168. Confidence

There are many different things that I have learned or strengthened my knowledge about during my time in the Peace Corps, many of those things are not quantitative or easily explained.  One of the main things that have strengthened is my confidence.

The other day I was helping a fellow volunteer conduct a Halloween party.  The party had music, face painting, ‘pin the tail on the cat’ and other fun and competitive activities.  The main volunteer who planned the event set everything up and was working the front door, which was a good place for her to be because she knew many of the participants.  The other volunteers were pretty happy talking to each other and helping with the different activities.  The party started out real well but after a while the participants just sat and listened to the music.

I asked the Moldovans that were helping to welcome everyone to the event and to show/promote the different activities that they could take part in, but they were shy high school students.  I, with my still fairly poor Romanian, got on stage and tried to welcome everyone and show them the activities available to them.

This shows two things, that I am getting more confident in my language and that I am just more confident in myself general.  I knew that we could get the youth more active by giving them their options and no one else wanted to do anything, so I had to try.

What will it be like for me when I return to America?  Will this newly strengthened confidence follow me to America or will it stay in Moldova?  If I am in a future social/work situation that is difficult I hope I will find more confidence by remembering that I am a native speaker of English, at least I do not have to fight that battle, so why should I be afraid?