More of Februarie

The student council put on a program for Dragobetele Zia (Valentines Day) This is  what Love looks like in Moldova to them. First you meet...

Then you dance together, 

, Girls have to feed the boys to be good Gospidina's (housewives). The boys had to know how to do the girls hair. They put it in a braid. 

They girls have to know how to sew buttons on Quickly and if you do all those things right this is where you end up...

The ultimate place to show your love! 

Hope you all had a great Valentines Day with the ones you LOVE.    Love from here... Marcy

Februarie and all that happens

The river is melting and if you look closely you can see the swans

I would like to share some of my personal observation and opinions. The reason I am in Moldova is to teach health education. Under the soviets, health was not a required subject.  Health was not preserved (maybe because Russia would care for you if anything happened) it was treated when problems developed. The majority held belief in the village I live in is that the ground is fertile and the food that comes from here nourishes and sustains the people who work very hard to grow, gather and store up for winter the fresh food here. During Soviet times this little country produced much of Russia's food and wine in exchange for housing, factory type jobs (where parts produced in other satellite country's were put together here and parts made here were put together in other country's) education and infrastructure. When they left the people had and continue to have a difficulty with their identity and sense of place in Europe. But, since I am a teacher now... in Romanian... I feel a sense of responsibility to the students.  This is not like Uganda where teachers could not show up and it was still ok, or where if kids were bad they got canned or sent home because they didn't have $ for lunch or a small book in the FREE Education system. Moldova is a place where teachers care about the students and want them to learn. However the amount of material a teacher is to cover in a lesson is huge and it often happens that she races through it and the kids aren't engaged to learn the material. My job along with teaching students is to teach my partner teachers how to engage the kids in learning so we do a lot of role playing, poster creating, TV advertisements, and review games that get them explaining what they are suppose to know. Of course I give test which my older kids do miserably at and the younger ones fly through... So I present to you some of the things we worked on in school as well as the months happenings.

  This is Bunica Eugenia coming to get our flip phone for use, while she was at the sanitarium. Her grandson paid for 18 days in one. This is how they do health care. If you have something wrong you go to a place to get better using therapy, hot baths, massage, fresh food with no salt sugar or additives, enema, ozone therapy ( don't know what that is) dancing, and pampering. This is the day b4 Eugenia left to get HEALTHY! I was teasing her about getting so healthy that she would come home with a new man. My Romanian isn't very good but I understood what she thought of that idea...not much!

Before she left she made bread and these little croissants with summer cherries in them and gave us raspberry jam to make tea with. since we both had hacking coughs and chest congestion.  The tea worked. We're both better!

The 7th graders working on a menu for one day that had 2600 calories and most of them were in meat. Not very balanced.

This was a project for the whole school and they shared some of the words that they were learning in English.  None of them can talk to me but they can say English words, Just like me, I can't carry a conversation but I can say words..

I went to see a friend in another village and rode with a guy that was hauling baby pigs in the back of his car.  Interesting things that happen in the villages...

The snow is melting and the roads are a mess You have to wear your rubber boots now.  Good thing I brought 4 pair of boots for the  seasons of mud, snow, school, and hiking...

Bye for now! Love from Moldova where I am told spring is coming... Love and prayers from here, Marc

Back home in Cosăuți

Funny how after being away and coming back things look different.  The Nistru (river) is frozen across, the swans and ducks have gone to the Ukraine side the walk on the river is still beautiful and Moldova was going to celebrate Christmas:  We were just in time.... Enclosed are pictures of the kids that came and shared the ceremonies of Christmas and New Year.  Bad Picture of us being a bit jet lagged but this is how they say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year here.

Christmas at our Casa (Crăcuin  acasa)



It was -10 on Christmas day. Tradition is that the neighbor kids come by to trick or treat ( that is what it's like) they come to your door and sing and then you give them treats like fresh baked cookies, fruit. money and candy. We only had a few kids come and we invited them in to warm up with hot chocolate and sing in the room. It was nice having music in our house.

Hăitura or New Years Eve (Jan. 6)  when children come and read poems and play musical instruments that they have made with a can and leather string. Agian treats are given...
Plugușoru Jan 7, New Years
The tradition of the little plough

The Year divinity is born, grows, ages and dies along the calendar year and revives after 365 days, and 366 in leap years.

St. Basil is the first of the holidays celebrating the important saints of the Romanian religious and lay calendar, some of the saints are young and some are elder. On every January 1, St. Basil, a joyful young man who likes love and fun, is celebrated.

On the New Year Day, the caroling bands wish people be in good health, rich and wealthy and joyful, and they receive fancy breads, wine, sausage and money, in exchange.

Shouting over the village is a night ceremonial when lads play judges sentencing those who broke the community laws and rules Perched on hills, trees or roofs they say whipping words to the spinster, the elder singles, the old women who put bad spells on people, the men who abandon their wives, the lazy, the thieves and the drunkards.

The whole community is looking forward watching the show. For cleaning and removing the evil and the bad, and fires are lit.

