Monday, October 16, 2006

Moldova 2 - See Jay 1

Do I start with the good or the sad? I guess I will start with the good/sad. This last Sunday was the Chisinau wine festival. What a trip. Kinda like Oktoberfest, only instead of tents there were huge barrels and instead of beer it was Moldovan Wine. So to say the least it was quite delicious. I had pictures (but that story will come later). Sunday was a day of excitement as we left Iolovene in a state of unprecedented enthusiasm and ready to get our “Moldovan culture” on. All started great, I bought a cell phone and the entire transaction occurred in Russian. As I left the basement cell phone store (with money exchange attached) I climbed into a beautiful Moldovan fall afternoon with people buzzing around like flies on…well, ok, bees around a newly bloomed flower. As we entered the wine festival we started to drink a few of our local wines, and then decided to grab a bite to eat. Around the corner were countless vendors selling Shashlik (Kabobs), of the most amazing smelling and tasting beef, chicken, fish (MRACO) in the world. We bought, and devoured like there was no tomorrow. Afterwards, we went back to singing, dancing the “Hora” (a sort of circle dance), and carrying on like Americans in Moldova.

That Night Moldova won. Upon arriving home (about 10:00 pm) I went to bed. At midnight I awoke with the worst case of food poisoning I have ever had. And if anyone out there has ever had it, you feel my pain. I spent the next 6 hours fetal, and wishing I were dead. The next morning (well actually only an hour after I had the ability to go to bed) I made my way to school. As I walked in my LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator) was like “dear god man, call the doctor!” I convinced her against it and went home – obviously vomiting the entire way. Upon my arrival home, I decide to take an inventory of my belongings…uhoh! My camera is gone…SHIT! Maybe my friends have it…NO DICE. Alas, I am destined to not have a digital camera in Europe. Chort! (Russian for devil or damn it). And above it all, everyday my host mom tells me not to eat meat from the street…and all I can say is…BUT MOM – IT WAS SO GOOD!

So that is how Moldova won the last two battles – shashlik = food poisoning (but so delicious) and a stolen digital camera. However, I won most recently in regards to site placement over the next two years. I was assigned to Chisinau to work with an environmental umbrella organization. It seems that I will be traveling around the country to site through the Nistru River basin (including Transnistria…if the US Embassy says yes) and possibly even to our donor countries of Germany, Poland, and Ukraine. Although that will come with time, luck, and language. Here’s to hoping. This weekend is our site visit, and I will meet with my future host families, and my counterpart at ECO-TIRAS. Fingers crossed all goes well. Thanks for stopping by, miss you all. Peace!

Friday, October 06, 2006

This one's for Mike's mom!

Hello America!!!

Mike is well...and sarcastic as ever!

All is well here in Iolovene

That is a picture of my town atop a hospital in Iolovene. The red arrow points to my apt block.

I have been informed that I have been slacking on my blog entries so here it goes. Life here in Moldova has begun to settle in nicely. Lots of language and technical training mixed with a good amount of "thinking time" (but more about that later). A normal day look a lot like this 8:30am-1:00pm language...straight. A lot I know, but well worth it. We actually figured out that we spent more time in Language during PST than we I spent in a classroom my entire college career. (not just me but every university). All in all it is going quite well, and I am anxious to find out where my final site is going to be (tues)

Today we had interviews with out program manager's and Anastasia and I (we are the Russians) will either be going to the south and doing leadership development and skill training with youth (sounds like NSLC Bleh), or heading into the capital and working with an environmental Umbrella organization that works with some 40 NGO's throughout Moldova. Both sound cool, and both have drawbacks (working with youth & not living in a Village). Ether or I am quite excited and ready to find out.

I was very sad to day to realize that I am going to be missing Mike and Nicoles wedding this weekend, so if anyone out there is reading this, and knows them...please tell them that I miss them, love them, and wish them the best of luck. So now a few things running through my head as of late...THE GREAT MRACO (me-ya-sa) (the R is backwards in Russian).

Here in Moldova meat is meat. Whether it is chicken, pork, beef, etc. This is ok for me who eats meat (all kinds) but for others has become a problem. SO we were discussing it the other day trying to figure out why. I decided that it was a throw back to the soviet times when they were just happy to have meat...many other PCV's say that it is because Moldova is a farming culture not an angus beef or purdue chicken raising environment. Either or, it is quite interesting and one of the many little things that are quite different. That's about all the time I have here in See Jays World, thanks for stopping by. And below you can find a few pics of my life here.



Me in a walnut tree in the Communal walnut orchard behind my house.



A picture of my room and my 5 year old host niece, Alina, enthralled with my computer.