Evan Brashier, X-treme Peace Corps Volunteer in Moldova

 

DESCRIPTION OF PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER SERVICE

 

     Evan Brashier                          XXX-XX-XXXX                Republic of Moldova 

Full Official Name                       Volunteer SSN                       Country of Service

 

After a competitive application process stressing applicant skills, adaptability, and cross-cultural understanding, Evan Brashier was invited into Peace Corps service.  He was assigned to teach English as a Foreign Language at the school Lyceum Teoretic in the village of Cuhurestii de Sus in the Floresti region of Moldova.  The Republic of Moldova is a small country in Eastern Europe located between Romania and Ukraine.  It achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and continues to struggle with numerous social, economic, and health-related issues.

 

Mr. Brashier began in-country training on 6 June, 2005, participating in an intensive 10-week training program covering three domains:

 

Technical training for the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) program included 105 hours of pedagogic instruction addressing methodology, linguistics, learning styles, and challenges specific to teaching in Moldova.  Two weeks of teaching while assisted by a Moldovan counterpart reinforced this training.

 

Language training included 112 hours of spoken and written Romanian language instruction.  Mr. Brashier continued developing his language skills independently throughout his service and achieved an advanced level of competence in Romanian.

 

Cross-cultural training included 21 hours of classroom and field activities regarding Moldovan culture and norms.  As part of this training, Mr. Brashier assessed his host community’s resources and organized activities for village youth.

 

To complement the language and cross-cultural component of the training program, Mr. Brashier lived with a Moldovan family in Costeste, Moldova, for 10 weeks.

 

Mr. Brashier successfully completed training and was sworn in as a Volunteer on 19 August, 2005.  He was assigned to the village of Cuhurestii de Sus for the duration of his service.  Cuhurestii de Sus is a village of approximately 2000 people supported by small-scale agriculture, private enterprise, and remittances from family members working abroad.  Most families there live without running water, gas heating, or reliable electricity.  Like many rural areas in Moldova, Cuhurestii de Sus has suffered from the flight of young people to jobs in the capital or outside the country, from the collapse of the local infrastructure and economy, and from environmental pollution.  In Cuhurestii de Sus, Mr. Brashier lived with a Moldovan family for the entirety of his service.

 

Primary Project:

TEFL - Lyceum Teoretic

Mr. Brashier worked by appointment of the Ministry of Education as a teacher of English at the school Lyceum Teoretic, reporting to the school director, Petru Gaiu.  This school serves students from the villages of Cuhurestii de Sus and Unchitesti, with an enrollment of approximately 500 students in grades 5 through 12.  Mr. Brashier taught students from every grade at the school during his service, with a total of 20 in-class hours each week and over 100 students.  He also met with a Moldovan counterpart to discuss and exchange teaching methods and practices.  He supplemented the National Curriculum with information about American culture and history, literature, environmental issues, current events, and with projects and critical thinking activities.  Other duties included developing curriculum, planning daily lessons, evaluating students, and preparing and administering exams.

 

Mr. Brashier also shared the responsibilities of his Moldovan colleagues, including scheduling and supervising extracurricular programs, activities, and excursions.  Additionally, he trained students to organize their own activities, such as parties or festivals for Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and other holidays.  He established a school-to-school letter exchange with an elementary school in Irvine, California.  To increase the resources at his school, Mr. Brashier arranged for books to be sent from America, and requested information from the National Park Service and other government agencies.  Through these efforts, the amount of English-language resources at the school tripled in size.  Mr. Brashier also developed specialized material to prepare students for the national graduation exams, which he taught each spring after regular school hours.

 

Secondary Activities:

“Haiducii”

Haiducii was a camp counselor training program conceived of and implemented by Mr. Brashier as an alternative to the traditional approach taken by Volunteers when executing summer camps.  Previously Volunteers needed large sums of money to pay for campsite rental, camper transportation, and food for all participants, and were required to assume all liability.  The solution – Haiducii – was a traveling team of 5 Volunteers who developed teamwork, leadership, and creative problem-solving skills in Moldovan youth by visiting preexisting Moldovan-run camps, implementing Haiducii activities, and teaching counselors how to recreate their program.  This dramatically increased effort impact and sustainability by enabling the Haiducii team to visit 12 camps and train over 400 counselors, who then utilized their training with new groups of campers arriving at campsites after Haiducii had departed.  Consequently, Haiducii affected far more than the approximately 2000 kids with which the team worked: they influenced the almost 20000 kids participating in the camps that received a Haiducii evolution.

