For the past two years, my village has held a Peach Festival, to promote the peach growers in the region and to promote the area as a place for tourism. This event was the idea of one of my partners, Dorina. She is amazing entrepreneur and through a team of volunteers, this event continues to … More Preparing for the Peach Festival
The Unity Community Center ran a two week summer camp for 25 students and had 8 youths volunteer during the camp. There were great activities everyday and I am really grateful that I work with some amazing women at the center. Ludmila, Liliana and Viorica are in the first photo with hand painted “Unitate” branded … More Unitate Summer Camp
As part of the grant for the summer camp, we were able to purchase some furniture for the center. The ordering of the furniture was an interesting process for me. Moldova does not have the large warehouse type stores like Ikea, Costco Office Max, etc. so you can not just go to the store and … More Preparing for Summer Camp
In the beginning of 2018, Liliana and I started talking about what project could use additional funds to improve the already great services that the Unity Community Center provides. We discussed the idea of improving the summer camp that the center had produced for the last two years and how that could be enhanced in … More Grant Writing and Creating a Better Summer Camp
There is a chart for Peace Corps service that talks about the sweet spot of the intersection of the country priorities, the local community priorities/resources and the volunteers skill set. For me, this spot is with technology and digital communications. I love technology and thinking about the future. I follow futurist thinkers, I enjoy reading … More Creating a Tech Club
My consumption of products with packaging has greatly reduced being in Moldova; however, there is a wonderful candy manufacturer in Moldova and I have consumed a great quantity of their candy. I started saving the wrappers as a) I hate throwing things away and b) they have beautiful colors and sometimes shapes on the wrappers. … More Games and Crafting in Winter
Santa (Mos Craciun) visited the school and Unity Community Center in December. Such joy displayed while running under and crawling through fabric, playing follow the leader on a path of Christmas objects and receiving gifts. a few of my favorite photos.
In November and December, we had several celebrations at the center. We first celebrated Unitate’s birthday. (La Mulți Ani!) At the celebration, a month was called out and everyone with a birthday in that month went to the middle of the room and received a balloon. They also played a game in which a contestant … More Celebrations at Unitate
One of the activities that almost all Peace Corps volunteers do is to help with learning English. It can mean running an English club or holding workshops in English. At Unitate , I assist with English at the center for grades 1-5. I help with homework and on Fridays we have English Hour. We play … More Practicing English at Unitate
December 3rd was International Day of Persons with Disabilities. At Unity Community Center (Unitate) my co-workers put together an interactive workshop to discuss the rights of children with disabilities. Parents, teachers, grandparents, and of course the wonderful children of the center attended. There are children at the center that have mental and physical disabilities as part … More 2017 International Day of Persons with Disabilities
