Half-Way Home
The first week of practice school is under my belt, and I must say that it was a success. There is no doubt that the kids know more now than they knew before we started, including the names of various barnyard animals, the words to "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," how to introduce themselves, and what types of flowers grow in the summer. A huge success.
The final day was a highlight. The first twenty minutes of class were devoted to a quick review of information, then the test. For much of the test I had written a sentence on the board with only a word missing, and I told the kids, multiple times in both English and Russian, that they need only write the missing word, not everything - it would take them an hour to write out everything on the board. And of course, some proceeded to write out everything. But soon I had them ironed out, and they proceeded without too many problems (later, my partner teacher told me that she has the same problem, that she with eighteen years of experience can tell students 100 times not to write out the whole sentence and that, without fail, a few will not listen). As for the results, 7 students took the exam: two received a 10, one a 9, three an 8, and one a 5 ( but the last student had come a long way).
And during the last 45 minutes of class we simply played games that required the students to use the skills they have acquired, with the most active students receiving candy that the teacher picked up at the market in the morning. At one point a girl Polina said the sentence, "Slava is small," with Slava being the shortest kid in the room. To get back he tried to say "Polina is big" but instead said "My Polina is big." My partner teacher and I laughed and quickly translated back to him what he said, causing him a bit of embarrassment and the rest of the class a laugh. Finally, and the end of the last lesson, as is a tradition some of the students gave the teacher (me) some flowers as a show of thanks. It’s a tradition that I think needs to be spread to America.
Notes:
- Last Sunday, the three Russian trainees and I went with a friends sister to the lake to relax a bit - it was a great day. First, on the walk the sister demanded that we speak only Russian, which was good practice in such a low-risk environment. Then, at the lake we were able to sit around, sleep a bit, and just talk in a casual environment while drinking a little wine. At one point too the cousin of the sister came - she spoke amazing English. The girl, another Polina, actually lived in America for a year through a program run by, of all things, Taco Bell. That’s right. This girl spent six months in New York city working at a TB, then six months working in Fairbanks, Alaska, at another TB. It’s a program that I’ve never heard of but which she didn’t mind, as it allowed her a chance to see the nation and earn a little money too.
- The work ethic of my host family continues to astound me. My host mother wakes up everyday at 5:30 and usually goes to bed around 11:00 at night, and all day she’s either busy working around the house or in the field, as this is the busy time of year for the latter. Some days she and my host father - who get’s up earlier than her - are gone until 10:30 at night working in the field.
- This Sunday all the Americans are meeting with our host families for a few hours of a ‘cultural exchange’ in which we’ll teach each other to cook something. As Americans, we’re teaching the Moldovans how to make garlic bread and spaghetti. Should be nice. I also can’t wait to teach them how to peel garlic by just smashing it - it pains me to watch them take two minutes to peel away the skin of a clove of garlic. I’m going to add so much free time to their days that they won’t know that to do.
- Lately we’ve been having what amount to ‘rolling blackouts’ in the evenings. A few times a week, at some point during the day, the power will simply go out. We never really know when (and I never know why) they will happen, but needless to say they’re a bit of a nuisance. I usually just go outside and work when they happen, but if it’s nice . . . not much to do.
- Someone asked me about the food situation here. Well, I eat a lot of bread, a few slices with every meal, and some type of soup for lunch everyday, supplemented with something else - in fact, my host brother told me Tuesday that he finds it amazingly strange that I don’t eat soup with bread, that I eat it separate. I also eat a ton of cucumbers (they’re literally dirt cheap - last week my host mother paid twenty cents per pound and it was considered amazingly expensive) and tomatoes, the latter of which are almost exclusively grown in our garden. I’m lucky here in that my host mother is a great cook, that she takes pride in it. Indeed, all of the bread that I eat is homemade. She also often makes something called plachenta, which is a lite pastry filled with either cabbage (the best), a cheese/dill combination, or potatoes.
One odd thing - apparently, having a separate distinction of ‘breakfast’ foods is almost uniquely American, that in most other cultures in the world they eat similar things for all three meals a day. Thus, often my breakfast is simply last night’s dinner reheated. Thankfully, I always liked last nights dinner and don’t mind a repeat. Sometimes, however, I strike gold and my host mother will cook what they call a ‘rice cereal’ - something akin to a loose rice pudding - and throw in some homemade strawberry jam and homegrown honey. Sound good? Well, it tastes much better.
