Sean in Moldova-land

I have made it through my first holiday season in Moldova! It was a bit hard at times not being around family or friends, but my host family has really taken me in and treated me as one of their own. For this I am extremely grateful. I thought I would try a more informal, narrative form for this post, not to make fun of Moldovan traditions, but to help illustrate the confusion and humor volunteers experience when trying to piece together what is actually going on around them.

            I started hearing what the holiday season was going to be like in Moldova since Halloween. People would ask me about what Americans did for Halloween, and of course I tell them we go trick or treating. “What?” they would reply, “We do that on New Year’s! Except we give kids bread and money.” This is the point where I would just nod my head and grudging contemplate why we never got money at Halloween. Since I was still trying to figure out the fall celebrations and what was happening and why, I just let it go.

            As the weather started to get colder and we started to light the furnace at night, I kept wondering where the trash was going. Prior to getting a tiny (and I mean tiny) trashcan in the bathroom, the only trashcan in the whole house was in my room and put there on my request. Granted Moldovans have WAY less trash than Americans, but we still had small things here and there, but they kept disappearing and I never saw where my parents threw it. Come to find out, everything goes into the fire. Candy wrappers, plastic wrap, wrapping paper, Kleenex, paper towels, and anything else that can burn. About the only thing that is not thrown in are plastic bottles, but most of those are used to store wine, so they do not go to waste. This is one of the things volunteers are trying to change in Moldova. Even leaves are burned in the street in the fall after raking them up. It just took me by surprise when I found out, that is all.

            Christmas spirit usually starts to run very high in America after Thanksgiving, so when Dylan (a volunteer in the neighboring town) called me up around the beginning of December to come buy and decorate a Christmas tree, I was down. However, since Christmas here is not celebrated by most people until January 7^th, and Thanksgiving does not exist, the whole schedule for shopping and decorations and whatnot is pushed back by a few weeks compared to America. This is great if you are a person who is habitually running behind because it means you have two more week to buy presents if you forgot for new Christmas! All that to say we were not able to get a tree because they were not for sale yet and my host dad just gave me weird looks when I asked him about the whole affair. Side note, our artificial Christmas tree at my house is from a trash can in Greece. When my host parents were working there someone found it in a dumpster after Christmas and gave it to them, for after all it was still a very good tree!

            So, skip a head slightly to the town Christmas tree lighting (held the day before St. Nick’s day on the 19^th of December) where I learned that Santa Claus and St. Nick are not the same person! Often, we use them interchangeably where I am from but here, they are like very separate. Santa seems to like giving kids chocolate. In addition, when you are naughty, he does not give you coal (which would be a surprisingly useful and helpful thing here), he gives you a stick so you can be properly beat. He also comes on St. Nick’s day, not Christmas, so that also threw me off a little bit more from my now very confused holiday calendar that exists in my mind.

            After this I attended the school winter concert which gave me a taste of what New Year’s would be like. I was still not quite sure what was happening, but it involved a lot of poetry, a skit with a goat, some kids getting a little too happy with their whips (yes, whips), people’s hands almost falling off from ringing bells for so long, chucking some seeds from the harvest at people, and several dances. It was adorable and I always love coming out to see the kids perform with their classes (I can usually snag a seat reserved for teachers, so that is also nice). My partner organization gets donations of gifts from various organizations, we donated a gift to every child in town from ages 2-9. They came in groups to the center where we had games, Santa Claus, and the Christmas story. I even got to be Santa for the oldest kindergarten group! Everyone gave me crap because they were sure the kids would recognize my accent, but I did not speak that much. See picture below. Incognito.

            Finally, it’s Christmas! JK not really, just new Christmas. New Christmas is in fact a national holiday in Moldova but it’s really up in the air if your family will celebrate it or not. Maybe new Christmas, maybe old Christmas, or maybe both! I was invited to my partner’s godparents house where I was gifted with some delicious chocolate cows, sang some carols, and ate good food. It has been such a blessing to be welcomed into so many families here in Moldova, which really helped me make it through the holidays without crying too much. The day after Christmas I went to Vienna and then Budapest, which were both amazing. Got to see the Christmas markets, see a classical concert (because what else do you do in Vienna?) in an absolutely gorgeous church, and I got to see a Hungarian folk show. Those dancers could dance, let me tell you. The vacation was short because I wanted to get back in time for New Year’s in Moldova, which I did, thank the Lord all my flights stayed on time.

            Finally, I got to experience the new years traditions in Moldova, the ones I had been hearing about since Halloween. So, here is the break down. New Year’s Eve kids start coming to your door after noon in order to recite some blessings, ring some bells, say some Hai Hai’s, and receive bread, candy, and money in return. The amount of money given was a complex formula whose factors included quality of performance, relation to family, behavior in school (my host mom is the adjunct director), or simply if we liked you or not. Later in the evening is when things started to get a bit strange. The older kids would come in groups and do traditional performances, which I am still not quite clear on. The primary one is a skit that involves one or two Gypsies, a goat, a goat seller, and a doctor. The gist of it is that one Gypsy wants to buy the goat but it’s too expensive, so he knocks it over the head with a stick in order to make it hurt so he can buy it cheaper. The goat’s owner sees his goat on the ground and calls the doctor, who proceeds to declare that the goat is not dead but simply needs time and garlic to get better. Then the goat gets up and people start dancing. The end. One day I will actually need to clarify where this comes from and how the skit actually ends. The second skit involves a dancing bear. Idk.

