We are now mid month three. Two months completely down, nine more to go. And at this rate, this year is going to fly.
Probably faster than I want and not nearly as quickly as I wish it would at times.
It has been a busy and chaotic time. Our entire squad is together this month and we also had a debrief for a week in the capital city, Kiev, of the Ukraine. Myself and several others have been sick for the past week or so.
I wrote this blog a few weeks ago but was never able to find good enough internet connections for my computer to connect with so here is the blog on life in Tiraspol:
This month my squad served in Moldova. But my team and two other womens teams were in a part of the world mostly unknown to people outside of eastern Europe.
I first heard of Transnistria about a year ago when several blogs showed up on the World Race website talking about life in a fake country. Many of the blogs featured comparisons to Narnia and not gonna lie, this always made my nerdy side so so happy.
On the first of August, my team with two other teams made the trip from the capital of Moldova an hour and half north to the border of Transnistria. The buses reached a halt and guards scanned our passports and invited us off to fill out customs forms and be processed to enter the country.
Transnistria was formed at the fall of the soviet union. We stayed in the capital of Tiraspol, which is currently the home of ~140,000 people. At the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a war in the streets and many thousands of people left because of the violence, poverty and lack of jobs.
This month features construction work and teaching English.
English club has been filled with hilarious moments, and beautiful people.
We are helping to build a church and training center.
The majority of the time we work, we level dirt piles, and recycle old bricks.
The woman who serves and loves us is named Viera. We call her Grandma. She cooks most of our meals.
She really loves soup. And dill (along with most of Transnistria/Moldova).
She prays for us. And laughs at us. And gives extra food to those that eat like horses.
She speaks Russian. We speak English. But we have full out conversations. And we also taught her how to say lunchtime.
I smile, forgetting that people DO NOT do that here. Apparently, it means I am either crazy or have a developmental disorder.
Or I am flirting. But no dating on the Race everyone.
Ice cream here is available for 10 cents.
We walk 30 minutes for everything. Until I discovered the minibus.
People park their cars wherever they would like.
The currency is 11 rubles to 1 dollar. We lived off of $8 per day.
Also to my dear A&J – There is swimming at the beach at the river. The sand gets really hot. And no matter what, keep your long swim trunks. It is good to try out local customs, but do not try out the local swimsuits for men. Trust me.
I love you in Russian looks like this:
