GLOW Day Seminar #1

This is Melissa, a Volunteer in a village near my town who teaches health to middle-schoolers. She invited me out to co-facilitate our first GLOW Day seminar in 2010! GLOW is a worldwide Peace Corps Initiative that stands for Girls Leading Our World. Here in the 'Dova, we've decided to not only offer the traditional one-week summer camp, but also a serious of day seminars to shed a glimpse of light on the curriculum in smaller settings.

As you can see, Melissa's village is swanky. This lake is much larger than most in Moldova, combined with a late breeze, it almost reminds one of a shoreline. Almost. It was so much fun being back in a village where everyone on the street was either one of Melissa's students, former host families, relative of her partner teacher, or neighbor.

Melissa is one of our single living Volunteers. But unlike most who live in apartments in small towns, she literally has a villa. Nice house, huge garden, sun porch, a trusty little alarm system that eats just about anything (see photo). After a great curry dinner that she cooked for us on her soba (fireplace), we got to work planning the GLOW seminar's activities. The next morning we were so glad we spent that hour doing so because we sort of forgot about daylight savings--BIG SHOUT OUT to Jen Flannery here for her text that saved us from being late to our own event!

Six girls from grades seven and eigth came to the seminar where we discussed diversity, leadership, and the correlation between health and beauty. The participants were active, eager, and incredibly fun to listen to. When one of the girls literally said, "Oh, I get it, you have to be healthy before you can be beautiful" I almost did a personal equivalent to the touchdown dance. The best Sunday morning I've spent in Moldova yet.

I also really appreciated Melissa's invitation to co-facilitate the seminar for the sake of my language development. Volunteers from different programs have different sets of technical vocabulary and I learned quite a few new things just simply listening to her. I can't wait to do more of these seminars around my district and look forward to the summer camp in August!