 

To initiate Haiducii, Mr. Brashier contacted Ministry of Education officials at the national and local level to coordinate the Haiducii schedule and logistics and secure the necessary government approvals.  He also represented the team to camp directors and managers.  He secured funding from private donors to raise the $1300 to support Haiducii, which signified a 75% decrease in expenses when compared to the other method of camp planning used by Volunteers.  At-camp responsibilities included leading and debriefing activities, teaching improvisational theatre games, and organizing bonfires.  This required motivating campers to prepare ritualistic dances and costumes for performances.  Mr. Brashier also directed the entertainment, dancing around the fire in a cape and loincloth.  He has pictures proving this.

 

Odyssey of the Mind

Odyssey of the Mind (OM) is an annual creativity-centered problem-solving competition for students.  Mr. Brashier coached an OM team from his school each year of his service.  During the two 3-month coaching periods, he utilized his professional experience in theatre, guiding participants through all aspects of preparation (writing, rehearsing, constructing sets and costumes, etc.) and developing their creative-thinking skills using free-response prompts.  He coordinated logistics and secured permission for his own and another Volunteer’s team to stay overnight in the capital, during which time he introduced the students to brownie sundaes and chocolate chip pancakes.  He also prepared 3 of his colleagues at Lyceum Teoretic to coach OM teams so that kids could compete after his departure.

 

Trainings, Seminars, and Programming

As he gained experience, Mr. Brashier trained incoming Volunteers during their pre- and in-service trainings, focusing on methodology, successful practices, and cultural integration.  He also gave seminars to his Moldovan colleagues at teacher conferences during the school year, presenting American ideas that offered solutions to the challenges of teaching in Moldova.  His Program Manager then recruited him to review, edit, and revise the TEFL Project Plan, assessing Project goals and objectives and the monitoring and evaluation process.

 

Summary:

Peace Corps Volunteers are expected to manage and sustain their own professional relationships.  Mr. Brashier worked independently in the classroom, but frequently consulted with his counterpart, other colleagues, and the school director to maintain and strengthen his standing in his community.  He interacted with kids, parents, and local villagers at community events and celebrations, and informally, sharing his own culture and embracing the traditions of his hosts.  He dug part of a well, built part of a house, and planted a tree, which is just about all one must do to be a true Moldovan.

 

Privacy Act Notice: The information requested herein is collected pursuant to Section 5 of the Peace Corps Act (22 U.S.C. 2504 (f).)  The information will be used exclusively to prepare the Description of Volunteer Service Statement, which will be permanently retained by the Peace Corps.  The Statement will be used to verify service performed.

 

This is to certify in accordance with Executive Order No. 11103 of 10 April 1963, that Evan Brashier served satisfactorily as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  His service ended on 10 August, 2007.  He is therefore eligible to be appointed as a career-conditional employee in the competitive civil service on a non-competitive basis.  This benefit under the Executive Order entitlement extends for a period of one year, except that the employing agency may extend for up to three years for a former Volunteer who enters military service, pursues studies at a recognized institution of higher learning, or engages in other activities which, the view of the appointing authority, warrants extension of the period.

 

Pursuant to Section 5 (f) of the Peace Corps Act, 22 U.S.C. No. 2504 (f) as amended, any former Volunteer employed by the United States Government following his Peace Corps service is entitled to have any period of satisfactory Peace Corps Volunteer service credited for purposes of retirement, seniority, reduction in force, leave or other privileges based on length of government service.  Peace Corps service shall not be credited toward completion of a probationary or trial period or completion of any service requirement for career appointment.

