The Seattle Area M27s Meet

It ends up that there are several Peace Corps volunteers from the Seattle area heading to Moldova with me the first of June. We've been communicating via Face Book for several weeks, and decided to get together today in Kirkland. Not everyone who is leaving with us from Western Washington showed up, but there were five us, and it was terrific to meet other great people who are setting out on the same adventure.

We had a little Moldovan wine that I was able to procure from a local bistro, and some great conversations.

The entire group of volunteers going to Moldova in June are the 27th class, so we have been dubbed by the volunteers already there as M27s.

Brittney, Rhonda, Stephanie, Yours Truly and Glen

It was an amazing experience to swap stories, find out that others were told they were going to one place and ended being invited to Moldova. Yet, not one person wasn't really excited about the up- coming experience, and just a little apprehensive about some of the unknowns (there was a lot of discussion about the lack of showers that seems to be prevalent in the villages).

Each person had unique attributes that qualified them for the job, but more important was the passion and drive that they each exhibited to be able to do this. Stephanie and I are the only two who will be teaching English. Brittney and Rhonda (on the left) will be teaching Health Education and Glen (to the far right) will be working with agriculture and business development. Glen and Rhonda (a husband and wife team) have spent a couple of years trying to make this happen, so they were particularly thrilled to finally be going.

Having read some of the thoughts and questions of other M27s on Face Book, I'm excited to see what our class will be able to accomplish.

Ready or not, here we come - about 5 weeks away!

E Pluribus Unum

So, we all know what the title of this blog means: "From many, one." I'm contemplating this simple message and the motto of the United States as I struggle with the idea of plurals in Romanian. But, it's not just plurals, I'm also wrestling with "declensions" in this language as well, but we'll get to that in another post.

For now, we'll just stick to the idea of "plural". It's very important in Romanian that one pronounce words carefully to determine whether they are plural or not, but it also means learning up to 6 or 7 words for every noun that we would know in English, and it's also important to know the gender of the noun. Example: girl (which is a feminine noun) -- one girl is "o fata" and the last A is pronounced "uh". Two or more girls are "fete" [feh-teh]. A specific girl is just "fata," but the last A is pronounced "ah". A little girl is "o fetiţă" [oh feh-teet-zuh] and a specific little girl is "fetita" [feh-teet-tah], so a bunch of specific little girls is "fetele" [feh-teh-lay], but a bunch of non specific little girls are simply "fete mici" [feh-teh meetch] (small girls).

And this is just one noun!

It's a good thing that I love a challenge. :o)

Я немного понимаю русский

Well, it's official... I've started learning Russian. The title of this post sounds vaguely like - ya nymnoga punymyooh pahrooski, and means "I understand a little Russian". According to Pimsleur, I am to rigorously avoid reading any Russian until well into lesson 11. That being said, the alphabet alone is going to kick my booty.

Where Romanian sounds so much like Italian without the gusto, the Pimsleur Russian sounds like Boris Badinov and Natasha Fatale. Clearly, according to this language study, real Russian men don't ever open their mouths to say anything noteworthy, and the women are so tired and bored, they couldn't bother to enunciate. Of course, it doesn't help that the whole population has severe sinus infections that cause them to sound completely stuffed up. My accent is failing due to laughing every time the "native" speakers... well, speak. :o)

Natasha and Boris from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

Shout out to Kelvin who has been very patient as I begin to study this new and very intimidating language. He was very clear that if I really speak Russian the way Pimsleur wants me to, I will be summarily kicked out of Moldova for being a snob from St. Petersburg.

Continuing in the same light vein, I have to thank Carl - another M27 for sharing an hilarious video made in Moldova and hysterically self deprecating. Thought you might enjoy it.

Noapte buna.

Спокойной ночи.

Sunrise to Sunset

Since I was up so early, I looked out my window to an almost full moon framed by clouds and reflected by the ocean below. I had to share -- although due to low light this pic is grainy. I'm thinking it will make an excellent subject for a painting.

Moonlight over the Pacific

While I'm at it, here are some pics of the apus de soare (sunset) aseară (yesterday evening).

And, since I was up so early, here are some shots of răsărit (sunrise) this morning over Willapa Bay - on the East side of the Peninsula.



Willapa Bay in Silver



Dawn Breaks

The Early Bird - This one was cheeky.

Working the oyster beds at low tide.

Heading out.

Part of the fleet of fishing boats.



Oyster beds at low tide.



Rainbow over the fleet.



Moldovan Musings

Still heavy at the language studies, and I've awakened several mornings early with Romanian phrases running through my head.

This morning, I was awake at 5 o'early in the morning with thoughts of Moldova in my head, and then it hit me that I am exactly 2 months away from the big adventure as of today! I could also have awakened early because of the number of videos I've been watching about Moldova. These videos really have me thinking about the kind of impact I hope to have through my Peace Corps service.

I found this video particularly poignant. Please keep in mind this was made in 2001, so things have improved.

This video is more recent, and focuses on building the Moldovan economy via agriculture. It was filmed last Summer.

It's interesting that I keep coming back to the similarties between Moldova and Kansas. While I was in Kansas, I saw a lot of areas that have been hit hard by the economy and the current state of farming.

Better days. - I used to work for this farmer.

Downtown Nortonville, KS

End of an empire.

But it is often the people that make a place; their attitudes will determine what is poverty and what is wealth. As Milton wrote, "The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, or a Hell of Heaven."

And, I can only hope that teaching English will help some Moldovans effect change in their surroundings. Certainly, being there will change me.

One last video: this one from a Peace Corps volunteer. I found his thoughts on leaving Moldova to be very poignant.