the bags.

My neighbor not only grows mushrooms, but sells completed bags.  The order we were working on was for 50 bags, the bags weighed a little over 25 pounds each.

When he grows mushrooms, he keeps them in a basement or the abandoned house which is on their property.  The area needs to be lit and cool.  As the mushrooms start to grow, the bags are scored so that the mushrooms can grow outside of the bag.

The mushrooms are very good.  My host mother made a cold mushroom salad with peppers, onions, garlic and a little vinegar and oil.

Leia Mais…

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

27. Weather

So, you may think to yourself "90 degrees Fahrenheit is not too bad" but I challenge you thought process.

First of all, it is hard to cool down.  Air conditioning is hard to find in rural areas.  Secondly, 99% of houses are made out of stone, so even at night the house is 10 degrees warmer than outside.  The majority of houses do not have ceiling or  stand alone fans, this may be because of the amount of money people have and possibly due to the "cultural belief" that moving air can be harmful for your health (not widely believed, but it is a cultural practice).

So, let's just say I have been a little hot and cranky.  But I am still enjoying my time here and looking forward to the future.  I just did not expect this country to be so warm, I thought it was so far north the summers would be cool.

Moldova weather:

Tonight
Jul 21
Mostly Clear
Mostly Clear
92°
70°
10%

92°F
Thu
Jul 22
Sunny
Sunny
93°
69°
0%

93°F
Fri
Jul 23
Sunny
Sunny
91°
68°
0%

91°F
Sat
Jul 24
Sunny
Sunny
89°
66°
0%

89°F
Sun
Jul 25
Partly Cloudy
Partly Cloudy
90°
66°
10%

90°F
Mon
Jul 26
Mostly Sunny
Mostly Sunny
88°
67°
20%

88°F
Tue
Jul 27
Partly Cloudy
Partly Cloudy
86°
67°
20%

86°F
Wed
Jul 28
T-Showers
T-Showers
84°
67°
40%

84°F
Thu
Jul 29
Partly Cloudy
Partly Cloudy
87°
67°
20%

87°F

*From Weather.com

Leia Mais…

Sunday, July 18, 2010

26. The Classroom

Here are some of the aids and things we went over in Romanian language class.  So you can learn a little before you visit:




Leia Mais…

Friday, July 16, 2010

25. Permanent Site Visit

Here are a few pictures of where I will move in August and will be located there for two years.



Casă de Cultură (Cultural House) cultural activities hall/performance hall

Farmacie (Pharmacy)

Main street of my village

View of the village

Fairly normal backyard of the homes in my new village

Leia Mais…

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

24. New Site

I am extremely excited to start my time at my permanent site.  It seems like everything is falling into place.  I plan to work very hard to increase my language skills, because it will be necessary to be successful.  I only have 16 language classes left before I am done with training, which is only about 60 hours in class.

I am working with an organization called the Community Association (Name translated).  They goal is to help the community through trainings, seminars, internet/computer access, English lessons, business consulting, etc.  It was set up by 3 men from/in the community.  The organization is not a mission, but they set up the NGO based on Biblical principles.

The first volunteer with this organization and in the community stayed for a total of 4 years and is well respected and loved in the community.

The three men I will be working with are very intelligent and well connected in Moldova's business world, I am excited to work with them.  Two of them life are young and live in the capital, I will not work with them a whole lot, but they speak English and will help me out if I get into trouble or if I am having difficulty understanding my boss, who lives in the community and is the father of one of the younger men.

Currently, it looks like I will do some business consulting (office hours/visiting companies), working on a website for a pasta company (a business my organization helped start), marketing, promoting, planning, and implementing business seminars/trainings (when I visited they has a tax expert speaking to current and (hopefully) future business owners, improving the computer lab/internet cafe and creating an after school program at the community center.  They are fairly flexible, I can do whatever I want to assist the community, as long as my partner agrees.  They are also thinking about creating a park in the back of the community center for people to hang out and a putt-putt course.  I could also work with the Mayor on projects, from what I hear he has been doing good work for the community for many years.

