Video Update

Take the time to check out my town and my house!

My swearing in ceremony, and the Wednesday night before!

Daily

Zi Buna! Good Day!

Hopefully in the next year or so I will be greeting you all in Russian as well! I am settling in very quickly here, and as I approach week four at site I am starting to establish a routine.

I head into the office around ten in the morning, after waking up to have breakfast at around eight in the morning. After breakfast I normally refresh my cup of tea, and take in the day’s news on the BBC. After the news, I sign online quickly to download whatever emails I have from the previous day. I then put on my work clothes, normally some sort of combination of a collard shirt and a sweater. I find if I mix them enough ways it looks like I have more clothes than I actually brought with me.

My counterpart normally ditches me within the first hour or so of the day, and thus I sit and study Romanian. The plan is I stay at work until around one PM, but normally I head out after two hours around noon. I fill my afternoons up with lunch, and them maybe a visit to the local school or the mayors office. I actually think I am going to be starting to work with the Mayor on a project soon, I have a meeting with him early next week.

The weekends are brutal here though. In fact, they are so brutal for volunteers a random German Volunteer from a different organization found out I was near by and tracked me down. We met over the weekend, and it was great have a volunteer perspective outside of the Peace Corps.

Beyond that, not much is new, if you want a laugh, my monthly allowance is less than I would sometimes spend in one night at Tampa (although it may turn out to be enough!), but on the flip side my host father informed me we are having a Russian Banya room installed soon, hopefully the influx in cash I am paying will help that along!

Pe Curînd! See you soon!

drew

Ukrainian Ikea

I write to you while “Ma doare spate” “My back hurts”! I have spent the previous three nights, and the majority of today putting together furniture with my host father, Ion (pronounced like Jon with a Y.) Imagine how annoying buying anything from Ikea is in the first place, now image doing it with Ukrainian standards. For the five pieces of furniture there was one drawing and the majority of the holes were not pre-drilled.

BUT, my entire room is brand new, and I really cannot complain my family went out of there way to make me so comfortable. Not to mention, I now know the words for screw, hammer, and etc. in Romanian now. My room is directly off the kitchen, which is new, and across from the bathroom. The bathroom has insanely hot water, and is also new. A toilet is also in the bathroom, but I think that no one is supposed to use it, therefore I venture outside for the bathroom. The window in my room looks over the Prut River to Romania.
My work is good so far, but my real focus is meeting the community and learning the language. I was already given some grant ideas, but I am not going to commit to anything for a few months. Given work has been slow to start I accompanied my host father to a conference on communication and conflict in the work place that was entirely in Romanian. I understood almost everything that was said, and I really felt great leaving. Not to mention the lunch served during the conference included shots of vodka. It’s just cultural what can I say?
On to other things… the food… the random stuff...
I thought the food could not get any better when was at my last host family, but I was very wrong. Although my last host mother could bake, my new host mother is much better all around. We eat a lot of polenta and more whole grains than I had ever expected. Also, my host mother makes the tastiest borscht I have ever eaten so far, although she thinks I am lying when I tell her how good it is. Also, we eat a ton of duck here, I love duck, and it is prepared so simply, and deliciously here. We have marinated and cured sweet peppers, as well as pickles, and many other pickled veggies. All of our foods are natural and fresh. My host father owns 12 hectares of land, but is in control of over 50 hectares of land.
On to random ruminations, I showed my family the Brita Filter for cooking water, and my crazy large distiller for drinking water, and they were not totally weirded out. I am moving into my room today after a week of waiting, and I am very excited to start settling in. I have a phone jack in my room, so I should be able to check email more often, no DSL available here though, so likely no skype! I will say I am very excited our satellite feeds both BBC World and Bloomberg, so I am keeping myself pretty caught up on current events around the world.
Just over three months down, I am officially a volunteer, if you have not received my video of swearing in, let me know and I can forward it out!
Seems like I just left still,
La revedere,
drew

Photos as Promised!

The average road after rain in Magdacesti, no boots required for Moldovans.




Surrounded with nothing but Romanian, Classroom at school.






Host Mothers "Mama Gazde" at group dinner.






Host brother directly across from me & crew.


Romania in distance, Prut River, Edinet, Moldova



Giant Soviet World War II Monument


Host sister dancing the "Hora" at wedding in Chisinau

Former volunteer working with Foreign Service, Black Tie Marine Ball at Embassy.

The Magdacesti Group

These are my fellow volunteers on the last day of langauge class. The guy in the blue sweater is Adrian our Language and Cultural Facilitator. The little dog being held is a puppy that lives in front our our school.

