A Thankful PCV in Moldova

A few things this girl’s thankful for:

• A wonderful, supportive family in the States
• Friends that are irreplaceable, fun, and down-to-earth
• A wonderful Moldovan host family, who has patience and (almost) sympathy for me and my foreign ways/ideas...
• Kind Moldovans, stern on the outside and jolly on the inside
• My fellow PCV friends, who keep me grounded and sane
• My kind Moldovan colleagues
• That I get to teach eager students that have patience with me, even when they can’t decipher my rapid English in an American accent (they are used to British accents)
• Faith in God and hope for the future
• Funny things that are everywhere. Examples:
• Two old men in my community, sporting crisp new Kansas City Royals baseball caps (I doubt they know the town or the sport, but maybe I’m wrong!)
• On my run the other day, a guy was cutting through what looks to me like a winter wheat field (but it’s probably something else) on his old rusty, one-speed bike to get to the other side of town.  I wish I had my camera.
• My host mother asking the neighbor in Romanian about the whereabouts of my slippers.  One slipper from each of my two pairs went missing the other day.  The funny part is her explaining to the neighbor that their little dog took our American’s slippers, specifically her slippers from America!  (i don’t think my retelling it is quite as funny, unfortunately)  Since then, I’ve been wearing two very mismatched “shlawps”
• My host dad telling me I don’t need to go running and he certainly doesn’t need to exercise, because he does “Shaping” every day all day at work.
• Coffee from America, that I french press every morning.
• How small Moldova is- I can get from place to place pretty easy compared to other PC countries, and it appears to me to be a very “small world” in Moldova
• The young generation in Moldova that has so much potential to do so much with their lives and so much good for their country

Other Update:
Last week, I attended a training geared toward businessmen in Moldova, who wish to improve their web presence through websites and social media.  Being someone who is not so well informed on these issues, it was an educational opportunity (as always) and a chance for me to hear and practice Romanian in a new context amongst new Moldovan acquaintances.  After the seminar, I did a bit of tweaking to my blog and pondered advertising on my blog...  I of course decided to google search whether it’s been done in Moldova by a Peace Corps Volunteer in the past, and it has.  I found evidence from two years ago:  http://onebloceast.tumblr.com/post/2374726108 So now I’m kind of curious to see how advertising might be different on my blog, considering I probably have different content as well as it being 2012, not 2010. If you see advertising come up on my blog, you’ll know why!

Last week, I taught class on SWOT Analysis.  This week, I’m teaching about good management...  I’m starting to run into so vocabulary hurdles with students, making class a bit too strenuous...  But I think they’re learning!  

I’m headed to a Rural Women Leaders Forum tomorrow in Chisinau, followed by some celebrating and thanksgiving with other volunteers.  I seriously am so thankful for this opportunity to be a Peace Corps Volunteer and for all the things mentioned above.  I couldn’t ask for a better job at this point in time.

Business Courses and a GLOW'ing Preview

My Wednesday Class

Last week I began my first training sessions of Business in English at the Primaria.  I think it went really well.  The students seemed eager to learn and to practice English.  I introduced them to a bit of basic economic theory by playing a market simulation game.  Over the course of the next 7 weeks, they will learn the basics of what a business is and what it needs to operate, including a business plan that includes budgeting, marketing, management, and market analysis components.  Presentation skills in addition to general English communication will be a focus, as well as professional development including business communication and resumes.  That’s the hope, anyway!  

If you’re wondering how I’m hoping to pull all this off, I’m using the skills in my back pocket from my time working as a camp counselor and as a state FFA leader and combining them with the knowledge and resources I’ve gained from my ag economics education, background in business, and training from Peace Corps.  Out of the students I’ve heard from thus far or through the grapevine, they enjoyed the first class and learned new material, such as how buyers and sellers interact in the market place; how free markets with many buyers and sellers can provide information to all parties involved and establish the market price; and how this all relates to business.  This is most definitely a test run, and I really hope I hit all the important areas when it comes to business basics.  

This week?  The focus will be on SWOT Analysis.  Fun stuff!

