A Kansas City gal in Moldova: Life on a farm

Life on a farm is unlike anything I have every really experienced before. Above is a photo of my host sister, and now really good friend, Nadea. Her English is great, and she's helping me a lot with my Romanian (although I do feel, at times, it hinders me because she does speak English so well). It's good that she does live in the capital, though, because then I get to speak with her parents who do not know any English.

But today we were sitting outside on the porch, just after a perfect evening rain. There was thunder for about 30 minutes before the rain actually started, just before the sun set for the night. All of the people went inside, and the animals hid themselves so as not to get wet. I couldn't believe just how quiet it was.

As we were sitting there, we were talking about life. Everything about it! Mostly about how relationships work in Moldova vs how they work in the States. It seems like girls here tend to "settle" when they get to be in their early 20's because they are expected to get married and love seems to be confused with lust, and they really aren't happy (sounds like Kansas?). Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but that seems to be the general case. While I am no expert, I did try to give her advice (also as she was plucking my eyebrows). Hopefully she takes it in to consideration, but I also have to remind myself that I am not in America and people do things very differently here. The way I know how to do things is not necessarily the correct way, especially when it comes to a cultural tradition.

The conversations was finally beginning to change to another subject when all of a sudden we saw Zizu with one of her kittens!

We figured she brought the kitten to use to tell us they needed food, so we went and fed them. Then, before we knew it, all FOUR were OUT of the box visiting us. Up until yesterday, they were still in there. In fact, apparently they were still there up through today, but it's time to venture out and see what else there is in this world besides a cardboard box. We continued to talk, and I continued to observe the animals. Had I been back home I think I would have freaked out and immediately put them inside a bigger box. Then again, they would have been inside in the first place, so I wouldn't have worried about anything. Since they were outside, though, I got nervous. Then I saw Zizu and how she treated them. They would follow her around, and if one of them got too far away, she'd get up and direct them to a "safe" place (which happened to be under the table where Nadea and I were chatting). Then she'd lay down, and a couple of the kittens would snuggle with her. Then she'd get up and walk a little bit, and even led them through the closed gate at one point. It was just a sight to see! I'd never observed something like that before.

We also have chickens: