Last words from Moldova
This is going to be my last post from Moldova. I’m not really sure what to write, maybe for the first time. I left my village at 6 this morning – after a day of goodbyes, tears, promises to meet “somewhere, sometime,” hugs, kisses, and more food and wine than I have EVER consumed in one day before. Honestly, leaving Singerei was harder than leaving River Vale to come to the Peace Corps – because I always knew when I would see River Vale again, who knows when I will be in these parts again….
I think after this whole Peace Corps thing sinks in, as well as the whole leaving thing sinks in, I might write something else here, more reflective and clear. But until then – I have two more days in Moldova, and I leave you with the two biggest things I will take away from this experience – perhaps things that aren’t so obvious, and that maybe I haven’t mentioned before.
1) An interest in being a host family to a foreign student in America. I’ve lived here for 2 years with the same host family, and they have been wonderful – really instrumental in allowing me to be successful here. Before that, during Peace Corps training, I lived with another host family – I have learned the good and the bad, seen it all, heard it all, been introduced to it all, been forced dresses, forced fed, and forced to talk to company. I’ve also been invited to parties, treated as a sister, and expected to do chores. I think it would be a really great experience for me (and my future family) to host an exchange student, and give him or her the kind of experience I had in Moldova – the experience of feeling at home somewhere far from home. Also, its probably not a bad idea to expose children to foreign cultures from an early age.
2) The world has no corners. Maybe potential Peace Corps volunteers are dreaming of arriving and working in their “corner” of the world – remote, secluded, not-connected. But I have to squash those dreams because these corners, in my opinion, no longer exist. Obama in his acceptance also addressed those in “forgotten corners of the world.” - maybe these “corners” existed in the past, but right now I think it is an outdated notion. Especially when the majority of the world can get on the internet through almost any phone line, where tv uses satellite, where the kids in my village know more Eminem lyrics than I do, where people travel, books are translated, radio broadcasts stronger… not many people exist in seclusion. Maybe not everyone personally has access to the internet, or a telephone, but word of mouth travels where technology does not. We are more interconnected than you think. Just because places border with other foreign places, and not with America, does not mean they exist in a corner, in a vacuum – they just have different influences, different neighbors. The world is definitely round, and is, much, much smaller than you think.
I think after this whole Peace Corps thing sinks in, as well as the whole leaving thing sinks in, I might write something else here, more reflective and clear. But until then – I have two more days in Moldova, and I leave you with the two biggest things I will take away from this experience – perhaps things that aren’t so obvious, and that maybe I haven’t mentioned before.
1) An interest in being a host family to a foreign student in America. I’ve lived here for 2 years with the same host family, and they have been wonderful – really instrumental in allowing me to be successful here. Before that, during Peace Corps training, I lived with another host family – I have learned the good and the bad, seen it all, heard it all, been introduced to it all, been forced dresses, forced fed, and forced to talk to company. I’ve also been invited to parties, treated as a sister, and expected to do chores. I think it would be a really great experience for me (and my future family) to host an exchange student, and give him or her the kind of experience I had in Moldova – the experience of feeling at home somewhere far from home. Also, its probably not a bad idea to expose children to foreign cultures from an early age.
2) The world has no corners. Maybe potential Peace Corps volunteers are dreaming of arriving and working in their “corner” of the world – remote, secluded, not-connected. But I have to squash those dreams because these corners, in my opinion, no longer exist. Obama in his acceptance also addressed those in “forgotten corners of the world.” - maybe these “corners” existed in the past, but right now I think it is an outdated notion. Especially when the majority of the world can get on the internet through almost any phone line, where tv uses satellite, where the kids in my village know more Eminem lyrics than I do, where people travel, books are translated, radio broadcasts stronger… not many people exist in seclusion. Maybe not everyone personally has access to the internet, or a telephone, but word of mouth travels where technology does not. We are more interconnected than you think. Just because places border with other foreign places, and not with America, does not mean they exist in a corner, in a vacuum – they just have different influences, different neighbors. The world is definitely round, and is, much, much smaller than you think.
This entry was posted
on Friday, November 14, 2008 at 7:21 AM.
