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.

One month left

I didn't even realize - it snuck up on me. I was counting in weeks and I still have approximately 5 weeks left of my Peace Corps service in Moldova. But today I was chatting with one of my M32 cohort buddies who already COSed, and she told me I have one month left.

One month. It sounds like so little after I have already been here for this long. I have grown accustomed to Moldova, and have learned to navigate it geographically, linguistically, and culturally well enough to get by. Things are just starting to get somewhat easy (at least easier...). And now I'm done. I submitted my DOS today, and I have my exit interview with the Country Director on Monday.

And coincidence of all coincidences?? Today I was offered (and accepted) a Peace Corps post in Albania beginning in January 2020! The next month will be an interesting mix of wrapping up my service in Moldova, preparing for my service in Albania, and finalizing travel plans for the time in between.

I'm realizing now how much I have grown to love Moldova. I will miss this place when I leave. I'm looking forward to some vacation time, and certainly I am already looking forward to my service in Albania. But for the next 31 days, I am going to appreciate Moldova and etch some good Moldovan memories into my mind.

2 years

Two years ago today, I first stepped foot in Moldova. Now it feels like home. Back then, I had no idea how I would learn a new language and be able to communicate with host families and counterparts who spoke no English, much less get work or projects accomplished. Today, I have (according to my last Language Proficiency Interview) achieved an Intermediate High level of Romanian - despite the huge amount of "Moldovanesc" and Russian language that infiltrate the Romanian I hear in Moldova - and can carry on conversations with people in my community. It was hard work to get to this point, but worth it.

Today also marks one year that the group after me - the M33s - arrived in Moldova. And tomorrow, the new group - M34s - will arrive. The days are long but the years are short, as they say. It feels like each month passes faster than the last, and as I sit tonight in my room in my host family's house in my town in Moldova, it is hard to imagine that pretty soon it won't be home anymore. I'm thankful for this comfy place I have called home, and I will miss it. Which is good, because one of my goals for my service in Moldova was to miss this place when I leave. Thanks to the amazing experiences I have had here and the wonderful people I have come to call friends, I can say: Goal met.

Why did you become a Peace Corps Volunteer in Moldova?

This is a question I get asked a lot, not only by Moldovans and Americans, but also by people from other countries. I am really lucky to have other PCVs who live in the same community as I do, and we are all in different program sectors and different phases of our lives. So as we are a few months away from closing our service here, I asked them to help me explain some of the reasons we decided to become Peace Corps Volunteers, and talk a little bit about our respective program sectors, how we ended up in Moldova, and what the application process is like.

I hope this video will be helpful for you if you are considering joining Peace Corps at any point in your life, or if you want to learn more about Peace Corps.

Thanks so much to Valerie and Okxy for your willingness to participate in this video and for your friendship and partnership throughout our time in Peace Corps Moldova. You have made my Peace Corps experience so much better, and I am truly grateful for you both!

And huge thanks to our friend Alexxa for filming and editing this video. We really appreciate you!

59 days... but not really

Somehow, time keeps slipping by faster and faster. I have been marking the 100-day countdown to my COS date on social media (eventually I hope to post those here) but haven't managed to find time to post on the blog, and today I realize that it is only 59 days until I board a plane to fly out of Moldova officially as an RPCV. Only 2 months. That seems like such a short amount of time now that I have already lived here for 2 years.

As the fates of Moldova would have it, though, I will return only a few days later to help with Wave Week as I did last year; only this time I will not be a PCV. I am really thankful for the opportunity to participate in Wave Week again, and also to return to Moldova. July 19, 2019, has always felt like the right COS date for me, but Moldova has rooted itself in my heart and I am glad that when I leave it won't be forever - or even for long.

As I near the end of my Peace Corps service in Moldova, I am continuing to reflect on what this experience has meant to me: what I have learned, how I have grown, what I have been prepared to do next. I think I mentioned before that I would like to serve in another Peace Corps post, and in early December I submitted an application. One government shutdown, one application transfer, and 6 months later, it feels like I am not any closer to finding out where the next chapter might start.

