Last week was a flurry of activity. I spent Tuesday packing and that evening I gave my host family their presents which they seemed to like. It was a small album filled with pictures I took during training and a flashlight for my host mom (since she seemed to love my headlamp) a watch for my host sister and bubbles for my host brother. I did a little fashion show so that they could help me pick out what to wear for the swearing in-ceremony. I was told my skirt wasn’t wintry enough so we went with the pantsuit. They also had me paint my nails and iron my clothes… I kept saying in Russian “I’m a girl now…finally” which they got a kick out of. Wednesday morning I packed my things into a neighbor’s car and he drove me to the capital. I was sad to leave the house and town and basically start over again, but was glad to know they would be coming to the swearing in ceremony. That night our entire group of volunteers had a really good dinner with our mentors, then I went out for a bit my last night before the big move. The next morning we had our swearing in ceremony, where I ‘officially’ became a volunteer and performed a traditional Moldovan dance with other volunteers. My host sister and host mom came and my host mom kept crying during the ceremony and afterwards. I promised I would go back to visit them when I could!

The swearing in ceremony was the same day as thanksgiving and I was anticipating being herded off to my new home after the ceremony and not doing much the rest of the holiday…maybe catching up on sleep. But 2 of us who were moving to the South were told our counterparts couldn’t find transportation until the next morning…which meant we would have to stay in Chisinau one more night…and a current volunteer graciously invited us to a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. So I was able to spend the holiday with good company and food. We kept looking at each other and saying, it’s the miracle of thanksgiving, it’s the thanksgiving miracle, haha!

So I arrived to my new site (after our marshudka/ transportation van broke down right outside of the gagauzian border) and met my new host family: 7 year old brother, 17 year old sister, and host mom (the grandmother). They were very welcoming and didn’t seem put-off by my copious luggage. Saturday I was quickly put to work helping break down a wall for an NGO resource center in town.

This week I spent time between the NGO resource center, going to a conference with my counterpart and meeting a few people in town. It seems my days, at first, will be spent shadowing my counterpart, making my own contacts, and studying language. (I found a tutor and begin this Friday- 4 hours a week). I also made a guest appearance on a local radio show. It was a time-slot for NGOs in town, and my counterpart asked me if I wanted to say something...I agreed and prepared a few sentences in Russian. (I am a peace corps volunteer, I will live here for 2 years, etc etc) I’m going to try and get a copy of it, so I can laugh at myself later.

I’m also getting settled into my new apartment. I spent the evening purposefully pronouncing words badly in Russian so that my host brother and neighbors could laugh. It was great. Then I gave them some Twizzlers to eat, and my host sister said it tasted like a candle.