We made it through the first day as did the students! It was a long day, 8-1:30 and 2:30-4. We first met with the dean and had a very satisfying conversation, through an interpretor as he does not speak English. The class has 10 students and much as in the U.S. there are 8 women and 2 men. Several of the students are social workers that we met during our visit in 2005. Four of them teach at the college and the rest work in Chisinau or villages close by. They were all very responsive and excited about being in the class.
The class was rather noisy as we had an interpretor translating from English to Romanian and at the same time a student translating to Russian for another student. So it seemed people were talking all around you! It did not seem to bother the students as I expect they are use to this in their classes.
Yesterday we stayed at the house and tried to get over our jetlag. I had trouble sleeping the first night so I was tired. After lunch we spent a long time visitng with the family we are staying with.
the mother and father were there and various children came and went during the conversation. Alex talked about how he does not like to eat chicken. As we talked about that he said actually he did not like American chicken but he liked Russian chicken. As we explored what the difference was we discovered he likes what we call range-fed chicken and that was what he called Russian chicken. He was surprised to hear we have range-fed in America too.
The weather has not very cold at all. It is in the 30's and 40's and no wind. Of course doesn't make it feels as cold without the wind. Tomorrow they are predicting colder weather with perhaps some snow or ice. The school is very warm. In fact we dressed thinking it might be cold in the classroom but we actually opened the window because it got hot and stuffy. So we are pleased to have warmer weather than we expected. But I don't know how long this will last.
Our room is comfortable but is not very condusive to working. There is no where to put the computer, no chairs in our room, and the lighting is rather poor. We are typing on the bed which not very good for the back! I had thought about bringing some scrapbook pages to finish but am glad I didn't since I wouldn't have a place to work on them. I don't know where the children do their homework as there is no desk or quiet place for them to study. I suppose they use their beds as well but there are three children in each room. They do spend a lot of time at their computer which is on a very small table in the living room.
All in all things are going very well, we are not cold, and the company is good.
More as the adventure continues!
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2 comments:
I was glad to hear that you got to go to Moldova. I'll be keeping you in my prayers as you teach and learn in a different culture. Please tell hi to your host family as well as the members of the school that i met during the last trip. I also meant to ask you if you heard of any connections that the school might have in Philadelphia. I work with many Moldovan evangelicals and thus thought there might be a connection. Hope all is well and thanks for setting up the Blog:).
Genie and Preston,
the blog is great! I am looking forward to reading more. All is well in the southwest, just a little snow and a lot of rain. Hope someone is watering the plants. Will keep looking for more updates.
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