Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Andrea Diefenbach Depicts the Crisis of Children Heading Households in Moldova - NYTimes.com
Andrea Diefenbach Depicts the Crisis of Children Heading Households in Moldova - NYTimes.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Snow!
We had our first snow of the season in Chetrosu last Friday. Needless to say, my third grade class was super distracted during their lesson. But then I was distracted a bit too. Luckily I had thrown my camera in my bag that day on a whim and was able to snap some pictures of my village. The first is the abandoned house, the second is some laundry (and the reason why I spent 250 lei on a clothes rack for drying inside), and the last are the chickens that live across the street from us.
So far I like snow better than rain. The road by my house turns into a mud pit and stays that way for several days after every decent rain. This makes my walk to school double in its normal time. However, snow I'm pretty good at walking in after five years of practice in Wyoming. Also, if there was mud before, it will have frozen and that makes it a lot easier for me to get around. I haven't had to break out my yaktrax yet, but I'm a bit excited to get to use them. I wish someone would have told me about them when I was at UW, I feel like it would have been a lot easier when I had one class in Fine Arts and the next in the Classroom Building (for those who don't know, this would involve getting from one side of campus to the exact other in about 10 minutes, not an easy task without snow and nearly impossible when there was).
So far I like snow better than rain. The road by my house turns into a mud pit and stays that way for several days after every decent rain. This makes my walk to school double in its normal time. However, snow I'm pretty good at walking in after five years of practice in Wyoming. Also, if there was mud before, it will have frozen and that makes it a lot easier for me to get around. I haven't had to break out my yaktrax yet, but I'm a bit excited to get to use them. I wish someone would have told me about them when I was at UW, I feel like it would have been a lot easier when I had one class in Fine Arts and the next in the Classroom Building (for those who don't know, this would involve getting from one side of campus to the exact other in about 10 minutes, not an easy task without snow and nearly impossible when there was).
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Bunica gazda (host grandmother)
I've finally had a conversation with my host grandmother that consisted of more than her asking me if I know Russian and me saying no, which has happened on several occasions. Don't ask me what the whole conversation was about, I'm not entirely sure.
The other day no one was home but me, and when my host family goes out they hide the key to the main house in a place I know so that I can get in. I went over to use the use the printer and get some dinner only to find the key not in its normal place. So I stood in front of the door asking the dog what he thought we should do (sometimes the dog is the only living creature that I will speak English with for days on end), when up the path came my host grandmother from her house waving the key at me. I took care of printing my lesson plans while she finished off dinner. Side note: the other day I noticed that we seemed to have fewer chickens in the garden than usual. Guess what we've been eating a lot of lately. Poor things were all butchered and frozen. But the roast chicken is really good, so I'm good with that.
Any-who, she started asking me what religion my family is and I told her we're Lutheran. Yes, it is kind of like Catholic, but Protestant. No, we don't take orders from the pope in Italy. No, we don't cross ourselves either. I asked her about the new church that was being built in our village which is really close to the house. She told me I need to go to church and that I should go when it is finished. I told her that I would love to go to a Moldovan church to see what a service here is like. She seemed to approve of this decision. Then we tried to talk about the family that lives near us that my host family has been helping (see below) because, apparently, they're an "American religion". She said that that's the reason why they have a lot of kids and don't drink alcohol. I asked if they were Baptist, since that's popular in Moldova, but she said no. Then I asked if they were Mormon, since there is an LDS church in Chisinau, but she didn't seem to understand what that was, so she told me to go eat chicken.
This is what I understood of the conversation. The whole thing took about fifteen minutes and we also talked about many other topics. When I say talked about, I mean we tried to, but couldn't understand each other. I've been told I have a strong American accent, and she mumbles a bit, which makes it hard for me to understand her.
It was chicken and boiled potatoes that night. They were really good. But I only took a small amount of potatoes because the Moldovan diet is very carbohydrate heavy. She then instructed me to take more potatoes, I had taken too few. It wasn't a suggestion. So once I had my food and was settled at the table, she had to go feed the pigs and reminded me to lock the house when I leave. By the way, the word for pig in Romanian is "porc". I think it is a little funny.
My new plan when she is in charge of feeding me is to take less than I really want the first time, so I get the amount I actually want after she tells me to take more.
The other day no one was home but me, and when my host family goes out they hide the key to the main house in a place I know so that I can get in. I went over to use the use the printer and get some dinner only to find the key not in its normal place. So I stood in front of the door asking the dog what he thought we should do (sometimes the dog is the only living creature that I will speak English with for days on end), when up the path came my host grandmother from her house waving the key at me. I took care of printing my lesson plans while she finished off dinner. Side note: the other day I noticed that we seemed to have fewer chickens in the garden than usual. Guess what we've been eating a lot of lately. Poor things were all butchered and frozen. But the roast chicken is really good, so I'm good with that.
Any-who, she started asking me what religion my family is and I told her we're Lutheran. Yes, it is kind of like Catholic, but Protestant. No, we don't take orders from the pope in Italy. No, we don't cross ourselves either. I asked her about the new church that was being built in our village which is really close to the house. She told me I need to go to church and that I should go when it is finished. I told her that I would love to go to a Moldovan church to see what a service here is like. She seemed to approve of this decision. Then we tried to talk about the family that lives near us that my host family has been helping (see below) because, apparently, they're an "American religion". She said that that's the reason why they have a lot of kids and don't drink alcohol. I asked if they were Baptist, since that's popular in Moldova, but she said no. Then I asked if they were Mormon, since there is an LDS church in Chisinau, but she didn't seem to understand what that was, so she told me to go eat chicken.
This is what I understood of the conversation. The whole thing took about fifteen minutes and we also talked about many other topics. When I say talked about, I mean we tried to, but couldn't understand each other. I've been told I have a strong American accent, and she mumbles a bit, which makes it hard for me to understand her.
It was chicken and boiled potatoes that night. They were really good. But I only took a small amount of potatoes because the Moldovan diet is very carbohydrate heavy. She then instructed me to take more potatoes, I had taken too few. It wasn't a suggestion. So once I had my food and was settled at the table, she had to go feed the pigs and reminded me to lock the house when I leave. By the way, the word for pig in Romanian is "porc". I think it is a little funny.
My new plan when she is in charge of feeding me is to take less than I really want the first time, so I get the amount I actually want after she tells me to take more.
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