The Beginning of Goodbye

Today I am finally admitting that the massive allergies I've had lately have just devolved into a cold.  I am stating my apologies in advance if I am not the most coherent as my head is a bit cloudy.  However, as I have just three weeks left in Peace Corps, I feel that I should blog as much as I can while I am still here. 

In English class I discovered that three of the mothers in my Monday class are also sick so something must be going around.  I detest starting summer out with a cold, but it seems that I have no choice.  After having lots of rainy and cold days it's finally turned hot and each day seems to be getting steadily hotter.  Over the weekend temps were in the low 90's. It feels wrong to be sitting in my apartment sipping tea, but I am hoping if I lay low I will recover faster!

Doamna Horonica calls roll for 12D for the last time

Last Friday was the last official day of school for the 12th graders.  This week they start their Baccalaureate exams.  Friday morning, my school had a promotion ceremony, closing four years of classes for the form teachers with their classes.  It's quite a sweet ceremony. Awards are given to top students and each form teacher gives a short speech and then calls attendance from their catalog for the last time.  One teacher couldn't even make it through her whole class list, she got so emotional.   After all the attendance is called, the president of the 12th grade hands the key of the school over to the 11th grade class president.  All the students are then wished lots of luck on their exams and  everyone drinks a glass champagne.

The interesting thing is that I only saw a handful of parents at this event (this is the closest thing to graduation in Romanian high schools).  While this event is on a work day morning, to me, this emphasizes the strong bond between form teachers and their classes.  It was sweet to see form teachers have this moment with their classes.  This also got me thinking about the closing of my time in Romania.  I have already said goodbye to 2/3 of my classes and while I have not been emotional at all, I imagine on my final day I might be.

The interesting thing about my role here is that I have such a tiny amount of interaction with my students each week.  To them, I am just someone they see one hour a week, one of eighteen different teachers they have.  However for me, my students have been my world for two years.  They have consumed my thoughts and been the cause of great joy, overwhelming sadness and frustration.  In the end, I wish I could have had more time with them and that I felt like a made a difference to them.

Wednesday

Now that regular classes are over for the 12th graders my Wednesdays are different.  I teach a class of 10th graders at 9:00am and then now have a giant window in my schedule where I used to teach three classes of 12th graders.  

Today I spent a couple more hours in my classroom after teaching to finish grading the final English quiz for two of my 11th grade classes and figuring out their final grades. Next week is last week of regular classes for 11th graders before they start practicum (a month of classes in their profile subject) so next week will mean more goodbyes for me.  For the final question on the quiz I asked students to share some of what they learned in my classes during the past two years. Here are some of the responses I got:

"...she learned us to be quiet and to speack English."
"She gave me a lot of homeworks and this helped me to improve my English writing and reading."
"She is fool of life."
That last one is full of life, I swear.

After finishing averaging grades, I came home and made salsa to bring to some of the mothers at the Foundation.  A few weeks ago I gifted extra seeds that I had left over from planting herbs on my balcony to one of the mothers.  One of the seed packets was cilantro and she asked me what it could be used for so I made salsa to show one use.  Romanian food is not at all spicy so I warned everyone before I shared it.  The responses were pretty awesome.  Everyone generally liked it, but they were a bit overwhelmed by what, for Americans, was very, very mild salsa.  Angela told me she might make it in the winter to warm up instead of making a fire in the fireplace.

While the mothers and I were tasting salsa my dear students were teaching the kids English class in the other room.  Adelina and Oana took over my English kids classes in April and have been going steady since!  They are doing a great job and as you can see the kids love them.

Inspected

Today I had a rite of passage in the Romanian education system; I was "inspected" (observed) by the County English Inspector. My school is undergoing a full inspection, all teachers are being observed, paperwork is being checked, parents and teachers are being interviewed.  All schools undergo these inspections every three or four years; it's essentially the equivalent of being certified by the state. All Romanian teachers have periodic inspections as well, but as a Peace Corps Volunteer I am normally exempt from these, but the Romanian Ministry of Education has asked all inspectors to observe PCVs to evaluate our teaching methodologies as Peace Corps exits Romania.  Thus I had inspection just like everyone else.

