Three months

It is the end of my first three months as a volunteer. In Moldova this is significant as our policy only allows two out of site overnights in the first three months and no vacations. But getting here is almost a let down. I have not planned any vacation and our group is struggling to get together to celebrate our imagined freedom. I think we are going to end up in the capital for a restaurant dinner. We had tried a camping spot but the excessive rains in parts of the country have closed down the river side camp.

But staying in site for a solid three months has done wonders for my thinking Moldovan brain. The language is getting better, still not easily conversant but they say that about the end of your first year that comes. Since it is summer and my first assignment is with a school organization, these three months have been rather slow. While it can get rather warm here during the day it seems to cool off at night. Part of the cooling is because we are in a rural area with trees as both Chisinau and near by Romanian cities are hot and stay hot.

The attached picture was taken during children's day at our local kindergarten. If you look closely you will notice that the children are not exactly sitting on the ground, something not allowed here, sitting on the ground. This is also the same posture you hold while going to the bathroom. It makes for strong legs and if you do it right strong knees. Both of those areas on my body are becoming stronger. I try to walk for an hour each day exploring another part of my village.

The Olympics have started in China and I was able to watch some of the opening ceremony on our television. Our reception is not good so I plan on relying on the BBC and my trusty radio for much of my coverage. It will be a new experience and I hear that the folks in Michigan are relying on the Canadian Broadcasting Company for their coverage.

My school director has asked me to sponsor an after school English Club and I look forward to further discussion with him about what he wants to happen. I believe he is interested in making English available to students, right now we offer French. I have some thoughts on how we might be able to accomplish this using the Peace Corps and a solution we used in Birmingham.

I make my regular trips into Cahul and yesterday went in to pick up a package from L.L.Bean. A friend had ordered some clothes from the states and successfully received them so I thought I would try. It took just about three weeks from the online ordering to picking them up. I have yet to decided whether the cost and time were valuable but it is nice to know I can get packages from the states. While I had to go to our rion (sort of like a state but the size of a small Michigan country) center to pick up the package and it had to be inspected by an official after I filled out a form I could not understand at the very least it was a new experience.

I am still somewhat frustrated by the internet access here as it is dial up and slow and for some reason yahoo does not always load completely leaving me without my address book or the ability to reply to messages received. But I would be lost without the ability to communicate with the rest of the world in a two way conversation. I remember years ago the first time I was in the Peace Corps communicating only by snail mail but then I was in a site with other volunteers.

Oh, I bought a phone only to discover that it does not work right here at my house. One of the reasons I started walking was to play the Verizon man to find spots in town that it does work. I have a couple that depend on the weather but that is better than nothing. Peace Corps volunteers do a lot of texting to communicate. It is cheaper then actual phone calls. It is also mostly prepaid as Moldovia is just getting the contract thing going. Unless you do make phone calls a lot and live where you can do that the contract idea does not seem too useful.

One nice thing about the internet as I have been able to Skype with Susie in Romania and when she is not out of her site and her computer is working we spend at least an hour on the phone each week.

I few weeks

I apologize to those that have been following this blog. I did not realize how far behind I have gotten. I guess that the slowness of up loading pictures with dial-up had kept me from thinking blog. In fact I am waiting right now as a picture is attempting to upload. But life has slowed down with summer at least for me. But as I write this the cow bells are sounding in the road in front of our house as the cows are followed home. We also have some sheep that have a sheep bell that pass by both in the morning and afternoon.

I have spent much of the summer so far working on my language skills. I had a tutor for a while but her grandmother has become ill and that is her first responsibility. She will be going back to school in Chisinau this fall so I will be in need of another tutor soon.

I have started working on the strategic planning ideas I have for my partner organization. This week my school director asked if I would start an English club after school in the fall. I have come to the conclusion that I am game to teach anyone English that wants to learn as it opens up a new place for people. I have been reviewing the material we have on teaching English. I hope to marry it with some kind of ecology/service activities.

