PCV Haley made a post recently about using the ubiquitous minibuses and buses in Moldova that I enjoy and want to share. Check it out to learn about daily experiences in long- and mid-distance travel and meet two professional drivers:
MARSHRUTKA, MY SH-ROUTE-KA: INTERVIEW WITH A DRIVER If there’s anything a Peace Corps Volunteer can relate to, it’s shoving herself into a stuffy, smelly, overcrowded minibus (in Romanian, it’s called a “rutiera,” but down Comrat way we use the Russian term “marshrutka” (маршрутка)) for a bumpy ride with a barnyard atmosphere. You’re in the back row of one of these beasts. You’re squished between a бабушка and your friend in a 6-person situation, though there are only 5 seats. (There was an empty seat you could have snagged, right before take-off, if that asshole up front hadn’t saved the seat with his bag. Every time – you’ve come to accept it.) The smell of corn wafts when the bus wheel glances off the edge of a pothole, forcing fresh air up through the poorly-insulated back doors and disturbing the caged chicks, who begin to peep with a little alarm. It’s hot (yes, it’s summer – you feel the sweat sling from your temple into the corner of your eye, where it stings a little) and you can’t breathe well. But that one (and only one) Russian love-pop song you actually like is blaring on the radio right now, so you’re still chipper. You’re even grateful that the guy right in front of you, sitting on a little stool in the middle of the walkway, didn’t glare when you kicked him lightly in the ribs as you tried to uncross your legs (there wasn’t enough room to do it). Everyone just wants to get home, especially the cat mewling from some lady’s purse. CONTINUE READING THE FULL POST HERE!
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Often called Moldova's national dish, mămăligă is a staple in meals both ordinary and special. Made from cornmeal, mămăligă is very similar to the more well-known Italian polenta. As described on its Wikipedia page: ”Traditionally, mămăliga is cooked by boiling water, salt and cornmeal in a special-shaped cast iron pot called ceaun or tuci. When cooked peasant-style and used as a bread substitute, mămăliga is supposed to be much thicker than the regular Italian polenta to the point that it can be cut in slices, like bread. When cooked for other purposes, mămăligă can be much softer, sometimes almost to the consistency of porridge. Because mămăligă sticks to metal surfaces, it can be cut with a string into slices, and is eaten by holding it with the hand, just like bread would be. Mămăliga is often served with sour cream and cheese on the side (mămăliguţă cu brânză şi smântână) or crushed in a bowl of hot milk (mămăliguţă cu lapte). Sometimes slices of mămăligă are pan-fried in oil or in lard, the result being a sort of corn pone. Since mămăliga can be used as an alternate for bread in many Romanian and Moldovan dishes, there are quite a few which are either based on mămăligă, or include it as an ingredient or side dish.” Please enjoy another gallery of stolen photos from an image search: As a cultural treasure, mămăliga is featured in songs both traditional and modern. Any crafts that show a kitchen or table, mămăligă is bound to be shown. Mămăligă is a family name. Our town is very proud of the time a few years ago where a dance troupe performed on the now no longer running show Moldova's Got Talent: If you skip to about 7:45 in this video, you can see mămăligă as it is traditionally made. I've found other videos in English about how to make it (like this one), but none with the traditional pot or stirring sticks.
