Andy's Moldovan Vacation
I write having spent one of the most interesting 10 day stretches I've had in my time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova.
It all started on Thursday the 29th of February – about 1:30 in the afternoon while I was doing some work in my classroom I noticed that all the second graders were in my classroom, running around and eating a little. I kept joking around with them, asking them where my food and candy were. Well, about 2:00 they all were standing around the door to their classroom and they asked me to come in, where I saw all of their mothers (8 women in all) sitting around with their teacher, food and wine everywhere with one open chair and a glass of cognac placed in front of it. I ended up sitting around with them for four hours, eating and drinking wine while listening to them all speak the Ukrainian dialect (a one point one woman was telling a story and another turned to her and told her that she needed to speak Russian so “our guest”could understand, to which the woman telling story responded, after a moment of thought, “I want to speak our language”).
On Friday the 2nd of March we celebrated International Womens Day at our school (It's a holiday that they celebrate like mad in this part of the world but is non-existent in America). The day is actually celebrated on the 8th of March but because we have a vacation on that day, we did things a week early at my school and most schools in Moldova in general. Being not only a holiday but that last day of school before vacation, they actually canceled that last two lessons of the day, the fifth and sixth lessons, ironic for me because I have only the fifth and sixth lessons of the day and meaning that I was totally free. We ended up sitting around eating and drinking wine until 5:00 in the afternoon, dancing the 'hora' and having an overall great time.
On Saturday morning I woke up at 5:00, got on a bus at 6:15, and arrived in Chisinau at 8:15, my trip made necessary by a seminar for all the TEFL volunteers in my group and our partner teachers, with the theme being “Environmental Education in Moldova.” We were in meetings for nine and a half hours on Sunday, followed up by trip to the disco until 3:30 in the morning. We wanted to go to the disco near our hotel that had “Hip-Hop Sundays”, but upon arrival we found the place totally closed. All ready to go, we quickly flagged down three taxi's and within 10 minutes were at another disco in the area, where we celebrated until the early morning. We left from the disco about 3:00 AM, and with a 7:30AM wake up call waiting for us, we decided to test the theory that it's better to sleep 3 hours than to sleep 4 – we arrived at the hotel at 3:30 and four of us sat in one room for 45 minutes, just talking about life.
We had more meetings the following day, Monday, although I was only there for the first half because I thought my wallet with credit cards and ID's was stolen so I had to go to the bank to cancel my cards and get new ones. Our meetings on the environment ended on Monday evening but we had language classes on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, followed up by another language exam. In the afternoon I took a little bus to the village were I lived in the summer, Ivancea, to see my family for the first time since the middle of August. It was a great time there, chatting away with everyone and talking about my life here. It was also really interesting for them because my language skills have grown amazingly since that time. One thing I was most looking forward to was talking to my host brother there, who left for Moscow about two weeks after I left. Turns out, he didn't make one dime in Russia – he got caught in a scam. He was supposed to earn 800 dollars a month (he was there for six weeks), but at the end of his time he went to get paid and they told him that he had a lot of 'hidden' charges, meaning that in the end he made out with enough to buy a ticket home. And of course, because he's Moldovan, his chances with the police were absolutely non-existent.
Anyway, when I was in Ivancea a friend of mine called and invited me to his place in his regional center of Teleneti for a few days, an invitation I was more than happy to accept. So I went there on Thursday afternoon, meeting my friends (another was also invited) in a town of Orhei at the bus station so we could travel along together. We arrived in Teleneti and had a relaxing time, first getting a tour of the 'city' that took about ten minutes (I use quotations because it's the smallest regional center and feels very much like a big village). My friend had just moved homes so we were joining him in his first night there – his lack of furniture meant that we slept on the floor using our jackets and sweatshirts for blankets and t-shirts stuffed into other t-shirts as pillows. It actually was relatively painless for me once I figured out what to do, how to sleep.
On Friday two girls – volunteers who live in the region where my friend live - came in to spend the day, and we killed time just walking through the piazza, eating together. We also met with a Moldovan guy who has a chance to work in America – he gave us the list of potential jobs and we offered our commentary (my personal favorite – working as a valet at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, a job I myself would love to have). In the afternoon another friend of ours came in, making four in all, and we killed the time by again walking around before the girls left, leaving the four of us guys to spend the night at a bar, meeting some Moldovan's, students of my friend, and just relaxing in general.
Saturday – another slow day spent walking around the place. We had all decided to go home on this day so we could rest on Sunday before the start of classes on Monday, and I was in the situation of trying to find a ride home. My village is only about 30, 35 miles to the south of the town I was in, but because of the lack of public transportation between regional centers (which are directly north and south of each other), my options by means of buses were: 1)Go in basically a 120 mile circle, taking 3 hours, 3 buses, and a mile walk through Chisinau for the purpose of going only 30 miles to the south, or 2) Take a bus 45 miles to the north only to return 70 miles to the south to my regional center, where I could have a caught a bus home another 15 miles to the north. Clearly, neither option was ideal. However, my host brother told me that if I was willing to pay for gas he was more than happy to come and get me. Naturally, I chose that option, which while saving time also gave me a glimpse of just how bad roads can be here, as it took us 45 minutes to, at one point, go about 25 miles because of the condition of the roads.