I was inspected during one of my 12th grade classes.  It was a very interesting cultural experience for me.  I have been teaching these students for two years and I have never seen them act as they did today.  They rose when the inspector walked in and waited until she gave them permission to sit.  The class that was observed was definitely one of my best classes, but their behavior was perfect.  I realized that, as students in Romania, they have been through a lot inspections.  I was able to take my queues from them a little, which was lucky.  For example, at the end of the class the inspector dismissed the class, not the teacher (I would have totally done that wrong).  The inspector was very nice and took a copy of my lesson plan and said she would use it with some of her classes.  I don't know if she will, but I took it as a very nice compliment.

After finishing all my classes at the high school, I went to the Foundation where I teach some younger students each Wednesday. All the girls were missing today. I had three very rambunctious boys. We had to take a few breaks during the lesson to break up some fights and practice deep breathing.  However, we were able to plow through a lesson on body parts and end with a rousing version of "Head, shoulders, knees and toes." 

Springing Forward

During the past week in Romania there was a lot of celebrating.  The first nine days of March is Mărțișor, where the coming of spring is celebrated, also March 8th is Women's Day.  During this time women and girls receive charms, called mărțișoare, that have a red and white string tied to them, the string symbolizes the changing of the season cold to hot and also the cycle of life, white for life and red for blood.

On March 8th, two of my 12th grade classes brought me flowers.  One class sang me "Happy Birthday" in English which was very cute.  There is a common confusion because the song that is the Romanian equivalent of "Happy Birthday," called "La Mulți Ani" which translates "to many years" and is sung for pretty much every celebration: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and baptisms.

Flowers from 12A and 12B

For my own celebration of Mărțișor, I baked cookies at the beginning of the week and brought them to the teacher's lounge.  On the 8th I baked scones and filled them with raspberry jam.  I gave half the batch to my landlady who often brings me food.  We trade baked goods and scones are the one thing she asked for the recipe of.  I brought the other half to the foundation, as Angela, Saskia and I had a coffee date in the afternoon to celebrate.  I had been sick the past couple weeks and not teaching English as I didn't want to risk getting anyone else sick so we had a lovely time catching up.  

When I returned home I discovered in my e-mail inbox that we had been awarded the grant we applied for in February which was a great surprise.  We applied for a VAST (Volunteer Activities Support and Training) grant from Peace Corps to purchase additional educational supplies and a laptop for the spring sex ed programs that the foundations runs in all six high schools in my town.  With these funds the program will be a more interactive and technologically advanced.  It's a small grant, but it will go a long way, helping to educate over 500 students!

This weekend, Julie came to town to visit.  We always like to share when we find more unique ingredients and she had found coconut milk in her town.  I had some green curry, so we combined them and made Thai Green Curry Coconut Sauce, which, in my opinion, was quite possibly the best food we have made in Peace Corps. 

Also while Julie visited, she helped me change out one of the filters in my water filter.  Filters are supposed to last for three years with regular cleaning, but mine simply struggled.  The PC medical office was nice enough to have a filter couriered to me. You are supposed to be able to scrub off the outer layer dirt to make the water flow better, but the dirt and metals got so absorbed into my filter that even after cleaning, water barely trickled out.  The filter on the left is my old filter, after being scrubbed.  Yuck!  Julie holds my new filter on the right.  Yay!  This filter should happily clean my water for the last four months of my service.

Old and new water filters

Side note: while I did title this post Springing Forward, daylight savings time has not actually started yet in Romania.  While it did start in the United States today, it doesn't start in Romania until March 25th so now is the funny time of the year where I am nine hours ahead of Seattle, instead of the typical ten.  Anyone for a Skype date as we are a little closer in time?

My Life: Report, Party, Report

I haven't had too much to blog about recently.  Last weekend I spent a lot of time writing the report for the Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC) Annual Survey.  Each year the co-chairs of the committee send a survey out to all the volunteers in the country to get feedback about their service.  This information is then presented to Peace Corps Romania staff at one of the VAC meetings.  This year, as one of the co-chairs, I have been weighing through the data and making all sort of bar graphs and pie charts.  To be honest, I enjoy being able to deal with easy things like number and percentages.  I love having definitive answers unlike teaching, where it seems there is never a clear-cut answer.

