Today’s Adventure: What Its Like To Almost Get Poached

As I blogged earlier, I worked with my adjunct director this year at school to try and get them to use a scheduling program that would make their lives a whole lot easier every September. They didn’t end up using the program but they did ask the adjunct director from the high school in the neighboring village to come over and learn it. Evidentally they thought very highly of the IDEA of the program, they just didn’t want to actually use it.

So this woman comes over and we sit for an hour or so and I show her how to use the program. She was not so comfortable with computers but she brought her 11^th grade son with her who supposedly had computer experience, so I had more confidence that she would actually be able to remember all the info and do it on her own at her school. On their way out, we exchanged numbers and I told her to call me if they needed any help once they got started. I also mentioned to her what my director from Peace Corps had told me in passing several months before – that Peace Corps had asked the high school if they wanted a volunteer and they had repeatedly said no. She was kind of shocked by this and said she couldn’t understand why the director would pass up having a volunteer. She told me she would ask him why he didn’t want one and if he changed his mind maybe they would get one next year.

About a week later I got a call from the director at the high school and she asked me to come over to help her on the schedule. Her exact words. So I went over first thing Monday morning and sat in her office and waited for her to show up with the computer. She did show up but instead of having a computer she just said, “The director will be here in just a few minutes.” I hadn’t been told we were meeting with the director and I was wondering if I’d have to explain the scheduling program to someone else now. Not quite.

When he showed up, the director, who was very nice but reminded me of a used car salesman, came in and give me the typical bout of Moldovan compliments and super warm salutations (kissing hands and cheeks, etc). We sat down and he says, “So. When can you come and teach for us here?”

There was a long pause and then I said, “I don’t think I understand….what?”

“When can you come and teach for us!? We have no idea why the school in Chițcanii Vechi should have a volunteer when we don’t! We’re a bigger school, after all! So when can you start here? It will have to be soon because the school year has already started!”

I just stared at him for a second, then I said, “Well how many hours do you have available that you’d want me to teach?”

“Seven,” He said.

“SEVEN?” I laughed and explained that I already have my schedule full with my school and withmy medical center partners and other work in the community. I just don’t have the time to take on so many hours.

Then he proposed we drop it down to three. Then I really started thinking about it and realized that I really did not have time to do any work with this school, mostly because it would involve completely training new partners. I also was getting the impression that things would not be done in the sustainable way that my Peace Corps program wants – with partner teachers learning to use these methods. IT would be me teaching alone to a bunch of rowdy high schoolers who had no idea who I was or why I was there. I don’t think so.

So I politely told him that what they really should do is apply for a volunteer for next year so that they would get one all to themselves. He seemed kind of disappointed but said that he would definitely call Peace Corps. They insisted over and over again that they had never been asked to take a volunteer as they showed me out.

Once I got back to my own village and my own school, the second I walked in my director called me in to her office. “I have heard that you might go teach at the high school in Negureni,” So put out there. She was doing that thing where you act like you don’t care so that you can see someone’s real reaction to something.

I told her straight up what I had told the people in Negureni – that I didn’t have time to take on any hours there because of my other commitments to my own school and village. In response, still being coy, she said, “Well, I mean, if you REALLY wanted to go over there and teach….”

I interrupted her and said, “Doamna Tamara, I belong to this village and this school. I am YOUR volunteer. My priority is here and I am not going to go teach at another school. They can get their own volunteer next year.”

I thought she was going to cry out of happiness. She patted me on the shoulder and sent me off to class.

This is the typical competition that you see between villages in Moldova. I confirmed with my boss at Peace Corps later that day that the high school in Negureni HAS been offered a volunteer for about 5 years in a row and has always refused. But as soon as they understand what it means – that the little school next door can boast an American who works without a salary – they HAVE to have one solely on the basis that it wouldn’t do to have the neighbors have a toy that they couldn’t have.

We will see what happens – if they follow through they could get a volunteer next year – a year too late for me to have a site mate. But that’s life. Noapte buna!