            Our New Year’s meal started around 10pm and of course went until after midnight. Just before New Year’s the president came on to give a speech at which point a lot of families preceded to cover his face on the TV with a towel. It’s nice to be loved by the people. Unfortunately, the day after you have to get up early because all the kids come back around 8am to throw seeds at you and wish you happy New Year. You hold out your hands because it is said if you catch a lot of seeds you will be rich in the New Year. It’s a pity more kids did not come, we gave out more money the second time they came. We exchanged small gifts on New Year’s and I received a beautiful sweater, some house slippers, and a body wash/deodorant kit (was this secretly telling me I stink?).

We then went my host parent’s godson’s house for lunch who always has the strongest wine. To be honest I have never seen so much alcohol consumed in a 24-hour period in my life. Thankfully there was nothing for anyone to do the rest of the day. Celebrations in Moldova are essentially just meal after meal. There seems to be staple dishes at every meal that are expected but no one seems to actually eat. My theory is that they are dishes prepared by the hostess that she likes so that she has an excuse to make them and then eat them over the next few days.

Over the next few days (between New Year’s and Christmas), the priest walks from house to house around the village to announce the coming of Christ. There are a group of kids with him who run around to the houses he will visit next so people can prepare for his visit. He walks in, blesses the house and its inhabitants, and then everyone makes the sign of the cross and kisses the icon he is holding. We then give a small gift of bread and some money to his wife who came with him and then they are on their way. My host dad is very skeptical of the church traditions, but my host mother was ecstatic to have him come to the house. He visited my center before our house, so I actually got to see him twice. Double blessed.

Christmas Eve brought with it what I like to refer to as extreme caroling. It was in the first time in my life I have gone caroling house to house, which is probably originally how it was designed to work. Over five and a half hours of caroling where we visited 30+ houses. The standard gift to the carolers after they sing is bread, money, candy, and wine/whiskey/champagne depending on the house. Like most activities here no one bothers to tell me what they will entail, and I never seem to ask, so I just get whisked along on adventures. Did not think about eating supper at home because, well, I assumed we would only be gone for like two hours, so my supper was Russian candy (side note: there are SO many types of Russian candy so that I can never actually memorize what is what, so most of the time I choose randomly and say a quick prayer). We ended around 11pm at my partner’s house where I was then informed about the Christmas service at the church, which started at 11. I should probably attend this cultural and spiritual experience, I told myself as my weary body dragged itself in my partner’s car with his wife and mother. The church was absolutely beautiful, lit by candlelight, and warm with all the bodies crowed in the small sanctuary. However, the service in total was five hours long, and ended with carols sung by various members of the town. At this point I was absolutely exhausted, so I dipped out around 2:30-3:00am and resolved to stay for the entire thing next year.

Christmas and the day after Christmas were, to no one’s surprise, meal after meal after meal. After about two hours and some drinks my head begins to reach its Romanian limit. When the meal is at our house I can usually slide away to my room (and then get dragged back in a few times when someone needs a drinking buddy). When it is at someone else’s house I subconsciously tune out until someone addresses me directly. Work resumed on January 9^th and then we will have a small celebration on old New Year’s (January 14^th) which also happens to be my host dad’s namesake saint’s day, St. Vasile.

Okay, forgive the long post, but that’s the rundown on holidays in Moldova, village style. Of course, people in the city do not respect the traditions as much and sometimes it is just not possible to uphold them in apartment buildings. Also had the chance to help deliver 2,700 presents to every 1st-5th grader in my region, which my organization helps facilitate with an organization in Germany (kind of like Operation Christmas Child, except the gifts are more necessities such as cooking oil, flour, sugar, etc.). I will leave you with this quote from my host parents: “You become rich when you become grateful for what you have.” Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

“There is one who scatters, yet increases more;

And there is one who withholds more than is right,

But it leads to poverty.”

Proverbs 11:24

The holidays are here, and it is one of the hardest times for volunteers who cannot make it home to see family and friends. For me it was the first snow that triggered me. I am not particularly attached to snow or have specific fond memories of it, but it reminded me of the start of the Advent season and how far away I am from home. Tears might have been shed, but it was nothing a little Christmas music couldn’t fix. I am taking a short vacation to Vienna and Budapest at the end of December, but other than that I want to be with my host family as much as possible and see how Moldovans spend the holidays. Christmas here is on the old calendar and celebrated on January 7^th, with old new years on January 14^th. More on those next post after I know how they are celebrated.

            For this post I thought I would do a segment on (to quote my friend Evan who quoted it from somewhere else) how expensive it is to be poor. This has something that has frustrated me quite a bit since I have got here, the fact that often things are more expensive for those who do not have much money in the first place. One of the more obvious examples is the lack of ability to buy in bulk. One thing that struck me here was that most pens are sold as singularities here. You end up paying more for a single because that’s all you need/can afford at the moment, when you would probably use all five eventually in the five-pack and pay up to 50% less per pen. Water is so much cheaper in larger quantities, so is toilet paper. It is like reverse economies of scale, where even the essentials of life you end up paying substantially more over your lifetime if you cannot afford to buy in bulk.

