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!