The following are strictly personal views/observations and in no way reflect the views of the Peace Corp nor the federal government of the United States.

Random Thoughts from Moldova – Part 4

- The best acquisition made through monetary exchange in Moldova thus far, a bucket with a lid for nighttime and cold weather urination.

- 10 Best Things Packed to Bring to Peace Corps Moldova
10) Travel mug
9) Yak Traks and Snow/Mud boots
8) Sleeping bag
7) Rechargeable batteries
6) Bathrobe
5) Tide stain removing pen
4) Flashlight that straps to your head
3) Long underwear
2) Movies and TV shows on DVD
1) Computer

- According to most Moldovan women, the best exercise for maintaining one’s figure is to hula-hoop. Thus, many Moldavian girls (ages 15-30) hula-hoop every day for 10 minutes after meals. The philosophy is that if you hula-hoop for thirty minutes (not necessarily consecutive) every day you will loose about 6 kilos/10 pounds in a month.

- I don’t take taxis often; but, I was always under the impression that when you got into a taxi and told the taxi driver your destination, the taxi driver would respond with “okay” and not “I have no idea where that is but I can drive around aimlessly in the vain hope of finding it.” I understand that it is improbable for taxi drivers to know the location of every street is in an entire city; but, it seems that in Chisinau every time I take a taxi they have no idea where anything in the city is located. The result is always me trying to give directions (assuming I know the location) in Romanian and continuously getting trapped by a one way street. I have yet to have had a Moldovan taxi ride that didn’t result in me saying, “this is close enough, just stop here and let me out” and traveling the rest of the way to my destination on foot.

- Today, I killed a chicken. A rooster to be more exact. The rooster was held prostrate while I cut off its head. Initially, the plan was that I would hold its legs down with my foot while stretching and holding its neck with my left hand and simultaneously cutting the head off with the knife in my right hand. However, it was felt among the Moldovan representatives that I was not capable of holding and killing the rooster all by myself, which I must agree was probably accurate. I feel like I have passed a Moldovan right of passage test. Post kill my feelings were mixed, somewhere between vomiting and drinking a celebratory beer.

- This has been an unseasonably warm winter in Moldova, and we just recently got the first big snow of the winter. Which, when compared with quantities of snow from previous years, this is a small snow fall. In one night it snowed about 5 inches. I know in Asheville, NC, where there are snowplows, slat and a plethora of four wheel drive vehicles, 5 inches of snow almost shuts down the entire city. Here without any snow combating equipment, 5 inches didn’t faze anyone. Everyone went about their day as usual. It resembled the march of the penguins in the morning, with all the children and adults walking in the path that had been previously made in the snow. Since most of the vehicles here are front wheel drive there are several techniques for contending with slick roads. The method most preferred is to travel in reverse. Once the tires started spinning and forward motion halted the car is simply turns around and proceeds to its destination backwards.

The following are strictly personal views/observations and in no way reflect the views of the Peace Corp nor the federal government of the United States.

This past weekend I attended my first after school event. This event was similar to homecoming but with a class reunion twist. However, not all classes were invited only every fifth year in the past. To elucidate, the current graduating class of 2007 was in attendance along with the class of 2002, 1997, 1995, 1992, 1987, 1982, 1977, 1972, and 1967.

The evening was planned to begin at 6, which in Moldovan terms means that if the stars align correctly it is possible that the event might start around 7ish. The event got underway around 6:45 beginning with a series of presentations and performances. Each class had a representative who expounded upon their memories of their graduating year, most of the reminiscences consisted primarily of memories about the cow dying, how many piglets the sow birthed, and how much snow fell that year. Although, the farther back in history the graduation year, the more the recollections involved memories of communism and Lenin.

After about 5 minutes of recounted memories each class would then sing karaoke to a song which was popular during the year that they graduated from school. There are few experiences as unique as listening to Eastern Europeans sing “Hungry as the Wolf” by Duran Duran, of course, that was the popular song of the class of 1995.
Each time, after about three graduated classes had spoken then the current graduating class would do a performance. Their performances consisted of karaoke and dance performances that they themselves had choreographed. The karaoke sung by the current class was a mish mash of 50 cent, Celine Dion, Eminem, and the Black Eyed Peas. While, the dances had obviously been lifted from MTV Europe, because all the dances were overly seductive and involved some degree of progressive clothing removal. For example, one dance began with 7 girls dressed in men’s suits and carrying umbrellas, by the end of the dance they were wearing knee high boots and very little else while the umbrellas were being ridden in a fashion similar to a stick horse.

After all the performances and speeches had been completed then began the masa portion of the evening. The masa (feast) was the customary spread of mayonnaise based salads, salted fish, rachatoare (meat jelly), clatita (crepes), cake, wine, cognac, champagne, salami, cheeses, bread, cakes and candies.

After everyone had reached satiation, then began the disco for teachers and parents in the school gym. This was far more enjoyable than I had anticipated, traditional Moldovan music was played for a few hours and everyone partook in some traditional Moldovan dancing, all of which involved holding hands and dancing in a circle.
After the parent-teacher disco in the school gym concluded all the students proceeded to the village disco next door to the school. The village disco was a barn in its former life. It is one big empty room with wooden floors, one window, and a roof of questionable stability. On Saturday nights, two sizeable speakers and a computer are brought in and set up on a picnic table. The music selection at the village disco is a selection of rap, europop, techno and Moldovan traditional tunes. Thus, most of the dancing that occurs in this place involves lots of jumping, hair shaking, and holding hands dancing in a circle.