Although it makes getting to work more of a workout and an adventure, I have to say that I love the beautiful fluffy whiteness. Maybe it’s just the Norwegian girl in me coming out, because it sure ain’t the Southern girl.  But it makes me giddy and smiley.   Romanians look at us like we’re crazy because we are two adults chucking snowballs at each other on the sidewalks. And today, we left several snowmen around town. Simple pleasures, huh?  Happy winter, y’all!

   The street where we live

a trashcan snowman to brighten the neighborhood

The cause of my stress is easy to peg.  We’re leaving for a month and there’s stuff to get done.

We have loose ends to tie up at work. I said goodbye to the kiddos at the special school and in the midst of our therapy group a boy had his first grand mal seizure.  Since the nurse wasn’t nearby, the teacher and I ended up calling emergency as he was turning quite gray and blue.  One of my biggest fears in Romania has been that I need to call 112 (Europe’s 911) and with the stress, my brain doesn’t work in Romanian and I can’t communicate what the emergency is.  Fortunately there was a parent nearby and I just shoved the phone in the parent’s face and he talked.  It was a crazy morning, for sure. Fortunately the boy is all right but quite fatigued and a bit confused.  The students who witnessed the seizure were rattled to see this, but after talking about it and making sure he was OK, attention was turned to the brownies David made as a treat for them.  Thank God for brownies.

I also have several projects going on that will be passed on to other PCVs (http://gad16zile.wordpress.com) and librarians and I feel like I’m ditching them a bit with more work. But hopefully everything will go smoothly.

For our homelife, we’re sadly counting down the days we have with Zamfira until she gets to stay with Aunt Ramona (our counterpart) while we’re gone.  As a relatively neurotic cat-mom, it’s a bit stressful to say goodbye to her. But she’s a flexible little Peace Corps Volunteer kitty and we’ll all survive.

We also have been confusing most of town by trying to pre-pay bills.  Our bloc association guy said that it’s normal for people to be 2 months behind in their bills, so if we’re one month behind, it’s no big deal.  We still gave him a bit in advance because we want to be good residents. But it’s definitely seen as strange!

And of course there’s the joy of packing and traveling and getting all those details together. . .

The excitement is easy to pinpoint as well.  We’re going HOME! Where there’s family (moms, dad, brothers, new nephew, aunts, uncles, cousins) and friends (and their babies) and American cats and Baja Burritos. And it’s been a long while.  Added to this is the joy and fun of Thanksgiving and Christmas and our wedding anniversary all squeezed into 40 days at home.

But alongside the ever-present stress and the understandable excitement, I’ve realized that I’m slightly terrified of going home.   I’ve existed in a country where I don’t understand everything going on around me.  At first that was a bother and I couldn’t wait to understand more, but I’ve come to like tuning out the radio or not eavesdropping on public transportation and living in my own world when I need or want to.  But what happens when I’m back in a place where I understand everything whether I want to or not?  What if Americans’ first world problems make me impatient and judgmental? For most of my time here, I’ve been able to choose to pay attention to US news, but when it’s in my face all the time, will I be able to handle it? What about driving? And the hurried pace of life? And shopping at malls (after Thanksgiving no less!) And other ways I’ve changed that I might not even realize? Can you feel the snow-balling rolling?

But I’ve promised myself that Sunday when I leave Ramnicu Valcea, I’m leaving all the stress and worry and “what ifs”  here.  And I’m just going to enjoy the ride home to people who love me.

And so I joined the Peace Corps, thinking that perhaps I could combine my service with my education/experience as a therapist.  While in Targu Neamt, I didn’t really stretch my music therapy muscles all that much.  I did a bunch of community integration work, art therapy work, but music wasn’t really in the cards and I didn’t want to force it. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed as I missed music therapy and hoped that in my third year extension, I’d have an opportunity to BE a music therapist in Romania.

When I arrived in Ramnicu Valcea, one of the librarians approached me about working with her son’s class.  Word had gotten out that I was a music therapist and I was needed.  So now, once a week, I head down to Babeni (a village outside of town) and I have a music therapy group with 14 – 16 years old at the Center for Inclusive Education.  The teacher, Adnana is a dream to collaborate with.  She’s patient with the students and with me.  She picks up what I’m trying to do easily and since everything is in Romanian, that’s a great help.  We’re a great team and she gets what I’m doing.

The kids are wonderful.  I’m constantly amazed by how open and welcoming they are, how loving they are, how joyful they are despite the tough lives many of them have.  While some of the students have families that are involved in their education/care, many live in group homes or orphanages.

