* OK, so every culture has it’s sayings.
  In El Salvador it was ‘poco a poco’ … little by little. If I
had a dime for every time I heard that …
  In Senegal it was (in the Fulakunda dialect) seeda, seeda
helbinta maayo … little by little the lake fills. Which is
about the exact meaning as ’poco a poco’.
  Here in Romania it is ‘aşa şi aşa’ which means … so - so.
  The other day I was playing around and listening to a
Mandarin Chinese lesson. In the lesson I heard the
saying … so - so. Upon hearing that I thought … I could
really use that here seeing as so - so is such a dominate
answer to the question … How are you?
  So I spent about 5 minutes learning the Chinese version
of so - so.
  Now armed with this phrase I set out to the grocery store.
That is place that 100% of the time you are going to hear
so -so as the reply to the question ... how are you.
  So … upon entering I asked in Romanian … how are you? Of
course I get the answer … aşa şi aşa. So I said “so you guys are
ma ma hu hu today”. Everyone in the place looked at me like I
was nuts. I told them ‘ma ma hu hu’ (the a and the u needs a little
accent on top but I don’t have it on my keyboard) means …
aşa şi aşa in the Mandarin Chinese language. Ma ma hu hu is
pronounced … ma ma who who. Also ma means horse and hu
means tiger. I explained to them the meaning of the words so
… horse horse tiger tiger … in Mandarin means so - so.
  It appears to be spreading exponentially as I have heard
someone I didn’t know, say it to another person.
  What was accomplished? A few laughs with people in another
country from another culture. Which on a personal note made
my day more than ma ma hu hu.

* To greet or not to greet … that is my question.
  One of the more basic customs of all, is greeting.
  In El Salvador greeting was a big part of one’s day. It was
pretty simple, there, all you needed to do is say … buenos
dia … to everyone. In the bigger cities it wasn’t quite as
absolute as out in the campo (field).
  In Senegal, it was greeting without borders. You really do need
to greet people and with the Fulani population, it can get quite
involved. It could go on for a couple minutes. It is like, how is
your house, family, health, children, wife/husband, crops and
on and on.
  After becoming accustomed to greeting, I have found that
it is has become part of my nature.
  In El Salvador and Senegal it is mandatory. If you don’t, people
are offended. Personally I like it that way. It is easy to
understand, you greet, end of story.
  OK, now here in Romania or more like Nădlac, despite the fact
that I have been here 7 months, I am totally confused about
the greeting customs.
  I have been told that the habit is to greet … nothing more
complicated than a buna ziua (good day) would suffice. I guess
it is one of those … it is great on paper situations.
  I have to say that it has been hit or miss. Nădlac is a small town
and at this point almost everyone has seen me at one time or
another. So to me, it is makes sense that greeting someone should
be a pleasurable event.
  Not so, it is like the draw of the cards, either you win or lose.
  I have to say that I do get upset when I say hi to someone and
they just look me in the eye as they walk by without responding.
  What is in my mind is … hey guys, be consistent. Some people
do reply but it is to the tune of a 50/50 success rate. It really
keeps me off balance, do I or don't I?
  Taking a chance at getting a greeting basically shoved up …
somewhere … is kind an exercise in anxiety. I don’t want to not
say hi and offend someone, and on the other hand, I don’t want
to greet and be ignored.
  If I hadn’t lived in the other two cultures where greeting is of
the utmost importance, I probably wouldn’t be so confused as to
what the rules are here in Nădlac. 
  From where I come from in the States (Massachusetts) the
greeting habits are similar to here. So if I arrived directly from there
to here, it wouldn’t be so much of a culture shock, just more of
the same.
  But … there were five years of greeting habits that I learned in
between the USA to here. I have to say that I prefer the greeting
rituals. As much as greeting every three feet can get repetitive, it
is friendlier and more human.
  It is interesting while living in another culture how some of the
habits slowly become a new part of who one is.
  Right now I am out the door, probably going to meet some people
on the street. I am going to take a chance and greet … wish me luck.

