For What's It Worth
If there is one nice advantage for schools here to having a Peace Corps volunteer it's that, in addition to the obvious benefit of having another teacher that will help the students in their pursuit of English, we volunteers have access to various activities and projects through Peace Corps Moldova that we are able to bring to our schools, to our kids, that they would maybe otherwise not be able to receive.
For example, this year, as I've written about in the past, I was lucky enough to be able to take a team to the Model United Nations conference in Chisinau, put on through Peace Corps and a host of Moldova partners. It was a conference that was done all in Romanian, a bit of a problem for me because in my Russian school there are only a handful of kids who speak Romanian to the level required. Thankfully, amongst the twenty-one ninth-graders in my school there are five of which speak the national language to a high enough level – of these five, I was able to take three to Chisinau to the conference last weekend. It was one great moment followed by another.
It started on Friday, when we rolled off the bus from my village at 7:45 in the morning and needing three hours to kill, went right to the Peace Corps Moldova office where we have a volunteer lounge that I spent an inordinate amount of time in. We hung out there for a few hours while I gave the kids some more information that they needed, then let them prepare their opening presentation. We then went to a hotel here where all the kids were put up for the duration of the weekend. It was clear from the start that it was their first time in such a place as when they got their registration cards they worried immensely about how to fill in the information correctly (I, on the other hand, just filled in what I thought they needed – no problems either). Then they got to their rooms and of course their first question was if the TV worked or not. I then led them to registration – done totally by Peace Corps volunteers – before basically letting them go for the next two days. I had their cell phone numbers, they had mine, and I just dropped in from time to time to monitor things but tried to stay out of their hair because, as I told them, they were young and in Chisinau and with other students and they last thing they wanted was to be around me.
The conference went well for them overall. They told me that they had a few problems with the language (at one point the guy on the team was stating an opinion when he paused, said the word in Russian, waited for someone to shout out the answer, then proceeded, all done with an air of helpfulness). When I went to get them on Sunday morning I asked them how they had slept – I myself had slept only from 2:30AM – 5:45AM – and they responded that they hadn't really slept and had instead just watched TV until 4:00 in the morning, waking up at 7:00. In hindsight, I should have expected nothing else from ninth-grade students away from their village and parents, in a hotel and without supervision with a TV full of channels.
But they way back from the hotel to the bus-station brought out my absolute favorite part of the experience. As I wrote about in a previous entry, the kids that I took were/are the best of the best in my school, kids that I look forward to teaching every day, who work for me and from whom I work as well. So on the road I was able to finally see just how rare of a chance it was for them to be where they were and to live the life that, fortunately, I'm able to live every weekend.
At one point we walked into the largest supermarket in the center of Chisinau and my kids looked at the escalator with a bit of awe – it then hit me that they had never ridden one. So they asked me if they could take a spin and I jumped on. I then turned around to watch one of my kids slowly approach the foreign object, and take a little hop, only to carried safely to the top. Then they got into the glass-walled elevator with the purpose of just taking a ride to the top.
And to top things off, on our way out I ended up having to wait for the two girls inside the store while the guy with us was waiting outside and when I went to check up on him there was a woman proselytizing to him with a brochure from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in her hand. It was fully clear, in that moment, that he wasn't in Kansas anymore.
Notes:
- Probably the favorite computer program of every volunteer here (and, I dare say, around the world) would have to be Skype, which allows any person to call to America for two cents a minute – by comparison, the cheapest calling card available in Moldova costs seven dollars for forty minutes).
So last Saturday night, in a Peace Corps apartment for sick people (more in a second), I and two friends of mine sat around for three hours and called person after person after person in America. We did a round of sorts, with each of us calling one friend at a time, and because we were in the situation of using only the microphone and speaker, thus allowing everyone to hear and converse with the person whom we were calling. Made for some great moments intertwined with great conversations.
- The aforementioned apartment that I was in is Peace Corps owned, right next to the office, and is for volunteers who have some affliction that requires medical attention. Well, a girl I know – the same girl whose village I wrote about in my last entry – happened to come down with appendicitis last weekend and let my friend and I basically camp out with her all of last weekend. She couldn't do much at the time so there was a host of us there. The most unfortunate part for her was that it hurt to laugh, making for plenty of painful moments. And the apartment itself is great, like any place in America or Europe. Two bathrooms, three bedrooms, relaxed atmosphere. It was painful to leave.
I've also found out, as a result of this calamity, that should I need to have any sort of emergency surgery done there are places in Chisinau where it's possible. And no, it's not at any of the public facilities (sadly, they aren't up to western standards). But there's a private clinic somewhere in the capital that, if need be, can take care of anything too serious.
- My favorite part of last week – apart from seeing my kids get on an escalator for the first time – was on Wednesday when I was walking home from Grandpa's house and on the road home I ran into two third-graders. So we talked for a few minutes, with them giggling to themselves when I asked how their English lessons are going and if they could speak English to me.
Before we departed I asked them where they were going and they said to the kindergarten to pick up their younger siblings. One boy, nine years old, was going for his eight-year old sister, while the nine year-old girl was going also for her eight-year old brother.
For example, this year, as I've written about in the past, I was lucky enough to be able to take a team to the Model United Nations conference in Chisinau, put on through Peace Corps and a host of Moldova partners. It was a conference that was done all in Romanian, a bit of a problem for me because in my Russian school there are only a handful of kids who speak Romanian to the level required. Thankfully, amongst the twenty-one ninth-graders in my school there are five of which speak the national language to a high enough level – of these five, I was able to take three to Chisinau to the conference last weekend. It was one great moment followed by another.
