February 2012
7 posts
12 Reasons to Date a Returned Peace Corps... →
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Peace Corps is a life-changing experience that develops a unique set of skills and attributes. So it goes without saying: Returned Peace Corps Volunteers make GREAT dates. And just to prove it, we’ve started a list.
12 reasons to date a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer:
We can woo you in multiple languages. Who else is going to whisper sweet nothings to you in...
Swimming.
With a week to the end of Hamilton swim season, I’ve been experiencing a recent bout of nostalgia lately.
It has now been the longest I have been away from a pool since I was four years old and still didn’t know how to swim. As any swimmer knows, our relationship with the sport is very much one of love and hate. But like most things in life, now that I’m away from it, I miss...
Moldovan Conversation Topics.
Tomorrow will bring me to my eight month mark in Moldova, and during the course of these eight months, I think I have sat at cumulatively 1928721 hours of masas. As my language has improved, so has my ability to sit through these masas, which often times simply consist of hours and hours and hours of sitting and eating and talking and drinking. One could imagine that when you have no idea what...
January 2012
26 posts
Intense Cold Kills 36 Across Eastern Europe →
NPR
I knew it was cold, but I didn’t realize it was this cold. After my four years at Hamilton, I can tell you that under 15 degrees F, it all just starts feeling the same… inhumanely freezing. Anyway, I’m lucky to have warm clothing and a fire (though my pipes have frozen but I can live without this), but many poorer people in my region are not so lucky. Please keep them in...
La biserica.
More along the religion theme: After almost eight months in Moldova, I finally got myself to an Orthodox service. Let’s just say, any time I’ve felt a Catholic mass went on too long, or I complained about sitting at the Christmas mass… well, I take that all back now. It all pales in comparison.
I walked into the service 2.5 hours late, which is apparently totally normal and...
The priest is coming!
Another one of those ‘only in Moldova’ moments.
I’m sitting having my usual post-lunch chat with my family, digesting my food and working up the motivation to do some lesson plans for the next day. Oxana’s phone rings. She’s on the phone for just a second but her facial expression becomes one of horror. She hangs up and screams, ‘The priest is coming! ...
“There will be times when it’s tough going and you’ll question whether you can do...”
– Nancy Sathre-Vogel
“Miss Kerry is one of the best teachers I have ever had.”
– An 11th form student. (Can I get a round of applause, ladies and gentlemen?)
Cumetria.
Let me define a cumetria to you to the best of my knowledge. The literal translation is ‘sponsorship.’ So here, the baptism happens close to a baby’s birth, as in Catholicism. But to my understanding, no godparents are appointed at that time. So as far I can tell, there are two cumetrii, or ‘sponsors.’ These are like the head godparents. Then there are as many...
St. Vasile's Day.
I am a bit behind on the blog front - my apologies to my adoring fans.
So a lot has happened this past week. Let’s start with a new beginning, quite literally - St. Vasile’s Day, or the Orthodox New Year.
St. Vasile’s Day, like most Moldovan holidays, is not just a one day affair. On the eve of St. Vasile, people go around from house to house chanting, yelling, reciting...
20 Years of Capitalism: Winemaker Foresees Next... →
Alec Luhn, The Moscow Times
“Bostan hopes that in as little as five years’ time Moldova, renowned in the Soviet Union for its wines, will be recognized worldwide as a producer on par with these two winemaking heavyweights [Italy and France].”
“On TV, Natalia Morari wears severe spectacles and her hair pulled back into a...”
–
Moldova’s stuck in search for unity
Activist credited with the 2009 Twitter revolution among the critics as ex-Soviet state struggles to find a new identity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/03/moldova-struggle-since-russia-revolt
(via sageaz
)
WatchGlod, glorious glod. Multiply this by ten and you have my walk, or rather swim, to and from school every morning. Moldovans trek ahead as if this is nothing, while I lag behind, struggling not to fall - which I have only done once thus far. But even though my track record of staying on my feet is (mostly) clean, my lower body is not. I managed to arrive to school with flecks of mud all over...
Craciun Fericit!
Today marks the third and final day of Christmas in Moldova. All I can say is, I’m getting too old for this. ‘Sint Americanka… nu pot ca Moldovenii!’ I’m American - I can’t do like you Moldovans do.
I was already wiped out after the first day of masas, but here in Moldova Christmas is a three-day affair. On the first day, you go to the homes of shina and...
Moldova Opens Schools to the 'Ineducable' →
Grigore Brinza, Transitions Online
Personally, thus far I have yet to see mental disabilities addressed in any way, shape, or form in this country. I have a developmentally disabled student in my 2nd form class who just seems to sit through all of his classes in the back. He can’t write and whenever I take him aside to do something, all the students turn and yell at me, ‘He...
More on sources of ill health.
Me: *coughing, sneezing, sniffling, and displaying general signs of sickness*
Moldoveanca 1: You have a cold! What happened?
