Upon arriving in Falesti, my post for the next two years, the current volunteer Katherine, my partner Alexandre and I made our way to the office, quickly followed by a visit to the local summer hangout. This is a nice outdoor pavillion area with an attached magazin (small shop) for our convenience. We scooped up some ice cream, given it was nearly a bahzillion degrees. We sat at a table and were minding our own business when a man walked up, dis-robed, and decided he was going to take a dip in the lake. At first I was rather envious given the heat, a swim in a lake sounded refreshing. This stranger decided to climb out on the railing and looked to be diving into the water, when I thought to myself "hmmmm I don't think that the water is deep enough in this area to be diving in". Sure enough, at his expense, my excellent depth perception was right, he dove head first onto concreate. Now immediately after he jumped I was shocked. The culture I grew up in goes above and beyond to protect it's water-sport go-ers, however, given my lack of understanding of Moldovan culture, I didn't feel comfortable to help in a situation like this. He beagn spewing blood. The water around him turned red, he was flopping around, people were staring, no one dove in. Somehow he got himself out of the water, but he was losing a lot of blood it was pouring down his face onto his chest, I was mortified. Myself and the others around me quickly realized he must have been drinking given he jumped back into the water to wash off the blood that was now covering his body. This was in my first hour at my new home...after this rough start, Katherine the volunteer currently in Falesti (and will be leaving just two days before I arrive ...by the way that sucks! And is living with the host family that I too will be living with when I move to Falesti in early August) took me back to her house, and my new home. We had a nice evening on our own. My host mom was in Cisinau for the weekend with her daughters planning for the wedding that will be held later this month. We had a good time, it was nice to spend 48 hours connected at the hip with someone whose native language is English...and who knows Romanian fluently.
We toured around the city, and by toured I mean walked down the two larger streets. Falesti is one of the few cities that is host to a huge statue of Lenin. So, if you are ever in Falesti, you will know where all the zero tourists go! The following day we went to the office and had a ...quiet...day at work. That night we made macaroni and garlic bread followed by an english movie, it was lovely.
The ride back to Cisinau on Tuesday was interesting. As I posted early, the rutiera system in Moldova is both convenient and a nightmare, at the same time. This ride was no different. It included an overcrowded mess of people, hot and sticky weather...oh yea, and a box of ducklings. After two and a half long hours we arrived in the captial and were freed from the metal box.
And that concludes a few highlighted sites from my site visit, because well, I am tired and want to go to sleep.
Peace-out
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