Peace Corps....
It's never exactly clear, either in your mind or in anyone else's, what exactly the Peace Corps experience will be like. Even less known is the kind of work you will end up doing. For me, I found the work as a volunteer with Peace Corps to be very personally fulfilling. I had the opportunity to stretch myself to expand my knowledge in ways I never expected.
In Peace Corps, each volunteer is given a primary organization to work with to engage projects and help identify and provide for the community's needs. My primary assignment was with Fundatia Centrul pentru Dezvoltarea Intreprinderilor Mici si Mijlocii Braila - CDIMM Braila (Literally translated: The Center for Small and Medium-size Enterprise Development Foundation). The work I ended up doing with them fell under two main categories; projects and trainings. Projects have multiple beneficiaries (people who get something out of it) while trainings primarily served CDIMM.
Projects- CDIMM website redesign – Upon arrival, I noticed that CDIMM's website was built to be simple and functional. Being new at the organization I decided to utilize my time to learn more about the organization by researching their website and creating a new web design, with a more modern look. As I created the new design for CDIMM, I took advantage of the fact that the redesign provided a platform for an inward look at the company's past, present, and future. I began the design in September 2008 and the project was implemented April – May 2009. CDIMM’s technical support contracted professional made modifications to the original design, but the basic ideas are intact. To view the original website, go to http://www.cdimm.ro/. The new design is not currently posted.
Sample of my orginal redesign of CDIMM's website
- Romanglish/Romengleza Phrase Book – After being in Romania a few weeks I realized just how much I was struggling with the language. I occured to me that while there were plenty of tourist lanugage books available with short-cut phrases for finding a hotel or ordering at a restaurant, there really wasn't anything more practical for those working and living in Romania. So, I put together a phrase book in Romanian and in English that included phrases for talking to your landlord, engaging in conversation at work, etc. I published the first version Romanglish through the office of CDIMM Braila in October 2008. We self-printed about 30 copies. This book was sold to fellow volunteers as a fundraiser for Nils' youth organization. After this first publication I was invited by Nils' organization to print the book professionally and to redesign it to be marketed more towards high school students. So, I created a second version Romengleza, adding sections like "Dating and Pickup Lines" and "Democracy" to attract a younger crowd while also promoting the subject matter of Youth Vision for Democracy (Nils' youth organization). Through a local publishing company we published 500 copies in March 2009.
The original cover design of Romengleza. The design was later modified by the printer for higher resolution of the buildings.
Courses
- Business Start-up Course – In Nov 2008 I team-taught a course presented at the Chamber of Commerce -Braila. During this course, I had fun introducing various teaching methods and innovative styles which enhanced and improved the course.
- Entrepreneurship Course – I team-taught this course at CDIMM and helped develop a more digestable program for the 5-day course. I enjoyed teaching business concepts in an understandable way and had fun exploring business creativity with the class participants.
- Project Management Course – I assisted in creating activity material for this course taught in June 2009 by my counterpart, Dragos. It was fun coming up with scenerios and games to liven things up!
Trainings
- Personality Types – I had a lot of fun with this one! After a few months with CDIMM, I thought it would be educational to address the diverse personalities of the people working there. I showed CDIMM Braila’s team members the benefits of understanding different personality types. After conducting a personality survey of each team member, using a modified Myers-Briggs method, I shared the results with the entire group, and lead a discussion about strengths and resouces each personality type brought to the team which would increase efficiency and effectiveness.
- Marketing and Sales Strategy – After the 6-month mark of my service, I was approached by some of the team members about putting together a marketing strategy. So, I put together ideas and materials to help CDIMM Braila look at their marketing and sales efforts... what had been done and worked, and what new things we could try. Putting together some material for them, I then led a meeting in which everyone in the organization discussed and determined possible courses of action for a new marketing and sales strategy. Change wasn't made overnight, but the experience was very enriching.
- SWOT Anaylsis – While CDIMM is very familiar with the SWOT analysis technique, and uses it quite frequently for their own clients, I thought it would be helpful if they conducted an analysis of their own organization. As we went through each Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT), a lot of eye-opening comments were made and the beginnings of new goals came out of it.
COMMUNITY PROJECTS:
In addition to working with our primary organization, Peace Corps volunteers have the freedom and are encouraged to engage in additional community projects. The community projects I participated in are as follows:
Viziunea Tinerilor pentru Democratie (Youth Vision for Democracy - YVD)
So Nils organized this youth organization under the Pro Democracy Association - Club Braila, the organization he was assigned to. I got to help out with a variety of projects.
