Diploma from The Art School from Targu Jiu and a press conference

The last two days have been full of exciting events! Yesterday, during a press conference, I was presented with my diploma from the Art School from Targu Jiu ( a city outside of Novaci) for completing two years of study in decorative Romanian art. The diploma represents the workshops I attended on Romanian art and the cultural events I participated in during my time in Novaci. The courses were taught by an art teacher and my very good friend, Daciana Ungureanu( Daciana’s website) , from whom I have learned about the diverse motifs used in Romanian ceramic work and on Romanian folkloric costume. AND today I was give the title of “Gorjeanul of the Day”  (Gorj is the county where I live, so I am basically Gorj person of the Day)!

There is no better way to finish up my service. I feel tremendously humbled to have the opportunity to take part in so many Romanian traditions. Nonetheless, to live in a community that will remain apart of me long after I leave. Thank  you to all of my friends who have, without reservations, invited me to their weddings, birthday parties, religious celebrations, cultural festivals and to be part of their day to day lives.  Your warm hospitality will make it easy for me to promote Peace Corps 3rd Goal: Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

A special thanks to Daciana, my teacher,  who introduced me and taught me about all of the beautiful Romanian folkloric traditions. It has been an absolute privilege to learn first hand from someone who loves and continues to promote her culture. Multumesc mult din sufletul meu, te astept in Chicago cu…vedem!

Here is a clip from the press conference( at the top of the clip it says: American received a 10(A +) from the School of Art):

Here are two county articles, you can use google translate or just look at the AWESOME pictures and my diploma!

Premieră la Târgu-Jiu! – Americancă, absolventă a Şcolii Populare de Artă

O tânără din America, „mândră de la Novaci”

I am holding my diploma on decorative Romanian art and Daciana Ungureanu is wearing a Colombian bracelet! Scumpa poza

Getting the final signature on my diploma from Ştefan Popescu

Art School Director Viorel Gârbaciu,

Urcatul Oilor La Munte/ The Sheep Climb the Mountain Festival

By far one of the most memorable moments of my service will be participating in a dance performance during Novaci’s annual festival “Urcatul Oilor La Munter” (The Sheep Climb the Mountain). Now on its 46th year, the festival is dedicated to the shepherds of Novaci. During this time period, the shepherds take their sheep up the mountain for the summer months and back in August at which time another festival is dedicated for their return. During the festival, folkloric dance groups from the county and near by cities perform AND this year I was lucky enough to be part of my school’s dance group! My students became my teachers and thanks to their patience I was able to “learn” the steps.

While in most cases I keep cool under pressure, I was so nervous because I wanted to make sure I got every step right. For the most part, I would say I was doing just fine but when the mayor noticed me dancing he turned off the music and said something along the lines of “there is our American volunteer dancing”, at that point I totally lost my concentration and had no idea what to do or what step was next. I froze but smiled.

After the performance, I was asked to give an interview to a local TV channel. Somewhere in cyberspace there is a video of me talking in Romanian about my experience. I haven’t been able to find it, but I can assure you it is GOLD! Or so I think so because my students saw me in the evening news and told me I sounded sweet, so I’ll take their word for it.

My five minutes of fame in Novaci ended before I knew it 😦

– Friends back home, don’t worry I’ll teach you how to dance it.

Students from another town getting ready to dance

Chatting with my students

Some the students that were part of the dance group. The black and white traditional costume is unique to Novaci and Sibiu.

Laura her daughter and me

Daciana and me. Also my PR agent for the day as she took all of the pictures and suggested to the reported to interview me.

My students lined up and ready to dance

Traditional Romanian bag from our area

Diana and me!

They look so cute!

Before I froze

TEAM NOVACI

I look so serious in this picture, though I was so happy to dance with the group.

La Revedere

With the Gheorghitoiu family

With some of my students and school director

Getting ready for the interview

I’m famous in Novaci

Below are pictures from a group from another city, Sibiu.

