New in the New Year?

You can read the traditions and their meaning in last years blog for January. This year the kids came Christmas Day New Years Eve, and New Years day  the kids come and sing and you give them treats.  Since we live so close to the school this year we had lots of guest.  We ran out of candy and cookies again so we had to run back to the store a couple times... 

The Priest comes and preforms the  blessing of the wells and then brings the water and blesses the house.  In this case it is the rooms of the school. 

With vacation over my partners and I are back to work.  Since school opened after Christmas the radiator water tank sprung a leak and the heat in the school has been broken leaving the school with minimal warmth from 2 small auxiliary water tanks.  The school is very big with many large windows that are missing one of the double panes. It was unusually warm in Jan and Feb but still cold in school. The class schedule became 35 minutes long lessons rather then 45. The kids loved it as did the teachers.  It just made it hard to get the kids settled long enough to teach them. So, for 2 months again, we all lived in our coats in class.   The heat has since gotten fixed and we are back to 45 minute classes.

 Tom has been couching the girls basketball club and writing grants.  Soon we will have $ to buy balls that bounce and a backboard that will not fall off the wall....








The last 2 pictures are from a celebration for Martișoara on March 1.  The kids dressed like local vendors, sang songs, recited poetry, and preformed skits.  This year it was fun to watch because we know more about the girls and the process of missing class for 2 weeks to practice and then preforming for 20 minutes. 

This coming week we are again having another celebration to celebrate mothers.  Same venue with new songs to perform. 







Love from Moldova, Marc

Christmas old and new

CHRISTMAS and all that brings here in Moldova.  There has to be a festival in school and we have it the last day of school but practice for 2 weeks. These are pictures of the Health Club doing a Christmas pagent rather then a dance or poetry which everyone else does. They did a great job and try as I might I could not get Joseph to pay closer attention to Mary. 

The Russian tradition is that the winter comes and is looking for a princess so the little girls that can afford to rent dresses get dressed to the 10s and sing and dance and entice father winter into going away I think...

Above and below are gifts that our church gave to the children in our school that were not given gifts by Samaritans Purse. Tom and I helped Father Christmas hand them out. They were boxes of good Ukrainian candy

 This is a picture of the gifts from Samaritans Purse. These shoe boxes full of gifts came from Germany but our church packs them too for transport to poor country's.

After the program Tom and I went to meet our youngest 2 in Romania up in the mountains.

 We were in Brasov which is ringed by mountains but we had fog most days so you cannot see them. 

We did get out to hike in them and had wanted to ski but they had little to any snow except on the very top of windy peaks.  We took a cable car up to the top just to see what it would be like. 

The kids left on the 3 of January for Ukraine and we came home to celebrate Christmas again on the 7 of January.  The tradition in Moldova is for children to come to your house to sing and get a treat of candy, $, and cookies. Here are some of the pictures of the local talent singing for us.  

This last picture was on Jan. 19, when the village priest comes and blesses the water, the houses and school in the village. It is a major saint day but I forgot who...

That is what has been happening in the past month and 1/2.  When we came back to school on the 9th of January the boiler on our school furnace had broken and the school was back down to 55 degrees again. The school kitchen stove was broken so no hot lunch (they duck taped this for now) and the hot water heater for the sink to wash your hands after the bathroom was broke and the kids are not washing their hands so we have more illness. But, with the furnace broke, we have shorter (35 minute) classes and everyone is home by 1. Not sure there is a hurry to fix it.  More to come... Love from Moldova, Marcy

Nov. Dec.

This year along with teaching I have started a Health Club. During November  an anti violence campaign is shared in the country.  The club wanted to do puppet shows every morning b4 school started to talk about violence in our school, village and in the world.  Every day a different group of girls (and 2 boys) prepared a poster and message to inform us about the types and ways to avoid violence or how to report. They did a great job with very little prompting. The younger grades loved it.  The next project they wanted to do was a Christmas story for our last day b4 vacation celebration.  Again they came up with a script, we found some fabric and made some costumes and presented. 

There was another celebration at our cultural center that the after school activities clubs presented at.  It was a ”Goodbye to Fall” celebration. In Moldova boys and girls start dancing in syn in kindergarten and this was the 1 and 2 grade preforming. They were great, I liked the pic because the only little guy preforming just kept watching the girls and following along...