Last weekend I broke down and bought a phone. I had resisted it all through training as I did not grow up with a cell phone in my hand but it is the main communication tool for PCV. Texting is how we communicate and it was lonely without access. I only got it home to discover it does not receive much here at the house and I have to climb one of the hills around our village to be able to send and receive messages. But it is helpful to keep tapped into the grapevine of PC gossip.

I am nearing the end of my first three months in site which here in Moldova means more freedom to travel around Moldova. I am not sure it will make a difference but we will have to wait and see. I have had good interaction with other volunteers as there are four in the city I travel to to shop and we have had others visit. But I spend most of my time here in my site where I am the only one that speaks English. That is until we have English club this fall.

The picture is of a bridge across the river/stream that runs down the middle of the valley this village occupies.

Dial up is ssslllloooowwwwww

As I enter my third week in site I thought I would do something rather then describe my week so I want to tell you about our cat and one of our dogs. Mulka is the cats name and when I first saw her (I think it is a her) I immediately assumed that she was a kitten with her size. But I am starting to think she might just be a small cat as she gets very little to eat. In fact I think her diet is made up of what she begs from the table. She has a rather erratic life as sometimes she is allowed feed from the table and other times she will shooed away with a foot. But Mulka always comes back for more. She weasels her way into the house when there is food around.

Her companion in crime is Laura, who is a male dog and is allowed to run free. I say this because our other two dogs are chained to something, Laura is the pet dog. Laura is not much bigger than Mulka and they play like they are little kids and best friends. Mulka will chew at Laura’s leg and Laura will chase Mulka not only in the garden but in and out of the house. That is until they are discovered running in and out and are shooed out. At first I was somewhat concerned for Mulka and the ruff housing but she seems to hold her own.

The reason I decided to write about Mulka and Laura was what I found this morning on my way to the outhouse. When I wake up in the morning I usually head to the outhouse to start my morning. This morning when I stepped out of the house there were Mulka and Laura. Mulka was curled up on top of Laura who was curled up on the ground. Since they are so close in size Mulka almost covered Laura up completely. As I noted, they are not regularly allowed in the house and especially not at night. It is warm enough these days that there is little concern for their safety. But Laura slept on the asphalt that is our yard and Mulka was sleeping on top of him like a blanket. They were not still there when I retuned from my mission.

I do have to comment on the fact that yesterday was wash day for me. I am not sure if I have mentioned this but we hand wash clothes around here. This means a couple of runs to the well down the road to replenish the water supply as you go as well as heating water. But it can become an all day event as according to the instructions on the box you are to let your clothes soak for two hours. Then you have to rinse them and attempt to wring them dry but they still drip on the line. I usually end up with two loads as mixing the lights and darks only makes the lights dark.

Once you have them on the line you have to shift them around as direct sun gets things dried faster. As I said I have not mastered wringing them out and the left-in water drips to the bottom of the hanging article. I have found that they dry faster if you keep turning them upside down. The darker stuff does dry faster as the sun hits them. I am sure this is much more than you ever wanted to know about washing clothes but I want you to appreciate your washing machines and treat them well.

Well, training is over. I have moved south to my site in a small village up the valley from the main road between Chisinau and Cahul. I am just north of Cahul and will most likely go there for those things you can not find in a small town.

The second Wednesday in May we were sworn in at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Chisinau. Our final language exam had been the Friday before. After ten weeks of training we are officially Peace Corps Volunteers.

The speaker of the Moldovan parliament along with the ministers from local government and agriculture came and spoke at our ceremony. My partner was there also. Our partners work with the organization that we are volunteering for and are responsible for making sure certain things happen. Your partner is important as along with your host family they are your entry into your new community. My partner is a physics and math teacher in the school I am working with and is just one year older then I am.

