Where is Moldova, anyway?

A person has two legs and one sense of humor, and if you’re forced with the choice—it’s far better to lose a leg.

– Charles Linden

For me, that quote accurately describes my time here in Moldova so far. At least 6 or 7 times a day I find myself in awkward/weird/compromising/strange/fun/new/unbelievable situations or conversations. And the ONLY way I can deal with this is by laughing, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot.

This is the best part of learning to become part of a different culture—experiencing the cultural differences first hand. For example, never in my life have I been force-fed like I am here. In Moldova, like a lot of other cultures around the world, food is one of the largest outward signs of hospitality. You welcome someone by feeding them. You also take care of their health and well being by feeding them. While this is all obvious, the connection between how much you care about someone’s wellbeing and how much you feed them is very strong. And it’s funny because you aren’t hungry, you just ate, you visit someone else’s house and their host mother puts out enough food for you and 6 other people to eat for a week (this is only a slight exaggeration). Eventually you learn to not fight people, and just eat. But if you are like me and you have devised a secret plan to take really small bites often, so it looks like you are eating more than you are—you are in for a shock. Moldovans are onto this trick. They will watch you eat, all the while saying “maninc, Maninc!” (Eat, eat!). I used to answer that “I am eating!”, but I have learned not to do that because it warrants me taking a pause from putting food in my mouth, at witch point I am reminded, that I do indeed, need to eat.

And another example, dealing with other volunteers, is that when we make purchases, we still don’t know enough of the language to know exactly what we are ordering/buying. So it makes every restaurant meal (few and far between, when we are in the capital), every attempt to get a bottle of water, and shopping for clothes (winter clothes in particular, it is getting really cold here) quite the adventure. So you have to laugh, or else… I don’t know what would happen but it wouldn’t be good, I know that for sure.

So to sum up my first month (eek I have actually been here for a month, the time has flown!) in the Peace Corps, I have to say that I laughed, a lot, a lot, A LOT. Sometimes not even while an event was going on. Sometimes in the middle of a class, or a speech I just remember—hey I’m in Moldova and laugh at how unbelievable it all really is J

(and on a PS to this entry, my host family just got running water. YIPPPEE! What does this mean, in reality, and for me? Don’t start thinking that I’m living in the water-luxury land. No shower still, that’s still by bucket, from a bucket, in a bucket, depending which volunteer you ask. But now instead of dragging the water from the well, we have a little faucet. This is just in time for the winter)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 18, 2006 at 3:13 PM.