Building a greenhouse and planting trees in Novaci

After planting trees at school last year, I really couldn’t wait for the opportunity to do this type of project again. So, in early May my school was supported by the US Embassy, MaiMultVerde (a Romanian environmental organization) and Peace Corps to plant tress AND build a greenhouse! Now, I had never participated in building a greenhouse before but since my school was really eager to do this I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to learn and get my hands dirty. Of course, I didn’t realize the amount of work—more physical of course–the project would take.

If I haven’t demonstrated the amount of support my students have provided me during ANY of the projects let me tell you that they have been the most wonderful students to work with! To me, it seems like my students look forward to volunteering activities, they have so many ideas and are very good problem solvers.

While we had planted trees before at school, the greenhouse was a new project for all of us. First, we needed to collect 1,500 plastic bottles for the walls of the house. In the next week, students started bringing plastic bottles from home. The majority washed and took the label off which made the work later much easier. One Sunday, I went around town with some of my students to collect plastic bottles. It was a hot and exhausting day, but we nicely rewarded ourselves with ice cream :).

Getting ready to hit the town and collect all the bottles we could get our hands on

We collected around 140 bottles in 3 hours!

Once we had collected the majority of the bottles we decided to start the construction of the greenhouse. I had little to do with putting up the frame, I have no construction background unless you consider putting IKEA furniture together as “construction” , so I left it to the experts and took pictures, something I’m much better at.

The entire school got involved in this project so many things were going on at once:

A group of students were bringing the plastic bottles from the storage room to the constructions area

Other students were creating rows of bottles by sliding them into the garden canes

More kids working on with the bottles and garden canes and in the background others putting up the greenhouse walls

Another group was cutting the bottom of the bottles

Not all bottles were cleaned and still had labels on them, so that’s what another group was going…washing the bottles.

Of course, we needed a few laughs.

Moving right along, the students and teacher took control of the project

Remi working hard!

You see how happy the students are to work 🙂

After the first day we had half the house down and the students did such a good job at cleaning and placing the bottles in line for the next day!

The hardest part was putting up the roof

On the second day we still had a lot of bottle cleaning to do, glad to know the 5th graders were happy to work at it.

Teamwork

More teamwork, of course that’s what we are all about

You can see that by mid-day we had the door and other side of the greenhouse done

Students looking HAPPY again to work on this project!!! Love to see smiles

While we had some minor things to do to finish the greenhouse, all walls had been finished by the end of the second day!!!!!

Victory Jump!

The final project! Lovely, lovely greenhouse

The greenhouse took two days to finish…you think that’s a short time, well it is! We were only able to finish the house in such a short time because the entire school had a designated job. While some cleaned the bottles, other cut the bottom of the bottles, some created the rows for the walls and others put up the plastic bottle walls.

I should also mention that it was extremely hot those two days. Highly unlikely for early May but that was our luck! High 80s! We were all exhausted by the end of the second day, one of the teachers told me the following day that she had a nightmare where plastic bottles surrounded her!!!!!! Yeah, they were intense two days but now we can all be proud of the work we completed.

In the following days, the students with the biology teacher planted tomatoes. While I won’t be here to taste them, I can’t wait to hear how delicious they taste.

Students working inside the greenhouse

More hardworking students

 

A view from the outside

Taking a break to smile for the camera with my 5th grade students.

cleaning up the area near the greenhouse

Finding “treasures”

It might look small, but we can fit a whole class in the greenhouse

Getting the ground ready for the greenhouse

Concentration

Remi taking a break! He did so much work, always with a smile

Another hard worker, taking a break we all needed one.

Back to work

The 8th graders making sure the area is completely clean

The students took turn in the greenhouse, it was too hot for one student to work in there the whole time

You see how they always smile, and I swear I never tell them to

Walking back with friends

Team work

Here come the tomatoes

Finishing up the work in the greenhouse

The students standing under any shade they could find

All done with the greenhouse, time for more laughs

After all the work was done in the greenhouse, we moved to the second half of the project which was to plant trees. The school decided to create an outside classroom so students can engage in environmental or other outside activities during class time.

