A very full weekend! Friday I went with Alyona to her English class in Chisinau. On our way in, we stopped at a hardware market to get some parts for the kitchen repair (since, for some reason, the plumber himself couldn’t or wouldn’t go buy the part). I don’t know if I’ll get used to shopping at markets. I just don’t understand why they can’t put up walls and a roof and make a regular store? The markets are all in fixed locations, most of them with themes (the food market, the clothing market, the hardware market), although there doesn’t seem to be a need for strict adherence to the theme. In the midst of the car parts, plumbing supplies, tools and hardware, was a booth selling wedding dresses and other accoutrements for weddings! The other part of the shopping experience that is difficult for me is that you have to (or, at least, you should) go from booth to booth looking for what you want or comparing prices. We asked at three or four places before we found what Alyona needed, all within a small 300-400 sq. ft. area. I suppose we do go from store to store in the U.S. to find what we need and to bargain shop, so I shouldn’t find this so strange, but it is odd to me that each and every vendor is his own little shop. It seems like a lot of work, to me, for both the buyer and the seller. The vendors have to bring their goods every day; set up their booths; maybe have too much of one thing, not enough of another today; work all day in the open air, hot or cold, rain or shine or snow; then pack it all back up at the end of the day and haul it away for the night. I think it would be a bit easier if there was a mall-type place (I can’t believe I’m suggesting they open malls here!), and the vendors could at least secure their kiosks at night and wouldn’t have to haul their goods in and out every day. But no one is asking me for suggestions!
Alyona teaches for a private company, and right now has one class of high school students in an after-school program. She wanted me to talk about Ohio, Columbus, etc., but first we listened to the students’ homework. They’d been assigned to read a short story by Somerset Maugham in their textbooks and to retell the story. She listened to one student while I listened to another, and the students slowly trickled into class. They also had prepared dialogues, in pairs, on the theme of booking train tickets for a trip. It was a surprise to Alyona when I mentioned that we don’t travel by train in the U.S., and kind of funny for me to realize I only know train vocabulary in Russian! We listened to their dialogues, and offered some corrections. They are learning British English, so I had to be careful in offering corrections only regarding grammar, and not because something might not sound right to me.
So, after we were done reviewing homework, Alyona introduced me as a guest from America, and I talked for about 20 minutes about Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State. They were shy to speak English and ask me questions, but I think most of them understood the majority of my presentation. I need to make an outline, as I doubt this will be the last time I give this kind of presentation! I rambled on, rather randomly, for awhile. Alyona prompted them to ask me some questions, like “Ask Ann why she is here in Moldova!”, and eventually one or two were brave enough to ask some questions. “Do you like Moldova?” Yes! “Do you like the food here?” Yes! “What is different about Moldova?” “What other countries have you been to?” “What is your favorite country that you’ve visited?” “Why did you study Russian?” We took a picture together with my digital camera, and I offered to email them all a copy, and that generated a lot of excitement, and they all asked for my email address, too. I think I’ll set up a separate email account to receive emails from Moldovan school kids. J
We were both tired after class, so came home for dinner and a quiet evening at home. We saw ads for the upcoming theatrical performances, and I think Emily and I may go next week to see the ballet Romeo and Juliet!
Saturday morning we had a short language class, as we had tickets to the St. Petersburg Circus. Matt invited Carina, we all invited Viorica and her 2 daughters, and Anya and Kirill came with us, too. The regular circus building is being renovated, so this visiting circus had it’s performance in the Philarmonic Hall. We had tickets for the opening performance, and there were a few “opening night” glitches. There were a bunch of kids in the audience, of course, with one or another crying every few minutes, but they were pretty cute overall. The circus itself was a bit strange, not the best show I’ve ever seen, but parts were entertaining. There were dancers, a gymnast (kind of like the Cirque de Soleil performance, only with just one person), a belly-dancer, a strong man/fire-eater/reptile tamer. There were two performing poodles, who were pretty good, and a man who did a Top Hat dance, ala Fred Astaire, which was really good. The second act was a magical act on the theme of Master & Margarita. It was pretty strange, and fairly transparent, but one trick of passing a person through a plate of glass was pretty good, at least it wasn’t obvious to me how they did it! Oh, and there were clowns, of course. Kind of goofy and low budget overall but I’m glad we went.
Afterwards, Anya helped me make a haircut appt where she got her haircut last week, and then we got kebabs for lunch, and McDonald milkshakes for dessert! Matt and Carina went home, and Emily and I went to the market for some shopping. I bought some socks and a small purse. It was the first and last one I found that is relatively simple and plain. Black purses with belts, buckles, studs, and rhinestones seem to be all the rave right now, and I thought I’d never find something for myself. Spent a half-hour or so at Peace Corps (email not working so very frustrating!), and headed home exhausted.