Long story short, I was offered an interview for a post in Macedonia, only to then have my application moved from the Macedonia country desk to the Albania country desk (because the Macedonia post received 10 times too many applications and couldn't consider current Volunteers, so they told me). So I am currently waiting to see if I will get an interview for a post in Albania. The application deadline for this post is June 1, so there is still more than a week before I might hear something. Even after the deadline, there is no way to know when or if I might be offered an interview. And, of course, there is never a guarantee of being offered a Peace Corps post.

Nevertheless, I don't feel in a hurry to know what will be next. I am honestly trying to savor these last 2 months in Moldova. To focus here. To live intentionally. To be present. To experience this place, and spend time with people. To build memories that I will cherish no matter where the future takes me. 8 more weeks. Plus a bonus week that I have been granted. For certain, the future will come. And things will work out. I don't have to know now where I will be then. And when all is said and done, Moldova will always be part of my story.

VRF

The VRF - Volunteer Reporting Form - is part of every Peace Corps Volunteer's service (at least if they served recently). It's how we report to Peace Corps what activities we have done in our communities, who was involved, the goals, and the outcomes. My program submits VRFs 3 times per year, and one of the deadlines is coming up this week. As much as I believe in the importance of Monitoring and Reporting in community development work, it doesn't make it easier to get my VRF done!

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.

 



   

    

Mărțișor

Moldova has so many holidays, but Mărțișor is my favorite. Mărțișor is celebrated on the first day of March. People celebrate the beginning of Spring by decorating with red and white charms called mărțișors, and snowdrop flowers. Mărțișors can be large and decorative, but usually they are small pins that friends and family exchange. You can wear your mărțișors for the whole month of March, and then at the end of the month some people tie their mărțișors to tree branches (although most of us keep them).

Yesterday was Mărțișor in Moldova and my town had many festivities, from art expositions to dancing. I LOVE to watch Moldovan dancing, and had been looking forward to this since last year.

    
 
  

Just a Tuesday

With only about 5 months left in my service in Peace Corps Moldova, I feel like I should be writing profound - or at least interesting - things on this blog while I am still here. But to be honest, although I enjoy my time here, my days often don't seem very exciting. Not in the way that would compel one to share with the world. But then again, I suppose that might be one of the best things to share about Peace Corps service. Just like like at home, there are exciting days and big events sometimes, but most days are regular days. Although "regular" might have a different look in another country than it does at home, once you fall into a pattern of life, each day seems just like a normal day. For example, today I wrote some emails for work, started trying to organize a project/event, taught English, worked on my quarterly M&E report for Peace Corps, studied Romanian, and chatted with some friends online. That is a slightly different sort of day than I had in the U.S., but honestly not so different. And although I know I have previously said there is no "typical" day in Peace Corps, I do most of these things pretty frequently. So it's not such an unusual day. There were no huge events, no surprising encounters. It was just a Tuesday. And it was great. I think one of the greatest things about Peace Corps is that it gives you opportunities to see the mundane in another country. Often when people travel outside the U.S., they move quickly from event to historical site to activity, never seeing the day-to-day lives of the people in the countries they visit. I appreciate the time I have been afforded here in Moldova to live my daily life in my community: to shop at the stores and markets here, to meet local friends for lunch, to take a walk to the park. I enjoy getting to be part of the fabric of this place. Maybe the most profound thing I can share after having served 20 months in the Peace Corps is that life is life, no matter where you are.

