Craig in Moldova

My name по-русский

I’ve always thought it was funny the way people create nicknames with “Craig”. I’ve been called Craig, Craigy, Craigles, Craigathy, Crayg, Craigiana… Anyway, in Russian, with the diminutive (pet naming, tenderizing?), the system of declension (nouns change depending on what part of speech they are in the sentence), and general love of nicknames, I’m never entirely sure if someone is talking to or about me. Now mind you, these are all things that I have heard at least a few times or, in the case of cases/declensions, the way anyone would say my name should they say those sentences in Russian.

If you don’t care about Russian, just read the italicized words. If you speak Russian and you notice mistakes, feel free to correct them.

In cyrillic

• Крэг |  Craig

Diminutive/nicknames

• Крэгушка  |  Craigooshka
• Крэгчек |  Craigchek
• Крэгка |  Craigka

Declensions

• Нет Крэга.  |  Not Craiga. (As in “Who was there?” “Craig wasn’t.”)
• Дай Крэгу  |  Give it to Craigoo.
• Нам доволен Крэгом.  |  We are happy/content with Craigom.
• Все говорят о Крэге.  |  Everyone talks about Craigye (Craig-ye).

And I’m a dork.

1 day ago | Tags: language moldova russian i've accepted the fact that i am a dork | Comments

Five months down (almost)

Meat in the kitchen

From my own experience and what I’ve heard from other Volunteers, in Moldova people in a household tend to eat when they are hungry and don’t usually place much emphasis on sitting down to meals together regularly. This works just fine for them as they spend time together drinking wine, watching television, or doing chores. I’ve noticed, however, that in my house, my host parents would wait until I left the kitchen to start eating and would sometimes eat at the same time as me but in another room.

The other night we sat down together to eat dinner and I, hoping to make a point, said “for me is nice we eat together as if we were to be a family”. To which my host father replied “this is a good meal without meat”. After a little questioning I found out that my family thought I couldn’t even watch them eat food that had meat in it and had been eating when I wasn’t around. I felt awful and explained that it did not matter to me what they ate or where they ate it and that although I really appreciated their concern, I would much rather spend my dinners talking to them!

As it turns out, there will be a few long stretches of vegetarianism in my house in the near future as my family observes пост, which is two or three long periods of time over Christmas and Easter during which no meat and only certain dairy products can be eaten.

It’s dark now

Anway, the days here have become grey and short. My host mom yelled at me the other day for coming home at five because it was already dark and there aren’t any street lights besides the few along the main road in town. The darkness, my endlessly flexible schedule, and Russian have made it hard for me to shake the surrealness of this experience and I’m beginning to wonder if I’m going to spend the next 21 months living in a dreamworld. The fact that I notice fewer and fewer superficial cultural differences on a daily basis simply makes the ones that still stand out (the ones that are perhaps bigger or fundamental) harder to deal with or brush off.

Long story short

November is well under way. On November 8th (five months in country), all probationary restrictions on the M24 COD and AgriBusiness Volunteers will be over and we’ll be able to travel outside the country, use vacation days, and visit other Volunteers in Moldova. I’m contemplating a trip to Turkey in December to visit my friends Emily and Hesham. My friend Sinziana is also coming home for Christmas to Romania and it would be great to see her while she’s nearby. So much time, so much to do.

As Vince would say, “Craig, you’re looking jazzy in your jazzy hat and sweater vest.”

2 days ago | Tags: cold family food peace corps photo travel vegetarianism jazzy fashions | Comments

So now I'm really really a Volunteer (really)

Five months since I left Michigan, “pre”service training is finally over. The M24 Community and Business Volunteers are the first group in Moldova (and maybe in the Peace Corps?) to have a three part preservice training. We trained for 8 weeks when we first arrived, then went to site for 10 weeks, and finally returned for two more weeks of training.

During these last two weeks of training I:

• Lived in the same village as the rest of the COD Volunteers
• Memorized a Russian poem
• Froze
• Presented on the importance of operationalizing project goals (do it!)
• Learned some Romanian words
• Missed running water (only to return home to find out that running water at site is out)
• Took too many insanely packed minibus rides
• Met the US ambassador to Moldova
• Received a (real) text message warning Volunteers about an escaped criminal with tuberculosis - not to mention the fact that I haven’t mentioned the texts from a few weeks ago
• Attended sessions on the politics and economy of Moldova, strategic planning, working with host country partners, and presentation skills
• Went to meetings of the PC Gender Workgroup, Trafficking in Persons, and Volunteer Advisory Committee
• Started a google group for the M24 CODs to improve collaboration and communication

Now I am back at site excited and daunted by the work I have in front of me. I will have another post and some pictures up in the next few days.