- We had our second language assessment was Wednesday July 26th and it was an overall success. We all had to interview someone (I interviewed my host mother), ask them about their lives and favorites. Then, we had to re-tell that information to someone else. It seemed to go without too many issues. We were greatly benefitted by the fact that the person to whom we had to re-tell the information was our Russian teacher, so we instantly had a good rapport and comfort level with her, and we are so used to hearing her that we can understand her without issue. I felt much better after this exam than I did after the first. Of course, all is moot until I have the only exam that matters: the official proficiency test on August 14th.
- Two great stories that illustrate just what kind of odd things can happen in this part of the world:
1) Tuesday night I was sitting outside lesson planning when all of a sudden the power went out. Thinking it was just another blackout, I thought nothing too special of the situation and continued
to work. An hour or so later though my host brother came up to me and asked if I knew why we had no power. Hearing my response of ‘no,’ he proceeded to tell me what happened: turns out, a flat-bed truck that had hay stacked high on the back was driving along the main road when the hay happened to strike low-sagging power lines, causing the hay and truck to instantly burst into flames (the driver was unscathed). I walked to the scene about an hour after it started, and it was quite the sight, the type of thing that really need pictures to display (which I will do when I get the chance). But to give you an idea, there was a big pile of smoldering hay on top of the burned flatbed. It was being soaked with water but because wheat is such a good insulator, the water wouldn’t sink far. So these men had to shovel off the top, wet later of hay, exposing the bottom layer that was smoldering, When the smoldering was exposed to air, it would flare up and be sprayed with water; so went the cycle. It was quite the visual feast.
2) Last Friday I was waiting on the street with my host brother and some of his friends for one of my host-cousins and her friend. At one point some guy about our age came up to us to chat, holding something round, large, and spiky in his left hand - I knew something was odd when my host brother shook his hand with hesitation. The guy chatted for a few minutes and then walked to middle of the road, put down what he was holding, and walked away, after which the mysterious creature slowly sauntered into the nearest field. It was a hedgehog. This guy had stood there for five minutes holding a curled-up hedgehog in his left hand as casually as a dinner plate.
- My address here can is:
Andy Buchanan - PCT
Peace Corps Moldova
#12 Grigore Ureche Street
2001, Chisinau, Moldova
I probably should have included it with my last request form.
- Finally, thank you to people who leave comments after each blog entry - trust that I read them with joy. I just never respond (unless it’s a cry for information) because I don’t know what to say. They are much appreciated though. And if you e-mail me and don’t get a response, don’t worry - I’ve read your message. It’s just that my internet time is limited, so I usually don’t write e-mails just for the sake of writing them - if you’ve written words of encouragement of acknowledgment, trust me that I’m thankful. And if you happen to get a note that appears rudely short, the principle of limited time also applies. It’s nothing personal . . . .
The final day was a highlight. The first twenty minutes of class were devoted to a quick review of information, then the test. For much of the test I had written a sentence on the board with only a word missing, and I told the kids, multiple times in both English and Russian, that they need only write the missing word, not everything - it would take them an hour to write out everything on the board. And of course, some proceeded to write out everything. But soon I had them ironed out, and they proceeded without too many problems (later, my partner teacher told me that she has the same problem, that she with eighteen years of experience can tell students 100 times not to write out the whole sentence and that, without fail, a few will not listen). As for the results, 7 students took the exam: two received a 10, one a 9, three an 8, and one a 5 ( but the last student had come a long way).
And during the last 45 minutes of class we simply played games that required the students to use the skills they have acquired, with the most active students receiving candy that the teacher picked up at the market in the morning. At one point a girl Polina said the sentence, "Slava is small," with Slava being the shortest kid in the room. To get back he tried to say "Polina is big" but instead said "My Polina is big." My partner teacher and I laughed and quickly translated back to him what he said, causing him a bit of embarrassment and the rest of the class a laugh. Finally, and the end of the last lesson, as is a tradition some of the students gave the teacher (me) some flowers as a show of thanks. It’s a tradition that I think needs to be spread to America.
