Permanent Assignment

Thursday July 2, 2015 was another warm and sunny summer day in Moldova.  I awoke with eager anticipation, but some anxiousness about the news that was to come later in the day. The lectures seemed longer than usual.  Finally at 4:00, all the M30's along with PC staff and many M28s and M29s gathered for the "Announcement".

By program each M30's name was called, the site of his or her permanent assignment announced, and the person's picture appeared on a map of Moldova.  The CODs were the third group called and when my name and assignment were announced, I have to admit I did not really hear or understand the name of my site and had no idea where I was going to spend the next two years.   I was handed an envelope of information, but continued to listen to the names of my colleagues and watch the map.      At the end the map of Moldova was covered with faces.  We are spread out over the entire country!!

I am assigned to Rusestii Noi, a village southwest of Chisinau in the Ialoveni Raion or District. This   is the same Raion where I am currently living, but the village is essentially on the opposite end of the District.   I am to work in the Primaria or Mayor's office and my Moldovan partner is the Vice Mayor.  The information provided indicates that the Mayor and Vice Mayor also want me to be involved in the community and help in and with the library, schools, cultural center, and organizations for youth, the elderly and women.  The job description is daunting and we will need to have further discussions and perhaps do some surveys to determine priorities and focus my activities and work.  

On Sunday, July 5, I traveled to Rusestii Noi and met the Mayor and Vice Mayor who gave me a tour of the villages.  There are actually two villages:  Rusestii Noi ("New Russia") and Rusestii Vechi ("Old Russia").  The former has about 4000 inhabitants while the later has approximately 2000.  The Primaria is in Rusestii Noi where I will probably spend most of my time and where I will also live.

After the tour I was taken to the home of my host couple.  They were gracious, pleasant and welcoming.  They are retired teachers;  she taught history and was the director of one of the village schools for a few years, and he taught physical education.  Their house is more modern than my current one and seems fairly comfortable and spacious.   It is located about a mile from the Primaria, but unfortunately the roads are mostly dirt.  The walk in the rain and snow should prove interesting! 

In the afternoon, the Mayor came for me and we along with his secretary's family and the folklore group from Rusestii Noi traveled to another village for a festival of Moldovan music, song and dance.  There were Masas (tables of food) surrounding the perimeter of the performing area and the Mayor introduced me to the other Mayors present as well as many groups.  He seemed to take pride in having an American PCV assigned to his village. Needless to say I was the only American at the festival and I got the sense that most of the people I met did not have previous experience with either Americans or PCVs.  Everyone was welcoming, but after a few stops at the Masas, I had to politely decline the food, wine, champagne and other beverages offered.  That was a bit tricky since Moldovans love to share their homemade food and beverage, and are very hospitable.

The folklore group from Rusestii Noi consists of children and adults. They were all dressed in beautiful hand sown traditional Moldovan costumes.  The children played instruments similar to recorders and sang accompanied by a type of guitar.  The adults sang also and supported the children.  All in all the performance was well done and it was good to see tradition being carried forward.

Monday morning I walked to the Primaria and met the Mayor in his office. The Vice Mayor was on vacation so I spent the day with the Mayor in Rusestii Noi, Ialoveni and Chisinau. He is quite busy, but seems very approachable and social.  The Mayor won re-election in June and is beginning his second four year term.  He has a sense of humor, but speaks only Romanian and Russian.

Which brings me to the first major challenge of my assignment.  Neither the Mayor nor Vice Mayor speak English.  Similarly none of the Primaria staff whom I met speak English.  My Host couple also does not speak English although they have hosted PCVs during PST in years past.  The bottom line is that I am in a Romanian and Russian speaking village and will have to step up my language study.  After my two day site visit I was exhausted trying to listen, understand and respond in Romanian!!  One month of language study is clearly not much and my Romanian will probably be a constant work in progress.  I just hope people are patient as I continue to learn and try to speak.  Even if I do not have all the correct word endings and verb tenses, I am using the words I know to communicate as best I can. Hopefully, I am conveying something beyond nonsense and am being understood. 

Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, the Mayor and I participated in the COD Site Team Conference in Chisinau led by the COD program director.  All of the COD PCVs and their partners traveled to and attended.  It was a good opportunity to get to know our  Moldovan partners, their expectations and our goals, and to begin planning our work.  The Moldovan partners speak mostly Romanian and/or Russian, and a few know some English.

In the M30 group, there are 16 CODs with three assigned to Primarias, six to libraries, and seven to NGOs.  Some consider the Primaria assignment to be desirable.  (In the past there have been more Primaria assignments, but with the June elections not as many applied for a PCV as required months ago not knowing what would be the election results.) I was open to any assignment and would have gladly worked in a library or with an NGO. I still may do so as part of my work.  In the end, our COD program director is very good and made a concerted effort to match people to assignments.  I think we are all accepting her decisions and the conference helped us begin building relationships.

Initially I was admittedly a little disappointed when I realized where my assignment was located and  I would be spending the next two years.  It seemed that most of my colleagues were traveling to and would be living and working in other parts of the country.  The thought of being in a new place away from where we are spending our first eight weeks of PST seemed attractive in comparison.  However, as I reflected and thought more about it, I actually am in a great location.  Rusestii Noi is close to Chisinau. I am not sure of the actual distance or travel time, but I am pegging it at about a 25 minute rutiera ride.  That being the case, I will be able to get to know the capitol city and take advantage of what it has to offer including cultural events, historic sites, museums, shopping, restaurants, and very importantly, its Roman Catholic Cathedral.   And I will still be able to travel about the country visiting my PCV colleagues at their sites.  In some ways, I am very fortunate in my assigned location.

We are now in the final weeks of our language training and COD assignment preparation. The suspense is over as to our assignments.  I am already thinking about the work to come, but must really concentrate on my Romanian language learning.  As an aside, most of the M28s and M29s  who I know have worked or are working in a Primaria seem to have a partner or someone in the Primaria who speaks English.  I guess there may be a different plan for me!! 

For now,  o zi buna . . .

Debbie