Dancing with Moldovans

Water Project

2011-04-13T02:55:00.001-07:00

We recently wrote a water project for the village school to make the water safer for drinking. You can read about it by clicking here.

Vice President Biden in Moldova

2011-03-14T02:15:00.000-07:00

Vice President Biden made a visit to Moldova this week and spoke about the current situation of Moldova's slow, but progressive, transition to a democratic nation since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. This was the first visit to Moldova by an American president or vice-president. You can partially see my head below the "M" in Moldova in the picture above. The main street in the capital city was lined with Moldovan and American flags to welcome in Biden. All of the Peace Corps volunteers in Moldova were invited to stand behind him on stage as he spoke to a large crowd of Moldovans in the capital city. Afterwards, VP Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden invited the Peace Corps Volunteers and embassy employees to a private meet-and-greet. After he, his wife, and the ambassador had spoken, one of his secretaries asked all the Peace Corps Volunteers to stand in a group so that he could get a quick picture with us. When he came over, he asked to get in the middle of our huddle and he spoke to us for about 10 minutes -this was cool. I enjoyed him asking us questions about our experience in Moldova and telling us his opinions on the political state of our host country. He spoke a good bit about the importance of empowering women so that human trafficking could be eliminated in Moldova. He also said that Moldova may drop to a "Tier 3" country on the United States' three-tier system of evaluating countries for foreign aid. As of now, Moldova is a Tier 2 country, but is on the borderline of falling to a Tier 3 - if Moldova becomes a Tier 3 country then the United States will cut off all financial aid. VP Biden said that there are three things that the United States won't tolerate and will drop a country to the lower tier: 1) slavery (aka human trafficking), 2) institutional corruption, 3) lack of freedom of the press.

I believe and hope that Moldova will continue to evolve productively and the citizens will continue to have more of their rights respected and legal system improved.

Winter Update

2011-01-27T04:38:00.000-08:00

I have now been living in Moldova for over 1.5 years. Wow. It seems like yesterday when I started up this blog in my nice little living room in my old, rented mill house in Columbia, SC. I had no idea what my Peace Corps experience would be like, but I knew I was ready for a new adventure, a new country, a new language, and lots of potatoes.

I could write about how much I've personally changed over the past 1.5 years, but I wouldn't know where to begin. My outlook on most things in life has changed in one way or another. My mind has been stretched on a daily basis, and my patience and open-mindedness tested frequently. I had no idea I would be wearing this much fur. This has been a humbling and educating experience, and I hope I can build on it.

I knew I loved traveling before I came to Peace Corps, but I didn't know how much I would enjoy learning Romanian and seeing a culture from the inside; in other words, not stopping through the capital city for a few days as a tourist. Don't misunderstand me, I love taking a few days vacation to visit cool places, but there is something more gratifying about speaking the language and having locals take pride in the fact that you are really trying to understand their culture. With that said, I am beginning to study Spanish. When I return from Moldova in early August, I plan to live in southern Mexico for 3-4 months with a Spanish-speaking host family on an organic farm. I am contacting farms through WWOOF - World Wide Organization of Organic Farms - which is an online community of farms that offer to host volunteers to work in exchange for free room and board.

If everything goes as planned, I'll soon be having to refuse excessive amounts of Mexican tequila instead of Russian vodka! Paz mis amigos!

Proiectul nostru de baschet

2010-12-01T08:10:00.000-08:00

After a lot of hard work from the community, we finally finished our sports court project. The village school now has an outdoor court to play basketball, volleyball, and other activities like jump-rope during PE classes. Being that alcoholism and smoking are two of the biggest health problems in the village, this project was a big step for the community to take to promote a healthier and happier lifestyle to the youth. Check out my facebook page for an entire photo album of the project, from day one to the finished court.

Here's the sports court before our project.

Here's the finished court. Over 200 students, teachers, and participated in our opening ceremony. The mayor, school director, NGO president, and I all gave speeches thanking the community for working together to implement the project. This was my first chance to speak to a large crowd in the village, so I thanked everyone for accepting me into the community and for having the patience enough to help me learn their language and culture.

One of Moldova's national news programs did a short clip about our project and aired it on tv. Check out the video here:
http://www.trm.md/index.php?module=stiri_int&news_id=22216

Hramul Zguritei

2010-10-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

This week our village celebrated "Ziua Satului", the Day of the Village. Each village has its own celebration, but different villages have different dates throughout the year. Each family prepares lots of traditional dishes and invites friends and family to come in for a few days to eat, drink, and celebrate. A former Peace Corps volunteer that served in my village three years ago flew in from the US to visit Zgurita for the first time since he left. He also lived with my host family, so it was a big celebration for them to welcome in their old friend. It was a lot of fun sitting with another American who knows everything about my family, my village, and most of the experience that I am going through. He had not forgotten any of his Romanian, so we were all able to sit around the table for a few days, eat, and tell some good stories with our host family about our shared American experience in Moldova.

My work partner/host mom to the left wearing red, making "galushi" with some of her friends.

Galush, also known as sarmale, are cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, carrots, onions, meat, and pepper. These take a long time to prepare, but they are a Moldovan favorite.

I'm putting a pot of the "galushi" into a traditonal wood-fired oven. We were able to fit five pots in the oven at the same time to cook for a few hours.

After a few days of prepping food, we're finally at the dinner table. Here are my host family (minus my old host dad), two current PC volunteers, and the former PC volunteer who came to visit.

My host sister, Lenutsa. I speak to her with a mixture of Romanian and English, her mom and dad speak to her in Russian, and her grandparents speak to her using a strong Moldovan dialect of Romanian. She probably thinks we've lost our minds.

Neal, Derick, and I took a hike out of my village to see the countryside. We ran into an 83 year-old lady who was coming back from gathering some nuts, and like most "baba's" in the village, she was not shy about stopping us in the field and asking who we were and what we were doing there. She then proceeded to hand us all kinds of food and said, "Why are you young boys walking to the forest without food? This old lady has a bag full of food, but you boys don't have anything. Here, take this food and eat! Be healthy!" Two minutes before we didn't know this lady, and two minutes later she's forcing her hospitality upon us. Gotta love Moldova.

Strengthening sports in the community

2010-09-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

Two months ago the East European foundation, a subdivision of Eurasia foundation, partnered with the Moldovan Parliament to launch a grant competition called "Parteneriatul pentru copii", or the Partnership for Children. Both groups recognized that Moldova's youth was severely lacking in development opportunities and the childrens' free time was not be supported through community efforts. This is especially true in rural areas of Moldova, so their grant competition focused on improving recreational facilities in rural areas.

When I first arrived in Zgurita, one of the first thing I noticed was the lack of activities available for kids. I saw a lot of bars around, but no gymnasium, auditorium, cultural center, etc. There were two old basketball goals that were 30 years old left over from the Soviet days, but they were both leaning and broken. When you look at the basketball goal today, you can see the ground around the goal beaten down to only dirt, so it's obvious that the kids are trying to play and are interested. One of the first projects that my partner proposed we do in the village was to build a sports gymnasium at the school. Finding the resources to fund a huge project like that is really difficult, but we knew starting with a cheaper, outdoor court would be more feasible for us. This grant competition,"Parteneriatul pentru copii", was asking for applications to compete for grants up to $4,500, which was perfect for what we wanted to do.

My partner and I wrote a great grant to build a multi-purpose basketball and volleyball court at the school, and we were awarded the $2,900 assistance that we applied for. This Wednesday we will begin phase one by forming a group of volunteers from the school to cut the grass and weeds on the future site of our court and we should be able to start construction in about 2 weeks.

YouTube video

2010-09-01T02:48:00.000-07:00

Check out a video we made in the village to help raise money for our amphitheater project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdCtgJNDXH0

Guarding watermelons

2010-08-30T00:02:00.001-07:00

I was recently the paznic at my host family's watermelon field. They have about 10 acres of watermelon and cantaloupes planted. The paznic is a guard/watchman who's job is to merely sit and watch the watermelons to make sure that no one sneaks up and goes home with a few in the trunk of their car or in their horse buggy. Their is a paznic at the field 24/7 during the summer months until all of the watermelons and cantaloupes have ripened and been picked to sell at the local market. After sitting out in the Moldovan countryside for 10 hours alone, I learned that there's not much to do except to enjoy the slow pace of time....

