Sunday, October 28, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
October 22nd, 2007
This past weekend was a much needed rest from Peace corps planned activites. On Saturday morning I had language class, and spent the rest of the day reading, hanging around the house, and watching dirty dancing on TV with my host family. (“Grazni Tantse”) So I will be in training until November 22nd, they day we get “sworn-in” as volunteers. During training, the 38 of us volunteers are split between 5 different towns. In my town there’s only 1 other volunteer, and 2 times a week we meet up with the rest of the group for vaccinations, health & safety, and technical trainings. After November 22nd, our group will be scattered around the country in different cities where we’ll live for the next 2 years. (Comrat for me, woop!) Also, the first 3 months at our new site (December, January, February) are called “locked down.” This is where PC challenges us to stay in our town and leave only if we’re with our new host families.
Today we had a dance lesson to learn how to do the Hora and other Moldovan dances. A group of 8-10 people are going to perform at our swearing in ceremony, but until then anyone can learn just for fun. About 25 of us were herded into a basement/ex- discoteque where we spent 2 hours dancing to live accordion music. It was fun!
Hope everyone at home has been well! Miss you a lot, be sure to keep the emails and updates coming! <3 Neha a.k.a. HEXA (po-roosky)
This past weekend was a much needed rest from Peace corps planned activites. On Saturday morning I had language class, and spent the rest of the day reading, hanging around the house, and watching dirty dancing on TV with my host family. (“Grazni Tantse”) So I will be in training until November 22nd, they day we get “sworn-in” as volunteers. During training, the 38 of us volunteers are split between 5 different towns. In my town there’s only 1 other volunteer, and 2 times a week we meet up with the rest of the group for vaccinations, health & safety, and technical trainings. After November 22nd, our group will be scattered around the country in different cities where we’ll live for the next 2 years. (Comrat for me, woop!) Also, the first 3 months at our new site (December, January, February) are called “locked down.” This is where PC challenges us to stay in our town and leave only if we’re with our new host families.
Today we had a dance lesson to learn how to do the Hora and other Moldovan dances. A group of 8-10 people are going to perform at our swearing in ceremony, but until then anyone can learn just for fun. About 25 of us were herded into a basement/ex- discoteque where we spent 2 hours dancing to live accordion music. It was fun!
Hope everyone at home has been well! Miss you a lot, be sure to keep the emails and updates coming! <3 Neha a.k.a. HEXA (po-roosky)
Site Visits
October 17th, 2007
I was away from Orhei since last Friday visiting Comrat, the city I’m moving to at the end of November. It’s in the South of Moldova in the territory of Gagauzia.
(Quick background on Gagauzia – it’s part of Moldova constitutionally but considered an autonomous state. It gained autonomy peacefully in 1994 and the baskan/governer has a seat in Moldovan Parliament. This place is really interesting- Gagauzian people are descendants of Turkey and speak a Turkish based language influenced by Russian, called Gagauzi, along with speaking Russian. I was able to practice my minimal Russian knowledge, since barely anyone I met in Comrat knew any Moldovan. Language Politics are a touchy subject in Moldova. The official language of the country is Moldovan, basically the same as Romanian but with a different accent. Most people outside of Gagauzia speak Romanian and Russian, but there are pockets of land around the country where only one or the other is spoken. I also mistakenly offended someone in Comrat by calling the language spoken in the North Romanian. They were like, umm no, It’s Moldovan. But back to Comrat…It also has the only Gagauzian University in the world and the largest statue of Lenin in Moldova- you heard correctly…Lenin).
So I went for a few days to meet my counterpart (basically boss for work) and stay overnight with 3 different families to pick which one I’d live with when I move there. Akward? Umm, no not at all. All of the families I stayed with were really nice, but I ended up choosing a tgani/Roma family with a woman in her 60s and her 10 year old grandson. When I walked in the door she was elated that I was Indian and plopped me in front of the TV. There’s a channel that plays Bollywood films 24/7, so I’ve gotten this reaction frequently in Moldova. That’s right, I’m the Indyanka. My new host mom is also the head of an NGO in Comrat…I wasn’t able to decipher what the NGO does, maybe anti-human trafficking work, but it could be something totally different. I did the nod and smile, nod and smile. The 10 year old boy started teaching me words out of his English workbook. It went like this: He points to a word in Russian. I say it with my funny American accent. It sounds like ‘blahdipoopelahdi’ to him. He laughs at me. I point and laugh at him. I tell him to pronounce English word. He pretends to ignore me. I was having way too much fun with him that I forgot to ask the prepared questions about the apartment (and now that I think about it, I don’t know if I saw a refrigerator in the kitchen. Oh well).
