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).

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.

Vacation and Festivals

Hey all, I know it's been a while. We're on vacation now, which is nice. The first week of November is a vacation for all of the schools around Moldova and I plan it relax as much as possible. And write a few lesson plans so I can get a few weeks ahead. But mostly chill.

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.

Family in need

This is a family that lives in my site and is trying to build a new house. They have been refused aid by their government and now have to raise the money themselves. The cost of a new house in Moldova is roughly 140,000 lei or $13,000. The family has nine children (please remember that this is an Orthodox country and many families are deeply religious). Only four of the children are pictured here because the rest were either at school or working in the fields along with their mother when I visited with my host mom.

Here you can see some repairs that the family has tried to start. They are trying to chip away the old outside layer and put in new cement blocks. You can see where the dad is chipping away, that the old layer is made of mud and straw. There are also a few windows that were filled with this material because the family did not have the money for new windows after the old ones were no longer usable. They had to fill them with something to try to keep the cold out.

Above is the inside room of the outside wall where the boy is standing at the top. You can see the hole in the wall where light comes through. It is now October and starting to get very cold at night here, winter is fast approaching. This family does not have heat inside their house. Only the wealthier families in Moldova have gas heating. The rest use the traditional "sobas," theirs is pictured below.

Here is one of the boys next to his napping sister. The oven-looking thing next to her is the soba. The families in Moldova use them as heating sources in the winter and burn coal or wood or whatever else is available in them for warmth. This one is defective, however, leaving the family with no source of heat. In the next picture is the soba on the other side of the same wall. It is currently being used to store food because the family also has no kitchen.

The whole family, made up of eleven people, lives together in this little three roomed house. They eat on the floor or beds because they do not have a table or chairs. They share the three small beds.

My host mom is organizing a collection for them here in Moldova among the townspeople and through out the raion/county. I'm starting a Penny Wars in my classes to help raise the funds, and my family has already donated to them. I have set-up a PayPal account to collect funds from them; the donation button on the side of my blog will lead you to it. Please help this family build a new house. Please donate. Please alert your friends and family to this cause.

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." -Anne Frank

Breakthrough!

Something exciting happened in one of my 8th grade classes today. Wanna know?

We were talking about overcoming obstacles in life, and the assignment was for them to make an inspirational poster to have at home with one of the quotes that my partner and I provided. Now, a lot of the time when you talk with students here in Moldova and use people as examples it is hit and miss whether or not they'll know the person you're talking about. For example, when I did a lesson on success I talked about Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, and Barrack Obama. The students had no idea who the first two were.
Today I used quotes from several people, among them being Thomas Edison. The students in the first 8th grade class again had no idea who he was. When I asked the second 8th grade class during the next period the boy who never talks because he is basically blind, has no money for an eye doctor, and who does not receive any type of special help as a student with this situation would in the USA, sits up straight in his seat and says clearly and loudly "Thomas Edison was the inventor who created the light bulb!"

Y'all, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I was shocked. This kid never talks. He sits with his face about two centimeters away from his notebook during every lesson and takes notes if he has a pen with him. I have never heard him say a word before. Before today I thought he had some sort of a mental disability, but after class I asked my partner.

New goal: find some way to help this kid in his studies, because he is obviously intelligent. He just needs support of some kind.

Now I know how ice cream feels in the freezer

The cold has begun. The Moldovans have a term for sunny days that are cold which basically translates to "sun with teeth," and today was definitely one of those days.

Now, you have to understand that I lived in Wyoming for five years while attending college. It regularly got down to -20 degrees F. People in Wyoming would wear shorts if it got up to +30 in the early spring because that was considered a heat wave. I believed that I could handle the cold once I got here.

What I didn't take into consideration was that, in America, our buildings have heat. The school I teach at is an old soviet style building, meaning large and concrete. It use to have heating at one point because there are gas heaters installed, but the funding is missing. Today it was colder inside the school than outside.

When I packed for Moldova it was the beginning of June and I wasn't really thinking about winter clothes. Sure, I set aside my winter coat that had gotten me through five years at 7200 feet and a pair of Under Armor leggings for my mom to send me later, but that was it. Now I realize that there exists a whole new level of cold that I could never have imagined before. I also realize that somehow I'm going to have to learn how to teach while wearing a giant coat and how to write on the chalkboard while wearing gloves.

This should be interesting.

PS: North Face gives Peace Corps volunteers a discount, I suggest to anyone who can to use it.