Peace Corps Staging for Moldova

Now it officially starts – we are in the PeaceCorps.  All volunteers who are headed out of the US at the same time are gathered together in one hotel to go through the final paperwork and to get some general orientation that applies to all volunteers regardless of where you serve.  It is a chance to meet other volunteers and to start the process of becoming a somewhat cohesive group and - M28 (the 28^th group of volunteers to be sent to Moldova) a designation that will forever be part of your Peace Corps identity.

The Crowne Plaza in Philadelphia was the staging site for volunteers heading for Moldova, and 5 or 6 other post around the world.  Moldova has four programs so we met volunteers who would be English Teachers, Health Teachers, Community and Organizational volunteers and a few more like us who would be doing Small and Medium Enterprise Development.

Those of us coming from the west coast had to arrive on Sunday, in order to be there for the morning meetings on Monday.  Some folks came in early to see Philadelphia or just because they wanted a more relaxing pace to the beginning of this adventure.  A few of us had connected on the Facebook page for our group and met for dinner in the hotel restaurant that evening.  The food wasn’t bad and by chance we were able to meet the two other married couples who were serving in Moldova with us, as well as half a dozen other volunteers who would be serving alone.  It was a chance to compare notes and just talk about expectations and trepidations, hopes and fears, and to begin to understand that we all had more in common than we might have thought.

Monday morning started off with making sure we had completed all the paperwork that needed to be done before we left.  Insurance forms and beneficiary designation, personal effects insurance if you wanted it, signing off on anything else that had not been completed and sent in electronically in advance.  Mike and I had done all of our forms meticulously on line and had scanned and emailed every possible form in advance so we had very little to do and were sent into the staging conference room for Moldova.

One of the things we had received by email was a schedule that was daunting to say the least.  Knowing that we would be leaving the Crown Plaza Tuesday morning for a transit to JFK airport by bus – then enduring hours in the JFK airport as we were all processed and situated for the flight with all of our luggage, then flying overnight to Munich, connecting there to another flight to get to Chisinau, this was the schedule of events upon arrival in Moldova beginning on Wednesday:

PC MOLDOVA 2013  M 28 PST ORIENTATION TRAINING AENDA
JUNE 5,  WEDNESDAY	M 28 GROUP ARRIVAL & HUB SITE
12:25 PM	M 28 PCTs Arrive in Moldova at Chisinau Airport.  Meet PCTs,  PC Staff (CD, DPT, TM, SSC) and PCVs Mentors
1:30-2:00 PM	M 28 PCTs Arrive at the HUB SITE, PCTs, Mentors (Luggage Processing)
2:00-2:30 PM	Snack
2:30-3:00 PM	Welcome to PC Moldova, CD, PC Moldova Staff
3:00-3:20 PM	Safety Briefing, CD
3:20-3:50 PM	PCT Welcome Folder and Orientation Week Agenda, TM
4:00-5:00 PM	PCT Walk-Around Allowance, PC Cell Phones, PC Equipment, Luggage Processing, Mentors, AAs, PCTs
5:00 PM	Leave to PST Sites, PCTs, LTIs
JUNE 6 THURSDAY	HUB SITE
8:30-11:30 AM	Language Classes in the PST Site, LTIs
11:30-12:30 PM	Leave to Hub Site, PCTs, LTIs
12:30-1:30 PM	Lunch
1:30-2:00 PM	PST Overview. Trainee Assessment, TM, DPT
2:10-3:40 PM	PC  Approach to Development, DPT
3:50-5:00 PM	ADMIN Session
JUNE 7, FRIDAY	HUB SITE
8:30-11:30 AM	Language Classes in the PST Site, LTIs
11:30-12:30 PM	Leave to Hub Site, PCTs, LTIs
12:30-1:30 PM	Lunch
1:30-3:00 PM	Accomplishing the PCs’ First Goal, DPT
3:10-5:10 PM	TECH Intro. Get to Know You Discussions, PMs
JUNE 8, SATURDAY	PST SITE
8:30-12:30 PM	Language Classes in the PST Site, LTIs
	SDAs

I guess there is no time for jet lag!  So arriving in our new country with absolutely no language skill, we would be heading to a host family the very first night in country.  What a frightening thought.

We spent all day in the conference room being briefed on the Peace Corps, Safety and Security issues, some Moldovan post specific information and doing a little “team building”.  They actually did an activity to show us that we could communicate fairly effectively without saying a word.  I think that was supposed to make us feel better about heading to Moldova with no language skill…..not sure it worked but it was kind of fun.

Next thing we knew, Tuesday we were all on board the buses and headed for JFK, at 9 in the morning for a 5pm flight!   We were asked to arrive in Chisinau dressed in “business casual” some volunteers wore sweats for the first part of the trip and then changed clothes in the airport in Munich.  That seemed like a lot of work to us for we just chose comfy clothes that would pass as business casual and hoped for the best.  The Munich connection was on time and with little fuss we were on the final leg to Chisinau.

Arriving at the airport we could see signs and banners welcoming us and as we disembarked we could hear the volunteers that had come to greet us screaming and hollering their welcome.  Exhausted after many hours of travel with little sleep we managed to identify our luggage – get through Passport control and land on the sidewalk in front of the airport. 

Volunteers who were already here (M27s) were assigned to help and they managed to get all of the luggage into a truck and all of us into a bus.  The airport in Chisinau is about 20 minutes from the city center so it was not long before were deposited at ASEM (The University of Economics) which we found would be our training center for the days that we would all be together in Chisinau.

After some Moldovan pizza and a little cultural welcome ceremony we were herded into a conference room for some training, which we do not remember at all.  We were then hustled into our various groups SED, COD, EE, HE and given phones, fire extinguishers and filtered water bottles, to take to our sites along with the 100 pounds of luggage we were each already toting.  Out to the parking lot – into minivans, 5 or 6 volunteers to a van since we all had  so much luggage, and off to be deposited with our host families in the neighboring villages.

Exhaustion and anxiety were the key words for the arrival in our new home.