My head spins sometimes when I try to remember the best way to call someone while I’m serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Eastern Europe. My older son back home uses Skype. His wife and my older sister prefer Facebook Messenger. My other son and his wife use FaceTime, as does my younger sister. Our nieces in England like Viber. We also speak with our nephew who recently finished his medical studies in China, where he used WeChat.
Here in Moldova, I can call a friend’s number with my cell phone but they may respond faster to a text, unless of course they prefer to receive a message via Facebook or WhatsApp.
Most of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers use Facebook, but some don’t, even before the recent controversy about Facebook’s handling of confidential data. For them, I generally need to call with my cell phone or send a text or e-mail message.
Most of my Moldovan friends still prefer telephone calls to electronic messages, although that’s changing, too, especially with younger people. This was a problem for me when I first got here, since I couldn’t understand or speak Romanian well enough to have a conversation. Now I’ve begun using the telephone, too.
Peace Corps gave me a local SIM card for my iPhone when I arrived here, and it pays for a monthly plan that includes a generous amount of free calling minutes and Internet access. I supplement the latter with a portabler router and wireless plan I purchased from Orange, the big local telecommunications company. 
PCVs who didn’t bring a phone received one from Peace Corps, together with a SIM card. When I travel outside Moldova, I add extra money to my phone account and activate its international roaming feature, for prices far below what companies charge back home.
It’s great to have all of these communications options, particularly since so many of them are free or cheap, but remembering everyone’s preferences reminds me of planning a dinner party where one guest is a vegetarian, another is lactose intolerant and another doesn’t eat gluten. Who can keep track of it all?
Communications were much simpler when I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal four decades ago. Back then, I didn’t call home at all during my two years abroad. Not once. If I’d wanted to call the United States, I would have had to ride my bicycle to an office near the Kathmandu stadium and pay an exhorbitant fee to sit in a booth and hope they could make a connection. 
I never bothered with it. Neither did most of my PCV friends. We mailed letters instead.
I just learned from an online thread with some Peace Corps Moldova friends that I can now call the United States on Skype for two cents a minute, or with Yolla for less than a penny per minute or connect to a U.S. number for free with Google Hangouts Dialer. Of course, Messenger and FaceTime are still free, assuming I have a wireless connection. I also have plenty of minutes left on my telephone account this month.
I may need to call my son and ask for his advice.
Some accounts say he wrote the famous aphorism: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
With salaries and budgets that are tiny by American standards, they look to external sources for additional support, especially for projects. Potential funders range from USAID and other agencies affiliated with foreign governments to international NGOs, local embassies and others. 
That girl was my grandmother, Sarah.
We left Ialoveni early, crossing the Moldovan-Ukrainian border at Palanca since Peace Corps does not allow volunteers to travel through the disputed territory of Transnistria. We were lucky to arrive near Odessa’s 
We bought the cheapest seats, less than 40 cents apiece, so we could glimpse the theater for a few minutes. It was magnificent.
But then again, I’ve felt in good hands medically with Peace Corps Moldova since we arrived here. The chief medical officer, Dr. Iuliana, is a jewel: skillful, thorough, caring and endlessly dedicated to keeping volunteers heathy. She pays attention to everyone’s mental health as well as their physical condition, knowing how stressful Peace Corps service can sometimes be.
We get our medical care for free here, with no monthly premiums or other costs. During our pre-service training, the medical team ran workshops on everything from water purification to traffic safety. When we moved to our posts, they gave us water filters and well-stocked medical kits. They continue to fill prescriptions, address concerns and provide routine services in a clinic within the Peace Corps building. When necessary, they send volunteers to local specialists such as Dr. Drugalin or, occasionally, back home or elsewhere for treatment, coordinating with the Peace Corps medical office in Washington.
We were in good shape when we applied to become volunteers, although that didn’t stop the Washington medical office from putting us through the wringer before clearing us for service. We had to submit form after form, with documentation, over several months before we were finally approved. 
I understood why the medical office was so cautious, especially with two older applicants, but the process was exhausting.
I also discussed speech-making generally and the particular format of entrepreneurial pitches. I divided the students into groups to practice their presentations, as you can see in the photos here.
When I was running a university communications office before joining the Peace Corps, I used to tell scientists and professors the same thing, as in this 2014 
Indeed, Peace Corps itself touts the career 
All of this is consistent with the changes I’ve seen myself since I first served as a volunteer in Nepal in the late 1970s. My friends and I didn’t talk much about resumes, grad school applications and job prospects. America was the world’s dominant economic power then. Jobs were plentiful.
"Not Exactly Retired" 