192. Beyond Good Intentions

An American woman has traveled the world with her backpack and her camera to try the story of international aid.  She traveled to Asia, Africa and South America and created 10 short episodes.  The stories she made are about 10 different subjects, from micro-finance to researching what works in international aid.

If you are interested at all in international aid or would like to hear some stories about how people are trying to help others all around the world, check out the website:

Beyond Good Intentions: BeyondGoodIntentions.com

She also did an episode about Peace Corps Volunteers in Madagascar:  Episode 6

Overall I think she did a good job on the episode about the Peace Corps, but she did not address the goals of the Peace Corps.  The Peace Corps' mission and goals are (PeaceCorps.gov):

Mission

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship.

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

1.     Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

2.     Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

3.     Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

So as you can see, the Peace Corps is not your typical international aid organization.  We focus more on capacity building, education and relationships rather than aid projects.  I think the episode could have been better if she would have started out by establishing the Peace Corps goals and then proceeding into what we do.

Peace Corps also affects how other countries view America.  If nothing else, the Peace Corps helps other people understand America and American people better.  I would say that most Peace Corps volunteers are one of the first/few Americans that many of the people we generally work with meet (maybe not so much in Moldova), especially because we are Americans living in villages and speaking the native language.

Leia Mais…

191. Favorite word in Romanian

A German friend of mine who has been living in Moldova for a while looked me very seriously and asked, “What is your favorite word in Romanian?”

I looked at him and replied, “Mahala.” He then says, “Yes! That is what I was hoping you would say.”

‘Mahala’ in the dictionary means suburb, but in Moldova (maybe in Romania too) it is commonly used for the neighborhood.

The reason that this word it my favorite word in Romanian is because it is just so fun to say. For English speakers I would phonetically spell the word ‘mahala’ as Mah-hall-lah. It is just so much fun to say! Just add 'mah' to the beginning of what this guys says:

Leia Mais…

190. Die of hunger

The organizations I work with operates a computer lab.  Since more and more people have computers and the Internet in their homes the computer lab is having difficulty making ends meet.  Besides the Internet, games, and Skype we also offer printing, scanning and take passport photos.

The operator of the computer lab opens up the lab at 3pm and closes it at 10pm.  He is a high school student so he cannot open it any earlier.  We are currently doing a test to see in by me opening the lab earlier if our income will increase.

I volunteered to open up the lab every weekday from 11am to 3pm.  After a month or so, if it was beneficial, we will try to find someone who wants the job of opening up the lab earlier.  I do not know what will happen, the lab is generally just used by students but with the longer hours we could make more money through printing, scanning and taking photos.

I have worked in the lab now for five days, I really do not mind it and it is good to get to know more of the students in the village.  The worst part is that my host family thinks that I am going to die of hunger on Tuesday and Thursdays.  On those days I leave the house at about 10:30am, work in the lab until 3pm, and then I have Romanian lessons for two hours and do not get home until after 5pm.

Now, I pack myself a lunch but I do not think my host family trusts me to pack enough food.  The tradition in Moldova is that you have soup at every lunch, so they think I am unhealthy since I do not get a bowl of soup and because I eat an apple and a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Leia Mais…

189. You say crap, I say carp

The bottom dwelling fish originally from Asia which we call ‘Carp’ in English is a very common fish in Moldova.  I would guess that it is the most common fish I lakes and streams in Moldova.  It is also a very popular and inexpensive fish to eat.

For English speakers it is fun to talk about carp because is Romanian the word is crap.  So if you ask someone in Moldovva, “What kind of fish are you eating?” They will probably reply, “Crap”.

Leia Mais…

188. Girls' Hair

My host parent’s grandchildren came to visit for the holiday season.  We had a three year old boy and three girls that are five, nine and fourteen years old.

One day at the dinner table my host mom and the granddaughters were talking about hairstyles.  The discussion started because someone remarked that the grandson needs a haircut, which then started a discussion about women’s hairstyles.  My host mom was saying how it is currently popular to have hair covering part of the face but she did not like it.  The girls said that the style was no longer trendy and now long hair was popular.

My host mom then made the point that simple hairstyles that could be pulled back were beautiful and functional.  She then said, “All the girls that have visited Tim from Germany and other countries had simple and practical hairstyles that were very nice.”

Of course, both of my host nieces gave me the look of - you have lots of female visitors, huh?  I was not even in the conversation but the joke was on me.  And no mom, they were just friends.

Leia Mais…

187. America in the Eyes of a Moldovan

I am often asked about America, everything from how I heat my house to my pets to American’s second language and many others.  I will also bring up the differences between America and Moldova when I think that people may be interested in the differences (which may not be different at all).

But I really enjoy it when I hear a Moldovan’s view of America.  My host mom was in Washington DC for three months, so it is always interesting to hear her views of America.  I also talked to a young man who moved to America when he was 13 or so and came back for a month over the summer to visit family.  It was very interesting to hear what he shared with his friends about America.

Most recently I listened to a conversation between a few teachers in my village.  I was going to my biweekly tutoring lesson at the local school and found my tutor with two other teachers.  It was during Christmas break and they were finishing up some paperwork.

One of the teachers had just returned from visiting her son in America.  He has been living in America, just outside of Atlanta, for the last five years or so.  I was a little jealous when I heard of her trip.  First she flew into and visited New York City; she went to the World Trade Center site among other things.  She then travelled to Washington DC, Atlanta, Miami and then somewhere on the Gulf of Mexico.

