Hello Everyone, and Happy Summer.
 
Although the Midsummer holiday was almost a month ago, it feels like the very height of summer in Latvia right now.  The strawberries are almost finished, and cherries and wild berries are ripening.  The first new potatoes are in the market, as well as fresh garlic, carrots, and wild mushrooms.   Haystacks are popping up in the fields, and the rye, barley, and wheat have begun to turn color.  It has been a cool and rainy summer so far, but we have had enough warm weather to make the fields, forests, and gardens lush with growth.
 This morning I took a walk down my road and through the woods to the river.  Along the road the linden trees are in bloom, and the sweet fragrance fills the air.  The trees are big--around 50 feet tall--and mixed with oak trees.  You can tell when you are coming close to one because of the humming sound that comes from the thousands of bees enjoying the blossoms.  Most of the blossoms are gone from the lower branches, picked by local people to make tea.  Making my way along the forest road I stopped to pick about a pint of wild blueberries.  These and wild strawberries are the only two berries I'm confident about identifying and eating, although there are several other kinds that I know people harvest.  People also harvest wild mushrooms, but I didn't see any morels this spring, and I don't know the other varieties.  I have been buying chanterelles at the market in Valmiera, though, and they are delicious.
        Making my way through the woods, the scent of linden replaced by the aroma of pine trees, I was struck by how everything seems to be at the peak of growth, paused there before beginning the descent toward harvest, decay, and finally the cold of winter.  I sat for a long time at an observation deck near the river, taking in the beauty of the morning, the cool breeze, and the trees reflected in the water.  Then I headed back home, picking a bouquet of flowers for the house on the way: daisies, yellow asters, campanula, Queen Anne's lace, and several others that I don't know the English names for.  I have become accustomed to having flowers in the house all the time.  Even in winter, there always seem to be flowers from one event or another, or else I just buy a few.  The flowers I planted in my garden aren't blooming yet, but hopefully I will be able to start picking them in a week or two.
        The garden has been a joy for me.  It gives me a way to spend time outside, to interact with my neighbors, and provides fresh greens and herbs.  The last is particularly useful here in Mazsalaca, since we don't have much of a farmer's market (usually just stalls with fish, meat, and maybe a few vegetables), and local produce isn't sold in the food stores.  Since everyone has a garden, or has family that has a garden, people say there is no market for local produce here.  I wonder if this is true--am I really the only one who would buy locally-grown food?  Luckily the market in Valmiera is big, and has lots of variety, so I just make it a point to pick up a few things there when I'm in town.
        I have been eating lettuce, spinach, arugula, parsley, and cilantro from the garden for several weeks now.   The basil, thyme, and garlic chives are just getting big enough to harvest, and zucchini is on the way.  I'll probably get a few tomatoes and cucumbers, but not many.  Along with cosmos, salvia, baby's breath, statice, and mix of yellow flowers, I have sage, marjoram, lemon balm, and chamomile.  Two tiny rosemary plants are still growing inside by the window.  My garden is a bit on the messy side compared to the other plots around it.  People here are serious about weeding, and everything is quite neat.  I decided to let the weeds grow on the paths that separate my eight little beds, to anchor the soil and keep in moisture, and also to cut down on the mud when things are wet.  I wonder what my neighbors think of that!
        With all this talk of gardening it may sound like I don't have much else to do, but June and July have actually been quite busy.  In fact, I feel busier now than I did during the school year, but I think that's because I don't have a regular schedule, and there seem to be new things to do all the time.  The main events in June were graduations and the Midsummer holiday.  So far in July there have been the Youth Song and Dance Festival and the All-Baltic Youth Camp.  I'll tell you about these in this newsletter, and hope to have some pictures up on my Web site in the next month or so.  (The man with the key to the room with the scanner is in the country, and I don't know when he'll be back.)

