182. First Good Snow

We had some snow a while back, it snowed a little overnight but it all melted by 9 in the morning.

This snow had perfect timing.  The ground was a little moist due to some rain and it was a little muddy.  Then the snow came and the ground froze and the snow almost completely covered the ground right before Christmas!

So we had a white Christmas.  Not all of Moldova did, but I was very happy my area did.

Leia Mais…

181. Christmas

I enjoyed this Christmas much more than last year’s Christmas.  I did just about the exact same thing as last year, but this year I understood what events and things were going on in Moldova plus I understand the language so much better now.

During the Christmas weekend I attended a coupe church services, listened to a bunch of poems (Moldovans love saying poems during the winter holidays), listened to a children, youth and young adult choirs, watched skits about the birth of Christ, and I had some good traditional Moldovan food.

The Baptist church in my village celebrate Christmas on December 25^th, the Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7^th, so I am excited to celebrate Christmas all over again.

Leia Mais…

180. About Moldova

This video was made by a fellow Peace Corps volunteer. The video contains some interesting facts and images from Moldova.

Leia Mais…

179. Merry Christmas

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  This week we got our first good snowfall, I learned a few Romanian carols with my Romanian tutor and I have gifts ready for the host family.

The only thing that could be better was if I could be in and in America at the same time!

Leia Mais…

178. Excuse me, where are you from?

I was in a microbus (has about 20 seats) at the bus station waiting to leave to visit a fellow volunteer’s site.  The bus was almost full.  Two girls around 20 years old get onto the bus and one said, “O my God” in English with an accent.  I look at her and we made eye contact, I think she was a little embarrassed because she knew that I understood what she said.

Even if I dressed like a Moldova and spoke perfect Romanian, I bet that Moldovans would still be able to tell that I was not Moldova.  On that day I was wearing a coat I bought in Moldova but I was wearing an Ohio State beanie and sporting a thin goatee.  The facial have defiantly gave me away, very few Moldovans have facial hair, the majority can grow them but it is not fashionable here.

A little while into the trip the two girls were talking to each other.  I could not quite hear everything, but I think they were trying to guess where I was from/what languages I know.  I heard them mention German and French.  A few minutes after that the one sitting next to me says, “Excuse me, where are you from?” in English.

I told them I was a Peace Corps volunteer from America.  She then said, “O, we were in America this summer.”  I asked where and she replied, “Hersey, Pennsylvania.”  I told her I knew where that I was and want to visit, but I have not yet.  She said that I should visit because it is, “The sweetest place on earth.”

This conversation reminded me of a story I read about how the Hershey Chocolate Company and how it had many foreigners working for them and how they were not paid very well (New York Times Article).  I hope that these girls were paid decent and that the company has fixed these problems.

Leia Mais…

177. What's on your hand?

My three year old host nephew who has been living with us for the last few weeks because his parents have recently become very busy with work.  While at times it is difficult to have a young child in the house, most of the time it is a lot of fun.  He is always full of energy and has many questions.  He always greets me when I come home from work and enjoys sitting next to my while I am working on my computer, listening to music or watching a video.  While his Romanian pronunciation is not always the best, he does help improve my language skills.

The other day we were sitting down to eat dinner and he saw that I had some writing on my hand:

Host Nephew (HN):  Tim, Tim, Tim

Me:  Yes.

HN:  Look, what, what *he was excited and starting to stutter, then he jumps out of his chair runs over to me and grabs my hand* what do you have on your hand?

Me:  I wrote on my hand.

HN:  Why?

Me:  Because I want to remember stuff that I have to do for these people.

HN:  Why?

Me:  I have to do work and do not want to forget.

HN:  O.  My dad does the same thing.

I talked with his dad, and it is true that he also makes notes on his hand.

Leia Mais…

176. Gym

One of the many things I enjoy about living in Moldova is the chance to visit villages.  It is always interesting because I get to see another village or city in Moldova and even better when I get to hear about it from an American who lives and works in the community.  I also get new ideas for projects and activities which I could potentially implement in my village.

