Swearing in

 

 

Hello my blog readers :-)

 

First things first, some of you were wondering how I spent my 53rd b'day. I was with  a few friends in the city, this was almost our last hoorah, a day later for our REAL last hoorah was McDonalds! Nothing like a Happy Meal to get you ready for the move to a remote town. We have stopped in to MickyDs a few times because they have the BEST bathrooms around. Janet's b'day was the next day so we had Tiramisu for our "b'day cake" it was AMAZING, honestly the best I've ever had. Hooray for Tiramisu in Moldova!

 

 

Connie, Janet and KC. Oh boy did KC and Janet win the award for the roughest placement.... yikes...

 

Well it's official, I'm a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer), i.e. no longer a PCT Peace Crops trainee. It was a nice ceremony. Now unfortunately with all my computer savvy I managed to delete the photos off both my phone and computer. So if you're interested, here is a youtube clip, it's long but I'm at about 18:00 minutes, and if you feel you must watch a little more go from about 1:00 hr and on it's entertaining, fellow members did a dance and sang. Unfortunately about 90 % of the ceremony was in Romanian so I'm not sure what was said but I'm sure it was great, probably very inspiring (I apologize if these links don't work, guess you'll have to put in the harder way, typing it - unless copy paste works? But don't think so, sorry)
http://youtu.be/4jj1UrV8GJA

A great speech was delivered by our country director, it is from the inspirational Dr. Seuss, it was perfect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQRWeZy-S8Q

My partner teacher picked me up with a van, thankfully, because I, as well as everyone else, had an enormous amount of baggage, boxes, etc. to transport to our new homes. Not only did we COME with a lot we all had things shipped to us and the PC gave us enough books to open a library.
So now the settling in begins....

I had visited Taraclia about a month ago, I wrote about it back then... but now it's different, I live here, LIVE here! WHAT? How did I end up in a small town/village in Moldova?

So I can say without hesitation, and I will admit straight out, this has NOT been easy. I can't believe it's been less than a week. I have had a big problem with being sick. I don't know why, the food, water, outhouse, new smells which I hate, I don't know but since I've arrived in Moldova I have been sick about 8 times when at home it was maybe 1 or 2 times a year. My doctor has provided me with anti-nausea pills but sometimes even that doesn't help. It is making my adjustment rather difficult.

I had a very surreal moment the other night. As I made a run for  the outhouse to throw up the ramen noodles I tried to eat (brought from home thought I'd feel better eating American food - though surprisingly the sell them here - obviously they DIDN'T make me feel better) I only made it to the bushes, which is preferable to the outhouse so I was happy with the place I ended up. As my stomach did its thing I had a dog barking at my feet and I listened to the heehawing of a donkey and the clucking of chickens. This is when it hit me... "this can't be happening I have got to be in the middle of  a bad dream".  But nope.... here I am and there I was having a surreal life moment.

My first full day here I did make myself go to 2 stores, you just feel so darn helpless trying to do such easy mundane things! but I had to  do it and I am proud to say I came home with the 2 things. Some of the people here recognize the fact we are new Americans in town, I am lucky, they've had volunteers for about 5 years so they have seen us strange creatures around. Sometimes I  get very annoyed because I  think "oh come on that was close enough you had to have understood me" but I am told it just doesn't work that way. Now don't forget, we in the US are USE to accents and we are usually able to figure out what that person is saying, but think about other countries that have no exposure to people of different languages, if you say a word wrong, though it is CLOSE they just don't "get it".

Yesterday I met with another PCV from my own group, we muddled around town, she has been here a few weeks and is a bit ahead of me in the language. I have to get over the fear of looking, and sounding, stupid while trying out new things. So far I've spit out words, not sentences, that does seem to work, up to a point.  For example today I tried a real sentence "Ya Hachu Kupyet...." uh oh.... what is the word for ice cream? "I want to buy a.... uh oh" I tried "chocolat"? first they tried a glass jar of candy, then next they pulled a candy bar from the refrigerator, finally I had to break down and do it the old fashion way. I held up my hand as if holding a stick and pretended to lick it. Now that is attractive thing to do as a 53 year old standing in a pubic park. See what I mean about looking and sounding stupid?

Oh on a side note.... this is on the steps of my new home.... how cute is this?

 

Well just as I'm about ready to give up, after a few days, my host mama "Maria" had me sit with her on a porch. We sat under grapevines with ripe bunches of grapes hanging over us, flowers at our feet and an orange sunset in the background. It was simply beautiful. We did our best to communicate as always, I think we don't do so bad sometimes. Of course I smile and nod a lot when in fact I don't know what she's saying and I imagine she is doing the same thing.

Photos of my backyard, pretty isn't it.

 

So, now I have flashlight in hand, TP in pocket, and sandals on my feet I'm now ready for a last trip to the outhouse for the day (I pray it is, waking up at 3 am to go potty is a horrible thing, not like at home when ya stumble to the bathroom and back). I try to tell myself it's like camping... (doesn't work but I try). Those of you that have been praying for an indoor bathroom for me, please keep going, they've been working on it, PLEASE GOD let it be done before it gets cold. Keep praying please...

 

 

PS

 

I spotted this in the town that has been my "home" for the last 10 weeks.  It was a religious holiday over the weekend, it was nonstop with cars dressed in ribbons and horns honking. I will miss my town especially the pizza and beer, though I am sure we must have it in my new town since we do have restaurants. Funny... my partner Maria didn't really understand the concept of "take out food". So there goes that for a few years, going from twice a week at home down to 0 is not so easy. And by the way, though I haven't craved any particular food from America  yet just after being sick I did, and much to my surprise it was SUBWAY!

 

So over and out my friends,

Thanks for reading my blog, I appreciate any interest that anyone has in my story and in the country of  Moldova.