THE SLIP-N-SLIDE WEEK

December 15, 2007

THE SLIP-N-SLIDE WEEK

I have bathed IN the bathtub! Tuesday night, we put the space heater/radiator in the room for an hour or so to heat the room up a bit, which of course I unplugged before bathing. There’s no door, just a curtain, so the tile floor was still like ice. A wood board was placed over the middle of the tub in order to hold the bucket of hot water, metal basin, and my toiletries. I think the idea was that I could wash my hair OVER the metal bowl on the plank and then easily dump it in the tub, but that big white bathtub was so tempting, so I stripped down and stepped in. It was cold, but what a natural joy it was to pour warm water over my head and have it pour over my entire body. No louffah, no wood floor – the top of my head, my shoulders and neck and back all had water rushing over them!

I stood up to soap myself down, and I don’t remember when it happened but somehow I slipped and slid noisily down the bathtub, clanging the water cup behind me and knocking the bucket’s lid with my feet, ending up with my feet up in the air and my chest under the wood plank! It didn’t hurt; it was funny. I was actually just embarrassed at the noise and hoped my host mama wouldn’t coming running in to see what happened. Though, of course, it’s lovely that she’d care! So I sat from then on. I could pour water over my face without it getting on the floor. I could wash my hair with my head right-side-up! Sometime during my bath, someone phoned for me. “Are you taking a bath? I’ll tell them to call back in half an hour.” I love that she did not only tell them they should call back in half an hour, but also that I was in the bath tub.

It’s been snowing relatively every day since Tuesday evening. The cold wind comes everyday around lunch time. Apparently February is the worst month if the winter is particularly harsh. But in winter of 2005, when it was a true cold winter, the thick snow started at the end of November. Winter of 2006 was relatively mild, as was the summer actually – drought. I supposed this winter is started out somewhere in the middle. But, really, who is this L.A. girl to judge snow!?!?

But, yesterday and Thursday the sun was so bright on the snow I could’ve used sunglasses! I couldn’t stop smiling, and “Winter Wonderland” played on my lips. The streets were frozen and kids were sliding by the soles of their shoes! I can see why people would call winter their favorite season!

Quick update on the English group: Let me just say that I think this village is amazing. The people are so supportive and seem so willing to work for their community. I’ve just felt so welcomed here. The school director joked about how quickly she talks and says she will try to speak more slowly for me. The English teacher’s input was much appreciated. She didn’t seem to be insulted at all at the idea of an English group and I’m excited to work together on it. The younger kids don’t get English at all and it seems like the older ones rarely get a chance to discuss in English – mostly grammar and class work – the same type of language class that we’ve all taken and forgotten. So there seems to be a better common understand of needing a discussion circle (rather than a lesson) that can develop into something quite creative and exploratory. Also, with her help, it will be easier to separate those who DO have some English already from those who have none and really need more INSTRUCTION, which, actually, I might not mind anymore.

Before coming, I was so adamant about NOT teaching English. But, I think it was the shock of being told I was nominated to an English teaching program in Eastern Europe (instead of a community development program in Africa) that made me more reluctant to be involved with anything English-related. But I’m NOT in the much more structured English-teaching program, so I will still have LOADS of time to work on other types of projects, to explore the community from different levels, and to explore where I fit, as well.

I’ve also had a chance to think about the age group I feel more comfortable working with. There are a few great camps/programs run by volunteers each summer, but each is unique, and you can’t be involved in every one. It was surprisingly difficult for me to decide which one I would most like to participate in. No matter how much I thought about it and analyzed the pros and cons (I’m not that kind of girl) I couldn’t come to any settlement. I went for a run (the day it started snowing – lovely!) and even that didn’t clear my head. The problem is I like to just “follow my gut” but if there is no clear answer, I take forever, and there are deadlines. Of course, I wasn’t paying attention, because what really should’ve mattered is the population of youth I wanted to work with. And that answer kept presenting itself to me in the faces of the girls at the gym. If you or your parents are reading this, I hope you realize how significant that is. Subconsciously, your faces just kept creeping up in my mind, and the way that I have been affected by working with you has carried me all the way to Moldova and it will continue to carry me through the rest of my service.

IF YOU WANT CLEAN CLOTHES, YOU HAVE TO WASH THEM:

I wrote this in an email, but I think the story deserves retelling.
I washed my clothes on Thursday, with a machine that’s probably older than me. We had to get at least four buckets-worth of water from the well, which we then heated on the camping stove. We poured two into the machine and two into a large metal bucket which we used to rinse each load (of 4). So the order was: machine (for five minutes) in soapy water, ring out, put in big bucket, rinse, ring again, fold into drying cylinder (which I think works how we dry lettuce, by spinning) in order to get out the excess water, and then hang outside in the snow. So I still had to ring out every piece of laundry to de-suds it as if I was hand washing, and MAN do my hands/wrists hurt…and yes, we recycled the water for each load (so I now understand why whites NEED to go first)…but it WAS a machine. I didn’t have to scrub each piece between my fists. I didn’t have to spend 4 hours and my host mama showed me how.

I know this is a really simple statement, but standing over that barely thigh-high machine that shook like it was possessed, I realized: if you want clean clothes, you have to clean them…and if you don’t have a machine, you wash them by hand. Now it’s Saturday and we’re still working on drying them. We hung some outside, under a wood canopy where we’ll eat in the summer, but there weren’t enough clothes pins, so we’ve been rotating the clothes outside with the other clean ones – folded and wet in the basin. We brought some in and hung them on the soba. There are now a few toasty and folded and clean, some still hanging outside (it’s hard to tell if their frozen or wet), and some strewn across my room - on my bed near the soba, hanging from a hanger against the soba, over the backs of chairs.

A couple other side notes: Harry Potter in Romanian is a fabulously helpful idea for those of us who practically have the story memorized (thanks for the idea!); exercising is the best way I’ve found to warm up, fresh milk (FROM A COW!) is delicious and tastes like the cream sauce for Goldenrod Eggs.