Cleaning up the area.

The trees, the wall of the outside classroom, had arrived.

Making sure the trees are straight

looks good to me

I think once the trees grow the outside classroom is going to look really neat.

Posing for the picture

Love seeing the classroom next to the greenhouse. In a few weeks, the school will place benches inside the classroom so the students can sit on.

We also planted trees in the other school I work, they also created an outside classroom. Other trees were placed in other areas around the school, accompanying the trees planted last year. The project took about three weeks to complete and there is talk of other environmental projects to follow. My final project at school, what a wonderful way to finish up.

One final picture:

At the end of the second day I went with one of the teachers to a restaurant in Novaci, and took a picture under a photograph of the Chicago skyline. Novaci and I were meant to be, no questions there!

The life and time in Novaci

On this particular day I was tired, cold and couldn’t get myself to write one line . I looked out my bedroom window and found the greens and yellows of the autumn tree dragging me out. I grabbed my winter vest, pair of worn out shoes, camera and walked out the door. A cold autumn breeze ran up my back causing me to quickly zip up my vest. I walked away from the main road and towards the sun.

Common on my road, I saw one of my neighbors on a cartuza heading home after a day’s work in the field. I waved, took a picture and continued walking. Like many days like this one, I wasn’t really sure where I was headed.

I walked along the unpaved road for about ten minutes until I decided to get off it and make way through the broken fence that gave me just enough room to walk through it.

The pillow of orange leaves spread across the ground welcome my curiosity.  I made way to one of the taller trees and took a few pictures.

The landscape created by the Parang Mountains, a range of the Carpathian Mountains, is one of my favorite things to look at on my walks to and from school. On a clear day like this one I can see the highest mountains in this area, Papusa and Mojoro. I sat and enjoyed the view of Novaci.

  In the distance two horses caught my attention, so I crossed another fence and made my way in their direction.

Before I could get close to the horses, a pleasant surprise peaked over the hill. A herd of sheep, my estimation around 70 of them, were clustered in one area.

The shepherd, nowhere to be found, must had been off gathering other sheep I thought. I sat on a small hill where I kept my eye on the horses and enjoyed the company of the herd. In complete serenity, I laid back on the grass and looked up to the clear sky. How I wished there was at least one cloud to make out animals. But for now, I had nothing to think about but the grass on my back and the light wind over my face. I closed my eyes and played with the grass between my fingers. I wondered off to think about my life then and now, typical of me, but was brought back to the hilltop by the nicker of the horses.

When I set back up, I noticed a small red object moving on the grass a few meters in front of me and before I could blink I realized it was the shepherd. He was sleeping next to two dogs and near a plum tree. I set on the hill and watched as he tossed and turned on the grass. After a few minutes I guess he decided to get up, put his boots on and slowly, almost unwilling, he reached over to his left and picked up his stick that helped him up. He said something to the dogs that I couldn’t make out, maybe something along the lines of “hey, our nap is over lets move these animals” or ” the faster we get up the less we’ll think about sleeping”. But I won’t really know. Without noticing me ,he leaned down, picked up his backpack and took one step after the other towards the herd.

I too got up, and walked over to him. His lived skin and worn out clothes welcomed me with a warm smile. Immediately, I knew this had happened to him before. His poise and calmness told me so. 67 year old Ion Nicu was looking after 87 sheep, to which he told me wasn’t very easy. The day starts at 5am and ends at 7pm,  and with no company but his animals, I understand why a nap would be a good option.

We talked about politics and  how life used to be and ,maybe for him, not so different than now.  Just a common subject among most of us, reminiscing about the time that was that we can’t get a hold of anymore.

Nicu didn’t carry a book or a newspaper in his backpack as I first assumed, he was illiterate. Instead, his bag was filled with his day’s food.

