Category Archives: Peace Corps Romania

Car, Keys, Wallet

Ever do something totally in earnest and then realize you’ve in fact done something quite funny?

This is a note that I wrote to myself a few days ago. The Gun refers to a lighter in the shape of a shotgun that I wanted to buy for my kitchen stove. The Bank refers to a trip to the bank to collect my new ATM card. Lastly, the $ refers to the $20 I wanted to exchange while at the bank. There you have it.

Vents

Life here continues to be amusing, contrary, and all around exciting. Since I’ve last written, much has happened. A few weeks ago I went with a few friends to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It was one of my friend’s 30th birthday, and since she wanted all out for such a special event, it was so granted. Of course, as you must know, although Romania is one of the most developed of the Peace Corps countries, travel here is still a bit of a crap shoot. Getting to Bucharest should have been easy. My friend would take a train from her site to mine, and then we’d hop another train. As we well should have figured, though, this was not to be. Instead she sat on her train for an hour in the middle of nowhere, and arrived too late for the connecting train. The solution was to take a “maxi-taxi” all the way from my site (Tirgu-Mures) to Bucharest (total distance about 500 km.) For those of you lucky to have cars, you probably haven’t had to suffer a long-distance maxi taxi ride.

A maxi-taxi is a van with lots of seats cramped into it that must fly through its route in order to maintain a tight schedule. So, that was the story. And additionally, Romania has no highways (or at least as we understand them,) so anytime we passed by a hill of any magnitude, our little maxi-taxi became a bobsled – woosh – jerrrk – woosh! By the time we arrived in Bucharest (unfamiliar and late at night,) my traveling companion was a bit delirious. Luckily we were not taken for a ride by the taxi driver, and soon settled in.

Bucharest was great fun, although I didn’t get to to any sightseeing. The first night we went out for cocktails, and the second night, well, we went out to a “fabulous” club – something which never would have been possible in Uz. Another major highlight of the visit was our trip to a Indian restaurant called Taj. Expensive? Yes. Delicious? Unbelievably so! My program manager had mentioned to me, when I told here that things at school were tough, that a change of scenery would be a great boost to my emotions. Well, she was totally correct – the thrill of travel and a new place really cleared my mind. Luckily getting home was much easier (although our train departed just one minute after we got on board…) All in all it was hectic, crazy and just what we all needed.

This past weekend we had another little trip, this time to a city called Sighisoara, not far from my site. Sighisoara contains a medieval fortress which is still occupied with ordinary peoples’ houses. It was amazingly Gothic. I took some pictures and promise to soon upload an entirely new Romania album which will include these and many others. Again we had some good food and danced a bit. One of the other guys we were with mentioned that many of his students were at the same club at which we ended up…. eeeh.

This week all the teachers in the country are on strike! Good for them. They would like a greater percentage of the national budget to be directed toward education, and receive food tickets (a benefit to which all other governmental employees are privy.) I sincerely hope that some progress will be made. For me this means time off to organize. Just today I went to the cable company and prodded them to hurry it up with my cable internet hookup (I’ve been waiting two months,) and they said they’d send someone on Friday from between 9 and 3 – so, some things are the same even here. I’m going to have some general interest meetings with my students next week about what kinds of extracurriculars they’d like to do; I have many ideas myself, but it’s important that they are into it. I should have done this much sooner, but better late then never.

When people aren’t burning their plastic laden garbage, the air here smells like classic fall. Old women with long handled brooms sweep up the large brown leaves around my building and the children are (always) playing their makeshift soccer. Maxi-taxis come and go, the bells chime at six and the earth revolves.

Bulls and Bach

Last Thursday I ventured to the Culture Palace to see a performance by the local philharmonic. Although I was not expecting much, based on some lackluster reviews I’d heard, I was blown away. For just around $1.50, I was able to enjoy a night at the orchestra. The evening’s guest conductor was an American, and at one point in the program he addressed the audience, stating how much things had changed since his last visit in 1991. Another treat in the program was a piano solo by a Romanian from Germany. It was absolutely captivating, and he needed to come back onto the stage three times for his ovation. I was a bit shocked at the quality of the performance, and that it is right here in my little city. So perhaps now I’ll add a little classical music education to my weekly schedule!