Busy Weeks, Interesting Weekends

Salut!
As always things are pretty hectic here, and crunch time is approaching rapidly! My past two weekends have even been incredibly busy, and the weeks are jammed with last minute technical training sessions, and extra language sessions.
Two weekends ago I went to, by Moldovan Standards, a swank wedding in the Capital. I was invited by my host sister who just got back from working in Kazakhstan for the last few months. She speaks fluent English and would have been a great crutch to have the first few weeks in my village, but my language is very good now because I was forced to speak so much.
I was my host sister’s date, who was the maid of honor, and the wedding was a blast. The wedding was split with Russian and Moldovan traditions, and I was able to see the entire day from the vows at the Church to everyone dancing the Hora in circles around the dance floor at the end of the night. On each table a bottle of red wine, white wine, Champaign, cognac, and vodka was waiting in addition to the tons of homemade wine in casks on one side of the room! We had around 10 different cold dishes to snack on in the middle of each table when we arrived at around five PM. These dishes lasted all of us until the hot dishes came out around midnight! All of the food was phenomenal and well needed with all the wine we were drinking!
Immediately after the wedding I started to feel a little sick, and I joined a club which I would rather have been excluded from, The Giardia club. I must have come in contact with water from the well at some point, or ingested food cooked with water not fully boiled from the well. I went in for treatment on the Wednesday after the wedding, just enough time to recoopereate enough for the Marine Ball I went to last weekend.
The Marine Security Guard Divisions all around the world abroad hold black-tie balls to celebrate the anniversary of the Marine Corp. I think almost all the Americans in Moldova were there, but the host country nationals made up for at least 60%. The Moldovan women were in long ball gowns, with crazy jewelry, and looked as if they were in a movie. All the guys were in Tuxes, so I was a little underdressed, but the bar was open, and shots were pre-poured! The guest of honor was our Ambassador Kirby, and he lasted on the dance floor as long as the Marines and Volunteers did!
This week has been intense with Peace Corps activities because our language tests are in a week, and we are going to become official volunteers in less than two weeks, Thanksgiving Day to be exact! My language is coming along, and I know I have some serious studying to do over the next week or so, but I can handle most basic conversations in past, present, and future. I just need to memorize more verbs!
I hope you all are doing very well; I will try and post again before thanksgiving!

Mulţi Ani (Many Years),
Drew

Site and Job Annoucement

Fi Sanatate!

I have tons of news, but I will be brief. Over the last three weeks I have started a project within my community I am temporarily living in, I passed my first language evaluation, and most importantly the site I will be living at over the next two years was revealed.

I am working with an NGO that focus on economic planning in rural areas. The NGO, like many in Moldova, also has many other components such as a computer center and links with the local Mayors office. This past weekend I traveled to visit my partner at the NGO, and stay with three potential host families.

My villiage, Viisoara, is on the Romanian boarder; in fact I can see Romania across the Prut River from most of the town. I am also in the very north of Moldova just thirty minutes from the Ukrainian border. There is a nice school and USAID has sponsored many projects recently within the village.

The first night in the village I stayed with an old “Babushka” whom worked in the school and husband had died. She had a great house, awesome bathroom, huge TV, and good heat, but she spoke a Moldavian dialect of Romanian, and thus it was not useful for me to learn. The next family was very hospitable, but the conditions were peace core-esc and I think I was too much of a novelty to them. They kept asking “Do you have tomatoes in America?” “How much does bread cost?” etc.

The last family was awesome. My host mother was the town’s Mayor for some time, and had worked in the states briefly on a project with USAID, the father had also visited the states on an agri-business exchange. I also will have a little brother, and a sister that looks like Selma Hayek. As a bonus I have a brand new bathroom with a great hot shower, and my room is currently still under construction! Second bonus was my host mother is a great cook, at lunch we ate a whole roasted duck stuffed with veggies and barley. My host fathers wine was also top-notch.

My partner is very driven, and is willing to let me take the first six months or so to focus on my language as basically a sole priority. I am right on schedule with my language. I am progressing nicely, and during the visit I solely spoke Romanian for four days and survived!

My friends and I have been living it up in our little town lately as well! On Friday night, before we left for the site visit, the eight other volunteers and I rented a Sauna. In Moldova, the sauna is a couple hour ritual and is different than what I imagined. The “Sauna” has a huge TV room, a shower room, a massage room, the Sauna, a plunge pool, and a mysterious room with just a bed in it (hmmmmmm?).

Other than that I got pretty sick right after the site visit and checked in to the Peace Corps medical apartment. I am guessing I got sick because I was essentially as north as Ukraine with no heat and it was snowing miles away at the same parallel. Randomly, today was like 60 degrees though!

I wish you all the best keep sending me emails, and if you want skype my cell 373.682.93.678.

La Revedere

UPDATE Three weeks in 2

Buna Ziua,
I have some more updates that I did not include in my previous post. I will find out my assignment, and where I will be living for the remainder of my two years here in less than two weeks. On October 8th the announcement will be made and all of the volunteers are very anxious for the news. Hope for the best!

