PST Pre-Service Training in Moldova

Four very quick hours of language class and one massive headache later we sat outside the school with the other volunteers to compare and eat what was provided to us for lunch.  I have never been a big fan of cucumbers but the flavor of these Moldovan produced cucumbers was so good that I couldn't help chomping away on two or three along with the other volunteers.

Ciorescu in the summer time is a beautiful place to learn a language and we quickly noted the similarities and differences between the Peace Corps method of teaching the language and what we had experienced with Castila in Spain the year before.  The Peace Corps focuses upon teaching volunteers “survival language” as quickly as possible and it seemed to work well for us.

Waking up in our training village of Ciorescu (pronounced “chore-es-coo”) for the first full day of PST we found that Iulia (our host mom) had made Moldovan pancakes for breakfast and a packet for our lunch consisting of sausages, bread, cucumbers and tomatoes.  After brushing our teeth and negotiating our way past the huge garden and through the chicken coop to the outhouse we were off to language class which began at eight o’clock.

We had been told that since we had learned Spanish (a little bit anyway) learning Romanian would be easier for us.  This turned out to be true and not true at the same time.  Yes, we knew what to expect and could make comparisons with the process of learning a new language but in reality, the grammar structure, pronunciation and vocabulary of Romanian is significantly different so in many ways we needed to unlearn things we had developed while learning Spanish.  In our opinion, the languages are different and each has to be approached differently.

The Peace Corps keeps its new trainees under “lockdown” status (can’t leave our training village unaccompanied) for the first three weeks for safety purposes.  Our language trainers (LTI’s) were responsible for us and lived in the village with us during the week only going home to their families for Saturday evening and Sunday (they were on call however).  We could wander the village but could not leave without being accompanied by an LTI, or a member of our host family.  Our routine quickly became four hours of language in the morning (in groups of three or four volunteers) and a bit of cultural and technical training about business in Moldova with some small projects to work on in the afternoon.

The small afternoon projects were useful because they caused us to wander around the village, familiarizing ourselves with the place and in some cases, starting to use the language.  Our host families provided everything we needed and the Peace Corps provided about 29 lei ($2.25) per day of walking around money.  This would buy a beer, a glass of wine and a package of cigarettes.  Since Marilyn and I each received 29 lei per day sometimes we would have another beer or wine……or buy something useful like toilet paper.  Some of the volunteers quickly developed the habit of meeting at the local bar for a drink at the end of the day.

One day per week we traveled on the bus, with our LTI’s to Chișinău for Administrative training.  We really learned to dislike these days as the Peace Corps staff delivered the required information in the specified manner.  On the positive side we did get to see the other volunteers that had come over with us, serving in the other programs, and that was nice.  Meanwhile, the two doctors in charge of the 100 or so volunteers in Moldova interviewed, poked, prodded and vaccinated us over and over again.  Personally, our focus was on acquiring the language which we felt was the most important thing to our future success as volunteers.

The bus between Chișinău and Ciorescu takes 45 minutes and runs several times per day.  Inevitably, with 11 volunteers and 3 LTI’s added to the regulars, the bus became extremely crowded and hot by the time it arrived at our destination.  While it is not particularly hot in Moldova in the summer (it rarely exceeds 30-32 degrees) it is very humid (regularly over 80%). 

Since bathing in a bucket (a Peace Corp norm that can’t be imagined until you try it) was difficult for us new volunteers (it never becomes easy) and washing clothes is not an everyday occurrence it becomes important to try and avoid sweating through your clothes whenever possible.  One complicating factor; many Moldovans believe that a breeze, blowing past you (called “curent”) was a one-way, non-stop ticket to sickness.  The result was that on almost every crowded, hot bus, somebody would insist that the windows be shut to cut off the “curent”.

Our cultural integration seemed to be going well and we think our experiences in Spain and Uruguay helped.  Iulia and Sasha’s grandaughter Daniela, a 17 year old who was learning English in school, came over on our first couple of nights to interpret for us which really helped, and made us feel at home.  Thanks so much Dani!  We had to learn how to take a “bucket bath” in our first day or two because the outdoor, summer shower was not yet finished (a wonderful luxury that I wished we’d had in Arizona).  The house did not have a hot water heater, if you wanted hot water for your bath you heated it in a big kettle on the stove and put it in your bucket to use.  There are no instructions for taking a bucket bath.  It is an individual thing. 

The Peace Corps joke is; “an optimist sees the glass half full, a pessimist sees it half empty and a Peace Corps volunteer thinks ‘I could take a bath in that!’” 

The family provided homemade wine, both red and white with dinner and both were incredibly delicious.  We had lucked out; our host mother was a very good cook.  Iulia and Sasha took the time to speak with us every chance they got and we appreciated their efforts.  It was important for us to learn to understand the language although we later learned that Sasha was speaking mostly Russian!  Iulia would talk to us non-stop and laugh because she knew we couldn't understand much at all and we learned to appreciate her efforts.

Sasha was 73 and retired.  He worked around the house and in the garden and distilled the local hard spirits known as “samagon” from various fruits, usually apricots.  Iulia, we came to find out, worked two jobs; in the mornings she worked in a bank in Chișinău and a couple of nights per week she had the overnight shift at the Primaria (Mayor’s office) in Ciorescu.  We are not entirely sure what all was involved with this overnight job but we knew she cleaned and worked in the gardens and also answered the 24 hour emergency number for the entire village of 7 thousand people.  We later found that Iulia was one of 6 sisters, all born and raised in Ciorescu, with 5 of them still living there, the night job at the Primaria was shared by her and two of her sisters on a rotation.

By the end of June after 4 weeks of intensive language instruction, specifically designed for Peace Corps volunteers, we could say some basic phrases and were starting to understand how the language was supposed to work grammatically.  But carrying on conversation was still a long way off.  We could understand very basic instructions when spoken slowly and clearly (Moldovans speak rapidly, with a heavy accent and throw in lots of Russian words in regular conversation) but beyond that we were still hopeless with our Romanian.  As with our Spanish, some days we felt better about our language acquisition than others.  But we both were a little more patient with ourselves than we had been with Spanish; we knew it would just take time and patience.

Towards the end of the month we all went to an Administrative session in Chisinau and they had the big REVEAL.  Oh bloody joy!  We all were together as a group with many of the already serving volunteers and they gave us each our assignment, and revealed our new home towns where we would be expected to serve for the next two years. Rounds of applause and lot's of giggling and screaming later, we were starting to wonder if we were too cynical or simply too old for this kind of thing, but we did now have our assignments which was a useful outcome.

With 4 weeks of Romanian language training, we were sent off on our own for a “site visit” to meet our new partners and spend the night with our new host family during the first weekend in July.  Our partners had sent us letters of instruction about how to navigate trains or buses and were expected to meet us when we arrived. 

Needless to say, we met this challenge with much trepidation, and plenty of anxiety, but also with the hope that we would find the community welcoming and the people as lovely as our family in Ciroescu!