Unwilling to be disappointed

With the planning complete, my guides to working with youth thoroughly adorned in sticky notes, and diplomas for participation printed by my colleague, I headed south this week to help two fellow volunteers facilitate a youth experience exchange.

For the youth from these two villages, we planned an exchange that would quite intentionally direct them to clear action plans in the projects they have already selected. One group has a problem, but is seeking an appropriate solution. The other has a solution that needs to be fine-tuned for optimum success and sustainability. By mixing the groups and conducting two separate activities (one for each of the respective projects, in their respective stages of development), we hoped to expose both groups to tools appropriate for both needs. And finally, end the evening with a small disco-tech, as requested by all the involved parties.

The hour before we were to depart from one village to the other, I quickly lost track of the number of phone calls my colleague, Zach, was fielding. Partner teacher. School director. Bus driver. Youth. Until finally, despite our best intentions, we had to resign to the decision by the school district to cancel all extracurricular activities in the region due to the poor weather conditions (something Zach and I had been ignoring all day, unwilling to admit that the event might be in danger).

We allowed ourselves a few moments of despair, but I absolutely refuse to be disappointed about this site-visit. And the youth exchange WILL happen shortly after the holidays.

Zach is a volunteer in the Health Education in Schools and Communities program. This means his program manager assigned him to partners at both the school and local health center. In Zach's first six months at site, he's also began working with partners at the social cantina, a kind of soup kitchen for elderly members of the community. I learned so much about the Peace Corps experience of my health education colleagues by spending this day and a half in his village. I think they have the best of both worlds: a set schedule and routine at the school, plus flexibility to build capacity and meet the needs of the communities through the health centers.

For more on what it means to be a health education volunteer in Peace Corps Moldova, check out part one and part two of Zach's recent discussion on this.

Winter Work

Beautiful shots like this really are a part of winter. Despite the cold, it's almost always post-card perfect during a Moldovan winter.

Work life can be a little more difficult in winter, January is packed with holidays, offices like mine are cold, and because it gets dark so early, we go home much earlier. As such, I made a list of the major projects I'm planning to tackle this winter. I freely encourage your questions as to how they progress.

[+] Children's center programming: In my town, there is a center for children whose families are not able to care for them. The children aren't orphans, per say, because the idea is that after a few months the children can move back home. My sitemate and I are going to spend some time getting to know this center's ins-and-outs. After doing a bit of research on similar centers, my hypothesis is that this center isolates these kids from the rest of the community. After doing some investigating, my sitemate and I are seriously interested in helping them initiate a peer mentor program (think big brothers/big sisters) with other youth in the community. 

[+] Defining the role of youth service providers: Another service provider was added to the mix this week. The phone call I received this week went something like this: "Hello, is your name Melissa? I am the new director of the youth center. When can you come show me around the center?"

[+] Spreading youth council goodness: This comes in many parts. Next week, I travel down south to help two volunteers facilitate an "experience exchange" between their two youth groups. For as much as I travel to this southeastern district, I'd say soon the bus drivers and I will be on a pretty solid acquaintance. In January, a few other volunteers are coming to my site to observe our youth council elections. After that, I'll head to another youth group in central Moldova (hopefully with some of my volunteers), to continue spreading the benefits of volunteerism.

[+] Reading good books, drinking hot wine, and and attending lots and lots of holiday parties....

Patience is a ...

Well, winter isn't giving up over here. It snowed last night---again. But as much as my host Mom and I laugh and lament about the drawn out winter, there was a day last week where I succeeded to wash and dry my clothes in one day. So I will let spring and summer duke it out a bit longer, the real goal here is get to my vacation in May.

If you haven't heard yet, I'm headed to Greece for a solid two weeks. I managed to plan overnight transportation for about a third of that, so I anticipate a slightly exhausting, yet budget smart trip of a lifetime!

When I went to Prague, I all too easily fell into the role of tourist, didn't learn one word of Czech. This trip, though, I think I'll be a bit more prepared. I downloaded some quick Greek lessons from itunes to get me through the typical meal in a restaurant, the common courtesy stuff, etc. Most of all, I can't wait to get a tan. Come to think of it, I think I have wrote about this on the blog, sorry for the repeat, I'm just too excited!

At work, my hands are in a dozen little things right now, just waiting for one to catch. Speaking of which...my phone just rang and I guess I have a meeting with the youth council in 30 minutes. Since I live 30 minutes away, I better get a move on!

Colleague Spotlight

Click on here to check out the great photos from one of my colleagues in the Agriculture and Rural Business Development program. Neal did a great job capturing what Moldovans refer to as those "sun with teeth days." That's when the sun is out, but you are freezing because well, it's "iarna deverata acuma."