At Home With the Flowers
The Beginnings of My Peace Corps Journey
Greetings from Moldova! I now call a quaint village of 5,000 my home as I complete the third—and longest—stage of my pre-service training. For the next seven weeks, I am here to integrate into Moldovan culture. Gorging on homemade goat cheese and freshly picked cherries has been a great start, though much remains for me to observe and learn from those around me. Language study is a central component of our training. I have three hours of Romanian class every day and am living with a host family. The Peace Corps is organizing trips to local cultural sites for us as well.
My pre-service training started one month ago, in the United States. I arrived in Philadelphia on June 1 for “staging,” a two-day crash course to introduce trainees to each other and Peace Corps service. I have nothing but praise for the staff that guided the 30 of us through a marathon of icebreakers, PowerPoint slides, and activities. We learned about agency history, legal policies, sustainability, and more. It was only after we took our final picture that we had the back-out-now-if-you-want-to talk. No one took the offer, and the Peace Corps sent us to Newark to fly out.
Our second stage of pre-service training took place in a hotel in Chișinău, Moldova’s capital. The entire experience is hard to recall. The Peace Corps prepared a packed schedule of events for us, so the days passed by in a blur. We proceeded through medical examinations, information sessions on illnesses and social media regulations, met with our work teams, and started basic Romanian. We trainees also had a one-on-one meeting with the Peace Corps director for Moldova—a great opportunity to start building rapport.
The Peace Corps kept us inside the hotel for nearly the entirety of our training, so we did not see much of anything in Chișinău. We did get a glimpse of Moldovan culture when a dance group performed for us. Everyone in the audience got pulled in to join the hora, a traditional Moldovan dance. None of us had any idea of what to do; we flailed around smiling and laughing from embarrassment. The awkwardness of the moment—reacting to an unexpected situation not under our control—foreshadowed what will continue to happen throughout our Peace Corps experience. The following day, we divided into our work sectors and departed to our training villages.
We arrived at our training village and immediately met our host families. It would be an understatement to say I was nervous. We had only two lessons of Romanian, a phrasebook of basic expressions (“I don’t want” to reject the inevitable offers of wine), luggage, and each other. OK, I am exaggerating a little: one of our language teachers is staying in town to offer support. Still, I was scared. Leaving our hotel felt liberating, but I did not know what to expect. I had only a scrap of paper with the name of my host grandmother and a note that she is an important figure in town.
Fortunately, I won the host family jackpot. I am living with a retired woman, Irina, whom I refer to as Doamnă, a polite form of address in Romanian. She has hosted eight Peace Corps trainees since 2003 and knows the ins and outs of having an American under her roof. By chance, my arrival coincided with her birthday. Later in the evening I ended up meeting all of Irina’s children and grandchildren in a (modest by Moldovan standards) party of 13. We enjoyed a full table of traditional food and hearty portions of cake for dessert. Evidently that phrasebook did not help me, as I had plenty of homemade red wine and tried more Moldovan dances late into the night.
It did not take long for me to find out why Irina is considered an important figure in our village. Things in her home gave a big hint: the walls, curtains, towels, dishware, ornaments, bed sheets, and even most of Irina’s clothes are all covered in flowers. Irina is the village’s self-appointed chief beautification officer. Manicured rows of flowers around town are evidence of her green thumb. Irina’s work has earned her a personal set of keys to important institutions in town—the Primaria, city hall, and both kindergartens. Irina is free to come and go at any time to weed, prune, and water their flowers. Any tool on-site is at her disposal.
Irina has other responsibilities besides her floral duties. Namely, she has an entire household to manage. That means rising before dawn to care for 12 chickens, a pig, goat and guard dog. Irina, like others in our village, has a sizable vegetable plot in addition to her garden at home. With the sun rising early and setting late, Irina spends most of the day shuttling between her garden, home, and flowers around town. Sometimes she remains at work long after dark. Irina proudly explains that her busy schedule keeps her moving and 30 years younger.
Irina treats me as if I were her seventh grandchild. She dotes on me and does so much for me, be it cooking, laundry, or offering language assistance. As part of integrating into her family, I have assisted Irina in her vegetable garden and with flower work. My elementary understanding of Romanian combined with Irina’s rapid-fire instructions have led to some comical errors on my part. I will spare you more details to save myself from any embarrassment, but you get the point. Thankfully, there are ways of connecting with Irina that do not involve physical labor. My favorite so far have been watching “Casa Iubirii,” the Romanian equivalent of “Love Island,” together and talking over dinner with wine from 350-liter barrels in the cellar.
My first post has been long overdue, so I will stop here. Tomorrow, we will learn about our permanent sites, where we will live and work for the next two years. Everyone in our volunteering cohort will spend a few nights in their future host communities this coming weekend. I will have plenty to share. Stay tuned for my next post!
Be well,
Max
p.s. Please note that the ideas and opinions in this post—and all that follow in the future—reflect my personal views and my personal views only. The content found in my blog may or may not reflect the views of the Peace Corps and United States government.
Max! Please do NOT spare us the embarrassing details of your comical errors. I will be very sad if you do not share these.
If Doamnă Irina has no fans I am dead!