It’s funny, life here. There are two big box stores (Costco like) throughout the country, Metro and Selgros. I prefer Selgros and have been making a few trips there to get things for my apartment. Well, since these places are usually on the outskirts of cities, I am forced to take the bus to get there. So as I’m waiting for the bus back home, with a few bags in my hands, I see a sight that is quite Romanian. By the bus stop a bunch of cars are coming and going, carrying people, goods and whatnot. Then, from a field next to the store, emerges a horse drawn wooden cart. It trots up to the bus stop, and a family, also waiting with bags in hand, puts everything in the back of the cart. The old man gives the horse a little whack with the whip and away they go. Imagine two horses pulling a cart up to Sam’s Club or Target. Anyway, it made me chuckle.

Yesterday I went to a bull show. I guy who I’ve gotten to know works at this company that, don’t laugh, sells semen. Specifically, they breed big healthy bulls and sell their semen to farmers in other countries who want to improve the genetic stock of their herds. So, once a year, all the Germans come and the company parades around its prize bulls. Now, I’ve seen cows before, but these bad boys were huge! See the picture below:

So yeah, that’s what I do with myself here. On the school front, things are trudging along. School here is messed up and seems designed for failure. For instance, let’s look at the schedule. Students must go to school from either 7 or 8 in the morning until 3. Classes are 50 minutes and there are 10 minute breaks between them. The students stay in the same classroom working with the same people for the entire day. Teachers rotate from classroom to classroom. There is no lunch break. There are no electives. There are no free periods. Students study all subjects – that is, instead of studying Bio freshman year and Chemistry sophomore year, they study both the same year. The end result, as I see it, is that students gain a superficial knowledge of most subjects, and simply don’t have the time to go any deeper because they are so busy juggling the requirements of so many different classes. After school, most students just go home and do whatever (play computer, watch TV, study for national exams.) The teachers here have one goal, and that is teaching for the national exams. There is very little learning in these halls, and there is nothing of extracurriculars. All in all, it is overly regimented, dull, and outdated. Although there are shiny new businesses and restaurants all over town, the schools are in dire need of help.

So I think I’m going to revise my expectations (lower them,) and begin looking into secondary projects. I try hard to make lessons interesting, and though I think that I succeed with most of my classes, I don’t think there is a bigger picture in it for most of the students. I mean, I am teaching in segregated schools – so how to discuss diversity (as I see it) when the Romanians and the Hungarians won’t even deign to sit in the same classroom! The challenges here are more nuanced than in Uzbekistan, and I do think it will be good for me in the long run. But sometimes I get quite disappointed when I meet somebody promising, only to hear the same old tired negatives from his/her mouth not long thereafter. I’m still not sure how much of this is attributable to the Communists and how much is just part of the picture here.

On a happier note, let me leave you with some traditional Romanian folk music:

Click Here (MP3)

On Manliness

Last night was the Jewish new year, so I decided to attend services here in town. We have a beautiful old synagogue not far from the center. When I arrived, through a nondescript side entrance, most of the crowd was over 50, in fact all of them were. Upon entering the building I took a paper kipah from the pile that they offered (perhaps in hope of) to guests. The service was very short, without the shofar or anything, but was satisfying nonetheless. After the service one guy in particular took an interest in my presence – I did rather stick out – and asked me a few questions. He was interested in my job as teacher and when I told him that I was from Boston, he mentioned that he’d visited Brookline. Considering this whole conversation was in Romanian, I was quite satisfied with it all. Isn’t is amazing that I would run into an old Jew in Romania who’s been to Brookline? Well, he also mentioned that iniante razboi there were over 6,000 Jews in the city where I live here. Amazing and terribly sad. I can only imagine that some of the people at the service were survivors of the Holocaust. I’m not sure if I will have any further involvement with the community, but I am glad that I went.