Last weekend was my towns Hram (Holiday for which the town’s patron saint was named after.) The day begins with a huge meal small-plate style with nearly 15 different items all home made, as well as congnac, wine and beer. We celebrated with my host family nearly all night and then went to visit all the other volunteers Hram celebrations. The night culminates with a celebration in the middle of town where one dances the Hora, a circle-dance with simple foot steps. The volunteers and I Hora-ed for the rest of the night.

I also found the disco and went with my host brother and his friends the first weekend that I was in town. I played Russian style billiards and danced. It was a blast.

Here is a list of random things that have happened.
1. Plucked chickens/Geese
2. Transported countless buckets of water from well
3. Helped pour concrete
4. Attended high-school dance
5. Went to crazy club in Chisinau
6. Helped make wine

That’s about it. La Revedere.

Three Weeks in Moldova

Hello everyone!
It has been three weeks since I have posted anything and there has been a lot happening in Moldova. First, I arrived in DC and arrived at Staging where I met the other forty volunteers heading for Moldova. Half are in my group, COD (Community Organizational Development), and the others are focusing on Agribusiness. We spent the entire time in a conference room, didn’t even catch a glimpse of the Capitol, but at night we ate well and drank.

We then arrived in Chisinau, Moldova (Pronounced Kishenow) after a seven hour layover in Frankfurt. In Chisinau, our volunteer mentors greeted us and we took a bus for hotel Turist. We spent the next two days at the Peace Corps HQ undergoing language lessons so that we could communicate with our host families.

I was picked up by Miss Natalia after only 7 total hours of language lessons. Well, to say the least there was little conversation on the ride home. I live in Magdacest with Miss Natalia, Mr. Mihai, my host brother (19) Trofim, and 7 other volunteers. I have a host sister that speaks fluent English, but with my luck she is currently working in Kazakhstan. My family is very nice, and I am surprised how much I information can pass from one another with knowledge of only five verbs.

My house is kind of like a self-sufficient mini compound. We have a chickens, two pigs, geese, two cats, and a dog. My family grows all of its own vegetables and fruits, including grapes.

The wine my family produces has been very good so far, and I have witnessed part of the process. Currently, the grapes are very young and still fermenting so the wine we are drinking with dinner still has the fizz from fermentation. I am told, in two months it should have a real good kick.

My room is very nice, I have a large bed, a TV (I cannot figure out how to turn it on though), a desk and a huge cabinet for my clothes. Attached is a room with a bathtub, but we do not have running water. I thus heat my water for a bucket-bath about every other day. Oh and I did not forget to mention the toilet in the bathroom, it is outside across from the chickens and the pigs!

Peace Corps rented a house that was just built for us to use as our school. There are only 8 trainees in our town and we have two language instructors. We spend 6 days a week in language class from 8:30am to 1pm. The rest of the day is used for skill training. The language process PC uses is pretty insane, we are learning very quickly. This schedule should follow the same way for the next 9 weeks until we are sworn in by the US Ambassador on Thanksgiving.

OK, for all of you that I told I would have regular internet access, I was sorely mistaken. If you have any credit left on your SKYPE account you can hit me up at +373 068 293 678. Also, thank you all for your emails, I wish I had the opportunity to respond!
I wish you all good health and success! Have a drink for me! Sanatate.

Washington D.C.

I arrived in Washington D.C. mid morning on Sunday the 9th. My group of 20 community organization volunteers, and the 20 agri-business volunteers immediately started group sessions on the goals and ideals of the Peace Corps. So far everyone I have met have been really interesting people with a few life-adventures under their belts. About one third are recent college grads, one third has had a few years of internships and jobs, and the final third are from careers. Our sessions lasted between 6-8 hours for two days and always culminated with my fellow volunteers and I going out for a great dinner on the US Gov't!

Today we leave from Dulles via Frankfurt to Moldova. We will spend three days in the capitol city, Chisinau, and then move to our towns and villages with our families. I should have some great stories by then!

Cheers all.

The Beginning

Hello Everyone,
My United States Peace Corps experience has been almost a year in the making, and is just about to begin. The process includes five very distinct phases: application, interview, nomination, medical clearance, and finally placement.
The journey is going to begin at a Staging Event in Washington D.C. on September, 9th where I will meet my fellow volunteers departing for Moldova, and various other places in the world. Finally on September, 11th I will depart for Moldova via Frankfurt.
My official title is a Community Organization Development Adviser. My program is the Peace Corps most ambiguous one, and I will basically be helping with NGOs and local government agencies.
Once I arrive in Moldova the entire group of volunteers will stay in the Capitol of Chisinau for a few nights before departing for our host families in various villages near the capital. These are the only details I currently am aware of, and I will be sure to update all my readers.
----Naroc! Baftă!----