Happy Birthday Emma

We hope this video makes you smile :)

"nu ştiu?"

Regional sounds of expression? Not something I thought I would have to learn in another country. Here is a video of Jessica, Niaima (a fellow Peace Corp volunteer here) and our host mom Iulia joking about the sounds kids make in class when they don't know the answer to a question. It's kind've like this high pitched "uhh" sound but when you hear it the next two words that come out of the kid's mouth will be "nu ştiu?" (how should I know?).

Scoala Primara A. Donici

A truly amazing place to work about which I will be writing more soon. But in the meantime watch these 22 Seconds undercover and see if you can play that old Seseame St. game, "One of these things is not like the others..."

Partners and friends in Cahul

We have been writing to people about our partners here in Cahul and we thought it might be nice if you could actually see their lovely faces!

After the crisis in 98 when the currency devalued by over 30% (notjoking), my partners Galina and Mariana (principal and asst.principal) were left with the task of running a grade school with no budget for even chalk or paper and where teachers were in a holding period of up tp 6-8 months for getting paid.

Anyway, in that environment they found out how to form an NGOand realized that they could win financing from abroad if they couldlocally raise 30-50% from parents and teachers... Thus they--with alittle help of another PC volunteer some years back--have radicallychanged the infrastructure and environment of scoala primara A.Donici. It's lively, colorful, has a small library and an indoor bathroom and cafeteria... Way less than adequate for a hurting centralcity MPS school but way better than a lot of the other primary schools around here. They have empowered the teachers and parents to create activities for the students of A. Donici enabling field trips andextra curricular activities. They have also accomplished many long-term leadership initiatives for teens (service and civic initiatives...). They just finishing a renovationproject to open a room up in the school for kids with disabilities to be integrated with the rest of students for part of their education, soemthing very new and exciting for Moldova!

They possess an overall attitude of hard work and follow-through, and the organization has a strong foundation consisting primarily of the relationship between the two founding members (Mariana and Galina).They share common values and have established a long history of open and healthy communication. Further, they have a lot of respect within their immediate community (teachers, parents...), within the NGO and professional community in Cahul. We're beginning a really exciting Civic Edu project that I will soon be writing more about.






Here's an old pic with John R. and Naima (our site mates) after we frist arrived. The other two people are Jen L who was just leaving after serving in Cahul and Ion, a Moldovan now living in Great Brit.

Here's a pic of one of Jess' medical partners named Maria Dunas.

Road Trip to Cahul

These photos are old (from the end of August) but we just had to post them because they are so hilarious to us. Jess and I were picked up from the capital by her boss the school principal to be driven to Cahul.

This is a shot of Domnul Constantin feeling sorry for his car after he realized how much baggage we Americans have. You should've seen this baby try to make it up the hills with four passengers and 1000 lbs of health curriculum.

This is Domnul Costanin taking care of the flat tire due to rough roads (or perhaps too much weight).
Soon after this we overheated in total making a 2.5 hr drive turned into a 4.5 hr one. It was wonderful.

Nimic nu este întâmplător

Here is a picture of us at the apartment of some of our first friends in Cahul, Alexandru (Sasha) and Olesea and their son Oliver. Sasha is one of Jessica's two partner teachers. He and his wife met working at a youth center (similar to Jess and I) here in Cahul. Sasha was at that first site-visit in July where we sat in the director's office at her school and in broken Romanian showed pictures of all of our family and friends and spoke about our dreams and accomplishments. For a first meeting (and for cultural norms) we were a bit too accessible about our lives. Yet, my memory of Sasha is that he was just very quiet and attentive. Shortly before we left the school, Sasha said to us, "nimic nu este întâmplător" (nothing is of chance). "Întâmplător? We said." But after a few minutes of cognating we understood. When Sasha later lead us to our bus to head back to our summer host families he also said that our arrival here was like two "seminţe păpădie" carried by the wind and then mimed a little child blowing the seeds of a dandelion. We love spending time with Sasha and Olesea. They live on so little but have very spacious and vibrant souls. We are very grateful for their friendship here in Moldova.