The Family Cow

2010-08-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

Most of the families in my village have either a goat, sheep, or cow to produce enough milk for the entire household. From the fresh milk they also make cheese, buttermilk, and sour cream on a daily basis. This requires that a member of the family walk the animal out to different places in the village and leave the animal tied to a stake with a leash and collar so that it can graze on the grass all day. They go every evening and retrieve the animal because it must be milked daily and kept at their home overnight.

For the cow owners, there is a collective system in the village supported by public land owned by the local mayor's office. If the family chooses to participate in the collective system, each morning they walk the cow out to the head of the road, and from there the shepherds assume their duties to walk all of the cows to the field and watch them while they graze all day. For every cow you have in the collective system, you have to be shepherd one day in turn. Since there are about 70 cows in this system in our village, a family must send someone to be shepherd every 70th day. There is a schedule (not sure if it's verbal or written) that everyone knows about so they know when their day to be shepherd is coming up.

In the evenings the shepherds will walk the cows out of the fields and back to the head of the roads for the families to meet them. It's a daily routine for the cows, so they know their way home every evening and will walk unassisted into their gate and wait to be milked.

Seasons from a balcony

2010-08-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

Mentors with Mustaches

2010-06-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

On June 12 we welcomed in 68 new Peace Corps Volunteers in Moldova. I was selected to be a mentor, so I joined other Peace Corps Volunteers in the capital to welcome them on their first day. I waited at their hotel and we cheered them on as they stepped off the buses from the airport. Seeing them immediately brought back feelings that I had exactly one year ago when arriving in Moldova for the first time. For the past 6 - 12 months, these new volunteers have been preparing to leave their families, friends, and jobs behind to embark on a 27 month adventure on a different continent.

New volunteers arriving in Chisinau by bus from the airport. Day one of their two year service.

Mustache May: For the entire month of May, the guys in my volunteer group grew mustaches to have for the arrival of the new volunteer group to Moldova. My mustache, or lack of, was a joke, but lots of guys had some solid 'staches. Our plan was to play a prank on the incoming volunteers and have them thinking that a mustache is important for community integration in Moldova. As soon as the new volunteers stepped off the bus, the guys started making comments and asking questions about our mustaches. We told them that it is very important to grow a mustache for the villagers to accept them as one of their own. The truth is Moldovan men take pride in being clean-shaven. One guy said to me, "Vince, I'm not sure if I can grow a mustache" as he rubbed his fingers over his top lip.

More hellacious mustaches from our group.

Reflecting back on my past year in Moldova, I can say that so far this has been the experience of a lifetime. Because every day is a new adventure, there are too many stories to write about. I realize that one of the main reasons I left for the Peace Corps was to experience life outside of my comfort zone, to understand more about another culture, my culture, and myself. In Moldova, I see, hear, taste, smell, and feel different things than I did in America. From the language I speak, the village I live in, the people I meet, the food I eat, and the environment I see around me, my life has changed more than ever over the past year. Not only do I understand and appreciate the Moldovan culture more, but I also understand and appreciate the American culture much more than I did a year ago.

After being a mentor for three days and helping the volunteers get to their new villages, I went on a 4 day vacation with 9 other volunteers to Odessa, Ukraine. Odessa is a port city on the coast of the Black Sea and is filled with lots of cool architecture, good food, diverse people, and a nice beach. During the Soviet era, Odessa was sort of a bohemiam town that the artists living in the Soviet Union used as a vacation spot. Even though I speak Romanian in my village, I've been picking up on a little Russian as well, so I was forced to use the little Russian I knew while traveling around Odessa. After seeing Odessa, I'd really like to get to Kiev and L'viv, Ukraine since I live so close.

Opera house in the center of Odessa, Ukraine.

Government building with a few traditional village "babas" (elderly ladies) sitting in the shade.

Us taking a nice vacation in a developed eastern European beach town.

Donate please

2010-05-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

After lots of hard work, we finally have one of our projects posted to Peace Corps' website. If you are interested in learning about our project and how you can donate, please find a summary by visiting the link below:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=261-197&

Eastern Orthodox Baptism

2010-04-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

One of my work partner's wife recently had a baby, and they invited me yesterday to come to the baptism ceremony. I was also asked to be "cumetri" which is one of the godparents that are chosen (they chose 12 in total). Moldovans are Eastern Orthodox Christians, so I had no idea what to expect from a baptism service. For the record, there are 4 divisions of Christianity: Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic.

When I got there, I was asked by a nun to write my name on a list of the "cumetri" so that they priest could call my name during the service, but that's when we found the problem. I told her my name was Vincent, and she said that she didn't know how to translate that name to match one of the names in the Eastern Orthodox church. She threw out a few names like Victor and Ion, but we both agreed that I should ask the priest. When I asked the priest, he immediately asked, "Vincent, are you Catholic?" Ummmmmmmmmm, sure? "Well then, you can't be cumetri because you're not Orthodox", he said. I immediately wanted to say, "Of course I'm not Catholic", but I decided it would be better if I kept my mouth shut and just accepted that I couldn't be cumetri. Dangit.

The service was unlike anything I've seen. There are no chairs in an Eastern Orthodox church, so you stand for hours while the priest reads/sings from a book, which I'm guessing was a bible. At the beginning, the priest stood at the front of the church and starting giving everyone directions about how the service would take place, what everyone was supposed to do, and what I was not allowed to do. He told me that I was not allowed to walk a full circle around the bucket of water since I was not Orthodox. I was allowed to walk on three sides, but never should I step foot on the back side of the floor. When someone tells you that you can't do something, like step foot on a certain piece of floor, aren't you so tempted to stick your leg out and place your toe on it when no one is looking?

The cumetri (godparents) walking with the priest holding the baby around the body of water the baby was baptized in.

Several Moldovans asked me afterwards what did I think was the most interesting part of the service. I told them all that I've never seen a baby dunked in water, and that I got scared why I was filming and felt the sudden urge to take the baby away from the priest.

Eastern Orthodox church in our village

Lots of crosses everywhere in the village and all over Moldova

Two nuns who read and sang passages throughout the service

The priest....notice the bottle of champagne in the background.

After the service, the godparents came to the parents' house for another Moldovan tradition where they give money and hold candles over the newly baptized baby while they wish the baby a healthy and prosperous life.

Like all celebrations in Moldova, the day ended with a meal with endless amounts of food, vodka, and wine. I was glad to finally have the chance to wear the three-piece suit that I brought from the States. I was told by some people that I looked like I was going to a wedding, and told by others that I looked like I was going to a funeral, so basically everything except a baptism service.

Muzica la masa

2010-04-22T08:43:00.001-07:00

I've recently made friends with a cool Moldovan couple who live in a village a little over 30 minutes from my village. I met the guy at a two day seminar I attended which was given in Russian, and he helped translate a good bit for me in Romanian. Justin, another Peace Corps Volunteer, and I visited their village of Pelinia and got a great tour of another classic Moldovan village. Their village is really different from mine, because everyone in their village is of Romanian decent, and over half of my village are from Russia and Ukraine. After a full day's tour of riding around with them and their friends and visiting the main attractions in the village, we were welcomed to a classic Moldovan masa, which is a meal served with an infinite amount of food and wine. To top it all off, Maria played us some Moldovan folk music on the violin while we ate. Check out the video:

Mr. Mayor is not a vegan.

2010-03-10T23:11:00.000-08:00

Three of us Peace Corps Volunteers (Sam, Justin, and I) were making rounds around Justin's village talking to the many families that he's friends with. As we were talking to an Eastern Orthodox priest and his family, we noticed the time and realized the last bus from his village was leaving shortly. As we started saying goodbye and rushing away, the priest offered us a ride back to my village. He warned us though, we'd have to ride in his small car full of chickens. When he opened the hatchback trunk of his little car (about the size of a Geo Metro), sure enough, there were 5 chickens hopping around pecking dirt and such on the floor. The rooster looked at us and belted out a crow, as if he was welcoming us to hop in. It's times like these that I realize how awesome my experience is in Moldova. If you opened the trunk of my car in America, you'd probably find a spare tire, golf clubs, tennis rackets, dirty t-shirts, and an Accounting 102 textbook from sophmore year of college. However, if Peace Corps allowed us to have cars in Moldova, I'm pretty certain that I would drive around Moldova with live chickens. Way cooler.