Some of her observations were that hardly anyone lives in the city.  She said that most of the people from Atlanta actually live in one of the three surrounding cities.  The point is pretty interesting, because for the most part American cities are spread out and do not have a lot of people living in the center of the city unlike European cities.  She also mentioned that she never saw cloths hanging out to dry.  In Moldova clothes dryers are not common and everyone hangs their cloths out to dry, even in tall apartment buildings people have a clothes drying rack attached to the outside of their window.  Another teacher asked if it was true that people do not take off their shoes when entering homes, she replied that it was true because everything was paved and there was not mud or dirt that could get tracked into the home.

The more I hear what Moldovans find interesting about Moldova the better I can respond when a new acquaintance asks me to talk about America.

Leia Mais…

186. In the Middle of the Night

Generally I come home at around 7 at night.  It is dark when I get home.  I have a little light on my phone and since there is generally no one walking around in my neighborhood I might talk to myself, hum or sing as I walk to my house.

The other day I had just came up the hill turned the corner and was about 25 yards away from my house.  With my phone light in hand I am paying attention to the ground to make sure I do not fall or step in horse dung and I see some human feet in front of me.  I do not know if they noticed, but I jumped.  I then see that it was my neighbor hanging in the road outside of her house saying goodbye to her boyfriend. 

I am guessing that they were so embarrassed that I caught them making that they did not notice that I jumped when I saw them.

Leia Mais…

185. Don't Laugh

As I was walking down the snowy wet road I saw a man get out of his car.  As he walked towards his destination he almost fell, but he regained his footing.  When I saw this I chuckled to myself and said to myself, “He needs to slow down”.

About twenty steps later… I stepped in an area of the sidewalk with was uneven, tripped and fell to the ground.  Not only did I get my coat muddy but I also my pants and my whole left leg was soaked and at least one person watched it all.

As I walked home grumbling, I wondered if God was trying to remind me not to make fun of others.  Or maybe, and probably more likely, I just need to pay more attention to my surroundings.

Leia Mais…

184. New Year's Eve

Some Moldovans have Christmas trees, but they are expensive
and are not too commonly grown, so this was our tree.

This was my first New Years Eve celebration in Moldova.  Last year I went with a few friends on vacation to a couple cities in Romania.  It was a lot of fun, but I am glad I stayed this year to experience the coming of the New Year with my host family.

Raisins, sweet brinza (homemade cheese) and sour cream rolled up and then cooked.

All three of my host siblings and their families came for all or part of the weekend, so the house was full.  We ate a lot of traditional Moldovan foods such as sarmale (cabbage rolls), placinta (thin amounts of potatoes, cabbage or cheese in a disc shape surrounded in breading), Olivia (a cold salad common in Russia but first done by the French)  and salt-cured fish.  We ate a lot and often. 

Preparing for the Olivia salad.

Sarmale - Rice and meat rolled in pickled cabbage leaves.

Poems and songs are important parts to Moldovan culture, at least with the families that I have interacted with.  All of the children in Moldova, or so it seems, have memorized some poems and a few of those are about Christmas.  My host family celebrated New Years and Christmas together.  The whole family gave candy, small gifts and money to the children after they said a poem or sang a carol.

After we had our last meal of 2011 together we each had a title of a poem written by Vasile Alecsandri at our place at the table.  Vasile Alecsandri was a popular poet who was born in Romanian in 1821.  The poems we read were about life, the seasons and Christmas.  We each read the poem that was given to us.

Sometime that night a group of Carolers came by.  They had a drum and other instruments.  One was dressed as a ram which is traditional for the New Year... but I cannot remember why.  They sang a song or two and we gave them a little money for their trouble and they went onto the next house.

The last 10 minutes of 2011 we watched the television as the president of Moldova gave his will wishes for the future year.  Then a stage in the center of Chisinau, where a large concert was being held, a man counted down until the clock hit 2012.  After that there were many fireworks both on the television and in the village.  Then they played the Chariots of Fire song, which was nice but not quite Auld Lang Syne.  So as I was humming Auld Lang Syne to myself I noticed that the keyboard that my host niece has plays 100 songs, one of which was Auld Lang Syne so I played it.

New Year’s Day was not too much different.  There was a lot of eating, fireworks and some carolers visited.  It was a lot of fun and I am glad that I got to experience it with my host family.

Leia Mais…

183. Caroling

I went caroling with a group of youth/young adults in my village.  We were a group of about 25 people and were accompanied by guitars, tambourine, bells and an accordion. There were about 15 or so songs that we sang throughout the night.  The majority of the songs were in Romanian but there were a few in Russian.

Here are a few songs that I heard in Romanian, usually the melody was the same but the words and overall meaning were different:

-Little Drummer Boy

-We Wish You a Merry Chrismtas

-We Three Kings

-O Christmas Tree

-Jingle Bells

At my Romanian lesson a few days before Christmas I learned/wrote down three Romanian carols, so when I went caroling I knew at least the three most popular.  It was a very useful lesson because we also translated the songs which helped my grammar when I listened to the messages given at church.  I learned/reviewed words like manger, angles, shepherd, virgin Mary, and other words used a lot in the Christmas message.

As we went caroling through the village if there were children at the home one of the people dressed as Santa Clause would come up to the door after we sang and ask the child to say a poem before he gave them a gift.  Then generally the people could give us something to drink and/or eat quickly, and then we would move to the next house.  We visited a lot of different people, but we mostly focused on families and the elderly.  We caroled Christmas Eve and Christmas nights from around 8pm to 2am.

One other interesting thing that I learned is that if you literally translate the Romanian name for Santa Clause it would be “Old Man Christmas”.

Leia Mais…