Nicu called over the sheep and said “sure you can take a picture”. Surprised that he would suggest it before I could ask, I stumbled to get my camera out. He spoke softly to his herd as they surrounded him immediately. After snapping a few pictures, he ordered his sheep to start walking and with that our conversation ended.

He headed down the hill and I waited until they were out of sight to start walking.

With the day almost over, I headed over to a tree and set there some more. Like Nicu, I too reminisced about the year that had gone by in Romania. All the ups and downs, the friends, students, celebrations and seasons.

A beautiful sunset now took over the blue sky, and I closed my eyes and took a nap myself.

My nap wasn’t very long, the cold wind that was coming in woke me up ten minutes into it. I came back home still tired,cold and had nothing to write ,just a couple of pictures to store away. Though, I’m glad I found them today.

16 Days Against Gender Violence national competition

On March 4, 2013 the Gender and Development Committee (GAD) of Peace Corps Romania, Fundatia Sensiblu and IREX/Porgamul Biblionet hosted the awards ceremony for the winners of the 2012 “ 16 Days Against Gender Violence” national competition.

Initiated on October, 2012, and now in its fourth year, the competition was a creative writing, art, photography, theatrical performance, and film competition for Romanian students. This year, the participants’ task was to positively and creatively express the theme “From Peace at Home to Peace in the World.” The competition was open to all general schools and high schools in Romania with interested students. The time period for submissions included the internationally recognized 16 Days Against Gender Violence in November and December that coincides with important international dates for women’s and human rights issues. GAD solicited creative interpretations of the theme “Peace at Home, Peace in the World” from middle school and high school students across Romania in the form of a piece of writing, a photograph, or work of art using our network of volunteers and teacher counterparts.

The campaign and competition was a collaboration between GAD, Fundatia Sensiblu, a Romanian NGO involved with supporting women and children survivors of domestic violence with their Casa Blu program, as well as being the only NGO in Bucharest working in the domain of domestic violence prevention with annual informational and public awareness campaigns and the organization Fundatia IREX/Programul Biblionet. The awards ceremony was held at the National Library in Bucharest and on display hung the art and written entries by Romanian youth.

A total of 133 entries were submitted from over 18 counties across Romania. Sixty-seven art, 39 essays, 14 poetry, and 13 film, theater and photography. Twenty two  judges from 12 organizations judged the entries during the 2012 campaign which included representatives from Fundatia Sensiblu, IREX/Biblionet, GAD, US Embassy, and other organizations.

In attendance were first place winners accompanied by a parent, Fundatia Sensiblu, IREX/Biblionet, GAD Committee, staff from Peace Corps, non-government organization and community members. At the registration table, guest received a handmade martisor (a martisor is a small trinket given to women on March 1st, one of my favorite Romanian holidays! I wrote about this before here)  by Daciana Ungureanu, an artist from Novaci, Gorj. The program opened with an introduction to the event by IREX/Biblionet Romania Advocacy Officer Daniela Draghici. Diplomas and prizes were awarded to first place winners and judges were recognized for their cooperation and support in the campaign. Winners of this year’s campaign received digital cameras, art supplies, a diploma and lodging and transportation to the awards ceremony in Bucharest.

To view all entries, follow the link:  http://gad16zile.wordpress.com.

–After having worked on this project for so many months, I was delighted to see the final results at our awards ceremony. All of our hard work paid off by the success of this event, everything ran smoothly! Sharing this moment of celebration with the winners, their parents, member of all three organization GAD, Fundatia Sensiblu, and IREX/Biblionet was a wonderful way to conclude the project. Not to mention the fact that the Romanian counterparts that were part of GAD will be creating an NGO to run this campaign next year. The amount of success of this event and project has left me smiling for weeks– Andrea

Theater performance

Art display with first place winner for elementary school (top left)

Art display

1st Place winners

First place winners, parent, and Cristina Hora Executive Director of Fundatia Sensiblu

First place winner, High School Art.

