So, turns out, summer here is very different than winter. And not just the weather.
School ended and I immediately went on vacation for 3 weeks with my parents. It was really wonderful to get to see them and catch up and also to get a break from Moldova and the village. We visited Austria and stayed with friends of my parents there, where I proceeded to take a bubble bath with a bottle of dark beer at least once every day, sometimes twice a day. It was spectacular to feel squeaky clean all the time and to get a chance to pick up a few inexpensive summer things since all my clothes from last year are basically destroyed what with hand washing and line drying.
After returning to Moldova I got back to my village and promptly had a small nervous breakdown because there wasn’t anything to do. I hate not having anything to do. It makes me feel useless. I remember feeling the same way on my first few days of being unemployed the few months before I left for Peace Corps. I eventually learned to love not having a job but it did take a while so I was all hunkered down to learn to like it in Moldova. But then I went to the next raion over to visit with friends. I had planned to be gone for about 4 days and had packed accordingly. The day I left I got a call from my boss asking me to come into Chisinau and help teach the new volunteers, who had gotten into the country about 2 weeks before. I didn’t have time to go home so I just headed into the capital with the stuff I’d brought (thank god I’d brought one professional outfit just in case). Then I was in Chisinau all week helping with training and the following weekend I had a birthday party to go to on the opposite site of Moldova. So, long story short, what was supposed to be 4 days turned into 2 weeks. I got home last week, was home for 3 days, then took off again for much the same thing. Now I am home again, for at least a 4 days stretch, and I’m enjoying working from home in the village.
There is no teaching to be done in the summer and my medical center partner is too busy hoeing her fields to do any seminars (so she tells me) so I have resigned myself to help out with various summer camps that other volunteers are putting on for kids around Moldova. Between that and occasionally helping train the new volunteers I am actually pretty busy, and the work is totally different than teaching a 5 day work-week, which is a nice change.
The fruit trees are coming in. We have pears now and I’m going to make a pie today to share with my host parents when they get back from the fields. I’ve been telling them for months that our pie is different than their pie (a big round one versus little pieces like they make) so I will be excited to share with them. Our apricots will be ready to pick in just a few days, I hope, so that will mean apricot pie as well. Yum!
This weekend Peace Corps is putting together an event in the large park in the center of Chisinau to raise awareness about Peace Corps and what we do. I was put in charge of running the booth that will showcase the Health program there, so I’ve been working to put together posters, visuals, and activities that we can do with people who stop by that day.
Between work, travel, pies and catching up on reading, this summer has been a wonderful break so far and I can already feel my batteries recharging for next September!
Noapte Buna!
