Cahul

Today I am writing from an Internet cafe in the city of Cahul. Why am I here, you ask? I've only been back for a little over a week. Shouldn't I be staying in my village? Well, yes, the short answer is that I should be there, but sometimes life involves the longer answer.

Last Tuesday I was in Chisinau for the day, really only taking the time to meet with the doctor (no rabies booster, yay!) and have a nice lunch with Teresa. Together we also went shopping for a small gift for Ana. A nice day. Wednesday and Thursday were spent uneventfully at work. The party for Ana was scheduled for Friday, and I had already made plans to return to Chisinau on Friday. The doctor needed to meet with me to "read" the TB shot in 72 hours, and the plan always was to return to Chisinau at the end of the week. As I looked at my calendar, and thought about what my plans would be for the summer, I realized that I have not done a lot of traveling to visit other parts of Moldova, and have not seen the work that my colleagues are doing. Two of the places that I really want to travel to this summer include Cahul in the southwest part of Moldova, and Balti, in the north. I have been to see the villages of some of the others in my original training group: I have been to Teresa's many times, and I have also traveled to the village where Veronica lives, and also to Toumil's village. These two small towns are not really so different from my village in many ways. Village life is village life pretty much. The other two women that I trained with in PST (Pre-Service Training) are Jamie and Na'Ima. Jamie lives in a small village, and Na'Ima lives in Cahul. Sort of on a whim I gave Na'Ima a call on Thursday evening to see if she would be open to some company. And here I am.

Friday after the very brief doctor appontment, and a nice party for Ana, a group of us had an apartment for the night and spend some fun time together going out for dinner and karaoke. No, I did not sing. Its enough fun to watch this silliness. Saturday and Sunday were spent in our last language IST (In-Service Training) and a language exam on Sunday afternoon. The previous two times that I have had my language tested my physical health has not been so good. I'm not sure how I did on the exam this time, but at least I felt good. I know last time I was surprised that I had improved a level when I felt so bad. I am not expecting to improve another level, but we'll see.

Sunday afternoon I left Chisinau with Na'Ima to come to Cahul. It is a nice, small city. The population is maybe about 40,000, and there are many amenities that are not available in the village. It is still easy to navigate by foot, and it seems that many or most residents do not own cars. There are more cars here, for sure, and tractors in town, but still, many people walk. Right now there are two voluteers in Cahul, Na'Ima and Jen. Jen is ending her service this summer, so I wanted to be sure to visit before she left. Even though I am not so far in distance from my village to Cahul, there is no easy way to cross this country, and travel is most efficient through the capital. It made sense to do this visit now, while I already was in Chisinau, and I am so glad that I decided to come now. Na'Ima has been a great hostess and I have joined her at work yesterday and today. Today there is a seminar that her organization is sponsoring. It is in Russian, so we understand very little. It is a presentation that is offered by two consultants from Latvia and Russian is the unifying language. Since there is little to understand, we have come to the internet cafe, but now it is time for lunch. Gotta go back for that! I hope everyone is well. I miss you all. xoxo, Jami