When we got to my village, we all stopped by my mayor's office so I could introduce my friends and speak with him about our current project. We spoke a little about the amphitheatre we want to build in the village, and about our plans to raise the money. After 20 minutes or so of chatting about the project, we started talking with him about our plans for dinner. Two more volunteers were planning on arriving in my village that evening, so we wanted to have a nice dinner prepared for their arrival. Sam told my mayor we were looking for a live goose to buy, clean, and cook, so the mayor immediately starting calling around the village. He contacted about 5 families, but everyone told him that their geese count was low and they couldn't afford to sell one. After a few more attempts, the mayor gave up and told us we should just buy a rabbit from him instead. He said he raised rabbits, and offered to kill and dress the rabbit so that it would be prepared for us to cook for supper. Here's another fine example of why I enjoy my experience in Moldova: there is a fine line here between professional relationships and friendships. In the States, if I was speaking with my mayor about implementing a project in the community, I probably wouldn't have asked him/her to call around in the community looking for a live animal that I could eat for supper. However, this is a part of Moldova that probably will never leave me when I return to America. If I can't speak with a professional colleague about our project plans and rabbits in the same meeting, then I think we're missing the point.

Omatul se duce, ne vedem iarna viatoare. Paka.

2010-02-25T06:55:00.000-08:00

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?

La odihnă

2010-02-03T04:04:00.000-08:00

For almost two weeks, I traveled with four other Peace Corps Volunteers to Romania, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Being that the temperature in Moldova has been getting down to -28 Celsius (-18 F), it was a much needed vacation to be in some warmer temperatures. The adventure beat all expectations: the food, the people, the culture, the history, the sights, and the hookahs. The people of the Middle East were some of the nicest people I've ever met, so I hope I get to return one day. Each day and each country brought us new experiences, so I'd have to write for days to describe how awesome it was. I'll let the 200 pics in the below album tell the story:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2403070&id=12606643&l=ab71b26721

Ninje tare tare

2009-12-23T00:55:00.000-08:00

There's enough snow for everyone. This week the temperature got down to -23 C, which is -10 F. Here's my good ol' village of Zguriţa.

Traditional house in the village.

Main road out of my village. There is a town 20 km straight ahead.

My bus stop is at the bottom of this hill. I usually hitch hike, so this is the road I use to thumb for cars to stop when driving into town.
One of my favorite houses in the village.

This is my soba (fireplace) that keeps my apartment heated. When I moved into the building there was a statue of Lenin on top of the soba.

Reading Communism: A History by Richard Pipes and having Lenin's head looking across your living room is a very bittersweet thing.

Me and Justin thinking up grand plans to bring change to the world.

First Moldovan masa at my place with Justin and Kim, two awesome Volunteers who live in my district of Moldova.

This Friday I am leaving with four other Peace Corps Volunteers for a 12 day vacation to the Middle East. We'll be seeing Romania, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Check back in a few weeks for lots of pics of camels, hummus, hookahs, Jews, pyramids, Muslims, and 75 degree weather. Peace.

Iarna a venit.

2009-12-16T00:11:00.000-08:00

Winter has come and the snow is here to stay for a while. Here's a view from my balcony on the fourth floor.

The last time it snowed in South Carolina I watched a dog mark his territory on my snow man. Not cool.

How to enjoy a beer in Moldova

2009-12-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

To enjoy a cold beer in a Moldovan village, you may need to take the following steps:

Buy six cubic meters of wood. Have a friend with a tractor and trailer help you transport it.

Hire someone in the village with a chainsaw, and hold the logs while he cuts them.

Find an ax, put on a pair of gloves, and split wood for several days.

Stack the split wood by the soba, which is used to heat the house.

Stack wood on the balcony.

Stack wood in the kitchen. In fact, stack wood anywhere and everywhere.

Learn the art of starting the fire.

When the house warms up, invite a Moldovan in to play the guitar.

Sit by the soba and take a personal day.

Fetiţa

2009-11-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

A piece of a Romanian conversation I had last night at a birthday party:

Sergiu:"Vince, I didn't name my baby until a week after she was born."
Me: "Wait, I don't understand. What did you call her for that week?"
Sergiu: "Ehhh, you know, Little Girl."

Peşte pe strada

2009-11-18T09:32:00.000-08:00

Today I didn't hitchhike, but instead I timed it just right and caught a rutiera (public mini bus) out of the village. I somehow lucked up and got the front seat. Most of the time there are no seats and I'm stuck standing; hence, why I like to hitchhike. As we were pulling away from the village, I saw a fish hanging in the road. No kidding, there was literally a fish hanging halfway across the road on a stick. Apparently, a lady had caught a good sized fish from our lake, stuck the fish on a long stick, and tied the base of the stick to the guard rails on our bridge. I hadn't seen excellent business marketing in Moldova until today. Every car or bus that drove across the bridge had no choice but to see the fish. Sure enough, our bus driver sees the fish and whips our rutiera full of people clear across two lanes to pull over to the lady. I could hear some folks start mumbling in the back of the bus. I guess he didn't like the price, because he dropped the gearstick into low gear and started speeding away. Immediately, three bunicas (grandmas) leaned over my shoulder to ask the driver the price. One bunica didn't hear what he said, so she hit me on the shoulder and said "cît costa mei?", which is village speak for "how much does it cost boy?"

A fost prea scump.

buna ziua

2009-11-18T00:30:00.000-08:00

"Learning humanizes character and does not permit it to be cruel."
-motto of The University of South Carolina

pigs, Park Place, and paddy wagons

2009-11-09T23:51:00.000-08:00

Life is good in Moldova. Winter is coming fast. It snowed a little last week. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that I haven't changed my long john pants in two weeks. When it's freezing outside, only one room of your house is heated by burning wood, you don't have running water, and you have to hand wash clothes, you seem to forget about how dirty your clothes are. For all honestly though, I don't think I smell.

As for language, one day my Romanian is unstoppable, and the next day I can't say much of anything. Living in a small village is leading me to speaking Romanian like I live in a small village. I started my Peace Corps service learning clean and proper Romanian, but my village of 2,000 people has quickly changed that. The more language I learn in the village, the more of a hick I sound like when I go into the cities of Moldova. It's a little like leaving South Carolina and visiting my buddies in the Northeast; however, to them I only have a strong accent. The villagers in Moldova use many different nouns, verbs, and phrases on top of having a different accent than the folks living in the cities of Moldova. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy speaking the village talk with people in the cities. Most of the city folks in Moldova grew up in villages, moved into the cities, and cleaned up their language. Most of the people I encounter seem to like it when I pull out the country talk....maybe it hits close to home.

Hitch-hiking is prevalent around my village, as well in the rest of Moldova, so I usually hitch a ride to and from the nearest town when I need to go in to the open market to shop. Somehow, me and about 9 other Moldovans ended up hitching a ride from the police......in the back of the Paddy Wagon. As the 10 of us sat in a circle in the back facing each other, everyone seemed to be smiling. I think it was because we weren't handcuffed. Someone should have had a guitar.

Here's a few kids that live on my street. I had to present my village at a conference with Peace Corps, so I put the kids to work and had them draw maps and pictures of our village. If I would have known that they were giving me bunny ears in the pic, I would have slammed a kid.

Hardly none of them knew where America was on the map, and only one or two knew where Moldova was. They all knew where Russia was.

Kickin' it with some PC volunteers in my raion (district). We had an Arabic knock-off version of Monopoly that has taken into account years of inflation (big bill was 50,000). Martin, the guy to the left, is convinced that the utilities are a good buy. He had a lucky game with them, but I'm still convinced to stay away from the utilities.

We had two more weeks of training with Peace Corps, so I went back and stayed with my first host family in Milestii Mici. It's been a few months since I last saw them, and my Romanian has developed a good bit, so they were happy that I could actually speak now. As you can see in the picture, they sent me home with a bottle of homemade wine in my hand.

