Week 4 of PST.....

Hello All!

I just finished with week four and all is good still.  A lot has happen since I last wrote and let me see if I can catch you all up….

All the current volunteers and trainees (that’s me) attended the 4^th of July party in Chisinau and had a great time.  We partook in Moldovan style hamburgers and hot dogs, which were quite marvelous and plenty of Moldovan wine, which was also very tasty.  The trainees were ushered home before dark so we could make it home before curfew.  Next year when we are ‘grown’ ups we will get to attend the party longer… and we are all looking forward to that day! 

Other major mild stones have happened in the past week that are worth mentioning.  We received our 1^st program assessment; our 1^st language assessment and we also received our 2-year assignment, which included our partner NGO/Mayor and host family information.  After studying Romanian day after day for only 3 ½ weeks and fretting over how well I would do I can that I passed my 1^st language assessment.  Even one of my instructors was amazed at how well I did.  I also passed my COD assessment, along with my entire fellow PSTs (who also passed their language assessments).  In the middle of all this studying and worrying we received our 2-year assignments. 

I will be in the small village, which have about 2400 people, which is the official population on paper.  There are usually fractions of that due to the high number of people that are working abroad and sending back remittances.  The village is in the southeast of Moldova very close to the Ukrainian boarder.  I am the only volunteer that has been assigned in the village and I will be the only volunteer that is that far southeast.  My other PSTs are scattered around the country and we have vowed to visit each other and my saving grace is that you have to pass through my village to get to Odesa!  The NGO that I will be working for is actually a organization that is funded an American NGO called Keystone International and here is their web site:

http://www.keystonehumanservices.org/khsi/moldova/

I will be working with the Centrul Comunitar Unitate, which is the Community Center that they run.  I think I have been placed well and I am excited to meet my new partner tomorrow.  Which I am not sure I mentioned, but all the PSTs leave tomorrow morning to meet their new partners and host families!  We are all traveling alone to our new sites and meeting our partners and staying with our new host families for the next couple of days.  We are all very nervous to partake on this adventure alone.  We have been treated like 5 year olds for the last few weeks and now all of sudden we are 18 years of age and forced to leave home on our own!  I am sure that we will all be fine and get to our final destinations without too much misadventure, the PC assures us that they have never ‘lost’ anyone in this part of the training.  That is only slightly assuring! 

Another excited thing happened this week beyond the above life changing items; I had the opportunity to meet the wonderful people that run the YMCA office here in Chisinau.  They are a small operation that works with orphans and youth that have been imprisoned.  They are eager to work with the PC and me.  I am hoping that this is the start of a 2^nd project that I can do while I am here for the next 2 years.  So if anyone from Y International is reading this – I will be calling/emailing soon!!

Well, I must be going now.  I have to get some sleep before heading out in the morning to Tudora.  I have a 3-4 hour mini-bus ride ahead of me.  Meeting a new partner, see my new place of work and meeting new host family and seeing my new house!  Not a big day at all!

 

Hope you are all well and take care!!!

Here are more pictures on Facebook for you all to look at....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=108073&id=569816376&l=cddf6c0f54

 

Love~

 

JJ

Disclaimer:   The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.