Innovation

I thought I would type something up about flat tires and my partner.

In Moldova there are many roads that are in real need of a repair, especially the back roads of most villages or cities.

Well my partner has the roughest of times navigating these roads without getting a flat tire. It could be the 20km drive to work on dirt roads with 3ft deep ruts everyday or it could just be that he has bad luck. In my 2 1/2 weeks in site he has gotten 2 flat tires with me in the car. This only makes me wonder how many he gets daily/weekly/monthly.

Any way my partner has quite the strategy for getting out of these predicaments. He always keeps a bicycle pump in his passenger seat. When we get a flat tire I jump out and pump it up as much as possible, hopefully enough to drive on. Then I jump in the car as fast as I possibly can with pump in hand and he drives as fast as he can to the next repair station before enough of the air leaks out to make the car un-drivable. We stop at no intersections (what Moldovans do?), stop for no pedestrians, stop for no speed bumps (better known as ruts), we stop for nothing. At that moment the only worry we have is not having to get back out of the car to pump the tire up again.

Both times we have successfully completed this task and have driven into the repair shop at least an inch off the rim. Success!

I don't know how they do it, but they DO IT

Hello,

This last week has been interesting for me and I'm sure all the rest of my MP's (Milești peeps). I have been hanging out with my host brothers who are probably two of the most well known and loved people in town. Last Saturday at the Disco-Tech my bro Artur(sp?) left for a little while only to return with a huge case of beers for everyone. He just walked around the club and handed it out. I'm not sure, but I think that may have something to do with why everyone loves those two so much.

On Thursday I was out again with my brothers and their friends and I was invited to my brothers girlfriend's birthday party. I was very excited because all of her friends are the typical standard of Moldovan girl.... Beautiful. So I obviously accepted the invitation. So on Friday I had Suzette help me find an appropriate gift for the party and I ended up buying chocolates with brandy in them. Who knew people made chocolate with alcohol.

At about 7 my brothers and I headed over to the home of the birthday girl (I still cant understand her when she says her name so I'll call her the birthday girl) and got the party started! I forgot my camera as usual, but it was really cool. I had heard stories and seen pictures of Masa's, but had never been to one. It is basically a table with to many people sitting around it and WAY to much food on it. It's was like thanksgiving, but more food. So we ate, danced, ate some more, danced some more, then ate again. After that we went to the disco-tech just for good measure.

One little rant... I don't know how to dance to techno music!!!!! I just learned how to dance, amazingly, in America! Now I have to learn how to dance all over again. Everyone is like "Matt, you don't need to be afraid to dance with us. We are all friends!" So I try to dance, but here the boys don't dance with girls. When I try to dance jaws hit the floor because I try to dance with one of the girls! I need to learn how to dance with myself. Oh and when I do get a girl to dance with me they say "Matt! thats enough!" hahahaha I need to knock the DJ out and play Grind on me by Pretty Ricky just to teach them how we do it in 'merica! So, long story short. I need to go to the disco-tech and pretend I have glow sticks or whatever those crazy kids are doing in the cracked out underground dance clubs in the States. Maybe I'll watch some youtube videos and teach myself to dance Techno. That way all the women will be droppin (insert phrase from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBRL7D0wcXM).

I am going fishing either tomorrow or Sunday so I'll bring my camera and take some pictures of Jaws on the end of my line.

I'm back

Hi everyone... I'm back. Not happy about it but I'm back.

Just a disclaimer to all my fellow PCV's that might be reading this. I'm not as good of a writer than you so back off!

Last Friday I was officially sworn in as a PCV. No more of this PCT stuff, I'm a legit PCV. The ceremony was a great experience. The U.S. Ambassador came to talk to us which was pretty cool, also the vice principal of agriculture (or something) came to talk to us. I actually do feel a little bad that I don't remember his true title because to date he is the funniest Moldovan person that I have met. I'm not really sure why he strikes me so funny, but all of his jokes just hit me as a "did he really just say that" type of joke. Our Country director, Jeff also gave a short talk which was nice. Jeff is a great guy and I look forward to getting to work with him and know him better over the next two years. Finally we had 2 of my fellow M25's talk. Some girl named Katie Ender Mcnabb rocked the stage with her booming voice and sparkling jewelry.

After the ceremony my host mom and partner took me to my new site where I will be living for the next two years. The town is located in a great place in the country snuggled right next to the Prut River which makes up the western border of Moldova. I have read that if you swim out to far the Romanian border patrol will shoot you so I'll probably see how far I can push the envelope on that one. The guy that was here before me also stated in his site history letter that a large amount of volunteers that serve in this city have been married off to a Moldovan national (4 of 5 i think). As far as the rest of the town goes, it's great. Lots of people watching opportunities, green of course, and every kind of store that I could possibly want.

Today was my first day of work. I got to meet all the important people in town such as the man known as the Mayor, but as a different name which I won't put because I don't want to slay the spelling. Also, I met, in my partners words, the agriculture boss, and a few guys that work in the ag. industry in my city. These meeting were great for the future, but I really was to shy to try to attempt any of my Romanian. I guess I'll have to get over that sooner than later.

That's all that has really happened in the new site, but I would like to talk about how spoiled I have been during training. During training I had my own shower, bathroom, and toilet. I had my own little world to myself because I was in a house known as a "casa mica" which is basically a little house set apart from the main house. At my new site I have none of that. I'm not saying its a bad thing because I didn't even have those things in the states, it's just really hard to leave such a great place behind. However, I do love my host family. They are great. I have 2 brothers who took me with their friends out to a lake on Saturday where we swam, and ate watermelon. Later that night they took me out to the disco-tech where they surprised me with how much everyone loves them. They have the club scene on lock and I'm pretty sure they go every night. My host parents are great too. I get the sense that my host dad and I are going to get a long really well. I can tell he/we don't feel really comfortable with each other yet, but he is making huge strides to involve me in everything and keep me talking. He is a very curious man and wants to know everything about me which I sometimes can convey in my really crappy Romanian. My host mom takes care of me really well. She tells me over and over again that if I'm hungry I need to go to the kitchen and eat. I can tell that we will get along just fine as well.