 

 

Volunteer            Evan Brashier                                   Group           TEFL 16              

                              Signature

 

 

Reviewed by              (restricted)                                 Date          10 Aug. 2007          

                             Country Director 

Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yuaTwZHaI4
Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baWo5DHYMps 

Here in Moldova, in our little Peace Corps family, we have a monthly newsletter issued by the staff to let us know about the latest parasites and travel policies, and also to hear from the Country Director (CD).  We love our Country Director, and we hope everything works out alright.

 

One of the many reasons we love the CD - it's more than just that impressive beard - is because he writes stuff like this:

 

(You should know that I'm a 16.  That means I'm in the 16th group of volunteers to come to Moldova.  That means I'm leaving in ten days.)

 

 

If you’re reading this, you have a lot of patience with me.  This is an email I expanded into a thank you letter.  It begins with the next paragraph.

 

Hello, my gracious and generous funders.  This is the first informal update on where your donations are going.  I’m using an email I wrote to my sister for my foundation, because she asked about our progress with the improv games she suggested, but I’ll be popping in and out with updates to help things make more sense.  But first…

 

HAIDUCII

 

(I’ll use parentheses for updates!  The word HAIDUCII roughly translates to “Robin Hoods.”  It also more literally means “Bring it on.”  Seriously.  We switched to this name after our program managers warned us of the negative connotations associated with our previous name, HAITA.  HAITA translates to “wolf pack,” but while this seems cool and stealthy and awesome in English, it means a mangy group of scruffy dogs in Romanian.  HAIDUCII is cool, stealthy, and awesome, and also gets the girl in the end, according to Hollywood, even though in the real Robin Hood story, he dies.  Oh, well.  You may be wondering what HAIDUCII is.  If so…)

 

HAIDUCII is a training program designed by Peace Corps Volunteers and targeted towards summer camp counselors who work with youth in Moldova.  The program is focused on training counselors on the various activities and techniques proven and used by summer camps in the United States.  A group of trainers will travel to different camps throughout Moldova and train all of the counselors in the camp to use team building games, find guest speakers, have educational talks, and encourage leadership. The training will focus on the transfer of skills so that the counselors will have the ability to continue the activities after the trainers have left.

 

The program is a 2 day training with counselors only, followed by another 2 days of assisting the counselors to implement the activities with the kids in attendance at the camp.  This way the counselors will experience, learn and implement the activities all at once, allowing them to develop the skills necessary to implement the activities on their own.

 

Although the selected camps will be given the training for free, they will encounter the added costs for room & board of counselors as well as trainers for the duration of the training.  This is the contribution of the camps towards the success of this project.

 

Below is the desired schedule for this training, including both the counselor-only training and the time allotted to work alongside the counselors.  Although this is the ideal schedule, it can be adapted to meet the needs of each individual camp.

 

(You’ll notice that I didn’t include the schedule, and that I didn’t interrupt the original pitch letter.  Okay.  So about a month ago, I asked my sister for some suggestions of theatre games I could use as part of the art session of our program, and she threw out some ideas.  Then she asked how it was going, and I told her.)

 

Improv in Moldova is rocking.  We do the following games:

Alphabet
Questions
Dating Game
Statues
Sportscaster
Forward/Reverse
What are you doing?
Party Quirks

(Actually, I’ve found that Alphabet, Statues, Sportscaster, and Forward/Reverse work best, because, like with everything, we have to translate not only the language, but we have to cross the culture barriers.  Humor is cultural generally, but so is more latent familiarity with theatre games as encountered through American television.  “Who’s line is it anyway?” and similar programs teach, unintentionally, the concept of spontaneous humor and idea generation that theatre games encourage.  Plus, I like the message of the only hard and fast rule of theatre games, which is to always accept the other participants’ suggestions.  “Always say yes,” that’s the rule.  Otherwise you are stifling creativity, and that’s bad.)

All are material-free,

 

(Material-free is a huge part of what we do, because that means that once the activity is learned, it can be replicated without materials from America.  Not all of what we do fits that criteria, but everything I do as a member of HAIDUCII does.)