From the Peace Corps Moldova book "A Glance at Moldova: Cross Cultural Handbook" (2006): "The state flag of the Republic of Moldova is a tricolor. The colors are arranged vertically in the following order: blue, yellow, red. The coat of arms is printed on the central yellow stripe of the tricolor. Blue represents the sky and peace. Yellow represents the sun and wheat. Red represents the blood of those who died for this land. Moldova's coat of arms consists of a shield divided horizontally into two parts. The upper part is red and the lower one is blue with an auroch's head that has between its horns an eight-pointed star. On its right, the auroch's head is flanked by a five-petal rose and on its left, by a slightly inclined crescent. All heraldic elements on the shield are gold. The shield is laid on the breast of an eagle carrying in its beak a golden cross. In its right claw, the eagle holds a green olive branch and in its left claw a gold scepter. The Eagle represents progress. The Cross represents Christianity. The Laurel represents eternal victory. The Scepter represents strength. The Shield is a symbol of defense for the nation. The Blue Head is an historical symbol representing the continuance of Moldova as a nation. The Star represents purity. The Moon and the Sun represent eternity." You can get all kinds of stuff with the flag on it, though I find that people wear the flag far less than I observed in the US. This past August, the mayor of a town I was volunteering in gave my peers and me Moldovan flag hats and little flags to wave. My American friends and I wore these and waved them at an Independence Day event and were, in my observation, the only ones wearing or waving a flag. #awkward That said, you can see in this video I made from my experience at the previous year's Independence Day activities that the colors of the flag do play a central role in the celebration. I wish you all a belated Happy Pi Day! Although Moldovan culture is known for its frequent celebrations, since Moldovans (like the rest of the world) write their days before their months, this holiday doesn't make sense. So, my partner and I tried to explain it in English club (without much success) and then ate our own sad little pizza pi for dinner. Even if Pi Day isn't important in Moldova, PIE itself is! But, it's not pie as we generally use the English word in the US. Romanian speakers translate the word plăcintă as ”pie” - this translation matches more the British English understanding. In general, it is dough stuffed with a savory or a sweet filling. Plăcinta is a key dish, made and eaten regularly, both for everyday consumption and for special events. I've been told repeatedly by many people that every girl is expected to learn how to make plăcintă and that she is marriageable when she can make it well. I've been told a woman's household abilities are often judged by how well she makes plăcinte. When both my partner Chris & I learned together how to make plăcinte, people seemed to think it odd that he was learning and our teacher was oft frustrated that we could be so old and not yet know how to make this dish. There is both a wide variety of ways in which plăcintă is made and some general standards/commonalities. Cooks will bake them or fry them. The fillings are: Potatoes; cabbage; sheep-milk cheese; apples; pumpkins. The cook may use store-bought dough/wrappings (everyday cooking) or may make their own dough (imperative when hosting guests, I have been told). There are many ways to shape different plăcinte before baking/frying. Below are a bunch of pictures I've saved from an image search: Placinta is widely available in shops, stands, and restaurants. It's a relatively cheap and convenient food. The only food sold at my schools is placinta, available throughout morning breaks for a few lei each. When I've not packed a lunch, I'll go down to a shop and get a cabbage or cheese placintă. I've found one video with English subtitling that shows one recipe for this. Know that the metric system is used here and that "cottage cheese" is (in my opinion) a mistranslation (the recipe is using salty sheep cheese, which is why they say to add salt only if needed). March 8th is the annual celebration of International Women's Day. The holiday has political roots and is prevalent in former Soviet countries and currently/previously socialist countries. Many international organizations mark the holiday with campaigns for gender equality. In its regular celebration in Moldova, though, it reminds me much of how Mother's Day is observed as I saw in the US (particularly, that it conflates womanhood with motherhood). Here is how the holiday is described in the Peace Corps Moldova book "Sărbătorile de Primăvară: Spring Holidays”: "This holiday celebrates all that women do, and most especially from the male point of view, women themselves. In the Soviet period this was an official state holiday where women were congratulated in the media and through ceremony. Now men in the workplace usually organize a party for women. Gifts of candy and flowers are given by friends and relatives." My colleagues are organizing a banquet for themselves to celebrate with food and drink, as are my significant other's colleagues. Many have said that this is the one day a year that their husbands might prepare food at home or do a household task like sweeping the floor or washing dishes. Many still do that work, though, and *instead* receive a present. When I respond to the question "Do you celebrate Women's Day in the US?" with, "Sometimes, usually through sociopolitical activism against gender inequality" my colleagues seem to be disappointed and have expressed condolences for the loss of time off and gifts. Our school and most places of work are closed to mark the holiday. Children participate in many pageants/concerts/events to mark the event, overwhelmingly containing songs and poetry about motherhood. Many banquets will be held all over and many people will prepare meals for guests in their homes. For more, here is The Surprising History of International Women's Day, information from UN Women about this year's campaign related to the day. and more on international gender parity campaign for Women's Day. I worked with our Language & Intercultural Competence team as well as other Peace Corps Volunteers to make a video about Let Girls Learn to honor the day: March 1st is a special holiday in Romanian communities: It's the official start of spring, celebrated with the tradition of Mărțișor! As an ancient cultural practice with roots in Roman times, it's celebrated throughout Romania, throughout ethnically Romanian-Moldovan communities in Moldova, Macedonia, and Albania. The Roman god Mars was Marte in Latin; the Romanian word for March, martie, is from this. In ancient Rome, Mars was a symbol of revival, green fields, flocks, and love (among other things), thus he was celebrated on the first day of spring. The symbol of the Mărțișor celebration is also called mărțișor - small red & white items that often have a charm on them. Below is a slideshow of different mărțișori (plural form of the item): A description of the tradition of giving mărțișori to each other from a recent ”LIC [Language & Intercultural Competence] Newsletter" from Peace Corps Moldova:
