Sorocca

Friday, 28 March 2008

I have a lot to write about.

Yes yes, I recognize that fact.

Gypsy Kings, Purim celebrations at 600 year old synagogues, etc.

I'm not going to lie to you folks, keeping up writing - this blog, emails, letters - is pretty hard. I think "oh, i so have to write about this" while things are happening, and then when I get home I fall asleep.

Last night I fell asleep at 8pm.

Granted, I did have a very big day today.

Today I had class a half hour early so that we could practice extra for our very first language assessment, and then promptly went to a meeting with the Mayor of Peresecina, then promptly went to a meeting with the PTA of the local kindergarten which, apparently, had been held the day before. They had moved the date without telling us.

Alas.

Ozi lung. That means long day.

Tomorrow, we have class bright and early, followed by a cross-cultural session. Then, I was hoping to have a little cross cultural session of my own - I wanted to go into Magdestesti and have a little karaoke bar time with my fellow PSTers. This would require, however, a probable stay over at a friend's house, something which I have just found out is forbidden, apparently, despite the fact that Magdestesti is less than 10 minutes away and I turn 28 years old in, oh, 5 days.

Grrr.

So, I guess that means the chances of me going out tomorrow night are slim, unless I break the rules, which admittedly I'm tempted to do, but which I probably won't do because, you know, there's a time and place for everything, and two weeks before placement is not the time to illustrate rebellious behavior.

Like I'd be rebellious.

The test went okay, in case anyone was wondering. I have issues with feminine/masculine agreements, which should shock no one, but my vocal rocks. I am a flashcard queen.

English, in many ways, rulez! The lack of assigned gender pronouns make it, in my really unimportant opinion, a superior language.

Some philosophical linguists think that it's best that english is becoming the dominant language on the planet because it lacks these gender assignments - that having masculine/feminine pronouns encourages a male dominant society.

As Kurt Vonnegut would say, "And so it goes."

Speaking of authors, I heard Arthur C Clark died... or rather, I've gathered that because I saw his name with a (date - 2008) underneath it. Tres sad. Or in Romaneste, Este triste.

Okay, so Soroca, last weekend....

As I mentioned, there's a citadel, very old. See pictures. Peter the Great visited quite a few times. The citadel lies on the banks of the Pruit river, across from Ukraine.

Moldova is alternately called a fault line, or a hinge, of Europe and Asia, and this was a truism back 1000 years ago as well, even in the days of Christopher Columbus who, in his quest for money to seek the Indies, asked the famed Moldovan King Stefan Cel Mare for funding. Stefan turned him down, no doubt for various and sundry reasons but also because he was busy defending his territory from the devils across the Pruit river.

The (current) Citadel of Soroca was built by Stefan's dad, and apparently was haute de riguer for fortifications at the time.

Also in Soroca? A river walk and a floating bridge that serves as customs between Moldova and Ukraine. And, in Soroca? The "Gypsy Hill."

The gypsies in Soroca are unique in Moldova in that the gypsies have settled down. And how.
They've taken over this hill, and it's become a competition amongst them to see who can build the biggest, coolest, most unique houses. Don't you worry, I will post pictures.

I have seen the palace of the Gypsy King, and danced with the Gypsy Prince.

And if I had more energy, perhaps I'd attempt to continue with the lyricism of the above statement. Alas.

In Soroca, two gypsy families made a decision that staying in one place rather than roaming was a better way to live. Other families followed, and now they have are a determined presence.
How unusual this is, I'm not really sure, but it seems to be highly unusual for Moldova.

Apparently Gypsies are highly undercounted in all EU countries (of which Moldova is not one) because places like Romania and Bulgaria didn't want to highlight their "problem" populations. Also, you know, hard to count people that roam as a lifestyle.

Soroca is very diverse - Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Gypsies and Moldovans, as well as some others. We also got to see an extremely old synagogue, and learn something of the Jewish story in Moldova, which is, quite frankly, tragic.

I almost felt bad that, on Purim, a day of celebration, this community had to detail the horrors that their ancestors had suffered.

I say ancestors, but really, for some it was their grandparents, or parents.

And I say community, but there's only 50 native-born Jews in Soroca at this time, down from a community of tens of thousands.

Moldova had an extremely large community of Jews in general... but then the Russians came and took over in the early 20th century and pogroms became more and more common.

During WWII, Moldova was a battleground. Russia was driven out by the Romanian army, who was allied with Germany. The Moldavans welcomed the Romanians, because for decades Romania and Moldova were one nation. Alas, for the Jews, the coming of the Romanian army was for many a death sentence. They were marched across the country with no fixed destination because the death camps had yet to be built, and made to dig ditches that were to be the graves of anyone who fell as they went along.

When the Soviets swept back in and drove the Romanians out, the focus on Jews (and gypies, no doubt) was alleviated, but Stalin deported a mass of people from Moldova, anyone who a) had money b) had land c) or who might be a political problem.

Many people, including Jews, fell into this category.

The story of these deportations are pretty crazy, and I know they happened all over the USSR. I guess, on a cursory level I heard and read about them, but the stories are almost as bad or just as bad as many of the holocaust stories that you hear, but nowhere near as publicized.

So. Soroca. City of Sisters. Or maybe of the Sun. Nobody really knows, but I'm a big fan of this little city of 30,000 (20,000 more likely, when taking into consideration the extreme labor drain that Moldova experiences).

Eventually, eventually, I will post pictures. Including those of the gypsy hill, which were just freaking awesome.