"One giant leap, needs two steps back"
Currently serving as a volunteer in the Republic of Moldova
The opinions expressed on this site do not reflect any position of my employer, the U.S. Government, or the Peace Corps.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Losing volunteers
We lost 2 more awesome volunteers this past week… It is one of the differences between this world and the world of politics. They are similar in that you work together with someone for a short period of time but in such intense situations that you form an almost never-ending story with them. Except no luck dragon … But in the political world, you usually don’t lose people mid campaign. In Peace Corps, volunteers going home is a regular occurrence. There are a myriad of reasons for every single one but the end result is the same- they are going home and your mission continues. You might seem them again one day in the United States or somewhere abroad but the odds are against it but at least we have facebook! Though just like everything, there is a cycle that is apart of Moldova. In the summer, we are going to lose the vast, vast majority of the volunteers that trained us and came before us and we are going to get a whopping 75 new volunteers. Moldova is now a larger priority for the United States and thus- more Peace Corps. This way of living really makes you keep in your mind’s eye the idea of cherishing each and every moment as it may be your last…
I will take the frigid temperatures and ice- any day of the week to the mud. Not having any cement puts a real downer on the whole snow melting thing. Maybe even some sidewalk…. but that may be asking for too much.
Its the age, stupid. That should be my Carville plaque above my desk here. Dealing with the 3rd graders has easily been the most challenging part about Moldova. I felt much better though as I played UNO with them and had one of the few boys in my English Club there. He tried to teach them as I play UNO with his class as well- and he almost gave up in frustration. That said, today went surprisingly well after I cut their class short last week at 20 minutes and told them not to come if they don’t want to learn. They were quiet for once and actually learned about Thanksgiving this time and about 30 different words revolving around it.
On TV, Natalia Morari wears severe spectacles and her hair pulled back into a bun, as though she were trying to look older. Every weekday, this 27 year-old journalist hosts a 90-minute debate on Publika, the Moldovan private TV channel. And everyone is able to speak out freely, which is quite a feat in Moldova.
In April 2009, Morari was a figurehead in the “Twitter revolution”, a revolt by Moldovan youth in protest against the communist stranglehold on power. The social networks played a decisive role, thanks to Twitter and Odnoklassniki, the Russian equivalent of Facebook.
Activist credited with the 2009 Twitter revolution among the critics as ex-Soviet state struggles to find a new identity http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/03/moldova-struggle-since-russia-revoltMoldova’s stuck in search for unity
The best poem from the day\night!
Santa Claus visits Cazangic (Moş Crăciun a vizitat satul
Cazangic)
Santa Visits Cazangic
Thanks to Moldcell we got to make a very Merry Christmas for some kids- Moldcell is the “other” cellphone company in Moldova that is purple instead of Orange’s “Orange”. Here are the rest of the photos!
I filmed the whole thing and once I can translate these stupid Mp4s to WMV, I can make the video- until then I spent my nights screaming at Microsoft and Cisco for not thinking ahead when it comes to using a Flip cam on Windows Movie Maker!
We stayed out almost all night with no street lights and so that was fun. Somehow the horse did not trip or fall or pull over the very rickety wagon. At each house we stop at, Santa asks each child to recite the Santa Poem that they all learn in Kindgarten- which you will see on the final video. It was awesome. Finally, after about 12 hours by horse and carriage- we hit every house with a child! Done and Done!
So…. yesterday\last night I went to literally every single house in my village with Santa Claus to give gifts from the Mayors Office via horse drawn carriage. I have video and so many pictures to share but right now all I want to do is sleep. PS. Eastern Orthodox Christmas is Jan 7th, thus why we are doing it now. Good note: 90% of my 800 person town knew me as the “English Teacher from America”. hah!
“When ideas are blocked, information deleted, conversations stifled and people constrained in their choices, the Internet is diminished for all of us.. There isn’t an economic Internet and a social Internet and a political Internet. There’s just the Internet.” —Hillary Clinton— United States Secretary of State
Host dad burning some left over crops. Sigh… at night I dream of composting….
A colleague of mine made this video to try and answer the question “What is Moldova?”
Best Christmas present to myself! Stumbling upon some Native American street performers in Chisinau!!!!! Got my host mom a dream catcher and talked a bit with them after their performance.
My very first project!
A NGO run by former Peace Corps volunteers named “Water Charity” helps sponsor very small water related projects in Peace Corps countries. They are small projects but big impact! My project is simple. We don’t have hot water in our school. The Soviets did build one when they built the school but its sewer fell into disuse and so the bathrooms and hot water system became unusable… Thus, our dishwasher is useless and the bigger problem is that in the winter- it makes it almost unbearable for the kids to wash their hands. The school has a built in heating system but it only works in the classrooms not the hallways- where the sinks for the kids to wash are of course…
http://appropriateprojects.com/node/958
The idea is to install an electric hot water heater in the cafeteria and reroute the drainage to the town sewer and also connect the water to both the dishwasher and the sinks outside the cafeteria. If you’ve ever worked in food service, you know you need temperatures to be greater than 140 degrees Fahrenheit at MINIMUM to kill bacteria. I cannot even start to guess how many children have gotten sick due to this issue. Dish soap is great but its not always 100%
http://appropriateprojects.com/node/958
So if you have some extra change kicking around, pitch in some for a hot water heater in my small rural village of Cazangic, por favor!
http://appropriateprojects.com/node/958