On the first day of the year, on St. Basil day heavens are said they stay open and prayers come true, and beasts and animals can speak like humans. This is the day of ceremonials called the Plow and Sorcova, when people are wished well and prosperity. 

Again the tradition of the kids celebrating with singing and treats given like our caroling

Sementul  the tradition of throwing grain on you and giving you a blessing that your crops would grow and you too would grow in health as the year comes. These are two of my neighbors in the village giving us wishes as we were out for a walk.

The last of the traditions practiced here in the village is the blessing of the wells.  The village priest walks through the village and gets water from each of the well (our house has it's own) then takes the water and a branch of something goes through a house and blesses it with the water.  He does it for the whole village all day. The water here has much calcium in it and corrodes our hot pot but it tastes good and fresh.

Last of the pictures this is the beginning of our square dance club with our first practice in our bedroom.  It is just big enough to hold 2 English speaking couples.  Were starting with the kids that can speak more English then others and working our way up... 
The view from my classroom windows. The hoar frost is beautiful here and happens many mornings!
Bye for now,  love and prayers from Moldova...Marc

Our vacation experience in far away places...
Meeting up in Vienna airport, so happy to see a familiar face after 6 months of new faces.
 Seeing some of the sights our first night out at the Christmas Markets. You can see it is cold in Europe just like MN and they had no snow so walking around was easy and enjoyable as we all had on our 3 layers plus coat.                                                            
Christmas day we went to mass in a Polish church spoken in Polish. Thought the manger scene was unique in that you could see Mary enjoying her little baby and behind her is her holding her son 30 some years later. Thank you Jesus for Christmas!

 Would not be Christmas if Katie was not working on a resume, application or cover letter with her dad.  This year it was application for a summer internship that will pay her so she can continue in the grad school program at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.  GO STEELERS!

This is a lesson learned. After leaving Vienna we traveled by train to Budapest. The woman who issued our tickets asked if we wanted to reserve seats. She said there were 100 available or open seat. We said no we would not reserve.  I think with 100 available seats they took one of the train cars off and left all of us fools that did not make a reservation to find somewhere to stand sit or kneel. We are on the steps where luggage goes and little kids can watch videos. Lesson learned pay the extra for a guaranteed seat. It is a long ride without one.  

At the Christmas Market in Budapest I found the perfect job for mom for the summer. A doughnut wagon food truck. Complete with fresh coffee. We did not try the doughnuts but they looked pretty.

 A Hungarian Police man. The longer we stayed in Budapest the more I started looking like him.  I found an artisan bakery day 1 and went back several times... They made butter carmel rolls fresh fruit in bread with fresh homemade custard. Plus seeded dark breads. It was joy having all those choices.  Here it is mostly white bread that is eaten even thought they grow wheat here they do not eat much whole wheat.

 Our landmark church. We stayed not far from here and went to mass here on New Years day, this time in Hungarian. Christmas in Hungry is celebrated on Dec. 25 Gregorian calender and Jan 7 Orthodox calender that is why the markets were still up in Hungry.

Looking at Buda from the Pest side of the Danube which seperates the 2 citys. We spent 5-6 hours a day doing walking tours and exploring.  Sometimes because we were lost and other times because it is a beautiful place to see. Much history, many occupations, elegant architecture, clean, friendly (helps to speak Hungarian) and great food, especially the bakeries.....

Our last day together. A fitting picture as Kate and Conor left for the west side of the Danube and we left for right side of it. Conor back to Best Buy in Minneapolis, Kate to Pittsburgh, and us to Moldova. 

Today is Christmas in Moldova and it is bitter cold. The tradition is for children to come sing to you and you give them treats and money in return With is soo cold we had only a few kids that we welcomed to come in and sing have hot chocolate and talk to warm up before going out again.  It was a lovely day!  This is how they say Merry Christmas here and many years to come! 

 
This is Tom, tagging on at the end of Marcy's blog. We were blessed to have both Kate and Conor be able to come over and join us for the Christmas holiday, I guess to even want to! We have had a few Christmas' away from home together now and all have been memorable. The next challenge will be to get Jake, Heather and fam to rough it for awhile, out of the country and join us one of these years. What surprises me is when all goes so smoothly during these adventures and this one did; the only snafu was not getting reserved seats on train from Vienna to Budapest, but that was only 3 hours. Wish you all could have been there for the Vivaldi concert at Karlskirche in Vienna. It was magical; thanks for getting the tickets Marcy! And you'd love the thermal baths in Budapest I think; just ask Katie. So here we are back in Siberia it feels like...and we're from Minnesota. Just trying to stay warm. Remember to book your tickets for Moldova early because we don't get all that much time to travel; first come first served. Better end this before I get in trouble for messing up the blog. Love ya'll!!

tMore of life in Cosauti as we wait for Christmas!  Remember ours is on Jan 7...

Our front door 

The decorations on the front porch. The tree lights up and shines into our room.

