My first month of work!!!

Since I last wrote, I have traveled into southern Moldova, which is the eastern part of Romania. I met about 20 other volunteers in Onesti--birthplace of Nadia Comenici. Needless to say, the city is very proud of her and have named many buildings and things after her. It was good to see people there. We discovered that none of us were using our Romanian as much as we wanted and most of us did not know exactly what our jobs entailed.

I have been lucky because I do know what I am doing. I went into schools and talked with students about June 5, International Environmental Day. I spoke with over 500 students in 4 different schools about the theme of the day--"Kick the Habit, Lessen your Carbon Footprint. We either played charades or bingo to learn different ways they could lessen their carbon footprint in their every day lives.

I then invited them to compete in a contest we were having for Environmental Day. They were to make an object out of recycled material. We expected maybe 30 entries, but instead we had 109 entries!!!! Our sponsor was generous and gave M3P players and memory sticks as prizes. We had 3 winners in each of 5 categories--fashion, functional, art, buildings, robots/people. We had a lamp made out of pop cans, a mechanized robot, a fair with a ferris wheel that worked and much more. We had the press here and they were mightily impressed with the creativity of the 5th-12th graders.

We then, as an agency, went out to celebrate the day. We danced for 7 hours and had a good time. I danced the hora, some Hungarian dances and even the chicken dance. We brought our own CD to the restaurant and started dancing immediately. They then gave us our appetizer which we ate and then we went back to dancing for a couple of hours and then they gave us our dinner and with wine and then we danced another hour or so and then we were served dessert and coffee and then we danced some more. It was nice to have the food spread out throughout the afternoon and evening.

School is over and so I am going to work at a camp in June and hopefully set up a camp for August here in my county. I hope to work with the zoo and have a camp there. I will start working with the assistent director of the zoo when she is finished with classes at the end of June. The zoo is a little way out of town, but hopefully we can use their bus to get the kids there. At least I have another project to work on.

I also met the the Director of Peace Corps. I was honored to have lunch with he and his wife and six other 50+ volunteers. We talked about issues that older volunteers face. Then after the lunch, he offered me his left over meat on his plate. When I told him that I had 8 people staying at my place that weekend, he turned to everyone else at the table and asked if they weren't going to eat the rest of their meat, would they give it to me. Notice the three boxes on the table. Needless to say, the Director was a Peace Corp Volunteer after college and he knew how life is as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

The top two pictures of me with the Director of Peace Corps and his wife and the other of the piata where I do most of my grocery shopping. It is open 7 days a week from early in the morning to about 7 at night, except Sunday it closes down about 5. The other two pictures are of our contest and I am helping hand out the diplomas.

Life is slower here. It takes a while to do things. All bills are paid by standing in different lines--no online payment or mailing in of bills. My refrigerator is small, so I go to the piata about every other day and I eat a lot of vegetables that are fresh right now. I have another PCV here in Ploiesti and he and I make a dinner together once a week. I am very fortunate. The weather is very warm here and has been in the 90's most of the time. It does cool down at night. I think I will have to invest in a fan. In the month of May, it rained almost everyday around 3-5 in the afternoon and cooled things down. That is not happening anymore.

So far things are going well and I hope you will ask questions if you have any. Thanks for taking the time to look at the blog!! Susie

The Work Begins

The top two pictures are of the salt mines I wrote about at the end of this blog.

This is my apartment. The first pic on the left is my entrance hallway with a refrigerator and a washing machine. The next pic on the left is my balcony. My kitchen has a stove and sink and a table with 3 stools. My chair with the ottoman is my favorite place in the apartment. I do my computer work there and enjoy the window that overlooks my balcony. I have a larger TV here than I have in the states!!!

My apartment has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, hall, and bedroom with a balcony going the full length of my apartment. My apartment is located in one of the many blocs in Romania. Blocs are cement apartment buildings that were built during the communist era.

On Monday this week, we were sworn in as volunteers. I moved into this apartment Monday night and all the volunteers left for their sites. I am now alone in Ploiesti, a town of 200,000 people. However, I do have a site mate who teaches English at one of the schools I attended for classes. He lives about 1/2 mile away.

Everything here takes a longer time. To do grocery shopping is not a simple task. I live near a supermarket, but I can only carry a certain amount of food as walking is the method of transport. Also, the supermarket does not have a very good selection of fruits and vegetables. So, I go to the open air market or piata for those items. That is about 1/4 mile away in a different direction.

Because of my meager salary, I walk everywhere although public transportation is good. Walking is better for me. I even walk in the rain without thinking about it. It is just a part of what I cope with. I hope when I get back to the States I will continue walking to do my errands.

My work is about 1/2 block away. But I present at a lot of different schools, so I have a lot of walking that I do for that as well. I am about 1-1 1/2 miles from the city. There are no bars where women go or restaurants in my area, so I have to go to the city center for that. But since I don't have a lot of extra money, that is good that I am not near where I can spend a lot of money.

In my office, are 4 other people. Three speak English very well and 1 speaks no English. Right now, when we are talking about technical things, we speak in English. Otherwise, I am trying to speak in Romanian.

