The following are strictly personal views/observations and in no way reflect the views of the Peace Corp nor the federal government of the United States.

I have noticed that being in Moldova has affected my emergency response time. Lately, my response time is much slower; due to the fact that before I take action I feel it is necessary to consider if my initial response is appropriate.

For example, in America, when I saw the fence next to the house on fire and no one around, I would have immediately retrieved some water and put the fire out.

Meanwhile, in Moldova: a few weeks ago, when I returned from work I noticed that the fence next to my host family’s house was on fire. No one else was home, and no one else would be home for a few hours. However, my first response was not to get some water and put out the fire; instead, I contemplated if the fire was intentionally set and whether I would be berated for putting it out.

I did not think that the fire had been set with arsonist intentions. It seemed possible that maybe my host mother did not like the fence any longer and wanted to build a new fence, thus set the old fence on fire. When I considered archetypal Moldovan actions and the line of thinking/logic pervasive among Moldavians it seemed that the fire could quite possibly have been intentional.
Thus, my time in Moldova has slowed my reaction time from 30 seconds to about 10 minutes; because, in the end I spent about ten minutes, while the fire consumed the fence, pondering the intentionality of the fire. I chose to put the fire out.