The Placinta's at Milestii Mici. My host mom and dad went and bought a pig the first day I got there, so for the first few days we toasted our shots of wine by saying "pentru porcul sa creasca mare" or "for the pig to grow big".

After doing a little work in the village of Cotova, we rode in the back of Vloidea's big blue truck through the village to go to a bar for a coffee and beer.

Three American volunteers, three Moldovan villagers, and a spontaneous meal and drinks on top of chairs in the middle of the living room.

Funky looking Soviet tractor that refuses to stop working.

Small flour mill close to my house in my village.

Typical village houses

I'm going into Balti to stay with another volunteer this weekend. He has a toilet, running water, and a bathtub. Holler if you hear me.

Eu sint ocupat in Milestii Mici, dar poftim.

2009-10-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

I've written in the past about Transnistria, the region of Moldova that operates as an independent country but it not recognized by the rest of the world. Here is a short documentary that BBC filmed about Moldova and Transnistria. The first clip on YouTube is about 8 minutes, but hopefully it will interest you enough to continue on with the other 3 sections (4 separate sections on YouTube).

p.s. he doesn't pronounce the capital, Chişinua, correctly

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmrLbTHBV3s

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHZLV8aEtWQ&NR=1

Part 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Esw48a4zk&feature=channel

Part 4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEXs6YxUUfQ&feature=channel

Lucrul e tare tare greu

2009-10-17T02:57:00.000-07:00

I am traveling back to my first village, Milestii Mici, for two weeks more of Peace Corps training. One of those days we will have a gallery/presentation walk-though in which every volunteer has a station to present their respective village and organization and what we've learned over the first two months living at our permanent sites. I will only be presenting information on my primary projects which are focused on small business and agriculture. I don't have many ideas yet for secondary projects that I can do with the kids, mayor, or school, but hopefully they will come in time. Here's the information that I will present about my community:

What are the problems of Zguriţa, and what are the interests of my organizations?

When asked about the weaknesses of Zguriţa, the consensus of most of the people is that our biggest problems relate to our young people leaving to find work. Like other villages in Moldova, it is normal for the kids to grow up with grandparents, relatives, or friends while their parents work abroad. There are very few people in the village of Zguriţa between the ages of 18-35. The lack of work in the village naturally leads to other problems like human trafficking, poverty, and children becoming orphaned.

By cooperating with my two organizations, ACSA and ONG Fortuna, it is our hope to directly combat the problems of human trafficking, poverty, and orphaned children by creating new economic opportunities through small business development in our village. For every new job created, another opportunity may become available for a family to stay together in Zguriţa.

I was invited to these two organizations in Zguriţa to collaborate with three people: XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX, and XXXXXXXXX. All three of my partners have worked with the Peace Corps in the past and I feel that they are very capable to continue working on new projects, especially in the area of agriculture and small business development. They seem to be some of the most respected people in the village, so they will also be great resources for any other secondary projects I decide to work on with the school director, kids, or Primaria.

What are our ideas for projects?

Seed Packets
My partner has a seed business where she grows onions and carrots, harvests the seeds, and then exports sacks full of seeds to Russia. She employs about 20 workers to help her though the entire process. She wants to write a grant for a seed packaging machine. With a seed packaging machine, it is predicted that the bottom line profit for the business would nearly double. The “middle man” would be cut out and she could now sell small packets of seeds to retailers instead of selling large wholesale bags. If we could win a grant of this sort, it would be possible to immediately create at least 5 new jobs to operate the machine and to increase the monthly salaries of the current 20 employees.

Dried Fruit
A good bit of apples are grown in my village, but all of the farmers are individually selling their apples to a juice factory. They are getting very little money for each kilogram of apples sold to the factory. One idea to improve this situation would be for the farmers to sell their apples to a central buyer in the village who would then make dried fruit. Dried fruit, I’ve been told by farmers, brings exponentially more profit per kilogram than selling the apples to the juice factory. My partners have proposed an idea to write a grant for a machine that would cut the apples, dry the apples, and then package them for sale. Thus, a new business would be created where a farmer or association of farmers would buy most of the apples of my village, process and package the dried fruit, and export the packages to retailers. The idea would be to create a new business or association in the village, increase the profits of the current apple growers, and to attract new farmers to grow apples in their fields.

Drip Irrigation
One of the biggest resources we have in our village is our lake. It’s very large but underutilized. Our harvest this year wasn’t as great as last year because of the lack of rain, but pumping water from the lake to irrigate the fields would be a great way to help increase the output of crops. To realize this project, we would need to research drip irrigation and write a grant for the pump and pipes needed to transport the water to the fields surrounding the lake. In theory, this project could work in collaboration with the seed and dried fruit projects above, because a higher output of seeds and apples could potentially lead to more profits and more jobs.

Other
We have a vocational school for grades 10-12. The boys study the mechanics and operation of tractors and the girls study how to sew and tailor clothes. In the past, this vocational school has served as a haven for smugglers to attract young girls to leave abroad once they graduated. The last volunteer in my village collaborated with Moldova TIP and Winrock to do trafficking awareness and business skills seminars for the students and he successfully helped several girls find jobs locally who were about to go abroad. Being that new students come on a rotating basis every year to the school, it is one of our top priorities to continue this work with Moldova TIP, Winrock, and La Strada.

Hramul Cotavei

2009-10-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

Fall is here, but winter is coming quick. We finally started burning wood in our sobas to heat the house, so I am going to sleep like a powdered baby tonight.

Harvest is mostly done. Here are corn stalks stacked to dry out.

Road through my village with a big stack of corn stalks to the left.

A World War II statue in my village with Cyrillic writing.

Another pic of the statue of Lenin from my neighboring village of Cotova. There are lots of Soviet and Communist statues still standing all over Moldova.

Yesterday was "Hramul Cotovei" (Cotova's hram). Every village has a "hram" once a year as a day to celebrate the village. Another PC volunteer lives in my neighboring village, so I went with him to celebrate his village's hram. Basically, each family prepares tons of food and all the relatives and friends come into the village to stay for a few days. We pretty much hopped from house to house to visit everyone, which required us to eat and drink at every house we stopped at. Here's a few pics and videos from my first hram:

Table full of food. Every house has a full table.

Me, Justin, Vlodie, and Vlodie's daughter.

Grapes that were offered to us when we first walked in the door.
Cool looking old truck outside of Vlodie's house.

Chickens, geese, and the mighty dog that protects them from being eaten by foxes.

Most of the corn that is grown is stored for winter to feed the animals.

One room full of food and drinks, another full of people dancing the hora.

Everyone singing at the table. We sounded really good, but the microphone on my camera didn't do us any justice.

One of the songs we sang through every month of the year. When they call your month you stand up, everyone wishes you many years in life, and then they sing for you to sit back down for the next month.

Winter, kids, and The Haircut

2009-10-04T00:23:00.000-07:00

Winter is coming. It's getting cold here, and everyone is preparing to hibernate. I'm all Long-John's from here on out. We haven't started burning wood in our sobas (ovens for heating the home) yet, but I'm counting down the days. I got up this morning, took the traditional trip to the outhouse, and realized that winter was coming to Moldova when my pants hit my ankles. Let's just say the cold outhouse is not a place to hang out, read the paper, drink coffee, and enjoy sitting on the throne.

The most common mode of transportation in my village is a căruţă.

I've been told the carts with wheels will be replaced with sleds for the snow in winter.

My biggest fans, and closest friends in the village, are definitely the kids. I have 8 or so kids that live on my road in the village who want to hang out every day. They range from ages 7-11. They all live with their grandmothers, because their parents have had to leave abroad (mostly Russia) to find work. Their parents send them money back for basic living expenses, but some haven't seen their parents since they were old enough to remember. One good thing about being in the Peace Corps is all the time I've spent goofing around and playing with the kids is time I've spent "working". The technical work that I'll be doing (maybe things like writing grants, greenhouses, community development, etc.) is only 1/3 of the Peace Corps' mission, while the other 2/3 is building friendships with Moldovans to facilitate cross cultural exchange; so yes, hanging out with Moldovans in my village is my job and I doubt I'll ever find another job quite like it.

