A great week

This has been a great week so far, and it's only Wednesday! They say that your service picks up speed and feels more fulfilling after you've been at site for 6 months. Well, I have certainly found that to be the case. Last week I was feeling a little bored and feeling like everything was just moving so slowly. But this week, that all changed.

As of yesterday I finally found a language tutor (I had been looking since my tutor moved away in November), and then found another one! So I went from having no tutor to having two tutors in one day! Amazing. My first lesson with one of them was today and it was really helpful. I am so glad to finally have tutoring again. :)

I have also been hoping to get a team together to participate in the Technovation Challenge, but it has been difficult to recruit participants. However, some of the recruiting I have done over the past weeks has paid off and as of this evening, we have a Technovation team from Cahul! I'm excited to work with them!

Yesterday, I finally started working on the grant application for the Communication and Documentary Club that I will be starting with my library counterpart and a local NGO called MOLDOX hopefully next month. We have been working on plans for the past 2 months, and now it's finally time to get rolling on applying for funds to purchase equipment and start recruiting participants. I am really excited about this club. I think it will be beneficial to participants and the our town, and I also think it will be really fun!

Peace Corps is hard because sometimes it feels like you aren't doing anything. But sometimes you get to see all the foundational work you have been doing start to pay off, and on those days being a Peace Corps Volunteer is the best job in the world.

6 months at site!!

Today I have lived in Cahul for 6 months! My deepest thanks to everyone in Cahul who has welcomed me. I love Cahul and I am grateful for all of you.

These are some of my favorite photos from the last 6 months. 
(*more photos and captions coming soon, but the photos are taking forever to sync from my phone to my computer and I have to go to a meeting now!)

Why library-PCV partnerships are great!

This week, my library counterparts asked me to film a short video about why it's great to be a PCV working with the library. It definitely tested my Romanian language skills!

Visitors in Cahul!

This week, the other PCVs in my town and I were pleased to host our Peace Corps Moldova Country Director, Tracey, along with Peter Redmond, Chief of Operations for our region (who travelled all the way from Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, DC!). We enjoyed sharing about our work and our great community here in Cahul! 

Inside the American Resource Center in the public library that was established by a previous PCV

My counterpart, raion library director Doamna Rodica, gives a tour of the library, 

including the computer room that was funded by the Novateca program

Poftim!

Poftim is, without question, my favorite Romanian word. Like "frumos," "poftim" has many meanings, such as "here you go," "hello?" (when answering the phone), "excuse me?" or "whatever/suit yourself."

It can also take on different connotation depending on the tone you say it with (much like the word "dude" in English). 

It's versatile, plus it's fun to say. Poftim!

Art from https://www.catsuthecat.com

Rice: A case study in different perspectives

Rice. My favorite food since I was a little kid. Despite the fact that my parents preferred potatoes and pasta. My mom joked that she knew I was hers because I was born at home so I couldn't have been switched at the hospital, but she couldn't understand where my obsession with rice came from. People eat rice here in Moldova, so it's readily available at the stores here, but they prepare it differently than I am used to. Moldova has some sushi and Asian food restaurants in the capital, but here in my town there are no Asian food restaurants, so if you want something you have to make it yourself. I am very fortunate and thankful that rice, nori, and soy sauce are available at the grocery store in my town, though! And I was able to find sweet chili sauce and lime juice at a grocery store in the capital. So today I had decided that I would make rice and put a mixture of soy sauce, chili sauce, sriracha sauce, lime juice, and green onions on it. I had started boiling water when my host mom came out to see what I was doing. She thought my rice needed more water, so she poured some more in (oh! but...), and then after a few minutes she added even more (wait, but...!). Oh well, I thought. I will see what happens. Turns out what I thought would happen did: gelatinous rice. Not quite what I was hoping for. However, I explained to her that it wasn't how I wanted my rice and we agreed that we had different ideas about how the rice should turn out, but there was no problem. I made new rice (which turned out great!) and I offered her the first batch. She added butter and sugar to it, and said it was delicious! One thing that I've experienced while living in Moldova is that often my host family/counterparts/local friends and I have different ideas or understandings about how something should turn out that we don't realize at first. Not better or worse, just different. It's interesting to find out what the other person had imagined, and try to explain what I had imagined. In the end, we learn new things from each other, so I consider it a good learning experience. Sorry, there are no photos of my rice because I ate it immediately when it was finished! :D

*Edit: just as good the second day!!

Plăcintă

Plăcintă is a staple food in Moldova. It can be savory or sweet (my favorite is when it has cherries inside!), and it can be served for festive occasions or just as an everyday food. It is similar to foods I've eaten in other parts of Eastern Europe, such as pita in Bosnia, or burek in Croatia and Serbia.

Today, I happened to be in the kitchen when my host mom started preparing plăcintă so I got to watch and even help a little! She had already prepared the filling and was using pre-made dough, so it was really quick to prepare. She laid the dough sheets out flat and then spread an even layer of the filling on them. Today she used a mixture of brânză (a crumbly white cheese), cașcaval (another type of cheese), a few eggs, and a bit of salt. Once the filling was distributed, she rolled them up and I helped her put them in the pan. She brushed the plăcintă with a beaten egg and let it sit for about 10 minutes before putting it in the oven for about half an hour. Ovens here, including ours, don't really give you the option to set a specific temperature, so I can't say how hot the oven was. But the plăcintă turned out delicious!