 * I met a friend this morning and we had a conversation. He is a
Rroma/Gypsy man and a great person. We have had many
discussions regarding the situation of the Rroma community in
Nădlac.
  It is no secret that in general the Rroma population of Europe
is looked upon in a negative manner.
    My friend told me a little story concerning his 9 year old son.
The child came home from school and was somewhat bummed out.
His father asked him what happened. He said that in class, that day,
the teacher passed out papers to work with but the Rroma kids
didn’t receive colored papers like every other child did. He told his
father that the reason was because he was Rroma.
   It is a very small thing and it sounds incredibly trivial. Logic says
that it is something that should not require two minutes of interest.
  Despite the trivialness of it, a child of nine arrived home after
school with a feeling that he was being treated differently because
of his origins.
  We know that when a child is born they are clean slates. It is
interesting to see how these notions of discrimination, prejudice
and other unjust themed emotions enters their being.
  We can’t say that just this instance could make a child ’go over
the edge’ and feel that he is being discriminated against. I am sure
that it is more an accumulation of other incidents. That one just
reinforced in the child’s mind … he is Rroma, he isn’t as good
and he isn’t going to be treated fairly.
  I am seeing first hand how prejudice and discrimination seeps
from one generation to the next.
  With situations like this how does a child grow up and not be
beaten out of his self-esteem? How can he believe that his dreams
will ever come true?
  Yeah, there are a few stories of the person who overcomes it all.
But think of this, for every success story there is probably 1,000
ones of failure. The result of ambitions smothered due to the
idiotic concept of the 'illusion of superiority over others'.
  Maybe that teacher was taught that it was the way to treat
those ... 'different' ... kids. Was it a subconscious act, possible.
Or did she simply, just want to do it. Either way, damage is done.
  It just proves that there is nothing too big or small that can be
used to stoke the flames in the furnace of discrimination.
  I have heard the Rroma make remarks as to the color of their
skin. The darker their complexion, the bigger the chance that
they will be discriminated against. 
  The irony is in the association between the color of their skin
and a colored piece of the paper.
  It is amazing to think how something as simple as a colored
piece of paper in the wrong hands could affect a child's spirit.

          

 * This morning at the coffee shop we had a discussion about
languages. One of the aspects that I enjoy about being in this
country is that, usually, when there are several people together,
there is a possibility they are a mini United Nations.
  There were only four of us collectively but we listed the
languages we could ‘represent’.
  It was kind of impressive, here's the list.

          Romanian
          Rroma (Gypsy)
          Hungarian
          Slovakian
          Serbian
          German
          Czechoslovakian
          Russian
          French
          English
          Spanish
          Pulaar - African
          Esperanto

  Not bad, huh, considering there were only four of us.
  We discussed a little about how Esperanto was founded
with the intention to be … the language that would tie it all
together.
  Here’s the Wikipedia explanation …

Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international
language. The name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the
pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof first published the Unua
Libro in 1887. The word itself means 'one who hopes'. Zamenhof's
goal was to create an easy and flexible language as a universal
second language to foster peace and international understanding.

Although no country has adopted the language officially, it has
enjoyed continuous usage by a community estimated at between
100,000 and 2 million speakers. By some estimates, there are
about a thousand native speakers.

Today, Esperanto is employed in world travel, correspondence,
cultural exchange, conventions, literature, language instruction,
television (Internacia Televido) and radio broadcasting.

  During the conversation a thought came to mind seeing as
tomorrow is ‘Valentine’s Day’. I told the other guys that
notwithstanding the fact that Esperanto was invented as a world
wide language, there is a language that exists and serves that
function. 
  They asked me what language was that … I told them it was
the language of love. As crazy as that sounded … they agreed,
but I think they agreed like guys would agree.
  On the walk home I thought about the language of love and
realized that not enough people knew how to speak it as it
pertains to peoples and cultures other than themselves.
  I have a pretty bizarre quirk and that is that I have a tendency
to like people that like me. I don’t know if I am the only person
in the world that has this inclination. 
  Maybe if we love all peoples we will learn how to speak, the
true international language. We have to understand amongst
ourselves the fact that we are all tied together. If we like people
who like us no matter who we are or where we come from,
then it may have the avalanche effect with a lot of suffering
wiped off the side of the mountain of prejudice, greed and hate.
  It is obvious that this is a fairly heavy topic for a simple blog
article but it is a rainy day and I need something to do. So 
why not work on World Peace for a half and hour or so?
  But I am challenging everyone who reads this blog to remember
that Valentine’s Day is a day dedicated to love. After giving
your loved ones a present and good wishes, why not go outside,
look up the sky and ask this question from your heart …
World, will you be my Valentine?

