Disclaimer: The information and views presented here are the opinions of Greg and no one else.

Roadless Travelers
Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 4:16:06 pm
Good news! The Roadless Travelers website was completed and released today! Check out the new site at:

www.roadlesstravelers.org

I hope that you will all continue to follow along as the adventures continue!

Outward Bound TOT
Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 4:11:38 pm
As some of you may have noticed, I disappeared from contact with the "outside world" for the past couple of weeks. Fortunately as they say: "No news is good news" was very true in my case. I was attending a 10-day TOT session with Outward Bound Romania, where we learned the styles and techniques that the OB folks use. There were 21 participants at the training from many different regions.



It was really great to meet other outdoor educators from all over Romania as well as Hungary. We had a bit of a motley crew with 3 Moldovans, 3 Americans, and 1 Belgian making up our part of the group. The 10 days were full of teambuilding activities, an orienteering excursion, rock climbing, high ropes, and lots of theory. Fortunately there was a lot of practical information as well as friendships made.



This was RoK and I belaying one of our fellow "classmates". We learned a new technique for belaying climbers using the Italian Hitch method with 1st, 2nd and 3rd belayers. It is definitely a good and safe technique to use!

At the end of the training we walked away with some more knowledge, some good memories, and some great friendships. Thanks to everyone who participated and we'll have to do it again soon!

The Mullet
Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 7:30:21 am




Enough said. Click here to see the whole collection


Meaningful message
Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 1:47:48 am
My aunt recently sent me a card with the following message, and I thought it was worth sharing...

Today, you are a little wiser,
truer to yourself,
and more confident and comfortable
than you were the year before.

You are stronger and deeper on the inside
because of the experiences
life has given you,
and softer around the edges
because of the things
you have let go of along the way.

You are clearer about your dreams
and your purpose…

…and richer because of the laughter,
love, and friendship
you have shared.

And the gifts you have gathered
just make you all the more beautiful.

Leadership & Team Management
Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 1:44:14 am
A few weeks ago an organization of students at the Economics University asked me to help them with a few sessions as part of a program they put together for youth entrepreneurs. The program is called Business Start and over a 2-month period the participants are learning about all different aspects of opening a business.

Two weeks ago I organized and taught the opening section on entrepreneurship, which included information about my experience in the States as well as facts about the situation here in Moldova. Always an interesting and enjoyable topic for me to teach.

Last weekend I was back in the classroom with the participants, only this time we were set to talk about leadership and team management.



RoK and I co-taught the session, giving the participants the opportunity to actively practice the theory that they have learned in school by giving them interactive activities to do. It was a great opportunity for RoK and I to teach a little bit about teamwork, and the participants all really enjoyed our "off the cuff" teaching style.



A big shout-out goes to RoK for his help in making the seminar happen as well as to AIESEC for giving us the opportunity to come be a part of their trainings!

In Short...
Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 6:18:57 am
... I really need to write about what's been going on recently. A short recap:

- January flew by with preparations for the final 3 months (again!) of my service

- The beginning of February brought with it a short trip with two friends from Iowa State - Julie & Jenny - as well as my 27th birthday!

- February has been busier than expected, with some great things happening including a meeting with the Ministry of Education about our HAIDUCII program as well as a full one-day entrepreneurship seminar with 50 university students

I'll get more pictures, etc. up as I work my way through the To Do list. Until then, you can enjoy the newly posted pictures of my parents' visit to Moldova in 2006!

Happy Holidays!
Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 1:06:52 pm
Whew, what a busy month it has been! After meeting with my parents at the beginning of the month for a 2-week tour of Croatia, Montenegro and Italy, I arrived back in Moldova just in time to take a quick trip to Romania to celebrate christmas.



After spending a couple of weeks with my parents, and then arriving in the Carpathian mountains full of snow and holiday cheer, this year Christmas really felt like Christmas. RoK and I hiked around the mountains a bit, did some boot skiing/falling on the way down, drank spiced apple cider, and did it all while wearing Santa Claus hats. On Christmas Eve we took a hike to the sign in Brasov and were stunned at the city's beauty after dark (pictured above). Then we enjoyed a Guinness and a cheeseburger with fries - pub style - to make for a wonderful Christmas dinner.



An update about my trip with my parents will be coming in the next few days. For now I will wish you all the best as the last couple of days of the year wind down, and may 2008 bring you all the joy and happiness you desire!

Thanksgiving
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 7:22:43 am
I find myself a little behind getting updates posted on my site but here goes nothing...

