Strengthening sports in the community

Two months ago the East European foundation, a subdivision of Eurasia foundation, partnered with the Moldovan Parliament to launch a grant competition called "Parteneriatul pentru copii", or the Partnership for Children. Both groups recognized that Moldova's youth was severely lacking in development opportunities and the childrens' free time was not be supported through community efforts. This is especially true in rural areas of Moldova, so their grant competition focused on improving recreational facilities in rural areas.

When I first arrived in Zgurita, one of the first thing I noticed was the lack of activities available for kids. I saw a lot of bars around, but no gymnasium, auditorium, cultural center, etc. There were two old basketball goals that were 30 years old left over from the Soviet days, but they were both leaning and broken. When you look at the basketball goal today, you can see the ground around the goal beaten down to only dirt, so it's obvious that the kids are trying to play and are interested. One of the first projects that my partner proposed we do in the village was to build a sports gymnasium at the school. Finding the resources to fund a huge project like that is really difficult, but we knew starting with a cheaper, outdoor court would be more feasible for us. This grant competition,"Parteneriatul pentru copii", was asking for applications to compete for grants up to $4,500, which was perfect for what we wanted to do.

My partner and I wrote a great grant to build a multi-purpose basketball and volleyball court at the school, and we were awarded the $2,900 assistance that we applied for. This Wednesday we will begin phase one by forming a group of volunteers from the school to cut the grass and weeds on the future site of our court and we should be able to start construction in about 2 weeks.

Mr. Mayor is not a vegan.

Three of us Peace Corps Volunteers (Sam, Justin, and I) were making rounds around Justin's village talking to the many families that he's friends with. As we were talking to an Eastern Orthodox priest and his family, we noticed the time and realized the last bus from his village was leaving shortly. As we started saying goodbye and rushing away, the priest offered us a ride back to my village. He warned us though, we'd have to ride in his small car full of chickens. When he opened the hatchback trunk of his little car (about the size of a Geo Metro), sure enough, there were 5 chickens hopping around pecking dirt and such on the floor. The rooster looked at us and belted out a crow, as if he was welcoming us to hop in. It's times like these that I realize how awesome my experience is in Moldova. If you opened the trunk of my car in America, you'd probably find a spare tire, golf clubs, tennis rackets, dirty t-shirts, and an Accounting 102 textbook from sophmore year of college. However, if Peace Corps allowed us to have cars in Moldova, I'm pretty certain that I would drive around Moldova with live chickens. Way cooler.

When we got to my village, we all stopped by my mayor's office so I could introduce my friends and speak with him about our current project. We spoke a little about the amphitheatre we want to build in the village, and about our plans to raise the money. After 20 minutes or so of chatting about the project, we started talking with him about our plans for dinner. Two more volunteers were planning on arriving in my village that evening, so we wanted to have a nice dinner prepared for their arrival. Sam told my mayor we were looking for a live goose to buy, clean, and cook, so the mayor immediately starting calling around the village. He contacted about 5 families, but everyone told him that their geese count was low and they couldn't afford to sell one. After a few more attempts, the mayor gave up and told us we should just buy a rabbit from him instead. He said he raised rabbits, and offered to kill and dress the rabbit so that it would be prepared for us to cook for supper. Here's another fine example of why I enjoy my experience in Moldova: there is a fine line here between professional relationships and friendships. In the States, if I was speaking with my mayor about implementing a project in the community, I probably wouldn't have asked him/her to call around in the community looking for a live animal that I could eat for supper. However, this is a part of Moldova that probably will never leave me when I return to America. If I can't speak with a professional colleague about our project plans and rabbits in the same meeting, then I think we're missing the point.