Happy 2013. Wow, can you believe it! Today was a bright cold January 1st day here in Jeloboc. That's the name of the town I live in. High temperature today is 34 F degrees and at night it gets down to the teens. Main Street in J-town looked pretty quiet. I just call it Main Street. It really doesn't have a name. None of the streets in our town have a name. Ilea, my host dad, invited me to come along with him today to Slavik's house. Slavik is married to the daughter of Ilea's wife's sister. At any rate he lives here in J-town. When we arrived at his house, I noticed some freeze dried laundry on the line. Clothes driers are very rare here in Moldova. I also saw a gaggle of ducks in the yard which reminded me that just last night we had a roast duck before the magic midnight hour. At midnight we toasted with champagne and watched the fireworks at the capital, Chisinau, on television. Just before midnight, there was a short televised speech from President Timofte wishing us all the best. I was impressed at how short it was as most Moldovan toasts go much longer than that. We also could hear some pyrotechnics outside here in Jeloboc. Well back to the story of visiting Slavik's house. It was time to "throw the old pig skin around." News Year Day, football, didn't you say that phrase when you wanted to step outside and throw a few practice passes before sitting down to watch 12 hours of football? Anyhow, here in Moldova it means a whole different thing. It means slaughtering a pig. Now sorry for the squeamish among my readers, but Ilea insisted that I take pictures. He finds it amusing that urban people ( Americans) just know where their meat comes from by going to a supermarket. Here's Ilea ready with the knife, then there's the squeal, and then the pig is ready to be cleaned. They burn the outer hair off of the pig and then butcher it. Well if you were this little boy and his dog, you would understand all this is a normal part of life. And we begin the year with the blessings of fresh pork. The end of day one. Happy New Year.
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