Soroca

A taste of what is to come.  It has been one month since I have posted.  I am sorry family and friends.  This past month has been a little crazy.  About 4 weeks ago, back at my Pre-Service Training (PST) site in Razeni we started practice school.  It was a grueling 3 weeks of intense planning and executing.  I was able to see what my days would be like when I started working.  The children were really cool and interested in American culture.  There were moments when I thought that they could really care less about learning English and really just either wanted to learn about America, where I was from and how to get me to smile and laugh instead of working.  They really wanted me to be their friend and that was pretty cool, I’d have to say.  My first 10 working days of school consisted of planning for and teaching the 6th Form or 6th grade.  Grammar structure and rules are much more specific here.  My grammar is improving.  It was something that struck me as odd that even though I am a native speaker and even studied English and language – grammar rules have never stuck as they have stuck for me since I have been here.  Needless to say, it was new, different and something I think I needed to get my head back on straight.  My second set of 10 working days consisted of planning for and teaching the 10th Form.  This was a little harder for me and for them because the textbooks are the same throughout the country and are planned for learning and mastering the language at the same rate for every individual in Moldova regardless of background, exposure and / or proficiency.  So, it was assumed for instance that writing a short essay using the grammar rules accumulated until the 10th Form including countable or uncountable nouns, conditionals, noun derivations and noun formations would be included.  This was not the case in my town and furthermore may not be the case in many villages throughout the country.  Fortunately the school that I will be teaching at will have more students with higher English proficiency.  Unfortunately, it is at such a school where skills that the Peace Corps can offer are not as much in need as other institutions.  It is a give and take.  I will have to go with the flow for a while before making any real judgments.   When all the work was over, all of us in Razeni were able to get a little party going with our students from all 20 days.  It was a fun-filled day of food, drinks, music, sports and games.  We had a lot of fun.

Imitation as Flattery.  Our final week consisted of closing language lessons and preparing for the concert that we were to put on.  I am in the English Education program.  All other EE volunteers that arrived with me this past June were in my town of Razeni.  Four others were in the city center learning Russian, and in three other villages volunteers for health, community development and agricultural business were also grouped together.  All in all, there were four to six villages working independently on their respective volunteer schedules.  At the end of our PreService Training, each group prepared a sort of a concert as a form of “goodbye” for our respective host families and cities.  We, in Razeni, did a little concert as well in full traditional garb, song and dance.  It was really interesting for lack of a better term at the moment.  The final two weeks of PST were spent practicing nearly every afternoon for our presentation of 3 dances, and 3 songs.  It was really fun.  We capped it off with our swearing in ceremony at the capitol with embassy and country director.  I am officially an employee of the US government and therefore property of the US government.  I never thought I would say that, but I am.

A New Home.  10 days ago, I arrived in my new home town.  It is very beautiful and I am very excited.  I have been able to spend the last week relaxing and site-seeing.  It has been a blast.  Coming from 3 weeks of straight work and planning.  I think I and all other volunteers needed this time off.  This past weekend, the whole country had their independence celebrations.  Here in my town, there were concerts throughout the day and one final concert on Saturday night.  School starts on September 1 throughout the country.  This is the day that my work starts.  I should have been planning all the this time, but as things go, I am learning to take my work in stride and plan to expend my energy efficiently.  So, for right now, as many teachers are still on vacation or wrapping up grades from the previous year, I have had the chance to settle into the Moldovan lifestyle as much as can be had in a matter of 10 days.  A river.  A fortress.  A border.  A forest.  A tower.  Some flowers.  And air cleaning showers.  That pretty much sums up what has consumed my time here.  Tomorrow, I will have an administrative picnic at a park named after one of the quintessential poets in Moldovan history, Mihai Eminescu who was an author during the Romantic period, awesome!  Then on Wednesday starts work day #1.  Anxious, to say the least. 

More to come….