Fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Lauren recently contributed to the site The Beauty of Peace Corps, which is gathering posts from Volunteers around the world about their experiences with the concept of beauty in their host country. Read the full post about Lauren's experience in Moldova HERE. (excerpt below)
"2)WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CULTURAL BEAUTY STANDARDS AT YOUR SITE? DO YOU FIND YOURSELF TRYING TO MEET THOSE STANDARDS OR NOT?Oh, Moldova. The word in Romanian for beautiful is “Frumos” and it is the standard in all things. Gardens, houses, lesson plans, chalk boards, dresses, hair styles, shoes (especially shoes), must be frumos at all times. Some of my most challenging moments in Moldova have been trying to emphasize efficiency and achieving our educational goals when my partners value the visual aesthetic (aka frumosness) more than the learning outcome...” Full post HERE.
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April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month in countries all over the world, including the USA and Moldova. #RedMyLips is an annual campaign coordinated by the international NGO Red My Lips, which works "to raise visibility and awareness about the realities and prevalence of sexual violence, while combating rape myths and victim-blaming." Acțiune pentru Justiție (Action for Justice) and Moldova ATiP work together to engage people all over Moldova in the campaign. Below is a slideshow of some of the images used so far in this month-long campaign. Some comments are specific to Moldova, but the core message is important for us all!
Mark G., a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer in Moldova, publishes a monthly newsletter called 800 Days in Moldova in English, Romanian, and sometimes Russian. This month marks the 12th edition and I thought the topic was interesting: Comparing rates of pollution and garbage production.
Before becoming a Volunteer, Mark was a professional photographer. He continues to use his craft in the project Imagini Rîșcani, photographing any person, place, event, or object that someone requests him to. These photos are then made available for free use by the local District Council (with whom he does his Peace Corps Service), village leadership, and local organizations to help in improving daily life in Moldova.
You can see & hear Mark in the video below, which he made for a group in his home state of North Carolina. You can see many beautiful sites from his region as well as get a reminder about how Peace Corps works globally and here in Moldova. Cross-posting from another Volunteer, Haley, who writes so much better than I could on the issue of stray dogs in Moldova:
”But the life of dogs is not always a cakewalk with tasty people-food and scritches. One of the country-wide problems is an overabundance of strays. During training, Peace Corps warned us about dogs that might bother us (or worse) while running. And yeah, I have some running buddies down by the local lake… I couldn’t help but admire a white wolf-like beast (from a distance). To address the issue, Peace Corps issues dog deterrents (batteries not included) to scare away any potential followers. ... The stray issue really is a problem in Comrat. Locals will tell you that dogs bite, bother and chase – and people often feel at unease walking alone in certain areas because of this. At best, they’re considered pests. In 2014, Comrat officials reported that almost 150 locals were attacked by these stray dogs. The local government has attempted to address these issues in the past. Although Comrat residents were divided on the issue, in 2011, a special team of 7 men were assigned to begin shooting the strays. ” See the full post HERE. |
Rebecca LehmanHealth Education volunteer serving at Boris Dînga Middle & High School in Criuleni, Moldova. Archives
May 2017
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