Getting There

The swear-in ceremony and the preceding evening’s big group dinner were good, as expected. Highlights for me included performing a Russian song called “Poost” with my host-mother at the ceremony and then watching another group of volunteers bring the house down with a Moldovan dance performance complete with traditional dress. They were really great!

After the ceremony it was time to pick up all my things – one overnight bag at the hotel, 120 pounds worth of free weights that I bought from a departing PCV at the PC office, and then everything else at my host family’s house. [Incidentally, the driver sent by my new town’s mayor didn’t know how to get to the hotel where all PCVs had stayed the night before. Nonetheless, he kept saying he knew the way even when I knew he was on the wrong side of town. Eventually he asked some pedestrian (who also didn’t know the way) how to get there. Fortunately I knew. There’s something common among many 3rd world countries: no one ever wants to admit that they don’t know the way to somewhere. It’s as if it would be considered ruder to say “I don’t know the way” than to waste your time by driving aimlessly in the hope of finding the destination.]

The mayor’s office where I’ll be working sent a car, driver, and vice-mayor to pick me up, which was one more person than was really needed and took up vital space in the vehicle. On top of that, before we collected the bulk of my things from my house, we stopped off at one of the bazaars in the capital city so my two new co-workers could do some grocery shopping – not that I blame them for taking advantage of the opportunity. I’m just trying to convey my mounting sense of doubt about being able to fit everything I owned into a car that now had one extra person and enough food to feed… well, a lot of people.

So we get to my host family’s house and eventually manage to fit everything in the car and I have just enough room to sit completely still and every now and then breathe in the back seat. I said a tearful “dosvidanya” to my host family and set out on a bumpy three-hour ride.

When I arrived, I quickly moved everything into my new room; had a delicious dinner of potatoes, chicken, and a “salad” with my new host-mother, Valentina; and crawled into a very saggy bed and fell asleep.