Yo, what's up? I couldn't be more happier to type that the snow is finally melting. It's been a few months of a tough winter, and I'm coming out of hibernation with some speed. I don't know where I'm going with my speed, but get out of my way. Here's a few things that I experienced in the Moldovan winter that I didn't experience in the States:
- Making a fire twice a day to heat my apartment
- Convincing villagers, on a daily basis, that I know how to make a fire
- Wearing the same pair of long johns for weeks on end
- Wearing the same two sweaters all winter ( I think I may have also did this in the States)
- Fetching buckets of water from the well in -15 degrees F
- Forgetting to put the water I fetched from the well in the one and only heated room, only to come home to frozen buckets of water that are worthless
- Seeing everything in my kitchen frozen: olive oil, juice, conserved veggies, etc.
- Sledding down a hill with village kids that took a solid 5 minutes to reach the bottom, and then losing control and slamming into a pile of snow at the bottom
- Riding with Moldovans in a horse drawn sleigh on the snow for 5 kilometers, through rolling hills between a predominately Russian village and a predominately Ukranian village, speaking a Moldovan dialect of Romanian, and realizing again that I'm living in Eastern Europe and not in South Carolina
Here's the work that's occupying my time these days:
PCPP Project- The village mayor, my partner, and I have written a project to build an amphitheatre in the village center to host folk singing and dancing in an effort to give the village kids something positive to occupy their time, and to encourage more social interaction amongst all of the villagers. Don't worry, you all will be receiving plenty of information on this project soon, because money is something we don't have.
English club - I hang out with kids from the village every Tues and Thurs and I teach them English, how to be cool, how to stay in school, and how to say nope to dope.
Language booklet - With two other PC volunteers I am writing a reference booklet for the local dialect of Romanian that is spoken in Moldova. The Moldovan language is Romanian, but in many areas of Moldova has been mixed with Russian and Ukranian because of the Soviet era. With the input and help from many Moldovan villagers, we are collecting all of the common language that is spoken in the village so that PC Volunteers can get a better grasp on the spoken language. We learn textbook Romanian during our training, but the villagers speak very differently.
Moldova TiP - I am serving on the board of an anti-human trafficking organization that works to connect Moldovan organizations that fight human trafficking to PC Volunteers so that vulnerable people in Moldova, especially the young girls who are planning to work abroad, can be informed about the dangers they face. If you google Moldova, the first item that usually pops up is human trafficking, which is a shame. If you are interested to read more about the situation in Moldova, there is more than enough information you can read on the web, or you can just get in touch with me.
Investment seminar - Another PC Volunteer and I are writing a project to host a seminar (maybe multiple?) on the importance of understanding personal finances, and how to invest in your future and put your money to good use, which is clearly a problem in Moldova. Many Moldovans are forced to work abroad, but when they return to the village the money is not usually invested or saved. We hope to inform groups of people, for example, that houses are not assets, because they don't bring back a return on investment (not taking into account a real estate market).
As for fun, I kick it daily with the villagers, speaking Romanian some days like it's my job, and I'm planning my vacation to Italy in April and a hiking trip in the Transylvania area of Romania in May. The amount of free time a PC Volunteer has is plentiful, so sometimes it takes creativity to fill my time: running, poking and staring at my fire, sucking at the guitar, sucking even worse at the harmonica, and sucking even worse than that at studying Russian. Russian is a beautiful language, though, so I hope to learn enough to carry on very simple conversations before I leave Moldova. Spring is finally coming, so I can get back out to the gardens and fields with Moldovans while they're planting all their food for next winter. Who's coming to visit?
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