6 days ago | Tags: training peace corps moldova russian romanian cod | Comments

My 1st email response to the 2nd grade class

Dear 2nd graders,

I am also very happy to be sending emails to you. This week and last week I will be at training in a new village and living with a new family. I will be returning to my regular family soon, but miss them anyway. To answer your questions:

Are you having fun there?

I am having fun here although I’m very some days and can’t leave the house when it gets dark because there are no street lights. Soon it will be dark at 5 o’clock and I will only be able to go outside for a little part of the day.

How many cars do you see in a day? We saw mostly dirt roads.  Are there many paved roads?

I see cars here, but fewer than in America. A lot of people don’t have cars. Most of the roads are dirt or are old so a car can get worn out very quickly (kind of like in Michigan!). I’m not allowed to drive here and so I take the bus. Moldova has a public transportation system that is a lot better than in Michigan and I can get almost anywhere in the country without ever using a car. Do you think you could do that in the US? How would you get to the grocery store? To a nearby town?

Are you making a lot of new friends?

I am making Volunteer friends from all over the US and a few Moldovan friends. It is hard to make Moldovan friends because I don’t speak Russian very well yet. It takes a long time to learn a new language.

How much dinner do you have?  Do you like the food?  Is it different than what we eat here?

I eat too much dinner here! In Moldova if you have a guest (or you are a parent) it is important to show hospitality to your guest (or make sure your children are well fed). My host family thinks of me as a guest AND as a son and so they make sure I always eat a lot. The food here is pretty good. I mostly eat potatoes, cabbage, eggs, borsch, and noodles. Different people in Moldova eat different things, just like people in your town.

What is your job?  How long is your work day?

I work with the mayor’s office in my town and for an organization that works with poor women and children with disabilities. Right now I spend most of my time studying Russian and talking to people around town. Later, when I know more about my town and my organizations and can speak Russian better, I will help them with community projects.

My work day is different every day. Because part of my job is to meet and talk to Moldovans about their lives and about life in the US, I spend a lot of time walking around town and practicing my Russian. Usually I spend a few hours in the mayor’s office, a few hours each day with my other organization, a few hours talking to my host mom, and a few hours at the library. I go different places different days of the week and am usually gone from the house between 10 AM and 6 or 7 PM every day. Officially, I am on duty or “at post” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Do they celebrate Halloween there?  Christmas?  How about other holidays that we celebrate?

Not everyone in Michigan celebrates Christmas or participates in Halloween. The same is true in Moldova. Many people in Moldova are Russian Orthodox (which is a type of Christianity) and celebrate Christmas in January. The biggest holiday for Russian Orthodox Moldovans is Easter, which happens in the spring every year. During this time of year, people have a feast at the cemetery to honor their relatives who have died. In Moldova, there are also many people that celebrate Turkish, Russian, Bulgarian, and Romanian holidays or Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Roma celebrations. Remember that wherever you live, people may celebrate different holidays than you do!

What is the weather like where you are?

The weather in Moldova is almost the exact same as in Michigan but Moldovans don’t usually have air conditioning in the summer and keep the house much colder in the winter. We usually wear our coats and hats when we are inside. It is usually very cozy!

Do you see airplanes?

There is one commercial airport in Moldova and it is in the capital city, Chisinau (”Kishinow”).  I never see airplanes where I live.

Do you have different bed times than us?

I go to sleep when I am tired, sometimes really late like midnight and sometimes really early like 6 or 7. Sometimes I get good ideas for projects late at night and stay up working in my room. Sometimes when it gets dark and cold early I just decide to go to bed.

How many cows have you seen?  Do they always walk in the streets?

In my town many many family homes have chickens, cows, goats, ducks, geese, or rabbits that they raise for food. Many families walk the animals through the streets to take them to the fields. I see animals walking around every day.

Do all the homes have electricity?

I think that most houses in Moldova have electricity at least some of the time. In some places the electricity is only on during the night or the afternoon. Some houses do not have running water and instead families go to the well with buckets to bring water back to the house. At my house our water is shut off from 10PM until 8 the next morning.  At my training house, we do not have running water.

Thanks for your email! I will have more pictures up soon.

- Craig

1 week ago | Tags: school moldova peace corps 2nd graders michigan animals life food | Comments

The cold has arrived

I will not complain, I will not complain, I will not complain, I will not complain. But it is now cold in Moldova. Last night I had my first real doubts since coming. I know it doesn’t get quite as cold here as it does in Michigan, but that cold - those 10s-30s temperatures - when it never goes away, even when you are inside, can be a bit difficult to handle. How do you wash your face when it is 40 degrees? How do you bucket bathe? How do you change your clothes?! Who knows?

