Nothing New Here
Because nothing too big has happened in the world of this Peace Corps volunteer, I thought I would instead comment on a lot of little things that have happened in my world recently (or not so recently, things I’ve just forgotten to write):
- I realized this happened a month ago, but I thought you might find thins interesting: in Turkey I had food I haven’t hadn’t had since I left America - I drank milk and ate Doritos (not at the same time), and both were better than I could actually remember. I haven’t had them so far in Moldova because, 1) Doritos aren’t available, and 2) The only milk is fresh from cows or goats and Peace Corps recommends that we don’t drink it unless we’ve seen it being pasteurized, which I haven’t done and as a result, I haven’t drank milk. Also, if a cow has Tuberculosis it is possible to contract the disease from the animal through the milk, which would give anyone pause for concern.
The irony in this is that the milk here is better - from a health standpoint - than any milk bought in a store in America. It’s not filled with antibiotics, growth-hormones, and things like that. Goat milk in particular is really good for the body.
- Traveling with us was a friend of mine’s cousin who works in Japan - he’s the baseball writer for the English version of the Japanese Times. It was odd for us to hear him tell stories of Japan, as from a modernity-standpoint Japan and Moldova couldn’t be any further apart. We told him a lot of stories about life in Moldova but he told us that he didn’t realize fully what kind of world we were living in - how different it was - until he bought Poweraide at a store in Istanbul and one of us asked him when the last time he had seen Poweraide.
Because he lives in Tokyo, if he wants a Poweraide, he has a Poweraide. Indeed, he is likely never more than a five minute walk from a Poweraide - it’s a regular part of his life. We, on the other hand, were in awe of this wonder product that we hadn’t encountered for over half a year. So in asking the question we were giving him the full proper context of the world in which we live.
- Last Sunday marked the six-month anniversary of the death of the father/husband in my host family. My host-mom first told me about this on the Friday before when she told the that I would have to straighten up my room because we would have guests on Sunday: when I asked her why they were coming, she told me about the significance of the day.
On Saturday her and my host sister and host Grandma spent the day cleaning the house and cooking a massive amount of food, and on Sunday they came, about ten people. We sat around, them talking the Ukranian dialect that’s basically a dirty Russian and me sitting with my thoughts, all of us eating and drinking wine. They left about 3:00 in the afternoon, and about three hours later my host sister-in-law’s mom came and we sat around eating again. At one point, in a moment of silence, my host mom looked said quietly, “Already six months . . . the time has flown.” Then her, my host sister-in-law, and her mother then started talking about all the people in the village who have died recently. It was actually a little morbid to hear, so after a half hour or so I left.
Then the next day after school one of the other teachers came over and her and my host mom sat around talking for a while again, telling stories about Kola, the departed husband/father. My host mom told of the time after he learned of this diagnosis he turned to her and said, “you know, I’m dying.” It was totally heartbreaking to hear, to see her tell this story.
- There is a lot of talk among Peace Corps Moldova volunteers who speak Romanian on just how useless the language can be outside of Eastern Europe, on how they won’t be able to use it after their service. However, a few weeks ago a friend of made a good point when he mentioned that, if you think about it, Romanian is just as useful in America as Italian. Really, how often does a person need Italian in America? In a way, Romanian can be more useful because it’s more of a niche language. How many people in the world are fluent in Russian and English? Thousands upon thousands. How many people are fluent in Romanian and English? A lot less, I think it’s safe to say.
- When there is not light outside (street lamps and the light), a person becomes highly conscious of the times of sunrise and sunset. For example, I can tell you that at the end of December, right before I left for vacation, it got dark at 4:30 in the afternoon, almost to the minute. Now? It’s light enough until 5:25 to go to the outside without a flashlight.
- You know how, at the end of a student’s high school career, they get their photograph taken for posterity? Well, guess who was the photographer for this year’s kids? Me. They all know I have a digital camera so last Friday I took all of their pictures, individuals and as a class, and this Saturday I have to go to Chisinau to get them developed at the Kodak shop.
All the kids were present except one, and when I asked where he was they told me that he moved to Italy to live with his mom, who moved there six years ago. She finally saved up enough money to bring her son to live with her.
- Last Friday on Russian State TV was a concert featuring ‘legends’ of some radio station. The ‘legend’ from America? That’s right, the super group Secret Service, who (quoting Bill Simmons) just looked glad to be on TV, collecting a paycheck. Ever hear of Secret Service? Me neither, which stunned my host mom and sister when I told them of my lack of knowledge.
- More on the Ukrainian dialect I write about often: turns out (this will sound crazy), it’s basically a dirty Russian, and old language from the time when Russian and Ukranian were closer than they are now. My Russian teacher from the Peace Corps told me that she understands about 90% of the dialect and only 10 or so percent of Ukranian, also telling me that now it’s mostly Russian with some Moldovan and some other old language that exists only in this context. After my teacher told me that she understands the dialect I started to listen more and, turns out, I understand about half.
- Finally, I’ll end by re-telling something, the highlight of my week up to now (the end of lesson on Wednesday). On Monday I told my fourth graders that my parents were coming here and that if they wanted they could meet them, which caused cheers of joy and caused two kids to turn to each-other and shake hands like they had just finished a round of golf. I started to laugh and when my kids asked me what was so funny I just lied and told them nothing.
- I realized this happened a month ago, but I thought you might find thins interesting: in Turkey I had food I haven’t hadn’t had since I left America - I drank milk and ate Doritos (not at the same time), and both were better than I could actually remember. I haven’t had them so far in Moldova because, 1) Doritos aren’t available, and 2) The only milk is fresh from cows or goats and Peace Corps recommends that we don’t drink it unless we’ve seen it being pasteurized, which I haven’t done and as a result, I haven’t drank milk. Also, if a cow has Tuberculosis it is possible to contract the disease from the animal through the milk, which would give anyone pause for concern.
