Today was amazing. I woke, made myself scrambled eggs and met my host grandmother outside. We walked to the Baptist church together. This was the first time ever attending this church in Moldova. My host grandmother has been asking me for about a year. She asked me again last night when we were watering her garden and I thought “de ce nu” (“why not”). Though we were not able to sit together, I did find a seat by a few students. The church has three sections. The middle is for the elderly, the right for men, and the left for women. I said, “screw that” and sat with the girls because I didn’t know any of the old men. Haha. Actually, the preacher told me that I could sit anywhere. The service lasted two hours and was very interesting. I brought my dictionary with me and used it throughout. I sat next to a woman I had met and taught English alongside last year. She informed me of a new project she needed help with in which she wished to get community members more interested in volunteering in Brinza though the showing of films with follow-up discussions. I have already downloaded 10 movies!
As I left, I was handed four cans—two read “Sweet pickle” (some sort of jam—the rest was and German) and two tin cans. No idea what are in the tin cans.
I came home and grabbed my host brother to go with me to take pictures of the new toilets at the school. We left around 11:45 as I had told a 4th former that I would meet her outside at 12 for a lesson. I was very surprised to see her because I have had countless young students forget that we had set something up. We quickly took the pictures and sat on a bench for our lesson. We touched on past, present, and future simple tenses and read/translated the passage from her book (homework from Friday). I then brought out my own sing and read book—“Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” I sang it to her and then we sang it together. I then asked her and she successfully translated each part. It is times like these that keep me going. When I saw the look in her eyes, I knew we had to act on it. This is a student that had never shown any sort of confidence or excitement before. I asked her if she would be willing to go up to people on the street and, with me, sing and read this book as a sort of concert. She lit up! We went to a store and performed for the saleswoman, we then found the girls eldest sister, and ended with two young third grade girls who just happened to be walking by us on the street. They loved it. In case you don’t know or remember—The song includes “head, shoulders, knees, and toes (Repeat knees and toes), “eyes and ears, and mouth and nose.” Then repeat the whole thing several times.
When I got home I ate some borcht and quickly left with my host brother to watch two of his friends play tennis.
I am trying to learn Russian. At the moment I can ask your name, where you are from, how your are doing, and how old you are. I also provide my own responses to these questions and count to ten (in addition to basics of yes, now, please, thank you, sorry etc). If you ask me anything beyond this, you are just being rude.
Going to finish my book and go back to the stadium to watch Ion play volleyball.