After finishing the report I then looked to the week ahead which included Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day I had parties in the three 11th grade classes I teach on Tuesdays.  I especially enjoyed the parties in 11A and 11B as this is the second year I am teaching those classes and I have gotten to know them quite well.

11A

Dancing in 11A

11B giving Violeta a giant valentine they made he

Pingino!  (Yes, it's really the bunny hop)

Group hug!

As the week concluded I realized that in the midst of celebrating I had procrastinated on the Volunteer Report File which is due on Monday so I am headed back to the computer this weekend.  The Volunteer Report File is a document that each volunteer must fill out around the world each trimester showing their activities and how many host country nationals.  It can be a little daunting the first time as you count the number of students in each class and activity, but as I realize I only have a couple more to do I am feeling more hopeful.

Chanting, "Snow day, snow day!"

In my town, nothing will get in the way of education.  Not over a foot of snow, bitter winds or very few students.  For the past two days, I have trudged to school find classes with three, six, or zero students.  I have found myself yearning for a snow day.  As a teacher, I would rather have the day off and make-up the class at another time so that I could present information to all the students at once.

Benches in the school courtyard

I've given up hope of my snow day in Romania, but look forward to future winters in Seattle where we are wimpy and shut everything down with just two inches. I have five months left in Romania, but my real question is how many of these months will be winter months.  Last year we had snow in May, but I am hopeful this winter will be shorter.

T.G.I.F.

Friday, Friday...

Today I am especially glad for the end of the week as it has felt like an especially a long one between the snow storm and school.  The tension in my school is palpable.  Next year the schools of Romania will undergo a massive change.  Ninth grade will move from its current place in high schools to general schools.  General schools will now house students grades in 0-9.  This means that my school will be shrinking.  

In the foreign language department, there will be one less English teaching position due to a ridiculously complicated situation.  First, I have to start at the beginning of the school year.  In Romania teachers are assigned to schools by an inspector at a county level based on the number of points they have. The points are allocated on credentials and certificates that the teachers have. Teachers with higher numbers of points can bump teachers with lower numbers of points from positions.  Teachers with higher points generally work in cities, while teachers who are starting their careers with lower numbers of points tend to end up in village school where conditions can be rough (for example, a village school I visited had no running water). At the start of this school there was a new English teacher assigned to my school, in the place of the teacher I shared a room with last year.  No one in the school knew who she was, but they knew that she had more points that the other teacher. However, as the school year started, she never showed up.  Apparently, she elected to take a year of unpaid leave instead of teaching.  At this point, it was too late to get the teacher from the previous year back so all the teachers had to divide the classes that were supposed to go to the new teacher.

Fast forward to now, as I said before, there will be one less position as we technically have four positions now, though there are three teachers doing the work. There are three English positions now (I am not including myself, as I don't factor into these discussion) and there will be three next year.  However, one position has to be held for the teacher who decided to be on leave this year.  Thus the three teachers who are teaching this year have to compete for only two positions. They were given the notice this week and then had to prepare their accreditation files. The board will then decide who has positions next year based on the number of points the teacher has.   From my understanding, there won't be interviews just evaluations of their files.  This week the teachers were rushing around like mad trying to get their files prepared, it seems they were just given a few days notice.  Everyone finally got their files prepared and now the waiting begins.

Full Circle

A few days ago I was Skyping with my dear friend Lisa, when she asked me about the recipe for one of my favorite desserts, ginger chocolate chip bars.  I had totally forgotten about these gems.  Why?  I don't bake very often in Romania.  Baking here can be expensive and complicated.  Butter and eggs are expensive and ingredients like brown sugar are hard to come by.  Even when you find brown sugar it's not the same as the brown sugar I grew up with.  Here, brown sugar is not at all moist and comes in giant crystals more like sugar in the raw.  You can also forget about finding dark brown sugar, not to mention chocolate chips.

