The Gathering

This last Fridy, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), all of whom served in Moldova. It was terrific to hear so many viewpoints and to see how much joy and excitement they all had for their time in service and the fondness they all had for Moldova. 

Many thanks to Erin for setting up the gathering. I understand that this is a rarety for future PCVs, but it was unbelievably cool to meet such nice people who clearly enjoy life and each other's company.

While I appear to be slightly ahead of the curve in terms of my language acquisition and fact gathering on Moldova, the single clearest message I received was that the Peace Corps would take good care of all of the volunteers and that language acquisition and home placement are the top priority and will be handled very professionally. The repeating message that I heard was that I should be spending this time before heading over seas with friends and family. I should be enjoying cheeseburgers and all the foods I love to eat, because soon they would not be available to me.

Nonetheless, I love learning languages so much that I'll continue to do my best to learn Romanian. I also splurged and bought a 4cd set on beginning Russian that I will start in April. Right now my cap [kahp] head feels plin [pleen] full, but it really is gol [goal] empty. I have soooo much to learn, and learning is what turns me on.

Many thanks to Beryl, Gregg, Melissa and Eden for coming out to chat with me. They all reaffirmed that this is going to be a terrific adventure and that it will be life changing. Beryl told a heart-warming story about how she had difficulty learnign the language when she was going through Pre-service Training (PST), and that her host mother just lost her mother before Beryl arrived in Moldova. Using only the human language of comfort and compassion, she was able to help her host mother get through her loss, and Beryl left all the richer for her stay with her host family.

Another unexpected treat for the evening was that I got to meet another volunteer who will be heading to Moldova in June with me. His name is Carl, and we compared notes as to why we were joining and what we were doing to get ready. Like me, Carl is an older volunteer, so I have to admit to a feeling of relief that I wouldn't be the only volunteer in Moldova who wasn't in his early 20s. :o) Evidently it is very rare for PCVs to meet anyone going to the same country before they go. I'm hoping to have some coffee with Carl before we leave to chat more about our goals.

All in all, this was a terrific evening and it left me even more excited to start on my new adventure.