Early weeks in Balti

The first three months in a new location, volunteers live with their new host families to get acculturated to the new environment.  It’s too bad that I haven’t yet had that kind of experience.  My host family has been pre-occupied with their other house and I’ve been on my own, shopping for myself, cooking my meals, and figuring out means on my own to integrate into the community.  Undoubtedly it’s not the most ideal situation especially fending for myself in a new place where the language seems to be first Russian, and then secondarily Romanian.  While I have comfortable quarters, I do miss the ongoing interactions with “family” members. We’ll see how things fare during the winter when it’s very likely that my host family will be relocating back to the apartment with me.

Here is my room (which is really a living room converted into a bedroom).  Overall the apartment is spacious compared to other residences in the central area.

I do like the kitchen as it's got a microwave, toaster, clothes washer, and gas stove.  Lots of natural light comes in from an attached covered balcony in both the kitchen and the bedroom.  I'm able to cook some Chinese dishes which I've been craving!  I must say I haven't had a potato since I left Ciorescu!

I get by in the most elementary way with my Romanian speech and fortunately, I’ve started additional tutoring in the language with Ina, a teacher who has worked with PC volunteers in the past.  She teaches English and French to local Moldovans, and on occasion will take on foreign students like me who are learning Romanian.  All we do is talk – clearly that’s the practical instruction that I need right now because lacking a host family who is present every day, I can’t practice day-to-day conversation.  I do try to speak at work with my co-workers but they actually understand quite a bit of English.  They’d rather practice their English on me.  I’m sure they get a bit impatient when I speak Romanian because with the pace is so slow.  I haven’t come close to thinking in Romanian – I think in English of course, then try to recall the Romanian words in my head, and finally those marginally correct Romanian words come out of my mouth!   I have definitely committed myself to improving my Romanian speech even at the detriment to fracturing the grammar.  PC supports these efforts as they subsidize the expenses for hiring private tutors (which by the way, is incredibly cheap here). 

Something else weird has been happening as I’ve been studying my new language.  I have found on occasion that when I’m struggling to recall the right Romanian phrase, what pops into my head first is …. the Cantonese version!  It’s happened to me several times, and the irony is that I haven’t used those Cantonese phrases in a very long time.  Guess what they say is true – what you learned as a child does stick with you deep in your subconscious mind.

Tatiana & Me

Thank goodness for Tatiana, my business partner at the Asociatia Femeilor!  She’s reached out to me much more than my host family and includes me in functions when opportunities present themselves.  Last Saturday for example, she invited me to join her friends on an excursion along the Nistru River aboard a ferryboat.  We drove to Vadul Lui Voda, a riverside tourist town near Chisinau and caught the ferry.  The ride itself on the river is quite short as we only cover a few miles.  The main activity is EATING!  

Along with Tatiana and her husband, I enjoyed the warm society of Svetlana, her husband Serge, Elena, and two granddaughters of Svetlana/Serge who live in Canada now and speak English fluently.  They brought large quantities of delicious food, and of course, home-made wine and cognac.  As soon as we got settled at our table on the top deck of the ferry, out came the food/drink and we had placinta, brinza, fresh tomatoes, and biscuits which are mostly cookies.  After about an hour, the ferry stopped along an embankment and passengers could disembark to picnic further and swim along the narrow shoreline.  We found a grassy clearing, spread out blankets, opened up the food bags again, and laid out plates of chicken, vegetables, bread, salame, cheese, more placinta, watermelon, etc.  The men started up a make-shift grill laying charcoal on the ground and setting up a grilling rack that they had brought along.  They grilled sausages in no time, delicious!  

