Why Peace Corps Moldova?

   Bună ziua! Eu sunt John şi sunt American dar sunt în Moldova. Eu am o soţie frumoasă! This is about the extent of my Romanian learning after ten days in Moldova. (translated: Good day! I am John and I am American but I am in Moldova. I have a beautiful wife!)

   I can't write about Moldova without writing about the Peace Corps. I know so many of you have already read Shelbi's excellent explanations of her experience, so please forgive me for repeating anything she has previously communicated. We are trying to correlate this joint blog, so stay tuned.
   This entry explains a little bit of the Peace Corps' expectations for us while we are here. It tries to explain why we chose to embark on this quest, specifically with the Peace Corps and in Moldova. I also comment on the Peace Corps trainings so far. 


   Our volunteering as per U.S. Peace Corps: we are currently "trainees" working through a three-month-long PST or "Pre-Service Training" time in which we learn Romanian every morning Monday through Saturday and get coached on how to perform the technical aspects of our "jobs" in the afternoons Monday through Friday. We have Sundays completely off. 
   Shelbi is an "HE" or Health Education specialists (they're nicknamed "Healthies"). I am an "EE" or English Education specialist. Although in training now, come the end of August we (hopefully) will be sworn in as official Peace Corps "Volunteers."
   What is an "HE" or "EE" expected to accomplish? I'm glad you inquired. We are expected to stay in Moldova at a site chosen by the Peace Corps staff and unbeknown to us. We will "volunteer" there for two years.
   Shelbi is expected to work with a school and co-teach classes about health and sanitation. She will teach using her currently developing Romanian skills. I am expected to also work with co-teachers of different grades (or "forms" in Moldova), but I will be teaching English. Luckily, I can use much more English in my classes. We both may have students from late elementary level to twelfth grade. It is quite a span, and the skill levels of our students in our subjects, we are told, varies immensely.
   The standards for Peace Corps are very high. We are now being oriented to various objectives and competencies we are expected to live by and report by during the next two years, but already I get a sense of the thorough approach of the Peace Corps. I have been pleasantly surprised by the reflective nature of the programs and trainings. The language classes have self and professor evaluations as well as scheduled feedback built in. The strategies and teaching methods are varied, practical, and effective. My English technical classes have been developed during the last 19 years (length of time Peace Corps has been active in Moldova) by former volunteers. It continues to undergo changes and is clearly part of an evolving process. These characteristics have helped me "buy-in" much quicker than if the program was less reflective.

   I've already written plenty but I feel as though I haven't scratched the surface. I suppose my approach is to systematically explain our experience from the ground up and unfortunately these thoughts haven't even left the ground. I wanted to give you an idea of the Peace Corps and what was expected. I haven't even mentioned the beauties of Moldovan culture. I suppose my counterpart wife has already written up some excellent observations and expressive interactions regarding that topic. I will mention Peace Corps' main goals (and our main goals by extension). I summarized them into these three:
     -to improve the lives of Moldovans through education, community development and leadership, and 
             projects enabling Moldovans to sustain healthy changes
     -to promote better understanding of Americans on the part of Moldovans
     -to promote better understanding of Moldovans on the part of Americans

   Why did we choose to join the Peace Corps, and why did we come to Moldova?
These are very applicable questions, and I'm glad I'm going to answer them only after ten days' work with the Peace Corps in Moldova (it will be interesting to reread this in a few months or even a year). Honestly, right about now we are asking ourselves the same questions. We are doubting our choice, because it is very difficult and some situations are uncomfortable. To give you a brief idea: at a Peace Corps event on Friday they were conducting an ice breaker. Everyone who agreed with a sentence would move to one side of the park path. After a few sentences, the leader said, "If you've talked about going to the bathroom more in the last week than in the last ten years of you life, move to the far side of the path." Most people, myself included, moved. (Shelbi, being the thoroughly investigative nurse that she has been, stayed put.) The bathroom example is nearly harmless, but demonstrates that we have had to talk about things and challenge ourselves in ways we didn't think about when making the decision to come.

   Shelbi and I have been married for two years. During the time we dated and after we were married we wanted to serve people in fundamental ways. We are convicted by our faith in Jesus Christ and by his example of servitude that we can make a difference in people's lives. We have talked about going abroad and seeing some parts of the world and living with the people so we can get to know the people and share life with them. In January and February of 2011 we realized that we would be debt-free within a year and the reality of quitting our jobs hit us. Due to the instability of international travel and unknown circumstances, we wanted to start this journey before having our own children. Simply put: the timing was right. Shelbi began researching programs and we discussed options. I don't know how we stumbled onto the Peace Corps' website, but after reading the goals of the program, we decided we could definitely work with those objectives. The application process was long and arduous, but the rigor of the interviews and medical assessments reassured us that not only would the Peace Corps take good care of us, but such a thorough program would doubtlessly give us the structure and training we might need to make sustainable and informed interactions.

   Working with goals like "improve the world" are ambiguous and unclear. In ten days Peace Corps Moldova has reassured me that some goals can be objective and measurable. I hope during the next two years you get an idea of those measurable accomplishments, but I think through this blog we will also communicate some of the incalculable ways we change and ways we see change.
   In early conversations Shelbi told a PC recruiter that our occupations were nursing and teaching English. The recruiter excitedly replied that we would be easily placed. When we received our official PC invitation to Moldova, I can remember our reaction vividly. We actually took a picture of the event. We opened the letter, read the formalities, and got to "Moldova" which we both said in unison. At that point the excitement stalled, we looked at each other, and we asked in unison, "Where's Moldova?"
   After some research and learning some fun facts (Moldovans supposedly drink more alcohol annually per capita than any other country; Moldova was formerly part of the Soviet Union; Moldova is the size of West Virginia... etc) we decided that we would go to this little Eastern European country to experience life and offer what services we could.
   In ten days I've not come to many conclusions. Moldovans are almost as varied as Americans and their needs share the extremity of their variances. Those are a lot of words to say: I can't tell you exactly who we'll be working with and how we'll be "changing lives." I can tell you it's a beautiful country and the culture is deep. Pray for us. Pray for Moldovans. Pray for Americans. I love you.

Moldovan flag

 For more geopolitical information about Moldovan history and its recent situation as written by a third-party analyst, visit the following website. This site does not represent views of the U.S. or Peace Corps, nor does it reflect any given Moldovan perspective or our perspective.
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20101118_geopolitical_journey_part_4_moldova