Winter, star students, corruption

As much as I complain about winter in Moldova, one of my favorite things to do is curl up next to my warm soba... what I'm currently doing. I had my firewood delivered and (mostly) chopped, and now I can heat my little house as much as I desire... a lovely change from last year.
7-8 months is a decent chunk of time, but I've started feeling like my time left in Moldova is quickly coming to an end. I've been here about 17 months so 7 months feels like nothing. The other night I visited with my friend, Suzanne, and I wrote a list of personal and professional goals for my time left. Since this past spring I've had a more positive, happier outlook on my service and experiences here, but I've also been more distracted by social events, etc. with other volunteers. I've formed a lot of great relationships with other volunteers, but I think I really need to reflect and remember the reasons for why I joined PC and what I am trying to accomplish with my time. (Not like I've completely figured out what my big "goal" is... I just think that some choices might get me closer to that nebulous point). I believe that a happy volunteer is a more productive volunteer, though spending most of my weekends in Chisinau and/or my free time on the internet chatting with other volunteers, facebook, whatever else, don't need to be primary activities. There is also sometimes a distance between what makes me happy in my personal life and what actually gives meaning to my work and purposes for being in Moldova. I want to leave Moldova feeling that I took advantage of the opportunities I had to really experience Moldovan culture... and that I used the free time I had--such as right now during these evening hours--for personal growth. I want to read instead of using the internet and spend weekends in my village studying languages or tutoring students. The past few days I've tried to turn a new page in how I use my free time and where I am focusing my attention. Yesterday I began Russian lessons with my friend, Valentina, and last night I accepted her invitation to eat dinner with her and her children. I've become somewhat of a hermit--perhaps as a result of living alone for a while--so I'm trying to push myself a little more to develop these relationships that have had so much meaning to me during my time in my village.
Today I spent the day at a student's home helping her with her English. I might have mentioned this student to some of you at some point... Gianina (pronounced Jah-nina) is really an exceptional student, an exceptional young lady, really. She is 14 years old, in the 8th grade and is the only English-speaking student in our school (elementary, middle, high school) of 1000 students. Today we discussed how language divides Moldovans, corruption in Moldovan schools and government. Gianina spoke about the history of Moldova and it's breakaway from Romania and how she would define the "Moldovan" language. Gianina spoke with me about Romanian stereotypes of Moldovans and their speech (some Romanians assume that all Moldovans speak Russian or can not speak pure Romanian), the influence of Russian language within our community/Moldova in general and how language spoken by family and friends has influenced her own vocabulary. Corruption is a rather taboo subject, but Gianina doesn't shy away from expressing her opinions and has a very impressive vocabulary (in Romanian AND English) and really grasps certain concepts that most people I have met in our community don't understand. For ex., she points out to me that Moldova only has 3 television channels and they're all run by the Communist Party. She recognizes that most elderly or retirees in Moldova do not have the education to understand how mass media and their biases influence societal views and values. She spoke with me about cheating in our school and how many students are given higher grades because their parents are teachers or because they have more money to pay for higher marks. (Information I already knew). Anyway, I'm always blown away by Gianina's sophistication. I'm excited about keeping in touch with her as she finishes high school as I am very curious where she will go and what she will do. She very much wishes to leave Moldova and sites Romania "at the very least" as somewhere she might wish to study and live.
The previous volunteer in my village, Nina, worked as an English teacher for 2 years in my village. She did not co-teach (she taught her own classes), but told me that she enjoyed the time she spent getting to know one of the other Moldovan English teachers named Ann. This past spring Nina shipped a box of very nice new American-English dictionaries to Ann so that these books could be used by students (ie as a classroom set). While spending time with Gianina she pulled out her English dictionary and I recognized it as being one of the dictionaries Nina had shipped to Ann. I told Gianina this and she said, "Oh... Ms. Ann sold it to me." So Ann has been selling--for personal profit--Nina's gift. I didn't say anything to Gianina about how I felt, but I think she probably realized what happened after I said, "Oh, that was a gift from Nina..."
I'm very angry about this and haven't decided whether or not to confront Ann. I don't plan on telling Nina... no point. She tried to do something generous for Ann and the students and Ann took advantage of her. I've seen so many corrupt things like this happen during my time in my village. People trying to make money off of someone else... it's very sad. Some things surprise me less now.
This week of school will be the first week back after a 1-week break due to Swine Flu outbreak in Moldova. I have heard the govt. is making it mandatory for all students and teachers to wear face masks, so I will make sure to take my camera to school tomorrow...
I will try to update again soon... I would like to do better at recording my experiences.