successes

Volunteers have to update electronic activity report forms every 6 months of service and I just finished with mine. One section of the form asked for successes you've experienced in your village and I wanted to share some of those I wrote about along with another added note.

One notable success is having students my partner and I teach going home into their communities to share the health information they learn during class. Children in our grade classes have approached my partners on the streets of our village to praise them for the good work and good information that their kids are being taught. A girl in our 6th grade course told my partner and me that she had talked with her dad about his smoking after our lectures on tobacco, and that he was trying to quit because of her persistence. These stories of how our work affects the lives of our children and their families leave me feeling encouraged and fulfilled.
Another notable story is the success of the health club I am teaching with one of my partners. Every week a committed group of about fourteen 7th grade students come to these meetings to learn new health information and have discussions. The members of this club have prepared skits to present for other students about health topics such as alcohol and dental hygiene. Members have also created posters with health information to be displayed on school walls. The students in this club have shown excitement to learn presentation skills and share their knowledge about health topics with others.
A more personal success of mine has dealt with learning how and when to pick my battles. What issues are immediately worth trying to change, and what is better left--if only just for the time being--untouched. One of my largest challenges at work has been dealing with violence between students and violence between teachers and students. Viorica and I have started using a new method of discipline using a thermometer. Each class begins their day with 100 degrees and they set the regulations for appropriate behavior so if one of the agreed upon elements is not followed the entire class will loose 10 degrees.Out of the 7 classes I teach with Viorica, the class at the end of the month with the highest average temperature will be given a surprise. Will probably be a free day or day of sport in the gym if we can make it health related fun :). The kids have gotten into this and love it. Classes are quiet, the students are able to listen because others raise their hands before speaking out. It's fantastic that Viorica is seeing this change because it is showing that rewarding students is a stronger method of management than punishing them. I have rarely seen her be physically aggressive toward a student since we began this new system. Another success is building the belief to stand up for what you know is right. A smaller, but big deal for me has been confronting certain behaviors of people other than my partners whom I work with directly. This past week one of the ladies who cleans at my school was chasing one of my students into my room while repeatedly hitting him in the back and head. She said he had been bad and that she had to punish him. I told her in front of the kids in my class that we teach about not using violence to resolve problems. She said that the kids can't understand any other way and I said that they can through communication. I didn't want to shame her, but I wanted to present another way of thinking to her and show the kids that you can stand up for your rights and that you have the right to not be hit or abused by anyone. After the lady had left my classroom I told the kids that it doesn't matter if someone is a professor, adult, kid, whoever, it is never ever okay to use violence against others to solve our problems. I don't know if the kids seeing my intervention and hearing those words affected them, but I'm proud of myself for having the guts to stand up to someone in a respectful way.
Another success is that another nurse at the hospital in our village wants me to help her twice per week learn how to use the computer. She's an older woman and is learning quickly and it's exciting to be able to teach this to someone. We're mainly working with Excel because they want to make all of the hardcopy patient info electronic. The Dr. mentioned that maybe eventually we'll even have internet at the hospital. That would be incredible. Imagine all of the information they would have available to them.
This weekend has been incredibly relaxing. I had my language/Romanian oral exam in the city of Balti and think it went well. I should receive my results Wednesday. I still have a few grammatical issues when I speak (I want to use too many "la"s like in French and Spanish...), but overall my language skills have dramatically improved and I'm proud of that. Viorica tells anyone who will listen that I speak perfect Moldovanesti (Moldovan popular speak as opposed to "pure" Romanian). I've basically gotten the slang and Russian popular words down so I can talk like someone from the Moldovan backwoods and people are very amused and usually appreciative of that. Viorica says that I don't need to study Romanian any longer because I already know everything. Which is not true, but I'm digging the ego-boast and love having her in my fan club. One truth in her statement is that I can speak at a normal pace now. The other day someone actually told me I was speaking too fast. I spent at least 5 months of this past year either as a mute or speaking at the speed of a snail and it was a tad frustrating. So progress is NICE. Hard earned progress.
During the Balti trip I spent Saturday night with a large group of volunteers at our friend Martin's house. Him and other volunteers in his area have rented a house in the city area where they go to relax and have friends visit. Very, very nice. I spent last night in Chisinau at the PC-owned apartments (also very very nice!) and will be there again tonight before heading to site. I spent today speaking with the PC doctor about some of the stress I've been experiencing. It's very healthy, good and necessary that we have people available to volunteers at all times to talk about whatever you want to talk about. There are a lot of things to be doing at our sites and you often feel pulled in many different directions while being watched or evaluated by many different eyes. It can be hard to deal with, but the stress a volunteer feels from this (and the general consensus from my friends is that we're all, to some degree, feeling it) is normal and with support becomes more manageable. Reviewing goals and accomplishments helps :)