When we arrived at the airport in Chisinau, we were greeted in the baggage claim area by the PC Moldova director and other PC staff. It took us a bit for all of us to get our luggage, as well as claim luggage that was missing (I was one of the lucky ones that had all of my luggage!). Once we got everything figured out, we moved out of the baggage claim area and into the main area of the airport, where much to our surprise, there were lots of current volunteers and Moldovans eagerly awaiting our arrival. We moved through these people, accompanied by our mentors, to waiting buses. We were then taken to our hotel in Chisinau. The hotel is interesting for sure- every single room is different, and some are very drastically different. Three of the other volunteers even had a whole apartment-like room, complete with dining room. My room was pretty plain and regular, though. Once we loaded all of our stuff in a conference room, we grabbed some pizza at the attached restaurant, Andy’s, with our mentors and staff. Once we were adequately full, we headed back to the hotel to a conference room for very basic introductions and some safety and health information. We met our training coordinator, safety an security officer, and PC Medical Officer (an MD)- all of whom are Moldovans.
After a short session, we were released to do whatever we pleased. I hung out with some new friends, checked out the rooms of the other trainees, and watched a Romanian soap opera with my roommate before going to bed.
It was a busy day, with lots of new information, but we were so very happy to have finally made it to Moldova!
The Oke Den 