McCarty'sMoldovaMoments: December events--Village visit, presentation in Balti, Chisinau Christmas lights

December 10, 2010

It's time for another update! This entry takes you to Balti, the second largest city in Moldova, to a small village home and then back to Chisinau to view some of the Christmas lights.
First is the visit to Balti. Balti is pronounced as Beltz beause the t actually has a small comma at the bottom to signify it has the z sound and the a in the word is pronounced like our e in elbow. I said it wrong for about the first 6 weeks of my stay here.
The university in Balti is well-regarded--has close to 20,000 students and sits as the center of the agricultural area (in the north) that produces a large share of Moldovan food. My presentation was on basic business functions to a group of economic students. Economics is very popular in Moldova but students don't think it is practical enough because in fact they are studying more economics and not so much business. They're starting to do business adminstration in the universities' economics departments, but since many of the teachers used to teach economics they're only slowly taking to the more practical and useful business topics--finance, marketing, logistics, etc.
There is a young Fulbrighter in Balti, fluent in Russian, and he and the US Embassy helped set up the visit.
Students were pretty attentive and while at first reluctant to ask questions, did get into some near the end. I did not have the opportunity to spend much time there as I had another presentation later that same day in Chisinau. So, there's not much to see except my presentation, so I'm including only a few photos to let you see the students.
The second activity I am reporting on in this blog actually occurred first--my visit to a village about 75 km (50 miles) to the south of Chisinau. I went to the childhood home of one of the professors, Elena Sulman, who teaches full time at the State University in Chisinau where she is also trying to finish her doctorate. Her 11 year-old daughter went with us, but she was quite shy. I don't know about the father in the family -did not ask and nothing was said so not sure of the story.
Her childhood home is actually one of the better homes in the village--her family was the first to have a refrigerator ( probably 25 years ago) and the homes of her brothers have indoor plumbing, heat and satellite and internet access. Her mother, however, lives in a 3 room home--rooms are each about 10 square feet in size--with a built in chimmey that serves as the heat source and is also used for baking bread. There is no t.v. and she uses an outhouse for her bathroom. They have about 1/2 acre or so of vineyards where grapes are grown and an outbuilding with a cellar where 3 oak barrels store wine (and some vegetables). There are chickens and a couple of ducks for food and a shed with a cow for milk and dairy products. On the side of the house is a large garden plot--maybe 2/3 or 1 acre, where vegetables are grown. There is another small building on the property where those vegetables are stored and used during the winter. Grapes are stored in the wnter in an attic area of a building.
One brother and his wife and two children live in a somewhat larger ( maybe 400-500 square feet) house (blue front in the photos) just 10-20 feet away from the mother's house. There is an indoor bathroom there along with a t.v. All the walls have homemade rugs on them to decorate and help insulate against the cold. The home has access to gas for heating, but basically does not use it because it is too expensive; the chimney heat makes one room warm and a smaller chimney in one other room also can be used. Corn husks and wood is used to stoke the chimney ( sometimes manure) and so there is no fuel expense.
Another brother is building a home about 2 miles away, but in the same village. I've been told that people do not want to borrow from the bank to build a home--too difficult and too expensive, so they build their homes themselves and use a pay as you go plan. For that reason, you see a number of homes being built, but often no work is being done on them because they only have money for phase 1. As you can imagine, it often takes years to build a home. Some hire people to do some of the work, but most do it theselves with family help.
One brother is away working in Russia, but this family feels fortunate because 2 siblings live and work in Chisinau and 2 in the village. The mother is quite independent--wants her own home and doesn't really need or accept much help from her children. Elena translated, but the mother seemed to be in good spirits. I was the first American to visit their home; she said she'll tell all her neighbors and friends about my visit. They all wanted to see the picutres in my passport. You know, I had not noticed them before, but the pages do have different views of American scenes and so are quie interesting.
The third and final part of this blog shows some of the Christmas lights in the center area of Chisinau. While Orthodox Christians like those in Moldova usually celebrate Christmas on January 7, now people are starting to do so on December 25th--usually now having two celebrations. The Soviets did not like to see any Christmas decorations, so a number of Moldovans want to put up lights and decorations so that all will know they are no longer following the Soviet practices. I don't think that will change, even if the communists are part of the governing coalition--as seems likely.
So, photos follow! I'm here for only 10 more days, so likely only one more blog after this one.
If you want to ask about something, do it now!
Hope all are starting to enjoy the holiday season!