Why Peace Corps? Why Moldova?
Letter #2 - A day in the life of a Peace Corps Trainee
Dear friends (and friends of friends!)
I’ve been struggling to find the right words for an introductory post. I want to explain why I came here, but the answer has so many dimensions.
Today, I had a really great day of working towards fulfilling my “why.” So while I may still write a letter that more explicitly addresses the FAQs, I hope that this “day in the life” sheds some light on the answer.
7:10am: Breakfast. I wake up a few minutes before my alarm to the sound of roosters and the call of nature. After washing up, I greet my host mother (Doamnă Maria, age 72), who has already finished preparing breakfast. Today we have cucumbers from the garden, tomatoes, salami, and pasta in hot milk. When I mention that I’ve never had hot milk and pasta in America, Doamnă Maria responds that it is frequently served in gradinița, which is the school Moldovan children attend between ages 3 and 6. I share that we have no universal, publicly-funded equivalent of gradinița in America.
7:55am: Walk to Class. Unlike most of my fellow trainees, I live 1 minute from the school where we have our classes. After my “commute,” I pause outside the school doors to appreciate the fresh air and flower gardens.
A few of the folks who care for the gardens are resting on a nearby bench. One of the men approaches to greet me. I don’t recognize him, but he recognizes me. “Is everything okay? You weren’t in the church yesterday.” I had attended the village parish the previous two Sundays, but yesterday my host family took me to a nearby monastery for Liturgy. I’m momentarily surprised that my absence was noted, but it makes sense. I do stand out.
8am-12pm: Language class. This week I have Profesoara Galina, the younger of our two language teachers. She greets us with a bright, easy smile. Today’s topics include: buildings in the city, asking for directions, and verbs ending in e. At the end of class, we review the homework, which was to practice our standard introductory speech. We learned the first part of the speech during our very first language class 4 weeks ago (“Bună! Mă numesc Nathan. Sunt din America!”) and have slowly added to it over time.
The speech now includes past and future tense, explaining our motivations and hopes for service. We’re reviewing the speech because Saturday is a Big Day. We will travel from our training village to visit our permanent location, to get an idea of who we’ll be living and working with. After three days, we’ll return for the rest of our training, which ends in mid-August.
12:05pm: Lunch. As per normal, we have soup for lunch. Today we have zeamă, chicken soup. My host mom apologizes that the chicken is not fresh (she canned it a few months ago) and explains that we will have a new one soon. I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference if she didn’t tell me.
1:30-3:30pm: Technical Training. Today we have two sessions. In the first hour, our program staff, Elena and Svetlana, lead an activity to review the online learning we completed about organizational capacity building and performance assessments.
In the second hour, the M&E specialist (Vitalie) visits to discuss the Peace Corps approach to monitoring and evaluation. We have a spreadsheet that shows the logical progression from the PC mission of “world peace and friendship” down through program goals (determined in collaboration with the Moldovan government), outputs, outcomes, and quantitative indicators. Vitalie ends our session with another reminder that our first 3 months of service (August-November) are expected to be dedicated to integration, not projects, so we won’t be logging tangible indicators any time soon.
3:30-5pm - Homework. Today, my friend Ivan and I decide to visit the library for a change of scenery. Today there are two kids playing a game with dice and some poems on a whiteboard, left over from the children’s activity that the librarians lead each day during the summer.
5:30pm - Supper. Doamnă Maria mentions again how odd it is that we don’t eat bread with every meal. Bread is very important here in Moldova. For example, guests are welcomed with a formal presentation of fresh bread, salt, and wine. I make sure she doesn’t think I’m being rude by sticking with my buckwheat (she assures me it’s just odd). I compare it to how my grandparents feel weird if they don’t have white rice with every meal.
6:30pm - Commute to Dance Class. Peace Corps has arranged traditional dance lessons for our cohort. Twice per week, we gather to learn the hora, which we will showcase at the Swearing In Ceremony. It’s a fun opportunity to meet up with other trainees and be silly together (our cohort of 28 is spread out amongst three villages). I love how we support each other through our varying levels of ability and catch each other when we fall.
Recently, we’ve had a few spectators during our rehearsals. By the end of rehearsal we have 4 neighbors quietly sitting and watching. I don’t get the chance to ask them why they came, but I suspect that they are proud to see Americans learning the hora.
8:30pm - Post-Dance Snack. After the 9 of us return to our village, everyone swings by my host family to pick some raspberries. I had asked Doamnă Maria for permission to invite everyone because not everyone else has raspberries in their gardens, and the season is nearing its end. Of course, Doamnă Maria and Domnul Vladimir offer a glass of red wine to everyone before they leave. And, naturally, it’s hard to say no to a bit of homemade wine.
I’m proud to introduce my host parents to my friends. They have been amazing, generous hosts, and it is exciting to see them be just as hospitable to the gang. As we sip, we amble through talking about the garden, wedding traditions, family history, and life in the Soviet Union. It’s truly a miracle that our Romanian has come so far. I’m proud to introduce my friends to my host parents, and show off our collective language skills.
12:55am - Publishing this Letter. I’m about 3 hours past my bed time, but I really wanted to capture this day, and the gratitude I feel. Gratitude to my government-issued-friends, to my host parents and host village, to US taxpayers, to my family, and to God. I know I’ll have tough moments in the months ahead, but gratitude has been my overwhelming response to Moldova so far.
Thank you for reading if you got this far!
With love from Moldova,
Nathan
My views are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Peace Corps, U.S. Government, or Republic of Moldova.
It begins!! Looking forward to more beautiful days in Moldova :))
Hey I'm a US taxpayer!