Winter = Iarna in Romanian

Enjoy! Work is good, got to get back there!
Drew

I will try and write more often

Buna Seara,

Normalcy has entered my life finally, and I have begun a rather nice routine. All of my qualms I once had with work have been put behind me, and I am excited to head to work each day. Over the last two weeks I have been working to automate a contract writing process for my NGO, and to smooth office procedures. (We have a 400 person organization base that borrow short-term micro loans each year.) Everything I am helping with and teaching are transferable skills that I am hoping they will have a lasting effect. Also, it feels kind of good to actually walk to the office everyday with laptop bag in one hand, and tea or latte (latte in Moldova = whole milk from cow boiled till foamed, then add instant coffee) in a thermos in the other hand.

More interestingly, I just finished a questionnaire that I need to give to the 200+ students at the local school about the possibility of starting an open-gym program or an after school club. The holiday season allowed me to meet many people here, and I saw the need when I too myself couldn’t use the village’s gymnasium to play basketball. I am getting a little grief from the school director at this point about liability of opening the gym, but many other volunteers have similar programs, and thus I think I am going to be able to figure out the logistics soon.

Last weekend I spent in the capital Chişinău for an IST (In-Service Training) on language. You all should be happy to hear I am progressing at a much more rapid pace than some of my peers, not that it is a race though! My professor attributed my faster than usual acquisition to my integration into my village. In other words, I like to have a glass of wine with the locals every once in a while and thus I am practicing more than some of the other volunteers! The weekend was a blast, and tons of volunteers from other programs came in and we had a nice time in the capital. We also were granted some unseasonably warm weather, which was a great change from New Years where all of Chişinău was basically an ice rink.

I now have a Romanian tutor for two or three days a week in a neighboring village, and we are working together very nicely. All the other volunteers told us language would start to click after about month five here, and they were correct. I have been invited to parties in the new village of my tutor already, so it is going to be nice to make contacts in another part of Moldova.

The only other things keeping me busy here is a school in Batavia IL (Katy Kennedy’s Class), where I am corresponding with every few weeks about my experience here in Moldova

Lastly, yea! I am going to be on vacation in six weeks. Well deserved.

Take Care All,

Drew