Vinification!

About a month or so back we went to our host mom's brother's house in the nearby village of Zirnesti to participate in an afternoon of picking, hauling, crushing and siphoning in preparation for "vin nou 2009" (new wine).

This is a thing of great pride in Moldova as it should be. How many places in the world are there where almost every home grows, either collectively on the margin of town, or individually in their backyard, a diversity of grapes for their own red and white table wines.

The basic skeleton of the process is really a lot simpler than we thought, but lends itself to the science of thousands of variations for professional winemakers. You crush the grapes--gently squeezing the berries and breaking the skins to start to liberate the contents of the berries.

You allow the juice that freely runs out to gather in the vat. Drinking the juice at this stage is so sweet it can almost knock you over. Then you haul it down into the cellar or use a siphon to get it down there for fermentation, which naturally takes place for a week or two in the barrel--something to do with the yeast feeding on the sugars to produce carbon dioxide and alcohol. You can use another contraption to "press" the grape skins to get even more juice out. Most Moldovans that I have seen use this press process to make racui--which is like a type of vodka. But don't go hang out in the cellar during this boiling process. It also produces a lethal gas. Every year people perish because it is odorless. Intoxication may have something to do with this as well. And there you have it, house wine all year round. Pretty incredible.

What's a Beci?

Moldovans spend much of Sept, Oct and early Nov canning, jarring and pickling. Fruits and veggies, compared to the States, are inexpensive in late spring and early summer because they are local in the piata (outdoor market) and growing in abundance in everyone's yard; and because in winter they are expensive or in short supply.

I jarred homemade pizza sauce and Jess has become proficient in pickling cucumbers and tomatoes, making grape jams, canning peppers... Once the container is sealed you "punem in beci" or put them in the beci (pronounced betch..not kidding).

Moldovan homes don't really have basements but every Moldovan home I have seen has a beci, which is a cellar below the freezing point. Here they keep all their canned goods and most importantly, their homemade wine!

























Here also is a short series of videos of me and a neighbor apple picking at our host mom's in Cahul. What's funny about the second video is that you can here my host mom begin repeating, "domne ajute" (God help you, God help you) because she doesn't want me to go that high up in the tree. We have spent, I should say my host mom and Jess have spent many nights and weekends the last month chopping fruit and making jellies and jams... The other tree that I don't have video of us picking is a gutui tree which I never saw in the states but another volunteer told me we do have and that it is called quince?? Anyone seen it? It makes fantastic jam.

Gaina de Gard

The other day I was coming home and I saw a neighbor painting her fence. I don’t know if it was because I had a hard day with the language and wanted to do something I was proficient at or because the neighbor woman down the street always says hi and smiles…but I changed clothes, marched over there and after asking her how to say the verb “to paint;” /and I told her I would like to take over from here. After I persisted, she handed over the brush and bucket and went and got another brush and we painted the fence together in record time. I had to rush home and eat but she insisted on giving me something. I refused but she insisted. So I waited and before I could blink she placed in my hands a full grown chicken. Now I have never in all my life held a chicken but I’m glad to know that they go real passive in your hands.
Though most Moldovan families raise chickens, my host mother no longer does. So holding the chicken, after I recovered from the shock , the question occurred to me, what am I going to do with this chicken? But as Jess later said, how do you a refuse a chicken?" I wish you could've seen Jess' face as I entered our gate with a chicken in my hands.
So we had a chicken in our shed for a few days and…well for the sake of the kids that is where this story has to end. Let’s just say I’ll never eat chicken the same after this weekend.

A regular sight in Moldova

When was the last time you complained about anything?

