Sunday, March 11, 2007

A few Moldovan anectotes...

Hey! I am kinda bored at work, so now I have time to tell you some Moldovan stories. Where to begin??? Life here is interesting…. nothing at all like how I envisioned my Peace Corps service being like. I should have known better than to have that romantic notion that I would be digging a well somewhere in Africa or teaching English in a bungalow on the beach to some half naked kids in Vanuatu. Moldova- what a mess! Throughout history, this poor country has been conquered and ruled by invaders from wherever: Mongolia, Turks, Russians etc. They never really got a chance to govern themselves and were totally oppressed for the last million years or whatever, so now they have been left behind by mother Russia to fend for themselves. They have no real national identity since the country never existed before- it’s really made up of unnatural borders that contain all types of people and have not too awful much in common with each other. The national language is supposed to be “Moldovan”, which is really Romanian with an accent, but, for example, in my village they don’t speak Moldovan at all and speak Bulgarian and Russian. They learn Moldovan as a foreign language, but have more class time in English than in Moldovan. My NGO partner is ”Moldovan”, but every time she comes to a Peace Corps conference or something with me, we have to get her a translator from Romanian or English into Russian. The economic situation is crappy too- the government sucks up all the revenue that comes into the country (which is nothing) and the people subsist by growing all their food at home. I just went to a UNICEF conference the other day that said that 90% of Moldovans live below the international development poverty line thing, which is less than $900/ year. I think the average family’s income was like $846 or something. It’s kinda interesting to see where Moldovans priorities are- people as a whole are very concerned about their appearances and despite their measly salaries, many women walk around in these CRAZY knee or thigh-high boots with stiletto heels that cost over $100. There is some joke amongst foreigners that a Moldovan kid can walk 3 miles to school in snow and 6 inches of mud and walk into school with sparkling shoes. Clean shoes are really, really important here. Many younger people spend their monthly salary on one outfit- I don’t really get it. Anyway- let me tell you a story.

Uhhh- can’t really thing of a good one. Well, I did spend about $110 on a cell phone and not even a week after I bought it, I dropped it down the outhouse. I also used to get chased to school everyday by a mean goose- it wasn’t the same goose either- it was a different one every day. The shower in my old house was bizarre- normal for Moldova, but there’s no curtain or anything and the hot water (manually lit and heated by gas) had to be turned on from the kitchen. I don’t know what went on one day, but my host mom started yelling something about the water from the kitchen while I was showering and then busted in on me! She started messing with the faucet knobs and turned off the water while I was standing there naked, soap in my hair and all- just hanging out. She looks at me and starts laughing. I don’t have a clue, but it was just like being 4 years old again and having your grandmother give you a bath. Standing in the tub, no clothes, freezing my ass off. Normal start to my Moldovan day. It happened twice more, but by then it was normal.

Oh- this was cute: I live with a four year old who is an absolute trip! The second day I was in there, his grandmother had a bowl of apples that she put in my room for me. She had asked him if he wanted one before she gave them to me and he said no. Later he saw the apples in my room and wanted one. He came out with an apple and his grandmother asked him why he took one of my apples when she had asked him before if he wanted one. He said, “These are American apples and they are better than your Bulgarian apples!” From then on, we call apples in our house American apples otherwise he won’t eat them.

That wasn’t too funny, sorry. I’m gonna have to give this more thought, I guess. You have to pay for ketchup at McDonald’s here- I find that irritating. I had duck meatballs for lunch today.

I made a list of things I have to be better at in my quest to be Moldovan and wearing slippers is at the top. I suck at taking on and off my slippers. Here, you have to take off your shoes before going into a house and wear slippers in the courtyard and change those slippers after you go into one room in my bathroom into the other actual room with the toilet and shower in it. I always have the wrong slippers in the wrong place or room or wet feet because I miss the slipper and put my foot on the wet floor in the bathroom. I always put them in the way so you can’t shut the door or else kick them off so far away from the door that I can’t reach them when I have to put them back on unless I walk outside barefoot. I really need to work on that.

I found out how much I suck at milking cows too. I tried before dinner one night and my host sister laughed for about 2 minutes and then told me to get up so she could take over, otherwise we wouldn’t be eating dinner until next week.

I suck at Russian too- well, I’m not that bad, but I can’t pronounce certain things to save my life. I am forever banned from asking someone to “write that down” since apparently I say “go over there and piss”. I can’t pronounce the difference between “12” and “19” either, so everyone thinks that Alex is still in Middle School. The word for “folder” and “ass” are apparently similar, so I had been telling everyone to “open their ass” one day at a conference until I was told differently after lunch.

The weather today is awesome! I have honestly never seen anything like it… It is cold AND humid at the same time. It’s probably 35oF and 100% humidity. It’s that kinda cold that seeps into your bones- well, not yours- mine, that is. It is soooooooo foggy- the visibility is probably like 30 feet. It looks like a bad horror film from the ‘60’s outside! All these craggy trees and little hunched old ladies dressed in black coming up the hill out of the fog. It’s creepy. I guess this is what the winter will be like on a consistent basis. I had thought that there would be a lot of snow here, but they said that they only get a few inches, then it melts during the day and turns into ice. I’m totally expecting break #4 (or whatever # it is) for the good old left wrist in a few months. We got these things called “Yak-Traks” that go over our shoes kinda like cramp-ons, but I doubt they will help my clumsy ass. I’m gonna be biffing it all over Moldova this winter J! (I’m only 3 ½ hours from the doctor- don’t worry)

Moldova really isn’t bad- it’s pretty fun actually! I have a really great group of volunteers that I came with. There are about 30 of us that came in September and there was about 100 here from other projects like Health and TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language). They are mostly big dorks, though. I have decided that our group (Moldova 19) is by far the best group. My new, permanent host family is absolutely WONDERFUL too! The food isn’t as bad as I had originally thought. It also helps that my family makes Bulgarian food instead of Moldovan. Yiayia would be horrified to see that I am eating Bulgarian feta with all of my meals. I really, really like my partner at the NGO I’m working with! She is the same age as me and is totally energetic and into giving Moldovan youth hope and opportunities for the future, which is rare here. I don’t really do anything at work yet, since I can’t really speak Russian/Bulgarian well, but at least I show up so the community gets to know me. There are 42,000 holidays from now until mid January too, so I’m not really expected to do anything but party with the village. Moldovans may not have too much in the way of resources, but they sure do know how to get down!!! I’ve never hora-ed (and I thought it was a Jewish thing?) so much in my life!

Ok- I have to write a “nice” e-mail for the rest of the fam. and friends. I’ll send you that one too.

Miss and love you tons!

Hearts,

Anastasia

Анастасиа

(настиа)

2 comments:

Joan and David Piekarczyk said...

Hi,
I live in Poland and have only just learned of this country. Can you tell me what the prices of houses are there? The cost of gas? I have read some of your blog. How long have you been there? Where do you come from?

David Piekarczyk

Heather Arbuckle said...

I am so glad I found your blog. My husband and I are currently hoping to adopt a little boy from Moldova and I enjoyed learning about his current reality by your words. May God's blessings be upon you.