A Spring Day in the Forest...With 9th Graders

Yesterday was Ziua Munchii (Labor Day) so we didn't have to work and the students got a day away from school. The 9th form (grade) organized a day in the forest and invited us along. We were surprised to be taxied out to the forest (normally a 30 minute walk) because we have walked there a few times and it's a pretty nice walk.

The 9th form and John's partner teacher, Tamara, who is their dirigenta (class teacher).

Our hammocks were great hits. They were never unoccupied and generally enjoyed with smiles or closed eyes.

Tamara marinated the meat, but the boys handled the fire cooking in the forest. Tamara and some students peeled potatoes which the boys fried on the fire. Everything was delicious!

Some of the gals prepared traditional Moldovan salads and shared with everyone. We had put some gatorade powder into a water bottle and brought that. The kids compared it to Sprite and loved it. We realized we should have brought more. (Peace Corps used to give it out for rehydrating)

14 out of 30 students was pretty good, we thought, for an optional excursion to the forest.

The frisbee was popular, too.

Shelbi made lemon-poppy seed muffins, so it was a real feast out in the forest.

I bet your mouth is watering. Yes, the food was as tasty as it looks.

With the coming of May 1st, spring is well under way. Unfortunately, temperatures have already reached summer levels (nearly 90 F!). Shelbi and I also realize we only have 1 more month of school here. Next week is a vacation for Easter and the whole town is preparing everything to be just perfect. They whitewash anything needing it, clean up trash, beautify their gardens, and clean their homes. Sunday morning at 5 a.m. Orthodox Christians will go to the church with some food in a basket (think Easter basket) and wait along the road until the priest blesses the food with holy water. They will then return home and have a meal with family. The week after, they go to the cemetery and spend time near the graves of their loved ones. We are looking forward to experiencing this religious/cultural aspect, but also to have another bbq in the forest with the evangelical church we've been attending.

Spring is Here!!!

These are just some pictures and a video of the remnants of winter. They were taken about a month ago in Briceni.

 

 Above are beautiful evergreen trees and the Moldovan flag decorating the raion (think state or county) building in Briceni.

 John giving some awards to students who participated (and two who won 3rd place!) in a Moldova-wide English writing competition.

It's like the whole community was holding its breath and now it can breathe. Seriously, that was the longest winter of our lives! I am so happy to write "was." We are just starting to preview what Moldova will offer come later spring, summer, and even into the autumn. Buds are forming on the trees and birds are getting restless. There is a mother of puppies that ushers her young around a courtyard-like area near our apartment, and it is very pleasing to watch them play.
Our spirits are lifting with the clouds and the sun is definitely bringing renewed energy into our lives. We went camping this last weekend in a nearby forest, and although the trees weren't yet green, just to be outside and enjoying God's playground for us was wonderful.

Ah, life couldn't get any better.  Jaime Wheeler should recognize the book.

 The sun is just setting through the trees.

And yes, the little tree did hold us through the night. It's a tough little bugger!

 We are planning some time with the church members to go to the forest and have a bbq and fun day. Every year the 1st of June is Kid's Day (Ziua Copiilor) in which teachers take their students to the forest for a fun day. This year it happens to fall the day after the last day of school, so it will be a wonderful Saturday indeed.

Waiting on spring.. waiting... waiting...

     We hear the south of Moldova is blossoming into spring. We saw weather updates from Lubbock showing snow. The north of Moldova has at least lost its snow blanket, but we are still under some soggy weather. Today we have rain drizzling, but the ambient light makes the moss on the trees glow a bright green. It's a different kind of beauty for sure.
     If you haven't heard, we have decided to return to the states in June. What has led us to this decision?
Hmmmm... Much prayer and discussion as a family.
     -Teaching health education in Moldova employs very different talents than nursing at a hospital, and Shelbi had always said she would not be a classroom teacher. We didn't know the extent of teaching she would have to do when we decided to come, but have given the school year our best efforts.
     -We are ready to begin our family and have kids. We knew we wanted this before starting Peace Corps, but were ready to wait a couple of years. Moldovan families and values have encouraged our want for a family, and besides that, we know too many pregnant women. It seems that there is some glitch/Godly desire that has planted itself in Shelbi's mind and won't give up. She has the fever badly.
     -We definitely miss our family. There have been many times we've Skyped and shed tears as we close the video window. It's strange that although we have Skype and email with the possibilities to communicate daily, we still feel very apart from our family.
     -Furthermore, coming to Moldova has shown us the value for permanence that our culture (and especially our generation) sometimes lacks. Moldovan homes can be hundreds of years old. Families live in the same villages and have the same friends for generations. The history is deep but cyclical and the value that offers relationships is incredible. It has truly been inspiring to witness the differences in culture, but we realize more and more that, along with our desire to begin a family, we desire steady relationships and daily accountability in our walk with God. If we planned to stay in Moldova long-term, that could happen here. As it is, the language barriers make genuine connection with people a little stifling at times. Because we don't have a more intense dedication to learning Romanian and Russian and have always imagined returning to the states to start our family, we know this is good timing for us.

     We will stay until the summer knowing we could maximize our impact with the students and teachers we work with by continuing through the end of the school year.

     We look forward to seeing family and friends into the summer.

     Until then, we have a lot of projects we are still working on and, of course, daily teaching. Please pray for our efforts in Briceni, Moldova as we prepare to leave in a healthy and supportive manner. Please pray for the development of the school and the students coming to English classes with the church.