Today I was reminded that I was in Eastern Europe. Tracksuits are quite popular here among the men. Well, I’m walking from my apartment to school and see one guy. He’s got a blue tracksuit, with the top part unzipped about 80% of the way. Underneath, he’s got a big gold chain, which hangs about halfway down his torso, with a giant gold dollar sign (5 inches at least) at the very end. He was standing and smoking next to a VW – who knows??

Click here for a good op-ed article from the New York Times about the controversy regarding the military offering Peace Core service as an option for fulfilling active duty. I’ve written to Senator Kennedy but didn’t get a response. I hope this is killed, and quickly.

Salut

Progress, albeit.

It’s amazing how much other people can annoy you when you are in a good mood to start out with. So first I try to go to McDonalds in town. But this McDonalds is special… American prices, Romanian service – meaning, you will wait at least 3 minutes in line and another 2 for your food. Now, yes, I know I’m in the Peace Corps, but if America is going to be a good superpower, we must at least be consistent in our imperial fast food designs! So I decide McDonalds is not for me this night. Instead I go to a local joint that specializes in chicken. The woman in front of me, ordering for herself and her little boy, takes 5 minutes to decide what kind of food she wants. She gets a little of this, then decides, hey, why not have something else, slowly building up her fantastic dream meal! Then I come to this internet cafe – my rope is very thin with Romanian internet cafe’s. The guy on duty is not my favorite, in fact he is my least favorite. I sit down in front of the computer and instead of activating the system so that I can get online, he does nothing, slowly keeping himself busy up front. So I have to go front, pound on his desk and just stare at him when he says, stupidly, “internet?” Yes you idiot, I didn’t just come here to stare at the computer screen for fun; I have not become that desperate, yet. The most annoying thing is that I have this fantastic new computer at home but am waiting for the internet people to come set up my connection! Grrrr – life was simpler in Uzbekistan!

I needed that vent. Now, what I had wanted to write about before the mini-ordeal. So much has happened over the past few weeks. One, I have secured and moved into a new apartment. It is a great one, just 5 – 10 minutes away from my work sites. That means I don’t have to spend money on buses! May not sound like a lot, but it adds up, and considering our budget, I’d rather spend the money elsewise. The place is on the 6th floor of a tall concrete apartment block. I have a balcony which faces away from the center of the city, so is quite pretty especially around sunset. Thankfully it is mostly furnished and I don’t have to buy too much for it. I’m already looking forward to my first soiree.

School is going much better than I thought. Okay, so some kids are better than others, but that’s the story everywhere. I’ve tried very hard to plan interesting lessons, 1/2 lecture, the other 1/2 small group activities. They are good kids, but I feel bad for them because most other teachers just come in and talk for 50 minutes then leave and that’s the extent of the education. Things are just so rigid here, that I think I’m something a little different for the kids and interesting that way. I just hope that they don’t go too far and try to take advantage. At one of my schools I am being shadowed by a young Romanian teacher who is hoping to learn “new methods” and better English. He just comes with me to classes and watches – it is interesting to have someone to talk to as the concept of feedback is not big here. At the other school there is a young Hungarian teacher who seems to have things down pretty well.

I have already received my first request for tutoring services. I am kind of torn regarding what to do. I am here to help teach English, yes, but I’m not sure how much private tutoring really fits with the Peace Corps gist. I’m also not sure what to ask from the guy. I can’t accept money, but I’m not about to do it for nothing. Suggestions?

I’ve taken a break from following US politics because I fear that if I do, I will become the ranting raving crazy American to all my kids… oh wait, I already am. But seriously, I did hear that Roberts was green lighted by our week kneed Democrat friends. Ugh. It is a shame to lose faith in the Supreme Court – if you can’t believe in that then what is there? Perhaps good service at McDonalds, on the home front at least…