Graduation
We had two graduation ceremonies in June, one for the 9th-grade class and one for the 12th-grade class.  The ceremonies were quite similar and took place in the school gym, which was decorated with birch saplings and other natural materials.  There were four classes of 9th graders graduating (about 70 students), so the ceremony was quite long.  The students sat in the front of the room on one side, their homeroom teachers and the director on a platform on the other side.  A music duo--woman singer and man playing keyboards and singing--were part of the festivities.  There were a few speeches and songs, and then the certificates were handed out.  The student's name was called, and as he or she walked to the platform to receive the certificate, a pre-recorded statement made by that student was played.  Our school director, Inese Berzina, gave them the certificate and shook their hand, and then the homeroom teacher also congratulated them and gave them a small book.  Then the student went down to stand in front until there were six of them in a line.  Then, while the duo performed a song, friends and family came up from the audience to give their graduates flowers, hugs, and congratulations.  Some of the students were quite loaded down with a huge armful of flowers.  Then the process would begin again, and six more students would receive certificates and then flowers and congratulations.  When it was over, everyone went outside to take pictures.  Then the students and their parents had parties, while the teachers had a light supper in one of the classrooms.  This was followed by a dance for the students (called a "disco" here) that lasted until the early hours of the morning.
        The 12th-grade ceremony was similar, but more serious and shorter since there were only two classes.  This time we had a pianist instead of the duo, which was lovely.  Apparently she had been part of the class that was graduating, but is now studying at a music school in Riga.  For this ceremony, the students all sat on the stage at the right of the room, and the teachers were on the floor in the front at the left, facing the students and the audience.  I was in the front row with Agita, which was great because I had a good location for taking pictures.  I was so proud of the girls that had been in my class.  They looked so grown up and yet so young at the same time!  For this ceremony, each student received their diploma from the director, a book from their homeroom teacher, and then family and friends came up with flowers and congratulations.  Then the next student would go through the same  process.  The students read poems and sang some songs, and gave flowers to their teachers and gifts to their homeroom teachers.  Oh yes, in both ceremonies the graduating students came into the audience to give flowers to their parents or other important family members.  When it was over, we once again went outside for pictures and then retired to various classrooms for parties, which were followed by another disco.
        Now that graduation is over, the 12th graders who want to go to the university are taking entrance exams and getting ready.  Out of four classes of 9th graders, we barely have enough students coming to the school next year to make one 10th grade class.  This is partly because many students didn't get good enough grades to get into 10th grade, and partly because a lot of the better students will be going to Valmiera.  This is a common theme all over Latvia--the good students go away, and the rural schools are shrinking.  Unlike in America, where if you go to public school you have to go to the school in district where you live, in Latvia you can go to any school you want to if you can get there, and if you meet the qualifications.   Vidusskolas like the one in Mazsalaca are thought of as prep schools for higher education.  There are also high schools that are trade schools for mechanics, agriculture, and other trades.  And there are specialized high schools for sports and music too.  But unless a student's family has the money to send them to another town, they are limited in their options.