When I was in the capital I went in for another haircut at the salon. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but for an intermediate romanian speaker in Moldova, it's a big deal. It's a big deal because the hairstyles for the guys over here are different than the ones in States, and I'm sure the hair stylists naturally want to cut my hair like the local style. To my Moldovan friends reading this, I am not saying I don't like the hairstyles of the guys here. In fact, I am sure I will have a Moldovan hairstyle before long. However, just understand that it takes more than four months of living in Moldova to build up the courage for such a transformation of my afro. I have to take my glasses off to get a haircut, and being that I have really bad eye sight, I can't see what my haircut looks like until the grand finale. When she's finally done cutting my hair and asks do I want to put on my glasses to see my hair, the first thought that runs through my head is "I don't know, do I?"

This weekend is Moldova's national Wine Festival in Chisinau, the capital. I'll be hanging out with most, if not all, of the PC volunteers in Moldova drinking wine from all around the country and coming up with obscure and meaningless english, romanian, and russian toasts.

Cheers, Hai noroc, sănătate, Будьте здоровы, fii sănătos, numai bine, mulţi ani mulţi bani, sus pahari jos chiloţi

Timp de patru luni

2009-09-29T04:11:00.000-07:00

I've looked back and realized that all of my blog posts express how I love living in Moldova. To be fair to the grand ol' USA, here's some things I miss from back home, aside from the obvious like spending time with my family and friends:

- thick, soft, and long mattresses
- running water
- toilets
- indian food, italian food, seafood, mexican food, and all kinds of food that I took for granted, especially fish
- people smiling, waving, and throwing the bird or peace sign
- being around a university campus
- microbrewed beer, specifically ales (nothing but lagers in Moldova)
- playing golf and tennis
- hiking in the mountains (hopefully next year I'll hike the Carpathians in Transylvania, Romania)
- voicing my opinion about anything without a language barrier
- being sarcastic or telling or a joke without a language barrier
- stand up comedians
- live bands
- smooth, paved roads
- tailgating for college football
- roadtrips
- and last, but certainly not least, the Atlantic Ocean

piaţa Cotovei

2009-09-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

Most small villages have a market once a week. Larger villages or towns may a have a market every day, but my village and my neighboring village of Cotova only go on Sundays. Here's some pics of my neighboring village's market, which is about 4 km from me.

Buy what you need for a week, because they'll pack up until next Sunday.

Classic Russian car with a watermelon on the roof. These little cars are probably half of the cars you see on the road. I'm buying one when I get back to the States. A green one.

Cotova's market is set up in the village center, near the mayor's office.

Another pic of the market in the center. Notice the statue of Lenin still standing in the background. The Lenin statue is interesting, because ironically (or not) it stands in front of an abandoned Soviet building.

Doing business like it's their job, because it is their job.

The horses pull the carts to the center, and then the owners tie the horses in a nearby field to graze for the day.

Dăti-mi mai ieftin, vă rog - Give it to me cheaper, please.

One thing that was difficult to learn in Moldova was buying everything in grams/kilograms. In America, everything is either pre-packaged or in pounds (produce). In Moldova, everything is weighed, so you have to tell them how many grams/kilograms of something you want. For example, the first time I went to buy some rice I looked for the typical 5 pound bag we would have in America. Of course they didn't have it, but instead the lady asked me how many kilograms I wanted. First, I had no idea how many "kilograms" I wanted. Secondly, my Romanian was horrible back then, so for all I knew she could have been asking me how much my first born child was going to weigh.

This isn't the market, but it's the back patio at my work partner's house. Not sure exactly what happens next. I've got a feeling I'll be eating a lot of pumpkin placinta (placinta is a national dish that is similiar to a pie/pastry filled with apples, potatoes, cabbage, pumpkin, etc)

Proiect la cimitirul din Zgurita

2009-09-15T05:33:00.000-07:00

Here's what wikipedia has to say about my village:

"Zguriţa or Zguritsa (Yiddish: זגוריצה, Russian: Згурица) is a commune in Drochia district, Moldova, composed of a single village, Zguriţa. It was founded in 1853 on an area of over 1,000 acres rented by Jewish settlers in Bessarabia. It was the last Jewish agricultural settlement in Moldova. In 1878 the new Jewish owner canceled the lease of the estate and Zguritsa lost its status as a Jewish agricultural colony. From 1890 to 1903 further Jewish settlement in Zguritsa was prohibited by virtue of the May Laws issued on May 3, 1882.

In 1897 Zguritsa's Jewish population was 1,802, comprising 85 percent of the total population. Following the First World War, the village fell under Romanian control. Agrarian reform in Romania in 1922 granted plots of land to 150 Jews of Zguritsa. In 1925 the 193 members of the local loan fund included 40 farmers, 25 artisans, and 113 tradesmen. In 1930 there were 2,541 Jews in Zguritsa (83.9% of the total population), supporting a kindergarten and an elementary school both of the Zionist Tarbut organization.

In 1940, the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia as the Moldavian SSR, closing privately-owned businesses, and religious schools. The agricultural community was collectivized. A year later, pro-Nazi Romanian forces reoccupied the village. On July 3, 1941, Jews who did not flee were rounded up and deported to Transnistria, where most of them died of starvation and disease.

Today, the population of the village is largely Moldovan, with some Russians and Gypsies. The Jewish cemetery is in ruins, and the former Tarbut school was expanded as a public school. "

We did a project to clean up this cemetery this past weekend. It is one of the only few Jewish cemeteries in Moldova. It was my buddy Justin's project, so he did all of the organizing. He got several PC volunteers to come stay at his place for the weekend, and he invited a Jewish organization to come out for the day and help us out. About 10 ten girls from the capitol showed up, and we worked for several hours cleaning the place up. It's going to take a lot of more work, but we made a good start by cutting lots of limbs down that were hanging on the tombstones.

A few PC Volunteers and friends hanging out before we started working.

When we got to the cemetery we realized there was more work than we anticipated.

Most of these stones date back to the 1800's. All of the script is written in Hebrew until you get to the mid 1940's. You can see on the graves when the Soviet regime starting impacting the community, because the script changed over from Hebrew to the Cyrillic alphabet from the Russian language.

Here you can see how the trees and shrubs were taking over the graveyard.

President Michael Leikin and Kevin Moses Cohen, this pic's for you.

As you can see, Neal is holding a Moldovan lawnmower.

It turned out to be a great day with some good people. Hopefully I can start up another project with those girls soon to finish cleaning up the cemetery.

Bine aţi venit la şcoală.

2009-09-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

The first day of school for the entire country of Moldova is September 1. It's a national holiday and every school has a big celebration for the students. I got a call from my partners that morning to meet them at the school. Half of the village was there and the director (principal), mayor, and some of the village leaders spoke to congratulate the kids and wish them health and success. All of the kids showed up wearing fine suits and dresses, and they all brought flowers for their teachers. My partner introduced me to the village on the microphone. I thought for a split second there I was going to have to do an impromptu speech to the village in Romanian, but luckily they didn't ask. If the people of my village didn't know the tall, funny looking American dude before, they definitely know me now. The director proceeded to get back on the microphone, thanked me for being here, and invited me to join the first graders in their first class ever. So, next thing you know, I'm sitting in the back of the class with some cool, 7 year old, finely dressed Moldovan kids. I felt like Billy Madison. After class, I got invited into the director's office where I ended up taking a few shots of wine with the director, mayor, and a few village leaders. I would never find myself in this situation in America, but in Moldova a few shots of wine are taken to ensure the success of the new school year. Fii sanatos.

A video I took while sitting in the back of the class with the first graders. Their first lesson they learned about the significance of the first day of school celebration to Moldova.

National anthem being played.

Some of the kids wearing the national outfits while singing and dancing.

The first graders about to go to their very first class.

Some of the crowd around the school watching the kids.

Some sharply dressed first graders. These are the kids I sat in the class with.

Cum eu fac dus

2009-08-24T00:34:00.001-07:00

My host partner in the village (the person who applied to Peace Corps to host me as a volunteer) owns this building in the photo. She runs multiple organizations out of it, so I do some of my work out of here. It's got a neat history, because thirty years ago it was the central office for the Soviet military in this raion (county) of Moldova.The center of my village. My office is the building to the left, the mayor's office is up ahead, and there is a small park and a community well to the right.

