It's nice starting my week off feeling relaxed.
This past weekend was much needed. Really delicious food and friends in Chisinau, I slept wonderfully in a centrally heated apartment... and the most beautiful snowfall. My friend, Rebecca, invited me to spend Saturday night with her and our friend, Terri, in an apartment near the restaurant where we had dinner. The young women who live (now, lived) in the apartment were Swedish volunteers working through a Swedish NGO. Rebecca had them as neighbors in her village and worked with them at a center for children with disabilities. Incredibly kind and welcoming people. They had a going away party that night and it was neat to meet them, eat (more. I ate a lot this weekend...) with them, and celebrate with them and their friends.
Yesterday was the first meeting for my club about American culture and it was a huge success. I'm incredibly excited about this club. Twenty girls came and there is another class with students that couldn't make the Monday hour, so I think I'm going to start a second meeting for Saturday mornings at the school. I had the girls write lists of questions they have about America or things they want to learn more about. Some of the responses: traditions/habits, film, holidays, religions, universities/high schools, languages, family units, food, large cities... It's going to be very interesting. After making the lists the girls asked me questions about myself and I had each of them tell me their names and something special about each of them. I would have been scared to death to start this club a month ago, but I'm proud of myself for having the courage to stand up in front of a large group to speak unscripted Romanian. There were only two times during the hour meeting that I had to ask two girls to re-explain a question, so the progress I've made with my language is becoming more evident. It feels good. One of the girls told me I speak better than the last volunteer did after two years, and why that is, so hopefully I won't become so cocky that I stop studying. I don't study as much as I should, but sometimes you just want a break.
One interesting question that multiple girls wrote in their lists: "Why is America so much more developed than Moldova?" Another one: "Is it better to be rich than to be poor?"
I'm going to have to think a lot about how to respond to these questions. Last night my grandmother told me that Nina (last volunteer) had told people in the village that Moldova is a lot poorer than America. As a whole, it's true, and I'm not sure exactly how she worded it (things volunteers say and do always find a way of becoming twisted), but I can see how some people, such as my grandma, could find that to be hurtful. My partner, Valentina, addresses the poverty here in a matter-of-fact manner, but I think there are groups of people who have a lot of pride in Moldova and associate calling them poor with calling them lazy. I can't generalize and have to be extremely careful what I say... because everyone, sometimes unfortunately, listens when I open my mouth.
This coming weekend I will go back to Chisinau to meet with the other women I will be working with for GLOW camp. GLOW will be two weeks in June. I believe one week we will have camp in the south of Moldova near Cahul, and the second week in the north. We will start seeking donations/funding for the camp (food, lodging, scholarships) after December and then travel to different villages to speak about GLOW and help interested girls start applying. The goal for GLOW is to eventually have Moldovan female counsellors fully run the camp each summer. The girls at the camp will be 14-17 years of age. I've seen a list of the some of the topics we will teach about and I think this is going to be really cool. AIDS/HIV, leadership, active citizenship, cultural diversity, gender roles... I'm so excited.