6 Months Left

Yesterday was the "COS Lottery" (COS = Close of Service) for my PC Moldova cohort, the M32s (32nd group of PCVs in Moldova). We met at the Peace Corps office in Chisinau to choose the dates we will officially become "Returned Peace Corps Volunteers" (RPCVs). Each of us submitted a favorite song before the event, and then during the lottery the playlist was put on shuffle. When each person's song came on, that person would sign their name on the giant calendar next to the date they chose. Because of all the paperwork required to process us out of our service and out of the country, PC Moldova is only able to process out 6 Volunteers per day. So this is why we have to COS on different days. And the lottery makes the process more fair because the order we get to choose our COS dates is random. Initially when I arrived in Moldova, I thought I'd like to stay here longer than the typical 2-year service (plus training), so I have been planning to choose a late COS date. But, as I have discovered while living in Moldova, anything you plan probably won't turn out how you expect. Thus, I ended up deciding to COS the first week possible if I could. In the past week, I settled on the date July 19. It sounded like a good COS date to me, because it is a Friday and it is exactly 6 months from the COS lottery date. I like the nice round number and the closure at the end of a week. They feel satisfying. Fortunately, when my song came on there were still spots available on July 19! And my friend Courtney, who was my roomie for Staging back in Philadelphia, my seat mate on the flight to Moldova, and is my neighbor in southern Moldova, was able to get the same COS date. We started together and we'll finish together. That feels satisfying, too. As I counted back the days to see how long I have left in PC Moldova, I also realized that my birthday is 100 days from my COS date. It just seems like this date fits very well.

So what does this all mean? People keep asking me when I'm "coming home." Well, that's not as simple of a question as it seems. Beyond the whole metaphorical "where is home?" question, my COS date is not necessarily the date I will leave Moldova or the date I will come back to the U.S. It's the date my Peace Corps service in Moldova will end, which means I can leave Moldova at any point after July 19. However, the date I actually leave Moldova and the date I actually go back to the U.S. will depend on what I will be doing after my Peace Corps Moldova service, and that is still in limbo. I have applied for another Peace Corps post, but I hadn't received an interview offer before the U.S. government shutdown. Peace Corps is not processing any applications, interviewing any candidates, or selecting any cohorts for any countries during the shutdown. So a month into the shutdown I still don't know whether that possibility will pan out. In any case, I decided to pick an early COS date just in case I'm offered a post with a Staging date in the Fall, because I want to have time to travel a bit in Eastern Europe before I go back to the U.S., and I want to have some time in the U.S. before leaving again.

One skill you really have the opportunity to develop in Peace Corps is FLEXIBILITY. You will be told this over and over and over, to the point that it becomes kind of a joke among Volunteers. But it's true. In the year and a half that I have lived in Moldova, plans have changed at the last minute more often than not, and I have learned that I can never count on anything I think will or want to happen. It's ok. Things usually turn out just fine. And it means that I'm much better at waiting and not knowing what to expect. So for everyone who is asking when I will "come home," all I can tell you is that you'll know when I know. :)

And for the record, my song was Switchfoot's "If the House Burns Down Tonight." What we need will find us.

 

 

Exploring Cahul

As the year winds down, I am thinking about how fast the days are passing. Even though I still have more than 8 month left of my service, I know that every month will pass faster than the one before it. Each day now I feel the urgency of exploring the parts of Moldova I haven't seen yet before my time here ends. This week we had some beautiful weather, and I was able to explore more of Cahul.

When I arrived at my host family's house, there was a map of Cahul in my room. It doesn't have a publish date, but it has to be at least 5 or 6 years old based on the lack of renovation around the Piața Independenței. On the cover of the map is a photo of a church, but it is red with white trim unlike the yellow of the church in the park (which is currently under renovation). I have seen the domes and crosses on top of this church from a distance from various parts of town, and I mapped in on my phone, but I hadn't been able to walk to it yet. Finally today I decided to find this church. It's beautiful. It didn't have a sign, and it was locked, so I don't know what it's called and I didn't go inside. When I arrived the gate was open so I walked through it to take a few photos. As was was photographing, a man walked through the gate and said something to me in Russian. All I understood were the words for "our church." I apologized and explained in Romanian that I didn't understand. He said it again, and I told him "Я не говорю по-русски (ya 'ne gava'ryu pa'ruski)" - I don't speak Russian. He kind of shrugged and so did I. I walked out the gate and he locked it behind me. I hope to go back another day and see if I can go inside and learn more about this beautiful church. It's not far from the bus station, and maybe only a 20 minute walk from my house, but in the opposite direction than I go toward town.