We left after the ceremony as while the mileage is not much it takes two and a half hours to make the trip. My partner’s son-in-law had returned from working in Russia for the Easter holiday and so was home with a car to come get me. Which was great as I had my entire luggage plus the distiller, first aid kit and heater that Peace Corps issues volunteers here in Moldova. Riding a bus would have not been fun!

Moldova is tied in the world for the highest percentage of GNP coming through remittances from family members working out of the country. Most families have someone like my partner’s son-in-law working in Russia or a western European country. The mother of my host family in training worked in Italy and the daughter of my new host family is in Russia. There is a need for more jobs paying a livable wage here in Moldova. Moldova is slowly adapting to a market economy after many years of Soviet control.

Today I did my first hand washing. While my family in training had a washing machine my new home does not. In fact running water comes as fast as you can carry it from the well down the street. The john is at the end of the garden. Your clothes are washed with your hands. I am not sure I will be wearing my jeans much as they are hard to wring out and drip for hours on the line.

But I can get dial-up internet through the phone. I might even be able to get DSL through the phone line. Think about it. It is much easier to use a phone line to attach to the internet then it is to put water or a toilet into a house that is already built. It makes for some interesting experience.

My next task is to find myself a tutor. While we had ten weeks of language training, in no way are we conversant at the level we need to do our jobs. Our first few months in site are supposed to help our language proficiency. Since I have yet to find someone that speaks English, Russian maybe but not English, here in town my language should soar.

I have left behind the good friends of training and am embarking on a new life and new friends.

Almost the end....

Introducing my door or gate dog. We have no need for door bells here as we all have a dog that starts barking the second someones steps into the yard. This is ours and she/he has gotten use to me and rarely barks when I come home or leave anymore. This dog reminds me of either Lady or Asta uncut.

Training is over and we have just the rest of this weekend before we move back into Chisinau for a day and a half. Our language exam was on Friday, which seems like a week ago, but it was just two days ago. We get the results Tuesday and we are sworn in on Wednesday. We are off to our new homes in the afternoon on Wednesday.

It is hard to believe that it has only been ten weeks since we all met for the first time in Philadelphia. Now we are speaking something resembeling Romanian with a Moldovan twixt. While the ten weeks seem long and short it was full. I have managed to get a second cold and my guess this all has to do with the stress, rain (we have a lot and last year they had a drought) and the different food. A couple of times a week we have a 45 minute hikes up the hill for lectures at the hub site and recently I have gotten real sweaty and then sat around getting cold. I think this may have helped. But it is all over now and we are all off to a new adventure on Wednesday. Wish us all luck!

Almost Done

I hope I have not used this picture as it is one of my favorites. You might note the tin work on the down spout. Apparently that is a skill that is used to curl tin cans also.

We are nearing the end of our PST (training for the rest of the world). We have language exams and just as many classes but last week we each visited our sites. On our own we took what ever public transportation would get you there. Mine was one small bus, one large bus and in the end a private car. But on the return it was three small buses.

My site is in the south and a small village. I will be working with an NGO (local) that is much like our PTAs. They have gotten together to improve the opportunity for kids in the village through activities and improvements on the school. I will leave further description to the future as I will have a better handle on what ever this means.

The language is something of a struggle but it is coming. I suspect that living in my village with no English speakers around will cause much progress in my ability to speak Romanian. In two weeks I will find out.

Spring is here and the trees are flowing as are the gardens. Green is everywhere and as at home most welcome with the warmer weather. My new village has lots of fruit trees and I look forward to enjoying the new season.

I am hoping for a more convenient internet access. I still don't have a phone and am one of only three in our group that has not bought one. Maybe I will change my mine after I get to my village.

On line

I was not able as the last entry stated to get much on my blog the last time I was in Chisinau. I am trying again and will put the more recent stuff at the top of this blog.

By the way this picture is of a road, not un like the one I live on. But notice the make of the car on the right.