Sun Flower

Floarea Soarelui was one of the hardest words for me to say this summer. Give it a try, it is pronounced flow-ar-ee-a sow-ar-u-luee. Oh, and one problem, you have to flip your "r's." Anyway, there are fields of them all over Moldova and for one glorious month of summer they stand in allegiance and follow the sun with their gaze throughout the day. Now the summer is over but their seeds will make oil for cooking and salads, a sweet breakfast spread and of course can be a way to pass the time by eating them and spitting out the shells.








Goodbye floarea soarului, goodbye to our first summer in Moldova.

Leon's Armata Conquest

My host uncle Leon is a big dude. He fought in the army for Moldova back in the day. At a dinner the other day he got fed up because he was unable to explain all that he did in the army so he just stopped talking and started to act everything out. I couldn't stand not getting in on the action.

This is also the dinner where he taught me the Moldovan proverb "Gueana batrina face zeama buna." Or, "the old chicken makes good chicken soup." It's hard to explain without speaking Romanian but in short an old woman can be called an old chicken, and they usually make some mean chicken soup, meanwhile so do old chickens (gueana's). Believe me, I just saw my host grandmother slaughter one the other morning while I was brushing my teeth. The next day I ate it in a soup. (Animal lovers be advised that this truly was an old chicken at the end of it's long free range life). My host grandmother told me that she loves her chickens and rabbits, she spends much of her days and nights caring for them and it breaks her heart to see them go, but she does it to pay the bills and put food on the table.)

my host mom and dad showing him how it is done

Here are my host parent's showing Iulian how it's done. I wish you all could meet this won derful family! They have been so good to me here in Moldova and it will be quite sad to say goodbye until Octomber when I see them for training.

Two Sunday's ago was my host brothers ziua de nashtere (b-day). He turned 8. I was at a nearbye town looking for a simple gift but all I really wanted to get him was a bike. I found out a few weeks back that he doesn't have one after a few of his buddies road off without him. He doesn't know how to ride a bike. But I have not transportation and basdically little money. It turned out that one of the PC employees who is Moldovan was able to help me find a bike posting on the internet in a nearbye town for really cheap 400 lei which is about $40, normally they cost 2200 lei new. The bike has a few problems with the derailer and the brake (i wish I had Will's skills) but I spend all my spending money for the rest of the month in order to get it for him. Anyway I took it home on a crowded public minibus, hid it at a neibor's house and presented it on at his birthday. I have been helping teach him how to ride. here's a video of his uncle basically picking him up and forcing him to learn. let's just say he hasn't figured out the whole stopping thing yet.

Vincent Swears in Saturday

Here's Jess preparing to eat a masa for my host mom's ziua de nashtere!

