PST Phase III

Day 8,524
October 31, 2009

It’s amazing the striking difference between this year’s Halloween and last year’s. At this time last year I was sitting in an economics class anxiously waiting to get let out so I could finish party preparations at my house. Now, well you know the story, I am waking up in a tiny village on the other side of the world, listening to roosters crowing and drinking a cup of coffee in a country that has never even heard of Halloween.

Today marks the end of PST Phase III for the ARBDs and CODs- yes, PC loves their acronyms. Usually Peace Corps training is a power course over the first ten weeks of service. This year, the ARBDs and CODs were the first groups to switch it up and have training for eight weeks, go to our sites for two and a half months, and then finish up the last phase of PST in October (PST III). We were officially sworn in as PCVs in August, so I don’t really know if the completion of this makes us more legit, or if we just completed two more weeks of mandatory language lessons. Either way, these past two weeks have been great. My old host family in Milestii Mici was not able to host me because they had family from Italy staying with them. It would have been nice to stay with them because I really appreciate the fact that they helped get me through the first two months in this country when I knew absolutely no Romanian and nothing about Moldova, but I have had a great opportunity getting close to a new host family. I did get a chance to visit my old host family and they were blown away by the fact that we could actually have a two-sided conversation and that I’m no longer an invalid. Needless to say, it was quite the confidence booster.

Out of the thirteen original ARBDs in our group we have had four older volunteers (all above the age of 60, except for one whom was 45) drop out, and so I was placed in one of their families. I was quite lucky in the fact that I got an amazing host family. They have two kids, a boy and a girl, that are both in high school and they are a very warm and open family. If I were the older guy that had them over the summer, I would have had hard time leaving to go to my site, because as it is now I am staying an extra night and am having mixed feelings about going back to my site. On one hand, it is great feeling loved and welcome in this new family, but on the other hand I am ready to get back to my site and start developing a new project idea that I want to implement by spring.

Last night it was my host mother’s birthday and they threw a huge party for her. I showed up late because we had a meeting with the Ambassador and Peace Corps staff, and was greeted by 30 guests sitting at the table. One of the guests, I think it was my host mother’s brother-in-law, was asking me what I’m doing here and what my goals are. I try to iterate to everyone that first and foremost I am here to experience a new culture and to learn from them, and ideally, I would like to help in any capacity that I can. I usually get a good response from this that opens up the dialogue, and I thought that this conversation was headed in that direction because he then asked me how old I am. When I told him, he flipped out and started shouting that I’m too young to help and was quite hostile throughout the entire conversation. The entire table was dead quite, except for his wife who was shouting at him to shut up; the whole time his batty eyes were locked with mine. After what felt like an eternity, he stormed out of the house muttering that he had to smoke a cigarette. I was a little shaken up until the entire table rallied behind me, and were all encouraging me not to take it personally, and that they are honored to have me in their country. In that moment, I realized that they were right; I shouldn’t take it personally. I may be young, but I have seen the powerful effects the young and old Peace Corps Volunteers continually make in Moldova and in over 100 countries worldwide. This is what John F. Kennedy meant when he addressed an assembly of college students at 2 am on October 14, 1960 challenging them to go abroad to countries in need, work side by side with the people, and make a difference at the grass-roots level. I have opted to give up a comfortable life in America, away from family and friends, and move to a country where I don’t know the language or anyone else. The simple fact that I can now understand what he said a mere five months after arriving here makes me feel good. It’s people like this that make me ready to get back to my own village because I want to get to work and implement projects so that for every person that doubts that we can’t help here, I can show them differently.

I have finished translating the grant for the Regional Council for Economic Development in my region, and am waiting to see if we are awarded the funds. The scope of the grant is to setup a business incubator in my village that would help entrepreneurs start local businesses that would encourage them to stay in Moldova and not illegally immigrate abroad. I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but the size of the document and the time frame I had to translate it made for a difficult situation. I was working on it the night before it was due. I don’t like this last minute scrambling, and the lack of planning was apparent, which only reflects poorly in the grant. I learned a lot from this experience, and will make sure that the grants/proposals I work on in the future will be conducted in a new fashion. I have a project idea that I am eager to start research on because it is something that I am very interested and can benefit local Moldovan farmers. Irrigation is a big problem in Moldova, and because of bad practices the topsoil is eroding and the salinity level is rising, causing the productivity of the land to decrease. Ideally, I would like to setup a demonstration plot that can be easily replicated that is cost effective and is completely green. I want to build a greenhouse that uses solar batteries (water barrels) to heat up the space, instead of a heat source that burns propane or carbon-based fuels, and is also equipped with a drip irrigation system that utilizes a solar panel to power the water pump. This would not only help the environment, but would also extend the growing season and increase harvest from 1 to 2 times a year, to 3 or 4, help farmers feed their families and increase their livelihoods, save water, and increase the knowledge and capacity of the community. If anyone has any input on this subject, I encourage you to get in contact with me. This idea is still very young, and any ideas/resources that can be provided are welcome.

It is a beautiful, crisp autumn day outside and my host brother’s soccer game that I promised to attend started ten minutes ago. Happy Halloween. Noroc.