MoldovAnn

Well, I’ve lived 4 1/2 days in Moldova! I am very happy, things are going well. Already there is probably enough for me to fill 50 blog postings, but since I am short on time, I’ll tell you about some first impressions and my new daily routine.

Flying over Moldova, I was reminded of Ohio actually! Farms and farms and farms. It’s a bit hillier than central Ohio, though. Chisinau, the capital, is like many other Eastern European towns/cities I’ve been in. Large cement-block buildings, dusty roads, crazy drivers (anyone who thinks Columbus drivers are crazy ain’t seen nothin’ yet!). Friday and Saturday are a blur already, though.

Saturday night we met our host families, and went home with them to our respective villages. There are 36 trainees in our group (we’ll officially be Peace Corps Volunteers when we are sworn in on November 15, after the completion of our formal language and technical training). 21 trainees (including me) are in Economic & Organizational Development, and 15 are in the Agricultural/Agribusiness program. There are more men than women in our group. 33 trainees are learning Romanian language, and 3 of us are learning Russian. The three of us live in Ialoveni, which is a suburb of Chisinau, with a population of about 18,000. Everyone else is split up amongst surrounding villages, 6-8 trainees per village with different host families. We “Russians” (as we are called as we are the anomalies learning Russian!) did luck out a bit by being placed in Ialovni, although it is so true that you get what you ask for! I was awful busy for months and months praying for indoor plumbing and running water. Well, I got that, but quickly realized the small but important omission in my prayers. Can you guess it? Yep, not just running water, but HOT running water. Lesson #1: you have to really think about what you want. So, my host family lives in an apartment, much like the apartments I am familiar with in Russia. We have running water, but the hot water heater is broken and thus we heat the water on the stove when we want to bathe. I still don’t have all the logistics down yet of how to bathe with bucket and pail, but I’m getting there. I figure it’s good practice, as in 9 weeks I’ll move again, to my volunteer site, and likely will have a change in accommodations.

So far, here is my routine:
7:00ish, wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast
8:15 walk 1/2 mile to the post office building where PC has rented 2 rooms for our language class. We have instruction in one room, and our “lounge” in the next, where we take our breaks for tea, snacks and relaxing.
8:30-1:00 pm – language lessons. Day 1 was easy for me, as the other 2 Russian students have very little to no experience with Russian at all. Today, though, the honeymoon ended. Our teacher, Viorica, put Matt and Emily to work together, and gave me some advanced lessons. Egad! I haven’t had to study cases and declinations for 12 years! It was hard work, but I am excited to improve my Russian language skills, and not just guess at what is right, but maybe actually know how to say something correctly and why.

1:00 pm 1/2 mile walk up the hill for lunch at home

2:30 pm Self-Directed Time – homework, activities, etc. Sometimes assigned by Viorica, sometimes more or less free time, but time to be learning, integrating into the community, etc.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, all the trainees come into Chisinau for PC lectures (health, safety, administration and technical training). Today we all registered with the local authorities, so we are now officially allowed to stay here.

The weather has been lovely – hot, even, and not a cloud in the sky. The people are very friendly and helpful. The food is delicious. We have to be careful with the water because of bacteria, but PC provided us each with some kind of purifier (which they call a distiller). Lesson #2: don’t look inside the purifier after you run the water through it; you don’t want to know what’s in there.

I started keeping a list (ah, my love of lists!) of my impressions, things I notice, etc. I will try to post some of them next time.

Suffice to say, things are very good so far. As they say, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Well, I’ve decided that my first encounter with Moldova 10 years ago doesn’t really count, and thus, I have a wonderful first impression of the country and its people.