And Tuesdays, we come together and sing little songs that I’ve written in Romanian about basic things like — what’s my name and how are you and can you find something this color.  The kids who don’t typically initiate conversation, start singing.  The kids who need to be first, wait their turn.  The kids who don’t have a chance to make choices, choose who’s next.  All in music. It’s lovely and joyful and active and therapeutic.

I’ve got a few challenges ahead of me: my repertoire of therapy songs in Romanian is small, so I need to get some songwriting done; I have no instruments other than my guitar and I’d like to include some small percussion instruments; and I’ve got more teachers at the school asking me to have a therapy group with their classes.

Regardless of these challenges, the joy of being a therapist with those kiddos is definitely the highlight of my week!

8 September 2010 for a Coursesites training at the library

This morning, we woke up and while I got our Halloween dinner stew in the crockpot, David made brownies with white chocolate frosting.  This afternoon, we bounced around the library sharing them with everyone — librarians, security guards, cleaning ladies, even the director, wishing them a Happy Halloween.  It was one of those cultural exchanges that puts a smile on everybody’s face. We also busted some gender stereotypes because everyone was shocked when they heard David made them!  David? Bake? Well, yes he did!  And they were tasty.

photo from Halloween 2010 in Targu Neamt.

1. On skype — with my beneficiaries from Targu Neamt!  It was great to chat with them!
2. The library — we had our first discussion group with University students.  It went well, but we’re going to have to strategize to get them to participate more.
3. The Astra Documentary Film Festival in Sibiu — I went up there because the film, Home Alone: A Romanian Tragedy, was premiering in Romania. (View the trailer here)  It’s about three children from the Moldavian region with mothers working in Italy who committed suicide.  It was a stark and emotional hour-long film and it needs to be shown in Romania to really bring to light the ramifications of parents working abroad while leaving children in Romania. Biblionet is working with several Italian and Romanian NGOs to help parents abroad connect with the children using skype at the public libraries.
4. A 4-H Halloween party in Horezu, Romania — This was our pal, Chelsea Marshall’s organization and site and since she has gone home, we were invited to participate.  We planned games, had a dance party, judged a costume contest, and even DIY-ed our own costumes.  Actually it was the first time we have ever dressed up together for Halloween and we upped the cute factor by doing a couples costume: Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

With a new site, comes new assignments.  While our main job is to be Peace Corps Volunteers (integrate into community life, pitch in where we can, keep PC goals in mind), we are all assigned primary assignments.  We have been assigned to the Bilbionet Program at the county library in Ramnicu Valcea.  Biblionet is a project that’s being implemented by the IREX Foundation as a part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries Initiatives.  Biblionet project brings technology into rural libraries but beyond that, the project trains librarians to use the technology from a practical and community standpoint.

So it’s easy to see where David fits in –  he’s taking his role of teacher to the next level and is teaching and training librarians to build websites, to create blogs, to use social media networks.  The interesting thing is that he’s training librarians with the hope that these librarians will then teach rural librarians and community members.

Me, on the other hand — I’m less techy and more artsy.  But there’s a spot for me too!  A facet of the Biblionet project is library advocacy and promoting the idea of a library as a community center for activity and information.  So that’s what I’m doing — from discussion groups with University students to English classes with young kids to community awareness campaigns on drugs and women’s issues.  There’s a lot going on for sure.  I’m also working as a music therapist at a Center for Inclusive Learning in a nearby village.

SO that’s the work update. . .

While we like our new town a lot, we haven’t made the people-connections yet that filled our life in Targu Neamt. We know that it takes time and we’ll be patient.  But in the meantime, we’re grateful that we get to stay connected with our Botez family!

Hopefully (meaning, if I’m motivated) I’ll be posting a bit about the newness — our new town, new apartment, new jobs, etc.

I’ve been looking for some new recipes to try and pinterest has become a new obsession/recipe finder. I’ve got three new recipes to try this week:

Lasagna Flatbread
(image from Steph @ http://www.plainchicken.com)

Baked Asian Honey Ginger Chicke
served with veggies and rice
(image from http://www.allrecipes.com)

Hummus & Grilled Veggie Pizza
(image from Beth @ http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com)

I’ve been using the Pioneer Woman Pizza Dough recipe for awhile now and really like it. It’s especially nice because it can sit in the fridge for several days to “age” and can be thrown in the freezer too.

While at a Peace Corps Conference, Breanna blessed me with real Ginger Ale that she found at her site. I finished it this week and that means I will be going into withdrawal.  We did find a ritzy Australian ginger beer that’s sold here in town.  It’s super tasty, but expensive.  After my flop attempt at Ginger Ale several years ago, I did some googling and concluded that perhaps ginger syrup will save me! I made a batch of this ginger syrup this morning and will pick up some sparkling water and lemon at the grocery store this afternoon.

There’s other busy-ness to share on the work-front but that is for another post!