Walt’s in Moldova!

I finally put up some more pics!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/weaseal/ — check it!

So we just had a full week in Chisinau with the whole of group 19 (all 35 of us or so). It was a ton of fun, and I’m definitely sad it’s over. I definitely needed a nap or two once I got back home on Saturday.

It was really great to see everyone again. I’ve managed to run into people here and there on the occasional trip into Chisinau, but this was the first time since Thanksgiving that everyone was at the same place at the same time. I was thinking it’s amazing how close we’ve all grown and we’ve only known each other for a little over 4 months.

The training was really good though. The language training was amazing. I had the same teacher I had in Costesti, and she’s genuinely a great language teacher. Her English doesn’t trail far behind a native speaker’s and she always keeps class fun and interesting, while still making excellent progress. I think this is a rare gift that makes an incredible teacher. She also teaches English and Romanian at a school in Chisinau, so she’s definitely in the right field.

Mainly the time after lectures was characterized by barhopping. The first or second night we made it to a bluegrass concert done by a local Moldovan group. It was pretty cool; they sang in English, Gaelic, and Romanian. Apparently another volunteer who lives in Chisinau also plays there sometimes, so I think I’ll have to try to make it out there (after lockdown is over of course — woo, just 3 more weeks to go!).

I wish I spent more time updating this thing, but schedules around here are always so hectic (not necessarily busy, but extremely…dynamic).

I had an idea for a project that was successfully implemented recently — I suggested that our computer center hold a video game tournament to raise money for future activities.  We raised nearly 300 lei, which is a fairly substantial amount here and will help pay our bills.  Sergiu (president of my NGO) suggested that we might start a boys and girls club in the summer.  I think this would be a great idea because it seems that a lot of kids don’t have much to do in the way of after school activities.

Props to Mom, Karen, Diane, Heather, and Ted for their Christmas gifts.  You guys rock and made Christmas a lot easier to get through!  I’ll try to bring back wonderful things when I come home to visit in May.

Ok, so unfortunately at this time I don’t have pictures, but I do have a story I can relay.

 A couple weeks back, myself, Angela, Katie, and another Trainee from another village, Jason, joined us in Costesti to assist in the slaughter of one of Katie’s familie’s pigs.

It takes 3 grown men just to take the pig out.  1 man lassos (sp?) the pig’s hindleg and uses a metal pole as a pivot, while another man attempts to steady the pig, so that the third can use a knife to slit the pig’s throat.  Once the throat is slit, the knife-wielder and the pig-holder have to move quickly to get away, because the pig is (understandably) very unhappy.   The pig struggles for about 5 minutes while the 3 attempt to restrain and occasionally apply more cuts to the neck.  After the 5 minutes are up, the pig quietly relaxes and drifts off into the eternal sleep.

 So, the gory part’s over, right?  Haha…

After all that, the 3 guys pulled the pig through the yard and released the other 2 grown pigs who were held in another pen (although able to watch), who promptly began to lick up all of the blood that now coated the floor of the main pig pen.  I guess they had a short grieving period.  The pig was then hoisted on top of a table in the yard, and Katie’s father used a gas-powered torch to flame the entire exterior of the pig (I think to clean/kill bacteria).  While he was torching the pig, the other 2 min used knives to scrape off the outter layer of charred skin.  After the ears had been hit with the flame, they were removed and shared as snacks.  I passed on eating the ears…

After about an hour of torching the skin, the head comes off.  An axe was used to sever the head at the neck, and the head was dropped into a bucket and put off the the side.  The body was then cut up into sections, layer by layer, part by part.  Most of the internal organs were fed to the other animals (chickens and pigs), save for the liver, which was cooked along with all the other meat.  As the pig was cut into sections, each hunk of meat was immediately salted for preservation.

 The whole process took about 4 hours, and then after we had a big dinner…of pork!

 K, sorry for scaring the squeemish.  I’ll try to post more current events later on.  Ciao!

Yeah, don’t worry, I know I haven’t posted in a week, but yep I’m still around.

 So, thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!  I had a really great birthday.

We went for our site visits this weekend, as I mentioned we would.  It turned out to be a lot of ups and downs.  Meeting my counterpart was a lot of fun.  He’s the main workforce for the NGO…and he speaks fluent English!  Great, right?  Maybe for the 3 days site-visit, which involves a lot of introductions where a translator is extremely useful, but not so great when I’ll be spending a lot of time just trying to learn the language!  The president of the NGO is only there part time, as he works full-time for another NGO in the capital (they do antitrafficking work).

I visited 3 potential host families, the first of which was the best choice in my mind.  They don’t have running water, but the town is currently undergoing a very large-scale project to get running water (many of the streets were dug up while I was there with pipe being laid).  One of the houses had running water (with hot shower, which I definitely used, it was my first actual “shower” in a month!! — not to say I haven’t bathed, but it’s been out of a bucket).  However, that house was about 30 minute walk from work, and it’s in a very remote part of town.  The third family just wasn’t my style, I didn’t vibe well with the family and the host father didn’t seem too interested in having me there.  So, I picked the first family, and as I’m informing my counterpart of this, he informs me that they are currently in the process of contstructing a full modern American-style bathroom!!  Sweet.  Ok, so that’s not really supposed to be the main focus of this post, but I was excited

 The NGO does seem like it will be a lot of fun, but as Peace Corps reminds us of every day, we’re there for the community as a whole, not just our NGO.  So, my counterpart (who is fortunately very understanding of this) introduced me to the principal of the highschool (highschool here is 6th-12th grade) which has 1200 students, and some of the English speaking students were already coming at me with ideas.  The gym teacher made a lot of mention about the fact that they only have 3 balls in the entire school (these balls are not exactly in great shape either), which are used for all the sports that involve balls.

