Hello there,

I guess it’s been a while since my last “Moldmail”. February and March were pretty hairy months workwise. And I think I was starting to take life in Moldova for granted. More recently, the problem has also been one of email access. On March17, Moldtelecom (the state telecommunications company) shut down two private internet providers, Cyber Community and Megadat. I was a Cyber Community client. We are also having problems with the Internet at work (even though it’s Moldtelecom), so I’m at the mercy of Internet cafes in the city.

SEA CHANGE

At the end of March I found out that I am not being renewed. The State Department via SIT announced back in November that a person can be a Junior Fellow for 2 years and renew as a Senior Fellow for 1 year. I thought that rule didn’t apply to me because I didn’t go through a renewal process; I had reapplied to the program. Moreover, the Embassy had received a cable (like a telegram) asking if I wanted to be renewed, and the Embassy answered “yes”. In February things looked on track for renewal, and then things changed. As I said, February and March were pretty hairy and it was around that time I started to realize that I don’t mind doing 80 percent teaching and 20 percent administrative work, but I don’t enjoy doing 80 percent administrative work and 20 percent teaching. So this may all be a blessing in disguise. They are still advertising for a Senior Fellow for Moldova for next year, so there should be someone here in Chisinau to do seminars at the ETRC and to hopefully be a new tenant for my landfamily (Bridget English for my landlady, landlord, and their three kids). But it still came as a shock and it’s still hard to believe that in just two months I’ll have to say goodbye to my landfamily and my other beloved Ukrainian, Moldovan, and ex-pat friends.

Fortunately, I was at home in Long Beach for the TESOL conference with some resumes in hand when I found out. I did several interviews, and currently I have two hot irons in the fire. So there’s no need to worry about me careerwise or financially. As usual, the only question is where I will be come September/October. Stay tuned for more developments.

A TOUGH EGG TO CRACK

Hope you had a happy Easter or Passover depending on what you celebrate. Although I’m Jewish and enjoyed Passover dinner with my family for the first time in 5 years, I also enjoyed being in Moldova for Easter. I helped Lena (the 16 year old girl in the landfamily) “paint” Easter eggs. This is Moldovan/Ukrainian English for “dyeing”. I skipped out on going with them to church at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning to have the specially prepared Easter bread and eggs blessed by the priest. But I had a nice lunch with the family, and had a chance to crack Easter eggs with the family as well. Each person holds a dyed egg and bangs it against the other person’s. The egg that doesn’t crack wins. It reminds me of pulling the wishbone at Thanksgiving, but without the wish. There’s a picture of it in the “2004” folder of photos.yahoo.com/reisefrau.

LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES…

To complete the cross-cultural exchange, alongside the traditional paska (Easter sweetbread with raisins and icing) my landfamily served the box of See’s assorted chocolates I brought back from the States courtesy of my mother. In Moldova, usually a box of chocolates contains the same type of chocolate throughout. There’s one type of Ukrainian company I know of that packages 3 kinds of chocolate in a box, but they are shaped like different fruits so it’s easy to tell them apart. I told the gang in Moldova that this American box was all different, just like the quote from Forrest Gump. Diana (the landmother) was impressed that even the nuts seemed to be different from piece to piece. For little Sandu, it all proved to be too much of a good thing. He wanted to try as many chocolates as possible, and if he didn’t like it he wanted to put it back. There was a bit of a fuss when Diana told him to stop. But he eventually got over it.

That’s all for now. Take care.

Bridget