- To start the project off right, I created a logo for YVD. It took a few versions to get it right, but in the end we decided on something like this:
- I planned and assisted with classes taught twice a month on various subjects including: Democracy, Human Rights, Children’s Rights, Debate, Mediation, Global Economy, and Leadership. It was a lot of fun really! I think my favorite was for the Human Rights section I collected several real-life court cases involving Human Rights. Then I had the students break up into groups and take the Plaintiff or Defendant position and plead their case. After hearing both sides, the class voted on a verdict. At the end, I revealed what happened in the real life case and the rationale behind each decision. It was tons of fun!
- As mentioned before, I designed, wrote, edited, and collaborated with language translators to create Romengleza, a Romanian/English language phrase book, as afundraiser for YVD. Along with the book, I am in the process of completing a companion audio CD. I never imagined how much work an audio CD would be... I'm still working on it and hope to meet my deadline. I should have it done by the beginning of the next school year (September 2009). Here's hopin'.
- On the theme of fundraising, I provided a follow-up training on methods of local fundraising. It's amazing how creative high school students are!
- Leadership retreat, conducted in Brasov in June 2009. We had the best location! Nils found this hostel that had room for all of us to stay together so we could keep order and so that everyone could have plenty of space to have fun! A local church in Brasov also allowed us the use of their building to do leadership exercises and classes.
Women’s Organization – Sociatatea de Alinare (Relief Society) – Galati Branch
What a joy it was working with the LDS women of Galati! No matter how small their numbers, they were a constant inspiration to me and helped me develop into a more patient and giving person (I hope!).
- I had the privilege of working with organization's president, first counselor and secretary, women who taught me much about facing adversity. We worked together on budgets, goals-setting, events planning, etc.
- I was called as a Relief Society teacher and taught 2-3 times a month on various subject including honesty, self-esteem, service, respecting others, forgiveness, and more. I owe special thanks to Catalina and Tanta for tanslating for me!
- Being a strong believer in Visiting Teaching – a program where women within the organization show care and concern for each other - I worked on improving the overall system by encouraging letter writing, home visits, etc., showing that a little can go a long way when it comes to caring for each other.
- Every two months, I had the great pleasure of going with of the women of the Galati Branch Relief Society to visited a local orphanage. We brought donated snacks, clothing items, toys. We also planned activities; interacted and entertained the children.
Women’s Communication Platform
Noting that there was so much to share cross-culturally, I started a blog called “Among Women” or “Intre Noi Femeile” in Romanian. The blog engaged women from various countries in a dialogue about issues such as family vs. career, women portrayed in the media, feminism and women’s rights, etc. From this blog, a local woman and now friend approached me about the issue of domestic violence. After a few conversations, meetings were arranged and ideas put on paper to begin the process of bringing this issue out in the open. To view the blog to go: http://www.amongwomen.blogspot.com/ or http://www.intrenoifemeile.blogspot.com/
OTHER EXPERIENCE & ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Grant Writing
In June 2008, I wrote a grant for YVD through the Minnie Grants Walt Disney grant program. While the grant was not awarded (sad), the experience taught me a lot about the grant writing process.
Starting in January 2009, I wrote a PCPP grant with another volunteer, Cynthia Yeh. Along with this grant, I enjoyed creating a budget schedule and daily program for the project.
Website Committee
I redesigned and implemented a new homepage for the Peace Corps Romania website.
Here's the new homepage for Peace Corps Romania's website. I created the map of Romania, designed and did the html for the three separate sections, and simplified the overall look of the homepage.
Of course, I also got to update and improve the overall content of the website as well. While I was on the website committee we also introduced a volunteer network called "Vatra" (which means "hearth" in Romanian).
Romania Moron’s Guide Committee
While not yet an official member, I helped update and edit the Moron’s Guide (a guide issued to Peace Corps nominees prior to entry into Post Country) to get it ready to post onto the Peace Corps Romania website. Talk about a complex site! Once an official member, I continued to help with updating and editing content, assisting in small redesign elements to help simplify the site and facilitate easier edits in the future.
More Pictures??
I still have to get all of my pictures organized. I'll be sure let everyone know once additional pictures of my Peace Corps work experience becomes available.
Closing...
It's hard to know how to measure success. Did I really do all that much during the 17 months I served in the Peace Corps? Were my efforts really effective in bringing about change? While it's hard to know the true answers to these questions since results of often seen several years down the road, it's important to keep in mind that it's up to us to do something good and make positive contributions to the world around us. A lot of people have said to me they wish they could join Peace Corps. But it doesn't take an experience like Peace Corps to do good works and serve others. You have opportunities every day to do something, no matter how small, to improve the world around you. So what are you waiting for?? :)
COLOBMIA! That's right, South America's beautiful mountainous and beachy Colombia! Personally, I had wanted to go somewhere in South America, so I got my wish!
