That's A Wrap

Every year there is only one mandatory even that every Peace Corps volunteer in the country is required to be at - the Thanksgiving All Volunteer Conference, held at a hotel in Chisinau. So whereas on my last entry I described a twenty-four hour period in the life of a volunteer, I now present what exactly happens when all the volunteers in the country get together:

Wednesday, November 22: I actually spent the first part of this day in the village, teaching two classes in the morning before heading to Chisinau after school. Normally the last bus out of the village is at 2:00, right after school, but that day was different because the day before was ‘xram’ in the village (more on that in a minute) and while standing at the bus stop with other teachers it was clear that there was not going to be enough room for everyone. But just at that moment a taxi pulled up and I was told that it would only 15 lei to get to the regional center of Calarasi (the only bus right to Chisinau leaves at 6:00AM - if someone’s not on that they need to transfer in the regional center). It was a great event; while the bus takes 45 minutes and costs 8 lei, the taxi was 20 minutes and costs 15 lei (about 1 dollar and 15 cents for a taxi ride of 15 miles). Then in Calarasi I walked in to buy a ticket and some guy said something to me in Romanian - when I said ‘excuse me?" in Russian he asked if I was going to Chisinau. I was and ended up being between transportation vehicles for only 30 seconds, tops. It was without a doubt the smoothest trip I’ve ever had to the capital.

Upon arrival I went to Peace Corps office, met friends, rested, and then spent the evening in a hotel with others from my group, just having a few drinks and talking about life - we ended up talking for four hours together, which is an unreal amount of time for something like that to happen in the states.

Thursday, November 23: Thanksgiving! - We had meetings from 9:30 until 2:30, where we discussed things like the importance of dressing well (something I do anyways) and of why exactly we need to write detailed activity reports of our work twice a year. After the meetings about 40 of us gathered in a field to play the Annual American Football game, North vs. South. I won’t go into details other than to say that my team lost and as a result, I’m taking control of the north team next year. We’re going to operate things differently, because the lost this year bugged me for four days. And also, while we played a group of Moldovans slowly gathered around to watch this odd spectacle unfold before their eyes, even applauding when someone make a play or two.

After the game, at 6:00 in the evening, the real event started - homemade Thanksgiving dinner. It was divine - there were 290 people there, about a 2/3 American crowd ranging from Volunteers to Fulbrights to Embassy staff ( the Ambassador sat at our table). It was the full standard fare, and it was beyond words comforting (more on Thanksgiving later).
Following the feast was the talent show put on by volunteers, again great. Highlights included a group singing "Don’t Stop Believing" with 150 people in the crowd following along and "Here Comes The Sun" by the Beatles done by two guys with guitars. But my personal favorite was when a Moldovan girl and her brother (guitar in hand) got on stage to sing a song they described as an American Classic and sat. One second later the brother played the opening notes of Ray Orbeson’s "Pretty Woman," eliciting a moan of glee from the crowd, a crowd that proceeded to sing along for the length of their performance.

Friday, November 24 - More meetings in the day, including an hour presentation by the Ambassador, who was really interesting, and some guy from USAID in Moldova, who was equally interesting. We also passed the time learning about different projects we can do at sight that are sponsored by the Peace Corps, and then went with some friends to scout out airfare to Istanbul over the holidays. In the evening I went to hang out with a Moldovan girl I know but she had to get up at 6:00 Saturday morning so then went to a bar and hang out with friends for two hours in the evening. Again, there were thirty or so of us American’s at the place, just hanging out and talking with those of just who we had never met before.

Saturday, November 25th - Bird Flu day. Really - we say through six hours of information about Bird Flu in the world and whether or not it is a threat to our health (the verdict - I’m not losing any sleep). We went from 9:30 in the morning to 3:45 in the afternoon with an hour break for lunch.

In the evening I bought airfare for Turkey (I’ll be in Istanbul from the 23rd of December to the 1st of January and going there with friends) and hanging out with some friends watching a movie. In the evening we decided to all go to a local disco to celebrate the one year anniversary of a married couple in our group. With nothing to get up for the next day, we didn’t arrive at the disco until 12:15 at night and returned home at 3:00. A great time - the place is called People and it’s on par with any disco of it’s kind in America. The music is good, that atmosphere is relaxed, and most of all, there is the chance to meet people like the Dutch National Rugby team, who were there. Nice guys - they were easy to spot on the floor and were clearly not Moldova, so we ended up chatting them up for a while.