My counterpart for directs an NGO for youth. They have done seminars and trainings on tolerance, anti-racism issues, and want to start a resource center for youth. Again, not sure what I’ll be doing with them, but don’t have to worry too much about ‘working’ until my language is a little bit better. I’m really excited about my counterpart since she seems to have a lot of energy and was happy to have me there. I’ll also be able to do side projects I’m interested in/ the town wants like an English club, grantwriting, jazzercise.
I was away from Orhei since last Friday visiting Comrat, the city I’m moving to at the end of November. It’s in the South of Moldova in the territory of Gagauzia.
(Quick background on Gagauzia – it’s part of Moldova constitutionally but considered an autonomous state. It gained autonomy peacefully in 1994 and the baskan/governer has a seat in Moldovan Parliament. This place is really interesting- Gagauzian people are descendants of Turkey and speak a Turkish based language influenced by Russian, called Gagauzi, along with speaking Russian. I was able to practice my minimal Russian knowledge, since barely anyone I met in Comrat knew any Moldovan. Language Politics are a touchy subject in Moldova. The official language of the country is Moldovan, basically the same as Romanian but with a different accent. Most people outside of Gagauzia speak Romanian and Russian, but there are pockets of land around the country where only one or the other is spoken. I also mistakenly offended someone in Comrat by calling the language spoken in the North Romanian. They were like, umm no, It’s Moldovan. But back to Comrat…It also has the only Gagauzian University in the world and the largest statue of Lenin in Moldova- you heard correctly…Lenin).
So I went for a few days to meet my counterpart (basically boss for work) and stay overnight with 3 different families to pick which one I’d live with when I move there. Akward? Umm, no not at all. All of the families I stayed with were really nice, but I ended up choosing a tgani/Roma family with a woman in her 60s and her 10 year old grandson. When I walked in the door she was elated that I was Indian and plopped me in front of the TV. There’s a channel that plays Bollywood films 24/7, so I’ve gotten this reaction frequently in Moldova. That’s right, I’m the Indyanka. My new host mom is also the head of an NGO in Comrat…I wasn’t able to decipher what the NGO does, maybe anti-human trafficking work, but it could be something totally different. I did the nod and smile, nod and smile. The 10 year old boy started teaching me words out of his English workbook. It went like this: He points to a word in Russian. I say it with my funny American accent. It sounds like ‘blahdipoopelahdi’ to him. He laughs at me. I point and laugh at him. I tell him to pronounce English word. He pretends to ignore me. I was having way too much fun with him that I forgot to ask the prepared questions about the apartment (and now that I think about it, I don’t know if I saw a refrigerator in the kitchen. Oh well).
My counterpart for directs an NGO for youth. They have done seminars and trainings on tolerance, anti-racism issues, and want to start a resource center for youth. Again, not sure what I’ll be doing with them, but don’t have to worry too much about ‘working’ until my language is a little bit better. I’m really excited about my counterpart since she seems to have a lot of energy and was happy to have me there. I’ll also be able to do side projects I’m interested in/ the town wants like an English club, grantwriting, jazzercise.
Still in Training....
October 4, 2007
I’m almost finished with the third week of training and am getting adjusted to life here in Moldova. My typical day consists of waking by 7 AM. After a trip to the outhouse (we have indoor plumbing, but not for the toilet), passing through the vegetable garden and the smell of red wine in my backyard, (many families here make their own wine- I moved in during wine making season and was able to see my host mom making some, then we drank some fresh from the barrels!) I usually have breakfast on my own, then take the 5 minute walk to language class passing stray dogs, cows grazing, a goat here or there and lots of Turkeys. Since there’s only 2 of us learning Russian, we have class with our teacher on the second floor of a house. It usually lasts until 1 PM and I head home for lunch. My afternoons are usually spent traveling to a different village for PC training, meeting about a project we have to do during training, or my favorite SDA’s. (self directed activities--- PC loves their acronyms.)
I’m almost finished with the third week of training and am getting adjusted to life here in Moldova. My typical day consists of waking by 7 AM. After a trip to the outhouse (we have indoor plumbing, but not for the toilet), passing through the vegetable garden and the smell of red wine in my backyard, (many families here make their own wine- I moved in during wine making season and was able to see my host mom making some, then we drank some fresh from the barrels!) I usually have breakfast on my own, then take the 5 minute walk to language class passing stray dogs, cows grazing, a goat here or there and lots of Turkeys. Since there’s only 2 of us learning Russian, we have class with our teacher on the second floor of a house. It usually lasts until 1 PM and I head home for lunch. My afternoons are usually spent traveling to a different village for PC training, meeting about a project we have to do during training, or my favorite SDA’s. (self directed activities--- PC loves their acronyms.)
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