I've arrived!

     I've arrived in Moldova. It was a long 18 hours and I got to Moldova extremely jet lagged. I arrived around 1 in the afternoon yesterday, after a layover in Munich, where it was snowing. The weather was beautiful in Moldova, 60 degrees. When I walked out of the airport, I looked around for the woman who was to meet me there. I looked for a sign, but not seeing any I headed to the closest money exchange and exchanged some money. The rate is about 11.5 Lei to a dollar. After getting money, I looked around some more and started heading toward the other side of a large crowd of people. I stopped for a moment to look around and was approached by a woman I had noticed before. She asked me if my name was Jacy and then introduced herself as Victoria. She said she didn't think I was the volunteer she was looking for because I had so little baggage. I had two small wheeley bags, a small backpack, and a messenger bag. The bigger of my wheeley bags was full of crayons, books and toys for the kids. I had packed two months worth of clothes in a very small bag. I like to travel lite.

      We got a taxi and headed into Chisinau (pronounced Kiss-now). The taxi dropped us off at Victoria's flat, where I would be staying. On the way to the flat I met Victoria's boyfriend Roman. Victoria is 25 years old and has a degree in Social Work. She works with the orphanage only as a volunteer. She volunteers at the orphanage through Service for Peace, a non-profit organization headquartered in America. Later, I met the man who had started the Service for Peace branch in Moldova. He, along with everyone else working for it, is a volunteer. Victoria works three other jobs along with volunteering with Service for Peace. Real Gap, the company I came here through which is in UK, helps them find volunteers and pays for accommodations, food, and a donation out of the money we pay. Everyone I spoke to was real grateful to Real Gap for helping find the volunteers the orphanage needs.

    After I had settled into the flat, Victoria took me to a restaurant for lunch. There, I had Borsch, and met the founder of Service for Peace and a man who works as a translator for the company. They both spoke English and had been to Korea for conferences for Service for Peace. After lunch, we all went back to Victoria's flat, and the three of them talked business while I went to lay down. I fell asleep for 3 hours, woke up, took a shower, and went back to bed. My clock on my phone has not changed over to Moldovan time, so I set my alarm for 12:30 midnight which was 7:30 AM here. I slept very well but it was hard getting out of bed at 7:30, it being midnight to my body. I got up and got ready, ate cereal and had tea. At 9 a woman (another Victoria) came to the door and I let her in. She was taking me to the passport and medical offices to get a little blue book that the orphanage could hold onto while I was working there. She is married to the man (Valeri) who started Service for Peace in Moldova, and they have three young children. She was very nice and I asked her many questions. I found out that the main language in Moldova is Romanian, which is a mix of latin and russian. I noticed a lot of spanish sounding words, and they don't use the Cyrillic alphabet so I can read the signs. Russian is also very common here and so I've been using that to communicate.

     At the medical office, I didn't have a certificate from my doctor at home saying I was healthy. I had read that I needed to see a doctor before I went, but it said to check yes or no if I had, and didn't mention anything about a medical certificate. Victoria was afraid I'd have to get my blood drawn, get checked for TB and have a urine test which would take all day. However, a little bribe goes a long way, and the doctor stamped my blue book without even looking at me.

    After the doctor's office, we met up with Valeri and he took me to the bus stop to catch the bus to the orphanage. My flat is in the center of Chisinau, along the main street. The orphanage is about a 20 minute ride from there. At the orphanage, I met with the director and was asked my preference. I said I'd like to work with 0-3year olds. They put me with group five. A normal day will go from 9-12, lunch, then 2-4. Today we arrived at 11 and Valeri just wanted me to work until 12 so he could take me  back, he had a meeting at 2.

      In the room for group 5, there were about 15 babies, and 4-5 workers. There are also nurses who come in and out, checking on everyone, and some women who come in to take babies outside. I met everyone and had to change into slippers to keep the floor clean. There is an outer office, where a nurse sits, writing down information, then a little hallway that leads into a big room with playpens and toys. Two rooms lead off of the big room and have cribs. When I arrived, there was one baby in a stroller in the entrance room with the nurse.  Nobody spoke English so I used my little bit of Russian and gestures to communicate. One woman gestured for me to pick up a little baby and I picked her up and held her. There was another baby in a walker and the women told me that they were twins, Christie and Chrisitana. I was only there for an hour before nap time and Christie fell asleep in my arms. I held another baby for a while. He wasn't tired, very curious and he liked to smile and laugh. After an hour Valeri got me and we went back to the flat.

     I made it to a grocery store today and bought some of my favorite things from Ukraine: Blue Fruit tea, Lavash (flat bread-like tortillas), and veggies. I came home and watched tv on my phone and fell asleep briefly. Its 8:00 now and I'll be headed off to bed soon. Keep checking my blog www.jacysorphanageadventure.com for posts and pics (haven't gotten any pics yet). Hope you are all doing well. Love, Jacy