Notes:
- Last Sunday, the three Russian trainees and I went with a friends sister to the lake to relax a bit - it was a great day. First, on the walk the sister demanded that we speak only Russian, which was good practice in such a low-risk environment. Then, at the lake we were able to sit around, sleep a bit, and just talk in a casual environment while drinking a little wine. At one point too the cousin of the sister came - she spoke amazing English. The girl, another Polina, actually lived in America for a year through a program run by, of all things, Taco Bell. That’s right. This girl spent six months in New York city working at a TB, then six months working in Fairbanks, Alaska, at another TB. It’s a program that I’ve never heard of but which she didn’t mind, as it allowed her a chance to see the nation and earn a little money too.
- The work ethic of my host family continues to astound me. My host mother wakes up everyday at 5:30 and usually goes to bed around 11:00 at night, and all day she’s either busy working around the house or in the field, as this is the busy time of year for the latter. Some days she and my host father - who get’s up earlier than her - are gone until 10:30 at night working in the field.
- This Sunday all the Americans are meeting with our host families for a few hours of a ‘cultural exchange’ in which we’ll teach each other to cook something. As Americans, we’re teaching the Moldovans how to make garlic bread and spaghetti. Should be nice. I also can’t wait to teach them how to peel garlic by just smashing it - it pains me to watch them take two minutes to peel away the skin of a clove of garlic. I’m going to add so much free time to their days that they won’t know that to do.
- Lately we’ve been having what amount to ‘rolling blackouts’ in the evenings. A few times a week, at some point during the day, the power will simply go out. We never really know when (and I never know why) they will happen, but needless to say they’re a bit of a nuisance. I usually just go outside and work when they happen, but if it’s nice . . . not much to do.
- Someone asked me about the food situation here. Well, I eat a lot of bread, a few slices with every meal, and some type of soup for lunch everyday, supplemented with something else - in fact, my host brother told me Tuesday that he finds it amazingly strange that I don’t eat soup with bread, that I eat it separate. I also eat a ton of cucumbers (they’re literally dirt cheap - last week my host mother paid twenty cents per pound and it was considered amazingly expensive) and tomatoes, the latter of which are almost exclusively grown in our garden. I’m lucky here in that my host mother is a great cook, that she takes pride in it. Indeed, all of the bread that I eat is homemade. She also often makes something called plachenta, which is a lite pastry filled with either cabbage (the best), a cheese/dill combination, or potatoes.
One odd thing - apparently, having a separate distinction of ‘breakfast’ foods is almost uniquely American, that in most other cultures in the world they eat similar things for all three meals a day. Thus, often my breakfast is simply last night’s dinner reheated. Thankfully, I always liked last nights dinner and don’t mind a repeat. Sometimes, however, I strike gold and my host mother will cook what they call a ‘rice cereal’ - something akin to a loose rice pudding - and throw in some homemade strawberry jam and homegrown honey. Sound good? Well, it tastes much better.
- We had our second language assessment was Wednesday July 26th and it was an overall success. We all had to interview someone (I interviewed my host mother), ask them about their lives and favorites. Then, we had to re-tell that information to someone else. It seemed to go without too many issues. We were greatly benefitted by the fact that the person to whom we had to re-tell the information was our Russian teacher, so we instantly had a good rapport and comfort level with her, and we are so used to hearing her that we can understand her without issue. I felt much better after this exam than I did after the first. Of course, all is moot until I have the only exam that matters: the official proficiency test on August 14th.
- Two great stories that illustrate just what kind of odd things can happen in this part of the world:
1) Tuesday night I was sitting outside lesson planning when all of a sudden the power went out. Thinking it was just another blackout, I thought nothing too special of the situation and continued
to work. An hour or so later though my host brother came up to me and asked if I knew why we had no power. Hearing my response of ‘no,’ he proceeded to tell me what happened: turns out, a flat-bed truck that had hay stacked high on the back was driving along the main road when the hay happened to strike low-sagging power lines, causing the hay and truck to instantly burst into flames (the driver was unscathed). I walked to the scene about an hour after it started, and it was quite the sight, the type of thing that really need pictures to display (which I will do when I get the chance). But to give you an idea, there was a big pile of smoldering hay on top of the burned flatbed. It was being soaked with water but because wheat is such a good insulator, the water wouldn’t sink far. So these men had to shovel off the top, wet later of hay, exposing the bottom layer that was smoldering, When the smoldering was exposed to air, it would flare up and be sprayed with water; so went the cycle. It was quite the visual feast.