I was also told that because of my interest in importation and exportation, they may be able to put me in touch with a company that exports dried fruit to Europe and may be interested in showing me around/getting assistance when it comes to exporting to the US.

I am very excited to see what I can learn and how I will grow over these next few years.  I think this will be extremely beneficial in helping me understand what I really want to do in the future.

Leia Mais…

Saturday, July 10, 2010

23. Site Visit

Tomorrow I am heading to the Capital to board a bus to visit my permanent site which is 2.5 hour bus ride away.

Sites of the Chișinău:

Stephen the Great (Ștefan cel Mare)

Center of the City

Presidential Palace

Leia Mais…

Friday, July 9, 2010

22. The Moment

This is the moment I learned of where I will spend two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  I was the second (of 67) to find out my location.

Leia Mais…

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

21. Permanent Location

Today I found out where I will be located in Moldova during my two years in the Peace Corps.

In August I will be moving to a small village in the South Eastern corner of Moldova. My village has about 3000 people in it. I will be the 4th Peace Corps Volunteer to have been stationed in the village, only one of those has completed the full 2 year commitment (once married a Moldovan and moved to the US and the other's Peace Corps volunteer boyfriend was sent home for medical reasons so she left too). None of the volunteers have been in the agricultural field.

I will be working with the Non-Governmental Organization sponsored by the US. The have many projects in the areas of business seminars, computer training, greenhouses, bio diesel, and pasta manufacturing.

I will have two choices when it comes to places or worship, Baptist or Orthodox. I will be about 60 miles from the capital and about 60 miles from Odessa, Ukraine and the Black Sea.

This Sunday I will visit my host family and my partners for a little over a day then have a conference in the capital. We have just started our 4th week or training, we have a total of 8 weeks or language and technical training before leaving for our permanent sites.

Leia Mais…

Monday, July 5, 2010

20. House

Check out the video of my first home in Moldova on Facebook.

Leia Mais…

Sunday, July 4, 2010

19. Independence Day

Independence Day in a foreign country is like nothing else.  If you have not experienced that, I would highly suggest it.  Last year I was in China and it was a lot of fun and very patriotic, this year I am in Moldova and it was the same.

The US Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce hosted an Independence Day party with wings, hamburgers, potato salad and other American-type picnic food.  There was also a live band, lots of music and games where the US and Moldavians competed against each other (as an example, tug of war).

It was enjoyable.  My goal was to rub elbows with important people, but I am not very good at that, plus no one had name tags, so I didn't know who to talk too.  It is times like that I wish I had a little more Grandma Schrote in me.

Leia Mais…

18. Pictures

If you are interested in seeing photos I have taken of my time in Moldova, you can see them on Facebook.

Leia Mais…

Thursday, July 1, 2010

17. Language

The best thing about this language is that 90% of the letters make the same sound, 100% of the time.  There are a few diphthong and a the letter 'C' has a few different sounds depending on what it is pared with, but overall it is very easy to read.

It is fairly easy to read once you stop thinking about how in English there is long and short vowels.  Romanian is easier than English when it comes to pronunciation.

Verb congregation is difficult.  If you say 'I am traveling' or 'We are traveling' not only do the first two words change, but traveling has a different ending depending on if it is I, you, he, she, we, they...  All nouns are either male or female, singular or plural and definite or indefinite.  So needless to say, I am overwhelmed some days when returning from school.

I enjoy the people I am studying with.  The Peace Corps is a good organization and has treated me well.  I am excited to continue learning and to find out my permanent site location next week.

Put the best part is, they say after I get a good understanding it will be easier to pick up the other romance languages.  I have heard that if I go to Italy after understanding the Romanian language I will be able to understand most Italian.

Leia Mais…