Yet I have always loved baking.  I love trying new recipes and sharing great finds with others.  I used to love bringing baked goods into the office at my previous job.  When I first started teaching in Romania last year I was excited to bring treats into my school to share with my fellow teachers.  Part of the goal of Peace Corps is to share American culture and I thought baking might be a great way to share and also make friends.  However, I did not account for the Romanian tradition of providing treats on your own birthday and the nature of my colleagues.  Each time I brought things into the teacher's lounge people were suspicious, "Is it your birthday?"  When I answered no, they would immediately ask why I had brought something, "Is it a holiday for you?"  One time I said, "No, it's Friday.  I am celebrating the end of the week."  The reply I got was a harrumph. No one brings treats into my teacher's lounge so perhaps I was breaking some unknown faux pas.   Eventually I just stopped bringing things in.

This school year I've done very little baking.  In the fall I brought cookies into the women's class as part of a lesson on cooking vocabulary.  For the holidays, I made cookies for the cleaning ladies at school that help keep my classroom tidy.  Yet in my conversation with Lisa, I realized that I miss baking.  I have decided to keep baking with the aim of finding more people to share it with and learning to moderate my own intake of said goodies.
 

The antibiotics I am taking for my sinus infection have helped me to feel a bit better, so I hit the kitchen.  Tonight I started with a spinach pesto quiche and a half batch of ginger chocolate chunk bars. The texture isn't quite right in the bars, but it's a start.  When I am happy with a modified for Romania recipe I aim to share them with friends here.

Snow and School Celebrations

Snow finally started falling in Romania during our last week of school before winter break.   It was nice to get a little bit of white before the holidays set in.  Although, most afternoons it warmed up so that most of the snow melted away.  I did have a good view on my walk back from visiting the Catholic kindergarten last week. I cut through the park which was quite deserted.

snow in the park

During the final week of school, my school held their traditional carol (collinde) singing.  A few teachers get groups of students to perform.  This year's event was smaller than last year, we had just two groups sing and one group perform traditional dances.  As it was explained to me, carol sings are a traditional way for students to celebrate the start of the holiday season and to thank the teachers.

Group #1 - from 13th grade

Group #2

Four of the five boys in the dancing group are in one of my tenth grade classes and one of the girls in one of my eleventh grade classes. 

It was great to see some of my students performing traditional dances. I took a couple videos, but unfortunately I can only get one to upload to this post.  Here is a short clip of the goat dance.

My school has challenges when it comes to having events; we do not have anything close to an auditorium. We have a space that can maybe fit 1/5 of the school which has over 1,200 students and 100 staff members. Thus when events are held late in the afternoon; most students choose to leave rather than stay for events; some teachers also choose to leave.

 

the audience

To me, it's always depressing because very few people get to see our students perform; especially their peers.  I see so few opportunities to showcase their talents or passions.  I think of all the high school assemblies, concerts and events I attended growing up.  I loved seeing my peers perform and was always instilled with such pride with what my classmates could do.  I wish my students here could experience some of that.  This being said, I believe some Romanian schools do have lots of events, but industrial schools like mine do not.

Holiday Beginnings

Recently, I spoke with a former volunteer who said that she feels that the spirit of Christmas really comes from the heart so that one can feel the spirit no matter where they are.  I both agree and disagree with this.  While I believe you can feel the spirit of the season radiating from within, for me Christmas doesn't really begin until I get to spend time with family and friends.  The joy of the Christmas season is gathering with those I love. While I don't get to see my real family this year for the holidays I have been able to start the holiday season with some friends and students here in Romania. 

My holiday season started last week in school when I started doing carols with my students.  I see half of each class once a week so it takes me a full week to see all nine of my classes once.  Last year I learned the lesson that although we have class until the end of the week before break classes pretty much stop on Wednesday therefore, I knew that if I wanted to get all my classes to be able to sing carols I needed to start early.  I did carols with my 10th and 11th grade students (the 12th graders were giving final presentations).  I chose "Jingle Bell Rock," "Silent Night," and "Little Drummer Boy."  Some classes were more into it that others, but it was fun to share some new carols with them.  I also told the story of the little drummer boy which doesn't exist in Romanian (at least not that any of my students knew) and was my favorite carol when I was little.  I should note that although I teach at a public school there is a state religion (Romanian Orthodox) and all students take religion as a class unless they get a waiver.  I do have one student who is Adventist, but all my other students are Romanian Orthodox or Catholic.