One interesting idea that I saw while at my friend’s village is a gym.  The gym is open afterschool for extra credit and for at risk youth.  The gym is at the school and there at up to 20 youth that come five days a week to utilize the gym.

Not only was I able to see and experience the project, but I was able to understand how the volunteer was able to work with the school and the teachers to refine the idea and make it plausible and beneficial to the students.

Leia Mais…

175. What's that taste?

Every time I eat an egg over-easy or sunny-side-up there is some unique taste that I could not quite put my finger on.  It was kind of an earthy taste, not really bad, but something that I was not use too.

At first I thought that it was because I had never eaten farm fresh eggs or maybe that is what they taste like when the chickens just eat corn and squash.  Then I thought maybe it was because the outside of the egg was not washed well, but I figured that was a dumb idea and that they would probable taste worse that ‘earthy’.

I then figured out what the mystery taste was… sunflower seed oil.  I have written before about how sunflower seed oil is the main oil used in Moldova and how my host father has an oil press (see post).  I realized that this ‘earthy’ taste did taste like sunflower seeds and because the oil was made at home and was not processed or filtered the taste is not quite as refined.

As the photo shows, the oil is not filtered or processed, so all of the imperfections settle to the bottom.  Now that I know where the taste comes from, I cannot really image eggs without that taste… well, I guess I can imagine eggs fried in bacon grease.

Leia Mais…

174. Scrap Metal

I know many Moldovans that have many different ‘businesses’.  Almost everyone in my village has at least a little land outside of the village which they farm, but on top of that people have bee hives, sell homemade wine, press sunflower seeds into oil, sell homemade vodka, grow mushrooms, woodworking and other activities as a way to make money.  This is common/necessary for many because in my area of Moldova a lot of people have seasonal jobs in the grape growing and wine making industries.

One of my friends has a metal recycling yard at his home.  He buys metal from everyone in the village.  People from all walks of life sell him metal; you can even see young boys with a little wagon full of bolts and scrap pieces of metal so they can make enough money to use the internet lab or purchase some candy to men with some metal on the back of a bicycle to a tractor pulling a full load metal.

Once a month, or whenever his yard is full of metal, he hires a handful of men to help load all of the metal, by hand, into a semi that will take it to a metal recycling facility.  I do not know how profitable this business is, but it is a service to the community.  Because many in the village to not have vehicles, there is no way to get this metal to a recycling facility and most people do not have enough metal to make it profitable to rent a vehicle to take the metal to a facility.

Villages that do not have someone that collects metal generally rely on people/businesses that sent trucks through the village periodically.  One day such a truck was going through our village, it had a loud speaker on the roof and the driver would go up and down every road in the village asking if anyone had any scrap metal.  Needless to say, the man who runs the metal purchasing business in my village was not happy.  If he found out that someone sold metal to the man driving the truck he would make sure to visit the house and let them know that he was purchasing metal in the village and to tell that it would be better to support someone from the village and also to ask the price that the other company offered.

Leia Mais…

173. Soup Kitchen Renovation Celebration

The Austrian organization ‘Concordia’ (www.concordia.or.at/concordia_en/) has opened many soup kitchens and social assistance centers for youth and elderly in many locations throughout Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria.  They opened a soup kitchen for the elderly in my village; currently 35 elderly people eat two meals a day, five days a week at the kitchen.  The main goal is not onlye to feed the elderly, but also give them a social network, host activities, educational events and other things to give the elderly that generally have no family something to do.

I have started to work with this organization's branch in my village a little bit; we are currently working on finding funding to renovate part of the kindergarten to house the soup kitchen.  This move is so that the kitchen can be in a central location in the village, to expand so that more events can take place and because it is a Concordia regulation that the building must be owned by the village, currently the soup kitchen is temporarily using a church’s facilities.

