Integrated

I know I'm very lucky to live the life I live. Days like today make me very aware of this. This was the type of day that make all the challenges of Peace Corps worthwhile. This is the type of day when you feel "integrated."

It started like any other day; I got ready for work and ate breakfast. However, when I stepped outside I saw my 80-year old neighbor standing outside her house, across from our gate. When I walked out the gate, I said "bună ziua" and planned to continue on my way to work. But she wanted to chat, so I stopped to talk to her. Soon, she took me by the hand and said she wanted to show me something. She led me through her gate and behind her house. She hadn't invited me in before, so I knew this was a new closeness in our relationship. When she stopped she put her hand out and gestured to a patch in her garden. It was fuullllll of ghiocei (snowdrops)!!! They are the symbol of Spring in Moldova, but I had lamented both this year and last not actually seeing very many of them around town. Her garden full of ghiocei was amazing! She told me to take photos of the ghiocei, and we even took a photo together. We talked for half an hour, and would have talked even longer but I actually did have to go to work.

Later after my afternoon English club, I met my PC counterpart, the Director of the regional library. One evening last week, I was walking to the park as I like to do when the weather is nice, and I saw her chatting with someone in one of the squares in town. She motioned me over, and we spent the next hour walking and talking together. She took me to the edge of town, beyond the park, to see the sunset. It was magnificent. That evening she invited me over for tea but I had to go home, so we arranged to meet today. This was also the first time that I had been over to her home. We had a nice time drinking tea, eating, and talking.

Each of these encounters would have made my day. But to have both in one day? Amazing. In the past week I have also been invited to accompany people to events in town, which hasn't happened very often before. And I come home each evening looking forward to good conversation with my host family around the dinner table. I feel like I have become part of my community, and I am grateful for the wonderful people here who have accepted me and helped me feel at home.

The whole way home this evening, I looked up at the night sky and thanked my lucky stars for the wonderful language training I have had here that makes these experiences possible.