As I’ve mentioned, I’m sharing a photo and a look back on my favorite memories in moments in Moldova for each of my last 100 days here. I’m counting down, so here are days 15-11. See all of my “Last 100 Days” posts here.
Day 15: We had a full schedule of events for Peace Corps Week at our school this year! We had a mini film festival with volunteer videos from across the world, video-chatted with a class in the U.S.A., and welcomed three other Peace Corps volunteers to our school to talk about where and what home means to them. It was a really fun, interesting week and the students really enjoyed it! (March 2018)Day 14: For International Women’s Day, my village had a concert at our Casa de Cultura, with performances by some of our students, the local dance ensemble, a professional orchestra, and several well-known Moldovan singers. The dance ensemble, made up of students in 7th through 10th grades, performed a new dance, which was really beautiful (pictured here). (March 2018)Day 13: One of my favorite Moldovan holidays is that of “Mărţişor”. This holiday occurs on the first day of spring, which is celebrated on March 1st. People give each other these red-and-white amulets, called “mărţişoare”. They celebrate the coming of spring and are wishes of good luck. At the end of March, they hang the amulets on a budding tree. (March 2018)Day 12: Each spring, a week or two before Easter, spring cleaning occurs in every household and around the village. School ends a bit early on one day and all the students, accompanied by their teachers, clean up the village in preparation for the Easter holiday. Each class is assigned a different part of the village, where they pick up garbage, rake up any leaves remaining from the autumn, and whitewash the tree trunks. (April 2018)Day 11: I celebrated Easter in my village once again this year. My host dad and I joined my host mom at the church at 4:00 in the morning, and we gathered with everyone along the roads surrounding the church with baskets full of meat, special Easter breads, and red-dyed eggs. The priest then went around, blessing each person and each basket by splashing water on them. After, we returned home (it was still fairly dark out) and broke the Easter fast by eating the food from the basket and drinking a glass of wine before going back to sleep. (April 2018)
The Oke Den 