I have now served two years in Moldova as a small enterprise development volunteer with the Peace Corps. Social media has been the key instrument for marketing and advertisement of any of the institutions, programs, or projects I have worked on, but particularly Facebook. I utilize it to create pages and events; post videos, pictures,…
Business development is one of the most difficult obstacles Moldova must tackle in today’s unstable environment. Approximately 45% of Moldovans currently work abroad, due to a lack of employment opportunities in country, and transmit remittances home to help support their families. In 2012, remittances totaled a whopping 38% of GDP, which is the second largest…
Over the past three months, I have been working with a local entrepreneur who is growing a quail egg and meat production business in a poor village in the southern region of Moldova. He came to us at Incubatorul de Afaceri Leova in order to receive financial assistance through a small financial grant program managed by…
– Translated a 7 page business document into the best Romanian I could muster. It was extremely dry to begin with so going through it in another language made me feel like a zombie upon completion. The funniest part is that I am not finished yet. I now have to find a native proofreader to…
– Welcome to the first day of Spring and Mărțișor (pronounced Mart-see-shore)! I walked into my business partner’s office only to be greeted with a gift. I was handed a pin-charm with two threaded snowflakes, one white, one red, and a woven leaf dangling from a metal pin. It is believed that the red string…
– Just 11 more days until I will not feel guilty about missing another day. As you can see I am really motivated with sticking to my word here. I think by missing a post on three occasions I further prove to myself and peers that motivation and content are two things I desperately need.…
– Lost out on the apartment. My Peace Corps manager, who handles contract discussions with property owners, informed me that the landlord was charging at minimum 1,500 lei per month for rent alone. My rent is fixed at 700 lei. Not to mention utilities would add anywhere between 500-1,900 lei to the monthly billing throughout…
– Sign, sealed, delivered. Best bud Christian all in for Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria this summer. It is going to be an amazing trip as he will join my cousin Brigid and I. We plan on doing a lot of Couchsurfing, visiting old friends, canyoning, checking out the Alps, camping at the Openair Frauenfeld…
– I was really proud of the students in our English club today. We had 6 participants and watched Apocalypto. If you are not familiar with the story it is about one Mayan tribesman named Jaguar Paw who escapes from being sacrificed in order to save his life and those of his abandoned family. The…
In exactly 7 months, I will see my parents again for the first time in 1 year and a half. In mid-September they will be coming out to visit me in Moldova where we will spend 4 days traveling around the capital of Chișinau, visiting my summer training site and wine capital Cricova, and then…
– Gaining community support seems like it would be the easiest task in completing our IT project. All we need to do is have our business owners answer 5 questions asking them to explain briefly why they would like to acquire free computers and other equipment to improve their businesses and knowledge. The point of…
Cannot call myself Pat out here for short. It translates to “bed” in Romanian. I do not need the nickname anyway. I prefer being called “Paaahh-treeek”. It sounds French. Although over the summer during language training a fellow volunteer gave me the nickname “Pattress”. Clever. Still stuck smack dab in the middle of my book…
In Self Discovery Parts I & II, I listed out what fulfills me and where I would like to end up. In order to arrive at an idealistic end, I need to make sure the means guide me there. I have drawn up these great ideas, masterful plans but if I do not begin focusing…
Southeast Dispatch 