Display with art

Display of art and first place winner of poetry

Art display

The Gender and Development Committee of Peace Corps Romania

Theater Group

Daciana Ungureanu, Miruna Gruescu (first place winner for elementary school- art), and me.

English Winter Camp and more training

Welcome Students!

One of the ongoing projects I’ve been working on has been to train leaders to run the English camp once Peace Corps leaves. I blogged about it before here where I mentioned that Romanian High Schools students were being trained by Peace Corps Volunteers and the Romanian NGO “Leaders of the Third Millennium”. During the summer, leaders received training on leadership development and then attended our summer English camp as camp leaders. Like any project, at the end of the camp our students gave us feedback and suggested that we provide them with more training on teaching English in a camp setting….so that’s what we did in December 2012.

We regrouped on a cold, rainy Saturday in December and I led a morning workshop introducing students to the communicative way of teaching English. The basic idea of this method, and one that I use in the classroom, is to teach English using interactive ways for students to learn. The leaders were introduced to the use of -total physical response-natural approach-relia-scripting/role play, gamification-sorting-peer work/small group. In essence, these methods taught our leaders how to implement music, poetry, hands on activities, games, and practice dialogues that students will use during camp. Leaders were involved in the morning session by participating in the games and methods I introduced. Then, to immediately apply the learned skills, we had a group of young learners come to school so the leaders could practice teaching them a lesson. It was a complete success because each leaders had a chance to teach a lesson in English using two methods learned in the morning. From the feedback we received the leaders felt more comfortable and prepared than how they felt last summer.

Our winter English camp took place in early January in Ranca, a small ski resort 30 minutes from where I live. Three leaders came up to the camp and led lessons during the four day camp. The breakdown of the camp consist of three morning activities that focus around a theme, during the winter we focused on winter vocabulary, Christmas songs, winter sports and other similar lessons.  All lessons and outdoor activities are led in English and students are expected to use the vocabulary learned during the day in the afternoon activities.

We have done a lot of wonderful activities not simply to teach English but to encourage students to step outside their comfort zone and meet new kids. We all know how it is, we stick to who we know…so we developed peer work and team activities in the first day so students felt comfortable approaching kids they didn’t know. We did a wonderful activity last summer in which each student created a paper mailbox which we later taped to their bedroom door. At the end of each day we had reflection time and students were asked to write something nice about each student and deliver the mail. It was truly wonderful to see kids run around delivering mail and later hear of the wonderful things students wrote!

We work with the students from 8:30-11ish(long days), depending on the night games the students want to play. During this camp, we played American trivia, musical chairs, danced, made Christmas tree ornaments, snow globes, peer work, skied and had a scavenger hunt. We also played dodgeball and tug of war in the snow. Oh, on our first night we watched Home Alone–always a good choice!

I commend and applaud these leaders because it takes a lot of courage to teach a foreign language at such a young age, especially when its their first time doing so. They have taken responsibilities that a lot of students their age shy away from. I know they will make powerful and important contributions in their communities. There is still one more camp we’ll run this summer and with that I’ll conclude my service and head back home.

Below are pictures from the training and the camp. I know they are out of order, I apologize. Andrea.

One of the snow globes created during arts and crafts

At the beginning of each camp students create mailboxes that we tape on their door and at the end of the day we have reflection time and every student writes something nice about their peers and delivers it! A great way for students to feel part of the group!

View from my room during camp! Sunshine you make me happy…lalala

Team building activity: students had to make figure out which were the safe squares in the maze by remembering the path and once finished help the other teammates.

Setting up with the leaders

Peer time: to create a stronger group we allocated time for students to meet with a peer who they did not know before the camp and answer questions we gave them. At the end of the camp they were asked to present their peer to the whole group.

Our rules are simple, HAVE FUN!

TEAM WORK…all the peer time paid off!

The kids were very creative with decorating their stars

Another project was to make stars, Christmas trees or snowflakes.

Working diligently on the snow globe

After learning winter vocabulary, we took the kids skiing

Delivering warm thoughts

“Disco Time” we have to celebrate our successes.

