Lowlight Of the Year

You may remember that last year - and every year for that matter – at Thanksgiving we hold what is described as the All Volunteer Conference for two and a half days. It was the only time of the year that every member of Peace Corps Moldova got together, and during our time in Chisinau we had various conferences, meetings, a talent show and a game of touch-football, and without a doubt the highlight of the time was our Thanksgiving day dinner, although to label it as a dinner would be to describe it way too lightly. It's actually an event that they plan for the entire year, a celebration really of Americans here and what are doing here. There are usually a lot of Moldovans there too as well as a ton of other Americans, ranging from PC staff to Marines to Embassy staff and even the ambassador, with whom I sat with last year while we ate. If you'll recall, last year I wrote about the whole event with a strong sense of joy and since that day had been very much looking forward to our next celebration this year, even writing how I didn't feel like I missed America at all last year and in fact, was likely to miss the event here in Moldova when I had returned to the USA. And of course, all of this was the under the responsibility and jurisdiction of our full time Country Director who took a leave of absence in July to be with his wife, who is suffering from lymphoma for the second time (but who, thankfully, is doing better and is expected to make a full recovery).

In her place was brought in an interim director, a woman from Peace Corps main office in Washington, who in her first few days on the job made a move that has been met with universal scorn by the volunteers here: the canceling of of the All Volunteer Conference. No one – and I mean no one here – is even a little bit happy with the decision, especially considering that 1)Most of the new volunteers were told to – and did – go out of their ways in America, and buy, take up valuable suitcase space, and bring to Moldova, food for the event, 2)Most of the current volunteers had already given 100 lei (about 8 dollars, not an inconsequential amount for us) for the dinner. Now that money has to be re-distributed out; of course, there are no records of who paid. And 3) Most importantly of all, instead of being in the capital for one of the most joyous holidays of the year – and without a doubt the one most about community and gathering and thus, the most valuable for us volunteers – surrounded by literally 250 friends, acquaintances, and others in the spirit of joy, eating home-made traditional American for food (an annual event in itself), I'll be alone in my village surrounded by a handful of Moldovan villagers, maybe eating fried potatoes or buckwheat (if I'm lucky). So if I sound a little bothered by the decision, well . . . take my feelings and multiple them by 125 and you'll get a sense of the mood around volunteers. The problems that most volunteers feel is that she was not totally incorrect in some of her feeling for wanting to cancel the event (some of which were legitimate, most would agree) but was instead quick to dismiss the concerns of us volunteers.

Of course with any big decision like this comes an amazing response of other alternatives to the canceled event. There are already three gatherings in the works for that weekend, and almost all of us are sure to end up at one of them. It should be a good time wherever we end up, but ironically at the same time it's likely to be also one of the worst days of the year considering that what was almost guaranteed to be one of the best days of the year is now non-existent.

Notes:

- On a lighter note, I wrote a few weeks ago about how our family had bought a new pig for rearing and later, slaughtering. Well, on it's second day here it figured out how to jump out of the little pen in which it was held, the first pig in the history of the family that's figured out how to do so. At first my family had the idea of putting it back but it kept jumping out so then they decided to let it run free with the thought that soon it will be grow too fat to be able to jump out: then, we won't have a problem.

So now it runs free everywhere around the property, eating things left out and following my host-mom everywhere like a dog would, from the garden to the orchard to the barn where the cow is held. She also runs up to the gate every time someone comes home or as soon as she sees a person who has returned for the day, and she also loves to be petted. Yes, the pig loves to be petted. Chalk that up as another thing on the list of facts I would have never learned without Moldova – that some pigs love it when someone pets them.

- Last Saturday, the day of wine here and a national holiday, was everything I thought it would be and more. There were about thirty volunteers in town for the day and we started in the center, where there were tents everywhere selling wine and food and was packed with people. We congregated there, talked to each-other as well as an Australian guy we bumped into, and had contests about slang that we use in different parts of the country. We were there for about five hours before going to our favorite Irish bar at about 10:00 at night (see picture below of the concert that was also held to get an idea of just how crowded it was), before finally splitting up at going home about mid-night (A there were literally no free hotel rooms or apartments for rent, three of us slept on the floor in an apartment of a friend of mine).

Probably my favorite conversation of the day happened when I went to the bathroom with some friends with whom I was talking to in English. At one point I waited five minutes to get to the front of the line when a Moldova guy came up, paid the attendant (has I had just done), listened to our English conversation for a moment, then cut in front of me. I gave him an inquisitive look and he said to me in Russian, “I can't hold on,” and made a gesture of discomfort, to which I responded, “we'll neither can I.” With a stunned face he muttered the response, “And I also just paid”, to which I responded just as the bathroom door opened, “And I paid first and I was here first” before stepping in front of him into inside. While there I heard him say to the attendant, “I can't believe her understood me,” to which she responded, “he understands everything.”

- Finally, yesterday (Tuesday) my partner-teacher was sick and I took all of her lessons for the day at school, something I have no problem in doing because she is more than happy to help me when I need to go to Chisinau or someplace. When this happens my lessons just descend into games of UNO with English, Hangman, or 20 Questions because rather than just my group I have everyone together and it's next to impossible to try to teach information using conventional means.

So with my 8th graders (who can't say 'she' in English in their third year with the language) we were playing 20 questions when they figured that I was thinking of an animal that has a height of six feet. Their next guess as to what animal I had in mind?

A whale.

Of course, this is beaten by the time last week when I had student look at my map of Moldova on the wall and ask me, in total seriousness, where America was located on the map because he couldn't find it and then asked me in which country America is located.

That being said, I still have to say – I still love my students here and will definitely miss them in one year's time. Sometimes, it just seems like the challenge will just surviving for another six months . . .