Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Christmas ‘06’ is over

   ... here are some of my experiences and observations.

   Nădlac is either 100% or pretty close to 100%
Christian. The population here is approximately
8,000 with seven Christian churches, Catholic,
Evangelical, Pentecostal, Serbian Orthodox and
three others. (This is a lot better than the village I
was in while in El Salvador. There they had six
churches with a population of 350.)

   The custom says that Christmas is a three day affair.
It begins on the 24th and goes on till the 26th. With
each day as intense as the next. There are no buses
running and everything was closed.

   Another custom is food, food and then guess what …
yup, more food. Also, there are some great dishes.
Unfortunately I am guy that is not a gourmet so I really
can’t explain it in an informative way, but my sister came
up with a good idea. That is that in the future I will write
an entry or two about the fantastic dishes.

   I received invitations and it began on Christmas Eve at
the house of my neighbor. The are Slovakian by nationality
so there were many incredible traditional Slovakian dishes.
Also at this time I learned of a tradition called ‘colinda’.
Colinda is the custom of going to peoples’ houses, and
either singing or reciting a poem consisting of Christmas
or good wishes for a happy healthy life. After, the residents
give a little present, either a little candy, money, usually
something small.

   Sure wish I would have learned that a few hours earlier.
In every life of a Peace Corps volunteer is the ‘frequently
looking stupid event‘. This is usually based on the fact that
despite the attempts to prepare us to integrate into the
local culture, there is too much to learn.

   With making excuses before telling the story, I have to
write about a ‘colinda’ embarrassing moment.

   At about 3 in the afternoon I see 3 kids at my door. They
are saying something about colinda and that they said a
poem and that I had to give them something. The first thing
that came into my mind was of my time in Africa. There, if
you gave a kid something in 10 minutes you’d have every
kid from three villages over, coming to your door.

   I wasn’t prepared for colinda because I didn’t know it
existed. So I didn’t give the kids anything. Then I told
them ( to try and get them to back off the demands) that
I am from the States and I am used to the custom there
that when a person comes to your door on Christmas, the
people usually bring presents instead of asking for them.

  Once colinda was explained to me, I got to say I felt kind
of like a grinch. More like a stupid grinch.

   I did have a very unique and positive experience when I
had lunch on the 25th at the house of a Rroma (Gypsy)
family. I have learned that it was a privilege. It was a
really great experience and I received incredible hospitality.

   The Christmas festivities culminated with a gala event
at the Nădlac Cultural Center.

  The show started with the youngest kids singing.

  

  Followed by a few other singing groups. Then
came the ‘Majorettes’ of Nădlac.

  

  And for the first time participating in the
Christmas festival was the Rroma (Gypsy)
cultural dance group. First singing in the
Rroma language.

  

  Then dancing …

  

  The grand finale was that of all the groups combined,
Slovakian dance troupe on the far left and the
Romanian dance troupe on the far right.

  

  They sang a Christmas carol to end the show.

  I have to say at that moment, more than any other,
I was impressed. There were Slovakian, Romanian
and Rroma youngsters together, celebrating one Christmas.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Christmas 2006 is upon us

... and a real advantage of being in the Peace Corps
and living in other countries is that it gives us an
opportunity to experience other peoples' holiday customs.

   Though it is a few days before my first Romanian Christmas,
I regrettably can’t give any concrete details as to how it will be.

   What I can say is that preparations are going
full blast and there is holiday spirit in the air.
Today I went to the grammar school to see some
Christmas spirit in action. What happened was
a simple, yet powerful activity. Simple by the
fact that it was children singing Christmas songs.

  

  The powerful part in my opinion was that they sang
the songs in three different languages. Probably doesn’t
seem like much, but it was important.
 
   The children sang the songs in Romanian,
Slovakian and for the first time ever in the
Rroma (Gypsy) language.

   The older people mentioned that they had never
seen anything like it before. It could be one little step
towards equality for all.

  Below is the picture of my new Christmas tree.

  

   It was given to me by the kids you see in the picture.
They said that they hoped that it will help me
remember my family and friends in the U.S.
on the upcoming Christmas day.

   This made me ponder, who is supposed to be
helping who? Aren’t I, a Peace Corps Volunteer,
supposed to be helping them? But you know the
truth of it is when a volunteer integrates in his/her
community, it becomes a symbiotic relationship.
In fact, I think that we get more than we give.

  I do want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas
2006 and I also hope that you receive the precious
gifts of peace and happiness.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

It is the time of year to make sausages

   It all started with 3 home grown pigs of approximately
200 kg or a little over 440 lbs each. They were huge and
they are supposed to get even bigger than that.

  They worked very hard for 2 days butchering the pigs
and dividing the meat and parts into categories. The
majority of the meat was used to make sausages and
other parts were prepared for storage.

   I have left out the beginning stages of the process and
the first picture shows the guys mixing the ingredients
into about 120 lbs of meat. They wouldn’t tell me the
exact portions of the paprika … etc. They said it was a
secret.
  
   After it is all mixed then it is time to make the
sausages. In the next picture you can see the
machine they use and a sausage in the process
of getting filled. That is a cow intestine that is
being filled.
  
  The next picture shows the finished product,
a proud looking sausage.
  
  It is more than making sausages, it is also a social
event where everyone participates.
  
  Also there is another important ingredient
in the whole process. That is a little of the
homemade moonshine ‘Tuiska’. (I am not sure if I
spelled it correctly).
  
  Everything goes smoothly with 'Tsuika'.