One large difference between Moldova and the United States is where people live. In the US independence is very important. Some people really enjoy living in the country, even if they are not farmers. In Moldova, everyone lives in a village or city. I do not necessarily believe people do not want to live in the country, but because most people do not have cars and must rely on public transportation it would not be smart to live away from other people.
I was explaining to a Moldovan how I have an uncle that lives 10 minute drive away from the nearest village. From their experience in Moldova, it just did not seem to make any sense to live that far outside of a village or that far away from people. I explained that 30 minute drive from the nearest town was pretty far in Ohio, but in states like Nebraska and the Dakotas distances could be even further. In the US it is possible to get electricity and even city water and live away from the city.
In Moldova, from my knowledge, everyone lives in a village or city. The benefits include electricity, sometimes running ‘city water’ and safety of being close to other people. Then outside of the village, is the farmland. In my village, in the morning and evening, a large dump truck and small bus will pick people up in the village and drive around the farmland surrounding the village so that people can get to their farm land because few people have transportation. In my village, I would say that 50% of the families a vehicle, but that is just a guess. There are not a lot of tractors, but there is not a lot of land per farmer either, so many help each other out. My host father has a tractor and he has helped quite a few neighbors and usually only accepts a little gas or a glass of wine as payment.
In this country people covet their land and homes. As I understand it, people do not sell homes, property or farmland very often. So farms are pretty small because it is expensive and unlikely that others will sell their farmland. When I told them that my family has 60 acres of farmland around our house they thought I had all the land I needed and was very large. But in the US, 60 acres would be very difficult to make a living on when farming grains.
My host father in Moldova is a full time natural gas engineer for the village and also has 1.2 acres of farmland. I have heard of farmers who have 25 acres and I am sure there are larger farms out there. Currently I do not know what the average farm size in Moldova. 16% of the Moldova’s GDP is from Agriculture, it is 1.2% in the US. 40.6% of the workforce in Moldova is employed by the agricultural industry and around 2% in the US.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
46. One Reason Why People Live in Villages
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
45. Sports Competition
A few weeks ago my village had a sport competition with the youth of the village. They did a lot of relay races, weight lifting, soccer and a few other sport competitions. Here are a few pictures of the events.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
44. Steel Toe Boots?
The men here like living on the edge if you ask me. I am surprised that the majority have their toes. In my observations, when a man is working around the house during the summer, chances are they are working in sandals.
I have seen men in my village weld, work on their roof, and use power tools in sandals. It is really quite impressive. I would be too scared to do any of those things in sandals, I guess through 4-H and my father I have learned to think about safety… or be overly safe.
Monday, September 13, 2010
43. School of Art
They offer different classes for all skill types. There are classes in drawing, painting and sculpting. The director of the art school gave me a potential project. Currently the school is located within the elementary school. There is a large green area in front of the school with some run-down playground equipment. The director of the art school would like to put in a park with trees and flowers so that it looks nicer and, more importantly, so that he could teach art lessons outside.My host father's brother and the father of the director of the NGO I work with started this and at least 4 other art schools in our raion.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
42. One Job... at Home
It is a big job, but someone has to do it.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
41. First Wedding in Moldova
In August, I was able to attend my first wedding in Moldova. This wedding was a Baptist wedding, so like I, many Moldovans have not attended a Baptist wedding since 97% of the country is Orthodox Christian. From what I have heard, Orthodox weddings are crazy. They go for 10 or 12 hours and have lots of eating, drinking and dancing.
The wedding I attended was for the director of my NGO. First, to be legal, everyone has to be married by the mayor. So the wedding party came to the village the groom is originally from, at around 11am Saturday, and got married by the mayor. It was a fairly short ceremony, with the wedding party, photographers, a handful of family members and me.
In this ceremony, the rings were buried in wheat and when the couple was digging for them, the joke was the more wheat you spill out of the cup, the more children you would have. So of course, the guys were saying that the groom should just turn the bowl upside-down.
After the ceremony, the bridal party went to the house of groom’s family. They relaxed there a while before making the 2 hour trip back to Chisinau for the 4pm wedding.
After the ceremony in our village, I traveled home with my host family. We picked some fruits and vegetables to give to their children in Chisinau. We then went to the mother of the groom’s house and visited a little and ate some food. We then got on a small bus that was rented for the wedding and made the 2 hours trip to the big city. When we got to the city, before going to the church, we stopped and many purchased flowers (flowers are a big thing in Moldova).
Overall the service was similar to those in the US, but there were some key differences. The wedding party came in by pairs with the same music you would hear in the US; they had a ring bearer and flower girl. The father of the bride walked the bride to the front. But only the bride, groom and pastor were on the stage, the bridal party sat in the first row of seats. The bride and groom sat the majority of the wedding looking towards the crowd, while the pastor was giving his sermon and speaking about love. They red their vowels, put the rings on each other (the wedding ring goes on the right hand in Moldova and traditionally there is no engagement ring) and kissed.
After the service we went outside and relaxed. The bride and groom took pictures with most of the guests. I was also introduced to a couple that are Southern Baptist missionaries in Chisinau from Georgia (the husband was born in Michigan). I also met 5 people from the United Kingdom who were missionaries or at least involved in the religious movement in Moldova.
After the picture we all went into the basement of the church and had a huge feast. Since there was no alcohol or dancing there were many speeches, games and singing. The groom sang to his new wife, she played the piano and sang to him and many other people sang and played music for the wedding. There was also an MC who would get older couples to give everyone advice about marriage. They also did a short “newly-wed game” where the MC asked the new couple different questions about each other or where they met and such. It was funny, and I actually understood what they were saying. The best man and maid of honor did not give toasts like we do in the US, rather everyone in the bridal party pulled something out of their pocket or purse (wallet, money, cell phone, memory stick, etc) and related it to the couple and why it would be important to the couple. They also made some well wished.
The wedding and reception went from 4pm to 11pm. After the clean-up was done everyone heading back to my village pilled on the bus and got home by 2:30am. It was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it. It will probably not be my last wedding I attend in Moldova. Leia Mais…
Monday, September 6, 2010
40. A glumi (Verb: to joke)
My host father is someone described as “vesel” (cheerful) by many people. El glumește mult (He jokes a lot). Recently… well, as far as I know… he has been joking with friends and family when he introduces me to them for the first time.
We will meet someone and he will say: “El ește din prima femeie,” which literally translates to, “he is from first woman.” I may be hearing it wrong, but it could mean a few things. He does not say that I am from his first daughter or first wife, he says, “first woman”. Maybe he is saying that I am the son of a woman he has on the side. Not sure. But either way, half of the guys give him and I a funny look. I laugh every time.
He also says to friends of his when we meet for the first time that I only understand Russian. So the man will start to say something to me in Russian and I will look very confused. They figure this joke out quicker than the first one usually.
It is pretty funny. My host dad thinks it is even more funny now, because he knows I understand the joke. I told my host mother, my host dad was there as well, that her husband was funny and how he introduces me in different ways. After that, my host dad cleared up any information that I did not or could not convey in Romanian. My host mom thought it was pretty funny too, but I do not think it surprised her too much.
ADDITION: After speaking with my Romanian tutor, the translation is that I am the son of his first wife. Which doesn't make sense because all of his actual children are older than I, but it still take people a while to figure it out.