By the time I got back to my neighborhood, the sun was setting and I knew it would be dark soon. But I have plans for tomorrow. Another site I learned about from the old map is a MiG-19 airplane that is supposed to be on the other side of my neighborhood. I've also wanted to see it since learning about it last Fall, but haven't had a chance yet. I am hoping to take advantage of the nice weather before it starts getting cold.

I never imagined that I would live in Moldova, but now it feels like home. I'm grateful for this opportunity to see a beautiful corner of the world.

25 years of Peace Corps Moldova

This is a little glimpse into the lives of PCVs in Moldova. I'm very thankful to be here, and to have these colleagues and friends. Bravo to the volunteers in this video (Sam, Fritz, Ellen, Jon, Alex, Anne, and Bartosz), and the rest of the M30s, M31s, M32s, and M33s I have had the honor of serving with in Moldova. 🇲🇩

Peace Corps Moldova 25th Anniversary video

Serving Under Conditions of Hardship

It's one of the first things you are told about Peace Corps, and you have to agree to it upon accepting your invitation to serve:

Expectation #3 of the Core Expectations for Peace Corps Volunteers states that PCVs must:

"Serve where the Peace Corps asks you to go, under conditions of hardship if necessary, and with the flexibility needed for effective service."

Obviously, this means different things for each Volunteer, country, site, context, etc. Living in a town and in an Eastern European country means the hardships I face are different than the hardships faced by Volunteers living in rural contexts or other parts of the world. I really have no complaints about physical hardships in my site. For example, I don't have to chop my own wood or coal, I don't have to get my water from a well, I don't have to walk or bike miles to the nearest market. The biggest challenge I face here regarding resources is that twice a year my town turns off the water to clean the water pipes - which is happening this weekend, so I showered last night and have stockpiled bottles of water to use for the next two days while the water will be off.

However, there are non-physical hardships that all PCVs face: we miss our friends and families, we miss favorite foods, we miss events and experiences at home.

I have been thinking about this recently, as I have now been in Moldova for nearly 17 months. I've missed a few friends' weddings, I've missed friends' babies being born, I will miss the national convention of my sorority - which will happen for the first time ever in my hometown of Seattle, and which I had hoped to attend. And just yesterday, I found out that my favorite band will tour their new album in the Spring and I will miss the show they play in my hometown on my birthday.

But when we accept our invitations to serve as Peace Corps Volunteers, we understand that we are giving up the conveniences of home and that we might miss important events during our service. In my case, it was a choice I made with open eyes and willingly. Certainly, I am sorry to miss these experiences, and I absolutely miss my friends and family at home. But at the same time, what I have given up feels like a small price to pay for the extraordinary opportunity to gain new skills, knowledge, friendships, and experiences through my Peace Corps Service.

I am grateful for the people and communities that have welcomed me here in Moldova, and I would not trade this experience for anything.

A day in the life

Have you ever wondered what a typical day as a Peace Corps Volunteer looks like? Well, I'm not sure if there is a "typical" day. But I can give you a snapshot of one day. 

Today, I worked on my tri-annual report for Peace Corps, had lunch with a friend, taught an English lesson for kids along with my fellow PCV sitemate, tried to study language but ended up chatting with my sitemates instead, participated in the English conversation group organized by the Fulbright in our town, chatted with local kids on the way home (I love hearing them yell, "Hee-lar-eee!" when they see me, and seeing them come running over), ate with my host family, and helped translate a conversation between my host family and the PCV they hosted before me who is back in the U.S. now. 

I love that every day in Peace Corps is different and holds new challenges and surprises. The thing I love most is the opportunity to develop relationships and work on interesting projects with great colleagues.

