Tom Reade|Peace Corps

Yesterday my assistant program manager came to visit my town and stimulate an actual full discussion between my mayor, partner and myself. The best part about it was that she knew the rules we live under as Peace Corps volunteers and the expectations. I’ve had a few English speakers come through town and strangely all know Lindsay and Conrad… and translated a few things but nothing like yesterday: a full brain storming session. We discussed:

• Picking and choosing some key Moldovan teens from my English club to become a leadership group that would work directly with me on projects so the mayor doesn’t need to do everything with me.
• Doing a strategic planning session in the early part of 2012 that would basically set my schedule of possible projects for the rest of my 2 years here. 
• Getting more involved in the school’s computer and environmental\ecological clubs
• Applying for a U.S Embassy Democracy Grant to hold a small projects\leadership training in which we would have VERY small mini grants available to complete those projects they decide they want to do, like building public garbage cans and if the Embassy won’t do it, we’d find another way
• Finding another way to get to my tutor Ina in the winter as they are very concerned about me traveling when the roads are frozen.
• Doing a huge public survey of all residents in the commune to see what they want done FIRST with the limited public tax dollars we have
• Doing a survey of the students to see what sports type changes they might want, like a new basketball court or volley ball court etc 
• Finishing my hot water project in the school ( more to follow on that later ) 
• Finding a way to complete a latrine in the school. Basically, we have an outhouse that is 25 years old, stinks to high heaven and has no hand washing ability. We would build toilets and sinks in the school basically!
• Figuring out some sort of economic development project to try and convince those that have left abroad to come back or stay here as most come back for Christmas- I suggested some sort of small business mini grant program as they mostly need start-up capital or social enterprise- getting Moldovans to invest in their businesses for a fixed rate of return as the current interest rate here in Moldova is…. drum roll ….. 30% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Helping the farmers make more profit from their current businesses by doing a survey of what they are doing and what they want and try to bring in experts from Moldova to do demonstrations. My dad for example has done this informally with his friends by showing them what he does with plums and his green house… 

And that in a year and a half …. 

Add all this to the fact that both Angels and Airwaves and H20 come out with albums this year and life is going good! Plus, I caught some bug in which my lymph nodes swelled horribly and my throat hurt like hell- normally it would have meant a week of sickness but my new non-chemically treated diet that I eat here in Moldova let me beat it in a day. The swelling dropped like a rock and I feel fine today!