I may be in another commercial, this time for
the Peace Corps! Two PC staff members
from Washington DC were on an official tour of Moldova, visiting with selected
PCVs to build a portfolio of videos and photos capturing their stories about
their experiences. The duo were Sarah
and Juan Carlos of the communications department, the former a writer/reporter
and the latter a graphics designer/photographer. Their charge was to interview the group of
PCVs who represented the diverse spectrum of volunteers serving throughout the
world. Other teams were going to
South/Central America, and to Africa.
Sarah and Juan Carlos were visiting Moldova and Ukraine. I was asked to participate because I’m an
older, Asian-American volunteer. The
episode reminded me of the other promotional article that appeared in
ActiveOver50 in which I was featured. (Hey
Larry!).
They asked to meet me at my new apartment after
work, and only gave me a few hours notice.
I notified Emilia to make sure their visit to the apartment would be OK,
and she assented but was concerned about the look of the place and raced
through the rooms cleaning up.
Fortunately, I left work early and was able to help her with tidying up
(although her home is pretty spotless to begin with). Because the crew would be filming, and
adequate lighting would be essential since it was now darker at night, we also
put higher wattage bulbs in the living room (my bedroom) to ensure good
illumination. Emilia also hurried
outside to the market because as the perfect hostess that she is, she insisted
on serving the guests tea, cookies, small cakes, and bomboane (candies). I tried to get her not to fuss, that the
Americans wouldn’t expect anything like that.
However, this is a Moldovan custom to always serve refreshments to
guests. Emilia was so thoughtful – she
got out the good tea set and chinaware.
I made sure that Sarah and Juan Carlos gave Emilia her due because she
had gone to so much effort to demonstrate her hospitality. And they were heartily pleased that they took
lots of photos of the beautifully set table along with those of Emilia and
me. Needless to say, Emilia was
delighted! Now I think she thinks I’m
important!
Now back to the interview….. After tea, I was interviewed for almost two
hours sitting in a stiff chair with the camera focused on me. Juan Carlos had very heavy, professional
level equipment much like TV road crews have.
Sarah barraged me with questions sitting off-camera. I can’t say that I was particularly witty or
insightful, but just gave them candid responses on the spot.
This morning, they met me at the office early to
take some short videos and photos of me with my co-workers. Originally they had wanted to take videos
around certain scenic spots around Balti which would likely be areas around the
piata and main square. However, they had
changed their minds the previous night and asked if we could all come in around
8 AM for the shoot. I really didn’t think
that Olga and Dragos would be able to make it that early but after I called
them, they voiced willingness to do so.
Perhaps the chance of having your photos used for Peace Corps publicity
intrigued them. The crew shot a lot of
photos with the three of us around the office and outside. Tatiana unfortunately was working in Chisinau
(and has been for several weeks), and wasn’t a part of the experience. She had however wanted to make sure that the
office was tidied up and clean!
5 November
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| Anna, school mistress |
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| Me with the intermediate English class |
HR Workshop
After much anticipation and preparation, I led a
5-hour workshop on human resources management for several beneficiaries of
AFA. They had been budding entrepreneurs
when AFA gave them the resources, training, and support they needed to launch
their businesses along with small grants for equipment purchases from a funding
foundation. These sole proprietors have
become reasonable successful, and now they employ people (from 1 to 8 were
represented). Along with managing
customers, they had to likewise manage employees, which they lack some basic
knowledge and tools to effectively execute.
I was there to help them!
After this training experience, however, I truly
learned what attitudes and norms the locals subscribe to when dealing with meetings. Notices were not sent out by AFA; instead
calls are made to the beneficiaries to announce the training and solicit their
participation. The training is free but
information was pushed out to only a small group of beneficiaries. About 12-15 people said they would come, and
I even pushed the start time back from 9 to 10 AM which would allow folks from
villages adequate time to get to Balti.