I also met with the vice mayor (was supposed to be the mayor, but something came up last minute — which I definitely understand, he’s actually the mayor for Razeni where I am, and another town which has sort of been absorbed by the rapidly growing Razeni — due to its close proximity to the capital, very similar to sprawling suburbs in the US).  The vice mayor was very nice and seemed very interested in working with me, and they even showed me that they made room in an office for me (I’ll even have my own desk!)  I feel so official .  That will be good because it will give me at least two places (NGO and Mayor’s office) to go during the day to expose myself to different people (and get away from English speakers).

I came home yesterday and my host family had presents waiting for me, which was so nice.  I definitely didn’t expect it.  My host sister got me a little Moldovan flag with a stand so I can put it on my desk.  My host mom/dad got me slippers, which are soo amazing, because the floors here get ice cold during the winter, also they somehow guessed my size *exactly* right.  Some neighbors I had never met before got me a box set with cologne and deoderant in it — I hope they’re not implying they can smell me across the street .  My language teachers got me a bottle of champagne which was excellent, and my counterpart in Razeni even got me a bottle of some really good wine.  So, my host family insisted (insisted) that I invite all my Costesti friends over.  So, before I know it, we’re all hanging out in the livingroom, drinking champagne and wine.  Two of my Costesti friends (Angela and Katie) brought me roses, which is a very traditional Moldovan gift (always an odd number though, an even number implies a funeral!)  It was really a lot of fun.

 On Sunday we’re doing an all-day field trip with the entire group of 36 to the south of Moldova, which is largely populated by the Gagauz ethnic minority group.  They speak a language that is only spoken in that very small region of the world, and it’s a combination of Russian, Romanian, and Turkish (all 3 of which occupied this territory at one point or another).  It should be a lot of fun, we’ve heard a lot of really interesting stories about the Gagauz culture.  I’ll be sure to post all about it as soon as I can.

So, that’s about it.  Thanks to those who called on my birthday, and for all the birthday love!  Peace for now!

I found out today that I’ll be spending much of the next two years in a town called Razeni which is very close to Costesti, where I am now. It’s also very close to the capital (Chisinau), which is really good news.

 I’ll be teaching ecology (which as of right now I know very little about, thank goodness for training) to kids along with instructing in information (I think that means teaching computers).

Anyway I’m very excited and we all split up on Saturday to visit our new sites.  Should take all of 30 minutes to get there.  We return to our training sites on Monday, I think.

 I’ll try to post more pictures later!  Peace for now.

Ok, I got the dialup at home working on my brand-spanking-new laptop (laptop courtesy of my wonderful mum!), so I’ve uploaded some new pics, and replaced the old ones which were very large and probably took everyone a while to download.

The pics, as usual, are at www.weaseal.com/images – sorry about just dumping them without a cool thumbnail interface, but it’s difficult to set up such things with limited time.  All the pics starting with DCP are new, so check ‘em out.

 My interview went well today, they discussed my work and education background and asked questions like what sort of town I’d like to be in (size, distance to next closest Volunteer, etc).  They figure out where we’ll be in the coming days, and I find out Tuesday!

 Tomorrow we’re going to the anual Wine Festival, which is supposed to be huge.  Lots of people bring their wines from around the country (which are amazing – I didn’t like wine before I came to Moldova), and they let you sample them.  Basically the goal is too remain sober while enjoying lots of wine.  Ehh….yeah!

 Peace for now!

Ok, this is not the best way to do it but that’s how it is with limited time.

 I put SOME pictures up, none of which I took (haven’t had time to get any pics off my camera).  However, another volunteer was able to give me some of her pictures to post today.  I’m in some of the pics, so obviously they rock.  Many (maybe all?) are of the village I’m living in until November.  The village is Costesti.

 www.weaseal.com/images

When I have time later, I’ll edit them for size (both graphical and data).  Right now they are in the raw form as they came from the camera.

Ok, so some dudes came to remodel the house back in MD and apparently massacred the cable wiring on the side of the house.  Should be ok now, though.

 Lots has happened since I last posted. We went to visit a site on Monday where a current volunteer is working in a program that is potentially similar to the one that I could end up at.  In Group 19, the whole mess of Americans in the group that I came over with, we can be COD (community and organizational development), or AG (agriculture business consultant).  I’m in COD, where we will mainly work in developing social programs (I’m hoping for something tech-ish, like teaching computer usage, but who knows).  We interview TOMORROW to determine our future site (to which we move on Nov 15th and live there for the next 2 years).  I don’t get a choice, but what I say in the interview will help to determine where I am.e

 So far everything is still going pretty well.  My language is getting better, although I definitely need to spend more time studying outside of class (hard to because we’re kept very busy).

 I have a lot to say and nothing comes to mind, and as usual my internet time is like 2 seconds, so I’m gonna split!

 click! http://weaseal.com/images/100_0428.JPG (if it doesn’t work I dno’t know why and won’t be able to fix no time)

Liza (American PCV), Tania (my Moldovan host sister), and me!

Here’s my mailing address,

Walter Venable
Peace Corps Moldova
12 Grigore Ureche St.
Chisinau 2001
Republic of Moldova

Mail me things! Candy bars…CDs…etc.

 Right now I’m in the capital visiting with Tania (my host sister), and Liza (another volunteer).  I got a cellphone today!  You can get the # from Heather (I don’t wanna post it online.)

I’m exhausted! the training is so intense. Not physically (aside from miles and miles of walking each day), but my brain is overloaded. Every day we learn new language structures, vocab…it’s impossible to take it all in. We even have class on Saturday, which is against the holy book of Walt.  Oh well, for the best I suppose.  All for now since this keyboard is really broken and annoying to type on.