            Health care is another prominent example, especially in Moldova. First example is preventive health care. If you cannot afford enough to prevent sickness, you get sick more often, and as a result pay more for treatment, if you can afford treatment at all. This leads to how one can get good treatment. Here in Moldova, if you want something done right, you have to pay more than what healthcare covers for the average citizen. One-use needles are so expensive that hospitals give patients a choice: either pay extra so the hospital can buy a new needle or have them administer some treatment with a previously used needle, risking diseases spread by bodily fluids. I just spoke with a woman who fell and broke her wrist in three places. The doctor took one look at it, sent her to a nurse who quickly wrapped her up without looking at the x-rays, and now her bones have set wrong. The lady knew this was being done wrong, but she had no money to pay for better administration, so she took what she could get. Additionally, post-treatment might not be available, and many surgeries have the chance of having their effects reversed.

            Another area that heavily affects people’s lives is their access to quality products, especially technology products. I dealt with this a lot the last two months as we were trying to buy new laptops for our center. In Moldova, one pays the same price as we do in the States to get a product that will last half as long. Most computers come with a Russian-hacked version of Windows 10 that was illegally downloaded and does not update (they claim Windows 10 is too expensive to put on the computer). This, of course, it on top of the questionable quality of the hardware itself. It is for this reason I define an American product as something that was built to the standards of American consumers, many of who would not buy these laptops. This goes with most of the technology items I have seen in Moldova: smartphones, TVs, and even flash drives. In some cases the products are more expensive than they are in America (most likely due to tariffs) which kind of takes advantage of those who actually can afford the products. This also seems to be true of the car market. My partner does not want to buy an used car in Moldova because it is common for those who import the cars to roll back the odometer and the consumer has no way of knowing.

            Winter note on this subject is insultation. If you can afford new windows and doors, the amount of coal and wood you have to use to heat your house is substantially decreased. If you cannot, you either stay much colder or buy more coal and wood, again not being able to buy in bulk. Poor people also have lower credit ratings, meaning that their interest rates for any loans are ridiculously high (around 20%-50% for car and house loans) if they can get credit at all. If you are poor, you potentially have to spend more time working and less time learning and building skills needed to be successful. This is true at harvest when many kids have to skip school to work in the fields with their parents. Finally, just like it was in the Soviet era, access can be much more important than money. Who has the access? Mostly people who can pay for it or spend time gaining it. As a result, they can get things done quicker and sometimes bypass laws that others have to abide by.

            Right. On to something a little less depressing. Teaching English at the school went well and the kids actually behaved themselves, most likely because they were trying to understand what I was saying and couldn’t quite make it out. We had a big Thanksgiving party with a good chunk of volunteers. It was fun to see everyone and the day after I got to spend time with my host brother, his wife, and his son which was a lot of fun. I am also friends with the old volunteer (a Moldovan) who I replaced at my center and his wife who are around my age, a rare occurrence since most people in my village are younger or way older than me. I got to make my first visit to someone else in my program’s site, which was a lot of fun. I hope to see a lot of other people’s sites and learn how their organizations function and do programming.

            Celebrated my first birthday abroad, and it was a wonderful time to reflect on the wild ride I had as a 22-year-old. Unfortunately, my birthday falls on inconvenient times to do anything, so it was nice and simple. We had cake at the community center the day before, my English club sang to me and gave me some small treats, and for supper at home we had pizza and cake. I was gifted a wonderful pair of Moldovan PJs, some house slippers, and a beautiful hand-stitched tie with a traditional Moldovan pattern. No special birthday traditions to report here, just that the person celebrating their birthday is the one who brings the treats to events and they normally host a big meal. Although you can say the direct translation of birthday in Romanian, most people say it’s “your day.” Also, instead of saying happy birthday, you say what I translate to as “to your long life” (la mulți ani). Reminds me of live long and prosper.

Random side stories: Ate at a burger place the other day and they give you latex gloves with your burger so not to get your hands dirty. There is a very bad relationship between Moldovans and the Roma people (colloquially know as Gypsies) and many volunteers struggle to help people understand that their ethnicity does not make them bad or stupid people. In my village calling someone a Turk means that they are stupid, which has a very negative effect (as you can imagine) on the two Turkish children in our town. Got to meet with a former PCV who decided to stay in Moldova and start a business. Now he owns several businesses and started a small business alliance that lobbies Parliament for better business laws and practices and also helps fight corruption in the government.

I really am doing well and enjoying my time here. I have been telling people time is such a matter of perspective. Sometimes I feel like the last six months have flown by, but when I think about being here another year and a half, it feels so long and far away (not in a bad way). If based on my experience or what you know of me you have any suggestions on future career possibilities, I would love to hear them. In the spring I will be ramping up my efforts on finding next steps. I hope you are doing well and as always feel free to reach out if you would like to chat or learn more! The picture page and links/articles page are being updated, so please check them out!

“Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!” Psalm 27:14

As predicted, life has not slowed down, and it is crazy to think we are already ramping up for the holiday season. This last month has been filled with so many events that this post will be dedicated to summarizing all the amazing experiences God has blessed me with here. I posted the last post when I was coming back from a staff retreat at the same place that we had the youth retreat a few weeks earlier. It was a lovely time to meet some lovely people and have some time to play soccer and reflect on a few things. Hopefully we will get to do it next year as well. The title of this post comes from a comment by partner’s wife said to me: “Wow, Sean. This really is an all-inclusive experience [in Moldova] for you.” It is indeed. I can even feel the combination of meat pȃté and chocolate butter (breakfast staples in my house) in my stomach to prove it.

            The Peer Support Network (PSN) training was very insightful and was ran by one of the seven Peace Corps counselors who flew in from Morocco to be with us (which only happens once every five years). It was a training I feel should be required for everyone once in their lives. It was focused on how to support people who are struggling in a way that lets them know you care, gives them a choice, and respects how they feel about a certain matter. We had lessons and exercises on active listening and how and when to refer someone for further help (such as when depression becomes clinical). I have never felt very prepared to help people through grief, and although I still have my hesitations, I have more tools in my toolbelt than I did before.

            The school held a Halloween celebration run by the English teacher every year as a way to promote English and provide themes for the English classes for a few weeks. It was very cute, and the kids did a great job singing, putting on skits, and reciting poetry in English. This celebration was followed by a horror movie in the evening (I tried to find a scary Halloween movie in Romanian but to no avail) followed by a school disco, their term for a freestyle dance time. I hope to do another more in-depth post about traditional Moldovan dances, but I love how it is something everyone takes pride in (even the men) and creates a sense of unity throughout the country. Needless to say, for the short time I attended, it was the least awkward middle school dance I have been to in my life, though it had its own interesting moments.

            This was followed by a semi-free weekend (a novel concept, I know). I had some time to bike to the neighboring village and climb the hill Steven the Great is said to have stood upon some hundreds of years ago. It was a great way to get out a little and see the beautiful sites around my village. That evening we had a quiz bowl with the high school volunteers at my center, and, to my pleasant surprise, I knew most of the answers (in English). That Sunday was the Harvest Day celebration, the first time in my life I have had the pleasure of a group of people celebrating the harvest. Every institution in town had a decorated table filled with mountains of food. There was singing and dancing and merriment and I think I got to try the strongest liquor available, made out of beets of all things, which did a number on my stomach. I was also the only guy dancing who was not drunk, which won me points with all the elderly ladies in town. Great way to self-promote for the Peace Corps.

            I was interviewed twice in one week for two different news sources in Moldova. The first was for an article for the raion (region) newspaper. It turned out to be a very poetic article that advertised my relationship availability (that Peace Corps allows unions in Moldova) and got almost all the facts right, something I have had some trouble with in the past. I ran home to show my host mother, who is also my Romanian tutor, that the interviewer thought I spoke a beautiful Romanian, gently hinting that my language skills might not be as bad as she makes them out to be when I do not get my demonstrative pronouns right. When the interviewer shook my hand at the end, she made a ceremonious moment of the first American hand she has every shook, which made me feel kind of special. The second interview was for national television when they came to do a piece on my center. I got a whole ten seconds in which my Romanian was absolutely terrible grammatically but at least they did not put subtitles, which someone indicated to me was a sign they could at least understand what was coming out of my mouth (link on links/articles page).

            Up next came the International Karate Kobudo Federation (IKKF) tournament in a neighboring raion. Although smaller than they were hoping, five countries still made an appearance which made for a whole day worth of fighting. The problem for the Americans was that we did not know any of the rules, nor could we find them online. This makes for a rather amusing watch party as people run at each other with a bunch of fancy kicks but clearly aren’t trying to knock the other person down and the punches look like love taps to the stomach. Meanwhile the referees are waving their flags in each hand and chirping their whistles like they are mocking the birds who wake you up in the morning. By the end of the eight-hour tournament we were able to piece together the objective (land two kicks to the other person’s head) and some no-no’s, thought we were still thoroughly confused on how the referees judged the contestants if there was no clear winner. It was hosted at another volunteer’s site and it was fun to get to see someone else’s town and meet their host family (and eat homemade American food with Moldovan ingredients).

            There are some hidden clocks around here that no one tells me about. So, you heard we had wine day and made all the wine. Next comes the homemade moonshine. Walked into several houses all within a period of two days to find people distilling liquor for public consumption. Even got a bottle from one of the elderly ladies I deliver food to every week. I do not know if it was just a coincidence that everyone decided to make it around the same time or if there is some secret formula (like after the first full moon after wine day) for when it is proper to make. All I know is that our cellar is getting quite full of everything we are keeping for the cold winter months.

            The English teacher will be gone for the next three weeks and I will be teaching some of her lessons in her stead. My host mom keeps telling me it is going to be a catastrophe; I think it will be fine. I will have another teacher in the room with me who will hopefully keep the children calm, one way or another. I know most of the kids which might either help me or make my job 20 times harder. I don’t want to pull out “bad teacher” on them.

