News Update (Justin)

1. Joni got her latest blood tests back today. Her bilirubin levels were great, everything was great. That should be her last blood test! Praise the Lord!

2. The final version of my project website's front page should be completed by tomorrow.

3. I've been given the task of helping create the official Invest-Credit website. This will mainly involve writing much of the content in English so they can translate it into Russian and Romanian. Here's a competitor's website, you can see how high the bar is for us (note at the top you can choose English an option. This organization receives a lot of funds from the Soros Foundation).

4. McDonalds now does home delivery here! I saw the sign on the way to the office today. I doubt that we'll be taking advantage of that, but I thought it was cool.

5. On Sunday, we're tentatively scheduled to take a day trip to Romania with Tanya. Another stamp for the passports!

Book Review 1 (Justin)

Joni and I have been reading books about Moldova. I finished The Moldovans by Charles King. Considered the definitive history of the people and country.

If you spend much time in Moldova, or plan to, this book is a MUST read. From the 1300s to 2000, King has done amazing research into the fascinating history of this part of Europe. He explores the Moldovan identity crisis. I learned that what I wrote in my previous post doesn't even cover half of it. Reality is always more complicated than it seems.
I found it fascinating how from 1812-1989 there were large battles for the Moldovan identity. Romanians didn't treat Moldovans all that well when they owned the territory, and the Soviets were inconsistent with their manipulations of the language, changing their mind about 3 times and killing or imprisoning those who followed orders the first two times.
King also covers the troubles in the 1990's, the issues with minority people groups, and possible political consequences for the future. He does a really thorough job of defining the various political views and giving their histories.

I give the book 4 stars for a really well-researched history on Moldova. I learned a lot.

Thanksgiving Celebration

We were very blessed to have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving celebration right in our own home! We had four American friends over - Kelly, Shauna, Tanya, and Rachel. We didn't eat until about 4:30, but the girls arrived at 3 to help me cook the last of the meal, and it was so much fun cooking all together!!! Of course, my tiny kitchen only holds about 1, but we managed to squeeze 4 of us working in there all at once - we're good friends!

In this picture, Tanya, me, and Kelly are working on the turkey. We decided not to try to do a whole turkey, so we just bought some turkey breasts and I found a yummy-sounding recipe on cooking.com called "Turkey Breast with Mustard Sage Crumbs." So Tanya placed the turkey breast on the pan, I coated it with Dijon mustard, and Kelly put on the crumb topping. Good teamwork, and the results were DELICIOUS. Meanwhile, Rachel was at the sink peeling potatoes.

Once the turkey was in the oven, Kelly went to the living room to work on the table decorations, and Justin helped her. She wanted to make origami turkeys, but they turned out to be more difficult than expected. Between the two of them, though, they managed to end up with one perfect turkey, and he was definitely a good addition to our Thanksgiving festivity! In this picture, he's really enjoying his apple cider.

Justin also, being the gentleman of the group, brought home some beautiful flowers to adorn our banquet, so I arranged them in a teapot for display.

Our table was a sight to behold once it was finished! We had the turkey breasts, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes with apples, Stove Top stuffing, cranberry sauce, and croissants! We're very thankful to Tanya, who had brought over many American items for the celebration, which enabled us to do the green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce! She also brought the festive paper plates and napkins, which made cleanup much easier!

In this picture, from left to right, are Rachel, me, Justin, Kelly, and Shauna (Tanya was our photographer!). The food was all delicious, and we had a FANTASTIC time together - eating WAY too much. After the meal, we watched a little bit of football we had downloaded... You can't have Thanksgiving without watching football, right?! Then we ate dessert - apple pie (made by Tanya) and pumpkin pie (by Kelly)! Both were delicious. And then we rounded off the evening with a vigorous round of Phase 10 before saying goodnight.

It was such a fun evening, and we are SO thankful for the dear friends God has given us for our time here in Moldova.

Cultural Note (Joni)

I had a funny story this week that I wanted to share on here. Inna is one of the daughters in our family who lives next door and owns our house, and she is also Justin's language helper. She is a gorgeous, talented 19-year-old. When she came to our house on Friday evening for Justin's language lesson, I noticed she had gotten her hair cut. So I mentioned it, and the conversation went something like this:

Joni: Inna, did you get your hair cut?
Inna: Yeah.
Joni: I love it! It looks great!
Inna: Well, thanks. I liked it for the first hour after I got it cut, but then I didn't like it anymore.

I didn't laugh at her then, but I did laugh over it later. What woman HASN'T said this over a new hairstyle?! So it looks like in some respects women are the same everywhere, no matter what country they live in!

A Moldovan education

One of the best ways to learn language and culture is to read the same textbooks that children read in school. In post-Soviet countries there are textbooks for teaching Russian to non-native Russian speakers. I discovered this method in Azerbaijan, where I bought a collection of books teaching Azeri to Russian-sector students. They were all printed in Soviet times, and had lots of stories about the horrors of child labor in evil Capitalist countries like America. It gives you an idea of what the government wanted children to know early.

