My site.

We are almost half way through with PST - pre service training. Yesterday was a big day, because we received our site placements. I was assigned to the village Zgurita. Beginning August 9, following pre service training, I'll be living with a host mom in Zgurita for two years. From site history reports of previous volunteers, I have learned that Zgurita has about 3,500 villagers. The village is like many others in Moldova, in that agriculture employs the majority of local economic interests; apples, corn, potatoes, and watermelon are the most common crops. There are three neighborhoods in the village: the center is mainly Russian-speaking, the western end is mainly Romanian-speaking, and the southern end is a Ukranian community.

I am assigned to work with ONG Fortuna, a humanitarian aid and development organization, and ACSA, an agriculture extension agency. It will be a while before I know what kind of projects I can initiate in the village, but I'm sure there's a lot I can do for small business (predominately farmers), community infrastructure, and with youth development. When I become a Volunteer, I am expecting to focus on my primary job first, which is Agribusiness and Rural Development, but I'll have lots of time to work on secondary projects. I'll most likely focus most of secondary projects on working with kids.


The Peace Corps staff drew a map of Moldova with sidewalk chalk, then they placed our chairs where each trainee would be placed for the remaining two years. It was pretty intense, because we had no idea where anyone was going.


Some of my fellow trainees and friends anxiously waiting for their name to be called for site placement.