            Right outside of my village is an archeological dig site where they are excavating a 6,000-year-old village. I got to make my first visit with my host family. It is very weird to hold a bone or a piece of vase that looks pretty normal and think that this was actually made/living 6,000 years ago. I do not know if they have dug up any big-ticket items, but I would love to go back at different periods, or one where the archeologists are working and ask about all they have found so far.

            I know 2020 will be here before I know it! Still feeling incredibly blessed each day with what God has provided for me here. I am excited to see the other volunteers at the in-service training next week, signaling the end of our 90-day “site prison.” After that I ramp up the Thanksgiving celebrations and then it’s practically Christmas. Prayers for vocation discernment and my work here are always appreciated.

            “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”

                                                                        John 10:10

So, they told me that life after college would not slow down at all but to be honest, I did not believe them. I thought, “wow, what copious amounts of free time I will have in the Peace Corps!” Then I had ten weeks of intense language and technical training, followed by a three-week reprieve, only to find myself in what the Americans lovingly called “Victor speed,” referring to the pace of life my primary partner lives. Surely there will be a lot of downtime once winter hits I am telling myself, but I am slowly beginning to believe it might fill up just as fast as October did.

            The Extreme Sports camp was a blast! We set up a zipline, free jump, rock climbing wall, and slack line. The zipline was so fun but I was not brave enough to do the free jump (think bungee jumping with less bungee involved). We had about 70 people there from all over Moldova. We took a break halfway through the day to do what we called the Cliff Church where everyone climbed down into a valley and we had a brief service. The topic was “tied to be free,” a motto of a company that makes rock climbing gear that Tobias used for our spiritual lives. I hope we get to do the same camp next year.

The next weekend seven Americans came on a mission trip to our town. We took all the volunteers from our center to a Baptist camp in central Moldova, where we played games and talked about God’s presence in our lives. On Sunday we got to go to the Curchi Monastery, a gorgeous compound that looks absolutely stunning in the fall. I walked into the church and tears started to flow, the effect of the church, the liturgy, and the men’s choir was awesome. See the pictures below and in the photos page for reference. We then came back to town and had a full week of activities. I have participated in a lot of discussions about the benefit of short-term mission trips and have been on quite a few myself, so it was definitely interesting to be on the receiving end of such a trip. If you are interested in discussing this more, message me, for it is a discussion for another medium. It is still one of the most humbling experiences in the world to have someone come up to you and say that you are an answer to prayer. The pastor who led the trip had been praying with Victor since January for the volunteer who would be placed here, and I almost do not like it, because I now feel more pressure to do something spectacular. It is crazy how God’s work knows no boundaries and how His work begins way before ideas are even in our heads.

            Last weekend was national wine weekend in Moldova. For those of you who do not know, Moldova is in the top twenty wine exporting countries in the world. It used to produce all of the wine for the USSR and has recently won quite a few awards at international wine festivals. Almost every household in the village produces their own wine. We spent a whole day picking 400 kg of grapes which in turn will produce 250 kg of house wine. Many families in the cities who do not produce their own grapes buy grapes to produce their own wine. We will be drinking the wine we make from now until next harvest. As you can imagine I also got to try the freshest grape juice I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. We bottled ten liters of juice for the winter. In addition to grapes we are also harvesting apples which my host father insists are organic, but I cannot verify that not having seen him prepare and work the orchard all year long. Since everything is very seasonal here, I am a bit interested to see what we will be eating all winter long, crossing my fingers it is not pickled watermelon (would not recommend).

            A few side notes. I have been elected to the Peer Support Network (PSN), meaning someone trusts me to be a listening ear to volunteers who are struggling in their service. I am excited for the role but not quite sure what it will entail just yet. We have a training with someone from D.C. in two weeks so next post I will be able to talk more about it. This is one of two volunteer councils that formally exist in the Peace Corps. The other is called the Volunteer Action Committee (VAC) which brings policy changes before the Peace Corps staff in country and discusses ways to improve volunteers’ lives in the field. The VAC has been working hard here lately on new policy as the previous country director enacted some very unpopular, restrictive policies for volunteers that VAC is trying to get overturned. Hopefully more on that in a few months.

            I get a lot of questions from friends and family about how the language is going for me. I think it is going quite well, just constantly trying to work on new vocabulary. I walk into every Romanian lesson and attempt to read out loud only to find my host mother shaking her head in shame and saying how my language is a catastrophe (which I really hope is at least in part sarcasm). The running joke at the office is what new expression will Sean learn in this Romanian lesson, as I usually go to work the next day using phrases that are commonly used but just must sound funny coming from an American. My comprehension is very good, it’s the speaking that comes the slowest.

            Clubs are coming into full swing which means now my days sometimes go until 8pm. I will begin an entrepreneurship club next week, followed by an adult English club the week after that. I am excited but a little nervous. I am fully confident in my ability to teach in English, in Romanian however I am slightly less so. Prayers are greatly appreciated.

            I am currently reading Everybody Always by Bob Goff. Although the jury is still out on what I think of the book overall, it has some great nuggets of wisdom and challenging questions. I struggle with how to show people God loves them and I love them in a non-sarcastic/cheesy way. I am sure you have met those people who tell you that Jesus loves you, but something seems a little off and you’re not quite sure what they ate/drank before they came to you. I want to be able to look someone in the eye who I have never met and tell them there is a God who loves them and that I care for them and they believe me. If anyone has any tips on me about this, I would be happy to hear them. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

            “It doesn’t matter what our faith looks like; it matters what it is.”

            “Every time we fake it and aren’t authentic, we make God’s love for us look fake too.”

            I appreciate any and all prayers, I believe they are what keep my spirits up and my outlook positive. It is so cool to see the change and life that is in Moldova and I am constantly reminded how each human needs love, has dreams, and can brighten the world with his smile. Pray I would always remember this and for continued vocational discernment over these next two years. A verse for the harvest:

“Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”

                                                                                                Hosea 10:12

It has already been one month since swearing-in and it continues to amaze me how fast time can fly. I have been blessed with essentially a month of vacation, that is, freedom to do what I want in my town. My primary partner was on vacation until the 10^th of September, so I have been hanging out in different places around town trying to get a sense of what life is like for people here. My biggest project has been washing piles and piles of clothes that we will donate to families in need in a few weeks. We have three washers but only one dryer at the center (and no clothes lines outside) so effectively I can only do one load at a time, and anyone who has used washers and dryers in Europe knows they hold about half the amount of clothes that they do in America. All that to say it has been slow work.

            I got to experience my first round of Moldovan holidays. August 27^th was Independence Day (Moldova turned 28 years old) and August 31^st was Language Day. The two are so close together that often villages and towns combine the two celebrations. Independence Day in the regional center started with laying of flowers at the town civic monument, followed by a concert of traditional music and dance in the Casa de Cultura. The whole celebration lasted around two hours. That evening my village had our own celebration, with poems, dancing, and singing. For both celebrations not that many people showed up. It is difficult to describe people’s relationship to their country here. I asked my host dad on August 26^th if he was going to celebrate Independence Day. He said he was not because he only celebrated church holidays. When I pressed a little further, he said that Moldova was not independent; it has to rely on America and Russia to accomplish anything. A few places had a show for Language Day but most of the villages did not.

            The next celebration I got to attend was called First Bell. It is a ceremony to celebrate the start of the new school year and always occurs on September 1^st, or the first school day after (so this year it was on September 2^nd). Since mine was at the middle school, the 9^th graders led the 1^st graders in with balloons. The director of the school, the mayor, the priest, the town police officer, and I all gave short speeches. This was my speech (given in Romanian), made after I reflected a little bit on my own education:

People say that you come to school to learn. School is where you learn how to learn. You will be learning your whole lives: at work, at home, with your friends and family. He who loves to learn is never bored and will learn how to adapt to the trials of this life. Your education here can be a fine as any in Europe or America if you apply yourselves and think critically about what is being taught to you.

I wish you all the best this year at school. If you have a question, ask. Never be ashamed to ask for help. If you have an idea, speak up, for the world will always need new ideas. If you see someone in need, help, because none of us can make it on our own. I wish you all the best this year at school.

The speeches were followed by the 9^th graders giving the 1^st graders their first books and parading them around the square of people. The 9^th graders then did a dance for them. In most places this is followed by a kid running around ringing a bell, but we just did it with an electronic bell at my school. The kids then meet their teachers and go home, school starts the next day.

Since my mother is adjunct director at the school and since I am helping out, they kindly let me observe classes. The school is K-9^th and has around 183 students, so around 20 per class. I spent a day sitting in 5^th grade the entire school day. I also spent half a day with the 9^th grade class and then taught a 7^th grade English class. Their textbooks are very well-written and include most everything I learned in middle school. The whole experience reminded me truly how little you need to succeed, and the Moldovans have all the tools to do so. Unfortunately, there is just not that much success to be had here at the moment and everyone has to move out of the country to pursue it.

I got to get a glimpse of the social assistance program in Moldova by talking to the social assistant at the mayor’s office. Up this point I have been very impressed by the systems that Moldova has in place, at least in theory. The country still faces a good amount of corruption in the social system, something the new government is trying to change. There are ways for citizens to get assistance from the government, with special emphasis placed on the elderly and children. The process is long and cumbersome, but works, and is a viable option for most people in need of help. I have gotten the chance to go on a few site visits and see the kinds of conditions that people live in, and though it is not as bad as I saw in Senegal, it has a lot of room for improvement. I have learned how truly few clothes you need to get by and have seen how families cope with not being able to afford even that amount for their kids.

Some side notes. My host dad is a huge fan of proverbs and idioms in Romanian, so I learn a new one about every day. Some of my favorites include there is no forest without dead trees (there are always some bad apples) and you were like a fly on a horse (meaning you watch the work but do not actually do it). He also speaks Russian, Greek, and Italian, and claims he will teach me all of them by the time I leave.

I got confirmation that we will be doing an extreme rock-climbing weekend in a week and that a group from California will be coming at the end of the month. I am excited for these opportunities that I know other volunteers might not get to experience.