August 5th 2009
Friends and Family,
Sorry for the sparse communication as of late, the few days where I have been able to make it to a town with internet have been so occupied that I have been unable to check my email. This my final official week as a Peace Corps Trainee, on Saturday I will swear and oath to represent the values of the Peace Corps as I pledge to serve in the country of Moldova for the next two years (Jessica will swear in on the 18th). The last few weeks have been a whirl. Jess has been in the midst of what the health program calls the 10 day challenge where two of her partner teachers come up from Cahul and they plan curriculums for the year and have opportunities to practice teaching together in Romanian to students from a variety of ages. Jess and I really like her partner teachers and it seems that the high school she will be working at in among the best in all of Moldova--if I understood their Romanian correctly her high school has an International Baccalaureate program and she will be empower the future leaders of Moldova. I will be working with two different NGO’s. One is based out of a primary school where two young women turned a whole community around through their school and then started an NGO to see how they could help other schools. The other is associated with the activities director of the Pedagogical University in Cahul. His NGO is called Pro-Art and it’s goal is to promote social awareness through mass media and the arts. They just finished a short documentary about abandoned children in Moldova (the Unicef numbers from a few years back state that over ¼ of children have one parent abroad and 1/10 have two. From among these numbers some of these children have been left without a clear plan for who will care for them.
Our teachers and directors have repeatedly told us that Jessica and I have made incredible language progress over the past 3-4 weeks but from our perspective it is slow going. You do have breakthrough experiences. The other day I needed a haircut. A few of my fellow trainees have clippers and the skills to use them but I decided to have my eight year old host brother lead me down a back alleyway into a backyard hut surrounded by chickens and burning garbage to the “frizeria” where many Moldovan’s living in Vasieni get their hair cut. After negotiating the standard price and explaining what I hoped my hair would look like after this experience was over, I sat down and proceeded to have a half an hour conversation with the entire family, who came into the backyard to see the American getting his hair cut. We spoke in Romanian about Peace Corps, my life in America, the art of cutting hair and the type of development work I hope to do in Moldova. All very fluidly from my perspective--part of my success was that this family intuitively spoke slowly, and simply. On the walk home I was filled with the satisfaction of what I, with the help of PC, have accomplished over the past seven weeks. Meanwhile Jess is already teaching in Romanian but hey, I got a haircut.
I won’t lie. The whole “married couples separate for the summer while in training” thing has been really hard (greu) to say the least. Jessica and I have lost almost every semblance of the day in and out rhythm to our marital relationship. We text each other throughout the day when we can but in is extraordinarily difficult to plan any aspect of life together especially when most of your days and nights are already planned out for you. I know these last few weeks will seem like an eternity and that Jessica and I will probably not feel like we’re back in a rhythm again until after a few weeks of living together but we’d like to think that the intense focus we’ve been able to have on the language and integration will encourage us in the months to come. We’d also like to thank all of you who have prayed for us and stood by us over these last few months.
In the next few days I will be saying goodbye to my host family and PC colleagues. Jessica and I are very close to our host families. A host family in one sense is a room and some food on a table but in another it is an act of extraordinary vulnerability. Our families have opened their lives to us and we will be broken hearted in leaving and will miss them. They hold a sacred space for us because they are the masters of our first impressions and experiences in Moldova, our baby steps into a new world. In one sense PST has been very difficult. Jessica and I have been separate, the first few weeks consist of a level of jetlag, overload and disorientation beyond compare. Yet we have also been in a kind of protective bubble of school and scheduled activities. Now we must work. We must the find the motivation and courage within to believe we can do something good here. We must motivate ourselves to learn the language beyond the level of a child. We must model vulnerability and trust in order for the people of Cahul to open themselves to us.
Please continue to write and text us. Here is all of our info as best as I understand it now. If you want to send a package remember to send it to…
　
All of our love,
Vin and Jess

Vin and Jess with their partners in Cahul.

Slavic and Georghe work on Slavic's truck.

A foal trains with the horses to pull the wagon.



This past weekend, Vincent and I went to visit our future permanent site, Cahul. Cahul is a larger oras (town) in the south of Moldova. Am mers cu rutiera prin terenuri galben de multe floaria souaralui. (We went in a rutiera through yellow fields of many sun flowers.)
In Cahul we met our future Mama Gazda (host mom) and some of her family. We had cafea with the Medicul Sef (Cheif of the Medical Center) and met the Principal of the school Jess would be working with. The head of a medical center for women gave us a tour. Jess will be working at her medical center as well. We had time hanging out with Vin's future partners. All of these new colleagues we will be working with seem great. We are excited to improve our language skills to work with them even more efficiently. One of Vin's partners has produced a documentary on the orphans in Moldova. One of Jess's education partners commented that nothing is by mistake...that us in Cahul was similara cu samantsele de papadie a suflat de vant (similar to dandylion seeds blown by the wind). We are looking forward to our time there, though we will miss our current villages and host families.

To all of our wonderful youth from Eastbrook - during this somewhat rigorus and busy pre-service training, I have sometimes felt like the "camper" on a wilderness trip - or the student on a retreat. (a reversal of roles - hey) We love all of you and have such fond memories on the many trips we took together.