For over a year now I have also been teaching an English class for some of the mothers that use the services at "Together in Life's Path" (the foundation I work with).  Angela, whose home I visited last week, runs the foundation with Saskia, a volunteer from Holland.  This summer I also started teaching an English class for kids there which I have continued into the school year.  Angela and Saskia have been my biggest cheerleaders in Romania.  They have been advocates and friends; they helped create the sports camp which was one the highlights of my summer.  Being able to go to the foundation twice a week has been a blessing.  Thus I was thrilled to be able to celebrate with them at their annual holiday party (last year my school schedule conflicted with the party).

Some of the mothers from English class

Mothers and children came to part.  As is a Romanian tradition, each child who was old enough had to recite a Christmas poem or sing a song to get Mos Crăciun (which literally translates to old man Christmas or Santa) to come.  Below is a video of a student, Danuț, who was very nervous reciting his poem.

Maia and Miruna, two students in my kids class

waiting for Santa

Santa was accompanied by a choir from a local high school who performed for everyone gathers.  Then each child got a present from Santa.  Who unfortunately terrified a few of the kids.

Maia and Mos Crăciun

It was a lovely was to start my holiday season.  My students also bought me a lovely sweater which I will be wearing for Christmas.

Making Christmas

This week I am headed to a kindergarten in the Catholic village next to my town.  I got a request via a teacher at my school to go there a teach a little English lesson for Christmas.  Tonight as I am preparing I realized I really did not ask enough questions.  Kindergarten in Romania can be kids from age 3-5.  I don't know what age group I will be meeting.  I also don't how many classes I am expected in.  I know the school has at least 3 classes.  At least I have Santa on my side.

There and Back Again

For the past couple weeks I was back in the States reconnecting with my family, attending my cousin's wedding, seeing friends and generally enjoying the bounties of life states.  This will be my only trip back during my 27 month service and going back for a wedding was perfect because it meant getting to see more family than I would have been able to otherwise.

My first stop in the states was in New Hampshire.  I arrived 4 days before the wedding so that I could spend a little time with my family, the beautiful bride: Corona, and try to adjust to the correct time zone.  I also was lucky enough to get to do a presentation about my Peace Corps experience to an education class at Keene State College.  The students asked wonderful questions and it helped me think about my service in a new way.

As for the wedding, I don't think I can even do it justice by writing about it. It was just too prefect!  It was so lovely to get to see my dear cousin get married to an amazing guy and to see two families come together as one.

Celebrating with the bride

Following the wedding I then flew back to Seattle with my parents.  The time in Seattle flew by, but I was able to reconnect with quite a few friends and to meet some new members of my friends' families.  I got to meet Cecelia, daughter of Eliza and Daniel, who was born just a couple months after I left for Romania who is now an amazing 16 months old!  I also got to meet Milo, son of Andrew and Megan, who is 6 weeks old and Adelaide, daughter of Robin and Andy, who is just one month old.  I also got to have lunch with my 98 year old grandma twice!  I saw both Emily and Dieter's new house and Margaret and Kevin's new house; both are darling and I can't wait to have more time to hang out in them.  My parents also spoiled me rotten through out my time in the states giving in to meals of foods I had been craving for the past year and a half, taking me to Costco to stock up on supplies to bring back, by cooking Thanksgiving dinner early and providing birthday cake for dessert.

Turkey!

I also got to do short presentation about Romania in my friend Ona's kindergarten classroom.  The kindergarteners asked some impressive and hilarious questions.  When I showed them on the globe the distance from Seattle to Romania, one little boy asked, "Do you fly over the Atlantic Ocean to get there?"  Brilliant!  As I was holding the globe another boy asked, "How does the Earth float upright in space?"  Uh...  I told him that was an excellent question, but perhaps one that should be asked to a scientist.  Three hands then shot up and then we had, "My dad's a scientist."  "My grandpa's a scientist."  Oh how I love kindergarteners!