I was able to read and write a lot these past few weeks and everyday I am trying to learn what the Gospel means for my life. I would definitely recommend a book called Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II whether you are catholic or protestant or do not have a faith at all. It is his answer to many common questions Christians and non-Christians have about the faith and what it means for the modern world. One of my favorite quotes is:

“Gospel means “good news,” and the Good News is always an invitation to joy. What is the Gospel? It is a grand affirmation of the world of man, because it is the revelation of the truth about God. God is the primary source of joy and hope for man… The Gospel, above all else, is the joy of creation. God, who in creating saw His creation was good (c.f. Genesis 1:1-25), is the source of joy for all creatures, and above all humankind. God the creator seems to say of all creation: “It is good that you exist.” (pg. 20)

I hope that everyone reading this took to heart that last sentence. It is good that you exist. You are loved and worth more than you could ever imagine. On a final note, my new home address has been tested and works, so if you’d like to send me a letter directly (the other address still will work) message me for it. Cele bune! (All the best!)

“I know also, my God, that You test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things; and now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here to offer willingly to You.”

1 Chronicles 29:17

I am officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer! It is crazy how fast time continues to fly. On Thursday I moved to my permanent host site where I will be spending the next two years. This period of time is one of the hardest for volunteers, who get done with intensive training with friends only to experience a full stop in the village while they plan and navigate their way through the unknown. This time is also loving known as “site prison” because we are not allowed to leave our regions or visit other volunteers for 90 days, with the hopes this will better help us integrate into our communities. Prayers that I would integrate well during these next few months would be greatly appreciated.

            The swearing-in ceremony was a blast and very much worth the effort we had put into preparing for it (except for repacking all of our luggage which is never any fun). We arrived in the capital and when straight to the venue, a conference center just outside of downtown. We changed into our traditional Moldovan clothes and went straight to rehearsal for singing and dancing. Prior to the ceremony we took the oath of the federal government in front of our country director and then practiced walking up to take the Peace Corps oath which we would take during the actual ceremony. The two oaths are as follows:

I, Sean Grossnickle, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

I, Sean Grossnickle, promise to serve alongside the people of Country of Service. I promise to share my culture with an open heart and open mind. I promise to foster an understanding of the people of Country of Service, with creativity, cultural sensitivity, and respect. I will face the challenges of service with patience, humility, and determination. I will embrace the mission of world peace and friendship for as long as I serve and beyond. In the proud tradition of Peace Corps’ legacy, and in the spirit of the Peace Corps family past, present, and future- I am a Peace Corps Volunteer.

            The ceremony got started a bit late as the Charge d’Affaires from the US Embassy had trouble getting through traffic. The ambassador is normally there but he had a conference in Washington (unfortunately we do not outrank POTUS). The ceremony started with the singing of the national anthems of both countries, Moldova’s by a professional girls’ choir and the USA’s by me and seven other volunteers who were swearing in. This was followed by a welcome speech from the country director after which we were called up individually by our program directors. The Charge d’Affaires gave a short speech (he was a Peace Corps volunteer) and then we swore-in. Three ministers of Moldova then proceeded to give speeches, all three of whom were impacted by former Peace Corps volunteers. The last part of the ceremony was several cultural performances by the volunteers. I got the chance to sing two traditional folk songs and dance two traditional dances. If you would like to watch all or part of the ceremony, here is the link:

            I am slowly getting more comfortable with change. I still do not like leaving that which I know and love for a new stage of life, but I was comforted the other day by an afterthought of a friend’s remark. She said, “don’t ever change,” and I realized in that moment that I want to continue to change. I want to be a wiser, kinder, and more loving version of who I am now. I want God to continue to work in me and through me. This requires change. The colloquial version I saw today framed it this way: “are you revolving or evolving?” Through all of this I am also gaining an appreciation for that which does not change, foremost God’s love and self, but also those people who have never given up on me and continue to support me through it all. I hope to be that family and friend to those around me.

            I still wonder at times if the Peace Corps was the right decision for me, but I continue to see God through all those I meet, and I know that He can work through any decision I make. I have a few exciting things coming up! In September we will be hosting a mission group from California and be camping near a monastery up in the North of Moldova. Also, a specialist from Switzerland will be coming up to help host a one-to-two-day extreme climbing camp in the small cliffs right near the town. That should be interesting, I think I will just watch, I do not think Peace Corps’ insurance would take too kindly to that type of activity. Other than that, I await the planning period for my organization in September and the elections in October. Like most people in my family I do not handle an abundance of free time very well, but I am trying to relax and enjoy this time to read, study, and reflect.

            A big prayer request that will be on-going for my entire service will be that God helps me discern vocation. The most common paths out of the Peace Corps are graduate school, the Foreign Service, or other government work (primarily because we get noncompetitive eligibility for a year after our service, meaning we can get hired on the spot without the lengthy background checks and paperwork). The last volunteer in my village got married to a local, so I guess that is always a possibility as well. My partner’s brother married a Peace Corps volunteer who served in Moldova in 1995. She said she couldn’t find a good enough souvenir, so she took his brother. They like telling that story quite often.

            It is weird seeing everyone go back to school and not being with them. At this point it still feels as if I am on another study abroad trip. I guess it doesn’t feel like I am out of school since I have been in a classroom the last ten weeks and will be tutored in language for the next 18 months. It is fun to be in a position know that gets to make the change, not just learn different ways to do it. The best way I can serve my college memories is to go out and use what I learned. My dad always reminds me that real life has to hit sometime but I am excited to see what the future holds.