The Peace Corps volunteer that lives the closest to me works with a Concordia soup kitchen in a village about 3 kilometers away.  Their soup kitchen feeds about 70 people a day and is located at the local hospital.  They recently completed a project to repair and paint the walls, install two showers, install a washing machine and install a few benches outside of the entrance.  This may seem like a little project, but many of the poor elderly do not bath or wash their cloths due to the poor conditions of their homes.  So this project will have a huge affect on the hygiene and health of the elderly in this village.

Due in part to Moldovan custom there was a celebration at the completion of the project.  People from the village and neighboring villages came to celebrate.  Children from the school danced, sang and put on a skit about hygiene.  The mayor also spoke and some representatives from the funding organizations also came.

It was quite exciting to be a part of and share the in success of the project.  It is always great to see how so many people work together to make a project like this possible.

*These photos are from the celebration at Concordia’s soup kitchen at a neighboring village

Leia Mais…

172. Lasagna

My host family, my tutor and I had another “Tim’s Favorite Food Night”.  I was going to call it American food night, but so far the only things I have made for the family is Skyline Chili, tacos and now lasagna, I guess one out of the three is American but I would say they are all part of our culture.

I, with the help of my tutor made lasagna, it was not I have ever had but it was fun making it and making substitutions for ingredients that are not in Moldova, I could not find or I forgot to buy.  I think everyone enjoyed it and it defiantly reminded me of home.

Leia Mais…

171. Necropsy

Back in the spring my host family purchased and brought home a medium sized pig.  When we got the pig home we tried to take it out of the tractor and put it on the ground softly, but it started thrashing around and fell to the ground.  We hoped that he was OK and it did not affect his movement or growth, so we thought everything was fine.

A few months later we butchered the pig (see post here).

The other day we were eating lunch and my host dad finished eating a rib and noticed that it was broken, but it healed up before we butchered the pig.  He looked at me and said, “I guess he did break a bone.”  Nothing like a necropsy at the table.

Leia Mais…

170. I know but you do not

Host nephew (3 years old):  I know the word for cucumber in Romanian, Moldovan and Russian.
Me:  Do you know how to say it in English?
Host nephew:  Yes.  I know but you don't.
Me:  You do not know.
Host nephew:  Yes I do!  I know, but you do not.  I know but my grandmother said that I could not tell you.

Yes, he is one of those phases where he is always right.

Leia Mais…

169. Tractor on a Hill

You may wonder, why is this tractor sitting on a hill?  It could roll away, it could hurt someone or it could be blocking the path.  But more than likely the battery and or starter do not work, so the easiest way to start it is to park it on a hill and then when you want to go let it roll down to 'push start' the tractor.

I have seen more cars and tractors push started in Moldova than in my entire life in America.  I think that is mainly because in America a huge percentage of cars are automatic and cannot be push started but the other obvious point would be that people can save some money by not bothering to fix the starter/replace the battery by push starting.

One tractor I came across had a very small motor (like that on a string trimmer) that was used as a starter for a tractor.  My host dad uses a welder run through a converter to operate the starter so he does not have to use a battery.

Leia Mais…

168. Confidence

There are many different things that I have learned or strengthened my knowledge about during my time in the Peace Corps, many of those things are not quantitative or easily explained.  One of the main things that have strengthened is my confidence.

The other day I was helping a fellow volunteer conduct a Halloween party.  The party had music, face painting, ‘pin the tail on the cat’ and other fun and competitive activities.  The main volunteer who planned the event set everything up and was working the front door, which was a good place for her to be because she knew many of the participants.  The other volunteers were pretty happy talking to each other and helping with the different activities.  The party started out real well but after a while the participants just sat and listened to the music.

I asked the Moldovans that were helping to welcome everyone to the event and to show/promote the different activities that they could take part in, but they were shy high school students.  I, with my still fairly poor Romanian, got on stage and tried to welcome everyone and show them the activities available to them.

