In an effort to become more politically informed, I've decided to start reading the Economist online. I never can get a hold of copies of the print edition, but for those of you who can, check it out. Pretty interesting for, you know, news. (As I write this I want to play it off like I care deeply about politics since that would make me feel more smart and like a proper grownup, but the truth is, the only news I read regularly is the Onion, and something tells me that doesn't count.) I'm pretty oblivious to whatever is going on back in the US, but thought, Hey, at least I can keep up with events closer to my (current) home! So I did a search for Economist articles on Moldova. A selection of the findings:
1. What future for Moldova? Europe's failed state (From The Economist print edition) Feb 13th 2003
4. Unrest in Moldova The future of Europe's most dismal country looks ever bleaker (From The Economist print edition) Apr 4th 2002
7. Battered Moldova A brutal storm has made Moldovans even more wretched (From The Economist print edition) Dec 21st 2000
8. Desperate Moldova The poorest country in Europe (From The Economist print edition) Jul 13th 2000
9. Sad little Moldova . . . LESS than four months after a weak-looking coalition government took office in Moldova, its president, Petru Lucinschi, has started to angle for a different sort of political system.
It takes a pretty special kind of country to be referred to with the words "dismal" "bleak" "desperate" "sad" "battered" "wretched" and "failed". They'd better hurry up and turn things around here, before Economist writers exhaust the possibilities of their thesaurases.
In other news, I'm feeling a bit negative lately. I know this is probably shocking considering the upbeat tone of this blog, but yes, it's true. Here's the thing: today marks 6 months in-country, and 4 months at my work site. My Russian still leaves much to be desired, but I can speak well enough to get my needs met and I generally understand everything going on around me. Which is to say nothing.
My first two or three months at site, I spent my days saying nyeh ponimaiu (don't understand) and just trying to make it from moment to moment, previously simple things like doing laundry and buying groceries and not getting on the wrong bus suddenly monumental tasks. I have now -- in my opinion, anyway -- made the majority of my cultural and linguistic adjustment, which means that everything around me seems pretty normal and mundane, and routine activities like mailing letters are once again routine. With my mental energy no longer consumed little chores and basic conversation, I now have my full self ready to devote to my work here. In other words, I'm ready for action. And there isn't any.
Next month my counterpart is set to fly to La Crosse, Wisconsin through the program Community Connections, which sends organization heads and other professionals to the US to participated in three-week trainings on various topics. She's going in order to learn more about issues related to working for the prevention of domestic violence. When I heard the news of her leaving for almost a month, the first thing I thought was Ooh, I wonder if she'll bring me back some peanut butter?
In a way that, depending on my mood, can seem either quaint or ridiculous, she and others living in this country whose entire population barely that of an average US city's metropolitan area, don't seem to realize the size of the US. When she learned that she'd won a spot in the program, she said that she hoped she could go either to my home state of Oregon or to this small town in Florida where she has an acquaintance. (Case in point: she sent an email to this same woman following Katrina, saying that she hoped the hurricane hadn't hurt her. "Not to worry," she replied, "that happened thousands of miles away in Louisiana.")
As those of you who read this and my previous blog entry can attest, I guess you could say there is no love lost between my counterpart and I. Our relationship as it currently (dys)functions is due to several factors, including my frustration with what seems to be a lack of activity in our office, bad business habits, and then at the most basic level, a huge personality clash. I've always been the more quiet, introverted type of person, hideously uncomfortable schmoozing at business gatherings or parties and seemingly incapable of remembering names, though in my defense everyone being named Elena doesn't help, but as I was saying, I've always been the type who needs a few hours of alone time in order to recharge, and prefers to be left alone to work, and enjoys solitary pursuits like reading and eating the rice crispie treats my mom sent me. If you make a list of all these characteristics, and then think of their polar opposite, you will have a rough idea of my counterpart.
When I did my site visit back in October, my Russian woefully inadequate, I was actually comforted by my CPs highly sociable and talkative nature. I liked how she kept conversations going without anything more than an occasional nod from me, since at that time I was in no position to be making small talk. However, time has passed and my skills have improved, and I now spend my days sitting in a one-room office three feet from a woman whose constant monologue and other habits have me practicing deep breathing and surreptitiously popping the headphones of my mp3 player in my ears to find some reprieve from the Peanuts-esque waa waa waa coming from the other side of the room.
***
So what is it I'm here to do, anyway? ("Here" being Moldova -- we'll leave the "here" of life question for another entry.) On paper I'm a Community Organizational Development Volunteer, here to share my volunteer and work experience with my counterpart's organization and others in the community, to help them work more effectively.
The word you will hear most often in PC circles -- other than peanut butter -- is sustainability. This is one of PC's primary goals for our work here, and one I've really taken to heart. What's sustainability? In essence, it's the idea behind that "give a man a fish, he eats for a day/teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime" saying.
I have been handing out a lot of fish.
Translating documents out of Russian into English, teaching English classes, doing websearches for information on foreign grants, and so on. The frustrating thing for me is, I don't think any of the locals want this to change. They like the language skills I bring to them, and for all I know, plan to apply for a new volunteer following my departure. In general there is a focus here on the outside world as the provider of resources and solutions, and I don't know what I can do to encourage shifting that gaze to local resources and abilities. An example: I have been compiling a list of my ideas for secondary (and third-ary, and fourth-dary) projects in the community, seeing as how my work in the office is less than satisfying. Seeing how locals don't know how to type, and often can't use computers for tasks other than reading email, and also seeing the huge number of local internet cafes, I cooked up the idea to teach classes on typing, websearching, Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The other day at work, after I showed my cp the pretty and accurate Excel budget I'd created for our latest grant application, I mentioned this idea to my counterpart.
"Bridgett, otleechna! Now we just need to write a grant to do that."
"E., we don't need to write a grant. You have a lot of contacts in town -- why don't we go talk to a local cafe, and see if they'll let us hold the class there? The students would pay the cafe the hourly rate like always, and the cafe would get a lot of customers, and then I'd teach the class for free. I think it could work."
Recently another volunteer told me that the government sets the amount of money a project leader can receive from project funds, so that knocks out the idea I'd had that we'd been writing projects solely in pursuit of zarplata. I mean, we're still looking for wages, but they aren't very high; a 2k project does not translate to 2k in my CP's pocket.
So yes, long story short, these are the issues weighing on my mind lately. I'm certainly not the only one; for many of those volunteers who, following a trip home, have decided not to come back, it had to do to the problem of a lack of action.
I'm also thinking about the issues brought up in the book on cross-cultural issues that the PC gave us, issues such as how different cultures have different approaches to work, and in some cultures there isn't such a sense of urgency regarding getting things done. Sometimes thinking of this gives me perspective and more patience, but then there are times like today when I can't help seeing this country in the sort of terms given in those Economist articles, fated to never improve because no one is working to change it and all the country's talent is running for the border like so many pointy-shoed lemmings.
Any words of encouragement at this time when sparkly feelings of kindness toward humanity are running low would be greatly appreciated. And, be kind words found wanting, I find American candy to be a rather effective substitute.
0 comments:
Post a Comment