I hadn’t brought a swimsuit along but the others all changed and several went into the river water.  PC had warned us that we should not swim in any of the rivers or lakes in Moldova – we should only swim in swimming pools.  The medical team indicated that the open waters are polluted and can potentially subject you to contamination of one sort or another.  Certainly, the river water looked dirty but the general public willingly went in (the weather was extremely hot that day and folks wanted to cool themselves off indeed, and I didn’t blame them!).  About women's bathing suits .... it seems that body shape and size are not factors when choosing a swimsuit.  Practically all the women wore bikinis and whatever exposed skin spilled out, no one seemed to care!  Liberated women!

Svetlana & granddaughters

After languishing offshore for about 2 hours, the ferry alerted us to re-board and we rode back to our original launch point.  Then, we simply returned to the main beach, found a shady spot for our blankets again, and unpacked our food once more for the final round of eating!! 

Village along Nistru

Iionel and Serge with Boat Ride Promoter

My work routine at the Asociatie right now is still evolving slowly.  August is a quiet month as many Moldovans take their vacations now.  The office is very quiet, and activity appears at a minimum.  However, the team is working on a small business proposal to get some funding for training of disabled people in order for them to earn some livelihood.  It's still in the earliest stages but if it develops further, I'll put out more details in a later post.

Practically all the volunteers traveled to Chisinau on Aug 14^th for an event called Storytellers, a sort of Ted-talk format where people associated with PC during its 20-year period in Moldova shared stories about their experiences and recalled memorable highlights.  For example, a featured speaker from Moldova 1 had stayed beyond his two-year period and ultimately married his host family’s daughter.  In fact, several of the past volunteers ended up marrying Moldovans.  (No chance that'll happen to me!).  Speeches were made by the first President of the Republic of Moldova who had been insistent on getting Peace Corps into Moldova, the first US Ambassador to the Republic who herself had been an ex-Peace Corps volunteer, and lastly, the first PC Country Director to Moldova.  Their stories and others were utterly moving and entertaining.   

Mircea Snegur, first President
of Republica Moldova

Mary Pendleton, first US Ambassador
to Republica Moldova

Justine Murray, first
Moldova Country Director

Ansamblul Tarancuta (Folk singing group)

Six of us stayed overnight rather than returning to our work sites since we had to be in Chisinau the next day, Thursday, Aug 15.  We decided on a hostel near downtown called the FunkyMamaliga Hostel.  Indeed it was pretty funky, but fun!  As with most hostels, you share bathrooms and a bedroom, like a dormitory, although each of us gets his/her own bed at least.  Eight people slept in 4 sets of bunk beds jammed into a small room.  It was crowded and rather noisy, but we had clean sheets, indoor toilets, and hot showers.  I always wear ear plugs and an eye mask when going to bed so I wasn’t too disturbed by noise.  Yet I did find it difficult to actually fall asleep that night.

 

Inner courtyard of FunkyMamaliga Hostel

It must have been excitement that kept me from sleeping because the next day was to be a special celebration commemorating the 20^th anniversary of PC in Moldova.  That day was also the swearing-in day of our entire Moldova 28 group.  Naturally we were anticipating an extraordinary time.  The event was held at a movie theater as an audience of about 300 was expected to attend.  Included in that count were our previous host families from our training days, and our current business partners from our new sites.  Additionally, members from NGO’s, government agencies, and the media were anticipated.  Of course, PC staff and current PCVs were cheering us on from the audience as well.  Moldovans are not generally prompt for events and meetings, so it wasn’t until a half hour after the start of the festivities that the house looked full. 

Each one of our photos was displayed up on the wide screen, along with our home state, and our new Moldovan location.  My program manager, Vitalie, was supposed to have announced my name, but instead got confused and announced Adil’s name even though my profile was the one shown on the screen.  Adil got up to go on to the stage while I sat back down in my seat.  Then Vitalie corrected himself, and I arose to walk up onto the stage.  It was the only misstep in the flow of the announcements – just a chance occurrence but no big problem.  After we had all lined up, we were given the pledge to repeat while cameras were clicking all around us.  I know we made the local news.  We were all filled with American pride, for sure!

