Urinating in a water bottle...
...is not an original idea. I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with this, when at 3am I couldn't hold it, didn't want to walk in the cold, knew there was no light outside, and remembered that I had a bottle and scissors handy to cut the top off. When I was boasting about my ingenuity the next day I learned that I am not the only PC volunteer to ever do this.
Today our future sites were announced to us! I'm in a region called Soroca, which is known as the most beautiful part of the country, with the best camping. I'm really close to Kiev, in the Ukraine (which just ditched its visa policy for Americans!) and to Transnestria, the russian break-off area in moldova. Soroca has the largest gypsy population, so obviously my oral historian sensibilities are excited for that, and the village I'm in has a parent-child health center, which means I might be able to use my doula skills.
On Friday I meet with the director of the school, travel to Soroca with him, and spend the weekend there, meeting the mayor, hospital staff, and staying with the four host-families, one of which I'll choose to live with for the next two years. It should be an intense weekend. Soroca is about three hours north of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, and minutes from another regional center called Balts.
The Romanian is coming along pretty quickly, I guess that's what five hours of language class, five days a week will do for you.
RE the wedge heels, since you all seemed to have gotten a good thrill out of that--I still use them, everyday. Ron, the shoe would fall about two feet down, and land in a pile of [cannot find a proper euphemism right now]. It's close enough that I could reach my hand down there and grab it, though surely I'd find another option. Just as when I was voting in the last election, Marie whispered in--don't vote for Bush by accident--everytime I enter the outhouse I imagine that heel in a pile of [].
My host father, Anatoli, just built a house for the pig the family recently bought. They are in the process of fattening up the pig so they will have pork throughout the winter. Ion, my host brother loves to poke me and laugh at the fact that I don't want to have a part on slaughtering the pig.
Now that most of the fruits are in full bloom--mulberries, cherries, sour cherries, raspberries, currants, aprictos, plums--the family has started to can them for the winter. It's an interesting process, that takes up a lot of time. You can only imagine my host mother's face when I told her how much raspberries cost in the states....they grow in her backyard rampantly, we eat them by the handful here.
We visited the south of Moldova yesterday, where we met the Gaguazian people, who are of Turkish decent, but left turkey b/c they were persecuted for their christian beliefs. Then we visited the Bulgarian community in Moldova, also in the south, where the whole town put on this huge performance for us.
What else? I have two more minutes of internet time. We're having a 4th of July celebration at our school in our little village tomorrow. We're making all american dishes--I'm bringing pb&banana sandwiches with honey right from my family's backyard. My host mother is going to sing and play her accordion, as usual.
Alright, more to come. Miss and love you all.
Today our future sites were announced to us! I'm in a region called Soroca, which is known as the most beautiful part of the country, with the best camping. I'm really close to Kiev, in the Ukraine (which just ditched its visa policy for Americans!) and to Transnestria, the russian break-off area in moldova. Soroca has the largest gypsy population, so obviously my oral historian sensibilities are excited for that, and the village I'm in has a parent-child health center, which means I might be able to use my doula skills.
On Friday I meet with the director of the school, travel to Soroca with him, and spend the weekend there, meeting the mayor, hospital staff, and staying with the four host-families, one of which I'll choose to live with for the next two years. It should be an intense weekend. Soroca is about three hours north of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, and minutes from another regional center called Balts.
The Romanian is coming along pretty quickly, I guess that's what five hours of language class, five days a week will do for you.
RE the wedge heels, since you all seemed to have gotten a good thrill out of that--I still use them, everyday. Ron, the shoe would fall about two feet down, and land in a pile of [cannot find a proper euphemism right now]. It's close enough that I could reach my hand down there and grab it, though surely I'd find another option. Just as when I was voting in the last election, Marie whispered in--don't vote for Bush by accident--everytime I enter the outhouse I imagine that heel in a pile of [].
My host father, Anatoli, just built a house for the pig the family recently bought. They are in the process of fattening up the pig so they will have pork throughout the winter. Ion, my host brother loves to poke me and laugh at the fact that I don't want to have a part on slaughtering the pig.
Now that most of the fruits are in full bloom--mulberries, cherries, sour cherries, raspberries, currants, aprictos, plums--the family has started to can them for the winter. It's an interesting process, that takes up a lot of time. You can only imagine my host mother's face when I told her how much raspberries cost in the states....they grow in her backyard rampantly, we eat them by the handful here.
We visited the south of Moldova yesterday, where we met the Gaguazian people, who are of Turkish decent, but left turkey b/c they were persecuted for their christian beliefs. Then we visited the Bulgarian community in Moldova, also in the south, where the whole town put on this huge performance for us.
What else? I have two more minutes of internet time. We're having a 4th of July celebration at our school in our little village tomorrow. We're making all american dishes--I'm bringing pb&banana sandwiches with honey right from my family's backyard. My host mother is going to sing and play her accordion, as usual.
Alright, more to come. Miss and love you all.
posted by NikkiD | 8:25 AM
<< Home