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).