Magazine Elaina (that is her) or the general store in the central location of the village.  We have 7 in the town similar to this.  You can buy bread, candy, cookies, a few sausages and cheese a lot of liquor and a couple pieces of fruit. and they still let you buy on credit.

This is a new building that will house for 3 months the vulnerable. Much like the NUMAS house we have in New Ulm that allows a family to stay together, get some life skills, have a safe place to live and then go out on their own. It is an Austrian NGO  that is the donor with the local people working for it in all the capacitys.  Tom is working with the director as one of his community projects.

Some of the fancy metal cut out work that decorates many of the homes here

Some of the art work in Soroca's produce market

Students excited about the coming vacation after one of our lessons on microbes
More pictures to come from W Eurrope.
Love from freezing Moldova where I sit with my coat on indoors many days as do many people

Well it's almost Christmas, but I bet everyone in America knows this right?  .  They celebrate it fully on the 7th of January, because according to the orthodox calendar that is when it is.We will be in Vienna with our youngest 2 to celebrate but I wanted to write my Christmas letter on the blog so it could have pictures with it.  Sorry Auntie it is more then 2 pages but most are pictures.   I feel this year God has been working on me to be grateful so I will write about what I am grateful for.
 I am grateful to speak a bit of the language and be able to buy food and get on a bus the right direction with the right money and know where to get off. sounds like that would be easy right? Well if you put 40 people on a 20 passenger van you can''t see much and sometimes don't know they have past your stop till 20 people have gotten out so you can see.
I am grateful for the health to walk the 30 minutes to and from school at 8 AM and again at 3 or 4.
(It's kinda dark at 4 so I try to get out by 3)

the 8am exercise ride

 I am grateful for my bike so I can ride when i know I will be late I am grateful for warm boots and a down coat because of the cold winter and the cold house.

I am grateful for 2pm when the family makes a fire in the soba ( ceramic brick chimney that heats up and radiates heat after the fire is out

the Soba where I keep the desk so I am warm to study

indoor bathroom with outdoor temperatures 

I am grateful for the 2 days a week we can turn on the hot water heater and heater in the bathroom for a hot shower a house in winter.




I am grateful that the we have running water in the bathroom so I don't need to fetch it every day at the fintina (well) lijke the majority of the people in town have to.

Our fantina we use it when the water does go out in the house.

I am grateful for the electric blanket that warms the sheets so I can get into a warm bed with a warm man to keep me warm when the fire has gone out. (Makes it hard to get up though)

I am grateful for a hot pot so I can have tea when I get back from school. ( I wish I had a kitchen but that is in the main house and the family cooks most of our evening meal. I make breakfast and lunch)

I am grateful for a family that talks to us, includes us in celebrations, gives us gifts of fruit and fresh bread, ( They commemorate dead relatives on the day of death by giving treats to children on the way to the cemetery and in the home they give a loaf of colac (circle shaped braid of bread) sweets a towel, a lit candle and cup with water in it. |Grandma\s husband died on the 8 of December so we both received this gift.

Masa (special meal) for Mariamnn'a birthday praty

I am grateful to live so close to the river so I can stroll it after school and watch the swans and ducks and see the day end.

That is the full moon coming up with the swans a swimming 

I am grateful for the friendships I have made here with other volunteers and the community I am living in.
I am grateful that Tom has been able to recover from his neck injury is back to talk English with
I am grateful for the iphone to use so I can call home
I am grateful for each of you who keep us in your prayers!
I am grateful for Jesus saying yes, to do something so hard, so that I could have faith and a better here after.
 My love from Moldova, Marc and Tom

Santa is not as thin as he was in Uganda.  Merry Christmas or Craciun Fericita! 

Home sweet Home!  In the background you can see the Ukraine and right behind us is what the village is known for.  We have a quarry of white stone here and men are stone carvers. The road has several of these huts with mens names on them and that is where they do the carving.

A celebration in school.  When a message needs to be given a different home room teach is given the task to prepare the kids to be our educators for an hour program. This is class 5 doing a presentation for teachers day and how great they think the teachers are.  After the program school was dismissed (at 12) and the teachers all gathered in our conference room for champagne and cake. Then many of the teachers and I left for a program in Soroca, (the next large village 7km from us) where there was an awards ceremony and supper. 

One of the teachers daughter turned 1 and she brought treats and champagne to celebrate the day. The teacher standing is the home Ec teacher and she made the placinta.(Bread dough rolled out in oil and folded around vegetables, cheese, or fruit. It is 10 in the morning. Notice we all have our coats on in school? We teach in them alot of days as the concreate building is not warm and the hot water heating system doesn't stay warm enough to heat the size of the school.

Below is a collection of  TOAMNA  pictures.  This is a celebration of the harvest and each class decorates fruit and vegetables and they have a display with loud music and dancing, in the halls, during the breaks between classes. What you see below are all fruit & vegetables that are the decoration. 

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That's this weeks news from Cosăuți. Love Marc