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....Monday, August 30, 2010
Guarding watermelons
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....
Monday, August 2, 2010
The Family Cow
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.
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.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Mentors with Mustaches
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.
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.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Donate please
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&
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=261-197&
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Eastern Orthodox Baptism
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.
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.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Muzica la masa
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:
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