Notes:
- We had the ‘xram’ in the village on Tuesday, the 21st - it literally translates as "day of the village." It involved my host mom and sister-in-law spending a combined 50 hours over the course of four days to prepare everything, house included. I’ve written it before and I’m sure I will write it again - the amount of food that needs to be prepared for something like this really has to be seen to be believed.

We spent the day just sitting around before the dinner feast commenced at 6:15 or so at night, eating for two hours before going to the center where the community gathered and listened to music. I was lucky in that another American was there with me, a guy named Ryan who just arrived as a volunteer in the regional center. It was great for me to speak English at home and it was cool for my students to hear me speak English in a way that is natural, as opposed to the way I speak it in lessons. Plus, because he speaks Moldovan and this is a Russian village, I served as the translator for him, which was really a cool feeling. My family would tell funny stories and laugh and then tell me to translate, or he would want to say something to my students and I again would relate (they asked him if it was warm where he lived and he told me to tell them, "I live 20 minutes from the ocean" - things like that). Overall, a very solid time.

- Thanksgiving was a day that I thought would be very emotional, very tough. Surprisingly, it came and went very normally for me. On one hand clearly I thought about my family in America and what they were doing, but on the other hand I was here in Moldova with a whole new type of family. I also realized too that in two years, when I’m back in America I will surely think about those of here in Moldova, of those who are continuing their service while I’m at home - that will be more interesting, I think, than anything I went through here.

One Day in the Life of Andrew Scottovich

To give the reader an idea of just how odd my life can be at times, I thought I would present 24 hours in my life- 7:00 in the evening of Friday, November 10th through 7:00 in the evening of Saturday, November 11th.

7:00 PM - Met with some students to go the bar. Really. The two girls with whom I spend the most amount of time invited me to go with them, and I was more than glad to accept their invitation. So we met at 7:00 and headed out to the bar, about a mile and a half away on the one road to and from the village. The plan was to go to the bar for an hour or so, then head back to school where the was going to be a dance for students 8th grade and higher. They’re always a good time.

7:30 PM - Arrived at the bar. On the way we talked about stars and what their parents do for work. Good time all around - turns out, the Milky is the same in Russian and they call the Big and Little Dippers the Big and Little Bears.

8:30 PM - After taking for a while, the husband of one of the teachers came up to the table and introduced himself - he knew who I was but I had never met him. He had drank a little and it was clear, and he kept saying odd things, like complimenting the girls on their beauty (remember, they are 15 and 17 years old) and telling me that I could have one of them for a girlfriend if I wanted, that it’s not a big deal that I’m a teacher. It wasn’t that bad for me but it was really awkward for the girls because he kept of complimenting them in ways that were a little appropriate, although he did buy me a beer - that was nice. The girls really didn’t like him, because when we left they used a word to describe him that is best described as a combination between ‘selfish’ and ‘impolite.’

9:00 PM- Somehow we got a ride from some guy back to school to avoid the 20 minute walk. Of course, three other guys were with us and they were carrying a bottle of vodka and some juice.

9:15 PM - Arrive back at school to find a huge throng of people waiting in front. Turns out, to get tot he music we needed a key that only the director has, and someone forgot to take it from him. So no dance. Walked home.

9:30 PM - Arrived home, watched TV for a while, then prepared for bed - on Friday nights here I’m totally wiped usually. I did learn from my host family that we would kill our pig at 6:00 the next morning.

10:30 PM - 7:30 AM - Sleep.

7:30 AM - Woke up to the sound of a screaming pig. One thing you have to realize, however, is that pigs make the same sound whether they are forcefully moved or they are killed - it’s amazing but true that’s there is no difference. So when I woke up I wasn’t sure what scenario was taking place but I figured I would sleep a little more.

7:38 AM - Woke up to the sound of a screaming pig again. This was the killing part (with, of all things, a sharpened corn cob shoved through the heart. It’s actually a quick way to kill because the hole in the heart is large and the animal dies faster). This time, however, there was no returning to sleep. Not all that bad though because my body has adjusted to waking up every day at 7:00 anyways.

7:50 AM - 11-00 AM - Watched the dismantling of the pig, a totally fascinating process. First they blowtorch the skin to burn off all the hair, then again to scrape off the outer layer of skin (about a two hour process). Then they cut off the head and gutted it, putting the organs aside for frying and consumption later. Once that is done they literally cut the carcass in quarters and moved it to prepare if for further butchering. The whole time I watched I also went to the water for well multiple times - I was the unofficial ‘mule’ of the day.

