Yesterday was the first day of school in Hincesti, as well as the rest of Moldova. This is a much bigger deal here in Moldova than it is in the US. In America, the biggest thing that happened on the first day of school was my mom embarrassingly walking me all the way to my classroom door, as opposed to dropping me off in front of the school like she would the rest of the year. (Geeze Mom!!) In Moldova, on the other hand, the first day of school is a big deal. Because both of my partners have school aged children, I was able to meet them at the school the experience the festivities.
Yesterday morning, my host-mom dropped me off at “Scoala Unu (It has a real name, but no one says it.)” to meet my partners and their kids. Nether of them was there when I arrived; however, my partner Angela's daughter, Sophie, was and she greeted my warmly. I love Sophie!! She is friendly and outgoing. She always tries to talk to me in Romanian and I usually understand what she says. She also is not afraid to try to speak English with me. I find a lot of Moldovans seem a little “timid” when it comes to speaking English with a native speaker, but not Sophie!!! She then told me that her mom and Valentina would arrive shortly.
Valentina and her brood soon arrived along with their “bunica,” or grandma. Then we waited about an hour for the festivities to begin. (They were running on Moldvan time I guess.) When the festivities did start they were adorable. First, the older students held the hand of the youngest students and paraded around. These youngsters were first graders, who would be attending “Scoala Unu” for the first time. The best part is they all wore suits, full three piece suits. They looked like little business men, or lobbyists. My partner, Valentina's son was one of the newcomers to the school. I tried to take some pictures of him and the little parade, but I didn't want to fight with the parents who were all jockeying for the best photographing position. This was the best that I could do (however, this is not Valentina's son):
The rest of the ceremony went on for about an hour and a half and included your run of the mill ceremonial things: color guard, speeches, introductions of new teachers, a few awards, and a girl who sang a mediocre song. I won't bore you with the details, except that the primar of Hincesti gave a speech and my partner again informed me that people refer to him as “Obama.”
At the end there was the ringing of the bell. One of the older boys carried a young girl on his shoulder and they paraded around while she rang a bell decorated with flowers. I have to say she was pretty adorable with her pig tails and bows that were roughly the size of her head.
After the bell ringing, school started (Big surprise!!!). All the students went to there respective class rooms, but Valentina's son, Augustine, did not want to go to school. So, she took him to his classroom and stayed with him for a while. And then we all met up at the office for a productive work day (Fun!!!)
Later in the evening, I watched the news with my host mom and dad. The first day of school was big news. The morning festivities that I had attended seemed to be identical to those that had occurred all over Moldova that morning. I need to do more research to find out of this is a Moldova thing, a Moldova/Romania thing or a Soviet thing. The answers should be interesting.
it's a soviet thing
ReplyDelete--Yuliya