The irony in this is that the milk here is better - from a health standpoint - than any milk bought in a store in America. It’s not filled with antibiotics, growth-hormones, and things like that. Goat milk in particular is really good for the body.
- Traveling with us was a friend of mine’s cousin who works in Japan - he’s the baseball writer for the English version of the Japanese Times. It was odd for us to hear him tell stories of Japan, as from a modernity-standpoint Japan and Moldova couldn’t be any further apart. We told him a lot of stories about life in Moldova but he told us that he didn’t realize fully what kind of world we were living in - how different it was - until he bought Poweraide at a store in Istanbul and one of us asked him when the last time he had seen Poweraide.
Because he lives in Tokyo, if he wants a Poweraide, he has a Poweraide. Indeed, he is likely never more than a five minute walk from a Poweraide - it’s a regular part of his life. We, on the other hand, were in awe of this wonder product that we hadn’t encountered for over half a year. So in asking the question we were giving him the full proper context of the world in which we live.
- Last Sunday marked the six-month anniversary of the death of the father/husband in my host family. My host-mom first told me about this on the Friday before when she told the that I would have to straighten up my room because we would have guests on Sunday: when I asked her why they were coming, she told me about the significance of the day.
On Saturday her and my host sister and host Grandma spent the day cleaning the house and cooking a massive amount of food, and on Sunday they came, about ten people. We sat around, them talking the Ukranian dialect that’s basically a dirty Russian and me sitting with my thoughts, all of us eating and drinking wine. They left about 3:00 in the afternoon, and about three hours later my host sister-in-law’s mom came and we sat around eating again. At one point, in a moment of silence, my host mom looked said quietly, “Already six months . . . the time has flown.” Then her, my host sister-in-law, and her mother then started talking about all the people in the village who have died recently. It was actually a little morbid to hear, so after a half hour or so I left.
Then the next day after school one of the other teachers came over and her and my host mom sat around talking for a while again, telling stories about Kola, the departed husband/father. My host mom told of the time after he learned of this diagnosis he turned to her and said, “you know, I’m dying.” It was totally heartbreaking to hear, to see her tell this story.
- There is a lot of talk among Peace Corps Moldova volunteers who speak Romanian on just how useless the language can be outside of Eastern Europe, on how they won’t be able to use it after their service. However, a few weeks ago a friend of made a good point when he mentioned that, if you think about it, Romanian is just as useful in America as Italian. Really, how often does a person need Italian in America? In a way, Romanian can be more useful because it’s more of a niche language. How many people in the world are fluent in Russian and English? Thousands upon thousands. How many people are fluent in Romanian and English? A lot less, I think it’s safe to say.
- When there is not light outside (street lamps and the light), a person becomes highly conscious of the times of sunrise and sunset. For example, I can tell you that at the end of December, right before I left for vacation, it got dark at 4:30 in the afternoon, almost to the minute. Now? It’s light enough until 5:25 to go to the outside without a flashlight.
- You know how, at the end of a student’s high school career, they get their photograph taken for posterity? Well, guess who was the photographer for this year’s kids? Me. They all know I have a digital camera so last Friday I took all of their pictures, individuals and as a class, and this Saturday I have to go to Chisinau to get them developed at the Kodak shop.
All the kids were present except one, and when I asked where he was they told me that he moved to Italy to live with his mom, who moved there six years ago. She finally saved up enough money to bring her son to live with her.
- Last Friday on Russian State TV was a concert featuring ‘legends’ of some radio station. The ‘legend’ from America? That’s right, the super group Secret Service, who (quoting Bill Simmons) just looked glad to be on TV, collecting a paycheck. Ever hear of Secret Service? Me neither, which stunned my host mom and sister when I told them of my lack of knowledge.
- More on the Ukrainian dialect I write about often: turns out (this will sound crazy), it’s basically a dirty Russian, and old language from the time when Russian and Ukranian were closer than they are now. My Russian teacher from the Peace Corps told me that she understands about 90% of the dialect and only 10 or so percent of Ukranian, also telling me that now it’s mostly Russian with some Moldovan and some other old language that exists only in this context. After my teacher told me that she understands the dialect I started to listen more and, turns out, I understand about half.
- Finally, I’ll end by re-telling something, the highlight of my week up to now (the end of lesson on Wednesday). On Monday I told my fourth graders that my parents were coming here and that if they wanted they could meet them, which caused cheers of joy and caused two kids to turn to each-other and shake hands like they had just finished a round of golf. I started to laugh and when my kids asked me what was so funny I just lied and told them nothing.
posted by Andy Buchanan at 6:18 AM
2 Comments:
Andy,
Carrying on with your camera theme today's blog is a nice snapshot of several slices of the Big Pie. I started to wonder if there might be goat's milk in the store, I'll look on Saturday. You could in theory use an "irradiator" to sterilize the milk but where would you plug it in ? Yet even most Americans are convinced the "radiation" is harmful and this technology is off to a surprisingly slow start. It also appears you must be at or near the same latitude as Minnesota, it was also light here at about 5:30 p.m. My string of not watching the Playoffs is alive, I was at the airport on Sunday and heard the start of the NE vs. Indy game but didn't know the outcome until I turned on theradio in the rental car. Nothing like playing football on artifical turf in the middle of January, George Hallas would be embarrased !
Dad
I love warm goats milk.
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