The last two months have flown by, just like my entire service thus far. I began the new year with a trip to the mountains of Romania. My almost site mate, Philip, and I joined a
bus-full of Moldovans for 4 days. We
enjoyed lovely accommodations, some skiing, castle touring (including
Dracula's!), new friend-making, and pleasant dining. I came back to my host family's Christmas
celebration, which was pretty tame but continued for about a number of
days. After all of that rest and
celebration, I was ready to get back to work on all the projects I had left
behind before the holidays. When I say
projects, one may wander what exactly that means but hopefully this post will
give you some idea of "projects" that I'm working on currently.
Project Design and
Management Training
At the beginning of
February, my program had a Project Design and Management (PDM) Training. I brought with me to the training my
secondary partner, Svetlana, who teaches English and German through her
non-profit that focuses on cross-cultural dialogue and exposure. Svetlana has a passion to develop youth and
youth opportunities in Causeni, much like I do.
Thus, we are working on a project proposal that offers the opportunity
to develop a handful or two of youth as leaders through non-formal
education. We hope to train these
leaders, which will be from my town as well as from surrounding villages. These leaders will then lead their peers in
fun, interactive activities that focus on such topics as leadership,
relationships, communication, volunteering, self esteem, etc. It's a vague proposal as of now, but the need
is there. Many kids especially in
villages have very few opportunities, and this program would allow them once a
week to have fun and gain some new skills.
Language
After the PDM
Training, we had two days of language training, which was actually quite
enjoyable. I've been enjoying how words,
whole sentences, even whole thoughts can roll off my tongue rather smoothly
these days! I can never catch quite
everything people are saying around me, but my language has improved
significantly. Case in point: I visited my PST host family from last summer
also in January, and this time I could hold entire conversations with my
loquacious host mother. My listening
skills pick up a lot more (including what is Moldovan talk and what is
Romanian), and I can respond as well (with the Moldovan dialect for kicks and giggles
or in clean Romanian)! Here's a
comparison between the Moldovan dialect I speak of and clean Romanian:
Some
Moldovans speaking Moldovenește
might say, "Aș șiba mai ghini așa."
Whereas
Moldovans speaking clean Romanian say, " Aș fi mai bine așa."
I should probably
voice record the difference. It took a
few months for me to get it.
GLOW/TOBE Training &
Prom (and planning for the next training)
After that training,
I had a couple weeks to prepare for a GLOW/TOBE Training of Trainers. I led our team of directors to put on a fun
and useful training for a few PCVs that want to activate GLOW/TOBE in their
communities. We gave them the tools for
them to effectively train a Moldovan leader to facilitate events that develop
youth and their capabilities to be leaders in the workplace, community, and
home.
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| We GLOW/TOBE folks know how to make trainings fun. |
For me in Causeni, I
have also been working with a high school English teacher, Elena, on GLOW
events in the future. We have hopes to
have a summer camp for at-risk youth from the villages. We're first focusing on a few workshops with
girls in town on subjects such as self-esteem, leadership, and service. We hope to make a few of them into camp
counselors of sorts. I'm excited to see
where this goes! Having worked two
summers at a camp and growing up going to camps, this is right up my alley!
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| Developing a self-esteem workshop with Elena |
Also last weekend,
we had an epic event: Peace Corps Decades Prom.
The first of its kind in Moldova, it was a huge success. After 2-3 months of winter, most volunteers
can agree they are ready for any pick-me-up's that they can get. The prom was definitely one. Of course, PCVs know how to shine their shoes
(required by all Moldovans in fact) and dance!
Other Updates
ATiP- There are a
few other smaller projects with which I have been engaged. Our ATiP (Anti-Trafficking in Persons)
Initiative has been organizing itself to become a more dynamic and informative
organization. Please like our facebook page! On Valentine's Day, I worked with
that same English teacher, Elena, with her students to promote One BillionRising, a campaign for 1 billion women and men to rise up against violence
against women. It's quite the social
media feat, I must say, and it wasn't much work to participate. Elena also led a lesson on domestic violence
in her class that week.
Color Run- As many
of you may know, I'm a runner. I've
inspired a fellow PCV and her work partner to organize a Color 5k Charity Run
this spring! I will thus be helping them
spread the word about the event and plan a few small logistics for the event.
Moving- One other
rather big update is that a fellow PCV and friend, Lindsey, is moving to
Causeni! She will be working on various
projects, much like I do here, but has a primary partner with a center for
mothers and children coming from poor living situations. It will be a big change for me, too, as I
will be moving out of my host family's house and into an apartment with
Lindsey. I will in fact miss my host
family at times, but I am most definitely looking forward to the independence
and convenience of having a space with only one other American.
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| Host family boys and I |
Aggie work- I haven't spoken much about my primary
partner, and that would be due to the lack of financing the organization has currently and
thus the lack of work there is to do.
In the next few weeks, we will find out whether not the rural extension
agency nationwide receives funding for the next five years. Until then, the work is slow.
Work Travel in Armenia- In only 10 days, I will embark on
a fun adventure to Armenia! I will be
participating in a training there for over a week with Svetlana, my secondary
partner. The training will focus on
working with youth in rural areas of Eastern Europe and the Caucuses
region. I'm really looking forward to
this opportunity, as it will be both fun and productive. I think Svetlana and I will
both learn a lot from it and will have the chance to develop plans to improve our youth
development strategy in Causeni.
Play Time in Italy-
Directly following my time in Armenia, I will spend over a week in Italy with
my best friend from college, Karla. My
mother's words about the trip say it all: "You and Karla should have a lot
of fun. Italy might not be the
same."
When I return to
Moldova on March 23, I'm hoping that spring will have sprung and that the sun
will stay bright and shining for days on end!
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| In preparation for my host dad's birthday, I burned the hairs off recently slaughtered chicken. |
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| Then my host dad gave it a "maneecure". |
