Exerpts from a day or two...

My host father asked me a day ago if I was a Jew. I wearily answered 'yes, why...?' and he happily replied 'I knew it! Your hands and feet are small and you look like one!' and I asked 'so is it a good thing or bad thing?' and he answered 'oooh, it's very good! Jews are very smart!' and proceeded to tell me about how he worked with a lot of Jews when he was a construction engineer and they were great, smart people. Because I am a Jew, an American one at that, I search for the sarcasm or wait for the real opinion to come out, but he has since only stuck by the 'jews are smart' perspective and I've not heard him say anything negative. It's interesting to think that I'm in a region where my people (my peeps) were hated but here are your common Moldovean folk who really, like, know nothing about anything other than what they do know. It's also a little refreshing, the neutrality.

Monday night Ana (mom) and Big Sasha (dad) and I stayed up late talking in my room. As I said yesterday, I showed them photos on the laptop and then we just sort of went from there. They asked me a lot of personal questions, such as why am I in Moldova, tell them honestly, am I just vacationing for free? I tried my best to explain in a second language 'community development' with examples though the job itself is still very vague to me. I explained a lot about my life, from it they got my work ethic and a little background as to why PC is suiting to what I've done and want to do with my life. They were very pleased and impressed with my responses. They kept saying 'you Americanca have it all figured out, we out here know nothing, and you so young know everything.'

Then we talked about my family a little bit. They weren't convinced that I had no family left living in Ukraine anymore. I told them everyone immigrated or were lost in the Holocaust. They looked at me sort of puzzled. I reminded them, y'know guys, the Ho-lo-caust? Six million Jews killed throughout Europe? Then Ana said, 'Oh yeah! I think I heard something about that before. My aunt told me once about her neighbors who were Jewish who were really nice and then they were taken away by the Germans and killed.' and Big Sasha said "Baba Yar." And I'm like 'Yes, exactly, murder of Jews in communities all over Europe...' It was very weird and also interesting to recognize an uninformed and unfazed perspective on a well-known historic event. Even the perspective on WWII in general is totally flipped. My first day in Ioloveni I heard Big Sasha say the Germans should've won. I was shocked because at first I understood it as a slander against Jews, but then I understood that he meant it in terms of life in Moldova would be better for the Moldovean people because they probably wouldn't have been a part of the Soviet Union for as long as they were and would've aligned with Romania or became an independent country sooner.

But boy do Moldovans envy America. Man we got it good. We are like full speed ahead and Moldovans are on the breaks, as Sasha put it. To not use God's name in vein Moldovans substitute 'America' for 'God' when cursing- we are that important. I definitely gathered from my talk with Sasha and Ana that the States are still very much considered a land of opportunity. They look at us Americans funny too. We're pretty popular around here. At the primary school that us volunteers meet at a couple times a week the kids look at us like we're aliens. But cool, exciting aliens, who might know American celebrities personally. The little girls in the photo asked me if I knew Jessica Simpson. I said yes, I met her once and she's very nice, which may or may not be true- they'll never know. Then they sang me a Pussycat Dolls song. Some people in Moldova have these expectations that we Americans all rich and successful (which we all are, right?) but from past experiences with volunteers in Ioleveni, Moldovans think Americans dress like shit (especially girls- Ana said that she bets some of them don't even bathe!) I guess when all the host mothers were comparing stories of past and current volunteers, Ana said some of the mothers were shocked that the girls left the house dressed so sloppy, that the girls didn't care what they look like, but Ana said she told the other mothers 'Oh, ours cares!' and that she was happy that she got me because she could tell I was clean. Sasha said that I pass for a Moldovean very well (in terms of how I present myself and my attire.) So I guess that's good. Though some might argue that passing for a Moldovanca shouldn't be taken as a huge honor, but today, and these next two years, it is.