Well now is when I might actually start having time to write in this thing! Im about to start week 8 of PST (pre-service training). These last two months have been absolutely crazy. Busier than I could have imagined. I’ll try to sum up what Ive been doing!
So every week I have language class Monday through Saturday 8:30am-12:30. After that we usually had tech sessions from 2-5. Tech was where we learned the ins and outs of being a teacher in Moldova/ working in the medical center. This all happens in the village where I am currently living (Budesti… pronounced more like Boo-desht… the little squiggle under the s makes a “sh” sound). So Im here with 6 other health volunteers. Also, almost every Thursday, we travel to Chisinau. This is called hub site day. On this day, all 53 trainees meet up and have info sessions about anything you can imagine (anything from finance to peace corps policy to personal safety).
This has been my summer up until last week when we started practice school. Practice school is two weeks of, well exactly what it sounds like, practice school! My future teacher partner came to Budesti this week, all the way from Tintareni (Ill get into this later, but Tintareni is where Ill be moving in about a week and a half!)! So my partner was here and we had to teach classes for 4 days. It may sound simple, but planning a lesson in Romanian, writing a lesson plan in Romanian, coming up with ideas in Romanian, communicating those ideas in Romanian, and the actually teaching a class in Romanian… yeah, its definitely not that simple!! However, we worked through the week and made it! We had three very successful lessons and one that was a little less than successful. Overall, it was a great week. Next week will be week two of practice school and Ill do basically the same thing all over again but with my other teacher partner!
After week two of practice school, I have a day or two free and then I have my LPI (I cant remember what it stands for.. language something something). LPI is a language test. If all goes well, which I am pretty sure it will, I will have swearing in ceremony on August 17th and then I will officially be a Peace Corps Volunteer!!!!!
If it sounds exhausting, its because it is exhausting! Every day is busy and full of surprises. On top of everything, I have to study the language every night AND try to communicate with my host family… in Romanian.
Speaking of host families, my host family is amazing. I only have 2 more weeks with them and Im very sad to leave them. I have a host mom and dad (Anastasia and Antolie) and two host sisters (Dana and Madalina). They also have 2 dogs and 3 cats, a bunch of chickens and ducks and roosters. Oh, and one of the cats had kittens so they have 3 little kittens running around too. I want to keep one of them J I am very lucky and my host sister Dana speaks English. We’ve become very close!
The people here are just wonderful, especially the other volunteers. I cant imagine being with a more amazing group of people. We come from all around the United States- Washington, Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona, and me from Maryland of course! We’ve gone through 8 very difficult weeks together and we all care very much about each other. Its going to stink moving away from them! Luckily Moldova is only the size of Maryland so getting together will not be too challenging!
So Wednesday, August 17th is the swearing in ceremony and also the last day that Ill be living with this family. Directly after the ceremony, I leave for Tintareni, which is about an hour and a half north of Chisinau. This will be my home for the next 2 years. The host family Ill be living with there is also absolutely wonderful. My Tintareni host mom has a laugh that makes your heart happy. My host dad there told me if I wanted to, that I could stay for 5 years instead of just two. And my host brother there told me that if Im every scared or confused, he will be there for me.
I am truly blessed to be in this amazing country with so many wonderful people.