(Villages are close distance-wise, but the roads are terrible and
traffic can easily build up.
Nonetheless, people should still plan better when they know they need to
be somewhere by a certain time.) The
overall duration of the training was from 10 AM to about 4:30 PM.
I arrived early at the training room, and we got
ourselves set up, ready to go. One
participant Svetlana showed up a little early.
As for the rest, we waited ….. waited…..
waited. Two people came about
10:30, another man came 10 minutes later.
I finally said we would start at 10:45 because the one woman who had
been waiting for almost an hour deserved to get trained! One man arrived after 2 PM! It is odd that Moldovans believe they can pop
in at any time and feel they got trained. I know Dragos had been calling the
no-shows starting around 10 and they either gave an excuse that they couldn’t
make it, or they said they would be there as soon as they could get away. Granted they were at their businesses and
being the owners, they have some reluctance to leave their business exposed, so
to speak. But we do these trainings for
their benefit. If the issues they are
having with their employees are of paramount importance, the knowledge and
tools they would gain in the training will improve their work environment and
possibly their productivity, which enhances their business. Small business owners continue to think and
operate for the short-term and not strategically.
The other issue is a universal one – people are
very tied to their cell phones. I
expressly stated that cell phones were to be turned off and if they needed to
talk on the phone in an emergency situation, to take the call outside of the
room. One latecomer who wasn’t present
during my instructions took a phone call and I pointed to the door when she
started talking. She left. During class, she proceeded to text quite
often, clearly not engaged with the workshop content.
8 November
REGIONAL FORUM FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
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| Sofia, Excutive Director of Winrock, and Tatiana, President of AFA |
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| Participants at the Regional Forum of Young Entrepreneurs |
We held the forum at one of the fanciest restaurants in Balti – the President. Actually, it is more of a banquet hall where wedding receptions and other municipal affairs are held. The place was well appointed and stately, with high-quality technical arrangements for the presentation and slideshow. Olga and Dragos were the key staff who coordinated the logistics and other arrangements for the event. Over 60 people attended throughout the northern region, including leaders from a couple of raion centers, the head of the city’s employment bureau, and the Director of Winrock International. The affair was even covered by the mass media as at least 4 journalists attended and took photos and videos. The key notes were given by various dignitaries but the main speakers were the entrepreneurs themselves – about 12 of them who talked about the importance of the training that was provided to them by AFA, the associations they made with their fellow business owners from whom they exchanged ideas, and the integration with the community along with the educational institutions in order to keep themselves sustained.
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| Add caption |
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| I'm usually by the food! |
Each beneficiary who attended represented a business, and each put up an apple on the tree to signify growth and prosperity for their future.
The most delicious array of refreshments were brought out for the attendees from Fourchette, and served by the President Restaurant's staff. So much food was left over that AFA and Winrock took lots of doggie bags back to their offices!
15 November
EcoSan Waterless Toilets
Yes, the subject switches back to outhouses. I'm thankful that I have an indoor toilet especially in the colder months. But even indoor toilets may not be very well maintained - for example, the one at our office doesn't have a seat and requires constant cleaning. But in the villages, conditions can be quite horrendous.
Here’s a very worthwhile project in a rural area
of Moldova. The school site in this
small village of Tintareni has sanitation
problems because of decaying toilet facilities and they’re trying to raise
money to replace them with an eco-style toilet. The story is compelling and if it tugs at your
heart strings (and your purse strings), please consider a donation so this school can
achieve their modest goal. You’ll be
helping children reach a healthier situation allowing them to concentrate on their
education.
Having a functioning, sanitary toilet is
something we take for granted but never so in Moldova as you might guess from
the above. I saw this video about
thanking your toilet, and honestly, I certainly do here in my Balti apartment,
compared to the outhouse I had been using in Ciorescu. http://now.msn.com/world-toilet-day-explained-by-singing-toilet
Salut Balti!