After it was quartered they scrape off the final layer of skin to eat - it’s considered a delicacy by all Moldovans. At first I declined, and everyone had the same reaction they would have had if I told them I was, in fact, a member of Al-Quada - an initial reaction of shock and disgust, followed by them urgently trying to convince me of the error of my ways. They kept telling me how great it was, so finally I gave in and tried it. The verdict? Nothing special - it really doesn’t taste like anything.

11:00 AM - After telling the family I would return home about 3:00, I took off on foot to meet my tutor for language training - our first lesson together. I found my tutor through one of my students when I asked her if she knew anyone who could teach me. She set everything up.

11:30 AM - 1:00 PM - Arrived at the museum in the next village for our initial meeting. The woman’s name is Tatiana Andreivna, a retired teacher of Russian and Romanian who now works at the museum. It was a good lesson, with her just feeling me out to see what I know.

1:00 PM - Walked with one of my students to another girls house for an English lesson with them. They both live in the next village where I have to work (the same girls with whom I went to the bar) and asked me if could work on Saturday after my work with the tutor - it doesn’t make sense for them to walk the 1.5 miles to school if I was already in their village, so we agreed to meet at one of their homes. After the tutoring session I called one and we walked to the next girls house.

1:15 PM - 4:00 PM - Worked with the girls. Actually, we spent about 30 minutes working, the rest of the time messing around, eating, chatting. They learned how to talk on the phone, so after they figured it out they spent 20 minutes calling their friends to speak English on the phone as a joke.

4:00 PM - 4:30 PM - Walked home, stopping the way to talk with one of my 6th graders who was driving cows through the village.

4:30 PM - Arrived home expecting to receive a verbal whipping for being late - they were too busy to notice, actually. With the pig slaughter there was meat everywhere - now there is pig parts in all the fridges and freezers.

5:00 PM - Ate dinner. Actually, it was just the heart, lungs, and other edible organs fried up and served. It’s not too bad actually, once you get over the fact of what exactly is being eaten. And we ate it too with some sort of salty watermelon - together they make a fascinating, rather tasty combination.

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM - Cleaned corn, my new job around the house. It consists of taking an ear of corn and putting into a hand-cranked contraction that strips the corn from the ear. It’s a time-consuming but easy job, one that is painless (unless your finger gets caught between the metal teeth of the grinder - trust me, that hurts a lot). Normally I just stand there, listen to the Ipod, and grind away until a bucket is full.

6:15 PM - 7:00 PM - Went for a walk so I could send a text message on my phone to a Moldovan girl in Chisinau. The phone doesn’t really work in the village but there are three or four places where it sometimes gets a signal - I usually just go from place to place to until I get a strong enough signal to send and receive messages. Again, time-consuming but easy enough.

Note:
Only one - I can’t wait for next week. I will teach Monday, then on Tuesday is the ‘day of the village’ so we won’t have classes and will spend the day eating and drinking wine. Then on Wednesday I need to travel to Chisinau for the All Volunteer Conference - all the volunteers in Moldova will be there for three days of meetings and a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday that will feature likely every American in Moldova there, about 200 of us. Should be an amazing time . . .

Week in Review

I spent October 27th through November 2nd in Chisinau in meetings with the Peace Corps. The first two days consisted of language classes, and the final three days was teacher-training session. There were highlights and no-so-highlights all around..

Highlight: Speaking English. I can’t tell you (or anyone) just how nice it was to speak English in a normal way with Native Speakers. There is no doubt that my skills have slipped a little, as more than once I found my mind mentally grasping for a word and my grammar being a total wreck. But I was not alone in this - as a group our skills have deteriorated. I also found myself slipping aspects of Russian grammar into my English: in Russian they say ‘what’ not to often and instead say ‘which’ more, which I found myself doing regularly.

Low-light: Forgetting Russian. In fact, the day after I arrived home I met some students to work, and my mind was a total mess for about fifteen minutes while I found myself grasping for words that I knew without problems only one week before - I can’t describe totally the feeling. After that I was fine but it was an odd spat of time.

Highlight: Getting a ton of valuable new information to use in the classroom. Much of our teacher training sessions focused on us just talking with each-other in a sharing of techniques, what works and what doesn’t work - it was amazingly helpful.

Low-light: Sitting in meetings for eight to nine hours a day. It was totally exhausting, just sitting there listening for three straight days (the language was not too bad).

Highlight: Finding five packages for me at the Peace Corps office. Some stuff had been sent in July and took three months to arrive, but at least they all arrived intact. Thanks again to anyone who sent something - much has already been but to good use, and my family is especially fond of the BBQ sauce my brother sent. The first time I put it on chicken and ate, a tear almost formed in my eye.

