Hello Amazing blog audience. Long time no blog post. As I
mentioned before it is a lot harder to blog when the weather is cold and
miserable but right now I am in my warm classroom in between classes so you are
in luck. Not too much has occurred since my last blog post so you aren’t too
out of the loop. We did have another after school program with the 12th
formers celebrating their coming graduation with other graduating classes. The
event was like most of the other events we have had. The students put on a
little program full with singing, dancing, and speeches and then later the
singing, dancing, and speeches moves from the stage to the audience and
everyone joins in. Luckily there wasn’t as much modern dancing as at the
Christmas party and I was only called upon to dance the Hora, which is doable.
It was interesting to me because in America we usually just have each
graduating class celebrate the anniversary of their graduation together. But in
Moldova they just have one party and everyone comes and celebrates together.
The graduating classes from 2007, 2002, 1992, 1982, and 1972 were all
represented. Although in 1982 the table was quite lonely with only one woman
attending from that year. And like all the other events that have taken place
at the school the graduation celebration started later in the evening, 7
o’clock, and by the time me and my host mother escaped around 12 o’clock it was
still going strong.
While the event was great for breaking the monotony of the
winter weather, the evening was made immensely more entertaining after I was
told by the director that next year my village would be getting another
American Volunteer. I was so surprised and caught off guard because Peace Corps
very rarely places to Peace Corps volunteers in the same village and so far I
hadn’t heard any gossip through the Peace Corps grapevine having to do with my
village or next years volunteers. However, when Peace Corps does place two
volunteers in the same village they are never in the same program. For instance
my program is English Education, in Peace Corps Moldova there is also a program
for Business/Agriculture, Community Development, and Health Education. Business
and Community Volunteers work in the Primaria (Mayor’s office) while Health
volunteers work at the school. So to make the situation even more amazing my
Director said that the volunteer we would be getting would be a Health
Volunteer. Not only another American in my village but another American in my
school! Now we just have to wait until July to make it official. There is a
slight chance that even though our school has been picked we might not get a
volunteer. For instance Truseni the town I lived in for training was scheduled
to receive a volunteer after our training but because of one volunteer switching
programs Truseni did not end up getting a volunteer. So at this point I am
cautiously optimistic but it is something to look forward too in any case.
In other news the cord to my computer died (frayed wires +
electricity = smoke + burning plastic) and I had to live with just my kindle
and the agonizingly frustrating Internet that I was able to get it to provide
me. I was starting to wonder how I would ever survive the eternity until a
package from America made it to Moldova with a new cord. However, luckily for
me Moldovans are very handy and one of my students was so distraught by not
having my computer providing some multimedia relief to our English lessons that
he took my cord home and brought it back to me a few hours later looking better
than new. I was amazed. Luckily now that I had a working cord again I was
finally able to check my email because Peace Corps sent me a message canceling
my Romanian training this weekend and moved it to the first weekend of March (Update:
Peace Corps has changed the date yet again and it is now scheduled for next
weekend) because of the amount of snow the south of Moldova has been getting.
We don’t have as much here, about a foot or more, but in some places in the
south it is more than a meter. Is it springtime yet?
Finally, my baby goat is celebrating her 3 week old
birthday. She has been growing at an extraordinary rate. A couple of days after
she was born she was already running around, and a few days after that she was
jumping out of her box and making a run for the door to get back to her mother.
Now after about 3 weeks she enjoys trotting around nibbling on everything and
gnashing her teeth like she is eating something even when she has nothing in
her mouth. Her other favorite activity is to butt heads with anything that
butts back. Such as an unsuspecting leg or foot. Her newest talent is to jump
back into her box and go to sleep without being forced or even instructed.
Don’t expect another blog post until I am thawed out and
have running water again (our running water is frozen in the pipe).
