Odd and Ends

I didn't do one big thing this week that I can write about, but a lot of small things have happened in the past few weeks that I should probably catch everyone up on. First and foremost, my host dad is home from Russia. I am not sure if I previously said that he works in Russia, but he does; however, he has been home on vacation for almost two weeks now (Since July 18th). I am under the impression that he originally came home for my host-mom's God-father's funeral; however, his trip may have just happened to coincide with the funeral. Anyway, his name is Constantin and he is Awesome!!! Men don't seem to help out a lot with the house of gardening in Moldova, but I saw him helping my host-mom with some gardening and washing of fruit. When he noticed that I saw him, he sort of made fun of himself for helping her, but he was still helping. So he gets some major points for that.

My host brother turned 20 on the 21st of July, so we had another big gathering. I was actually not aware that we were having the gathering until it started. My host mom kept trying to get me to finish my homework, and I couldn't really figure out why she was so interested in my getting it done. Then all of a sudden there was a bunch of people outside and she then decided to inform me that it was Alex's birthday. The celebration was pretty similar to my host-mom's birthday celebration, but minus the dancing. I think this was because my host-mom's birthday was on a Saturday night and my host-brother's birthday was on a Monday night, so people didn't want to stay as late.

At my host brother's birthday party, I learned that the following night (July 22nd) was my host mom's sister's birthday and that I would be going to her house the following night to celebrate her birthday. So that next night I came home and asked what time we would be heading to the birthday party. I thought that my host mom told me that she had fallen and hurt her foot, so we needed to go early. I figured that we needed to head over early because it would take her a long time to walk to her sisters house, seeing as her foot was hurt. When I arrived at her sister's house, I realized that in was not, in fact, host mom who hurt her foot, but her sister. We had left early so my host mom could help her prepare to have guests. Romanian FAIL!!!

After the birthday celebrations were over, my host dad started working on a few home/yard improvement project. He works all day, everyday (except Sunday) and all sorts of male extended family members have been coming over to work on our house. I am not sure exactly what the projects are that they are working on. It appears they are paving the area where that rabbits, chickens, and ducks are kept. This area used to be dirt. They have also been taking a lot of buckets of cement behind the house, but I haven't gone back there to see what work is being done.

For the most part, this sums up what has been going on with my host family; however, there has been a lot going on with training and the other volunteers. In this area there is one important thing to mention, I have only one week left until I become sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Right now I am only a trainee. It seems like so much work to become a Volunteer.

Because we only have a week left, we are preparing a celebration to thank our host families. This celebration reminds me of the Spring Fling celebration from when I was in about third grade. We have learned two Moldovan folk songs and two Moldovan folk dances. I am sure all of you know that I am not the best singer or dancer; however, my ARBD group has 10 men and only 4 girls. This means that all the girls have to sing all the songs and dance all the dances. I think I am the worst of all the female dancers, and I was paired with the worst male dancer, Matt Black (he requested a shout out in my blog, but I don't think that he wanted a shout out for being the worst dancer. Beggars can't be choosers Matt!!!). Actually, Matt is not a bad dancer overall. I hear that he has some awesome moves at the discotec. He just is not very good at traditional Moldovan dance.

I think that the highlight of the celebration will be when we sing “House of the Rising Sun.” Awesome song, right? Wrong! Our teacher has changed the lyrics into Romanian and they are now about how much we love Moldova and what we learned while living in Milestii Mici. It is going to be really hard for me to keep a straight face while we are singing this gem of a song, but I have to do it. They need my beautiful singing voice!!! Also, we are supposed to prepare a few American dishes for our families, so we have decided to have a Burrito Bar!! So American!!! Ha ha.

Here are our Romanian House of the Rising Sun Lyrics (feel free to google translate):

Cind am venit оn Moldova
O ţară pe-o gură de rai
Noi am plecat оn familii
Pentru a-nvăţa un nou grai.

Zile şi zile muncind
Noi emoţii trăind
La limba romană şi Tech
Toţi voluntarii se-ntrec.

Lumina in suflet se-adună
Cuvinte din inimă răsună.
Mulţumim familiilor noastre
Pentru răbdare şi vorbe frumoase.


One day we found a kitten outside the school. We brought it into our classroom and after class was over Emily took it home. Turns out that her mom hates cats and told her that she couldn't keep it. I am not sure what happened to the kitten after that, but with all the stray animals around, I assume the cat will make it okay out on the streets of Milestii Mici. Below is a picture of it because I don't have a lot of other pictures to post this week.




Also, a special thank you to Cate Crandall's Aunt Martha, who emailed me when I pleaded for email last week. It is good to know that people are actually reading my blog!!! I am hoping I can make a few short videos to post of my group's dancing and singing, or rather someone else will video my marvelous performance.