* When I arrived in Nădlac I looked around for projects that
I could do. I have activities with my NGO but I also do have
some time for other things.
What I noticed was that there were a lot of middle aged
people like me that could use some exercise. Here, it seems to
be against the norm for people with a few years under their
belts to do something of this nature.
The people do walk and ride bicycles a lot but the town is
kind of small, so even if they do walk or ride, it isn’t quite
enough. Also, the food here is really good, so that doesn’t help
in the battle against the bulge.
One of my goals was to try and be an inspiration to my middle
aged brethren. So I decided to start jogging. That doesn’t seem
like a big deal, but here ... it is a big deal, especially for a person
around my age.
There is a soccer/fotball field where the younger people go to
play fotball or sometimes run or jog. But for older people
exercising … you just ain’t going to see it.
So armed with this great idea I became visible, as a jogger.
I figured that I would become an inspiration to them all.
I could imagine myself being known as the Jackie Robinson of
middle age jogging in Nădlac, Romania. I would single handedly,
through being and inspirational example, break the non
jogging/exercising middle age barrier. I would set a new trend
that would just get the whole middle aged sector up off their
duffs and slogging away at them kilometers.
So every two days I lace on my sneakers (pictured below) and
off I go.



It has been about 6 months since I have started on the quest
for jogging enlightenment of the town’s people.
Like any ‘pie in the sky’ Peace Corps volunteer’s personal
idealistic plan to save the world … it hasn’t worked.
I do know the reason that led to the demise of the Cuban
revolutionary Che Guevara. The people in Bolivia didn’t want
revolution and he did. So it appears I am following in Che’s jogging
shoes.
I have come to the realization that this jogging project is really
nothing more than my feeble attempt at immortality in this
Peace Corps Romania assignment.
But you know it isn’t a total loss because I did set a trend. I now
have people doing the ‘incredibly trendy activity’ of sitting and
watching the ‘crazy-American, Jackie Robinson wannabe’ jogging
by their house at 2 in the afternoon every couple of days.

* If you want to get an animated response from anyone,
all you have to do is say one word … ‘Manele’. 
  Why do people get all excited when you say that word,
and by the way, what in the heck is Manele?
  If you want to know, keep reading.
  Manele is what would be similar, if not equal to
’Gangsta Rap’, only Gypsy/Rroma style. Man, just breath
the word Manele and it is like the sky is falling on your head.
  There are basically four themes to the music. First it is
about ’Mercedes’ as in Mercedes Benz. Second it is about
money. Third … of course about women and fourth … about
getting easy money.
  The main criticism is that the lyrics aren’t all that intellectual.
Pretty much similar to what people say or said about the
USA’s equivalent.
  Manele 'style' is a mixture from the Rromas of different
countries. I am attaching a couple of tracks and you might feel
that the beat has kind of a Turkish ‘flava‘. The influences are
from Romania, Turkey, Serbia and other countries. I think having
that mix is pretty ‘misto’ (misto = cool in the Gypsy language).
  The songs on the CD are in the Romanian language …

       

  At the end of this article there will be a link to a couple of
songs. One is called ‘La mine buzunar, casa de schimb
valutar’ which means something like … in my pocket there
is a money changing house or business. But I am sure that
a Romanian can translate it so that is sounds a little smoother.
Also there are references to smeckeria (trickiness or shiftiness).
It is sung by a guy named ‘Baboi’. The song is considered
a typical Manele song. Also there will be another song
named ‘Tu imi dai o foare eu o sarutare’ by a girl named
‘Denisa’. This is a love song which to me is a pretty good
tune. She sings about ‘iubire’ (love in Romanian) and
‘sarutare’ (kisses). Also it is about someone not deserving
someone else. So you can probably say that it could go
under the genre ... ‘Manele Lite’.
  I wanted to upload that song so as to give ... a better of
both sides, so to speak.
  On the CD in the picture above I don’t know who is Baboi
or Denisa but they are there.
 If you want to have some fun, try and count how many
times Baboi says the word 'smeckeria' in his song.
  So, just click on the link below and chose those two song
clips to enter the exotic world of ... Manele. 

Manele Music

* As I mentioned in a prior blog-article, my day usually
begins with a trip to the local coffee shop.
  The other day we saw a change due to the new European
Union influence. You can read what it is about in the
following picture.