One year.

I've been wanting to fire the blog back up. I got super busy over the summer and got lazy about writing. Also my computer has been overheating, and I'm not sure if that's because it's 6 years old now or because the weather is hot or what, but in any case I have been trying to use it sparingly, which is kind of getting in the way of work and of writing.

But today is August 15, 2018. One year ago I finished PST and packed all my bags to get ready for Swearing In and moving to my new home in Cahul. It's hard to believe that a year has already passed. In a fun turn of events, today turned out to be the day that I finally bought an ie ("ee-ay") - a traditional Moldovan shirt - and I think it's fitting that it marks one year spent in Cahul. I plan to wear it for Ziua Independenței (Independence Day) later this month.

I'm excited that the M33 Volunteers will be swearing in tomorrow. It has made me reflect on my own PST and the past year at site. What a year it has been. There were definitely many challenges, but there were also great experiences and beautiful sights. It's also interesting to see how I have changed, how my language skills have improved (and how they haven't - haha!), and how I've integrated into my Moldovan community over the past year.

I'm sure I will have more reflections tomorrow, the anniversary of our Swearing In and arrival at site, but I was thinking today about how from here on out everything will be a "last" instead of a "first." Probably I will not still be in Moldova by this time next year, which is strange to think about. I look forward to what this year will hold, and I plan to savor all the moments.

Mid-Service Conference

Peace Corps experience is such an interesting thing. Everyone has an idea of what Peace Corps is, and honestly I have a much easier time explaining my Peace Corps service to people than explaining the NGOs I have worked with, because Peace Corps has name recognition around the world. But at the same time, no two Peace Corps Volunteers' experience is the same, even if they are in the same country, program, or even site.

This week, my cohort - M32 - had our Mid-Service Conference in Chisinau. The last of the cohort before us has COSed now (finished their service), and we are now in the second half of ours. We spent the time discussing goals and hopes for the second half of our service, and it's strange to realize that we are on the downhill slope now. We also had a Q&A time with the new cohort (M33) who are now about a week away from finishing PST and being sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers. They will swear in exactly one year after my cohort did. One of the main things we emphasized to them is that each of their experiences will be different, and not to try to compare.

I have been reflecting on my first year in Moldova and in Peace Corps. I have been practicing Romanian because we took an LPI exam during the conference to get a benchmark of our language level. I've been thinking about what I'd still like to accomplish before I leave Moldova. And I have been thinking about how it will feel to leave Moldova. I can't quite visualize it yet. But one of my goals by the end of my service here was to be sad to leave, and I am sure that I will be. I am happy with some of the projects I have been involved in, but hope to be able to work with my counterparts to do more projects that will make a positive difference in our community. I am happy that I finally feel somewhat confident in my language skills, but still hope to improve a lot more before I leave Moldova.

And then I have started thinking about what might come after my service here in Moldova. Honestly, although there have been a lot of challenges, that is one of the reasons I joined Peace Corps. I wanted to be challenged and grow. I have. And I want more of this type of experience. I don't know yet what will come next, but for now I am glad to have another year in Moldova.

English books!

This week, the American Resource Center at Biblioteca Publica Raională "Andrei Ciurunga" in Cahul received a shipment of books from Darien Book Aid in the U.S. We are so grateful to have more books in English for our community members to read, and they came just in time for summer reading!

Darien Book Aid is a wonderful non-profit organization that has made a big difference around the world:

"In existence since 1949, Darien Book Aid is a non-profit, all volunteer organization that builds a foundation of peace, understanding, and friendship through the free distribution of books. Book Aid sends books in response to specific requests from Peace Corps volunteers, libraries and schools all over the world. Books are also donated to libraries, prisons, hospitals, and Native American and Appalachian groups in the United States."

If you would like to donate to support the efforts of Darien Book Aid to provide books to community that want them, you can find information on their website: http://www.darienbookaid.org

THANK YOU! MULȚUMESC! СПАСИБО!