I'm learning new words every day, however no one speaks clean romanian. In the village, we speak a mixture of romanian, russian, ukranian, and moldovan (moldovan is essentially romanian, but has developed into a different dialect over the years). From what I've heard, when I visit the country of Romania, where they speak clean romanian, they probably won't understand half of what I say.

Our garden behind our house. You name it, we've got it growing.
A view of my village from the top of a hill.

Another pic of my village. Rumor has it we have about 2,800 people living here.

Here's the front gates to our market, which comes once a week on Sundays. Most everyone goes to buy food, goods, etc that they'll need for the week. It's a pretty cool experience for me on Sundays, because everyone goes and comes to the market on horse drawn carts. It reminds me of what I imagine America to be a hundred years ago.
Where the magic happens.

Grapes hanging in my face when I walk out my front door.

One of my neighbors. Typical looking village house.
Another typical house.

My water source.
The walk to my well isn't far.

To the right, you'll see a soba used to burn wood to heat the water for bathing. The process is pretty simple: fetch a few buckets of water from the well, burn some wood in the soba to heat the water, scoop the warm water into the red bucket to the left, and bucket bathe in the tub.

We, like many traditonal Moldovan families, have two houses. "Casa mica" and "casa mare", which translates to big house and small house. This is a picture of casa mica in which the family lives, eats, and spends most of their time.
This is "casa mare", which is the guest house that I live in. It's bigger than the family's home, and contains the nice furniture, plates, glasses, etc. reserved for guests.

One of the rooms in "casa mare" where I live.

My room.

Inside casa mica, the family's home. The big blue thing is a soba which is used to heat the home during winter by burning wood or coal.

Another pic of living room/dining room/main room. To the right, you can see another soba used to heat the house for winter. This soba is built with a bedding area on top so people can sleep directly on the heat.Another pic of the main room of casa mica.

Eu sper ca toti sint bine. Pace. - I hope that everyone is good. Peace.

Acum, eu sint voluntar.

2009-08-16T04:00:00.000-07:00

Some darn good looking Volunteers being sworn in for two years of service.

Accepting my Oath of Service from the Country Director of Peace Corps Moldova.

Giving a presentation to all of the host families.

Some fellow Volunteers wearing traditional Moldovan outfits but acting American.

My buddy Neal and I with our host families on our last day with them.

We had a big celebration for our former host families to show them thanks for putting up with us for the past 8 weeks during our pre-service training. Two weeks leading up to the party, we practiced dancing the hora (traditonal Moldovan dance) with our Romanian teachers, and we presented it to all of the host families. There's two tall dudes in the video. I'm the tall dude on the right at the beginning of the dance.

Tomorrow or the next day I'll post some pics of my new village and house. Fii sanatos.

Horse carts everywhere

2009-08-12T01:17:00.000-07:00

After a big farewell party for our host families, I am finally settled in to my new village. The village I live in has about 3,000 people, and it's about four hours from the capital. In Moldova, it seems the further you are from the capital the more rural and traditional the villages get. For example, in my last village of Milestii Mici, I only saw one horse cart being used for transportation. Here, I pass one on the road every 5 minutes or so. I played baseball with some village kids yesterday, and it was evident that a lot of people in my village speak russian. Some even speak ukranian. However, everyone knows romanian, so I'm going to keep studying romanian for the next year or so. Maybe I'll study russian after that.

I will be collaborating with two organizations (made up of two people): one agricultural and rural business and the other community development. Basically, there are two people in my village who are the "shakers and movers". They both own a lot land, know everyone, and give a lot back to the village by running these two organizations. For now, I pretty much hang out with them and go around my village getting to know people. The language barrier is tough again, because the dialect and speed of their language is lot different here than it was in my last village. However, they seem to love me, and I'm still being fed every waking minute of the day.

For now, I've got limited internet access, but that should change in the next week. I've got some good pics and videos, so stay tuned.

Thanks for all the support and kind words. I miss everyone, and I wish you all could be here to experience this culture. It's great.

Millions of peaches

2009-08-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

Boardwalk out to a community well in the field. Every time I see it, it reminds me of the boardwalks out over the marshes back home at the beach.

Picking peaches with the family after a storm.

A road in the village through the orchards.

Work some, eat some.

There's plenty more where that came from.

From left to right: Neighbors Anna and Domnul Vasile, host mom Doamna Tatiana, and me.

After a rainstorm. That's my village in the horizon.

Our basement is starting to fill up for winter. Most of what you see is compote, which is boiled fruit juice and sugar. For every fruit we harvest, we add another flavor of compote.

Another pic of the basement. The barrels are for homemade wine.

Jennifer, here's your pics of sunflowers. Next year I'll get some pics while they're in full bloom.

I took a long hike with my buddy Neal over a few hills until we could see Chisinau, the capitol, which is in the background.

Vineyards all the way to the horizon.

Inside my Romanian language class. 4 hours a day, every day.

Central Market in Chisinau, the capitol of Moldova.

Picnic

2009-07-29T01:13:00.000-07:00

Video of a traditional Roma dance

In Moldova, credit is tough to come by. If you can get access to credit through a bank, the rate is going to be from 22-28%. A common family in Moldova doesn't have access to credit. Unbelievable, I know. Therefore, the people in Moldova build their houses for periods of 10 years or more. They build it with their own hands and with the help of brothers, cousins, etc. When someone has some money to purchase more materials, they'll add a little more to their house. After 10 years, they've got a beautiful home. Here's a few pics of what you see all around Moldova. There are many different stages of construction depending on how long the family has been building it, how much money they have, and how much help they have from friends and family.

Piles of stone waiting to be added to the walls of the house.

A house in it's final stages. I'm not sure about this specific house, but a house looking like this could have been sitting here for many years. However, they have no house payments :)

We had a picnic this last Sunday in the woods for the current PC Trainess. We pretty much sat on the dirt, drank wine, and ate moldovan food all day. Here's a pic of me with some of the coolest people I know.

Moldova 24 - We're the 24th group to come to Moldova with the Peace Corps.

Riding through the fields

2009-07-25T05:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was really cool, so I'll give a quick recap: At school we had a verbal language assessment for the teachers to monitor our progress. Basically, we sat at a table with a native speaker and carried on simple conversations. We were given four grades on a 1-5 scale. I received all fives, so I'm keeping up to par on my language study so far. In three weeks, at the end of my pre service training, we have to be speaking at a Intermediate Mid level. There are low, mid, and high levels for each of the three categories: Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced. Once I get to the Advanced Low level, hopefully next year, Peace Corps will let me change from a Romanian tutor and start learning Russian.

After school, I came back and drank some wine with the family, and then we went out to the fields to pick some peaches. The peach orchard is beautiful. There are rows of trees as far as one can see. My family went with our neighboring family, and I was told that my neighbor owns two rows of peach trees at this field so we could eat anything from those two rows. Two rows of peach trees is enough to feed all of Wal Mart's employees. Not really, but it's a lot. This was suprising, because we don't have this type of land ownership in the states. I asked why did he only own two rows (there was hundreds of rows all around us), and I found out that the mayor distributed this out in the past: for example, some people received peach trees, some apple, some cherry, etc. Our conversation got too lost in translation for me to fully understand the details, but I think that maybe my neighbor received these two rows when Moldova became independent from the Soviets and most of the land was privatized. Anyways, the peaches are incredible and keep me in a good mood. As I'm typing this, my host mom is downstairs boiling a pot of water with peaches and sugar to make "compote." Compote is an old traditional drink in Moldova. You drink it hot, and you drink it with every family. I think of it as a natural Kool Aid.

After the peach trip, I went with my brother and about 15 of his friends to the woods to have a picnic. There's no charcoal, so we gathered sticks from the woods, burnt them, and cooked beef ribs on top of the wood coals. We ate the ribs with ketchup, which doesn't come in a plastic bottle. The ketchup comes in a pack simliar to a Capri Sun and is spiced with pepper. When we were done eating all 15 of us walked to a community well, wrenched up a bucket of water, and freshened up.

