Update from Transnistria!
Well we said farewell to Romania this past Monday. At 6:30 in the morning we loaded up our busses with packs and memories and drove off towards our next destination; Moldova! Most people, including myself, have no idea where Moldova is at. It is a small country between Romania and Ukraine. Up until 1991 Moldova was under Soviet rule. The idea of heading to a country that still had some strong ties to communism was a little unsettling and I wasn’t sure what to expect.
After a few fun days of traveling where we swam in the black sea, had our first experience with squatty potties and recuperated from last month we arrived in Moldova. From there our teams all hugged goodbye and wished each other farewell as we headed to our separate towns and locations within the country. My team however was paired with two other girls teams this month so we had no idea what that would look like. The 21 of us ladies headed towards the city of Tiraspol which is in the country of Transnistria. This is about to get confusing, but just keep reading. 🙂
Transnistria is a country that is recognized by Moldova as its own country but is not recognized by the United States as its own country. So basically the U.S. considers the country we are in as Moldova but the citizens here as well as the other citizens of Moldova consider this area the country of Transnistria. They have border control and everything; however they don’t stamp your actual passport but just a piece of paper that you keep with your passport. Oh, and they speak Russian. There are still many communist symbols around the city as well as a large number of military men everywhere. We were told it is best to keep quiet when passing any of them on the street so they don’t hear us speaking English. (I don’t know that this helps us with blending in, our awful american hiking clothes give us away amidst all the European fashion.)
As our bus drove through the city we all talked excitedly. We couldn’t wait to see where we would be living! Finally, the driver pulls off onto a road that led up to a very grey, kind of dreary looking building. Imagine an old abandon warehouse. One of the girls on our bus yelled “Oh good! He’s just turning around!” We all laughed about how terrified we had been for a few seconds thinking this was our new home. Then, the bus driver turned off the bus. This WAS where we would be living. I wish I could have captured our faces on film. It is a moment I will never forget. So long story short, all 21 of us live in one big room that has a concrete floor and four concrete walls. We have a squatty potty to use during the day, and one shower to share. Today I hand washed all of my clothes even. It’s also a 30 minute walk to get wifi. However after spending just four days here I already love it. It forces us to spend more time focusing on why we are here and getting to know each other better rather than sit on facebook all day.
We found out that we will be doing construction where we live to help build a rehabilitation/community family center. Right now it is still really early in the project. We also will be teaching English clubs throughout the day to various age groups. Last night we set out to find the Expo center so we could meet the youth group we will be working with. After being lost for over an hour they sent someone to find us. 35 minutes late, all of us traipsed into the meeting trying to go ‘unnoticed.’ The announcer said, “well hello Americans!” and everyone started clapping. So much for slipping in quietly!
Sorry this really isn’t an exciting update. But I wanted you to know the basics so you would know what I’m talking about in later blogs to come. 🙂
