Overnighter

Last week I spent two days with my friend Melissa, another PCV. The way this visit came about seems to be representative of my general work in Moldova: Hectic. Last Monday, my partner, Angela, told me that on Wednesday we would be going to a dried fruit business and then on Thursday we would be going the see Doamna Ecaterina in “a neighboring village.” We had worked with Doamna Ecaterina before on some seminars for women in rural areas, so I assumed that we were going to discuss something related to either her organization or our organization. As you will see, this turns out to be a completely incorrect assumption.

On Tuesday, I inquired about what time we were going to the dried fruit business and “the neighboring village.” Angela was not sure what time, but informed me that we would be spending Thursday night in “the neighboring village” and returning on Friday. Melissa comes to my town every Tuesday morning to meet for tea and a little chit chat. When I met her that Tuesday, she asked me about the class I was teaching at her school. Apparently, Doamna Ecaterina is also a teacher and I was teaching her Civics classes on Thursday. I informed Melissa that my partners and I were spending the night Thursday, but I had no idea where. Melissa kindly offered that I could stay at her house if needed.

When I arrive back at the office from my meeting with Melissa, I asked about teaching the class. Angela then told me that I was supposed to prepare a presentation about writing a project proposal. I then asked a series of questions about said presentation, to which a received a series of unhelpful answers. For example: Question: how long should the presentation be? Response: between 10 and 45 minutes.

I spent the rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday preparing for my presentation. On Wednesday morning I was informed that we were no longer going to see the dried fruit business that afternoon. When I inquire as to what time I needed to be ready and where we were meeting the following morning to go to “the neighboring village,” Angela told me to be at the office at my normal time. I consider my normal time to be anywhere between 8:00am and 1:00pm, so this is not the most helpful information. I clarify by saying tomorrow at 8:00 and Angela says 8:00 or 8:30. Later Thursday night Melissa called to tell me that her host mom told her that I would be staying with them on Thursday night. I am still not sure who arranged that.

Friday morning at roughly 7:15, Angela called to tell me I will be going to “the neighboring village” alone and to get on the rutiera that stops on the street next to the post office at 8:00. The post office is roughly 30 minutes away and I had to go to the bank on the way, so I left my house immediately. To spite the fact that Angela’s directions were not all that clear, I ultimately made it the school in “the neighboring village.”

I then taught four classes in Romanian. I am pretty sure that the kids understood very little of what I said. Also the interactive lesson that I planned somewhat backfired. I asked questions to the students but then was unable to understand many of the answers that the students gave. I did feel that each class I taught went better than the last, so I view that as a positive thing.

I also had the opportunity the watch one of Melissa’s health classes and attend her health club. In the health club we did a team building activity: the human knot. This was actually the most interesting thing I have participated in Moldova. It was interesting to watch the Moldovan kids, who had never played human knot before. I feel like all American kids have done the human knot at least 100 times and they have it down pat, but this was not the case with the Moldovan kids. It took some extra explaining in the beginning and throughout the activity, but it was so cool the watch them work together and figure it out.

After the club was over, I was a little confused about what I was supposed to be doing the following day. Doamna Ecaterina asked me what I had planned for the following day, I said that I had nothing planned yet. I had sort of assumed that she had something that she wanted me to do and that was why I was staying the night. Again not the case, she had no plans for me. I could have returned home that afternoon.

After the school day was over, I spent a fun, but as it turns of completely unnecessary evening, with Melissa and her host mom. Melissa’s host mom went to town to by a microwave that day, and was really excited about it when she arrived home. We spent some time setting up the microwave, heating water for tea and then we watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The following morning, I watched another on of Melissa’s health classes and then headed back to Hincesti. Overall, teaching the classes was a good experience; however, the rest of the experience was a bit hectic.

Peace Corps does not permit me to say the name of the small village in which Melissa lives. That is why I have referred to it at “the neighboring village.”