I have been in Moldova now for a little over four weeks. Today was a looong day as we had our first language exam. The effort was to get a third party’s assessment of our language progress. I managed to get assigned to the last paring of the day, which made for a long nervous wait. I have a hard time understanding what folks say to me but this week I have been able to explain to my host sister when I don’t need her to make me lunch even though I will not be home for lunch. I think that she understands me. Something of a break through!

We find out tomorrow how we did. Up until now we have stayed in our same grouping with three of us in each class and the same teacher. It is expected that maybe our groupings will be changed along with our teacher after the test, which by the way was all oral.

We also have a project that we are working on involving a fund raiser. We are working with some high school students to have a talent type concert that will benefit the preschool across the street from our Peace Corps school. After the test this afternoon we had a meeting with the mayor and we thought we had a meeting with the parents of the preschool. But apparently the parent meeting, more like a PTA, was moved to yesterday and not knowing this we missed it.

It is said that training is nothing like time in your village. I seem to remember that from the last time I was in the Peace Corps. We have little time to ourselves now but will have lots later.

Also if I can get them on, these murals are in the basement room of the preschool. In Soviet time, this school and two others in our village housed all the too young to go to primary school students while their parents worked. One of the preschools has been closed down and the other two are running below capacity. When the Soviet Union collapsed the infrastructure that held much of the activity in this country together went with it. Now that Romania has become apart of the EU, Moldova has become even more isolated. There are not a lot of choices in the way of jobs. Many families have members that are working out of this country and many are doing it legally.

But I will get to that in future blogs.

What follows is what should have been post two weeks ago, enjoy:
I have been in my host family’s home for two weeks this weekend and only away from home for three weeks. Two days were spent in Philadelphia, two days were spend traveling to Moldova and two days were spent in Chisinau.

My days start with Moldovan/Romanian language classes except on Thursday and Sunday. On Thursday we spend the whole day doing all the other stuff besides language that will fill these ten weeks of training. I have to keep reminding myself that I have only been studying Romanian for two weeks as I get frustrated trying to speak. There are very few people in our small town who speak any English and thus all communication has to happen in Romanian. Bingo, frustration.

My training group left Philadelphia with twenty nine of us. Last week one of number opted to return home. Most likely we will loose more before our ten weeks is complete and we are sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers the first week in May. The Peace Corps is working hard to make sure we all make it but at the same time they want us to know what we will face.

While we are near the same latitude as northern Michigan, spring is arriving. Most yards have been tilled and seeds are going in. The roads are filling up with mud as the rains water the seeds. Our grandfather is in charge of our garden. We are still eating food from last year’s garden. We have a rabbit and chickens in our yard. And we are all greeted by a small fluffy white dog when we come in the gate. I think he might be getting use to me as he only barks occasionally when I come home. He serves as our door bell.

My home for the next weeks is new with a nice inside bathroom, including a flush toilet and a washing machine. The washing machine is German made but the instructions are in Russian. I bought a Snickers bar the other day and with the exception of the word Snickers all the writing on the wrapper is in Russian.

In country...

Well, I had hoped to transfer stuff from my flash drive to this blog but it does not work. It is the end of my second week in Peresecina, my host town. Learning the language is frustrating and I don't as yet have a regular internet connectionso this is quick. I am doing great and hope to get on longer next time. Hi to all. By the way this is my disclaimer: I am not peace corps and only speak for myself.

The Peace Corps has really changed. Most to the better!!!!

Philly

This is the picture I tried to put on my blog in the last entry. My luggage. I am now in Philadelphia and have spend half a day with the 28 other volunteers headed to Moldova and have learned that at least on the part of the ladies, packing was impossible and we all have more luggage then we were suppose to bring.
Just a quick message to describe our group, lots of young volunteers, just out of graduate school or recently graduated. One married couple (older) a couple of other +50s, one women and one man other than myself and lots of wonderful co-volunteers. With all kinds of talents and expertise. Our biggest representation is from Texas. But there is someone else here from Michigan, Harbor Springs. Have some reading to do for tomorrow's day long session so am signing off. Idealism is running ramped. My kind of people!

