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.

Familie

It was really terrific to see everyone in Kansas. I deliberately flew back to spend time with my family because I'm not sure that I will have a chance to see them for the next 27 months, and I'm expecting to spend some time in Europe following my Peace Corps service. So with that in mind, I spent time today studying familie (family).

Note: Going forward, parentheticals ( ) will be translations, and brackets [ ] will be my way of giving you a rough estimation of pronunciation. Obviously, I expect everyone to learn along with me. ;o)

Mulţumesc (thanks) mama mea [may-uh] (my mother) şi fraţii mei [she fraht-zee may] (and my brothers) for bearing with me as I tried my hand at translating everything into Romanian. As they were laughing at me, commenting "well, Tim is teaching again," or simply rolling their eyes, they dealt with it admirably. There is something about teaching a subject to others to really help concretely set up concepts in one's own mind. Mom was especially helpful as I ordered drinks and food and asked her "what I owed her," and then broke down the dolari and told her it was too much or just enough. The hardest part of learning this language is that I don't have anyone around me that speaks Romanian.

I'm grateful that I'll have Skype and e-mail to keep in touch with Mamă şi Tată şi întreaga familie [she oon-tray-ah-guh fuh-mee-lee-eh] (the whole family). Te iubesc! (I love you all.)

Special shout out to văr [vuhr] (cousin) Marc and to Marty. Thanks for letting me pick your brain about Europe. I really enjoyed dessert and tea. You're both great! Noroc (good luck) in all your endeavors.

Another shout out to Vanessa. Your many tips on Italy are much appreciated. It was great to see you, and spend some time together. I'm looking for that backpack as I type.

Noapte buna [Nwap-teh boo-nuh] (Goodnight) familie - I feel like I'm on the closing moments of The Waltons.

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Staring up at the same moon.

Alpha

 

Taking A Walk In History

I have the great fortune of having some pretty great relatives, and the even better fortune of having one heck of a kid brother. He's the kind of modest guy who lights up a room without thinking about it. He's just so darn cool! So, anyway, I stayed with Steven, his lovely and extremely intelligent wife Vanessa and my new (5-months old) nephew Xander for a couple of days in Lawrence. Steven took a couple of days off to hang out, and we ended up at the WWI memorial and museum in Kansas City.

The Memorial Tower

This was an amazing place! If you want the scoop on any aspect of WWI from the life of the soldiers to what the front lines looked like, to the strategies of the opposing sides, this is the THE place to visit. The people who put this museum together spent a great deal of time and energy to compile artifacts, weaponry, uniforms, and put the whole thing together with a great deal of care and attention to detail. However, they did so in a way that is fascinating and makes the viewer really want to remember.

Closeup of the tower

Museum adjunct and sphinx covering it's face to the horrors of war.

 I found it fascinating that even at this museum, I could find references to Moldova (then still a part of Romania) and how much loss the people of this area suffered in The Great War.

Eastern Europe today -- Moldova is the small lavender country tucked between Romania and Ukraine.

Here are two maps to compare the area today versus the area in 1914:

The various factions at war during WWI

You can see where Moldova is today -- the small country East of Romania and wrapped by the Ukraine to the North, East and South. Back in 1914 it was still a part of Romania -- hence limba română (literally the Romanian tongue).

Romania entered the war in an attempt to seize Transylvania, a historical province with a majority-Romanian population. Despite initial successes, the combined Russo-Romanian forces suffered several setbacks and by the end of 1916 -- only Moldavia remained under Allied (Great Britain, France, Romania, Russia, Italy, several other countries, and eventually the United States) control. After several defensive victories in 1917, the Allied front collapsed when the Bolsheviks took Russia out of the war and Romania, left surrounded by the Central Powers, signed an armistice at Focşani. On November 10, 1918, just one day before the German armistice and when all the other Central Powers had already capitulated, Romania belatedly re-entered the war. By then, about 220,000 Romanian soldiers were killed. This was about 6% of the total millitary deaths of the Allied forces.

It wasn't until 1940 that the Soviet Union assumed control of Moldova and called it the Soviet Republic of Moldavia... but, that's a story for another day.

A huge thanks to Steven for taking me to this great museum and just for being a terrific brother!

This is the glass bridge that visitors have to cross to get into the WWI Museum. Beneath the bridge is a field of poppies (lest we forget) and the Memorial Tower reflects down onto the field from above.



Spring was in full swing when I visited on this cloudy day I loved the juxtaposition of the bird's nest with the Memorial tower -- the circle of life.