Me: I'm not sure. I think I just wore myself out on vacation.
Moldoveanca 2: No. I think you drank a cold beer.
“I was thinking thoughts that fit me
Walking in the forest, raindrops dropping...”
– P. Saarikoski, I Wander Where I Wander
Moldova: National final on March 10th →
Watch out, Azerbaijan - Eurovision better brace itself for Moldova this year.
My first vacation.
After seven months of confinement within the same set of sovereign borders, I had my first breath of non-Moldovan air on December 23rd. I’m opting to briefly highlight some of the best or most interesting points of my travels…
24/12: Arrival in Bucharest, Romania, after an overnight busride from Chisinau. At the time, Bucharest felt like the greatest city I have ever experienced. I...
December 2011
13 posts
“Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to...”
– Vaclav Havel
My hero, source of inspiration, and secret love... →
Every since my study abroad experience in Prague, I have been enamored with last president of Czechoslovakia, first president of Czech Republic, playwright, dissident, and toppler of communism Vaclav Havel. The man is a true inspiration - an artist without political background who managed to change the course of history of his country and lead it into a new era. I’ll never forget the day I...
WatchOne of the pieces on the news about Cristi. His burial was on Wednesday. It followed the Baptist tradition, as his mother is a Baptist, but was still without a priest because it was a suicide. But like another volunteer said, yes, it’s upsetting, but it doesn’t determine the true course of Cristi’s soul.
There was a day and a half long mort, or wake, at his house. ...
Cristi.
I’ve dealt with loss in my life. Perhaps a lot more than most people of 22 years. I’ve probably been to more wakes than many will go to in their entire lives.
But nothing prepares you for the news I received yesterday.
One of my 4th form students killed himself.
A ten year old. Cristi. He took a telephone cord and he hung himself.
Ten years old.
Over twenty-four hours later...
Rewriting the Meaning of Success →
Brittany Hill, PCV Moldova 11-13, 365 Days of Peace and Friendship
And just after writing that last post, I came upon this. Here is a great entry for our Peace Corps Moldova blog by a fellow volunteer of mine.
The 'What's next?' mentality.
After my recent post on my homesickness for America, my brother reached out to me and told me that there isn’t really much to miss. In the midst of some other great things he said, he brought up something he coined the ‘what’s next’ mentality, saying that Americans are often too focused on what is next and often lose the present moment.
While Brian lauded me on my ability...
The Lesson of My Life →
Paul Theroux, PCV Malawi 63-65, Conde Nast Traveler
‘Whenever someone asks me what I think he should do with his life, I always say, First, leave home. Get out there, where if you care to listen, you will find many other people dreaming of making connections and changing the world, just like you. The only mistake is in thinking that you will make an important difference in the lives of...
'My Favorite Thing About Moldova' →
Lame title, I know, but I was never one for titles. Anyway, here is a blog post I wrote for the Peace Corps Moldova about my host family.
WatchI just came across this gem, from my first days in Taraclia getting pulled into to dance a simplified hora. I believe this was for Limba Noastra back in August, or the day dedicated to Romanian and no longer Russian being the national language.
Nostalgia.
Today’s one of those weird days when anything and everything makes me nostalgic.
Waking up early to the sunlight through my window and snuggling up with a good book made me think of how when I was young I did this every day in the summer and on weekends.
The smell of sharpies as I worked on lesson plans today brought me back to doing school projects with my dad.
My workout video this...
November 2011
17 posts
Czech Republic willing to share European... →
Republic of Moldova Official Website
My two favorite non-American countries fraternizing. It’s a beautiful thing.
Note: This website has been translated into English VERY awkwardly. A previous article about a recent decision to set aside money to develop housing described it as ‘building dwellings for less well-off people.’
Apparently I had a child at age 12.
Taraclia village center. COLITA and KERRY, in search of knitting needles.
Enter MAN WITH CANDY, speaking Russian jovially.
MAN WITH CANDY: [assumed rough translation] Hello everyone! I have candy!
SHOPKEEPER: Oh... thank you.
MWC hands chocolate to Colita, and switches to speaking in Romanian.
MWC: Here you go.
MWC hands another and smiles at KERRY.
MWC: And here's one for your mother.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Many of my fellow volunteers have been lamenting and homesick all day, wanting to be home for one of the biggest American holidays and all too well aware that they are here in Moldova and not at home with their families.
I am not one of those volunteers.
I admittedly forgot it was Thanksgiving until around the fourth lesson today, my partner turned to me and said, ‘Shouldn’t we be...
WatchHere is a short and very low-quality clip of the hora satului - the big dance in the village center at the end of hram (or village day) yesterday. Every village has its own hram - it is set on one of the most important days of the Orthodox calendar. On this day, no one goes to work and instead attends a marathon of masas. I cannot speak for other villages, but I can certainly tell you about...