This shows two things, that I am getting more confident in my language and that I am just more confident in myself general.  I knew that we could get the youth more active by giving them their options and no one else wanted to do anything, so I had to try.

What will it be like for me when I return to America?  Will this newly strengthened confidence follow me to America or will it stay in Moldova?  If I am in a future social/work situation that is difficult I hope I will find more confidence by remembering that I am a native speaker of English, at least I do not have to fight that battle, so why should I be afraid?

Leia Mais…

167. Picking Grapes and Making Wine

This year I got to see and help my host family with all of the wine making process.  Last year I was at a training and missed harvesting of the grapes (see last year's post).

The first thing that is done, is to clean the barrels which the grapes will be placed while fermenting.  We just used water and scrubbed the outside and the inside of the barrels.  After the barrels were clean we boiled water with Walnut tree leaves and poured the water into the and covered the barrels, the mixture disinfected the barrels.

 Then the fun part comes, picking the grapes.  Three of us picked 70% of the grapes in one day.  It was not difficult, but it took a little while and my back did hurt the next day.

When all of the buckets were full, we took a little break to crush the grapes.  After that the grapes would sit in the barrels for an amount of time based on the temperature outside.  If it is warm outside the grape juice ferments more quickly than if the weather is cool.

You can check out my last year's post to see the next steps in the wine making process:  2010 blog post.

Leia Mais…

166. Birthday

My second birthday in Moldova was enjoyable.  It was not at all like last year (see post) but I had fun.  I was in the capital city because I had to be in the next day for a medical checkup.  I hung out with some Americans, went to a youth group housed out of the Jewish center which prompts and learns about different cultures, had dinner with a bunch of European volunteers and a Japanese volunteer and then had a few beers with a friend in the capital.

When I got back to my village Monday I was surprised with a nice meal, homemade sheep's wool socks and some shampoo with the Russian was of spelling my name.  It was a nice, low key birthday and I enjoyed it.

Leia Mais…

165. Thanksgiving

While there is no national holiday called Thanksgiving in Moldova, churches throughout Moldova celebrate Thanksgiving.  In the villages Thanksgiving really is thanking God for the weather and the food that was grown, so many rely on food they personally grew.

Here are some photos from the local Baptist church and their celebration.  There were many people from villages around that came to celebrate this event and invited everyone there to their own Thanksgiving celebrations.

After the service the church invited everyone to have a meal.  It was a lot of fun to see so many people and celebrate a year’s worth of work to grown and conserve the food needed for the winter.

Leia Mais…

164. Visiting Another Village

One day my host dad said, "Tomorrow I am going to another village, do you want to come with me?"  I was free that day and I never pass up a day to visit somewhere I have never been in Moldova, especially when it is one of the villages close to where I live.

  

My host dad and I left in the morning with a sack lunch.  The reason were visited is because it was the village where my host mom grew up and she had some land over there.  My host dad went to update the land deed and to see how much wheat was grown on the land and to pay the farmers that planted and harvested it.

Host mom's childhood home

It was fun to see where my host mom grew up and to see another village in Moldova.  We also visited a priest that is originally from the village where I live.  He gave us a tour of his church and tried to talk me into becoming orthodox.

Leia Mais…

163. Tacos

One of the goals of the Peace Corps is to share American culture with Moldovans.   I decided to do that by making my host family and tutor tacos.  I know, it is not 100% American, but we like and eat a lot of tacos or at least I do.

This was the third think that I have ever made for my host fame, the first thing was Skyline Chili and the second was spaghetti with homemade red sauce.

Overall they liked tacos.  I could not find the fajita so we made them ourselves, my mother sent a seasoning packet for the meat and the rest was simple.  My host dad thought that the meat was too spiced and said that the, “the meat did not taste like meat”.  My host mom liked them and said we will make them in the future.

Leia Mais…