My host family from Ciorescu could not attend, sad to say.  It being a work day, some families found it difficult to make the trip into Chisinau.  I was very pleased, however, that my business partner, Tatiana, drove all the way from Balti to be present.  Nonetheless, we couldn’t linger at the reception afterwards as she had to return to Balti right away to finish up some work.  I was feeling depleted myself and was more than willing to conclude the ceremonies.  All the M28s were now finally embarking on their real mission – to spread peace and friendship throughout Moldova.  Go Moldova 28!

                                                                                                     17 August

THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE MINE PERSONALLY AND DO NOT REFLECT ANY POSITION OF THE US GOVERNMENT NOR THE PEACE CORPS.

From Trainee to Volunteer

I’ve graduated!!  We just finished up our 8 weeks of pre-service training (although we have two more weeks set aside in Sept), took our language placement test this morning, and presented our technical project this afternoon --- it’s GATA (meaning DONE)!  Yesterday, we also had our final check-out interview with our Country Director, so now all that's left is the swearing-in, scheduled for tomorrow. We go to our new work sites afterwards – for me that’s Baltsi.  I had a wonderful last dinner with my host family this evening where we exchanged parting gifts.  My host family gave me a long nightgown and hand-knit socks (by bunica Zina) to use during the cold winters (definitely will come in handy) and a beautiful tea cup since we’ve exchanged many cups of tea during my stay with this lovely family.  I gave Elena a long skirt, Zina a  new house dress, and Viktoria who is approaching an important 18^th birthday in early August, some money to buy what adolescent girls here like to indulge themselves in (I simply don’t have a clue)!  I will miss them but will be back in late September for completion of additional tech training and we are expected to stay with our Ciorescu host families again – that will be a treat to re-visit them! 

This is a classic depiction of Zina out tending the garden from early morning on.  She's a wonder!

The baby chicks have grown so much - and the baby ducks seem to know they're different from their other feathered brethren and choose to hang around with each other mostly.

 
The past couple of weeks seem grueling with mostly studying, homework, and more studying of Romanian.  Our business development group had a project to present a business plan proposal, and have some sections be translated into Romanian and Russian, and presented as such.  The difficulty there is that some business terms aren’t very easily explained in Romanian.  In fact, they borrow our direct words and put their own endings on them.  For example, “facilitate” is “facilita”, “association” is “asociatsie”, etc.  Most of these terms start out as masculine nouns in the singular form but convert to feminine nouns in the plural form.  And that means you use one type of ending if you use the noun in the singular form (“asociatsia”) as a definite noun, and it switches to a different ending in the plural form of the definite noun (“asociatsii”).  By the way, these Romanian words are spelled out using my English keyboard, but they would be slightly different using the Romanian alphabet.  At any rate, we are absolutely thrilled that this phase of training is GATA!

I will now have to get acculturated with a new host family but this time the term is 2 years.  That’s a long time to get used to living with people who you didn’t choose in the first place.  This time, we have more freedom to negotiate specific conditions to our living arrangement.  We can cook our own meals for ourselves although we’re strongly encouraged to eat at least one meal with our host families.  We can add to the furniture in the living unit if we don’t have what we need.  This is more of a roommate situation as opposed to a guest situation (certainly that’s how I felt in Ciorescu).  We’ll have more ownership over the terms of our living arrangements because we directly hold the purse strings.  We pay our hosts directly for rent and utilities, and then determine any extras we might need from them and at what price.  Yes, it certainly comes across as more of a business transaction but these upfront agreements make the relationship more predictable and less stressful.  Some of the volunteers now are not quite getting along with their host families because there is less room for them to maneuver.  Additionally, volunteers have the option to move to their own apartments after three months with the new host family, and definitely quite a few in the past have done so.  I’d like to remain with my host family for the entire two-year period but will make that decision after I’ve gotten more integrated with the Baltsi situation. 