Spring's A-comin'

 Shelbi got many gifts from her partners and students. This is a bouquet from the 10th grade who came in and sang "Happy Birthday" in English for her.

 

Our neighbor surprised us the other day. When Shelbi answered the door, the neighbor tried to explain something (she speaks 80% Russian, 10% Romanian, and 10% mumbling). After a moment of hesitation, she just walked right on through the doorway and found a place in our living/common room where she motioned towards. Pretty soon she had us both carrying these plants into our apartment. We gathered between her, her daughter, and her son, that this would only be for a few days and that someone died.?!? We didn't quite understand everything, but were happy to help by keeping her plants. They turned our common room into a practical jungle for a few days.

The next day we realized her urgency and need. Her door stayed open all day and we could see a corpse lying through the doorway on a raised platform. We are pretty certain that it was our neighbor's brother. People came and went all day, and while we were at school we saw the procession pass the school on its way to the cemetery.

Saturday 3-16-2013:
Today we bought some paintings from our former host family. We are really excited about the paintings especially because they were made by both Arcadie and Rodica Gheţu (our hosts), so we have some tangible keepsakes.


While walking with Arcadie through town (on this beautiful, crisp, and clear spring day) to bring the paintings to our apartment, we learned that this mosaic/mural in Briceni features about 15 people who represent the 15 countries of the former Soviet Union. Arcadie explained a few of the mosaics around town to us, so we came back and took some pictures. It seemed like a very clear day to take pictures, but also the lack of leaves on the trees made the mosaics a little extra visible.

The last few weeks we have been really busy and yet I can't think of much to write about. The biggest time consumer was a seminar I had to attend in the capital. We were there for over a full week which made it nice to return to Briceni. The trainings were what we called "Peace Corps Washington" mandates, meaning we were obligated to implement them by headquarters in Washington D.C. Many of the trainings were ill-timed because they were about some basics of teaching when we've already been teaching for six months. Some of the sessions would go well in the PST (pre-service training) we completed in the summer, but were totally out-of-place at this point in our service. Some benefits of being in Chişinau for a week were: we got to spend a lot of time with other volunteers, many of whom we had become close friends with during PST; we got to visit Stephen Yates and his family. They are missionaries who used to be in Briceni but who are now working in the capital. We visited the church where they worship two times, and it was very nice to hear worship in Romanian. Also while we were in the capital we had to (got to) go out to restaurants and experience a greater variety of food. It was pretty nice for a lot of reasons.

Russian-Romanian-English American Masa (meal) at our place:
On Wednesday (3-20-2013) some members of the church came over to our place for food and games. We have been meeting with a truly non-denominational Russian-speaking church here in Briceni. They preach the Bible and promote Jesus as Lord (as far as we know). Actually, I joke, but they are wonderful! We were led to the church one day (with God's help) by a lady who heard us speaking English and starting speaking to us in Russian. We didn't understand anything except "crestian," so we followed her. She led us to the church which meets in a very small building with only Russian lettering. We've been meeting with them since and have also been working on an English club at the building. Anyway, the group came over and we played Farkle at our place (it's a pretty multi-lingual game being as it's based on counting) and ate snacks and coke and ice-cream floats.

 We had a lot of snow-melt, as you can see. People in the south are so surprised when we say we still have had snow. They can't believe it because the south has been dry for almost a month. People all say that Moldova's weather is pretty similar all over the small country, and that's true with a two or three degree variation. Most of the time that doesn't mean much, but when those two or three degrees are the ones on the line of freezing or not, it makes a big difference.

 We had a freezing rain that coated everything in the strangest sheets of ice.

Clearly it began snowing again. We were so close! 95% of the snow and ice in Briceni had melted and we were seeing the first real signs of spring this week. The temperature glided into the 50s and I even saw some elderly people sitting on park benches, catching some rays. Enter: Friday. Today we walked to school under a rainy cloud-cover. By the end of the first lesson, it was sleeting; by the end of the second lesson, it was snowing; by the end of the third lesson: watch the video.

 

 Today we met with some of the boys from 9th and 10th grades. They thought we were going to play poker, but we had a better game in mind.

 It just never gets old.

 All of these students are English students (to varying degrees), but we let them just relax and play and joke today. You can get a feeling of how goofy and fun they can be through this clip.

I thought that I could be like Punxsutawney Phil and predict the end of winter. I was also hoping winter in Moldova was as perfectly predictable as spring and autumn have been (three months long, changing at the first of September and December, respectively). Being as I have been longing for fairer weather, I have taken to pretending I am outside. I can't wait to get outside and actually do this. Shelbi is a little hesitant when the nights are still pretty cold and there is still a lot of snow in the forest.

Hopeful thinking... maybe in another couple of weeks.

Winter Continues

This morning I went for a walk to a forest close to our home in Briceni and was reminded of two Frost poems. These living poems are a little hint at feelings that visit me while I walk, and I'd love to share them with you now:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


Anytime I get to go for a walk, this comes to my mind. It just makes you wonder about all the decisions you've made, and it makes me thankful for most of mine.

The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And, sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps a better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh.
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


Last month we got to go to Ocniţa and meet up with two volunteers, Natalie and Maryam. Maryam showed us the train station there and some of the town. It is close to Briceni (our northern sister, as it might be considered) and very beautiful. Here are a few shots from the day.