The garden in front of my homestay in Comrat
Since living in Moldova, I’ve always felt that people don’t have enough respect for Peace Corps Volunteers. There is an idea floating out there that Peace Corps is something to polish one’s resume. While having “Returned Peace Corps Volunteer” on one’s business card is certainly nice, I think people who criticize Peace Corps Volunteers haven’t the faintest idea of what they deal with on a daily basis. It seems to me that short of going to jail or joining the military, it’s one of the more hardcore things that a person from the States can do.
Although I’m certainly not living on the small allowance of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Moldova, I can definitely appreciate all the adjustments that one has to make to live in a town in rural Moldova.
First, there are adjustments that have to be made for basic personal hygiene. This is probably not a big shocker to anyone, but people in developing countries do not shower every day. There’s an old, bad joke about France: “In France, they go to the grocery store once a day and shower once a week. In America they go to the grocery store once a week and shower once a day.” This isn’t an entirely inaccurate description of living in a less-developed former Soviet region. (I heard a Russian say on TV today that she showers twice a day and I’m not sure if I believe her or not. I guess that’s the difference between having a per capita GDP of $16,000 per year in Russia instead of $3,000 like here!)
If you’re living in an apartment by yourself, of course, you can shower whenever you want—well, as long as you have running water, which is not a given! But when you’re living with a host family (as the majority of Volunteers do) you have to accommodate them at least a little bit. Right now I’m getting used to showering once every three days. It’s actually not as gross as it seems because your body adjusts to small changes like that after a few weeks. The real difficulty is when you are living in a village (or a city with chronic water problems like Yerevan, Armenia) and you can only shower once a week. Luckily I’ve never had that problem, but I know lots of people who have.
There are also adjustments to diet and exercise that can be much more pleasant! The diet here can be pretty heavy: lots of potatoes, dairy products and fried food. There’s not much spice and there is dill on everything. (One of my classmates in Russia swore he saw dill fields in his sleep.) On the other hand, in the summer you get fresh fruits and vegetables that are chock full of vitamins. It’s easy to get all your food groups. Plus, the amount of processed food is limited and everyone makes their own food. Homemade preserves, fresh eggs, and fruits fresh from the garden are the norm. I literally never drank a full glass of tomato juice in my life until yesterday when I had some home-canned tomato juice. Wow! It was chunky and delicious. Today at dinner I had cherries that were picked earlier that afternoon. How many times can you say that in the States?
Another thing that takes getting used to is exercising in a different way. I was quite used to living without a car in Cambridge but now I live on a hill and I curse it every day! I’m walking probably an hour and a half a day now. Thank God for iPods! Unfortunately there isn’t much of a gym culture in the former Soviet Union, and the gyms that do exists are mostly a male domain. I’m not sure how they’d react to Stick-Arms here trying to beef up my triceps. Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out how to do my Pilates routine at home without a mat...
At any rate, living in Comrat isn’t very difficult compared to what Peace Corps Volunteers are dealing with in the villages. I may not be able to drink the water straight from the tap, but at least my water doesn’t have giardia like the next town over. Ugh. But I think most of the people who criticize Peace Corps Volunteers as hippies looking for a free ride have no idea what it’s like to lose control over basically your entire body! It’s not as drastic as joining the army, of course, but it does take some getting used to.
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