Omatul se duce, ne vedem iarna viatoare. Paka.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.