This year, unfortunately, a Thanksgiving celebration and talent show was not able to be organized here in the capital, so leading up to Thanksgiving day I didn't really have any high expectations. The day before Thanksgiving, I received a phone call from a friend asking if I could come to a local high school and give a presentation about Turkey Day to a group of students. I agreed, and that's where my real Thanksgiving celebration started.

I showed up to the high school and, to my surprise, the students had decorated the entire auditorium like it was Thanksgiving. There was a Happy Thanksgiving banner on the stage, corn stalks, etc. and all the students were dressed up like pilgrims and indians. Evidently they had prepared a competition between two teams, Team Mayflower and Team Pilgrims, to see which team knew more about this truly American holiday.



It also turns out that they had invited me to be a judge for their competition, meaning that I was their honored guest. We talked about Thanksgiving and after their presentations were over we ate some traditional Thanksgiving food they had prepared.

After I was done at the high school I hurried over to a friend's house where another volunteer had prepared an amazing Thanksgiving feast, complete with pumpkin pie and whipped cream! It was absolutely delicious and a great time to sit around the table with some fellow American friends.

Although being with family would undoubtedly have been my first choice, I can't really think of a more enjoyable way to celebrate Thanksgiving. A big thanks to everyone and everything that made it possible!

A Lazy Saturday...
Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 1:58:20 pm
Yesterday I woke up and found myself with an entire day of nothing to do ahead of me. So I asked myself, what do you do on a day when you have nothing to do? Be lazy, that's what...



Busy Month
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 6:19:19 am
The last month turned out to be a very busy month, full of business seminars, trainings, celebrations, and can't forget about the spectacular fall colors. The leaves have changed and winter is just around the corner, but the last month was the perfect time to be out enjoying the weather.

IATA
The IATA program got great news in September - the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in Moldova decided to finance 3 seminars, bringing students together from all over the nation to participate. All three seminars were done in partnership with the National Resource Center for Youth, and participants were selected through the Regional Resource Centers throughout Moldova.



Very rarely do Volunteer projects get this kind of financing or opportunity, so all of us involved were very excited. It also gave us the opportunity to do three different seminars in succession, allowing us to make improvements during the week preceeding each one. Surprisingly, we discovered a number of areas which needed improving, and I believe the seminar has taken big steps towards being even more accessible for everyone.



Each seminar brought together 24 participants from 6 different communities throuhgout Moldova - each community brought 4 participants: 3 youth and 1 adult. We also had the opportunity to invite some people to the seminar to learn how to teach the seminars in the future, adding to the sustainability of the project. The IATA program has also attracted attention from a number of other organizations, and we are hoping to develop some long-term partnerships over the next few months.



Caving & Teambuilding
Inbetween the business seminars, I was also invited to assist RoK with a teambuilding event with his partner organization CReDO. The participants were also required to organize the camp location, setup, and cooking. It was a 2-day event which included a 4-hour caving expedition, a theatre performance, and a full day of teambuilding activities.



The first day we arrived, set up camp, got ready, and headed down into the cave for a few hours. It was the first time any of the participants had ever been caving, and it was a great experience for everyone involved. After we exited the cave, we prepared dinner as well as a theatre performance for the evening. That night I had my first opportunity to sleep out under the stars since I came to Moldova, and I took advantage of it. The stars were fantastic and the weather was perfect.



The next day after breakfast we organized a number of teambuilding activities with the participants. We challenged beliefs and broke down barriers, and at the end of the day we all went home feeling as though we had accomplished something. To see all of the pictures from the excursion click here.

Wine Festival & Chisinau Day
This year, due to some sort of conflict, the annual Wine Festival and Chisinau City Day celebration both landed on the same weekend. Since these are the two biggest non-religious celebrations in the country, it was quite the scene to see them both land on the same weekend. Although the wine was flowing and the music pumping, the weather left something to be desired - constantly threatening rain. In the end the rain never fell, and the contrasting sky made for some interesting and beautiful pictures.




Things have wound down a bit and we are getting ready to go to Romania to celebrate Halloween once again. Then it will only be a few more weeks before the leaves finish falling and the frost makes it's appearance. We're bracing ourselves for a cold winter, and keeping our fingers crossed that our apartment heat will be good (and will turn on soon!).

Ukranian Open
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 6:56:36 am
A few weeks ago one of the guys we play frisbee with here in Moldova told everyone about an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Lviv Ukraine this month. None of us thought that there was even the slightest possibility we could get a team together, let alone get everyone there and actually win a few games. Well, this last weekend the "Flying Mamaligas" made their debut appearance in the Ultimate Frisbee community.