            As always if you have any prayer requests shoot them my way! The address on my website will be valid for two years, I will have some people shoot me test letters to my new address to make sure it works. See the photos page for some more photos! Blessings and peace.

“Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep you and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.”

                                                                        Isaiah 42:5-7

The good news is that I can finally answer the question that I have been asked since I have joined the Peace Corps: “so what are you going to be doing?” I have been very content with the Peace Corps training I have received and would like to share a little bit of what I have been doing for the past seven weeks.

            I am a community organizational development volunteer and that is what I am getting trained to do: how to go into a new town and/or organization, assess its needs and assets, and then build its capacity based on what resources it currently has or can procure. They are teaching us how to mobilize people and capital that already exist to create a more vibrant community that is knowledgeable of health safety, the people around them, and how they themselves have the power to change their lives. The last point is particularly needed in Moldova where the Soviet mindset still leads people to believe they need a plan and to collectively stick to it. Our training is filled with sessions taught by current volunteers and professionals in Moldova, and includes visits to local organizations who do good work for marginalized groups. We got to interview the mayor of our town as well as the Librarian and the Director of the Culture House.

            We began training with a lot of cultural awareness. It is very important for us to understand the people we are serving, what mindsets/perspectives they are coming from, and how the social, political, and economic systems function in this country. We discussed the emigration crisis, what life was like in the Soviet era, how Moldova is divided administratively, how money is distributed from the government, what typical village looks like, how the school systems works, among other things. The younger generation is beginning to see change, but this takes a lot of time. What can we as Peace Corps volunteers do to affect change for any of these things?

            With this knowledge in our pockets, we began to delve into a box of community development tools (which we call PACA tools) to learn how to begin to assess the community in which we will be living and help discover its potential. What do you do after you enter a new town by yourself with limited language skills? You talk to people and learn to work with your host partner. The first six months is focused on community integration and organizational development. The former requires taking walks through town, meeting as many people as you can, having tea with the neighbor, etc. People will not often accept your help if they do not know you first, especially in post-Soviet countries. In regard to the latter, you begin to see if your partner organization is run as efficiently as possible. This can be done in many ways, but we focus on SWOT analysis (which would delight my business professors) and asset mapping. We look at what resources and opportunities they have available and how they can leverage those to their fullest advantage. In certain organizations, volunteers have revolutionized how it is run simply by implementing an organizational calendar and making ways for everyone’s voice to be heard. Larger partners might require more specific tools to help them along.

            The second focus of our work is with individual members of the community or small groups. This could be as simple as educating someone about what life is like in America or tutoring a student. Volunteers are expected to help with English clubs and participate in small groups of their own. Social capital starts with the individual, so teaching one person how to use Google Calendar can snowball into whole workplaces using shared drives. This work is the hardest to quantify and yet in some ways the most rewarding when you find out you made a lasting impact in someone’s life.

            The final level is affecting change with the community as whole. Volunteers conduct surveys to assess community interest, organize volunteering events, and help with grant projects to improve the lives of everyone in the community. This requires the trust of community integration and the patience to watch how the community comes together to answer their own questions. I hope to do a Peace Corps grant project later in my service, stay tuned. The training for these goals feels like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks, but I know that these tools will come in useful when I enter my new community in August.

            I was able to go the wedding last weekend! What a party. Moldovan weddings last all night (over 10 hours) and are filled with much dancing and merriment. I might do a later post on wedding traditions, but one of my favorite parts is how people wish the bride and groom good luck on their journey. The most important phrase said is casă de piatru, literally may you have a house of stone, or may your relationship/family be unshakable (most likely from the Bible).

            I got to sing at a Moldovan bread festival held in the middle of a wheat field where I got to learn the role bread plays in the lives of Moldovans and how it is made. It was a lot of fun and I got to wear traditional Moldovan clothes for the first time. We get to sing and dance for swearing-in, which will be in front of national television, so that will be interesting to say the least.

            I love being around so many fruit trees and picking low-hanging fruit as I walk to school. I never really grew up noticing what food grows in what season because we always had access to everything year-round. They tell me here that I will need to enjoy the fresh food while it lasts because in winter I will get little to none of it.

            We have to host two events in our training village as part of PST: a health event for the youth and a volunteering day for the community. We will be watching Inside Out and be talking about mental health with the youth and on August 3^rd we will be cleaning up the soccer field and helping make its entrance look nicer. We got to meet with the mayor and discuss these events which is fun but also scary as you do not want to insult someone important on accident.

            The National Bureau of Statistics in Moldova has revised the population to 2.6 million, down from 3.5 million last count, and from 4.3 million when the USSR fell. Read this front page NY Times article about a Moldovan village with only one person remaining and the population decline in Eastern Europe.

            I hope you all are doing well. Please pray that God continues to prepare the way for my service and gives me the ability to communicate well regardless of the language barrier. If you have any prayer requests, please send them my way and I will always be glad to receive a letter or two (see contact page for address)!

            “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

                                                            Ephesians 2:10