Anyway, today I’m doing much better. I sat down at the table, which is now in the much warmer kitchen where the gas stove can be lit and left open to keep us warm, and, while wearing a pair of long johns, fingerless gloves, a stocking cap, and a hooded sweatshirt (that I have not removed in almost 72 hours), studied Russian and worked on my workshop on program evaluation. It is cold, but it will be ok. The cold makes us all hang out in the same room together and drink hot wine and coffee. These are good things and I think they will be enough to overcome the 9 o’clock bedtimes and pervasive cold.

Anyway, this is me on an October Friday in Moldova:

3 weeks ago | Tags: moldova peace corps family photo | Comments

The cat in the hole

Twenty steps into my walk to work this morning I heard the saddest, most frightening, screech I’ve yet to hear in Moldova coming from the house two down from mine. It took me just a moment to figure out what it was. Along many streets in Moldova, there are large holes in the ground that are left uncovered, half-covered, or poorly covered. From time to time people, including Volunteers, and animals fall into these holes. About a month back, our neighbor dug his very own hole in the sidewalk and then covered only half of the opening with a rusty piece of sheet metal. Something, as it walked along the sidewalk on a residential street, fell into this hole and was now crying for help.

I walked carefully to the hole and peered over the edge. There, about fifteen feet down, amongst the accumulated trash and leaves in the unused pit, was a tiny orange cat meowing like she was trapped in a giant hole. I approached the gate and began yelling good morning towards the house. After a bit, an old man stuck his head out the window.

“Good morning!” I said, pointing to the hole, “there’s a cat..a cat fell.”

“What?” he said.

“A cat fell.”

He closed the window and after a few minutes came hobbling out of the house. He was too old to be climbing into this hole.

“I don’t see a cat,” he said, obviously annoyed that I’d disturbed him for the sake of a cat.

“She fell!” I said again, pointing. He walked to the hole and peered for himself. “What are we going to do?” I asked. I’m not leaving until the cat is out of the giant hole that you dug in the middle of the street, I implied.

“Let’s get the ladder.” He waved me to the backyard which, like everything else these last few days, was muddy from the rain. The ladder was old and wooden and, in my opinion, not fit for spelunking or daring rescues. As I carried it back to the street, I heard sobbing coming from inside the house. I looked at him, confused, only to receive a stern look and a shake of the head.

I lowered the muddy ladder into the three foot opening between the rusty cover and the sloping sandy edge. “Maybe she will climb up,” the man said. I doubted.

After just thirty seconds, he had had enough. “She is scared, she isn’t coming up, you have to climb down there.”

“Let’s just wait,” I said. “She will come if we wait.”

“Climb down there now.”

I was horrified. The list of reasons I would not climb into this hole was long. The cat would tear my face off before letting me climb a ladder with her in my arms. The ladder was rotting. It was an unstable fifteen foot deep pit that got wider as it got deeper. I was wearing a sweater vest.

“No,” I said. “We will wait.”

Frustrated, the man began making mice sounds which calmed the cat and attracted her to the ladder. To my astonishment, and incredible relief, she climbed the first two rungs.

“She’s not coming, let’s pull it up with her on it,” he said, this, the most impatient man in the world.

“No! Just wait!”

Clearly fed up with me, he began trying to jerk the ladder up himself. The cat fell down a rung, and hesitated for moment. Seeing, however, that her means of escape would soon be gone, she overcame her fear of the men at the top of the ladder and scrambled out.

After she ran off, I pulled the ladder out and carried it into the man’s yard. The sobbing continued from inside the house. I stuck out my hand. “I’m Craig,” I said, “I live with your neighbors down the street. I’m living here for the next two years. Nice to meet you.”

3 weeks ago | Tags: moldova cat peace corps success | Comments

Do you have different bedtimes than us?

I’m exchanging emails with a second grade class in my home town (with my second grade teacher, actually) and this is their first email. I will be emailing them a response later in the week.

Dear Craig,

We are excited to exchange letters with you this year. We want to know all about Moldova. We have many questions for you! Are you having fun there? How many cars do you see in a day? We didn’t see many cars in the pictures that our teacher showed us. Are you making a lot of new friends? How much dinner do you have? Do you like the food? Is it different than what we eat in Michigan?

What is your job?  How long is your work day? Where do you sleep? We saw mostly dirt roads. Are there many paved roads? Do they celebrate Halloween there? Christmas? How about other holidays that we celebrate? What is the weather like where you are? Do you see airplanes? Do you ride in a car? Do you have different bed times than us? How many cows have you seen? Do they always walk in the streets? Do all the homes have electricity? Do you get your e-mails at the library?

Your second grade friends

3 weeks ago | Tags: home life michigan moldova peace corps school 2nd graders | Comments