Gone

I am not yet gone but on a plane this afternoon to visit my sister in NJ and then Sunday stagging in Philadelphia. Then Tuesday it should be on a plane to Moldova. Time has finally arrived. Susie is already in Romania as she left for stagging on Monday.
If there is no picture on this entry you can blame it on the wonderful wireless here in Oakland County that I have been using since I got my new computer. Beware, the old wireless cards do not fit new computers and the phone companies are not working for their customers. But I have a feeling that my wireless access maybe better in Moldova.
That brings me to the bit of information that this maybe my last entry until after training. Training is reported to be quite time consuming which means maybe not time for blogging.
The picture that I wanted to put on this entry was of my suitcases of which I have spent a good part of the last few weeks packing and repacking in an effort to get most of the stuff on the packing list and the additional stuff I thought I would need in. I look forward to discovering whether I was successful or not. That is did I bring the stuff that I will need.
Wish me Drum Bun.

Last week in Mackinaw

Heading South!!

This is our last week in Mackinaw City. Boy, did we get a dozy of a storm to send us off. The wind is whistling around the house and we can not tell how much snow we got last night as it has been blown all over. Friday we head south for the last time.

It has been a fun fall trading shelter for work here at the tip of the lower mitt. Only having three television stations, no PBS. No newspaper but the on-line versions. Walking to the post office most days to gather the mail and get the latest news from others that are also gathering their mail.

The new GLLKA offices are well on their way to being finished and we helped pull out the walls and cellings of the greasy spoon it use to be. Our trips to the Soo for Tai Chi. The weeks that we got to docent on the Icebreaker Mackinaw. Our work to get the historic village started on artifact accessioning. The folks that we knew when we got here and now know better than ever. All the new folks we now know. The difference between summer Mackinaw City and winter Mackinaw City. It has been fun and rewarding. I can't forget the great cross country skiing we have done!

But both Susie and I have our plane reservations to head off to Philadelphia and stagging. Susie leaves on the 18th of February and I head out on the 24th of February. My plan is to visit my sister Jean and her husband in New Jersey for a couple of days and then on to Phily.

Next month at this time I will be learning more Moldovan language and culture IN Moldova. I just hope I finally solve the getting everything in the suitcase problem before then. The more reading I do the more I think that winter will be winding down and it will be next winter for much of the heavy clothes. I'll let you all know.

The Countdown has begun...

Yes, these two pictures were taken less than a week apart and both with my camera. The one on the left is a blue heron following fishermen on the beach in Florida (he showed up most days to check out the daily catch) and the one on the right is me cross country skiing in the woods of Mackinaw City.

Jus and I spent Christmas exploring the beaches of southwest Florida. A friend lent us her digs as she had gone north for the holiday. We took long walks on the beach, explored the western part of Everglades National Park and stopped in the little beach towns along the coast. We even got to see Kelly and Marc, buying both Jus and Marc new suits. Isn't that why we go to Florida?

But then it was back up to Mackinaw City as I try to slow my mind down enough to make a list of those things I must do before leaving for Moldova in just over a month. The excitement is building!

My excitement yesterday was the fact that a presently serving Moldova Peace Corps volunteer discovered this blog and wrote me. It is wonderful to have direct communication with someone that is doing what you are going to be doing in just a couple of months. We have exchanged several emails in the last twenty-four hours. Information is becoming much less generic.

Next week I am off again to spend a long weekend with my kids, we are also celebrating Christmas together, to say my good-byes. It is sad to write that but this morning I was putting together information for contacting me while in Moldova with my newly acquired information that it could be entirely possible that we will be communicating by email. Along way from the snail mail letters of Bolivia.

Oh, before I forget, welcome to those of you that are visiting this blog for the first time. I am now completely sold on email holiday greetings. After sending out mine this year I heard back from many people I had not touched base with for several years with long emails. That never happened with snail mail holiday greetings.

Peace in the New Year!