Home Sweet Casa

I'm willing to bet that when most people hear the term Peace Corps, an image of a thatched-roof hut nestled in the depths of a tropical jungle comes to mind. While that may be true to life for some volunteers, it is not my current reality. While I didn't exactly expect a hut, I came into Moldova knowing that conveniences like running water and electricity might not be available at my site. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at my PST home (the house I'll be living in for my first ten weeks of pre-service training) to discover that my host family has indoor plumbing, a computer with Internet, their own washing machine, and two TVs. I'll admit--my first reaction was guilt. Wasn't I, the Peace Corps volunteer who consolidated her wordly possessions into a mere two suitcases and a carry-on, supposed to endure more hardship than this?

After talking with PC staff and other volunteers, I came to realize that our home stays during PST will probably be quite different than what we experience at our permanent sites. The Peace Corps attempted to place all of us trainees with more affluent families as a way of easing us into Molovan life. The American definition of affluence doesn't quite carry over though. For exmple, my host family has indoor plumbing, but not a working toilet (Or at least we never use the toilet. It might just be for the winter. I haven't figured it out yet). We also have so much less stuff in general than the "typical" American household (less clothes, less food on hand, etc.). And nothing gets wasted here. Any extra food goes to our animals (in our case, chickens, rabbits, dog, and cat--other families have cows, sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, or turkeys).

Conveniences aside, I can say without hesitation that the people I have met here are wonderful. My host family, which consists of mom, dad, 17-year-old sister, and 13-year-old brother, has been incredibly kind to me. Other than my sister, who learned English in school and can communicate with me a bit, no one in my family speaks English. They do their best to help me with my Romanian, and I do my best not to sound like an idiot every time I open my mouth. It's not always a reachable goal (especially when I have to resort to using non-verbal communication--I actually impersonated a sheep at the dinner table the other night in an attempt to figure out what kind of cheese we were eating....but now I know that sheep cheese exists.). It is amazing though how much Romanian I've learned in two weeks. By the end of PST, I'll know enough to survive on my own. Very exciting to think about! Hopefully by then I'll have regained some of my dignity.