 

and easy to transfer into Romanian.  Alphabet is interesting, because of the different letters.  We cut Q, X, and Y, and then they add all of the other vowels and the "sh" and "ts" letter.  It's a good opener.  Questions is a little better.  Statues, sportscaster, and forward/reverse are always good, because of the physical element.  Dating game and party quirks are a little hard for them, because the idea is more complex.  What are you doing doesn't always work well, because of the nature of Romanian's grammar and vocabulary.  Try to play with no adverbs and you'll understand.

 

(I’m not going to try and explain the games.  Just trust me.)

But improv isn't all we do.  We also do team-building activities, and large-group games, and leadership training, and rope-course activities, and mentor-training, and activity debriefings, and a bonfire complete with ritualistic dance/skits that the campers choreograph.  Guess who gets to be the Bonfire King?  My loincloth looks awesome.

 

(The bonfire is the activity of which I am most proud.  In the morning, we introduce the concept to the camper groups, and then provide them with some suggestions for themes for their dances.  Here’s my list:

 

start the fire

pre-hunt

rain dance

good harvest

pre-battle

celebration/victory

healing dance

defend the camp

human sacrifice

welcoming dance

forces of nature: eclipse, volcano, earthquake, flood

 

Then we work with the groups for about an hour to help them choreograph something.  Then they make costumes from leaves and sticks, and sometimes they make drums out of plastic water bottles or buckets.  We check back in during they day, then practice some in the afternoon, and then we lead firewood gathering expeditions.  After dinner we start the fire.  Oh, and we dance too.  Our dance, like all of them, has a theme.  Ours is “strong together,” which actually sounds cooler in Romanian.  We each – there are five of us – attack an invisible creature and are defeated, and then we all gang up on it and destroy it.  That concludes our evening.  Then we go change out of our loincloths and check for ticks.  The bonfire idea came to me last year, and at one of our camps coming up, we’ll even be treated to a guest of honor – our Peace Corps Moldova Country Director.  He turned down the offer of a loincloth.)

Hmm, what else.  So far we've done a counselor training in Chisinau with 175 college students, an intense training at a camp in Shapteban with just the 17 counselors who will work there, and a one-day training up in Balti with the college there, with 27 counselors.  From the Chisinau session we were connected to Vlada lui Voda camps,

 

(Vlada lui Voda is the village near capital that has lots of camp sites and a beach.  The best beach in Moldova, which is actually a riverbank of finely ground dirt.  “Far from ideal” has become one of our HAIDUCII slogans.)

 

and we'll be there next, starting tomorrow.  They have 18 counselors and 250 kids.

 

(This was a great experience at the “Smiles” camp, a name translation.  We were the first Americans many of the campers had ever met.  Playing that role is my favorite responsibility of Peace Corps.)

 

Then we go back to the Shapteban camp to work with the counselors and kids.  I expect 150 kids to be there.

 

(This was where we were able to have our first bonfire.  It was awesome.  We had done a smaller one with just the counselors a week earlier, but it’s so much better when there are seven groups of kids involved.)

 

Then we go to my village's camp, with their 15-20 counselors and another 400 kids.

 

(My village fell through because the recently reelected communist mayor decided he didn’t want the democratic school director running the summer camp.  All of my plans fell through with that change, and then I had to call the local ministry of education official, and blah blah blah communism sucks.  And who suffers most?  The children.  But I made sure to have the new director, whose daughter I had in class all year, parade us around so that the kids could see the traveling circus that is HAIDUCII.  This is what you could have had, kids.  I’ve learned a lot from this experience.)

 

Then we go another village camp for the same experience (15-20 counselors, 150-200 kids. 

 

(This one also fell through, because it hasn’t rained in a month and the well water was contaminated.  The whole camp was shut down.  We showed up and found the inebriated groundskeeper all by himself.  That was a long day.  But then we went to another camp the next day, because we are flexible and resourceful and determined, and spend two days there.  It was at an Inner City Youth and Kid Center at an Urban Childcare Facility for Disadvantaged Youngsters who are At-Risk.  That’s not the actual name, but I wanted you to really feel like we are targeted the most disadvantaged minors who are at-risk and disadvantaged.  Urban poverty at-risk child child youth urban.  I like that we have reached a broad demographic during our travels.)

