Well, I was going to spend this afternoon packing for our mandatory week of training in Chișinău over the fall break, for which I leave tomorrow, but the washing machine melted down with the clothes I planned to pack still sudsy and trapped inside. I'm waiting for my host mom to get home from work so she can help me sort that mess out, and I'll at least get to take them with me clean and wet to dry in my hotel room. Hopefully.
The good news is that this gives me some time to tell about an awesome weekend in the village of Mărăndeni. One of our English Education Volunteers, Kim, lives and teaches there and was planning to hold a Halloween party Friday, so she sent out an invitation for others in the North of Moldova to lend a hand. Looking forward to the prospects of seeing another village and of painting cute kids' faces, I eagerly agreed to make the trip.
Halloween isn't traditionally celebrated in Moldova, but the kids do all learn a bit about it in their English classes, since it's a pretty big deal in America. My host brother was informed that Americans carve heads from vegetables for the holiday, so he and I, because we didn't have a pumpkin around, had carved a family of apple people the week before for him to take to school. Beyond that, not much happens here at the end of October unless someone (usually a PCV) is ambitious enough to organize festivities. I'm hoping to try my own hand at it next year. While I'm not usually all that into Halloween, I miss the pumpkin carving element, and the kids think it's such a cool novelty to be part of a foreign celebration.
My attempts at getting from Point A to Point B in Moldova have yet to work out simply and as-expected, but that's par for the course with a sense of direction like mine, so I wasn't too worked up over the fact that it took me ages to find the bus station in my own town. I knew it was at the edge of town, but I hadn't been to the edge of town on foot before and had no conception of just how long a hike that would be, plus I took a few wrong turns that added to the trip more still. I did get there just in time to catch the last bus that could potentially get me to Bălți, the nearest raion center, on time to catch the last bud out to Mărăndeni, and a friendly man who spoke a little bit of English led me to the window where I could buy my ticket. He was pretty interested in what I was doing there when I said I'm not visiting but living here for two years. People often are, it's a nice reaction to have-- Moldovans are notoriously welcoming.
When I finally made my way to the Bălți bus station, I had unfortunately just missed the last bus of the day out to the village, so I ended up making countless phone calls to Kim and asking almost every driver, ticket-seller, and friendly-looking stranger in the area what the best way would be to get myself to Mărăndeni. After a few wrong answers from a few people, I finally figured out what would get me nearest to the village so I could walk in. The driver had been one of the people to provide me faulty information (that there would be another bus directly out to the village at the same time as his own would leave), so he was confused when I was all set to hop on his rutiera after all. I explained, though, and after first trying to convince me to marry either his son or nephew, let me on without a ticket and got me just where I needed to be.
Just seeing the village was great, because it's so quiet and the leaves are all the most incredible golden color right now, so I was enjoying the walk, but since I was running a bit late by this point, it was a relief when someone offered me a ride into the center. She correctly guessed me to be an English teacher and guessed that I was headed into town to see Domnişoară Kim, then got me just where I needed to be. While there are some inconveniences associated with living in these tiny villages, the helpful nature of their inhabitants certainly makes up for a lot of them.
We headed to the school and after some complications with getting the doors unlocked and a brief moment of uncertainty about whether we'd have electricity with which to play music, we got things rolling. Kim's democracy club (a handful or so of fifth- and sixth-graders, if my age estimation is right) showed up to help us with the decorations. I made a pretty impressive mess mixing up homemade face paint to use (since I'd had no luck finding it for sale even in the capital last time I was there), and things got rolling.
Admission for the celebration was five lei (about fifty cents) per student, which will go toward the creation of a world map mural somewhere in the school in the near future (part of a worldwide Peace Corps project I think is particularly cool). Kids were initially surprised when I told them they needn't spend additional money to have their faces painted, and once word of that got around, the line grew way faster than expected. I took one break for a bit while someone relieved me, but mostly, I was sole painter, so I took a lot of pride in seeing everybody running around with bats, pumpkin, ghosts, and spiders on their cheeks and foreheads.
There was also lots of loud music for dancing (played using a microphone laid near a computer speaker), bobbing for apples (which the kids also ate, a bonus when we're used to American kids who prefer the candy element of Halloween over healthy treats), an attempt at a Soul Train style costume dance off (it didn't work as planned, but the kids had a great time anyhow), a face cut out board (well, paper) with a witch and Frankenstein where students could have their pictures taken, a ping pong ball tossing game, and prizes. Overall, the night was a huge success. Students, teachers, and volunteers alike had an awesome time and we estimated that between 50 and 70 kids were there.
Afterward, the school director (like a principal) invited the volunteers (five of us in all) to hang around for tea and cookies in her office. We visited, talked about what we do and how we like Moldova, then headed back to Kim's place where we made ourselves a nice dinner and sat up talking and visiting entirely too late. The next day we headed into the city in the morning, spent the day hanging out and taking a long walk in the beautiful fall sunshine before I caught my rutiera home in the evening and made my way back to the house just in time for dinner with the host family.
A lot of my weekends here are pretty uneventful, and I'm all right with that. I think at heart I'm mostly a homebody, and the more time I spend getting to know my family here, the more I enjoy just being here and being a part of everyday life. Still, though, a little excitement sure can be nice, and when it happens to involve a fun night of music and dancing with school kids followed by a relaxing day with friends who speak English, it makes for a great change of pace. It's also really cool to see how someone is making great things happen at their site after a year of service here-- makes me look forward to the things in store for me the more capable I become here and the more connections I make. I'm so grateful to have been a part of the fun!
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