Gradina Mea in Casa Mea

On paper, 1 out of 4 working age Moldovans are working abroad, though the other day we organized some activities in a field in our village of 3000 and when we asked the kids to raise their hands in they had a parent living in Italy, Moscow...at least half the hands went up. We then asked how many had both parents abroad and I would say it was about 1/4. Moldovans are resiliant. Here are a people who have had to learn to make the most of difficult situations and survive through the hardest of times. Yet another result of collectivism are that Moldovans have these incredible gardens that they all know how to extensively cultivate throughout the year. In my village, the property where they reside on rough average is at least 2-3 acres but there are large fields of corn and potatoes which line the villages. At first I thought these belonged to business or wealthy individuals until my family took me out to their 8 acre plot. Each family int he community owns a section and works it extensively. Every tree on their property and even along the road bears fruit of some kind, sweet cherries, sour cherries, apples, pears, fresh apricots. Their gardens are packed with cucumbers, peas, beans, tomatoes, rasberries, strawberries, dill... Grapes (poamme) grow everywhere and every property has a large cellar dug into a hill where they have oak barrels of homemade wine. They make tons of jam, large bottles of compote (fruit juice), they eat a ton of the sweet corn and dry the rest in their attics to hand grind as feed for their chickens, rabbits, pigs... Their food is local, organic and incredibly delicious. Sounds like paradise right? That's why Jessica and I in our naivety have struggled to understand why so many members of their families have gone overseas, "Why don't they just live off the land and enjoy themselves." But all of this hard work that they do is their just to supplement their turbulent enconomic future and past. The stark reality is that it is simply not enought to survive on, which means going abroad can be a negative mindset towards their prospects here but it is also in many cases a dreaded necessity. Those that we have met love their country, their lives here, their rich culture and unified communities.
How did this economic collapse occur? How can the Moldovan economy be reinvigorated? Jessica and I have learned much in regard to this already and no doubt it will be the topic of many of our blog entries. What i know now is that we will need the creativity, prayers and support of our communities back in the states to use their expertise in order to wrestle with the various dimensions of their struggles and potential solutions. I already have tons of questions for those of you who majored in economics, business, and environmental sciences. Jessica and I hope that we can bring the beauty and the current struggle of the Moldovan way of life into your world so that you can collaborate with us on ways to make their future successful.
Salutari Moldova!

Rabbits (iyepuri) and sink (lavoar).

Here is a video of my summer home and school in Moldova. My host family is incredible and I will miss them when I have to leave at the end of the summer.

here's a quick video i took of jess this weekend visiting my host family :)

I had my first trip to Jess host site (Bardar) last weekend. I asked my host mother is I could take a flower from the garden to Jess' host mother, when I came back from class my host mother Maria had prepared two large buquets, one for Jess and one for her host mom. Unfortunately I didn't know that it is customary to carry flowerstop down in Moldova until you present them, otherwise you may be mistaken for a man going to propose.


Here are some pics of our first true time together since we arrived. It had been a long three weeks and we finally had a chance to walk the vinyards surrounding Bardar, to talk and pray together.

We we able to go to Chisinau (the capital) last week and walk through the massive piatsa (open market). There's a really nice section where the vendors have everything nicely labled and then there are sections towards the edges where you can find a person selling their 1 ipori (rabbit) sold on the ground next to a few heads of varza.

Pumpa

Here's tatul meu (my host dad) Radu and I digging an enclosure for a new pump he's installing for potable water. It was nice to roll up my sleeves and do some manual labor here in Moldova.

Entry 2- 19 Veniri, Junie 2009

The first week felt like almost a month. The daily challenge of uncertainty, combined with the volume of language intake and the rigor of the PC training schedule made everything appear rapid and immensely slow all at the same time. I was struggling with dizzy spells all last week but they are definitely lessoning this week. It is astonishing how much language we are taking in because we have four hours of language training a day and we are living with host families. The first week was filled with tons of simple victories like successfully interacting with people in the village or using simple phrases around the house. Now that we are in the second week the expectations have stiffened due to the sheer volume of things we should know how to say (ie. verbs to have, to want to be able to…). This week however has been more frustrating because we should know how to say a variety the recall is simply not there yet. Everyday there are moments where you simply desire to give up, go to your room and shut the door--this I will not do. Below are pictures of my LTI (language trainers) and a great pgoto of the public transportatyion in Moldova , which consists of minibuses with a few seats and literally unliited capacity.