Since the last posting, I went to town called Slanic with other volunteers the Saturday after my language test and just before swearing in. It is a salt mine. The patterns in the walls and ceiling were gorgeous. They had salt sculptures and carvings in the walls. But the thing that was different for me, is that they played in this structure. The cavern was 10 stories deep with very wide halls. People were rollerblading, playing soccer, playing badminton and swinging or teeter-tottering. Instead of it being a museum, you played amongst all the wonderful art. Just like people walk on the Roman ruins. They not only see things, but they feel them.

I will be staying for the next couple of weeks as I need to get to know my surroundings better and get to know some people. Hopefully, I will update this blog more often as I have internet in my apartment. So long for now.

7 weeks in Romania

This is a picture of me with other volunteers in Brasov. Here I am in front of a church in a monastery in Sinai and the final picture is of my friend Beth looking at frescoes in a church in the Carpathian mountains.

I am now speaking the language well enough that people can understand my simple sentences. I have traveled a little bit as well. I have gone to Brasov, about 3 hours away by train into the mountains, where I spent a weekend with volunteers my age. We stayed in a hostel, had our own room and took over the kitchen for dinner. The city is beautiful and reminds me of one of the German towns. It was much influenced by German architecture.

I then went to Sibiu which is in the heart of the highest Carpathian mountains. It was beautiful. It reminded me of the Smokey's as the coulds were rising from the trees, but yet the mountains with snow are more like the Rockies.

I will be staying in Ploiesti for 2 years working with the Environmental Protection Agency. I will be working with kids in schools and we have yet to determine other projects. I have some ideas and my counterpart at the EPA also has some ideas that we need to discuss at a later date. I will have another Peace Corps volunteer with me in the city. He teaches English and has one more year here.

In this country, there are a lot of Roman ruins. I went to the first Capitol of Dacia, which was basically Romania in the time of Christ. The ruins date back to 100 B.C. Children run on top of the ruins. It was quite a shock to me that you can touch them and walk on them. There are also many old cathedrals with beautiful frescoes painted on the outside. I have also been to medieval castles and then newer castles. Many of their rulers came from outside Romania--with some being German.

The educational system is much more formal here. Children stand when a teacher comes in the room. Children do not speak unless spoken to. When you let them know that it is ok, they really open up. I had a great time on a school trip with kids. They asked me questions in English and I answered those questions in Romanian. At first it was hard for them to correct my grammar, but once they saw how much I needed it, they had a great time. We both enjoyed comparing our countries. I will try to post some pictures from my travels, but we will see how it works. Come visit me, it is a beautiful country.

I have been in Romania for 2 weeks now. I can speak in simple sentences and I am enjoying the countryside a little now.

My "gazda" family is a retired couple. They keep me well fed and help me with my speaking. He is truly a master gardener and I look forward to seeing his garden bloom. The whole front yard is either a vegetable garden or a flower garden. She is a good cook and works very hard canning and preserving their food.

My room is in the winter kitchen as she has now moved in to the summer kitchen which is not attached to the house. My room has a wonderful window that lets in a lot of light. I have a desk and bed and a lot of space for my clothes. I am just down the hall from the bathroom which is handy. The house has central heating, but they use their "soba" (woodburning heater) to heat the main rooms. The bathroom has a small gas heater in it that is turned on for the night. My gazda also has a washing machine and she uses only Amway products in it--a connection to Michigan.

In the beginning, we ate all of our meals in their formal dining room. I am now being fed in the kitchen with them and I take that as being accepted into their family.

I go to classes from 8:30 to 5:00 pm. I walk to school about 1/2 hour each way. I need to do that with all the food I am being fed. Breakfast is usually bread and cheese or meat and tea and lunch is a sandwich with fruit and dinner is soup, salad, meat and a vegetable with wine or beer. They are all quite large servings.

I have been to Bucharest, which is a large city with not many old buildings. Most of Bucharest was leveled by the earthquake in the 1970's. So most of the buildings are fairly new, but they kept the transportation structure. That makes for a lot of traffic jams and little parking areas.

This past weekend I went to Tragaviste, a small town to the east of Ploiesti. It has some old churches and an old monastery where the first book in Romania was printed. The architecture is influenced by both western Europe and Turkey. I has the look of "Dr. Zhivago" sometimes. I loved it!!!

Ploiesti, where I live for right now, is a city that the US bombed extensively in WW II. There were oil fields here and the US did not want the Germans to be able to access them. So once again, most of the city was destroyed and has been replaced with Communist Bloc houses.

The people are very friendly and kind. They love to try to speak English and it is hard to keep them speaking Romanian.

I am not able to post pictures right now as I do not have internet access with my computer. I am using the equipment at the school where we have classes.

Leaving for Romania

I will be going to Philadelphia on Feb. 18 for a 2 day orientation and leaving from JFK on Feb. 20 for Romania. While I am in training, I might not be able to access my email. The best way to communicate with me is by letter writing. I understand training is something like camp. If you don't get mail, you feel left out. So if you would like to write me a letter you can send it to: Susan Safford, Peace Corps RomaniaStr. ,Negustori nr. 16, Sector 2, Bucharest, Romania. Peace Corps headquarters will make sure I get it. Thanks for your support. Please send no packages until I give you another address. La revedere for now!!!!!

One month to Romania

My kids and I went down to Englewood, FL for a long weekend before I leave for Romania on Feb. 17. I will be going to Philadelphia, PA for a two day orientation and arrive in Romania on Feb. 21. It was good to get in a little sun and time together. Their spouses were good to let them come for this time.