real life for realz maple syrup!!

There is NO maple syrup (or even fake maple syrup) in Moldova! NONE! AT ALL! ANYWHERE!...til i found this grocery store! The one on the right is 100% Maple Syrup from Canada (so it says) and the other also seems like it's pure maple syrup, but i can't read Russian, so who knows? But regardless...there is at least 1 maple syrup in Moldova, and i found it!!! YAY! ...I didn't buy it tho, cuz 1) it's too expensive and 2) i'm waiting til i get home to revel in all the things (foods) i don't get here (or at least not supposed to!). 

A Lovely Sunday

Today was a hot, sunny day. I decided to take advantage of the dry weather and go for a walk.

When I visited my site last July, Ryan (the PCV I was replacing) and I walked to this really pretty scenic viewpoint. I've tried to find it, without success. However, today I think I found it. I'm not sure it is the exact spot because everything looks so much different now due to the rains. Either way, it was a splendid view.

It actually stayed sunny and dry all day today, which is unusual. I made pancakes, read, worked on a couple things for school and did some weeding in my garden. It was a lovely Sunday.

care packages!!

When i went to training in Chișinău last week, i was welcomed with 3 care packages!!! I wasn't able to get pictures of all of them since space was limited and i needed to pack it all into my backpack and pungă (Moldovan carry-all bag), but below is one from Dr.J!! It's PERFECT! It was full of super terrific toiletries (like Hempz and Philosophy), hair ties, chapsticks, body/face wipes (which i use waaaaay more than i ever thought i would when i first arrived in Moldova...they basically replace bucket bathing...ya), lotions, and even a mini brush, which i have been needing so i can stop taking my big brush with me whenever leave site! And look at that cute polar bears card...it's hanging on my closet door with my other cards, making a pretty cool collage to look at everyday! Thanks Dr.J!!! 

I also received a package from John and Kathy Copeland! It was full of all kinds of neat stuff (& candy) from Japan (which i shared with the other ravenous PCVs), chapsticks, beanie, gloves, scarf, and other odds and ends...all of which i appreciate with all my heart!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!! (Sorry no picture :o[)

...and then there was even this package...sigh...where do i even begin...? Well, here in Moldova, instead of Secret Santa for only the month of December, we do Winter Wizards from December 1 - February 28. I signed up to be one, which means i also received one. Similar to Secret Santa, we don't know who our own Winter Wizards are. The 1st time i heard from my Winter Wizard was 3 weeks after Winter Wizard announcements, right before i left for Turkey, s/he left a 3-pack of hair ties(?)/elastic bracelets(?) in my PC mailbox. The 2nd time i heard from her/him was when i got back from Turkey, and s/he left a chocolate bar and mints in my mailbox (which i appreciated :o])...then when i arrived back in Chișinău for training, there was this...the above package...it's wrapped so nice! I was so excited to open it! So i did...and behold, 2 shirts from Loot-Me! (Background: Loot-Me is a closet-like space where PCVs bring their unwanted stuff and other PCVs take it...hence the term "Loot-Me".) I just started laughing. That's the most obvious re-gifting i have ever seen! ...So, if nothing else, at least my Winter Wizard caused me to laugh in confusion. ;op

Apparently it's still Christmas in Chișinău

I came across this cute Christmas tree with a Mr. & Mrs. Snowman during training in Chișinău last week...it was the last week of ianuarie (January). If you look closely, you can see me standing between Mr. & Mrs. Snowman ;o]

biscuit (cookie/wafer thingy)

If there is one thing Moldovans love, it's sweets! So far i haven't liked any of the ones i've tried enough to go out and buy them. One of the most popular sweets people eat are wafer-like cookies. They're OK...until i discovered the one below in Mama-G's bomboane (candy)/biscuiți (cookies) jar! It was a wafer-like cookie covered in dark chocolate (dark chocolate is more common here than milk chocolate...as it should be everywhere!) and was pretty delicious! I only took a picture of the wrapper cuz it's so darn cute! 

...Supposedly there are wild foxes in Moldova...the only wildlife i have seen (besides birds) have been 3 red squirrels...maybe they were all the same squirrel i saw 3 times, who knows...

The Circulatory System

We have been covering the Circulatory System in my Form 3 Biology class. Luckily I already covered this during Model School in PST, so I am able to build off those lesson plans.

Biology involves a lot of diagrams. We do have flip chart paper at school, but there isn't very much so I try to use it sparingly. I haven't used any for the blood and blood vessels topics, but I decided I needed one for the heart.

The sky darkened and it started pouring right when I started, then the power went out. But I'm a PCV in Malawi so I don't let a few obstacles like light and power get in my way...

I did two diagrams-- one of blood movement in the body, and the other of the structure of the heart.

Here are a couple of my students using the microscope to look at a cross-section of an artery as part of today's lecture. You can see the other diagram on the wall, and a diagram of a capillary I drew on the board during my lecture.

Tomorrow the heart! We will be covering the chambers of the heart as well as blood movement through the heart. Hopefully we have time for a group activity I have planned too.

Happy Groundhog Day

February 2nd is Groundhog Day in the USA, but it's just another day here in Malawi. We don't actually have any groundhogs here anyway. And it's not even winter either.

Malawi has only three seasons-- Hot Season, Cold Season and Rainy Season. As it is Rainy Season now, the weather is humid and sunny, alternating with cloudy and rainy. Everyday. Often several times in the same day. Which makes doing laundry pretty difficult. So everywhere I go, I bring my umbrella and my sunglasses.

To borrow from a popular saying-- if you don't like the weather during Rainy Season, just wait an hour.

So how many more weeks of a Rainy Season? Let's ask this little guy, that showed up outside my fence this morning:

Sir Crab says, "Kwambiri". There you have it, folks. Many more weeks of rain. Let the good maize grow!