My last day at site

Today is my last day in Cahul. I know that it has been coming, but it feels like time has been moving so fast, and although I know logically that it's my last day here, it's hard to imagine what it will feel like not to walk these roads or see these people anymore. One thing I am super grateful for is modern technology and social media. I know people say both have their downfalls, and I suppose that is true. But I see them as tools, and tools are only what you use them for. I use social media and technology to keep connected with friends and family across distance. I remember the first time I used Skype. I called my dad on his cell phone in Seattle from a computer in Cape Town. Both of us were in awe. His mother, my grandmother, spent her career working at the phone company and retired in the 1980s. In her younger days, she would carry lines across a room to manually connect calls. I imagine that she would be pretty amazed at what the current technology is capable of. I am so happy that I joined Peace Corps now, at a time where I will still be able to stay in touch with my friends here in Moldova even when I am gone. More than a decade ago, I spent quite a bit of time living in the Balkan region, and I have been able to keep in touch with many of my friends there over the years because of social media and technology. I hope that it will be the same for Moldova. One difference is that the people I got to know in the Balkans all spoke English, which was by necessity since I didn't speak any other language at the time. Now, my challenge will be to maintain the Romanian I have learned so I can communicate with my Moldovan friends. Once again, I'm thankful for technology like the Duolingo app to help me with this. In the meantime, I'd better get back to packing. Unfortunately, that's not something technology can help me with yet!!

One week left in my Moldovan home

It's very hard to believe that I will move out of my host family's house in Cahul a week from now. Today is the first day that this has started to feel very real to me, and I even teared up a bit thinking about it. Of course, I am excited for adventures ahead, but it will be very bittersweet to leave this place.

Cahul and this house have become home to me, and I am very appreciative of how my host family has accepted me and made me feel comfortable here with them. I had never lived with a host family before I came to Moldova, so I didn't know what it would be like. I remember knowing exchange students in the U.S. and thinking how it must be difficult for them to live with people who had different cultural norms and language. It was challenging for me at first to be able to communicate and to adapt to my host families' patterns of life (both during training in Ialoveni and at my permanent site in Cahul), but over time we have developed a rhythm and I have gotten quite used to having my host family around. It will be very strange not to see them all the time.

Yesterday, my site mates and I had a picnic at the lake for some of our close friends and colleagues here. They also feel like family to me, and I am used to seeing them frequently. It's funny because as Peace Corps Volunteers, we spend our whole service actively working to integrate, build relationships, and become part of the community in our sites. And now here we are at the end of our service, fortunately having succeeded in doing so, suddenly having to extract ourselves from the networks we have created. Of course, we will keep some relationships into the future via social media and hopefully some in-person visits. But others will fade into memory, as happens every time we move into a new phase of life.

Regardless, my memories of Cahul and the people who made this place feel like home will always be fond. I hope I can visit again someday. In the meantime, I will carry the photos and memories with me for a lifetime.