Gradina mea (my garden)

Here are pictures of my garden.

Yes, I have a nice place to live.
Yes, some people came over and built these mounts and put in the tomatoes and peppers.

Who gets to figure out how to water them?
Who gets to figure out if they need to "weed" out the weeds?
Who let chickens loose in their yard to eat the insects?
It's great and all, but ...I didn't ask for the garden, and I didn't know that people would make me a real one. I was thinking to plan a small tomato plant and onions.
Now I get to water my yard once a week, and till the soil and weed.
My neighbor is helping to teach me and her chickens are eating my bugs.

I'll do it, but maybe my garden will die next year....we'll see.

It's not all sunlight and sparkles

Okay, so to be honest here, I have been sugar coating everything...with frosting and high fructose corn syrup.
Reason: I do want people to visit me.
Realization: People do like hearing bad news cause it's interesting.

Okay, I have been having ant infestations, like in waves for about 2 1/2 weeks now. I have bombed my apartment 3 times, and now I have a spray that kills them on contact with the solution, and the solution stays around for like 3 weeks (healthy, I know).
They are annoying, and red, and 2x bigger than the ones in the US. I sweep and vacuum ants after work, and they like to sweep out of the sills of the doors.

I didn't blog a lot this week due to crazy weather, and my protectiveness of my laptop. Sunny and hot, then random patch of thunder and lightning cloud rolls in with strong winds, it rains, then it moves on. It happened 3 times this week!

Also, I thought I had hayfever cause I kept coughing, but I didn't have a fever and my throat wasn't sore/swollen/or raw. It was annoying the first week, then it got harder to breath, and now I wheeze and I have a rattle in my lungs (this being the end of week 2). SOOO!, I will call Peace Corps now to tell them I'm sick, and hopefully I haven't been tooooooo contagious. Er...I have been to the schools every day for the last 2 weeks, and around kids, and ....around LOTS of people, and I didn't always wash my hands! *oiy*
Everyone is worried about me, but they have been prescribing similar stuff as ppl in the US would: lemon + honey in water, or onion +honey in water, or breathing in steam, etc...

I may have gotten in trouble by PC = I am locking my blog soon

Let's review what I wrote:

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Tiganii (Gypsies)

Well...I had a semi long adventurous day again.
I woke, I took my laundry out to dry in the sun (noted that my semi yellowish , originally white t-shirt has semi brown and green on it too now),
so I ate lunch (pasta sauce, pasta, bread, and lots of green garlic!),
walked to the Primaria for the exercise (about a 35-40 min walk),
saw about 40 kids walk towards me to go to a "f-unc-da-ziaiy" (a carnival!?),
got picked up 1/3 of the way there by a co-worker at the Primaria,
a lady who's a teacher at the school is running to be the first female Primar (mayor) asked me to go to a function with her,
I said good bye to Lilly and the present mayor (Domnul Ivan, who is my counterpart for PC) and went with a competitor to "f-unc-da-ziaiy" (a carnival!?),
was bored with 50 kids in a room upstairs at a house waiting for 3 hours for something!,
I was at campaigning event to brainwash kids to vote a certain way, with soda, and cookies, and a priest and I learned I was at a "Foundation for Children," and I was not very happy about it,

much later....
I decided to go for a walk, saw a lady who worked at the old folks home and walked with her (my real plan was to walk by the tiganii(gypsies) that have been calling for me to come over last time),
I saw the lady to her home and said goodbye,
while walking back down to go towards my home I walked by the tiganii and they asked me to come over and I did (I had with me my phone, 3 ron, and my keys),
I had learned from that lady that these gypsies had been there for 1 month, and that different ones came and went (this lessened the pressure I felt to get to know the gypsies),
never-the-less I went over and introduced myself and talked to them (a mom and her many kids making coffee over a fire outside their tent),

They were friendly and open and curious.
I did honestly feel nervous around them, standing there talking to them, wondering who was watching and what they thought, and the gypsies, I think, knew it too.
I was polite and cautious....I'm not sure why I was alert, but I was.
A little Romanian girl who'd befriended me ran up to us after I'd been there 10 minutes and helped with the conversation and explaining things she already knew about me. The gypsies were more introvert when she was there and they gave me space. Later I found out, even though the girl spoke to the gypsies and explained things to them politely, she didn't like them. She went there to help me (that was sweet of her). She was hesitant about telling the adults where we came back from, but she's young enough that she did tell them we were talking to the tiganii.