It started on Friday, when we rolled off the bus from my village at 7:45 in the morning and needing three hours to kill, went right to the Peace Corps Moldova office where we have a volunteer lounge that I spent an inordinate amount of time in. We hung out there for a few hours while I gave the kids some more information that they needed, then let them prepare their opening presentation. We then went to a hotel here where all the kids were put up for the duration of the weekend. It was clear from the start that it was their first time in such a place as when they got their registration cards they worried immensely about how to fill in the information correctly (I, on the other hand, just filled in what I thought they needed – no problems either). Then they got to their rooms and of course their first question was if the TV worked or not. I then led them to registration – done totally by Peace Corps volunteers – before basically letting them go for the next two days. I had their cell phone numbers, they had mine, and I just dropped in from time to time to monitor things but tried to stay out of their hair because, as I told them, they were young and in Chisinau and with other students and they last thing they wanted was to be around me.
The conference went well for them overall. They told me that they had a few problems with the language (at one point the guy on the team was stating an opinion when he paused, said the word in Russian, waited for someone to shout out the answer, then proceeded, all done with an air of helpfulness). When I went to get them on Sunday morning I asked them how they had slept – I myself had slept only from 2:30AM – 5:45AM – and they responded that they hadn't really slept and had instead just watched TV until 4:00 in the morning, waking up at 7:00. In hindsight, I should have expected nothing else from ninth-grade students away from their village and parents, in a hotel and without supervision with a TV full of channels.
But they way back from the hotel to the bus-station brought out my absolute favorite part of the experience. As I wrote about in a previous entry, the kids that I took were/are the best of the best in my school, kids that I look forward to teaching every day, who work for me and from whom I work as well. So on the road I was able to finally see just how rare of a chance it was for them to be where they were and to live the life that, fortunately, I'm able to live every weekend.
At one point we walked into the largest supermarket in the center of Chisinau and my kids looked at the escalator with a bit of awe – it then hit me that they had never ridden one. So they asked me if they could take a spin and I jumped on. I then turned around to watch one of my kids slowly approach the foreign object, and take a little hop, only to carried safely to the top. Then they got into the glass-walled elevator with the purpose of just taking a ride to the top.
And to top things off, on our way out I ended up having to wait for the two girls inside the store while the guy with us was waiting outside and when I went to check up on him there was a woman proselytizing to him with a brochure from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in her hand. It was fully clear, in that moment, that he wasn't in Kansas anymore.
Notes:
- Probably the favorite computer program of every volunteer here (and, I dare say, around the world) would have to be Skype, which allows any person to call to America for two cents a minute – by comparison, the cheapest calling card available in Moldova costs seven dollars for forty minutes).
So last Saturday night, in a Peace Corps apartment for sick people (more in a second), I and two friends of mine sat around for three hours and called person after person after person in America. We did a round of sorts, with each of us calling one friend at a time, and because we were in the situation of using only the microphone and speaker, thus allowing everyone to hear and converse with the person whom we were calling. Made for some great moments intertwined with great conversations.
- The aforementioned apartment that I was in is Peace Corps owned, right next to the office, and is for volunteers who have some affliction that requires medical attention. Well, a girl I know – the same girl whose village I wrote about in my last entry – happened to come down with appendicitis last weekend and let my friend and I basically camp out with her all of last weekend. She couldn't do much at the time so there was a host of us there. The most unfortunate part for her was that it hurt to laugh, making for plenty of painful moments. And the apartment itself is great, like any place in America or Europe. Two bathrooms, three bedrooms, relaxed atmosphere. It was painful to leave.
I've also found out, as a result of this calamity, that should I need to have any sort of emergency surgery done there are places in Chisinau where it's possible. And no, it's not at any of the public facilities (sadly, they aren't up to western standards). But there's a private clinic somewhere in the capital that, if need be, can take care of anything too serious.
- My favorite part of last week – apart from seeing my kids get on an escalator for the first time – was on Wednesday when I was walking home from Grandpa's house and on the road home I ran into two third-graders. So we talked for a few minutes, with them giggling to themselves when I asked how their English lessons are going and if they could speak English to me.
Before we departed I asked them where they were going and they said to the kindergarten to pick up their younger siblings. One boy, nine years old, was going for his eight-year old sister, while the nine year-old girl was going also for her eight-year old brother.
posted by Andy Buchanan at 2:17 AM
1 Comments:
Andy,
A great travel adventure and since you arrived in Chisinau so early your group must of gotten up with the sun in order to catch the bus. Your description of the conference made it seem to be like those that some high school seniors participate in, where they go over to the Capital and pretend to be Senators & Representatives for the day, easily solving most of the State's problems through rational cooperation, only in your case it was the UN. With the presentations and discussions it certainly appears that free speech and the open exchanage of ideas has started, once people get used to that it takes root. Hopefully they will turn off the TVs so that their exposure to "canned" ideas will be limited, it doesn't help to have free speech if everyone has been taught to think the same.
I know the scary feeling of approaching an escaltor. The grooves in the steps and the corresponding teeth where the two mesh together before disappearing into the floor conjure up a picture of some primative jaw about to take a nasty bite out of your feet. But they only kill a handful of people a year so it is worth the convenience !
So Skype is the secret of your recent rash of calls. Auntie Bonnie was over for Easter and mentioned that you had called her. Rob had to use up some vacation so I took Thursday & Friday off and traveled with Paul down to Des Moines to hang out. While Paul read Rob & I watched a lot of basketball, then we all played some pool, drove Erin nuts, you know, the normal stuff. It was great fun.
There isn't much snow in Iowa, only a patch or two where it was piled up. Meanwhile, it snowed like crazy in MN on Friday (4") and again on Saturday, and it is supposed to snow again tonight !
All the Best !
Dad
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