During one of the sessions students had to put together a poem. I tapped strips of paper around the room with the lines of a poem, one student was the “bird” the other student was the “poet”. The bird had to run across the room, read the line and run back and tell the poet. Once all lines were recorded the team had to figure out the order of the poem.

Students singing Christmas carols

One of our evening activities was to play musical chairs…you really can’t go wrong with this game

By far one of the funnest things we did, played dodgeball in the snow!!! what a workout

Playing tug of war. One of the leaders lost her shoe during the “struggle” but still kept on pulling without wearing a shoe

Camp Leaders

All of the camp leaders after the training

Reflection and feedback after the training

Leaders implementing the learned skills during the morning session

Leaders practicing their skills

Leaders working with students during the afternoon session

The holiday season came and went

Like anywhere else, the holiday season in Romania is filled with lots of cleaning, cooking, hosting and visiting friends, caroling and just a little sleeping.

This year, one of my English Clubs participated in the school’s Christmas celebration by performing “12 Days of Christmas”. I’m so proud of them because its extremely difficult and little frightful to get on stage, in front of the whole town, and sing in a foreign language. Not to mention the fact that the song we picked isn’t an easy one, even for native speakers! I think they did a fabulous job, and while you can’t hear them sing in the video they were and kept up with the dance steps. Bianca, Yulyana, Antonia, Felicia, Gabriela, Ovidiu, Liviu, Andreea, and Radu you guys did an excellent job.

Novaci English Club performers, check out the “candy cane accessory”

If you can’t view the video, follow this link

Also, during the Christmas celebration students sang and danced to Romanian carols. Enjoy the collection of songs from Novaci’s celebration.

Group of Novaci students dancing to Sarba

Novaci students wearing traditional costumes during the school’s Christmas festivities

Here are the songs:

If you can’t see the video follow this link

Similar to last year, this Christmas I participated in colindeţ which occurs on December 24th and it takes place in town. The tradition is for kids to walk from home to home collecting fruits, bread, cookies, warm wine, warm Țuică and chocolate. Residents set up a table outside of their home and distribute what they have made or bought to share with the kids. Everything is collected in a traista (Romanian traditional bag) and brought home to share with the family. I especially like the homes that give out warm wine because after walking in the cold for over an hour a warm glass of wine gives me just enough warmth to continue walking.

While walking from house to house, my students taught me the following song:

Cine nu dā-m colindeţ

Sā-I moară porcu-n coteţi

Şi căteau-m grajdi la veci

Că aşai la Novaci

Who doesn’t give us colindeţ

I’ll slaughter your pig in the coop

And the dog in the stable

This is how its done in Novaci

Translation– it obviously rhymes in Romanian and sounds funnier. If you should take anything away from this song is that you shouldn’t mess with people from Novaci, WE’LL go after your animals 🙂

Out with my students during colindeţ

Stopping off to take a sip of warm wine to warm up the muscles…or something

Some of my 8th grade students

Radu and Sandra being funny

Monica and I

Collecting colindeţ

My tradition of going to colindeţ started with an invitation from Elena my first winter here.

After colindeţ I came home to help my host family with the Christmas Day meal. In fact, cooking for Christmas is a long process that starts with the slaughtering of a pig and, in most cases, almost every family has a pig. I can only speak for the people I know in Novaci, people who live in big cities usually have or know someone in the countryside who can provide them with all the delicious sausages prepared after the slaughtering. Traditionally, the pig is slaughtered a day or two before Christmas to make several different sausages from the meat and other body part are used for soups and dishes for the Christmas season. However, now the slaughtering can take place anytime after December 1st because its a lot of work to slaughter a pig and make a meal in one day. I didn’t help with anything pig related this year but instead made “salata de boeof” which consist of slicing green and red peppers, tomatoes, cooked carrots, pickles and meat. After this is done we made homemade mustard and mixed it all together, it was delicious.