Midsummer (Ligo/Jani)
Latvians celebrate name days, which are almost as important as birthdays.  Midsummer here is called Ligo or Jani, because June 23 is the name day for Liga, and June 24 is the name day for Janis.  These two days are national holidays, and most people have the day off from work.  Food stores are open for at least part of the days.  I stayed in Mazsalaca this year, and had a nice quiet holiday.  (You can read about the country Jani celebration I went to last year in my June 26, 1999, newsletter.)   In the morning I went into town, and there was a holiday feeling in the air, with many more people around than usual.  The stores were crowded with people stocking up on food and drink for the evening and next day.  In the evening I went to Agita's house first.   She had a small party in her backyard, with lots of bread, cheese, beer, five kinds of grilled meat, cakes, and fruit.  It was informal--people ate, chatted, and walked around while the radio played traditional holiday songs.
        I left Agita's about 9:30, riding my bike home in the dusk to wait for a call from Valda.  Then I headed down my road toward the forest to the last house on the left, where two retired teachers live.  These teachers are like family to them, and Valda's family spends a lot of time there.  This was a more traditional celebration, with a long table set up in a finished garage, open to the night.  We had new potatoes, salads, bread and cheese, and there were also sausages and other kinds of meat.  There was beer, and we also had small glasses for toasting--the ladies had sweet wine, the men had brandy.  We sat a long time, talking, singing, and munching.  The two young girls present, wearing flower wreaths on their heads, made up a series of verses for a Ligo song.  Later we moved outside, where there was a big bonfire at the edge of the meadow.  We sat, drank tea, ate more, drank beer, sang, and watched the flames.  One tradition is for people to jump over the bonfire, but we didn't do that at either party.  Light rain eventually drove us back into the garage (it always rains on Jani), to continue eating and talking until daybreak.  You aren't supposed to sleep during the night on Jani--if you do, you will sleep all summer.  But finally we heard the nightingales singing, and the sky got light enough to call it morning.  I made my way home, and everyone else retired to the hay loft or their beds to sleep.
        Although we had a safe and happy holiday, it was a tragic day for many, with a large number of alcohol-related car accidents and drownings.  According to The Baltic Times, "there were 185 road accidents registered in Latvia over the midsummer holidays with 25 fatalities and 108 injured," and between June 23 and 25 police detained 344 people for driving while intoxicated.  The number of accidents and deaths this year was greater by far than any previous years (five people died in 1998 and six in 1999), due in part to the fact that there are more cars than ever before.  "Mainly young people between the age of 16 and 25 died and the accidents were caused mainly by alcohol abuse," said one report quoted by the TBT.
The accident statistics are even more striking when you consider what a small country Latvia is, with a population of about 2.5 million people, and an area of 64,600 square kilometers (about 24,900 square miles).  Compare that to Wisconsin, with a population of about 5 million and an area of  about 145,400 square kilometers (56,154 square miles), and imagine what the reaction would be if 25 people died in the space of three days in Wisconsin.  (Another size comparison: Latvia is slightly smaller in area than Ireland, which has 70,280 square kilometers and 3.6 million people.)
        It is an accepted fact that alcohol abuse is a problem in Latvia, and that changes need to be made in the way the culture encourages drinking.  I have been relatively sheltered from alcohol problems in Mazsalaca.  There is some public drunkenness, but much less than what I have seen in other towns.  My social sphere, which is mainly people connected with the school, does not revolve around drinking, although alcohol is present at holiday parties held in the evening.  I get the feeling that the people I know are fairly conservative about drinking , and I feel self-conscious just buying a bottle of wine at the grocery store.  This is quite different from the experience of some of the other PCVs in my group, who talk about how it is common for teachers to drink during the day at school, during birthday or name-day celebrations.  On a related note, police in Riga were checking bus drivers bringing children to the Song and Dance Festival described below, and seven were arrested for drunk driving.
        But I don't want to end this section on such an unhappy note.  Midsummer is a very important holiday to Latvians--as much or more so than Christmas.  It is a time for families and friends to be together, and to maintain old customs like singing, staying up all night, looking for the mythical fern-flower, and jumping over bonfires.   I will never forget the way I was welcomed into the circles of families and friends and allowed to be a part of that special time, the sound of that first nightingale as dawn broke, and the happy tired feeling of falling into bed at 4 a.m. after such a memorable night.