The group of health education teachers that came last year put on an overnight for the new health educators in the capital. They have been at work now for 4 months and we remember the frustration and isolation along with loneliness we all felt and maybe still feel. This gathering was a time to get together and enjoy stories, time together, share secrets about working here and encourage each other.
We met Santa in the park and got a photo. As you can see we have no snow here.
More to come,
 Love from Moldova, Marcy

Berlin, Prague & Moldova

The ladies I have my picture with on facebook when we started to be teachers together were with me in the capital when we shot this picture.  The only one that looks older is me. Guess that is what happens when you are over 30 which neither of them are.  We were all coming home from  a fall vacation... 

Tom and I went to Berlin for my fall break from school. It happened to be the 500 anniversary of Reformation Day while we were there so we took advantage of the statue in front of the Protestant Church in the old part of Berlin. 

 Katie has a good friend Anna, from Madrid.  She worked with her in Uganda, and is now studying for her Doctorate in Berlin so we had lunch together

Missionary Friends from Uganda are now living outside of Berlin. They drove over to spend the day with us doing a walking tour. They grew up living on the E German side. They added much to our tour. This is Check Point Charlie and we are welcoming them over to the American side from E Germany. It is a tourist trap but we thought it was a great photo op.   The next picture if of the Brandenburg Gate which is 240 years old. The same age as the US. It is the only remaining gate left entering Berlin.
We took a train from Berlin to Prague and walked around the old city and were forever lost. It has roads much like DC that come together in wagon wheel spokes into one central area and too many roads leading off it.  WE saw alot of the city but never the same place more then once even though we tried to....

 Photo of interest in Prague... I found it of interest because it was in the candy isle.  I understand that it is not legal to sell in Czech Republic but you are allowed to possess small amount and to use it for medical purpose. Which is what this stuff is I guess.

In Prague, we took a day trip to the Bohemian Switzerland Park that sits on the border of Germany and Czech Republic. These are photos from there.

We had a lovely time and now are back in our little house that is warm and snug.




Tom has started teaching basketball to our 6,7,8 grade girls with our friend from Soroca. They have had 3 practices and the girls are starting to be catty and mean and selfish...  Fun to see the girls come under some male discipline lived out through a game... more to come.  But that is all for now.
 Love from Moldova,  Marc

Happy Birthday Bunica & Cosăuți new playground

What do you give a hard working woman who has seen 77 years? A rabbit nice and plump and ready to eat. We named him Jack and ate him 2 days later. 
In Moldova they did not have iodine in the salt but people did not get goiters and this toast is the reason why. In spring the walnut tree has baby's these are picked and soaked in water in the sun for a week until the tannin's are nice and black, then you add the liquid to vodka and you have med i ca ment, good for the thyroid. Eugenia does not drink her house wine or her other distilled spirits but this we always have a toast with because we want to stay sănătoase (healthy).

 The birthday party was on the 15 which was Conor boys birthday too so I got to celebrate a day 29 years ago that was pretty special.

Had to include a pic from those days. Yes the good looking guy is his daddy!

The program for the grand opening of the new Cosăuți playground that Tom wrote a Peace Corps grant for.  Moldova is very big into festivals with dancing and singing and fanfare and today was not different. The little kids practiced in school for a week and then they perform with exuberance, enthusiasm  and gusto! The village doesn't have a lot of amenity's but it has a sense of tradition and culture that they are always sharing. Some of the Toamna Princessă performed!!!

   The final pictures of the ribbon cutting and all the dignitary's from PC and the village. After, we all went back to the school and had a meal of traditional foods and a lovely day was had by all.  

Now Tom will be looking for a new project to help the village or the school attain through another PC grant.                            Love from Moldova, Marc

Toamna (Fall) Festival Merului

 Last Sunday was the Apple (Mere) Festival in Soroca. Our big town 7 kilometers down the Nistru. It is similar to a county seat and all the towns in the county come to the parade in traditional dress  to march in the parade. This year Tom and I participated. Beautiful day, many people, food was better last year but presented equally as nice. Here are some photos from the day.

 Our villages representation

 Our area here in the N grows the apples in abundance, the south grows more peaches and stone fruit. Here are just some of the varietys we have  and below are some of the wonderful foods they make with the apples...

 We borrowed some traditional dress clothes and marched in the parade with the kids and a few teachers.

 Many communities have a competition as to who can have the best food.  After it is judged the people from that community come and eat up the display.  Our village does not do this... But I loved this chicken sitting on her nest of eggs...

 They had some games/rides for kid and caramal apples. But the caramel was crystallized sugar so when you bit the apple the coating fell off...

 
This week after class, Tom and I went and helped collect grapes to make wine. This is a picture of the bride from last post and YOU know who.
 Lots of wonderful grapes here and everyone makes house wine with them.
We brought home some fresh juice and I canned it for winter.
 Love from Moldova where cool weather has come again.