Finishing up the “salate de boeuf”

“Salate de boeuff” in the center of the table. This was just part of the final project. The rest of the salad is saved for upcoming religious celebrations.

Mixing the vanilla cream filling for the ecler made by my host family.

On the 25th I went to church with my host family. Usually, the Orthodox service is three hours long but we were only there for half of it. Standing is the norm during service as there are no pews in an Orthodox church. There is a lot of kneeling and standing so I usually get really dizzy and have to walk out to get some air. Its acceptable to do this, as people walk in and out of church during service all the time. And while there are no pews in church, there are wooden chairs along the wall that are usually reserved for the elderly.

I spent the rest of the holiday season with friends in Novaci and Targu Jiu. Being this my last Christmas in Romania, I wanted to make sure I was surrounded by the people who have taken such great care of me. Below are pictures of the Christmas lights in Targu Jiu, a city about 40 minutes from Novaci. I absolutely love these lights, they are filled with so much holiday spirit that its hard not to smile when you see them.

Târgu Jiu’s Christmas lights

More and more lights 🙂

Christmas Tree in Targu Jiu

One more picture:

Feli, a 6th grader gave me a birthday cake 🙂 The morning of my birhday, she sent me a text msg : “Happy Birthday, I’m sorry because you are getting older! 🙂 (joke)” .By far, my favorite birthday text msg. Thank you Feli

Time is indeed going fast.

Halloween 2012

Let me start by saying that we had a SMOKE MACHINE and strobe lights at our Halloween party. I can’t tell you how excited I was when one of my students told me he knew someone that would let us borrow them. Once I found out we had that, I knew it would be a fun party!

One word to describe this party: DECORATIONS!!!! Along with my English club students we made 18 ghost/monsters, a small haunted biology lab, 2 scarecrows, 50 bats, and drew a haunted house and a tree to put up on the wall. My friend Maggie mailed us glow in the dark skeletons, multi-color spider webs, spiders, a Happy Halloween sign, balloons, orange and black strings, candy, and “keep out” and “beware” tape. The elementary school teachers carved pumpkins with their class, which came up to us having over 60 pumpkins.Thanks to all the students, teachers, and friends we had more than enough decorations this year.

Before the party, we had a long line of students waiting to get in and once they entered they were very impressed by our decorations—we did work very hard to finish on time and to make sure that it looked scary enough. During the party we had a dance and pumpkin competition, and lots of dancing of course. This time around I was prepared with a list of music chosen by the students so I didn’t have to play the same two songs over and over again.

Of course, this being my last Halloween here I wanted to make sure the kids remember it…I hope I was able to accomplish that.

I hope you guys back home also had a spooky Halloween. Enjoy the pictures and also the video my students made for Maggie (follow the link)

Impreuna prin Anotimpuri: Peace and Friendship in Romania

Front Cover

Yes in this post I will ask you to buy something…it isn’t for me so don’t worry about it. I want to tell you about a commemorative book project a group of Peace Corps volunteers were working for 18 months, conceptualized by the Gender and Development Committee of Peace Corps Romania and realized by work groups of Volunteers, Returned Volunteers, and Romanians. As the Peace Corps post in Romania closes in 2013, this book serves to commemorate the contributions of Peace Corps in Romania and to capture the Peace Corps experience from the points of view of all involved: past and current volunteers, staff, counterparts, and other host country nationals.

It is an absolutely beautiful book that captures the meaning of the work done through Peace Corps Romania by all perspectives and it also promotes efforts to accomplish Peace Corps’ Third Goal: promoting a better understanding of peoples of other nations on the part of Americans.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3627629

Please follow the link above to purchase your book. Thank you, Andrea

22 Years of Peace and Friendship

It is wonderful to celebrate, specially if you are celebrating 22 years of peace and friendship. This was precisely the theme during Peace Corps Romanian’s Gala held at the US Ambassador’s Residence in Bucharest on September 27, 2012.

