Fiti Creativi!

     One of the reasons that I will be a teacher in Moldova is to assist my partners in creating new techniques for teaching. It is important that my partner and I work together to come up with these ideas, so that these changes will last even after my two years in Moldova. Essentially, I need to be creative. My family used to tell me that I was original, trying to put a positive spin on the fact that I'm a bit strange. I used to believe them, sometimes, and I am realizing that this uniqueness/Dahnikaness will certainly come in handy in Moldova.

     We are halfway through with the first week of practice school. On Wednesday my partner and I taught about smoking to students ranging in age from 15-18. Today, we taught the same subject to students ages 11-13. We will teach again on Friday and Saturday, and to my surprise, it isn't terrible. My partner is really great, and luckily teaching together came quite naturally. Today, one of the Moldovan observers said that we seem like we are related (I'm guessing because we mesh well together). She has been teaching for twenty-six years, and I am so excited to learn from her and hopefully teach her a few new tricks.

     Today was a great day. While jogging through the village, I saw a few children kicking a soccer ball against a building. Even in a foreign country, I can't resist soccer (er, fotbal). I decided to stop, and try to join in. They were a little wary at first, so I decided to do a few moves to impress them and show that a girl could actually play. Before I knew it, we had been playing for about twenty minutes and the few children that were playing in the beginning had multiplied by six. After they were tired of soccer, they took me to the playground for another game. One of the little boys was excited to have me on his team because I am tall (this never happens!), and this game involved jumping. By the end of the game the number of children had doubled, and we were all laughing. It was a wonderful time!

     I have decided that whenever life in Moldova seems a little rough, and going back to the states seems like the only logical solutional, I wll do my best to be creative.