Today, Nov 17, I spent most of the day assisting
other PCVs and community leaders training about 30 high schoolers who are
launching into volunteerism in Balti.
It’s a city initiative (Salut Balti) to promote volunteering especially among young
people. Volunteerism isn’t something
that’s part of the Moldovan culture – they don’t quite understand why people
would help others and not get something back.
With the stream of PCVs that have flowed through Moldova, people have
begun to see what volunteering can accomplish and that it has its own
rewards. Balti wants to get young people
involved early so they can realize the fruits of volunteering and carry it on
throughout their lives. Not
surprisingly, more girls were involved than boys but quite a few of the boys
showed leadership capabilities.
This particular day was spent on team building
through various games to build up trust and confidence, identifying what
attributes good teams have, and what bad teams have as shortcomings. It was a grand OD exercise in group behavior.
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| The MBTI team and David |
Another session focused on the students' different personality styles - yes, they took the MBTI questionnaire, and then we went through the interpretations of their ratings with them. Most of these teenagers were extroverts for sure, most also intuitive. They were very engaged in uncovering what traits they had, and of course, what others had. They learned a lot about how to deal with different personality types so that both they and others can collaborate and win.
David and Leah (to the right), along with Matt were the key PCVs who organized the full program.
23 November
Curious factoid:
Why do the vast majority of female names in Moldova end in “a”??? Practically all the females I’ve met have names that conform --- Tatiana, Liliana, Ina, Olga, Svetlana, Diana, Ana,
Iuliana, Iulia, Viktoria, Zina, Elena, Angela, Emilia, Irina, Sofia, Valentina,
Tanea (Tanya, Tania), Natasha, Nadia, Natalya, Alexandra, Tereza, Ludmila,
Liuba, Magdalena, Carolina, Olesea, Aurelia, Georgeta, Viorica, Vera, Elvira,
Lucia, Violeta, Cristina, Felicia, Nina (all of the local women who work at the PC
office are on this list).
All names end in “a”. From Google
searches, men’s names by and large end in consonants, never in “a”.
Nov 26-27 featured this forum with over 80
guests including some of the best of the young beneficiaries along with leaders
and representatives of NGOs, funding organizations, academic institutions,
national and regional agencies and ministries, and me! I was the only American there. They came from Cahul, Soroca, Telenesti,
Hincesti, as well as Balti and Soroca.
Our Association’s contingent from the northern regions numbered about
20, the largest representation, and seemingly the most successful thus
far. We were very proud of how far our
beneficiaries have progressed, and they had a voice at the meeting.
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| Four of Balti region's successful entrepreneurs |
The event was well arranged in the Hotel Codru’s
large ballroom, lots of PowerPoint decks, few handouts (nice!), and outstanding
refreshments and meals (Moldovans always have plenty of this). The format was primarily a lot of speakers
presenting their information to the sponsors, and the meeting structure was not
conducive to in-depth discussions and debates.
Most of the speakers spoke Romanian but there were a handful that only
spoke Russian and their slides reflected that.
I obviously could not understand any of their materials but I was able
to follow along for a good part of the Romanian presentations. I am still far away from being able to
converse in the language let alone having an intelligent discussion on a
business topic, but slowly there has been improvement in my understanding and
speech.
28 November
Thanksgiving in Balti
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| Thanksgiving at Matt and David's |
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| David and Matt frying the turkeys |
About 22 PCVs and other local Moldovans feasted on turkey and the fixings on Saturday, Nov 30, to celebrate our version of Thanksgiving. Some of us worked on the actual holiday (me!). Two turkeys were deep fried in an outdoor pit (which might have been against the law). Cooking had gone on for two whole days at least. There was so much food!! Of course, loads to drink with many home-brewed (ginger ale, cherry mead, ginger beer, host families' wines, cognac, etc.). It was a stuffin' evening!
30 November
Stay tuned to the next narrative of my Moldovan adventure..... Barbara
