Back from the North

Just to give everyone a heads up, please keep in mind that lots of Moldovans may be reading my blog. I make lots of new friends every day, and they all become part of my social and professional circle just like you all are back in the States. As the Peace Corps constantly reminds us, try to be culturally sensitive with your comments. Everything you all have written so far has been great, so keep the same attitude with your future posts. The Peace Corps' mission is "to promote world peace and friendship", so the last thing I want is for one of my Moldovan friends to get offended by an innocent remark that got misinterpreted. Ok, I've mentioned the administrative jargon the Peace Corps wanted us to relay, so that should take care of the next two years.

I traveled to the north of Moldova to my village for three days this past weekend (can't say the name for security reasons, but it's near Drochia if anyone is interested in looking at a map). When I got off the bus and greeted people with the typical "Buna Ziua", which is Good Day in romanian, everyone responded with "Zdsarfuite", which is hello in russian. That's not how it's spelled, but the russian caryllic alphabet is ridicuously difficult. The point being, I'm studying romanian during training, but I am definately going to pick up on some russian very soon. I am going to continue to study romanian after training with a tutor in my village, but it's inevitable that I learn some russian soon. Julia, if you're reading this, I wish I would have studied some russian with you before I left :) Anyways, it shouldn't be problem, because everyone in the country is biligual.

I gave my host dad some Tabasco sauce the other day. He ate three bites, and pushed his chair back from the table and starting laughing. His first tabasco experience was his last. My host brother, on the other hand, is halfway through the bottle. A typical daily diet for me usually consist of lots of bread, homemade cheese, salomi, cucumbers, tomatoes, mamalinga (somewhat simliar to grits), buckwheat, sarmale (rice filled cabbage rolls), oatmeal, placinta (pastries filled with cheese, potatoes, or fruit) and all the fruit and tea a human being can consume. The national dishes are mamalinga, placinta, and sarmale.

I have some pics at home on my camera that I'll post later, but I'm in the neighboring village at a internet cafe at the moment without my camera. When I leave here, I'll jump on a 15 passenger van with about 35 other Moldovans, and I'll ride back into my village of Milestii Mici for one or two (yes two) dinners with family. Most evenings I help my host family in the garden or my host dad with his tractor. Life is real busy now with language training every day, but my life in one month is going to change dramatically once I'm the only American in my village and I'm actually "working". I'm really excited, because I received a very warm welcome when I visited my permanent village this past weekend. As soon as I got in, I was taken around the village for a quick tour, and then we went to small bar where we served a feast. The mayor joined us, and I got to try out some of my fresh romanian language with him. He is predominately russian speaking, but spoke romanian for my sake :) He seems like a great guy and hard working, so I'm looking forward to teaming with him on some projects in my village.


Fii sanatos - be healthy.