Another week in Chisinau

This week, on January 7th, was the Orthodox Christmas holiday. There have only been two children at the Center, and it has still been vacation week from school, so most of the past week I spent in Chisinau with other volunteers. I had gotten a call from Pan, one of the other older, single women in our training group. She has a friend who teaches at the International School who has a very nice apartment in downtown Chisinau. Her friend was going to be out of the country and offered us the use of her apartment while she was away. We were there from Tuesday through yesterday, with a brief stay in Orhei with Macie and Craig on Wednesday night. We had all sorts of plans to do some "touristy" things, but actually spent a lot of time visiting other volunteers and relaxing. It was a good week, busy and fun, but not overwhelmingly so.

Yesterday, in downtown Chisinau, when I was walking to the bus I saw a car accident on the sidewalk. On the main street in the down town area, people consistently park on the sidewalk. Again, its not too safe here in many ways. I sent a message out to a few of the other volunteers who responded with concern that the driver had hit a pedestrian, which would be a logical response, knowing not to be surprised about the car on the sidewalk. No, I explained, this was one driver backing up into the main thoroughfare of the sidewalk, while the second driver continued to move forward to take the parking space that was being vacated! It is a thinking that is sort of consistent with how people push to get on to the buses, and all public transportation, before letting exiting travelers get off. I'm not sure if this is a "survival of the fittest" mentality, or just plain rudeness, but it is frustrating and exhausting to deal with. There is no orderliness when there is room for aggression. So, yesterday there was a fender-bender. On the sidewalk. Oh my. Other than that, not too much new to write about. It was a good week, and now I am back to the slower pace of village life. There isn't much time left, and still some stuff I want to work on. I do know that the busier I stay, the faster the time goes. Its under 90 days, and I can't wait! I love and miss you all. xoxo, Jami