Over the weekend, I was in Chisinau for a training regarding two Peace Corps initiatives called GLOW, Girls Leading Our World, and TOBE, Teaching Our Boys to Excel.  I’m really excited to get involved with these initiatives, because of their mission. GLOW/TOBE Moldova aim to promote gender equality by encouraging girls and young women and boys and young men throughout Moldova to make healthy life decisions, develop life-skills, and to become active members of their communities by providing educational, skill-building, and inspirational opportunities.  Its approach is to train Peace Corps volunteers such as myself to partner with a Moldovan, who can become a Seminar Leader and thus train or educate their own youth in areas such as entrepreneurship, civic engagement, leadership, communication, time management, healthy eating, gender equality, substance abuse, etc.  The idea is for it to be more Moldovan-lead at the end of the day, and not just Peace Corps.  At the end of the day (in 2 years), we won’t be here!  

I’ve been appointed as the Junior Director of Training, which is exciting given my desire to see Moldovan youth succeed and my passion for superbly facilitating learning.  The position comes with responsibility, but I’m looking forward to it and to working with other superb volunteers, who have been working hard in the last year to revamp GLOW/TOBE in Moldova.

Other Updates:

• My diet is changing into more roots (beets, carrots) and conserved produce and less fresh fruits and vegetables.
• I took a bus ride longer than expected.  Usually a rutiera ride from Chisinau to my town is 1 hour and 15 minutes.  I decided to take this old Greyhound bus, which much to my chagrin, went the long way around through a countless number of villages and stopping at them all.  It was a 2 ½ hour ride this time...  Good thing I left earlier than I thought necessary.
• It’s getting cold outside indeed.
• I had a mini-planning/dreaming session about how to spend my vacation days in the next year...  and it’s really exciting.

My Thursday Class outside to make a "frumos" or pretty photo with Doamna Lidia (on my left) and the flipcharts I made that are apparently good enough to showcase.

November Already? Time to Get to Work!

November is the month I will begin teaching a lot.  Starting next week, I will begin a 7-week course on Business in English.  I will have 3 separate classes that will meet once a week for 90 minutes each time.  I’m a bit nervous but looking forward to it.  I never would have imagined that ~35 students and even a few adults who I didn’t invite but asked to participate would be so interested in this subject.  My colleague, Nadea, who proposed this class to me correctly observed the need and desire.

This week, I have been busy securing a spot for the classes, which was a little more difficult than imagined.  Schools, you would think, would be the obvious choice where to hold these classes.  I have opened the course to three different schools in my town and was hoping to mix up the students, partly due to their level of English as well as due to their availability.  The high school students here also participate in extracurricular activities, such as music or dance lessons, language lessons, and sports.  I talked to two directors of two schools, asking if I could use their space after school to teach the course.  Both directors were absolutely welcoming to the idea, BUT with only their pupils.  No students from outside their school.  This was frustrating to me, as I thought about the worst possible alternative which would be that no school would allow mixed classes and thus some students would be forfeited the opportunity to learn.  It also sparks curiosity in me, if that same pride/protection of one’s school rising over the overall benefit of youth in the community exists also in the United States, particularly amongst public schools such as the ones with whom I’m working.  Unfortunately, I think it maybe does.

After a few days of a bit of anxiety about securing a place to have the course, I got some help from my tutor and met with a woman, Doamna Lidia, at the Primaria, the Mayor’s Hall.  What I found was that she was very welcome to the idea of the Business English course at the Primaria.  In fact, she sees it as just a launching point for what activities could occur.  It could lead to more advanced classes perhaps, or maybe to training students to teach such a course (that was Doamna Lidia’s very nice idea!), or to teaching students from the villages around our town center even.

In other news:
It’s gotten colder this week, and the soba (fireplace) is in use.  
I had my first haircut in Moldova-nothing out of the ordinary.  
My host mother refused to let me leave the house today with only ⅔ blow-dried hair.  She herself took out the blow dryer and made sure I finished the job.  
I’m getting over some type of cold that’s left me exhausted all week.
I’ve been happy to chat with a few friends back home recently.  How refreshing!  I’m thankful for your support and for the chance to catch up.  Technology rocks in Moldova!!!

This weekend, I’m headed to Balti, the largest city in the North, to help teach a Business English seminar with another PC volunteer to some eager college students who are in an organization called AISEC.  Should be fun!