Lest you think the American taxpayer is funding a 2 year vacation for this Peace Corps Volunteer, let me assure you that I am, indeed, doing some work. Sort of.
As I’ve mentioned before, it takes time to get settled in to life here, and PC staff and other Volunteers constantly remind us to be patient, take our time, integrate into the community, and they say that most folks feel like they actually do something in their second year. TEFLs and Health Ed folks have a clearer job description, that is, to be teachers, so they hit their sites with a schedule, a classroom, some lesson plans, and they get to work right away. EODs and Ags have less definition to our jobs, and rely much more heavily, at least in the beginning, on our Moldovan counterparts to provide structure and work. Some PCVs have already found that, with offices or schools to go to everyday.
I’m told we’ll have some space in the Primaria eventually out of which Donna Mikhailovna and I will work, but in the mean time, I don’t have a particular place, a desk or an office as a locus for my time. I’m fine with that, I kind of enjoy so far the freedom I am afforded by not having to report to a particular place at a particular time. For now, I’ve met a few times with D.M. at the Primaria, but as she is still engaged as the temporary Secretary, we haven’t had time to sit and chat too much. We’ve discussed some upcoming projects as well as ideas for other activities, we attended a conference together (see below), and this weekend will be a journalism seminar coordinated by a youth organization. The teenagers are planning it pretty much all themselves, but I’m going to begin putting to use all those doodads I brought with me (the HUNDREDS of pens, pencils, markers, etc. that folks gave me before I left), and we will give each participant a “gift pack” for attending.
As I’ve mentioned before, PCVs are Volunteers for the entire community, not just for the specific organization where the Moldovan counterpart works. Thus, I am using my time right now to meet various people in the village. For example, I’ve met with the Vice Principal of one of the village schools, the Principal of another school, the Director of the Music College, and, of course, the librarians. As I’ve mentioned before, I attended the “Disability Awareness Day” celebration and met with that group of parents. I’ve also made the acquaintance of Natasha, the Vice President of the Parents’ Association for one of the schools. In fact, we both attended a presentation in Taraclia a couple weeks ago about the Moldovan Citizen Participation Program (CPP), which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and administered by the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX). This past weekend, Natasha, Donna Mikhailovna and I attended the “First Annual Conference of National Minority NGO’s in Moldova,” which brought together representatives from 20-some different NGO’s serving minority populations, namely Gagauzians and Bulgarians in southern Moldova. Donna Mikhailovna was elected to the planning committee for next year’s conference, so I expect to be involved with that in the future, as well.
I’m definitely finding work, or maybe I should say work is starting to find me. The librarians noticed that I often have my digital camera with me, and they asked me to take some photos for their web site (http://www.tvarditsa-library.narod.ru; they’re not posted yet, but I’ll let you know when we get them up!). As we looked through their web site, I noticed the English wasn’t quite as, shall we say, “polished”, as it could be and offered to clean it up a bit for them. That’s turning out to be harder than I had thought at first, but it’s interesting work. I also took my first stab at translating a contest announcement into Russian, which was a good exercise, and with the help of my tutor, turned out pretty decent. My tutor had it typed up at her school, and distributed copies to all the schools in the village (it’s a poster contest for Moldovan youth to submit original art projects on the theme of anti-violence; winners will be displayed in a traveling exhibition throughout Moldova in the spring). Today, during my lesson with my tutor, she mentioned an idea she has for a project at the school, and we started to talk about how to go about the project, find funding, etc. I gave her a Moldovan Citizen Participation Project flyer I’d picked up at the conference over the weekend, and she’s going to call for more information and we may apply for one of their small grants.
As I said, work is finding me. That’s the nature of EOD work, at least for many PCV’s. It’s not always very defined or clear at first, but when you “belong” to an entire community, someone is bound to have something you can help with. Many PCVs (EODs, TEFLs, Ags, and Health Eds) get involved with Model UN, summer camps, English Clubs, and other such activities. I’m resisting the urge to get involved with all kinds of activities right away, as so many of them sound interesting to me. Tvarditsa is an active community, with many energetic, enthusiastic people. I have some ideas for projects that interest me, but I also tell every person that I meet that I am here to help the people of Tvarditsa with their goals, with their ideas and their projects. I can always find work for myself, but I am happy that work is finding me. I think I won’t be bored here!
Anka in Kyiv 