Where is Moldova, anyway?

Happy New Year! Or as we say in Moldova, “La Multi Ani.” That’s right, you read it correctly, I wrote “how we say” not “how they say.” Maybe it is a sign of progress for my integration into this culture. Well I know I’m pretty late (maybe 3 days or so) with saying this, but I hope everyone has a healthy and happy 2007. (and belated Happy Birthday, which we also say in Romanian as “La Multi Ani” to Dan and Dad). It’s weird, because I have never started a calendar year not knowing whether or not I would be home in that year. The thought gives me the shivers, but it is also exciting to think about a whole year in the Peace Corps!

My holidays went surprisingly well. I was too busy to think about being homesick, which is a great thing. According to Peace Corps Policy, for the first three months you are at your site you are not allowed to leave it for any reasons, except when authorized by Peace Corps. This is to promote community integration and to force you, or make it easier for you, to become a real part of your community. For example, if you need socks, instead of going to the city for them, you can find someone who makes or sells them in your community—it might take longer, but this is where you are going to live, so you need to get used to it. I’m a fan of this plan, except for the fact that everyone wants to be with someone that reminds them of “home” for the holidays. So Peace Corps gave us an exception and allowed us to stay one night away from sight, Christmas or New Years. Since Moldovans celebrate Christmas on another day, I chose our Christmas—it would have been sad passing the 25^th of December without any celebration at all.

For Christmas, a few of us got together in the capital and attempted to bake some Christmas cookies. We had a bit of a problem with the oven (it wouldn’t work), so we decided to suck it up and eat the raw cookie dough. Worse things have happened. I found a Catholic church to go to in Chisinau for Christmas Eve mass (all the Orthodox Churches don’t celebrate until the 7^th of January—and Catholic churches in Moldova are slim and few between—so this was actually more of a feat than it sounds). Even though it was in Russian, it still made me feel at home—and at the end they said “Merry Christmas” in many languages, and it made me smile. Also thank God for latin Christmas carols. J Also the next day we had a Christmas dinner made up of random American food that people had been craving. Well not really American as much as international—salsa, fried rice, quesadillas, bananna bread. It was scrumptious and topped off with hot fudge brownie Sundays, and some Christmas movies (clearly I was doing more cleaning and prepping than cooking—but I am thankful for my peers who can cook, and very well!) I also liked the fact that I had no idea what the “top selling toys” were this Christmas, and never stepped foot anywhere near a crowded mall. Although, it was my first Christmas ever, not only away from home, but without ketchup. SAD!

Also, while we didn’t do any gift exchanging, I did get my one Christmas wish. SNOW! Yes, it snowed for about 7 minutes on Christmas day (I have pictures to prove it). While it is cold here, it has been unseasonably warm for December—and while we had some snow in October and November, none had stuck—and we hadn’t seen any snow in December. So while it was far from a “What Christmas” – we did have enough snow to scavenge some for a quick snowball fight.

On that note, a little bit with the language. I tried wishing people a “White Christmas” in Romanian and they just stared at me. So I caved in and asked my tutor if it made sense and if I was saying it correctly, and she said yes, grammatically it makes sense, but what are you trying to say? I explained the idea of a white Christmas to her, and she laughed. I need to wish it to people a “Christmas with a lot of Snow”, to get that idea across, apparently. I had been wishing people an “old Christmas.” Oh well, that explains some of the looks I was getting. I guess even when I know the right vocabulary, some of the sayings don’t translate. A boy at my center ran through the room the other day and I asked him where the fire was. He looked at me like I was crazy.

New Years eve was relatively quite, but good. Here I think New Years is almost as big, if not bigger, than Christmas. I’m not sure why though. They have a tradition to “stay at the table” until the new year comes. So we started eating around 6 o’clock and concluded with an after-midnight meal. Seriously, these Moldovan Holidays kick even thanksgivings’ ass. Fullness, very very full. They have the saying, very similar to our own, about how you greet the new year will be how your new year is spent—with who and how. So people like to stay home and be healthy! Also, people here were going a little bit crazy because of Romania becoming a part of the EU—everyone here knows at least someone or has some family there. This poses a very interesting position for Moldova, but more on that another day. Also another Moldovan tradition is to welcome the new year with fireworks. Very cool, although I have learned to respect the reasoning behind why, say for example, in the US, 8 year olds cannot buy fireworks.

Other than that things aren’t quite settling down at site. Because everyone here is Moldovan. And Moldovans celebrate “double” holidays. Both Christmas and New Years. The Old Calendar and the New. So one set of holidays is done, and we are gearing up for one more- Christmas the 7^th of December and New Years the 14^th! Double your pleasure, double your fun right? (I think the most popular ones to celebrate are 31st being New Years Eve and the Old Christmas... way to mix and match right?) I am excited to celebrate these holidays Moldovan style, but I am also ready to actually take some time to get down to the “day to day.” My one stressor since I have been here has been not being able to have a constant schedule, or any semblance of a schedule because things keep changing. But I guess that’s life… until then… you can only wish you celebrated double holidays!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 03, 2007 at 3:21 PM.