Sunday was a big outing. One of the other LCF’s, Ion, had organized a couple vans to take us to Orhei, about an hour north of Chisinau. I invited Anya along, and several other volunteers brought their families, too. It was a pretty drive, rolling hills, farms, small villages. We went on a fairly decent highway and were able to drive pretty fast part of the way, although that was counterbalanced at points by absolutely terrible roads where we had to slowly swerve left to right to left to avoid all the potholes. Actually, potholes doesn’t come close to describing the conditions of most of the roads. The last time there were any major repairs or upgrades of roads in Moldova was in 1980, when the USSR hosted the Olympics and the Torch came through Moldova. Very few roads have been repaired since then. So, try to imagine 24 years without road repair, multiply it by about 10, and you might be getting close to the road conditions here. I haven’t gotten car sick since I was a little kid, but I’m beginning to realize that one hour is about my limit on this amusement park ride they call “traveling by car” in Moldova.
The monastery in the Orhei raion is unusual, as it is built into a cliff, utilizing the naturally occurring caves in the soft rock. Matt had quite a bit of geology in college, so he was able to explain a bit to us about the hills and cliffs. We could see thousands of petrified seashells in the rock, which obviously means the area was under water at some point millions of years ago. Matt explained that there must have been a volcanic eruption under the water, as normally seashells would disintegrate in hot lava, but instead they were preserved because the lava would have cooled instantly in the water. I thought of Uncle David, and thought he might have enjoyed this place, too.
There are naturally occurring caves throughout the cliffs and hills in this area, and we could see people high up the hills who had been exploring them. There is a promontory in between 2 small rivers, a narrow ridge with a beautiful view into 2 valleys, one on each side. We walked along the ridge to a bell tower, scrambled a short way down one side of the ridge, and came to the entrance to the monastery, which is built inside the rock itself. We descended a dark stairwell and came to a small chapel. A door opened up to the other side of the ridge, providing a “balcony” with a beautiful view. Inside again, we went into the area where the monks slept and prayed, in little cubbyholes chiseled out of the soft stone, kind of like cells. Most had a candle hanging on the back wall in front of an icon. It was explained that monks had slept, putting blankets on the floor, living as simply as possible, believing that the more difficult their lives were, the better. Inside was definitely gloomy and claustrophobic — none of us could stand fully upright in the “sleeping chamber” — but one small step outside and you are in an incredibly wide open space, completely quiet and peaceful. It reminded me in a way of New Mexico, but on a somewhat smaller scale. Very beautiful, and a wonderful place for quiet meditation and reflection.
We continued further along the ridge, and walked past a small church (built above ground this time!). It was not open, so we continued on and walked probably a good mile along the ridge, enjoying the view on both sides. The ridge itself was maybe 150-200 yards wide, sometimes narrower sometimes wider. We walked back, and descended the ridge into a village with a small museum house. The rooms were decorated with hand-woven rugs and embroidered clothes, an old loom was set up, as well as a spinning wheel.
The village itself was interesting to walk through. The homes were behind tall, colorful metal fences. The bits of homes we could see above the fences or through an open gate were brightly and cheerily painted and decorated. Some houses had paintings of dancing people framing a door or window, many had “gingerbread house” style decorative trim on their roof, windows, etc. Many people were out shucking corn, preparing their animal feed for the winter, and huge piles of corn stalks lined the narrow dirt road. It was a quiet day in the village, too.
We walked back to the parking lot and saw up on top of one hill parachutists taking advantage of the perfect alignment of space, wind and whatever other conditions they need. We watched 3 or 4 people slowly skim the hilltop and glide down to the valley. Matt knows a bit about parachuting, too, from his army days, and said that they were all highly skilled with very expensive equipment. As we watched one parachutist descend slowly to earth, my eyes fell onto a horse drawn cart overflowing with corn stalks. Once again, I am reminded of the dichotomy of this country: people who can afford (with both money and time) a very expensive hobby, in the midst of people who still live like Little House on the Prairie, everything done by hand.
We drove a short distance to the ruins of an ancient Roman bathhouse; all that’s left is the stone outline of the structure. I’m not really sure Ion knew what he was talking about though, as some of his other commentary was a bit sketchy, but it is possible that this was truly an ancient Roman site.
Back on the road, the LCF in our van said we were going to stop at “the place where the car goes without the engine,” and I’ll be damned if that wasn’t exactly what she meant. We pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, the driver cut the engine, and the van rolled up a very slight incline. They claimed it was some kind of natural phenomenon that things roll UP in this spot. I joked to Anya that this is the way my life is every day — no idea what we’re doing, where we’re going next, no information either provided or understood. I’ve just learned to go with the flow, and eventually I’ll know what we’re doing, usually when we get there. I think the real reason for the stop was a problem with one of the vans, but Ion played it off like he’d planned to bring us here. It was a Safari restaurant, with little bamboo huts built outside as “private” dining rooms, and the main inside dining room had animal heads and skins all over the walls, like some kind of lodge. It kind of reminded me of the Kahiki in Columbus, but much weirder. If we were in the States, I would think that Ion was getting a commission to stop at the restaurant and bring them some business, but I don’t think that sort of arrangement has reached Moldova yet.
We got home around 5, thoroughly exhausted but excited from a full day! I’d like to go back in nice weather and with proper shoes to hike the cliffs and check out the caves. Anybody game to join me next year?
Anka in Kyiv 