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.
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.
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.
