I feel very tired today. I was to have a seminar on alcohol this afternoon, but my nurse partner had a death in the family and could not join me... so to be continued next week. I spent all day yesterday making posters and other things so it should be good. My 7th grade club members showed me their puppet show material and I was impressed by what they had done. They all love doing "Joc de rol", or skits, so later on when I do other health presentations I know they will be happy to participate. And it's cool to include them. The kids, ~16 girls and 1 boy, are great. I'm very excited we can have this club for them and that they're eager to learn, work together and volunteer outside of school. I would love for the club to go in a direction where the students choose health topics and then teach about them to other, usually younger, students. Right now the club is very structured and I want things to be more relaxed where we choose and develop community projects.

I spoke with Viorica about topics we will teach about in class next semester, and she shot down my ideas for speaking about diversity and stereotypes. She said it's psychology and that's why we have a psychologist at the school. Technically we're teaching health AND life skills, but topics dealing with diversity might have been too ambitious for the coming semester, anyway. She did agree that we could speak about violence, so I'm on that. Today and yesterday were probably the most challenging class sessions I've had with her. Though yesterday we talked for a long time after class in her office (the nurses' office) and it was very nice. We translated The Lord's Prayer together and she spoke about how she hopes to become pregnant with a baby girl. Her husband works in Russia and they have one 13 year old boy, Grigore, at our school. Her husband comes home next January so she's hoping she will become pregnant then. I wish the best for her, a pregnancy if that's what she desires, but will be disapointed if I can not work with her again next fall. I hadn't thought to ask her age before and was surprised to learn that she is only 35 years old. She is an inch or two taller than me, medium build, dark eyes, and long black, wavy hair. She has an attractive face with sharp features and looks older than her 35 years. She calls herself an old woman.
She never misses an opportunity to tell me how important it is that I marry. And quickly, because I can't be happy without a husband. Yesterday she pulled back papers pushpinned to the office wall to show me an illustration of a husband and wife. Sotul and Sotia. It was a Moldovan moment. She told me that I need to marry quickly and then make sure I have sex every day. For my health. She said this with force, pelvic thrusts, and then banged her fist on the table while laughing hysterically. She agrees that I would still have God without un sotul, but having un sotul to take care of is ... foarte important. It was quite the bonding moment between us. I feel bad I rarely talk with people at home about my other partner, Valentina... she's great. Everything just pales in comparison to Viorica.

The students missed last week because of the Moldovan teachers' strike (which resulted in no raise, FYI) and the other important lesson dealing with todays topic, chronic diseases, was missed because we were working in the onion fields.
[Interesting side note: I found out from Viorica that our school has gotten into trouble with the government (? with someone... because child labor laws are not enforced) for our onion field business. Our grade 5-12th students and staff, every year, go to the onion fields surrounding our village to do work during school hours. If students miss work they are counted absent from school. They do not receive payment, but are instead allowed... let's say, 5 onions for a full day of work. The teachers stand around and watch the children to make sure they are working hard enough. One of our Romanian teachers, kid you not, had picked a sunflower and was using the thick stem to beat the kids who were out of line. The school director says that the profits from the work are going toward school materials, but I haven't personally seen where. Maybe there is a special catch I'm missing, but in my humble opinion the mandatory field work should stop.]

Anyway, so today the kids were more distracted than normal... probably because the material was too confusing for them after having missed lessons. Viorica started hitting a boy that wouldn't be quiet and it was so agressive (if there really is a difference between agressive and so aggressive) I yelled at her to stop in front of the kids. Then we had to awkwardly continue the lesson while I was shaking because I was so angry. She was angry at me as well. I'm still furious at this moment. It's such a shock to me to see an adult use physical violence to try to teach a child. I'm not talking about spanking, we could debate what is or isn't violent, but hitting someone in the head or pulling them by their ear or shoving them... It's never okay. I told her after class that I'm not trying to personally attack her, but that I wondered if she had heard about UNICEF. She said yes so I asked her if she had heard anything about the "Copii fara violenta" (children without violence) lecture materials and manuals that UNICEF had distributed throughout Moldovan schools this past month. She said yes. I told her I'm done with her method of discipline and that I don't want to see it ever again. I've said before, but this time I am DONE. We won't talk about the incidents after class anymore, I will talk about them in front of the kids with her during the middle of class if that's the way it has to be. She promised she will not hit another kid if I can find another, "more effective" way to make the children behave. I'm going to spend this weekend coming up with a proposal.

Aside from the drama today, Viorica and I started our exercise sessions for the 1st graders before school and it's a huge success!:) About 20 kids showed up Tuesday morning and ten more today. We do stretches, jumping jacks, we dance... the kids love it. I need to find some better music cds, though. I looked through the PC volunteer loot me bin and came out with David Gray (Sail Away is my favorite:), btw) and Jayz. We listened to Jayz's American Gangster Tuesday morning and I couldn't get the cd player to skip through the intro track so we started warmups with half a minute of gunshots. Me: "Nu iti place Jayz American Gangster?" (You don't like ...?)Viorica: Nu.
I'll be in Chisinau Saturday so I'll try to find something more appropriate.