Spring...almost

Today marks the first day of my Spring Break from school. As much as I genuinely love what I do here, this vacation has come as a welcome break from the daily grind of being a teacher (I know that many of you can relate to this). The past few weeks have been particularly challenging for a variety of reasons. One of these reasons is that one of my partner teachers has been out on sick leave for the past few weeks and another English teacher (who I don’t actually partner with) has also been out on sick leave. This means that I have been teaching the majority of my classes alone and have also been responsible for many of the other teacher’s classes as well. Needless to say, I was just as happy as the students when the bell rang at the end of the day on Friday!

Let me backtrack a bit to where I left off with my last blog post…I believe I was about to embark on an amazing vacation when I last wrote. My friend, Dan, and I traveled from Chisinau (the capital of Moldova) to Bucharest, Romania where we took a train to Belgrade and then on to Sarajevo. After visiting those 2 fascinating cities, we headed to Budapest for about 4 days. We met up with a couple of other Peace Corps volunteers there and together we welcomed in the New Year. I have to say that this was probably the best vacation I have ever been on. The cities we visited were full of history, traditions, and sights and I feel truly lucky to have had the opportunity to spend some time visiting them.

As I have mentioned before, the majority of Moldovans are Eastern Orthodox, and as such, they celebrate Christmas according to the old calendar on January 7th. Dan and I planned our trip so that we would be here in Moldova for both the “new” and the “old” Christmas. I had a great time celebrating both Christmases with my amazing host family at home in Bravicea. I learned about a couple of other Moldovan religious traditions that take place in January. Since there are 2 Christmases, there are also 2 New Years. Most people celebrate the New Year January 1st, but there are also many traditions surrounding January 14th which is “Anul Nou pe vechi”, or the Old New Year. This is one of the more interesting holidays in my opinion. On the eve of the 13th, many of the older boys in the village go from house to house chanting different rhymes about the new year and ringing bells. It is sort of like trick or treating in that they typically won’t go away until they are given candy or money. The next day, it is pretty common to be bombarded with bird seed by the younger kids in the village. Apparently, however much birdseed you are able to catch represents how many chicks will be born in the spring. January 19th is a holiday that celebrates the baptism of Christ. On this day, it is customary for women to take buckets and empty bottles to the church to get holy water. Many people keep holy water in their homes and drink “shots” (for lack of a better word) of it periodically. They believe that it helps maintain good health. The 20th of January is also considered a holiday in the Orthodox Church. This day celebrates Sfîntul Ion (Saint John…John the Baptist).

In February every year in Moldova, students represent their schools in academic Olympiads in their raion (district). One student from each grade (9-12) is chosen to compete at the regional level in each subject. I was asked to grade and evaluate the tests for English in my raion. In order to keep it fair and unbiased, the students’ names are covered so that we didn’t know who had written which test. I was joined by another volunteer and we spent the better part of a day grading grammar tests and reading essays written by about 20 students from all over my raion. In the end, the students from my school did very well…basically, they kicked some serious butt! My 9th form girl took 2nd place and the students from the 10th, 11th, and 12th forms took 1st place! This means that they will go on to represent our raion at the national level this week in Chişinău. I am so proud of their success!

This year I coached another team for the Odyssey of the Mind competition which was also held in February. The kids did really well again this year and were awarded with 1st place in their age division. They have been asked to participate in the Euro Fest competition that will be held in Poland this April. I am so glad that I have been able to be a part of such an amazing experience for these kids. Unfortunately for me, the dates of the competition conflict with my COS (Close of Service) conference. This conference is held every year for the group of volunteers that are leaving. It is an opportunity for sharing experiences and for taking care of some of the administrative stuff that goes along with finishing up our service here. Initially I was really worried about the conflict, but when I spoke to my Country Director, he was incredibly supportive and said that the decision was up to me. I thought about it and decided that while I would love the chance to meet with my fellow volunteers and bond over our time here, my first priority is my work with the kids in my village so I have decided to accompany my team to Poland instead of going to my COS conference.

The first of March is another important day in the Moldovan calendar. It supposedly signifies the first day of spring…now if only the weather would get on the same page! On this day, people exchange mărţişor which are little symbols made of fake flowers and red and white thread. There is a legend behind these mărţişor and you are supposed to wear one pinned to your clothes for the entire month of March. On the last day of the month you are supposed to pin it to a tree. March 8th is International Women’s Day and is celebrated here like our Mother’s Day. This past week at school, I was given many mărţişor as well as chocolates, flowers, and souvenirs in honor of both holidays. One of my good friends in my village is the main teacher for the 4th form class in my school. I teach English to this group of kids so when she asked me to help her put together a performance to honor the mothers of her class, I was happy to help. The kids presented a variety of songs, dances, poems, and skits for their moms on Thursday. It all went really well, with the exception of a brief loss of power (a very common occurrence in my village) in the middle of it. After the show, the moms invited my friend, Diana, and I to join them at a party they had organized in one of our local shops/bars. It was a really fun experience for me as I had not really met any of the moms before. It was also really interesting for me since most of the parties I have attended have been co-ed. Usually women are accompanied by their husbands, so this was the first time I had been to a real party that was just for women. Nobody seemed to be concerned with appearing ladylike and these women just let loose! It was so much fun to see a group of women enjoying each other’s company without worrying about appearances. They enjoyed their wine (and a bit of homemade vodka), talked, laughed, and danced together freely. At one point, a waltz came on and a few of the women paired off and danced together (these ladies can dance!). One woman explained to me that back during the war and then during the Soviet era, women got used to dancing together since there were rarely any men around.

I have a lot to look forward to in the next couple of weeks…as I said, it is my spring break and I am getting ready to meet my dad in Bucharest on Wednesday. We will spend a day or two there and then head back to Moldova. I had such an amazing time showing my mom and Isaac around when they were here last summer, so I am really looking forward to introducing my dad to my Moldovan life as well. On Friday, Vice President Biden will be speaking in the capital and he has extended an invitation to all Peace Corps volunteers in Moldova. I really hope that I will be able to attend the speech.

In my last post I mentioned that I had worked with a couple of my 10th form boys on a ballet performance for the New Years show at school. Well, that experience left such a strong impression on me, I decided to write about it. When I wrote the article, I was really just doing to record my experience and my thoughts and feelings about it…I didn’t really have any goal for it past that. I shared it with a friend of mine and she recommended that I submit it to the Peace Corps staff in the capital. I did so and it ended up being published in our monthly newsletter. I also went on to submit a shorter version of the article to our volunteer-run magazine that will be published in April. I will go ahead and include it in a separate blog entry for anyone that might be interested in reading about a couple of Moldovan teenage boys dancing Swan Lake.

I am also including a link to a website that I have set up to raise funds for my team’s trip to Poland. I hate having to ask for monetary assistance (especially since so many of you were beyond generous last year), but our other source of funding has fallen through and my kids are really struggling to find the money to make this trip happen. Any contribution, no matter how small, will help us immensely and will be greatly appreciated.

http://eurofest2010.chipin.com/odyssey-of-the-mind-euro-fest-2011

I have been given my official COS date and it looks like I will be heading back to the good ole Lonestar state on July 27th. I can’t believe how fast time is passing!