I returned home and promptly slept 12 hours straight. Not only the most relaxing of vacations, but one that I certainly enjoyed . . . .
Notes:
- I returned home to probably the most exciting development that's happened to me in a long time – my family, in my absence, purchased a satellite dish. Our channel options have gone from 4 (only two of which worked more than 8 hours a day) to somewhere around 200, including ESPN Classic, VH1, the BBC, and Al-Jazeera International, and the Real Madrid Channel (which I spent about 4 hours watching on Sunday alone). As I told my Dad on the phone Sunday night, despite the growth in options I quickly realized that only 15 channels are actually watchable.
Actually, satellite dishes here are a sweet deal, as my family spent about 180 dollars – a one time fee – to have permanent access to all the channels.
- On Wednesday I had my second exam of my Peace Corps service, with the first coming after my training during the summer. If you'll remember, I was horribly shocked and frustrated with the results of my first exam. This time, to say the least, things went far smoother. The format of the test is basically to talk and talk and talk and there are two things that will increase a score:1) To talk in generalities as much as possible, and 2) To compare things with each other as much as possible – it doesn't hurt to show a master of the language by playing with words, making, jokes, and the like. My tester and I ended up talking for 10 minutes over the time limit, with me drawing the question (designed to test our language skills), “You have just discovered that your money and documents are missing. Go to the police station, explain the situation, and find out how they can help you.” I was able to answer it without problems.
- If you want to know what is perhaps the biggest problem facing Moldova today is, go to here. It's one of the most important challenges we face as Peace Corps volunteers.
- We have another vacation here in four weeks, Easter Break, and it looks like I'm headed to Kiev with some friends for three or four days – only 16 hours and 15 dollars away on a train. Actually, for all intensive purposes there is only 8 more weeks of school, as we have only 6 weeks after this break but from what everyone says, school basically shuts down for the last two weeks of school.
It all started on Thursday the 29th of February – about 1:30 in the afternoon while I was doing some work in my classroom I noticed that all the second graders were in my classroom, running around and eating a little. I kept joking around with them, asking them where my food and candy were. Well, about 2:00 they all were standing around the door to their classroom and they asked me to come in, where I saw all of their mothers (8 women in all) sitting around with their teacher, food and wine everywhere with one open chair and a glass of cognac placed in front of it. I ended up sitting around with them for four hours, eating and drinking wine while listening to them all speak the Ukrainian dialect (a one point one woman was telling a story and another turned to her and told her that she needed to speak Russian so “our guest”could understand, to which the woman telling story responded, after a moment of thought, “I want to speak our language”).
On Friday the 2nd of March we celebrated International Womens Day at our school (It's a holiday that they celebrate like mad in this part of the world but is non-existent in America). The day is actually celebrated on the 8th of March but because we have a vacation on that day, we did things a week early at my school and most schools in Moldova in general. Being not only a holiday but that last day of school before vacation, they actually canceled that last two lessons of the day, the fifth and sixth lessons, ironic for me because I have only the fifth and sixth lessons of the day and meaning that I was totally free. We ended up sitting around eating and drinking wine until 5:00 in the afternoon, dancing the 'hora' and having an overall great time.
On Saturday morning I woke up at 5:00, got on a bus at 6:15, and arrived in Chisinau at 8:15, my trip made necessary by a seminar for all the TEFL volunteers in my group and our partner teachers, with the theme being “Environmental Education in Moldova.” We were in meetings for nine and a half hours on Sunday, followed up by trip to the disco until 3:30 in the morning. We wanted to go to the disco near our hotel that had “Hip-Hop Sundays”, but upon arrival we found the place totally closed. All ready to go, we quickly flagged down three taxi's and within 10 minutes were at another disco in the area, where we celebrated until the early morning. We left from the disco about 3:00 AM, and with a 7:30AM wake up call waiting for us, we decided to test the theory that it's better to sleep 3 hours than to sleep 4 – we arrived at the hotel at 3:30 and four of us sat in one room for 45 minutes, just talking about life.
We had more meetings the following day, Monday, although I was only there for the first half because I thought my wallet with credit cards and ID's was stolen so I had to go to the bank to cancel my cards and get new ones. Our meetings on the environment ended on Monday evening but we had language classes on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, followed up by another language exam. In the afternoon I took a little bus to the village were I lived in the summer, Ivancea, to see my family for the first time since the middle of August. It was a great time there, chatting away with everyone and talking about my life here. It was also really interesting for them because my language skills have grown amazingly since that time. One thing I was most looking forward to was talking to my host brother there, who left for Moscow about two weeks after I left. Turns out, he didn't make one dime in Russia – he got caught in a scam. He was supposed to earn 800 dollars a month (he was there for six weeks), but at the end of his time he went to get paid and they told him that he had a lot of 'hidden' charges, meaning that in the end he made out with enough to buy a ticket home. And of course, because he's Moldovan, his chances with the police were absolutely non-existent.
