First Ever Peace Corps Prom in Moldova

 

Let me explain.  It was really a big birthday party.  We had about 8 PCV's who had birthdays in February.  But what was really special was having one person turning 60 and one person turning 70 years young.  They were elected King and Queen of the prom hands down.  Everyone in the first picture posted above never had a prom before.  You can see that we Peace Corps volunteers can look pretty good once we wash that village mud off our faces.  Well lets get back to our King and Queen, that would be Carl and Susan.  Since Carl is my senior, I of course try to compete with him.  We both had on new Moldovan shoes.  Whose points were pointier?  Of course Carl is quite a gent with the ladies....so, I had to too.  And Carl is no wall flower when it comes to dancing, so I had to do that too.  Now don't get the idea we were chasing skirts.  Especially not plaid ones!  There was a lot of good dancing at this prom.  One of the things Moldovans admire and are a little bit jealous of, is how Americans can get down when its time to dance.  And of course, we had the cake and candles.  Carl took care of blowing them out.  La Mulți Ani to all our volunteers celebrating February birthdays.

Valentine's from Moldova

 

Wow, Valentine's Day and February is already half over!  Early this month I was greeted with the rosey sunrise you see in the first picture.  Of course I took it to be an early sign of Spring.  Most of the snow is gone now and the streets are brown instead of white.  You may wonder how I've been keeping myself busy on long winter nights.  Ta-da, admire my 500 piece tiger puzzle.  Other activity has been getting ready for St Valentine's Day, which can be said in Romanian as "Ziua Indragostitilor"  The kids at the Community Center have been busy cutting out paper hearts and painting the windows with messages of love.  One budding artist Andre painted a Spring scene of two love birds.  Nice job!  And on February 14th we had a birthday to celebrate for Valnetina.  She's the girl at table with the red hair.  And the girl in the chair being lifted up seven times because that's how old she is.  This week we also had the blessing of the Community Center building by our local priest "Parinti Ion" (Father John).  Donis our paznic (caretaker) is preparing some dried basil for the ceremony.  Meanwhile Sergiu is busy in the kitchen getting some placinta made.  These placinta are stuffed with either cartofi (potatoes) or varza (cabbage).  The priest has many prayers to say and then he blesses all the rooms inside, and all the building outside.  Of course afterword, we have to have a "masa" , a meal to celebrate.  And the kids will put on a special show for our guests.  And they get to eat too.  Love, love, love, that's what its all about.  These are some valentines I got from the kids. 

The Merry Widow

A night on the town in Chisinau brought me to the National Opera House.  The performance that night was "Vaduva Vesela"  or Merry Widow.   Of course you know The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár.  However, the performance tonight was in the Russian language.  The curtain is about to go up, the orchestra pit will be filled with about 15 musicians.  The cast of actors counts over 50 in some of the larger scenes.  Looks like we've found our seats in the nick of time.  After such wonderful music and singing, what could be better than a visit to the Flying Pig?   That's the name of a very nice restaurant in Chisinau.  It has its own micro-brewery and live music too.  The food had a German theme to it.  I enjoyed some delicious beef stroganoff and some fine dancing with my Peace Corps campanions.  Of course, we were in Chisinau on official business.  As you may know, PC headquarters is on Strada Grigore Ureche.  In fact here is a picture of it on the corner.  It's our very own White House away from home.  Let's end today's blog with a lesson in money.  Not all $50 bills are the same.  Here you see three 50's lined up for comparison.  50 Moldovan lei is worth $4 dollars American,  while the Romanian 50 lei is worth $13.50 American.  $50 American is worth $625 Moldovan lei.  A bowl of ciorba (soup) will cost you about 25 lei, and a beer about 18 lei.  It costs 3 or 4 lei to ride the bus.  But the tickets to the Opera were free from a local whose brother was a member of the opera company.  Many thanks for a wonderful experience.