The gypsies in my village were curious about my age and where I was from. They tried to teach me a few phrases in Tigani (gypsie langauge), but I've forgotten them. They were curious about a few phrases in Chinese too. The mom was obviously the boss and she reminded me of an Italian mom, big, nurturing, giant heart with presence. She had lots of kids and it was like a silly question that I asked how many.

I am trying to figure out if gypsies that want to integrate into the community are easily accepted. I see darker kids that get along great with lighter skinned kids and there's zip-o segregation. I wonder if those darker kids are gypsie originated or just darker skinned Romanians.

Bias and stereotypes exist for a reason (I believe), but not everyone falls into these stereotypes and people should get the benefit-of-the-doubt before you judge them.

I don't understand this culture, but like any culture, I am willing to learn.

Here is the comment I got, and the one I left:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cyn, you need to take a good look inside yourself. Before you label people please look at what you think about the world. Are you really at the position to judge people or do you think you still need to learn a little? Calling people names after only being here just a little while displays your ignorance. Just take some time to think....

June 6, 2008 12:38 PM

Cynthia said...

Who are you?

I don't think you may have understood my blog. My blog in intended to show my opinions of my experience, as you, of course, have your own opinions, because usually I try to keep an open mind about cultures and meeting people.
What you said really hurt my feelings (like a slap in the face), since I am working really hard to be fair and open to everyone I meet.
I'm sorry you have a negative impression of me, and if you did you have something to add to my experience to help me grow, that would be kind of you if I knew you, but if you are here to criticize my opinions and my experiences, please have them be constructive.

June 7, 2008 10:52 AM

Here is an email we all received from our director, it may not only be me, but...the timing and all. It's sad cause I do make the effort to be open and unbias and I want to let anyone who's interested to read this blog but......oh well.

Please send me an email if you would like to continue reading my blog =) and you're not out to get me.

To: PCRO Community

From: Ken
Date: June 11, 2008
RE: Blogs

Over the past two days, Peace Corps Romania has been contacted by several host agency officials, partners, potential partners and Americans with complaints and/or concerns about material posted on PCV and PCT blogs perceived as culturally offensive.

While the PCVs/PCTs did not intend to offend anyone, please be aware that by the Peace Corps Manual (Section 204, para. 3.11) Volunteers and Trainees are accountable for their public communications, and for any adverse consequences that may arise in their country of assignment from those communications. As such, if material posted by a PCV or PCT on their blog negatively impacts their relationship with a host agency, the image of the Peace Corps or the PCRO program, the PCV/T is subject to administrative action.

Specifically the PC Manual states, “publication of material which subsequently results in adverse consequences for the Volunteer, Trainee or the program, may be grounds for administrative separation.”

Girl's weekend!

I invited 6 people, and sometimes life's about quality and not quantity, because while I didn't get to share my PC experience of the rural life with the all city PCVs, I did get to have a blast with the two of my fav. volunteers.

Face Shot!

Welcome!! Into my bathroom ; )
(Marie took it, she's weird)

I wanted to show them bees making honey so we went to the forest to find them. Alas we didn't them, but we had a fun time with kids in the village looking for them.

We made food and ate curry chicken that mom sent me. We used chopsticks!

We all did hand manicures with my neighbors!! They agree, I have awesome neighbors!


We watched Jon Duan before bed, and yes! we all slept in the same bed (we didn't want anyone to felt left out).

We are silly, and it was fun, Marie is leaving us though, so here-here to fun times with her before she goes, back to the US.

What I DID this weekend

No I didn't DO This! I saw this on the side of the road next to the maxi taxi station.
It's "weed" aka "marijuana plant."

Here I am sitting in the back of a jeep in Romania. I went with Nils and Emily and Marie to a picnic near the city. To make me leave the comforts of my little village, I was promised Brown Sugar and a chance to test my allergies by switching pollen with pollution.

While I was waiting for Marie to get out of church, I met up with a Romanian friend and I got to "sit" on her boyfriend's motocycle (motorcicleta) [motor-chi-clea-tah]; it was my first "sit" on a motorcycle ever.
(I lied earlier).

After that stuff, I went home to my site. =)
and I called my family in the States.

