Sarbatori or Celebrate

 

Sabatori !  This was a week with many celebrations.  First thing in this week was the 30th birthday of my host brother and work partner,  Sergiu.  You see him raising a toast to the day at our work celebration.  The people sitting around the table are all staff members at the community center.  It is our custom to all chip in 50 lei and have a "masa" or birthday meal at the end of the work day.  Then we went home and had a family masa with guests to celebrate some more.  I take my turn wishing Sergiu Many More Years and Health !  "La Muti Ani si Sanatate!"  Here's a family picture.  Sergiu's mom is in front next to son in law Vova, daughter Lilia, toddler Liviu, big brother Marius.  Sergiu's dad, Ilie, is standing in back of Lilia.  Family to the right are cousins visiting from Timisoara, Romania.  Next in the week was a wedding. Dima and Livia were getting married.  Here you can see them publically signing their certificate of marriage at the ceremony.  It's official, they're  "solt si soltie" or husband and wife.  Here's a picture of me arriving to the wedding with my host mom, Iulia and a peace corps friend, Sylvia.  Sergiu and his sister, Lilia, couldn't help but clown a round a bit with the lawn decorations.   A nice shot of Iulia and her children.  Sylvia and I are welcoming you to the wine cellar or "beci."  Now we enter the reception hall being greeted by uniformed servers.  Once we are seated at the table, it's time to toast the "mire si mireasa" or bride and groom.  Look at this amazing table of fruit sculpture.  It looks good enough to eat, and we did.  Of course there was lots of dancing, until 3 am at least.  A final toast, and it's home to bed.  Good Morning!

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Scenes

 

Summertime and the livin' is easy.  At least that's how the song goes.  Last weekend I was down in Chisinau and my camera is always by my side.  I'll share a few shots with you.  The first scene is the National Cathedral which is in a beautiful central park.  One can even play a giant game of chess there.  Here are some of Chisinau's very modern apartments.  This building is only a few blocks from Peace Corps HQ in Chisinau.  I've watched it come together over the past year.  It looks like they're beginning to rent them out or sell them.  Of course, the central city has the charm of the older buildings such as this Chisinau government office.  Other sites, the central market or "piata" , the National Theater named for Mihai Eminescu, the greatest Romanian poet.  I tried lunch at the Nistru Café.  I guess I'm going to have to brush up on my Romanian.  I ordered trout and got chicken soup.  I get a kick out of cultural mix and match.  Kebabs are a favorite type of fast food.  Here we see an enterprising Kebabs Dos Amigos, mixing several cultural ingredients.  And there's nothing more touching to me than graffiti in English.  Now we shift to another part of Chisinau, the Academia de Studii Economice din Moldova (AESM).  This is where our new Peace Corps Volunteers have been training over the past six weeks.  This was the day of their work site announcements.  They draw a huge parking lot size map of Moldova and then announce the locations for the new guys.  This way they get a sense of where their whole class will be for the next two years.  You can see how eager and ready they are to go.  Back up in Orhei, summertime has meant more kids, more activities at my community center.  Here are some pictures from a day at a day camp in Orhei put on by the local Orthodox parish.   We took some of our kids from Piatra there to enjoy the fun and games.  Another week gone by and time for another walk along the Nistru here in my own backyard.  Things are looking good.  Hope they are for you as well.  La revidere until next time.

Turul Moldevei PC 20th year in Moldova

 

This year the Peace Corps celebrates 20 years of service here in Moldova.  One of the ways we celebrate that is to walk across the country!!!  For the last two weeks of June there were Peace Corps Volunteers on the march from the north and from the south.  They met in the capital, Chisinau, on June 30th for a grand celebration.  Along the way, the Peace Corps volunteers stopped in villages and towns where volunteers have made a contribution over the past 20 yrs.   When we stopped, community people welcomed us with Moldovan hospitality.  At each stopping point there was some social event and volunteer action.   Above you see some of the final group in Chisinau.  The second picture of a woman in blue and a man in yellow is our Peace Corps Country Director Janet Utech and the US Ambassador to Moldova, William Moser.  The rest of the pictures are from Peresecina which is near Orhei.  We had a grand time playing with children at a community center, enjoyed some picnic supper with a group of teenagers, and had time for making some new friends at a school for children with disabilities.  Turul Moldolvei, which mean Tour of Moldova, was a big success.  I've included a link here to news report about it.  You may not understand the Romanian, but watch the video.  I'm caught on a few background shots. 

 

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