So, I found a textbook for teaching Russian to primarily Moldovan-speaking 6^th graders. It’s filled with wonderful stories, Moldovan poems, legends, and information about the country. (Fortunately, it was printed in 1997, so nothing bad about Capitalists). Here are a couple that struck me as, well…Moldovan.

One exercise required putting the sentences in proper order. Yes, I did it correctly:

1. Tanya put on her fall coat and went out into the yard.
2. There were other girls there.
3. Tanya began to play.
4. She ran and began to get hot.
5. Tanya unzipped her coat.
6. And then she drank some cold water.
7. That evening, Tanya became ill.
8. Her throat and head hurt badly.
9. Tanya was sick a long time.
10. Later, the doctor came and gave her medicine.

The exercise’s discussion question: Why did Tanya get sick?

In Eastern European countries there isn’t much said about microbes and washing your hands but there is a lot said about “never drink cold drinks,” and “stay away from any draft!” The tightly-bundled babies in the summer and the looks of horror older people have when they feel a draft on the minibus is evidence of this.

There’s a section in the book that features Aesop-like fables with animals. Most have a good moral to the story. Then, there’s this one:

“A cat was happily playing in the meadow with her kittens. At that time above them, a giant hawk flew by. He saw the kittens and swooped down to the ground. The hawk snatched up one of the kittens. But he couldn’t make it back into the air because the mother-cat pouncedon him. The fight began.
The hawk let go of the kitten and began to tear the skin of the mother cat with his claws. He poked the cat in the eye but the cat didn’t give way. She threw the hawk to the ground and grabbed him by the throat. The hawk couldn’t get free from the mother-cat. And the cat bit off his head. And thus, the fight ended.”

Wow. I guess the moral of the story is “it’s a cruel world out there.” Or, “don’t mess with the mother-cat.”

My least-favorite story is one that goes like this:

“The teacher called Vasile to her desk and asked him to write on the blackboard in Russian: ‘Radu eats lunch at 2:00.’
Vasile went to the blackboard and wrote: ‘Radu eats lunch in the course of 2 hours.’
All the students began laughing, and Vasile asks them why.
‘Shame on you for not paying attention!’ one of his classmates said.”

Ah, the traumatic and brutal education of public schools. Radu’s mistake in Russian was a common one of forgetting to write the preposition “at.” This probably happens often in my Russian speech as well, but I’d rather just be told I made a mistake rather than “Shame on you for being careless!” But, Vasile probably never made that mistake again, so maybe it really is a good thing.

So, just a couple examples of what I learn while studying. Much of the book is surprisingly a-political, not much history or discussion of current events or even geography. Much of it is just about family, nature, and education. I will probably keep it forever.

The Nutcracker

On Saturday we went with a group of friends to see The Nutcracker ("Щелкунчик," in Russian). It was fantastic!
First, we met for dinner at a new Italian restaurant. It's owned by this little Italian guy who only speaks Italian and bad Russian. It's the type of place that serves bruschetta as an appetizer, and has real oil and vinegar on the table for your bread and salads. Here's a pic, you can see the owner/chef in the middle. Joni had a fettucini alfredo that came with ham, and Justin asked for the chef's special and got one of the best penne dishes in tomato sauce he's ever had (also with ham). For desert we had homemade tiramisu, which was incredible! The prices weren't bad, the place was packed with Americans, and we had a great time! Then, it was off to the ballet!

The show was packed and the audience was really into it, applauding a lot. When they really get into it, everyone starts clapping in unison to the beat of Tchaikovsky's music. We were really impressed by the stage props and the orchestra. In a neat twist, the Nutcracker was a real person from start to finish, no toy props were used.Apparently, several of the dancers also perform in plays (like Romeo and Juliet) at this same theater. Quite a bit of work and rehearsing for only one performance per show.

A great Saturday evening with good friends and fun culture in Chisinau!

Project Update (Justin)

I had 2 crucial meetings with Vasile in the past week, as there has been much concern about the website not being completed on time. First, the basic skeleton is near completion. The page has at least one cool feature that will differentiate it from other commerce sites here in Moldova. It will be very user-friendly.

Meeting with Vasile in the office can be frustrating, because I'm trying to explain and understand things in Russian and English, which gets really hard when talking about technical stuff.
When Ghena joins the conversation I have to have him translate their Romanian dialogue to me, which is frustrating for all parties. Yesterday, Vasile called and said "Why don't we just Skype rather than go to the office to talk?" This ingenious idea saves us both 2 hours on the minibus and allows him to spend more time programming. I also discovered his typed English is quite decent, which saves me a whole lot of stress.

So, here's where we're at:
1. The front page will be completed by December 1.
2. The 4 major sub-pages will look just like the front page, so hopefully those will only take a few hours to write.
3. The behind-the-scenes administration stuff will be completed by Dec. 23.
Dima and Sasha are still working on all of this at home, and Vasile just has to get them together occasionally to combine code. All of them are working in their spare time, around school and other for-pay projects.

We're still on track to have the first version posted by the time we leave.

Thanks for your continued prayers for their efforts! Pray for free time and creativity for them, and smooth communication along the way. Thanks!