- 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.
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