Youth Song and Dance Festival
The week after Jani, it was time for the Youth Song and Dance Festival in Riga.  The festival was a week long, and 30,000 students from all over Latvia participated.  The festival was preceeded by a competition:  the number of students who can participate is limited by the size of the concert spaces.  About 52,000 applied, and those who were not selected were allowed to give free concerts in a square in Old Riga.  Latvia has a long tradition of huge song festivals, which started in 1873, and they occur about every 4 years.  Even under Soviet rule, the Latvians held song festivals.  They would sing one song to Lenin, two songs to the Party, and then go back to traditional Latvian songs.
        For this festival, there were concerts throughout the week, culminating in a parade and a huge concert (12,500 students) on Sunday.  I had Group 9 trainees visiting me that week, so I wasn't able to see any concerts, but I did get to see the parade.  About 120 students from Mazsalaca were part of the festival, and I rode into Riga on Sunday morning with Guntis and Dzintra, who were bringing bouquets of wildflowers for the students to carry in the parade.  We went to the school where the students had been staying all week, sleeping on the floor and eating in the cafeteria.  This school had students from other schools in the Valmiera region as well, and it was quite a lively place (you might call it controlled chaos).  Even though the weather had been rough--rainy and cold--spirits were high.  Students ran around the halls getting ready for the parade and the big concert that would be held that night.
        The parade itself took about three hours, as choirs, bands, and dance groups from all over Latvia marched by.  It was an amazing sight, and hard to imagine how something on this scale could be organized.  Each group had a banner, and costumes ranged from traditional folk wear to modern theatrical costumes.  When Mazsalaca's group came by, I did my part and yelled a welcome, and they cheered.
I hope to have some pictures up on my Web site soon.  I think the big concert will be available on video, and I'll pass that information on when I get it.  Last summer during training we saw an amazing documentary by Juris Podnieks, called "Homeland."  It uses song festivals and other cultural activities to talk about how the Baltic countries resisted assimilation into Soviet culture, and ends with a dramatic postscript filmed during the events of January 1991 when  several people were killed in Riga during a crackdown by Soviet troops.  I don't know if this video is available outside Latvia, but if you can find it I highly recommend it.

All-Baltic Youth Camp
The last big event for me in the past six weeks was the All-Baltic Youth Camp.  This took place from July 7th through the 11th, in a town called Skriveri.  It was organized by Peace Corps volunteers, and about 100 students attended.  There were about 20 each from Estonia and Lithuania and the rest were from Latvia.  It was really more of a conference than a camp.  We stayed in the high school, and the students attended sessions on topics such as: career planning, teamwork, reproductive health, youth and NGOs, integration, environmental issues, and  child/human rights.  There were also sports, music and yoga sessions  (I taught yoga).  Students were organized into five groups, and Lynne, Tim and I were counselors for the Pink group.  Lynne and I were also sleeping room counselors for a group of 12 girls.  All the activities took place at the school--including sleeping on the nice hard floors!  Of course, not much sleeping happened, as you can imagine when 100 teenagers get together.  One goal of the camp was to get students from different countries and backgrounds to integrate, especially those who were native Russian speakers.  The students chose an English name to use all weekend, so you couldn't tell by looking at someone's nametag where they were from or what language they spoke.  The entire camp was conducted in English, and although students from the same country sometimes spoke their native language, students were able to communicate quite well in English.
        When I first came to Latvia, I thought I would be better at working with teenagers than with younger children.  After conducting our English camp for 5th-8th graders and then being at this camp for teenagers, I have found out that I actually seem to be better with the younger kids.   I'm still exploring the reasons why this is the case, but I think in part it is because the younger kids are more willing to do things that might make them look silly, and they're more fun for me to work with.  I think I'm still a little bit scared of teenagers.
        It was great to see how, over the course of 5 days, the students grew closer, made new friends, and coalesced as a group.  The camp culminated in an evening of entertainment, starting with a fantastic talent show, followed by three live bands and then a disco.  I finally went to bed around 2:30 a.m., but most of the students stayed up all night.  It was a very quiet group on the bus to Valmiera the next day, and I was overjoyed to see my nice soft bed again!

Well, that's the news for the first half of the summer.  I have about six weeks left to get ready for the new school term and continue work on the resource center project.  My friend Ann from Lithuania and I are hoping to go on a trip the first 10 days in August, maybe to Turkey or Tunisia.  But other than that, I'll be here in Mazsalaca, working in the garden, walking in the woods, writing, planning, and relaxing, maybe taking the odd day trip to the sea or to Riga.

Best wishes for a great summer, and thanks again for your interest and support.

Laimigi,

Sarah