The weekend started with an overnight train ride from Chisinau to Lviv which got us there about 5am on Saturday morning. That gave us a few hours to wander around and see some of the beauty that Lviv has to offer before heading to the stadium to play our first games.



The next 48 hours were full of lots of frisbee, a little bit of rest, a party for all the frisbee players, and a night tour of Lviv.



Overall the tournament went very well and I was extremely proud of the level that our team played at. We placed 8th overall, but 2nd in the Spirit of the Game category - a sportsmanship component of Ultimate Frisbee. Everyone played very well, and although we only went 2-4, 2 of the games were only lost by 1 point.



Who knows, maybe this will spark Ultimate Frisbee to grow in Moldova!!

Moldova vs. Norway
Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 4:08:35 pm
Tonight was only the second live football (soccer) match that I have been to, the first international match (unless you count Zimbru (Chisinau) vs. Sheriff (Tiraspol) as an international game), and the first European Preliminary match I have ever been to. That's lot's of firsts! It was an exciting game that was played to a sell-out crowd here in the capital. Earlier today, while out and about in the city, I ran into a group of Norweigens - who had come all the way here just for the game - while they were pre-game partying at one of the local bars. It was great to see their team spirit; they had hung a flag up at the bar, were singing drinking songs (glad I learned that Norweigen one, Andreas), and playing their national anthem with a trumpet. Oh, and don't forget about the viking hats they were wearing - priceless!

During the break at the match, I went over and visited the guys which I had met earlier today...



The first 45 minutes of the game finished with big goose eggs for both teams (0-0), but only a few minutes into the second period the Moldovan goaltender made a save but let the ball roll into the net afterwards, making the score 1-0 Norway. The Moldovans played well until the last seconds of the game, but were unable to get the ball into the net and the game ended in a 1-0 victory for Norway.



Ziua independentei
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 10:28:28 am
Congratulations to Moldova on it's 16th celebration of it's independence!

Yesterday, August 27, was Moldova's Independence Day, which also meant a holiday and a free day for me. I spent most of the day moving into my new apartment, but found time to play a game of ultimate frisbee and to go downtown to see the celebration and fireworks.

We also got wind that there is an ultimate frisbee tournament in Ukraine at the end of September, and will be trying to put together a team to go up and play!

HAIDUCII
Sunday, August 5th, 2007 at 5:18:33 am
Looking back on the past two months, it's hard for me to believe it all happened and happened so fast. I remember first packing all my bags, going on the road, finishing up, taking a short vacation, and now here I am in the first week of August wondering where all the time went. I guess the old saying is true: time flies when you're having fun. And that's exactly what we did.



The planning and preparation all came together at the end of May when the HAIDUCII (pronounced hi-dooch) program launched with it's first counselor training here in the capital, Chisinau. HAIDUCII is a program designed to instruct and train Moldovan summer camp counselors on activities successfully used in the States. Five volunteers, myself included, came together to form the HAIDUCII training team - the best team I have ever been a part of.



After our first all-counselor training, it was off to 10 summer camps throughout Moldova, working with the local counselors and kids. For 6 weeks the five of us traveled from camp to camp, teaching teambuilding games, making music, and interacting with Moldovans. Every day we integrated with the camps, working alongside the local counselors and bringing our perspective into the mix.





In an ideal situation, we would arrive at the camps, work with the counselors for 2 intense days, then assist the counselors in implementing the activities with the kids when they arrive on a later date. We would also make time to share the individual talents of each HAIDUCII team member, showing our diversity and inspiring those around us to pursue their own personal dreams.



The activities we ran with the kids created specific situations which provide opportunities for learning, realization and personal growth. This was a completely new experience for the kids, one which they thoroughly enjoyed and had a huge impact on them personally.



On the final day of our visit to each camp, we would spend time in the afternoon with the kids helping them to prepare ritual dances based on proposed themes such as rain dances or hunt preparations. That evening, the HAIDUCII visit would culminate when the kids presented their ritual dances around a bonfire. The bonfire was overseen by the "King of the Bonfire," one of our very own HAIDUCII members, Evan Brashier, being assisted by the rest of the team as his personal guards.





The HAIDUCII team was also joined by a special guest, Crystal, for the last couple of camps. All in all the program went off better than we could have expected, and was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.





Note: The pictures from the previous post were, of course, from our ritual bonfire. Extreme fun.

...
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 11:36:53 am





Stay tuned for more...

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