Low-light: Trying to bring five packages worth of things home. I ended up having to be selective, bringing home only the most important things - I’ll pick up the rest when I go back to Chisinau for the conference all volunteers have at Thanksgiving. And my family has taken to the BBQ sauce a little too much - my host mom puts it (and a lot of it) on BREAD and devours it, saying how good it is the whole time. I want to scream that she’s wasting it, that I can’t simply go to the local store and buy more. It’s to the point where if she is eating I can’t be around her, because it physically hurts to watch. So if you are reading this, send more (address below).

Highlight: On Halloween seven of us went to a local disco to celebrate. They don’t really celebrate the holiday here too much but at the disco all the bartenders and many of the entrants were all decked out in costumes, making a good time for all. We where there until 3:30 in the morning, with a wake-up call of 7:30 for the next day.

Log-light: When we all went to the disco, the security were periodically stopping people from entering. Unlucky for me, I was stopped. So I waited. And waited. For an hour and fifteen minutes. No one could figure out why I couldn’t go in - I asked many times in Russian, my friends asked in Romanian, even a few Moldovans asked. No luck. But after 75 minutes the guard just turned to me and told me I could enter.

Highlight - Moldova and Chisinau have a reputation among volunteers of not being too friendly to tourists. Sometimes (usually . . . ) it’s justified, but sometimes not. Case in point - there is a bar near the center called the Dublin, an Irish bar that could not possible be more accommodation for volunteers. They love us, actually, and are more than glad to reserve a table on any night because we buy a lot and (most importantly) tip a lot, usually around twenty percent in a nation where tipping in general is rare and ten percent is wonderfully generous. And the bar itself is great - it feels like a normal small Irish bar you could find anywhere in America. If anyone comes to visit, the first place we’ll go is to the Dublin.

Low-light: However, many a places here help the city maintain it’s reputation. Case in point - Sunday night some of us went to a place called the Beer House, one of the nicer places in town and a two minute walk from the hotel where we stayed. There we ordered beer three liters at a time; it came in fresh, tall cylinders that were placed in a barrel with a tap. When one friend of mine saw it he was more joyous than I’ve ever seen a volunteer here: he wouldn’t have been more excited if twenties and not beer poured from the keg. It was amazing. However, two days later other volunteers went there hoping to have the same experience. They were quickly told that it wasn’t possible to but beer in three liter cylinders. Yes, we had just purchased then 48 hours earlier. Yes, they are listed on the menu. And for some odd reason, they were denied with no real explanation given.

Highlight: My mind was able to rest greatly. I didn’t have to think in Russian and the work we were doing wasn’t too mentally taxing - anytime I got tired I could simply allow myself to drift away until something more interesting came along.

Low-light:My body was put through the ringer. While the meetings were not mentally taxing, physically is was exhausting to sit there and do little. And at night we didn’t sleep much either, instead spending the hours talking amongst each-other. When I arrived home apparently I looked like I got hit by a truck - for two days my host-mom asked me why I had black under my eyes, and I was never asked to help with work - they were simply more concerned that I rest.

Highlight: A friend of mine went to the Russian Embassy in Chisinau and figured out just what exactly we need to get a visa to Russia. It’s nice to finally know.

Low-light: What we’ve learned has thrown our whole trip into jeopardy. The Embassy only processes visas for American’s on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00AM to 1:00 in the afternoon, so to get a visa would require a day trip to the city, meaning that we would be missing lessons. Secondly, everyone says that thanks to the Russian bureaucracy, we likely will have to go there at least twice, if not more, meaning a lot of missed lessons and 5:00AM wake-up calls. There is a silver lining, however: if we don’t go to Russia, it looks like Istanbul instead for the holidays. I think I could make that trade . . .

And finally, the absolute highlight of the trip: Tuesday night some of us were sitting in a hotel room drinking beer and listening to music on a computer when "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John came on. Within thirty seconds all ten of us in the room broke into chorus, singing together for the length of the song. If you’ve seen the movie "Almost Famous", it was exactly like the scene in the bus, only with giddy young American volunteers. Surreal, almost.

I will end with a request for one thing (besides more BBQ sauce - or salsa). I need books in English. If you are reading this and are able to send something, please go to every yard and garage sale, every church rummage sale you can find and just buy children’s books. You can send them here in something called a Media Bag through the USPS - it’s one dollar a pound (but will take a while to get here, something I’m perfectly fine with) to send them here:

Andy Buchanan
Peace Corps Volunteer
str.Grigore Ureche 12
2001, Chisinau, Moldova

I will thank you once in advance and once more when things are received.