My language tutors "mediators"

Here are my language tutors in Mastacani, they were for the last month, and I don't know if they'll stay my tutors for my whole 2 years.

This first person is Lili and she's a teacher for 1st year students (6 year olds) and she's all about rock music, English movies, and she has a (ex-)rocker boyfriend who rides a motorcycle. She's also interested in Chinese culture too, so it's fun to talk to someone so interested in US pop culture and Asian culture. She's only a bit older than me and I have tutoring with her 2ice a week for 2 hour sessions.

This next person is Mihaela and at first I got the impression that she was a very serious person, and maybe even cold. However, after the initial meet she's very smart, and she is serious, but she has a giant heart and she wants all her students to do well (me included). She graduated with a degree in Romania, and while I think she could be a CEO of a company, she teaches kids from 5th grade to 8th grade Romanian. She invited me over to her home for her 3 year old's birthday party last week. My words: she's beautiful, her husbands beautiful, her kid is adorable, and their home is amazing. Her house = modern and classical and I loved it! She is a great host, and always the teacher teaching and correcting me while I try to communicate (she doesn't speak any English) but in the sweetest way. It makes me wish she got paid more for how hard she tries (like in the US, teachers make squat here). She's a perfectionist and the straight 10 student growing up (Romanian grades are 1-10 versus F-A). I get tutored by her 40 mins every day before she teaches class.

This lady on the left is Sorina, and she's not an official tutor, but she likes to explain words and grammer stuff to me sometimes. She doesn't have a lot of time to tutor me. She's the profesoara of English and French while the real teacher at this school is on Maternity leave (women get a 2 year leave here). She's let me help in her English classes, reading and answering questions. She wants to improve her English speaking skills and I am happy to oblige because I enjoy talking to her too. She's a book lover too, and she said she likes classical books, so I'm on a mini quest to find not too difficult classical books for her. She is most likely not teaching in this comuna next year, and she doesn't have internet, so I'll probably not see her after this school year. =(

They're becoming friends, my tutors, and thankfully they take the task of teaching me Romanian very seriously during our tutoring sessions, which I really appreciate.

I'm only supposed to have 1 tutor, but I'm willing to learn from those who can teach me this language.

Weekend at the Mayor's house

Last weekend also happened to be election weekend here in the village. My counterpart got 761 votes, I think it was, and his closest competitor got 660 votes.
5 people ran for mayor in this comuna, and 49% of all possible voters voted (you have to be over 18 to vote).

For the mayor to win this round of elections, he/she had to get 50% of all the votes, so that didn't happen.

What does this mean? This means that 2 weekend from then (next weekend, not this one) they're going to do elections again (all the schools in the comuna are voting stations, with cops and stuff, and 2 people are assigned to be "president" and "vice president" of the committee in charge of the votes and counting the votes etc...).

Anyway, I spent Friday-Saturday at the Mayor's house, at the invitation of his wife Sarita, so I could learn how to cook traditional Romanian food. This is her in her work house clothes, and I asked her if I could take the picture before I took it. We're in her yard.


Here we made Sarmaleluti [s-are-mah-laiy-loo-zee] which is one of my favorite foods. It kinda reminds me of potstickers or dumplings, in that you mix veggies with ground meat and you wrap them in something.

These are wrapped in grape leaves (wine grape leaves) and the leaves taste good.

Almost every home has a vinyard, but not mine, I have a vegetable garden now =)

Here are 2/3 photos and old man attempted to take. He couldn't get our heads in the pictures, and after 3 tries, I patted his hand and said "foarte bine" (very good/well).



Here's Sarita's mom chopping green onions with an axe...cause it's faster. She's good too. They have gas stoves inside the house, but they also have a pit to cook outside using fire.

The granny didn't mind me helping out, even though I was a guest, so she let me walk into the "cage" of corn knobs to refill buckets for the fire (felt kinds scared in a cage), and she let me help carry shoots of stuff to burn, and =) I got to help chase and catch middle sized chickens.

That was fun! but hard work!! There was this small agile one that took me 10 minutes to scare out and to catch. I had to use sticks to poke it out from under the cage, throw bricks to block exits, etc...
One stupid chicken puked all over my arm while I was trying to get one for this picture.
It was like rounding horses actually...something I learned at Cal Poly.