The Gala was set up as an interactive country fair where regions of Romania were represented by art, photography, dance, food/drink, and traditions while the collaboration between Romania and US was displayed by volunteer’s work, Peace Corps committees, and legacy projects. Guest, made up of language trainers, Peace Corps staff, volunteers, friends, counterparts, host families, and community partners, were able to participate in each interactive booth by painting eggs, tasting local wine, navigating through an obstacle course while blindfolded, pottery painting, reading volunteer’s legacy projects, and by practicing their Romanian “footwork”. In particular, my friend Daciana’s booth displayed her art by means of paintings and vases. During the interactive part of the booth she held a  30 minute workshop where guest had the opportunity to design their own ceramic plate with the influence of Romanian folkloric traditions. The participant’s positive response to this workshop is just one example of the  success of this event.

It has taken me awhile to process this event, as is the case with many things out here, but now that I’ve cleared my mind and have taken a step back I really can’t believe I’ve been here/away (I’m using both words loosely) for way over a year. Many true, long lasting friendships have been developed in such a short time and moments have been lived that I can’t display in a booth. I have stories, inside jokes, road trips, birthdays, school celebrations that I need to organize somewhere so they don’t get lost with new moments. Maybe the last months will force me to blog more, write more or live more; whichever comes first will be the right choice.

After leaving I felt a warmth of community synergy unrecognizable before. Grateful to have lived that moment and delighted to share it here.

Representing Novaci: Laura, Doama Maria, Elena, me, Doamna Nusa, Marius, Lizica and Daciana. Suntem din Novaci

Daciana and I

22 years of Peace and Friendship

Workshop held by Daciana Ungureanu

Below are pictures and descriptions of the booths. 

Szekeylfold Legends & Motifs/Hungarian Transylvania : displaying a map of this dynamic region featuring local myths and legends presented thru arts, crafts, and audio/video presentations.

Quilling in Bucovina: with an interactive demonstration of the craft of “QUILLING” artistic paper design

Gender and Development Peace Corps Romania: 16 Days Against Gender Violence Campaign

BUCOVINA PAINTED EASTER EGGS/Moldova:featured an interactive display of the painstaking and beautiful craft of traditional Moldovan Easter Egg Painting.

The Wine Road /Muntenia: The best of the “Wine & Fruit Road” of the Valea Calugareasca, featuring a wine making display and tasting and traditional pastries hosted by students and community members in traditional costumes.

Sarut Mana, Romania!/Maramures: displaying the totally unique and evocative area of Marumures in extreme north central Romania

Ansamblul Folcloric Paunita/Northern Transylvania: 20 members of the talented dance ensemble Paunita from Sangeorz Bai.

Arta Decorativa si Pictura: Oltenia: popular and successful Romanian artist Daciana Ungureanu, featuring a wide array of her artwork and how it has been influenced by Romanian traditions and culture.

The Road of the Wind/Drobrogea a display featuring arts and crafts (in particular weaving and mats) of the Delta region.

Additional booths (sorry I have no pictures for these)

• Peace Corps Romania’s Legacy/Muntenia: featuring Peace Corps Romania ‘s “Legacy” projects
• Leadership Development & Civic Empowerment/Crisana, Arad
• Scouts of Romania/Transylvania: an interactive display featuring the international scouting program in Romania.
• Land of Wood/Oltenia : display of beautiful photographs showcasting Romania though Volunteer lenses
• Life Skills for the Blind/Moldova: The booth gave guests the opportunity to navigate an “OBSTACLE COURSE” using a cane, as well as an interactive “blindfold activity” station to “understand that there are methods and techniques to learning skills” for a blind person to function normally in daily life.
• Compost Happens!/Moldova: Former Environmental  PCV and who is now working in the private sector in Cluj, Deborah Buckley will be showcasing the actual composting project she set up at the Ambassador’s Residence during her service.
• THE SPOON MAN – demonstrations of decorative wooden spoon carving

PCRO

* Thank you to the volunteers who let me use their photos.