24. New Site

I am extremely excited to start my time at my permanent site.  It seems like everything is falling into place.  I plan to work very hard to increase my language skills, because it will be necessary to be successful.  I only have 16 language classes left before I am done with training, which is only about 60 hours in class.

I am working with an organization called the Community Association (Name translated).  They goal is to help the community through trainings, seminars, internet/computer access, English lessons, business consulting, etc.  It was set up by 3 men from/in the community.  The organization is not a mission, but they set up the NGO based on Biblical principles.

The first volunteer with this organization and in the community stayed for a total of 4 years and is well respected and loved in the community.

The three men I will be working with are very intelligent and well connected in Moldova's business world, I am excited to work with them.  Two of them life are young and live in the capital, I will not work with them a whole lot, but they speak English and will help me out if I get into trouble or if I am having difficulty understanding my boss, who lives in the community and is the father of one of the younger men.

Currently, it looks like I will do some business consulting (office hours/visiting companies), working on a website for a pasta company (a business my organization helped start), marketing, promoting, planning, and implementing business seminars/trainings (when I visited they has a tax expert speaking to current and (hopefully) future business owners, improving the computer lab/internet cafe and creating an after school program at the community center.  They are fairly flexible, I can do whatever I want to assist the community, as long as my partner agrees.  They are also thinking about creating a park in the back of the community center for people to hang out and a putt-putt course.  I could also work with the Mayor on projects, from what I hear he has been doing good work for the community for many years.

I was also told that because of my interest in importation and exportation, they may be able to put me in touch with a company that exports dried fruit to Europe and may be interested in showing me around/getting assistance when it comes to exporting to the US.

I am very excited to see what I can learn and how I will grow over these next few years.  I think this will be extremely beneficial in helping me understand what I really want to do in the future.