As an American, you never know what to expect in Moldova, and that's the fun of it all. There are certain things I get used to, and there are certain times when I can't help but to step back and just soak it all in. For instance, yesterday I was riding in a 1980 model tan Russian car, windows down, with my host brother and three other Moldovan dudes. We were shirtless, as are most of the dudes in the village. We were riding through the fields listening to Moldovan music, speaking in Romanian, and as far as you could see were rolling hills of nothing but orchards and wine vineyards. More and more things are starting to feel natural because Moldova is now my home. However, there are still times like this where I laugh to myself and realize how different this culture is.

Back from the North

2009-07-17T03:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Future site

2009-07-11T08:43:00.001-07:00

In the morning, I am leaving on train to travel to the far north of Moldova to the village of XXXXXX. As I mentioned in my last blog post, this is where I'll be living for the next two years. I've grown so close to my current host family, I hate to leave them. For now though, I will only be visiting XXXXXX for three days. Yesterday, I had to call my host partner (director of the humanitarian organization I was assigned to) to confirm that I will be arriving by train on Sunday. This was hilarious, to say the least. We have only studied romanian for four weeks, and we all had to call our non-english speaking partners. I actually think I did well. We'll see.

As for my new host family, I will only have a host mom. We were given info sheets so that we have an idea of what our new situation will be before we get there. Some of my friends received homes with hot, running water and even indoor showers and toilets. Here's the info I got:

Check the appropriate box below:

Cooking facilities in the house:

Gas Stove

Stove with Gas Container XX

Electric Stove

Reliablie source of water:

Well XX

Running Water

Type of toilet:

Indoors

Outhouse XX

Bathing Facilities:

Bathroom with tub & running water

Bathroom with tub & no running water

No special bathroom, Volunteer will need to buy a plastic tub XX

Bring it on Moldova.

My site.

2009-07-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

We are almost half way through with PST - pre service training. Yesterday was a big day, because we received our site placements. I was assigned to the village Zgurita. Beginning August 9, following pre service training, I'll be living with a host mom in Zgurita for two years. From site history reports of previous volunteers, I have learned that Zgurita has about 3,500 villagers. The village is like many others in Moldova, in that agriculture employs the majority of local economic interests; apples, corn, potatoes, and watermelon are the most common crops. There are three neighborhoods in the village: the center is mainly Russian-speaking, the western end is mainly Romanian-speaking, and the southern end is a Ukranian community.

I am assigned to work with ONG Fortuna, a humanitarian aid and development organization, and ACSA, an agriculture extension agency. It will be a while before I know what kind of projects I can initiate in the village, but I'm sure there's a lot I can do for small business (predominately farmers), community infrastructure, and with youth development. When I become a Volunteer, I am expecting to focus on my primary job first, which is Agribusiness and Rural Development, but I'll have lots of time to work on secondary projects. I'll most likely focus most of secondary projects on working with kids.

The Peace Corps staff drew a map of Moldova with sidewalk chalk, then they placed our chairs where each trainee would be placed for the remaining two years. It was pretty intense, because we had no idea where anyone was going.

Some of my fellow trainees and friends anxiously waiting for their name to be called for site placement.

I dream in Romanian.

2009-07-04T02:59:00.000-07:00

I am now starting to think in the romanian language. I know this because I had a dream the other night and no english was spoken by anyone. The Moldovans are very patient, and they get excited when you try to speak in their native language. Funny thing is, my 3 weeks worth of intense study has only taught me the tip of the iceburg, so I walk around saying phrases like: "My shirt is blue", "The weather is nice", "I am not a tourist". I'm sure it's hilarious. One of the first things I've learned about myself is that I'll be much more patient with immigrants learning english in America. Learning another language is one of the most excited things about being in Moldova, but in no way is it easy.

My host sister, Anna, invited me to her high school graduation ball last weekend. It wasn't simliar to an American graduation at all. The presentation of diplomas lasted only about 20 minutes, and they did not wear cap and gowns. I guess they saved their money for the "masa". "Masa" translated means meal, but if you get invited to a "masa", be ready. I would recommend not eating for the two days leading up to it. I have never seen one long table of food half the size of a football field. We ate, drank, toasted, and laughed until it was time to start dancing. Everyone was doing the hora, which is the national dance. Teachers, students, families, friends, and even the principal danced the hora. I danced until 3:30 am until I called it quits, but when I left most of the crowd was still in a circle. The video below is from the graduation ball.

A pic taken while we were celebrating my host sister's graduation from high school.

This week we made a few cultural learning trips. I visited a beekeeper who has been raising bees since 1978. He started with 3 families of bees and now has 28 families producing honey. This honey is not "high fructose corn syrup", this is the real deal. I'm going back in the next week or so to buy a kilogram for my host family.

The pic above was taken in the garden of the beekeeper. Each box contains a bee family.

We took another trip to visit a volunteer who has been in Moldova for a little over a year. I got to meet him, see his office, and see one of the projects he is working on. It helps to meet experienced volunteers, because it gives me ideas on projects that I can start once I finish training and become a Volunteer. First though, I have to learn the language before I can initiate a project in my community. Anyways, while we were visiting the volunteer, we took a small trip to the Nistru River. I was very excited about this. If you take the time to read anything about Transnistria, you will be amazed. To tell you a little about it Transnistria, it is a "country" within Moldova that is not recognized as a country by the rest of the world. The Nistru river, which we visited, seperates the rest of Moldova from Transnistria. When Moldova gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the Transnistria area was supported by Russia and they established their own separate entity. They have developed their own currency, government, military, and they elect a president every four years, but since they are not recognized by any other country in the world, no organization oversees their elections. I was amazed just to stand on one side of the river and take a picture of this type of place. I highly doubt they would allow US passport holders inside their border, but Peace Corps won't even let us try to go there. I'm bummed about that. I think it would be surreal to walk in those gates and see Soviet statues on the town corners. If you're interested in reading more about Transnistria, there's tons of info on the net...or you can just ask me.

This is a pic of the Nistru River. I am standing in the mainland of Moldova and across the river is Transnistria.

My village of Milestii Mici is still treating me great. We've eaten and canned all the raspberries and cherries, but apricots and plums are in full bloom now. The fruit is always delicious here, and there is a tree every ten steps. I went out today and picked some apricots and plums for Doamna Tatiana, my host mom, so that she can make some compote. Compote is boiled fruit, water, and sugar, and it's an old tradition in Moldova. They make compote out of every kind of fruit, and we drink it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We'll drink a lot of compote this summer, but we'll also store a good bit for winter.

I just got back from the garden. We had the whole family picking the potatoes out of the ground. We ended up with 12 crates full, and Domnul Andrei (host dad) said this was a good harvest. Last year he came up short. They are so funny to work with. The entire family works together, and they joke with each other the entire time. I guess as long as the potatoes are plentiful then there are no worries. Also, the language lessons I get working in the garden seem to be more successful than the formal lessons in the classroom.

I found out some cool news today about my village of Milestii Mici: I am living on the largest wine collection in the world. No kidding, the soil my house is built on is literally on top of a huge underground tunnel of wine. Milestii Mici was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007 for having the "Largest Wine Collection" in the world. Finding this out has answered a lot of confusion I've been having lately about trouble with water. I've been helping Domnul Andrei by pumping water out of our well, transporting it with our tractor, and pumping it into a friend's well down the road. I was told today by a history teacher that there are water problems in this section of Milestii Mici because it was built on top of the wine tunnels. Who would have known?

Another typical sight on my walk home from school.

Most Moldovan homes have a canopy of grapes growing for shade (and obviously for wine).

Moldovans have a holiday once a year where all the families go to the cemetary and have a huge meal and drink lots of wine in honor of their loved ones. Hence the picnic tables.

Fruit trees everywhere.

This is a pic of Juan. He gave us a tour of his house and showed us the handmade quilts his mom makes and sells. Juan, like most of the Moldovan kids I've talked to, is a true gentleman. He walks his older sister to the bus stop by my house every day and his manners are superb.

Some of the houses are full of colors. All of the houses are full of plants.

Outdoor shower. Fill the metal container up with water and let the sun heat it up.

Until next time, I love you all. Peace.