   

  It basically says that … there is no more smoking in
the coffee shop, thank you. Us non-smokers can thank
the French for this.
  Last week we saw that the French made public smoking
… interdit (in French) or as you can see on the sign … interzis
(in Romanian). I keep telling the people that life will be
better with the EU. At least it will be healthier for
non-smokers.
  Every so often I teach someone a word in English and I
noticed a soda can on the counter in the coffee shop. So
I figured this would be a good word to teach them. Right
now almost everyone who goes to the shop knows the
English word for hell. In Romanian the word is ‘iad’. Also,
I thought about the saying … if you could bottle it, you
could make a million dollars. So it appears that with the
‘bottled/canned’ hell, someone in this neck of the woods
must think that it can sell. You can buy it for 2 LEI or
about 75 cents USD.

               

  The next picture is that of the young lady that works
at the shop daily. Her name is Ana.

  

  She knows what the word ‘hell’ means. She was the
first to learn it.
  The next photo demonstrates what it is all about and
the reason why I make the 5 minute trip daily to the
coffee shop.

  

  If you look closely you can see the steam coming off the
coffee. First thing in the morning, it is a pretty picture.
  I know that it is less expensive to make coffee at home.
I do have everything I need and can make it myself. But
like throughout numerous other local coffee shops and
restaurants in the world, it is more about the real time
daily sitcom experience. You know, about real people. 
  But for me it is even more ’misto’ (word for 'cool' in the
Gypsy/Rroma language) to be a part of the 'daily filming'
of what I could call 'The Coffee Shop', Transilvania style. 

* In Romania there is approximately 16,000 people of Slovakian
descent. They are a minority as Romania has a population of
about 22,500,000.
In Nădlac we have about 4,000 out of the country's total
Slovakian population.
There is a solid presence with strong ties to Slovakia.
In the center of town is a Slovakian union building that works
to support the population throughout the entire country.
They sponsor many cultural events and have an award
winning dance troupe.
The group's name is 'Salasan'. It is actually pronounced 'Saa-la-shan'.
It is the name of a little house that the farmers built to stay while
they worked in the fields. Many times the fields were a distance
away from the town, so they would build these little shacks to make
their lives easier.
Last 28 October 2006 there was an event at the town's cultural
center. The group danced and I was able to make a film clip with
my little camera.
The clip is about 15 minutes long and the battery ran out with about
30 seconds left in the dance. So if it looks like it ended kind of hastily ...
it looks that way, because it did.
The group has been in existence for a little over 4 years. Like I
mentioned they have won a few awards and as you will see ... they
are pretty good.

I hope you enjoy it. Click on the link below.

Slovakian dance troupe. October 2006

* In the picture below you can notice a small metal box
attached to a fence.
    
  (I don’t know if you can see in the glass the
outline of two trees. That’s a reflection from the
central park.)
  This metal box is on the fence in front of the
Evangelical Church. It’s where they place the names of
the parishners whom have died. It is a custom that began
when the church was founded over 200 years ago.
There are other churches in town but this is the only
one that has this custom.
  When someone dies the bells of the church sound for
approximately 5 minutes. It is interesting to see people
come by and stop to read the names of the people who
have passed away. When I see them stop it just bring to
mind how the times of the ‘town crier’ might have been.
It is remarkable to see the old habits continue and
survive despite the ‘new age’.
  There is an interesting statistic (from that church)
that last year there were 69 deaths and only 9 births.
Of course it is one church only and without data I can't
state with authority, but it appears to be the trend.
  In the days of Ceausescu it was mandated that each
woman have 5 children. I have been told that women
had to go to the gynecologist monthly for examinations
regarding this.
  At present, Romania is the most densely populated
country in SE Europe and the second most densely
populated country in Central Europe. Probably as
a result of the mandate. But if that parish is any
indication, then that should be changing.
  To continue with the topic of change. It is pretty
incredible to think that Romania has had three major
governmental transformations in one generation’s
time.
  From Ceausescu’s style of communism, to a totally
abrupt change into democracy and now to the European
Union.
  Hopefully this will be the last stop for Romania on the
‘governmental merry-go-round’. This way the country
can have the stability of a fixed system.
  Also, with the ‘new way’, people have been left to decide
how many children they want. So eventually that death
to birth rate should find it‘s own equilibrium.
  As a change today reveals itself in the future, I feel safe
to say that 200 years from now there will still be papers
posted in that little metal box on the fence. But …
probably, there will balance between life and death.