Anyway, when I was in Ivancea a friend of mine called and invited me to his place in his regional center of Teleneti for a few days, an invitation I was more than happy to accept. So I went there on Thursday afternoon, meeting my friends (another was also invited) in a town of Orhei at the bus station so we could travel along together. We arrived in Teleneti and had a relaxing time, first getting a tour of the 'city' that took about ten minutes (I use quotations because it's the smallest regional center and feels very much like a big village). My friend had just moved homes so we were joining him in his first night there – his lack of furniture meant that we slept on the floor using our jackets and sweatshirts for blankets and t-shirts stuffed into other t-shirts as pillows. It actually was relatively painless for me once I figured out what to do, how to sleep.
On Friday two girls – volunteers who live in the region where my friend live - came in to spend the day, and we killed time just walking through the piazza, eating together. We also met with a Moldovan guy who has a chance to work in America – he gave us the list of potential jobs and we offered our commentary (my personal favorite – working as a valet at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, a job I myself would love to have). In the afternoon another friend of ours came in, making four in all, and we killed the time by again walking around before the girls left, leaving the four of us guys to spend the night at a bar, meeting some Moldovan's, students of my friend, and just relaxing in general.
Saturday – another slow day spent walking around the place. We had all decided to go home on this day so we could rest on Sunday before the start of classes on Monday, and I was in the situation of trying to find a ride home. My village is only about 30, 35 miles to the south of the town I was in, but because of the lack of public transportation between regional centers (which are directly north and south of each other), my options by means of buses were: 1)Go in basically a 120 mile circle, taking 3 hours, 3 buses, and a mile walk through Chisinau for the purpose of going only 30 miles to the south, or 2) Take a bus 45 miles to the north only to return 70 miles to the south to my regional center, where I could have a caught a bus home another 15 miles to the north. Clearly, neither option was ideal. However, my host brother told me that if I was willing to pay for gas he was more than happy to come and get me. Naturally, I chose that option, which while saving time also gave me a glimpse of just how bad roads can be here, as it took us 45 minutes to, at one point, go about 25 miles because of the condition of the roads.
I returned home and promptly slept 12 hours straight. Not only the most relaxing of vacations, but one that I certainly enjoyed . . . .
Notes:
- I returned home to probably the most exciting development that's happened to me in a long time – my family, in my absence, purchased a satellite dish. Our channel options have gone from 4 (only two of which worked more than 8 hours a day) to somewhere around 200, including ESPN Classic, VH1, the BBC, and Al-Jazeera International, and the Real Madrid Channel (which I spent about 4 hours watching on Sunday alone). As I told my Dad on the phone Sunday night, despite the growth in options I quickly realized that only 15 channels are actually watchable.
Actually, satellite dishes here are a sweet deal, as my family spent about 180 dollars – a one time fee – to have permanent access to all the channels.
- On Wednesday I had my second exam of my Peace Corps service, with the first coming after my training during the summer. If you'll remember, I was horribly shocked and frustrated with the results of my first exam. This time, to say the least, things went far smoother. The format of the test is basically to talk and talk and talk and there are two things that will increase a score:1) To talk in generalities as much as possible, and 2) To compare things with each other as much as possible – it doesn't hurt to show a master of the language by playing with words, making, jokes, and the like. My tester and I ended up talking for 10 minutes over the time limit, with me drawing the question (designed to test our language skills), “You have just discovered that your money and documents are missing. Go to the police station, explain the situation, and find out how they can help you.” I was able to answer it without problems.
- If you want to know what is perhaps the biggest problem facing Moldova today is, go to here. It's one of the most important challenges we face as Peace Corps volunteers.
- We have another vacation here in four weeks, Easter Break, and it looks like I'm headed to Kiev with some friends for three or four days – only 16 hours and 15 dollars away on a train. Actually, for all intensive purposes there is only 8 more weeks of school, as we have only 6 weeks after this break but from what everyone says, school basically shuts down for the last two weeks of school.
posted by Andy Buchanan at 4:58 AM
2 Comments:
"I thought my wallet with credit cards and ID's was stolen so I had to go to the bank to cancel my cards and get new ones..."
So were they stolen?
Just wondering..
Hope all is well. Get some sleep!
I can across this website about girls/women in Moldova. It's pretty disturbing and sad..but whats worse is that it's true. I was just going to email it to you, but I thought that maybe other people would be interested in reading it also.
http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=766
Hope you have a great day! :)
Liz
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