A presentation at St. Joseph School

Now I am back in Romania and getting ready for my first day back in the classroom.  I am afraid it may be a challenging week, but I feel ready to face the next month before winter vacation.

This and That

the D building at school, where my classroom is

I am finding the second year of teaching a bit easier, but there are some moments that cause me to pause and think, "What on earth am I doing?" One of those moments happened today, at the end of a class of eleventh graders.  I am now in the second year of teaching this class.  At the end of the class, as the students filed out one of the girls looked at me and said, "Hello!" The worst part is she wasn't even being flippant, she really just thought she was saying "Goodbye!"  As they went out the door one of her friends explained the error to her and she seemed surprised.  Sigh.

This year I am teaching three new tenth grades.  I think I enjoy tenth graders the most even though they are the most challenging for me.  It strikes me that my tenth graders still have a little bit of child in them.  I have found that my eleventh and twelfth graders are more weighed down by the world.  In tenth grade, students are still willing to play games and quite frankly, still have fun. This year I decided to do something a little different in my tenth grade classes; I let all my students choose English names.  This is common in American foreign language classes, but not in Romania.  I told students that they could choose any English name, but that it was optional.  In my first class, the girls did not want names, but I loved the boys choices.  I didn't give the boys any ideas; these are their choices, in the order they chose them.

• Jimmy Carter
• Eminem
• Brad Pitt
• James Bond
• Jean-Claude Van Damme
• Bruce Lee

I love the eclectic nature.  Every time I start the class and ask if Jimmy Carter is here, I can't help but laugh.

Achieved

A few posts ago, I wrote about the uniform donation from Brooks.  The handball team was finally able to get their uniforms in preparation for the season which will start in November. Here is part of the team at practice last Tuesday.  They love their new uniforms and look pretty great in them too.

The full team was not at practice this week.  The students at my school have been greatly affected by the change in the train schedule in town; 70-75% of the students in my school commute from villages outside my town.  This means that they rely on trains, maxi-taxis, and buses to commute each day.  Trains are infrequent and a recent change in the train schedule has meant that many students end up leaving school early.  There is a train at 1:55 and if they miss that train they are stuck in town until after 5:00.  Many students need to get home to do chores before it gets dark, not to mention the fact that if they did stay until the end of school there is no place for them to go.  In one of my 10th grade classes 7 of the 14 students leave at 1:40 (20 minutes early from a 50 minute class) to get the train.  Their form teacher confirmed that I need to let them go early, but it's very hard to try to pack in the entire lesson done in the allotted time before they go.  Not to mention that they only have English twice a week.

In my second year, I find it easier to take these situations in stride, but I feel no less sadness for my students and the opportunities that they miss.

Smaller

This year I have a new classroom which is smaller than my previous one.  I have much better seating for my students, the desks I had last year were terrible and not really built for high school students.  I moved all my "decor" from the previous room so it feels homey.  It was a little hard to try to get the whole room, but here are a couple snaps.

Sadly, the room also works better because all my classes have less students than last year.  Some students have quit school, others have transferred, while others have moved to join their parents in other countries.  As I created my grade books for this year it was sad to see all the students I have lost in less than a year.  One of the now 11th grade classes is down from 30 students last year to 24 students; a now 12th grade is down from 24 students to just 17 this year.  I hope to do what I can during the year to keep them engaged in my little bit of their school experience.  I only see each of my students for one hour a week, but it's a reminder to me to try to keep classes as enjoyable as possible for my students.

Getting There

Last week my tomatoes finally began to ripen and this week I had a tiny harvest on my balcony.  I also finally was able to start teaching in school.  This year I have three 10th grade classes, three 11th grade classes and three 12th grade classes.  All the 10th grade classes and one of the 11th grade classes are new.  It feels funny to finally be starting school in October, but as we say here, "asta e."  The expression ends up translating figuratively to something like, this is life.

