I meant to write about the festival that happened last weekend a lot sooner, but better late than never I suppose. Poftim:
My host mom was one of the main organizers of the festival that happened in a town near ours last weekend. It was the annual river festival, which they use also as an eco-tourism event (although I'm pretty sure the PC volunteers and a couple of people from Germany who helped sponsor the event were the only foreigners there). This is also where we learned that festivals in America are very different from festivals in Moldova. Normally, in America, there would be vendors around selling their goods, and a stage that people could stop at and watch performances when they wanted, and the such. At this festival there were vendors, but only for a short time before a concert started, which lasted for about four hours. It was pretty good, what me and the other volunteers, saw of it. But after an hour and a half, we needed to take a walk. Below are some pictures. The first is of my host sister and teaching partner's son who were the MCs, followed by performers.
I also noticed the ceiling after a while. I guess the Casa de Cultura (literally House of Culture) was built in Soviet times. Not surprising, most public buildings (schools, mayor's office, etc) are products of the Soviet era.
Anyway, when we went outside we were called over to a car by a man. He told us he wanted us to try his honey. And so we learned a new way to drink vodka in Moldova. Take a shot of vodka, eat a piece of a pickle off a plate, eat a spoonful of honey. I hate vodka, it's like rubbing alcohol to me, but it was worth it to get the honey; which was sitting in a bucket with honeycombs and some bees. Very fresh, very good. He also asked us to take a picture with him and then gave us his daughter's phone number. Apparently she lives in Chicago, and he wanted us to send her the picture. He didn't have an email for her, so Shannon agreed to call her and get it.
Then he told Shannon that he thought Nkoshi was Barack Obama when he first saw him. Why the president would be at this festival is beyond me, but we decided that Shannon was the secret service since she was the only one with sunglasses. Nkoshi always has people asking to take pictures with him, too. Either because they think he's someone famous or because he is the first black person they've ever seen. I have to wonder if white volunteers who are sent to Africa experience this at all?
After this we were invited by the mayor to go with him and this village's chief doctor to the mayor's house to try his house wine.
It should be noted that wine is very prevalent in Moldovan culture. Nearly every family has their own grapes and makes their own house wine. It can be rude to refuse trying someone's house wine. So we agreed to go.
The man in the picture with me is the mayor if this site. He also informed Shannon that he has a son her age and started calling her Nora (daughter-in-law), which everyone found amusing. I have to say that I did like his house wine. My family in the States are wine drinkers and we've been trying to find a wine that I like for years. Guess we'll have to go to that Russian market in Totem Lake to get me Moldovan wine from now on?
So after trying his house wine, the group went back to the festival and enjoyed the rest of the festival.
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