2) Last Friday I was waiting on the street with my host brother and some of his friends for one of my host-cousins and her friend. At one point some guy about our age came up to us to chat, holding something round, large, and spiky in his left hand - I knew something was odd when my host brother shook his hand with hesitation. The guy chatted for a few minutes and then walked to middle of the road, put down what he was holding, and walked away, after which the mysterious creature slowly sauntered into the nearest field. It was a hedgehog. This guy had stood there for five minutes holding a curled-up hedgehog in his left hand as casually as a dinner plate.
- My address here can is:
Andy Buchanan - PCT
Peace Corps Moldova
#12 Grigore Ureche Street
2001, Chisinau, Moldova
I probably should have included it with my last request form.
- Finally, thank you to people who leave comments after each blog entry - trust that I read them with joy. I just never respond (unless it’s a cry for information) because I don’t know what to say. They are much appreciated though. And if you e-mail me and don’t get a response, don’t worry - I’ve read your message. It’s just that my internet time is limited, so I usually don’t write e-mails just for the sake of writing them - if you’ve written words of encouragement of acknowledgment, trust me that I’m thankful. And if you happen to get a note that appears rudely short, the principle of limited time also applies. It’s nothing personal . . . .
posted by Andy Buchanan at 12:51 PM
3 Comments:
Andy,
I hear there is black sand at the beaches? Is that true?
Andy !
Your old Dad just in from the heat, pruning away in the garden, removing the old and making room for the new, for this year and for next. Paul's off to Pizza Hut, their kitchen is a nice place to be on a day like this, and the experience cures you forever of your interest in pizza itself. He was accepted into CLA and is taking four classes this semester, even tackling creative writing if he can get into the class. Mom's talking to herself as she studies, luckily she isn't also arguing with herself (yet!).
Your first week at the noble profession of teaching seems to have gone well, your "two man" tag-team resorting to the old tried and true tricks of fooling the students into learning something useful inspite of themselves. I see Brian sent you an on-line teacher's guide, I expect it will on occasion be quite helpful.
At least you still have some time to kick back and go down to the lake for some R & R where another version of "It's a Small World" played itself out when the English speaking Taco Bell veteran showed up. Your right, who in the World would have ever dreamed T B had a program like that? For what purpose? Maybe it is something the founders of the business started and is funded by a continuing endowment. Doesn't matter much though, the important thing is that people are taking advantage of the opportunity.
I thought of the perfect food for you to prepare at the Cultural Exchange - popcorn! Not only of sound American roots I think it also has the added bonus of pre-dating the arrival of Columbus. And you are a Master in the preparation of this peculiar but tasty cusine.
As you know my diet is pretty simple, mostly peanuts, but I do complement it in the morning with Shredded Wheat, at lunch with a sandwich, and at dinner with salads. But this, simple as it is, is much more varied then what you are seeing in Moldova. They are more like Seinfeld except unlike Jerry they aren't eating cereal for all three meals.
14 August is coming fast, only two weeks from Monday, but when you pass it will be an early Birthday present. I saw Uncle Dan yesterday, he mentioned that you received the battery so it appears the address and mailing procedures are working properly. Grandma is fine, still cheating on the crossword puzzles. Now that the Twins are on fire she's jumped back on the bandwagon and has started to watch them again. Diane was at Grandma's last Saturday, she's is great, too.
We haven't in Mpls. experienced any blackouts but they've had a few across the country, and many in California where several people have died from the high temperatures. I'm lucky the heat doesn't bother me too much, not nearly as much as noise and mosquitos, and since we don't have many of the latter all I have left to complain about is sub-woofers.
I can't recall if I've ever seen a hedgehog, and how in the world did the guy catch it? They look formidible but apparently from your report they're reasonably docile. Good thing they aren't tasty !
Love,
Dad
Hey Andy,
Good to here that you get the e-mails I was getting concerned. Sorry, I haven't been on lately, I was traveleing across the country with 4 kids, quite the trip!
Anyways, take care and stay out of trouble ;-)
BC
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