Last weekend I went over to Bacau to have a birthday party for a couple of fellow PCVs.  The maxi-taxi ride there takes about an hour and fifteen minutes.  Along the ride I saw lots of fields on fire as people burned up what was left of their corn crops.  We also picked up a lot of people on the road who were coming back from working on their property in the country laden with nuts and produce.  Many people who live in the cities have family property in the country that they work.  As grandparents age in the country, parents from the city move in and inherit the property.  They then give their apartments, which they bought after communism ended, to their children.

As I rode, I thought of how my concept of time in Romania has become so different.  An hour and fifteen minutes each way seems like nothing at all.  I catch up on pod-casts and let my mind wander.  I worry less about those minutes of where I am not productive.  I worry more about my future, about the future of my students, about the economy, about unemployment, and about what I will teach tomorrow.  It seems easier to try to just focus on the scenes in front of me, about the burning fields and people returning from them.

Kindness

Last school year my favorite time of the week was handball practice. Admittedly, I was terrible at the sport, but I loved trying to play and being able to connect with a few of my students in a different way.  The coach was kind enough to let me take part in practice and tried to catch me up on the years of the training that the girls had.  Unfortunately, handball is not similar to any American sport I know and even after a whole year practicing, I still couldn't throw the ball with much force.  The game is played on a basketball court, with goals similar to hockey, and a ball similar to a soccer ball.

When I went to the matches that our team played with other schools in town, I was struck by the difference of appearance of our school versus the other schools.  Other schools had full uniforms and some even had names on them.  Our school only had a batch of men's shirts that were giant on them and even then some girls had to wear their own tank-tops or t-shirts.  Our shirts were also worn by the boy's team in matches; they were sometimes worn by both teams each week, and quite frankly smelled of it.

my school, in white

I spent a lot of time with the girls last year and I wanted to think of way to thank them for all their patience with me.  I finally decided I would try to get them shirts that were cut for girls and actually fit. I tried to think of how to accomplish this.  I couldn't think of any place in my town that had nice shirts that were made for sports.  I decided I needed some reinforcement stateside.  A friend of a friend works at Brooks, makers of fabulous running gear. I thought I would give it a shot.  I wrote a letter asking if they be willing to donate shirts to the school.  They wrote back, that they would not only donate shirts, but also shorts.  The girls would have complete uniforms, that actually fit!

Over the summer a big box arrived from Brooks and I have spent the past few weeks in anticipation.  This week will be the sign-up for handball (it's a year-round sport so it starts a little late) and next week will be the first practice.  The coach has the uniforms and is equally excited to show the team their new uniforms.  

Stayed tuned for the big unveil in a few weeks!  Also, again a giant thanks to Brooks, for the amazing donation!

Waiting

While September signals the beginning of the school year, that hasn't been the case for this Peace Corps Volunteer.  The Romanian education system is in a flux this year following the results of the end of year baccalaureate exams last year.  The Economist covered the results last July saying, "...the results of the Romanian school-leaving baccalaureate exam were released. They did not make for pretty reading. Following an anti-cheating initiative that saw CCTV cameras installed in schools, pass rates plummeted. Over half the students taking the exam failed; just two years ago, the pass rate was over 80%. In some schools, not a single student passed."  This has lead to different start of the school year across Romania with students now having to take initial tests in each subject to try to help establish a baseline of student's ability.  

For me this has meant that I haven't been able to do anything in the classroom yet.  There has been intense pressure on the teachers in my school to create the initial tests, review the previous year with the students and give the tests.  My counterpart told me that all the reviewing and testing needs to be done by Romanian teachers; so it's easier if I am not in the classroom.  

I took my queue and have been engaged in other activities.  The second week of school I learned that I will have a new classroom this year so I spent time clearing out the old one and decorating the new one (I'll get some new photos eventually). The nice thing about having done this once before I feel quite a bit more calm about the process.  

Outside of school, I have also been cooking a fair amount. I enjoyed the bounties of the late summer harvest making peach pancakes and then started right on fall produce making apple sauce and roasted butternut squash.  I also enjoyed the bounties of a care package from home using cranberries and walnuts from my parents to make cookies to take to the NGO where I volunteer.