                                                                                               31 July

Here I am at the swearing-in ceremony .... next to the inspiration for many of us oldsters in my group.  Of course, the vast majority of my fellow volunteers weren't even born when JFK was in office.  We also had a group photo taken to be shared later.  The oath is the very same that Presidents recite when they are inaugurated into office - service to others is a higher calling.  We all felt very special!

Since Thursday, I've been strolling through central Baltsi, getting familiar with places and things, and organizing my room.  Tatiana and Vlad have been away most of the time because of prior social obligations, but I've been enjoying some much needed alone time.  My Ciorescu family was lovely and Zina made sure I was fed, and fed often (never mind that I'd say "destul" or "sunt plina", meaning "enough" and "I'm full") since she maintained that I should have a rounder middle.  Without a doubt, she remembers first hand the years of want in Moldova when crops failed and/or Moscow took their share first before the Moldovans.  Life had been very harsh indeed.  My Baltsi host family will be less hands-on - they both have full-time jobs and we'll likely share perhaps one meal a day together.  And I expect to mix up the cuisine - doesn't have to be Moldovan fare every day.  I cooked myself spaghetti and marinara sauce last night -- YUM!

Some lovely churches are within blocks of my apartment complex:  

Emperor Constantin & St Elena Cathedral

St Grigore Armenian Church

Most of the churches in Moldova are Eastern Orthodox, but usually there are single churches of other denominations.

Archangels Mihaiil, Gavriil, & Rafail Roman Catholic Church
 

The large plaza in front of City Hall has a statue of Stefan Cel Mare, akin to the "George Washington" of Moldova.  Every city (and many towns) has a statue of him erected.

Piatsa Independentie

St. Nicolae Cathedral is to the right of the
Piastsa.

Stefan Cel Mare in front of Mayor's Office

Tank from Soviet era

The Open Market, or Piatsa Comerciale, is in a huge area that's closed off to motor vehicles.  There are agricultural products, of course, but all manner of other goods.  I'm finding that in many cases the first language used by the locals is Russian.  Most of the signage is in Russian, and other remnants of past Russian occupation are evident as well.  When I speak a few fractured Romanian words, they switch but not always even with my look of confusion.  Naturally, they know I'm a foreigner but generally assume I'm Vietnamese or Korean.

Piatsa V. Alecsandri

Around my neighborhood are many parks of varying sizes - open spaces for families to gather outside.  Moldova places emphasis on these green spaces. In the Piatsa V. Alecsandri are restaurants, municipal buildings, and various other merchants.

     

For me, the best part about the outdoors is the sky and the variety of clouds I've seen.Sounds odd to be commenting about the clouds but being from San Francisco, clouds generally don't hover overhead because the winds whip them away.  The Moldovan clouds seem to be within arm's reach, and they're so white and puffy, shifting ever so slightly with the breezes.  I'm reminded of the Simon & Garfunkel song "Cloudy", a lovely, carefree tune "with no borders, no boundaries".  I never get tired of looking up to marvel at another gossamer formation.

The apartment buildings in Baltsi are reminiscent of the Soviet days when standard concrete high-rises were constructed in large numbers.  Now the units are privately owned and the interiors within some of the units have been upgraded and look very nice.  However, the outside facades are generally not well-maintained.  They don't appear to function like condominiums or cooperatives where all the unit owners are responsible for the common areas within the buildings.  The halls and stairways are in very sad shape.

My Baltsi apartment complex

I live in this building on the 6th floor.  My room is actually the living room of a one-bedroom unit.  I sleep on a sofa-bed, and there is another larger sofa and an armchair in my room.  It's spacious but naturally has limited closet space and clothes cabinets.  There is also a small enclosed balcony attached to the room that mostly contains stored articles.  I'm told it has a heating system so I will be looking forward to its functioning in the frigid winter.

Now I'm catching up on the podcasts of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!!  Miss all of you, dear friends and family, so send me the latest on your lives now that I've caught you up on mine!

                                                                                                         2 Aug