"One giant leap, needs two steps back"
Currently serving as a volunteer in the Republic of Moldova
The opinions expressed on this site do not reflect any position of my employer, the U.S. Government, or the Peace Corps.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
I managed to get back in time for the grand Cahul-ian\Southie Thanksgiving. Peace Corps does a big country wide Thanksgiving of course but the South of Moldova has a tradition of doing one for Moldovans primarily. Few random notes: I got made fun of by the Cahul bus driver as I clearly got lost and was on his bus like 3 times. I got complemented on my Romanian by a Moldovan- which is funny because I’m spewing the same old bad Romanian but just quicker and with more confidence… So we “2nd Goaled” like crazy!
In Peace Corps, we have these 3 goals that you will hear us repeat incessantly like some sort of indoctrination...oh wait… the first goal is the one more people think about- helping moldovans, building things, teaching etc. The 2nd and 3rd goals are, respectively, teaching Moldovans about about American culture and teaching Americans about our countries.
While I was back in America, I managed to 3rd goal like crazy as well despite never hearing back from my recruiter. As I got my haircut in New Orleans, I was speaking to the girl cutting my hair about where I was, what Im doing etc and she immediately had to go to twitter to tell her friends about Moldova that may not have bathrooms everywhere but has 3G internet that is better than New Orleans in many spots. Aside from that, making all the wedding guests drinking my host family’s wine and do the traditional Moldovan toast including toasting to Ruben and Catherine and shooting the wine rather than sipping it.
