Title inspired by my favorite song from my sophomore year of high school, and a day of all days I had recently.
It was June 4th, the day that M36 was set to arrive in Moldova. Since the welcoming committee had to meet at the Peace Corps office early in the morning to head to the airport together, my friends Lily and Ashli who live further away spent the night at my house. While waiting at the bus stop, a teenager came up to us and asked if we were Americans. As it turns out, she was part of the FLEX program (a US exchange school program). She had just returned from the USA a week before, after spending 9 months there! We exchanged questions about what it was like living in the United States versus in Moldova, and as we were talking, two women on the bus got into a very heated argument. They were using my favorite Romanian insult, “sick in the head.”
My friends and I arrived at the office to meet up with the rest of the group and our accompanying staff members before leaving to the airport. At the airport, we were asked if someone was willing to speak to the press, but the way the reporter was phrasing it, I thought she wanted a group interview with multiple volunteers. I offered for myself and Ashli to do it, and it turns out they wanted individual ones. Sorry about that Ashli. Here’s the clip: New Peace Corps Volunteers arrive in Moldova!
I haven’t worked up the courage to re-watch the video yet, because there was a moment where I made a grammatical mistake and I knew it, but it was too late to fix it. I was so disappointed in myself, the next time I saw my language instructor from PST, I told her about my deep shame. She said it was great asset to be able to recognize your mistakes when speaking a new language, and I told her I’d rather have the asset of speaking the language without mistakes. She laughed, even though it was definitely not a joke.
Finally, the trainees arrived! Seeing them walk through the doors with their massive bags made me think about my own arrival nine months ago. It’s insane to think about how much my life has changed since then! It’s hard to believe I am now considered to be one of the “senior” volunteers when I haven’t even been here for a year yet! We greeted them1 and loaded them on the bus (it was raining, of course) and then brought them to their training site where they would stay for orientation week. We were able to chat with the trainees a bit and answer their questions about getting adjusted during the first few weeks. After that, the welcoming committee headed back to the office, ending the exciting 12 hour day.
Since their arrival, which was almost a month ago, I’ve been able to meet with M36 for a variety of training events, within the COD group as well as with the entire cohort. One particularly fun day was when Grace, Ashli, and I were able to attend the monastery cultural trip with M36 that I wrote about during one of the first editions of this newsletter!
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Along with the trainings and panels for M36, I’ve taken part in a few other activities with Peace Corps this month. Last month, Olga and I submitted a small grants proposal to Peace Corps that we were AWARDED, which was the best news! I also attended a volunteer management summit with Nina, and a few of our youth volunteers. I gave 22 presentations in Romanian, about my experience volunteering in the United States, and as an intern at the NHSA during college. It was interesting to be able to exchange different ideas for volunteer programs, and how to incentivize youth to volunteer.
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In my village, summer is full of fun events for everyone. Our youth center co-hosted a festival for young entrepreneurs to celebrate Children’s Day. We also had our big village event of the year, co- hosted by the Mayor’s office, Casa de Cultura, and Youth Center, which was the Cherry Festival! My village is known for its cherries, and this is the third year they’ve put on this event. It was filled with local vendors selling food, furs, wooden carvings, beer, a whole section for children filled with trampolines and bouncy houses, and a stage for a variety of performers. We had dancing and singing troupes from all over perform, including my village’s own group, as well as singers and a magician!
You’re going to notice a lot of the same clothing in my pictures from this summer. It’s a new fashion trend I like to call, “I had a very limited amount of baggage I could bring with me, and I was much more concerned about winter clothing than summer clothing.”
I had one of the best days ever this month, because my wonderful stepmom sent me a care package with all the things I’ve been missing in Moldova. Specifically, hot sauce, brown sugar, matcha, and chocolate chips. I spent a day baking with my host mom, although she thinks American baked goods are far too sweet. In another home update, I have proven myself worthy of learning the next step in having perfect shoes- washing my shoelaces.
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When it comes to sharing my life as a volunteer, I think I struggle to share my negative experiences. It’s much easier for me to focus on the positives, and frankly, it’s not as if I want to spend a lot of time lingering on the bad. I do think it’s important to strike a balance though, and share the realities of service.
About a week ago, my dear grandfather passed away. My biggest challenge in these past nine months, more so than adapting or learning Romanian, has been accepting the trade off of living in Moldova and missing out on life back at home. Especially since I am so close with my siblings/ family, it’s been hard on me to not be there to support them and be there for birthdays, graduations, competitions, etc. These past few weeks have compounded these feelings, and I feel guilty that I can’t be home to be there with my family. Of course, every choice in life comes with the loss of the other option, and this is just one of the consequences of deciding to live away from my home. Lucky for me, we have an amazing staff here in Moldova who are working hard to support me, and it looks like I’ll be able to make it for his funeral, and spend a little bit of time at home.
I hope you are all having a wonderful summer, and this has been another edition of E.E.E.
We also greeted a random man who saw our welcome signs and got very excited, and then asked us to hold them up when his friends came through the gate.
Count ‘em: two!