Mailing letters

2009-06-22T03:29:00.000-07:00

If you mail a letter, please draw a big $ sign on the front of the letter with an X through it. I just found out the letter won't reach me because customs will take letters hoping their is money inside. It will also help to put a sticker or draw a big Christian cross on the front of the envelope. The country is Eastern Orthodox (future blog idea), so the custom officers most likely will not dig through the envelope if they think there is no money inside and the letter is for religious purposes.

Sit, eat, and keep eating.

2009-06-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

Today after school I rode the bus into Ialovin, a small town about 15 minutes away, to meet some other volunteers for a beer. I called Anna, my host sister (which seems like a real sister already), to tell her I would be late for dinner. Nui nici o problema - no problem. In Moldova, I've learned, for every hour you're late for dinner there is an extra plate of food you're expected to eat when you return home. I am one of the lucky volunteer trainees to have another volunteer as a neighbor. This will only last for the two months we train and then I will most likely be in a village of my own when I get to my permanent site for the two years of service. When Neal and I returned home to our families, you would have thought we had barely survived starvation if you could have seen the food they prepared. Trust me, you have no choice but to eat. They are all about sitting around a table and laughing over food. It doesn't matter if you have already eaten three or four meals with your family, if a guest comes over, it starts all over....infinite amounts of food, sweets, fruit picked from the backyard, homemade wine, and cognac. There are grapes growing everywhere around me, so each family is very proud of their homemade wine. I've only been with my family for several days, but i'm starting to understand a good bit of what they are saying in romanian.

I'm amazed at the perserverance of the Moldovan people. For the past few decades, Moldova has been on a political fault line. Between the Russian empire, Ottoman empire, and the infamous Soviet regime, Moldova has been stuck directly in the middle (geographically and politically) of the "East" and the "West". Political fights have damaged the country, and it can be seen by walking the roads of the villages. I can't imagine being here years back and seeing Soviet troops march though my village of Milestii Mici. However, when you step inside the home of a Moldovan, everything you think you may know about Moldova from a textbook will change instantly. Before you can take your shoes off (leave your shoes at the door to show respect for the mother's work), the family will already be in the kitchen throwing food on the table. They are all very open, affectionate, happy, and engaging people. For anyone searching out the simple things in life, come stay with a Moldovan family. Somehow, they can magically block out all of the complications and struggles surrounding their country by keeping your belly full.

Big thanks to everyone reading my blog and making comments. I will contact you personally eventually, but my free time is limited during training. Once I learn the language and get settled in, I'll have more time. If there is anything you're curious about, just let me know and I'll write about it. I love you all.

p.s. I saw a toilet for the first time yesterday during my trip to town :)

We have had many "welcome" parties from Moldova. Most every party has traditonal songs and dances like the one below (it's a video). The circular dance is the "hora", which is the national dance. The dance always starts with the folk groups, but by the end of the party everyone joins in.

Traditonal Roma dancer (known in the states as Gypsies, but that term is deragatory)My walk to school takes about 25 minutes. This is a typical sight along the way.My romanian teachers, Lucille and Stela. They are amazing in all respects.From left to right: My neighbor Anna, my sister Anna, and Moldovan Vince.This is what almost every backyard looks like. Every family is nearly self sufficient with their fruit and veggies.Walking home from school.Don't be mistaken, I eat a lot.

My village

2009-06-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

Village life is foarte bine, "very good". I live in a village called Milestii Mici, which is about a thirty minute microbus ride from Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. I live with a family of four: Doamna Tatiana, Domnule Andrei, Ana, and Andrei. Andrei and Ana are 20 and 19 years old, so they want to spend all of their time with me, which is great. They are both learning to speak english, so we spend all evening exchanging englez for romana. The picture to the left is standing in front of my house, looking down the road I walk to school every morning. I walk about 30 minutes down the dirt roads to my school, where I have three Moldovans teaching me romanian for about 4 hours a day. After school, I have agribusiness and cultural training. The best part of the day is after school. As soon as I step in the door (actually anytime you step foot in my house), Doamna Tatiana is shoving food down my throat. "Vince, mininc, mininc, mininc" is all I hear - "Vince, eat, eat, eat". Their hospitality is amazing. I have to tell them I am full about three times before they finally stop pushing food on my plate. After I eat, they offer me tea. This is always a tough decision, because if I accept the tea, they think I should eat more food with the tea. Yesterday, I played fotbal with four village kids about ten years old. All they knew in english was "hello" and "goodbye", and they were so excited to say both. For the record, they beat us. I'm not kidding, they were good. I have tons of other pics from Milestii Mici (pronounced Milest chee meech). All of my pics are on my computer, and it died, so I'm on another volunteer's computer. I'll post a full album of pics in the next week or so. One last thing I should mention about living in a village: the abundance of fruit. Different fruits have different seasons, and cherries and raspberries are in full bloom now. There is a tree or bush every ten feet anywhere you go in the village full of fruit waiting to be eaten.

I have internet access atleast a few times a week, so I'll post soon. Ne vedem mai tirzui - see you later.

Buna!

2009-06-11T22:23:00.001-07:00

We finally made it to Moldova. I had no idea it was going to be this rural, which is great. We are in the capital Chisinau (pronounced kee - she - now). I'm sitting in an internet cafe right now before we head to meet the U.S. Ambassador and start some language training. This internet cafe happens to be Russian (Moldova is bilingual with Russian and Romanian), so navigating my way through internet explorer and the blogger site made me feel like an idiot. When we arrived last night, the current Volunteers were there to cheer us on as we got off the plane. I wasn't expecting such a grand welcoming ceremony. The first thing I learned was that there is no such thing as standing in line . If you want to get somewhere or want something, you have to go for it. After a quick orientation, we had dinner and went out for drinks with the our mentors and a lot of other veteran Volunteers. They are showing us the ropes pretty quickly. A few things they have taught us: don't drink the tap water, don't flush the toilet paper, and the beer is always abundant and cheap. Most of the current volunteers have been here over a year, so it's interesting seeing how they have lost a little of their American qualities and have added a lot of Moldovan ones. We'll be meeting our host families tomorrow and will head out to start training in our village. I've made some good friends so far, so I'm not looking forward to having to separate from them once we get placed in our village. However, everyone in Moldova uses text messaging, so I'll be able to keep in touch and meet up with my friends once we get some time off. We are crazy busy for the next few weeks, but I will try my best to post some pics of the capital and my village. Thanks to everyone for all of the support before I left.

La revedere!

2008-12-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

Thanks for checking me out. I'm leaving for Moldova on June 9th to serve as an Agribusiness and Rural Business Development Volunteer with the Peace Corps for 27 months. Moldova is tucked between Ukraine, Romania, and the Black Sea. The country has a rich history with its roots tied to Romania, but its culture in the last half century has been overshadowed by the Soviet Union.

In regards to agribusiness, the country of Moldova is struggling with a free-market economy since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Under Soviet rule, the farmers were forced to work under a collective-farm system, so there were no private farms operating for a profit. After gaining independence, the new government dispersed land parcels for the farmers to own and manage themselves. Even with the constant efforts to improve the social conditions in Moldova, families earn on average the equivalent of $250-300 a month.

To do my part, I'll be teaming up with farmers, entrepreneurs, community groups, and local governments to help facilitate the transition from the Soviet system to a free market system. Over 17% of Moldova's economy is supported through agriculture (< 2% in US), so it's important that this situation improves. Ultimately, I hope to help the people any way possible, whether it be through agribusiness or not.

For the first three months I'll train and study language (romanian), culture, history, safety, work duties, cooking, health, etc. I'll live with a host family during training, and then it's my choice to either live on my own or with another host family for the remaining two years. I've been told that my village most likely won't have indoor plumbing, but I should have internet access in some places through dial-up. I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories, pictures, and videos to share as I spend more time with the natives, so check back from time to time if you are interested in learning about Moldova or just want to laugh at my struggles.

Please leave some comments and keep me updated on what's going on with your life in the grand ole USA. I'll be on facebook too, but this blog will help me keep a chronological journal that I can send to everyone. I'll have 48 days of vacation time over the course of 27 months, so come visit Europe if you have the chance. No weddings until I get back.

Cheers,
Vince