My home in Vasieni with the Discusara's. Jessica was able to meet them this weekend and next weekend I will meet her family :)

Jess in Bardar with her Family the Bragas

Here are some pictures and videos

These are of Jessica and my host families and a cultural presentation!!

That which transcends language

Entry 1- Luni, Junie 15, 2009
There is no way to measure the importance of language, but it is much more necessary for expressive matters and is often unnecessary for things practical. I arrived here in Vasieni (i at the end is not pronounced) on Saturday night. Vasieni is a small but long village stretched along one long road through a tranquil valley of the Ialoveni Raion (county). This will be my PC-Training village for the entire summer. My host family are the Discusara’s: mama gazda Maria (host mother, 33), tata gazda Radu (host dad, 35) and fratele gazda Iulian (host brother, 8 yrs old) and Valentina (Radu‘s mother). Thanks to two days of crash course language training, upon my arrival I had about twenty Romanian phrases memorized. Most of which I had used up in introductions. After Radu helped me get my bags into my room Maria gave me a tour of the house and garden sounding out words as we went like soba (stove) or mazare (peas). Their garden (gradina) is quite extensive, probably about an acre with tomatoes, peas, chives, onions, beets, grapes (for homemade wine), strawberries, cucumbers, lettuce… and an apple and pare tree. Behind the house there is an WC enclosure with a fire stove and a tub. Behind that there is a small wooden outhouse They also have chickens, breed rabbits and have a scared but viscous dog (Jack-ila) that remains chained in the corner of the yard. Before I knew it the fifteen minute tour was complete and I was alone in my room unpacking. My room is about the size of Jess and my room back home. I have a wardrobe, a desk and a bed. I definitely feel spoiled because the house is made up primarily of three rooms, a room similar to mine in size with a much larger bed where Radu, Maria and Iulian all sleep and another room that serves as a kitchen where Valentina sleeps (Maria’s younger brother Costa also apparently sleeps here but I have not figured out where yet). The question remains whose room I have taken. After my room was unpacked we sat down for a meal of bread (peene), homemade cheese (brinza), store bought cheese (kashkaval), tomatoes (roshi), cucumbers and homemade wine. The wine was quite good and the homemade cheese is like a mild feta--really roughing it eh? We do not share a language but they have effectively been able to demonstrate everything I need to know in order to survive around the house. Jessica has the camera and I have the laptop but I can’t wait to send pictures.
Rural Moldova is honestly like a paradise. I feel like I am in the section of The Godfather when their back in Italy. My family is amazingly sweet and helpful. My language school is right across the dirt road. Sunday the four of us hiked up the large hill next to the house so that they could show me Vasieni and Barda, the neighboring village about an hour walk away where Jessica lives. The two of us have cell phones so we are able to chat most nights. It is hard but we are both so overwhelmed with the language and all the changes, I don’t think we have yet experienced just how hard our forced separation will be in a few weeks. Anyway, we were up on this ridge for our picnic, cheese, beer, bread…We lit a small fire from pine cones right in the middle of the hill. Few words were uttered but we had an amazing time and it is obvious to all of us that a cherished bond of trust and love has been established.
We miss you all terribly and will write and post/send pics when we can. Please pray for our strength in God and pray for my allergies and our jet lag as they have been pretty bad.
Totul Este Buna (all is well),
Love Vincent and Jessica

Opinions expressed on this blog do not necessarily align with the oinions of the Peace Corps or the US Government

Our Going Away Party

Jessica's sister Trina hosted an amazing departure party for us on Mem Day. The extent of the group gathered felt like our wedding. Our heads were spinning when it was over.

We have so many wonderful people in our lives and feel an extraordinary amount of love and support.