Buna ziua!

A winery in my village that has the biggest wine cellar in the world.
Out for a walk in my village
From left to right: Ana (my host sister), Ana (Vince's host sister), Vince (My neighbor/another PC volunteer)
Masa and big lunch for us at the first day of school
A park in the capital
June 14, 2009

Buna zia! (Good day!)

I have almost made it through the first week of Peace Corps, yet it feels like I’ve been here a year. Life has been hectic lately and it has been hard to get on the internet or call anyone. My group, M24, is the twenty-fourth group to arrive in Moldova and we have a little over sixty in our group. After an almost 48 hour excursion to get here we all arrived in relatively good spirits. Instantly we were whisked away into buses to our hotel. For two nights we stayed there; in the daytime we would be in meetings, lectures, classes, demonstrations, in-transit, etc. At night we were still doing these things, but after we got paired off into groups with our mentors, who have been here a year already. Going to grab dinner and/or beer was a great way to get to know the current volunteers (PCV) and they helped answer the millions of questions we had. Chisinau is a nice city, about 600,000 people, and is everything that a post Soviet/wanna-be-European city would be. Agriculture Business and Rural Business Development (ARBD), my project, is composed of about ten people, some young, some old. Fortunately, only two of us, not including me, had to learn Russian. Although I would like to know the language, it looks like the craziest language to learn, and some Moldovans get offended when you speak it instead of Romanian, even though all Moldovans speak Russian fluently. The M24’s got split up yesterday by projects, and the ARBD’s went to a little village not far from the capital. Driving in you pass gently rolling hills lush with sprawling rows of grapes. Yes that’s right, I’m in wine country. In my village there is a winery that boasts the largest wine cellar in the world. I went the entrance of it today and it was BEAUTIFUL.

Now on to the good stuff, my host family. They are great. I was the first one to be dropped off which only caused my anxiety level to skyrocket even more, although by that point you wouldn’t even imagine how many knots were in my stomach. They are very nice people; my mother is Vera, father Viscile, sisters Ana and Natalia, 20 and 18, respectfully. Ana does her best with English and isn’t very proficient, but she’s trying and I applaud her effort because she knows more English than I do Romanian. This will change very quickly though. After about ten minutes of both the family and I being completely freaked out by each other because the complete inability to communicate, in walks another trainee named Vince, whom is in my ARBD group. He lives next door to me. Hell yeah, I cannot convey how much this helps. To add on to that, his host sister, Ana (18), knows a good deal of English and is good friends with my host sister Ana. Last night both families had dinner together. I was feeling sick and really couldn’t bare the thought of eating the mayo salad with a couple cucumbers and tomatoes thrown in for garnish. But I ate it. I was also singled out for being shy and was ignored by the other volunteers host father who kept trying to get people to take shots of cognac (at this point I would have loved one to cut the tension in the room). After leaving dinner at the neighbors house we came back, attempted communication, failed, and I went to unpack. By this point I was really hating life, and freaked out that the rest of my service would be this awkward. I decided to come out and make contact again, this time equipped with laptop and pictures. and singled out my host sisters. I showed them family and friends, and we had a translator on their computer that helped immensely. After a couple hours I left with a feeling of accomplishment and enjoyed showing them my life in America.

Today was spent at the school dancing the hora, a typical Moldovan dance, and eating the same meal that I’ve had for a week now (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) that consisted of cucumber, tomato, bread, cherries, salami, cheese, cookies, and chocolate. The fresh fruit and veggies are great, but I’m really starting to hate chocolate. Yes I said it, sorry ladies I know that this would be paradise, but there is just something about eating a moonpie at 7:30am that doesn’t sit right with me. Just say no and not eat it right? HA. For all of you back home that thinks I am somewhat of a peer pressurer, you haven’t dined with a Moldovan. My host mother has almost come close to literally shoving food down my mouth, even after explaining, rather shouting “Sunt plein! Sunt plain! nu vreau manic!” (I’m full! I’m full! I don’t want to eat more!). This is just their way of being a great host, and all in all I love it. They are wonderful people and I’m pretty sure they would give me the shirt off their backs. They live a very simple life, the gas is currently shut off because of a dispute between the next town where the pipeline first goes through (Haven’t really figured the details out on this one yet). I had my first bucket bath today…and it completely rocked, although I wasn’t the one boiling the water. Still not sure how this was accomplished since the village doesn’t have gas. Anyways, I’m going to end it on this note because while you are just sitting down to a dinner table, it is one in the morning here and I’ve got to get up in six hours and then put up with a full day off language class and cultural immersion. Before this I still have to take a trip to the outhouse before bed, which is no Pot-O-Gold. More like four tin walls and a hole in the ground.

PS- If the FML fad is still going strong, post the link to my blog. Outhouse and mayo salads trump “My boyfriend called me over to his house two hours away just to break up with me. FML” any day of the week.

La revedere!