"At the beginning of 19th century the beautiful Amulet was found in all Romanian regions. Especially children and women wore around their necks or on their left hands two woolen yarns (one red, one white) knitted together and a small silver or golden coin hung on them. The belief was that those who wore that Amulet were protected and would have good luck in the next year. It was written in books that young Moldavian girls wore Mărţişor from March 1st till March 12th. After two weeks, they used to tie their hair with that special red-white yarn waiting to see the first spring birds coming to their village. Only after that event, the young girls took out the Amulet and hang it to the first tree they saw in blossom." On the first of March (and occasionally on the 2nd or 3rd if we didn't see the person before then), my students, colleagues, fellow Volunteers, and I exchanged mărțișori with well-wishes for the spring. We will wear our red & white charms daily for at least ten days, some of us for the whole month. We also display red & white items in the rooms of our house, also for good luck. At the end of the month, we'll hang them on the trees for success in the future. Saturday, February 25th, was a big day in my household: We had friends over for a watch party of O Melodie pentru Europa. This is the final round of the national competition to pick Moldova's entry for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, coming up in May in Kiev, Ukraine. I'm going to make an assumption most Europeans, Russians, Israelis, and Australians (all of them are part of this competition) make about US Americans when talking about Eurovision: Odds are, you don't know what I'm talking about. This international song contest - despite its longevity (61 years and counting) and the major political drama that unfolds with it - is largely unknown by US Americans. Maybe you caught it last year - the very first year it was broadcast in the US! Maybe you've heard about it from friends. But, overall, US Americans tend to not know about this huge international event that's been going on for generations (I, myself, have only been following it since the early 2000s). Here's a more serious overview from 2015 from an Irish vlogger. It'll not only describe the contest, but give some insight into the kind of pop performances it features. Since Eurovision was indeed broadcast in the US last year for the first time, it did get some coverage - most widely reaching through The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. His parody of a top Eurovision entry is pretty spot on! Each country that competes selects their song entry throughout the winter and then prepares for the semi-finals. Moldova has been competing since 2005, when its entry "Grandma Beats the Drum" by Zdob și Zdub made it to sixth place in the finals. Unfortunately, Moldova's entry has not made it past the international semi-finals for the past three years. This year's Moldovan national finals was exciting - there was a tie for first place among two very popular songs! Based on competition rules, Sunstroke Project's "Hey Mamma" won because it had more top votes from the judges panel than the second place entry. Here is the song that will represent Moldova in 2017: And here is the one that came in a very close second, "Discover Moldova" by Ethno Republic and the Osoianu Sisters: Happy Peace Corps Week! Each year, the Sunday through Saturday surrounding March 1st is Peace Corps Week. This marks the founding of the Corps by President John F. Kennedy on March 1st, 1961. This year's theme is Highlighting Hospitality and a key social media event is today's attempt to get #HostCountryHello to trend. In the spirit of saying hello from our host country, another PCV and I made videos for the day.
I've mentioned that there are two main languages in Moldova: Russian & Romanian.
Peace Corps Volunteers start our service learning one or the other, though the majority start with Romanian and only a few start with Russian. Once we've achieved a certain level of proficiency with the language we first studied here, we can begin taking lessons in both should we choose. 21 February is International Mother Language Day. While I didn't see or hear of it being celebrated in any of our local schools, I worked with the language/culture education team of Peace Corps Moldova to make some videos to mark the occasion. This highlights several cognates that are common to all three languages.
Boris Dînga Middle & High School's Student Council recently organized a bake sale fundraiser to help support the medical treatment costs of a local young woman with leukemia. The president, Sandu S., came up with the idea to start a video challenge in conjunction with the fundraiser and asked me to film at the event and help them make the video.
I'm sharing with you so you can see a bit of our school, Moldovan sweets and money, many of our students, and see the great work the Student Council did.
Text reads:
Charity Fair at Boris Dînga Middle & High School Students, together with teachers & parents, made a lot of baked goods That they sold in the halls of the school Through which 6700 lei (US$336) was raised and donated to Adriana's treatment. This is the third bake sale fundraiser organized at the school. Sandu says: Adriana, be a persistent soul on our earth, be your parents' daughter, your grandparents' granddaughter, be strong and confident. We are with you and hope that a great light will open for you. Students say: We support you, Adriana! Sandu says: We, the students of Boris Dînga Middle & High School, through our modest gesture have built a bridge between us and Adriana. So, we challenge other schools to take on our initiative and organize their own activities, and donate the funds raised through the appropriate site. The following image is an ”online receipt” to demonstrate we donated the money and the text reads ”We support you, Adriana!” |
Rebecca LehmanHealth Education volunteer serving at Boris Dînga Middle & High School in Criuleni, Moldova. Archives
May 2017
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