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| The day of the grapes + a rural excursion | | |
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My host partner and host mother are both a part of a women’s group in our town. They participate in folkloric competitions (and sing at every gathering), they also plan and participate in seminars during the winter and enjoy going on short excursions together. My first few weeks at site we went on the monastery tour and also on a rural excursion to Svetlana’s house. Svetlana is the religion teacher at the school and she also has a beautiful garden. She invited all the ladies over to check out her home, garden and put on a masa (or lunch) for the group.
In Moldova, the idea of savings, credits, or bank accounts is still pretty foreign (especially with more rural communities) and so many people put almost all of their liquid funds into their homes. The government can’t take their homes away and so to them it is a solid investment into the frumos-ness (beautification) of their living situation. It’s hard for me to really wrap my head around this concept, mostly because I have always considered a house more of a liability than an asset and when the idea that saving monetary funds for future use is foreign, it is hard for me to continue to believe that this country will develop at a very fast pace. This is probably the reason for a large dependence on grants and foreign funds to implement any project.
Anyway, enough of that. Here are some pictures from our excursions:
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| Some of the food from lunch. |
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| Svetlana pouring the wine. |
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| The ladies toasting with some of the wine. | | |
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| The whole group in the rose garden |
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