Peach pancakes

Roasted butternut squash and pasta

Cranberry walnut oatmeal cookies

Next week looks like I will finally start working in the classroom.  The end of this week we should have the results from the initial tests.  I still do not know how this will play out in terms of what I will be teaching, but I am learning patience is a necessary virtue, especially as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Service and Stuff

Ones of the interesting things about being a TEFL volunteer is that the summer gives me the unique freedom to do other things.  My school has no program or projects for me to participate in between now and September so this gives me the freedom to do other things.  I say this with a mix of joy and frustration.  There may be things happening at my school, but my inability to get fully involved in my school community leaves me not knowing.  However, I am lucky to have found some other projects.

Each week during the school year I teach an adult English class with a local NGO.  This NGO provides an amazing range of services to the local community including pre-natal care, post-natal counseling, parenting classes, food assistance and much more.  My friends at the NGO, Angela and Saskia (a Dutch volunteer), wondered I might like to do something in a village outside of my town this summer.  I jumped at the chance and with their help partnered with the village school (1st to 8th grade) to create a weekly activity for the students with games, sports and a tiny bit of English. 

Today was my first day camp and I had 34 kids show up!  We had the activities in the yard at the school. The children ranged in age from 6-13 (I think), it was a little hard to get a good sense with so many.  We did some warm-ups, sang "head, shoulders, knees and toes," learned weather terminology and played a game, played chain tag, and "red light, green light."  We took a break after tag because we were all getting very hot.  I suggested water, thinking there would be a drinking fountain they could use, but then I realized that I realized two things.  First, I have never seen a drinking fountain in any Romanian school I've visited (I think I have been in about 15 in various cities here) and second, in the village there is no running water.  Thus our water break involved sending some kids down the road with a bucket to get water, then using the community cups the school has so that everyone could get a little water.  After the break we played a little more and then I quizzed everyone about weather terms.  I am already plotting my next visit and trying the brainstorm games to play with lots of kids in a small yard.

In general, it's hard in the middle of PC service to really take stock of what I am doing.  This past school year has been a lot of things, many of them challenging.  I have tried not to write too much about it in my blog because staff urges us when having challenging days to write in journals or e-mails rather than write publicly.  I have been very lucky to have amazing support from friends and family back home, but have continually struggled to find purpose in my service and the ability to touch the lives of my students.  Today, however, I felt a little closer to finding purpose as I was actually doing something that wouldn't have taken place if I wasn't there.  In school it's difficult because even if I wasn't in school my students would still be having a English.  I try to make my English classes fun, but I've admittedly missed the mark for what Romanian teenagers consider fun.  Thus it was nice to do something new with a younger age group with no particular goal except running around and having fun.

In other news, the Peace Corps announced their intention to leave Romania last week.  The group that is swearing-in and beginning their service this week will be the last in Romania.  This is the 20th year of Peace Corps in Romania and it is now down to just the TEFL sector.  You can read more about the news in the link above.

Lastly, I want to wish a very happy birthday to my brother, Matt.  I am afraid my card might not make it in time, but here is a preview.  I hope it makes it to you eventually.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROTHER, I LOVE YOU!

Classroom Progression

Recently, I've been doing a lot of cleaning, both physically and digitally.  I've been sorting through all the papers that piled up in my apartment during the school year and been sorting through all the photos and documents that I have saved on my computer over the past year plus in Romania.  As I was looking through photos I found a series of pictures that I thought needed to be compiled.  This follows the progression of my room throughout the school year.

The first photo shows the classroom I was originally told would be mine.  I walked in the week before school started to find a hole in the wall and water damage.  Thus this didn't end up being my classroom.

When school started I did get a nice and rather giant room.  The room has lots of light which is great, but when I first got it, I found the configuration a little funny.  To be honest, I still don't understand why you would put the blackboard in the corner and then have the desks facing a different wall, but as a visual learner I want to make sure my students could see the blackboard without turning in their chairs.

I reoriented the desks and added a map and a few postcards from home, asking my friends and family to mail me more.

As the year went on the postcards multiplied and and I tried to make the walls a little more exciting.

By the end of the year, we also gained decorations from our partner school, St. Joseph School in Seattle.