This week I read When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops, George Carlin (thank you David!); and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling (yes, I quite possibly am the last person on earth to read it). I also enjoyed the results of a DVD-swap with another PCV and watched several movies: Minority Report, Casablanca, and Memento.
The week started and ended quietly, with a burst of activity smack in the middle. Donna and Galya returned Tuesday night from the training in Chisinau, and we met Wednesday at the Primaria. Donna was so energized, excited, full of ideas and enthusiasm! It was great to see and fun to be around.
Sunday when I had met with them in Chisinau, we had talked about her friend and colleague, Slava, visiting Tvarditsa the next weekend and she hoped we could visit him in Dubosara the following weekend. I told them I would ask PC, but not to count on me getting permission to travel there since it’s in the separatist region of Transnistria.
10 years ago there was a war between the government of Moldova and the self-declared government of Transnistria. The area is primarily populated by ethnic Russians, who have a strong connection with the Russian government. The war supposedly started over the decision in Chisinau to make Moldovan the Official Language, which at the time of the original decision led to backlashes against Russian speakers, including many people losing their jobs. However, materials that I have read indicate that the area was controversial and antagonistic long before Moldova became independent. The “president” is an old-school Soviet general, and he runs things as close to the old ways as possible. Although there has been no violence for many years, the two sides are technically still at war. For this and a variety of safety and security reasons, the U.S. Embassy discourages American citizens from traveling there, and Peace Corps forbids Volunteers to travel there without permission from their Program Manager. I know some PCVs who were given permission in the past, they just wanted to go there for a day primarily out of curiosity, but I haven’t known any PCVs to travel there in the year that I’ve been here.
True to my word, though, I did check with my program manager on Monday. She said that “due to the recent events, any requests to travel to Transnistria must go through the PC Country Director.” That there were any “recent events” was news to me, so I asked what had happened. Apparently an American caused a bit of a scandal not so long ago. He was either traveling to or through Transnistria, I’m not sure which (it lays between Moldova and Ukraine, so transit through Transnistria is not only common but necessary if you want to get to Ukraine), and for some reason he decided to stop on the bridge on the border to take a picture of a flag. Now, you have to remember that this is a place that’s about as close to the former Soviet Union as you will find these days on the planet. And you have to remember some of the paranoia from those days. In the Soviet Union, it was forbidden to take pictures of places and things that were considered security and defense related, like airplanes, military vehicles, and bridges. So, this guy was already making a bad decision to take a picture on a bridge. Second, he blocked traffic while he did it, and if there are two things Moldovan drivers hate, it’s the guy in front of them (a) not moving fast enough and (b) not moving out of the way. Other drivers started honking their horns. The border guards got mad at the guy. A general ruckus was created and eventually a guard fired his gun into the air to try to gain some control over the crowd.
No one was hurt, but the bottom line is that the situation got out of hand and an American was involved. I was told that maybe I could make a case for my request, especially since I would be traveling with Moldovans, my partner in particular, and we’d be going to visit her Moldovan colleague, but nonetheless my program manager didn’t think the odds were good for approval at this time. I agreed, and told Donna when I saw her that it would be best to wait until things had quieted down before I ask the Country Director. It worked out fine, anyways, as Donna and Slava had switched their plans around, and decided that she would visit him this weekend and he would come to Tvarditsa next weekend with some of the youth leaders from his community.
So, Wednesday Donna and Galya told me about the highlights of their grant writing training, and I was proud to hear that Galya’s team had “won” the mock competition with their extremely well-written grant application! She’s feeling confident and competent, as well she should. That afternoon Donna called together a group of adults and some of the most active kids from the Children’s Primaria to prep them about a grant opportunity. In fact, it’s one of the grants we worked on before I left for vacation, for the garbage truck. In the intervening weeks, the Primaria had been able to identify funds to cover the necessary Community Contribution, as well as had identified funds to maintain the project long-term (i.e., truck driver salary, gasoline and truck maintenance). Donna wanted us to finish up the grant application. The group met Thursday afternoon and, under Galya’s skilled leadership, had a brilliantly written application (if I do say so myself!) ready within a couple hours.
Thursday morning Donna was off again to Chisinau for a meeting and then from there to Dubosara to meet Slava. I did some translation work at the library with Galya most of the day.
Before my trip to Germany, I had started thinking about buying a bicycle, partially for the exercise and partially for the added freedom it would provide me in terms of ability to travel to Ceadir-Lunga or other not-too-distant sites. After seeing all the cyclists in Germany, I was convinced that I really wanted to start biking myself. My host brother Sasha has been home for 2-weeks of vacation, and I asked him to help if he’d go with me to C-L to look at bikes. We got up early for the 7:30 a.m. bus on Saturday. We visited the 3 bike vendors we could find, and in the end I went back to the first store and bought a nice mountain bike for about $70. The bus driver let us put it in the back of the bus for the trip home, and we joked that I would be starting a new “route” to Ceadir-Lunga with it. After much tweaking and several adjustments, Sasha declared it fit and safe. Sunday I went for a lovely, hour-long bike ride to the neighboring village of Kiriet-Lunga, about 5 miles away. The stretch of road between Tvarditsa and K-L is particularly bad, but I suppose I’ve gotten used to it a bit when I travel that way on the Chisinau bus. Let me tell you, it was a whole new experience by bike and I’ve got the sore bum to prove it. I was suddenly very glad that I had opted for the more “sporty” style of bike, with big rugged tires, instead of the “daintier” model that clearly wouldn’t have lasted 15 minutes on that road.
The garden continues to be abundant with lovely fruits and vegetables, and in the last 2 weeks the tomatoes have started to ripen. This week I made delicious gazpacho soup with freshly picked cucumbers, tomatoes, and green peppers. Anya really enjoyed it, which of course made me happy, and when I offered to make it again a few days later, she quickly agreed. Hurrah for another culinary success!
Anka in Kyiv 