Settled And A Breath Before the Storm

It has been twenty days since we last posted here and a lot has happened. We completed PST practice school (with much sweat, prayers, and tears), participated in a "swearing-in" ceremony in Chișinau, came to beautiful Briceni, visited a camp and Orhei Veche, and returned to Briceni to begin work.

Our partners are helpful as we near the beginning of school. We have met a few times to discuss and work out plans. One issue we've discovered is that it is hard to make a school schedule until after the students show up. Registries seem to not be complete until after the first few days of school. This makes planning for the first few weeks very difficult, but we're doing as well as we can. The first day of school will be a celebration of sorts and of course the first class will be just getting to know our students and letting them get to know us. We will always teach with a partner, so we will always be co-teaching or partner teaching. There are strategies and methods for co-teaching that I am looking forward to practicing with my partners. Everything we do is supposed to be sustainable, but there will not be enough funding after we leave to have two teachers in the same classroom. I'm not really sure how sustainable some of the practices I'd like to introduce will be, but I keep exploring reasons and ways I think I can help here.

There are many paths in Briceni (most people walk, although there seem to be more cars and of better quality here than in the South around Chișinau, so the walkers make some great trails and paths). Some paths go beside beautiful ponds with weeping willows drooping their leafy greeniness nearby. There are clusters of trees nearby and I hope to get a bicycle and discover some loops in the next couple weeks. I would love to post of more pictures of the town we are in, so maybe my next post can have more of that information.

This last week I (John) went to a two-day training in Chișinau. I had been elected by my fellow M-27 (Moldova PCV group 27) English Education (EE) volunteers as one of two peer supporters (part of the PSN, or Peer Support Network). We will have some responsibilities regarding keeping contact with volunteers and providing an open ear while understanding general stressors volunteers have during this service. We learned a lot of useful information for the responsibility. One interesting piece regarded the two-year span of a volunteer's emotional experience.
We have been told of a Peace Corps Volunteer's general life cycle in the Peace Corps. As far as emotions go, the first three months are supposed to be emotionally high and energetic because of the differences and excitement in experiencing a new country. The following two or three months tend to be downers because reality hits and volunteers begin missing home and motherland comforts. After this time of distress, many volunteers find they adjust and enjoy their work, finding satisfaction in the challenges and relating more and more to host-country nationals. Around the one-year mark, volunteers experience another low, perhaps due to lack of accomplishing big-vision projects as well as realizing they are half-way through their commitment and may not have time to make the changes they imagined. The second year tends to be more productive with the volunteers integrated more thoroughly than the first. This makes for a healthy second year and more "ups" during this time, although the end can be a time of emotional challenges as well as the volunteers realize they didn't accomplish everything and will soon be leaving friends and partners as close as family and readjusting to a home community that has continued progressing without them. So, this two-year challenge has its patterns from volunteer surveys across the globe.

Shelbi and I find ourselves hitting some of these early stages fairly accurately. Our jobs as a couple, of course, are to realize each other's stressors and relievers and try to keep balance. We have both been missing the comforts of friends and family at home. Even with skype calls, emails, blogs, and pictures, the distance and differences in Moldova have created a certain kind of longing. The people here are extremely friendly and helpful, but we still can find ourselves yearning for something. We take comfort reading either together in the New Testament or separately (we are both reading some fiction: A Song of Ice and Fire series for me, and vampire novels for Shelbi :)  ), going for walks, eating with our host family (more bread, butter, and honey, but also some fresh fruits and always chai/tea), and just comforting each other with words. I can't imagine being here without Shelbi and she tells me she wouldn't be here without me. We are close to some of the other volunteers, and we enjoy listening to the reasons why they came to Moldova. It is so nice, in comparison, to have our best friend and life-companion with us, but of course I try to not rub that in the face of our fellow volunteers. Their benefits are the more complete reliance on the Moldovans as well as more practice speaking Romanian (Shelbi and I use English with each other, but also some Romanian).

All in all, we continue to be blessed. This post is titled, "Settled and a Breath Before the Storm." Next week may not create a storm in our lives at all. I am partially fueled by my experience in American schools where the first week brings all kinds of new aspects to a teacher's life. Hopefully and prayerfully next week will show us even more specifically how God is using us in our partners' and students' lives.

 "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

Here are some pictures to document our last half-month. More to follow.

John's students and fellow Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in Trușeni

Our school Director (principal) and her husband on the right, with our former PC country Director in the middle on swearing-in day.

Our family, the Ghețu family (pronounced get-sue) warmly welcomed us to their home with food!

Our apartment is on the top floor on the far left side of this building. We can see wonderful Briceni from our window!

No, this is not our permanent bedroom. We went to a kid's camp with our host family and stayed here. It was about two hours away in the forested hills near a city called Orhei.

The kids are dancing the "hora," a traditional Moldovan circle dance.

The camp is beautiful with many trees and developments. It seemed to be a fun camp with a lot of music and dancing.

John and Arcadie, our host dad, walking in near the forest.

A buried Soviet bunker/stores deposit from WWII close to the camp

Headstones at Orhei Veche, a gorgeous river valley with a village and church built into caves.

This is the top of a bell-tower that marks the entrance to an underground church/monastery.

People will hike up to the church and return with a wish or prayer. They place their hand on this cross and utter their wish. Our host dad explained it more as a superstition than a prayer. There are many religious icons and all seem to have specific significance.

Shelbi walking towards the newer church under construction.

John had a fascination with the clouds that day :)

Our host dad, Arcadie, who has a ton of patience, enjoys excursions with us, and is an artist

Shelbi seems to like the goats grazing the hillside.

Here is a different monastery built by the communists. The area is extremely beautiful with many trees. We have mixed feelings about such ornate churches with extensive mosaics and frescos that must have cost much.

A rather depressing but interesting depiction of evil's grasp on the world

An example of a smaller church's goldery (new word, I think)

These are some of the teachers from our school gathering to celebrate Moldovan Independence Day (August 27th) by laying flowers by a statue bust of Ștefan Cel Mare, a 15th century king, saint, and protector of Moldova.

Shelbi getting her Moldovan on by putting flowers at the bust of Ștefan Cel Mare.

 

These are videos of the celebration. Many of the students performing go to the school where we teach. The music and dances are traditional Moldovan.