Adventures in Moldova - Camp GLOWTOBE Part 2

Besides sessions, we had a number of fun activities at Camp GLOWTOBE for the kids during the week. There was an obstacle course, a water balloon competition, night hikes, a talent show, tie-dying and a number of arts and crafts like painting and making friendship bracelets. There were also games like football, capture the flag and sports activities like yoga, boxing and Zumba. These were great team-building exercises and they made camp a lot of fun for all of us!

There were no toilets at the camp, but I’m a pro at using latrines by this point. Interestingly, the holes were shaped like triangles in these latrines, which was a first for me. Although it is a lot harder not to look down when the holes are so big.

Camp also provided my first taste of Moldovan food, and overall I really liked it. They served fresh bread at every meal, and we had lots of cheese and fresh stone fruits. They also made this fresh fruit compote to drink everyday which I couldn’t get enough of. The only weird thing is that it was hot, which is pretty weird to drink at noon in the middle of summer.

I even got to try Mamaliga, the National dish of Moldova. It is made of cornmeal and tasted very similar to polenta. They served it with a delicious soft cheese. Some of my other favorites were a porridge that tasted like cream of wheat, rice porridge, and whatever this was:

The last night of camp we had a candle-lighting ceremony for the Campers to say goodbye. Each camper and All-Star was given a certificate for attending camp. Here is me and PCV Christine with our Dacian campers.

After the ceremony we had a bonfire and disco celebration. Then before I knew it, the kids were leaving on a rutiera and camp was over. It was a memorable week, and I am so glad I got to be a part of it. The campers, the All-Stars and the PCVs made me feel really welcome. The camp was a great way to get introduced to Moldova.

Four cheers for Glow Tobe Camp!

"The Cottonballs" (M28s) vs "The Current" (M29s)

Sorry about the absence of my blogging over the summer...

This picture is from a kickball/whiffleball/dodge ball game we played in the beginning of summer between the M28s (PCVs who are the year before us and who's services were completed this summer) and M29s (the group i'm in). Don't we look mean?? Good, cuz that's what we were going for! ;op 

Top row left to right: Kelcy, Daniel, SHam, and Matt.

Middle row left to right: Terry (she can't look mean even when she tries), me, Kirsten, Katie, Steve, Gabriel, other Kelsey.

Bottom row left to right: Cat, Amy, Chrsitine.

The Current, aka the M29s, aka my group, WON (duh)! And that's our trophy which we will bring with us next year for the M29s against the M30s game so we can defend our honor! Go Currents! :oD

The meaning behind the names: "The Current" is a deeply rooted superstition here in Moldova. It is believed that the "current" that is created if there are 2 or more open windows/doors in a room/rutiera/enclosed space will cause illness by entering the ears...for realz. It might sound ridiculous, and absolutely not backed by science, but it is a real thing nonetheless, and in the summer it can be unbearable (riding in a crammed rutiera for 2+ hours in 90' weather without any airflow is beyond nauseating).

"The Cottonballs" are what people do to combat The Current - they put cotton balls in their ears...for realz. 

Scottish Invasion

Yesterday we had some special visitors at my school. A group from our partner school in Scotland spent the day with us.

Scotland and Malawi have a close partnership. There are so many schools and aid organizations from Scotland in Malawi. On my site visit last August I met a Scottish couple in the Boma that was raising funds to build a girls hostile. A couple weeks ago I met three university students from Scotland that were teaching Expressive Arts at the local primary school for six weeks. (Now all their students know the words to that song "And I would walk a thousand miles." A group of kids came up to me and started singing it, and were delighted when I joined in. It was pretty funny.)

Our partner school (which is not affiliated with the PC) is a Catholic high school in Scotland. They provided funds to build a laboratory at my school, provided books and science materials and sent sports equipment like footballs. They also fund a program at my school called Girls Go for Health which provides support for girls to stay in school, including free menstrual pads, tampons and ibuprofen.

We had about 25 visitors from the school, mostly female students. When their bus arrived, it created quite a stir at my school. So many azungus in one place!

First things first-- gotta take snaps. Cameras and photos are universally loved by teenagers, no matter what side of the world they are from.

The visitors observed classes in the morning. In my Form 3 Bio class we were finishing up our unit on Reproduction. The topic was problems of the reproductive system, which include sterility, maternal death and sexually-transmitted infections. Fun topic for a day we are having visitors, right? After my lecture I had the students work in their groups to answer questions about  STIs. The Scottish students assisted them.

After that, classes were suspended for the rest of the day so that everyone could play sports. There was football, netball, races and even volleyball. All equipment was provided by the Scottish partner school.

Below you can see some of the girls playing netball. Netball is like basketball except you don't dribble the ball. Also it is almost exclusively played by females.

In Malawi you always feed your guests, so our visitors were treated to a traditional meal of nsima with ndiwo (side dish). The ndiwo was some kind of local leafy green cooked with tomatoes and onions, maybe rape? I don't eat much nsima now that I cook for myself, so I always enjoy it when I have it. We also had Coca-cola and biscuits (cookies). Yum!

After that it was time for our visitors to be going. It was a really nice day and my students enjoyed spending time with the foreign students.

Fun fact-- did you know that the National Animal of Scotland is the unicorn?