 

 Then we may (will) return to Vlada lui Voda to work with a different camp, and then, depending on the schedule, we'll visit three other camps during July and do one more counselor-only training in association with an NGO. 

 

(Confirmed: three more days at a different camp in Vlada lui Voda, seven days coordinated with the NGO Service for Peace, two more days at the Urban Youth Development Sustainability Center Facility Inner City At-Risk Disadvantaged Orphan Hospice Sustainable, another day of counselor training – with 80 counselors – then three days at yet another camp.  That’s at least two and maybe three or four more bonfires.  Hot dog marshmallow loincloth s’more ritual.)

 

This increases our impact by an order of magnitude.  Like, over ten times as many people as we worked with last year.  And because we are focusing on counselor training, we don't have to repeat the process, because of a little thing called sustainability. 

 

(Last year volunteers ran the camp themselves.  It was only one week, entirely organized by volunteers, and there were lots of challenges, one of the more frustrating being the inability of the camp canteen to have our meals ready on time.  Like, instead of 12:00, try 2:30.  Anyway, Peace Corps doesn’t want volunteers running camps, for a few reasons, which are addressed in the following list of reasons why I’m a genius for coming up with a way for us to still develop the at-risk youth in Moldova in a sustainable way – urban, rural, facility, disadvantaged, orphan, s’more – without requiring volunteers to organize the camps themselves.)

 

 And...

we didn't have to pay for a camp site rental
or camper transport
or camper food
or counselor stipends
or assume any legal liability
or raise funds through the Peace Corps bureacracy.  We're so beaurocracy free that I can't even spell burokrasee.

And...

the camps pay for our food and provide us with lodging.

 

(This is what we call an “in-kind” contribution, or “buy-in.”  Basically, it means they have an interest in working with us, because they incur some of the expense.  Here’s what we have to pay for, which is where your money is going:

 

our transportation

occasional lodging during periods of travel

meals eaten during travel

reusable materials, such as: rope, Frisbees, loincloths, flashlights – for night activities, twine, blindfolds, Nerf sticks, and a rubber chicken.  Yes, I am totally serious.  The most appreciated materials are the Frisbees and rope, although that’s because no one considers that without the loincloths, we would be naked at the bonfires.  Your contributions keep us out of jail.  Thank you.

 

One reason we needed private donations is because Peace Corps doesn’t permit us to raise funds through the brrr-ah-crass-sea for volunteer travel, and our travel from camp to camp is our biggest expense.  But it’s also what makes the project so successful.  If we couldn’t get to where the people are, we couldn’t work with them.  It’s as simple as that.  Once we get there, all our needs are met by Moldovans.  So let me put it into perspective.

 

Last year the majority of our funding went towards camp site rental, food for campers, and camper transport.  This year we don’t have to pay for any of that.  I’m going to give a very rough estimate right now, but I’d say that we can do just as much good, on a per camp site basis, for about fifty dollars.  The only difference is that this year, we’ll do that much good six of seven times.  Put another way, last year we had about 85 campers and ten counselors.  This year we’ve already worked with over 500 campers and 300 counselors.  And we’re only halfway done.)

Everyone on the staff and all of the volunteers think the idea is excellent.  The staff is proud and excited and probably hopes to have PC Washington descend on us with praise.  The other volunteers - jealous.

 

(They really are.  We’re having more fun with less stress and greater impact than any of the volunteers involved in one-week volunteer organized camps.  The future is us.  The future is HAIDUCII!)

(In other news…)

I left my village on 25 May, went home for the graduation celebration on 31 May, and then left again the next day.  And I won't go home until 25 June. 

 

(Actually I had to go home when the camp in my village fell through, and I brought three other HAIDUCII men with me.  It was a great chance for my host family to meet some other Americans.  But I left last Monday and won’t be home again until 16 July, if I can help it.  I make our schedule because I coordinate with the camp directors, and my site is boring.  So I keep us busy, which means that I keep us effective.)

 

 Maybe.  We might have something in Chisinau that week, and I'll need to stay for that. (You know about this.) If nothing else, I'll be down in Cahul on 23 June to perform for the PC Country Director and a few other honored guests, like, oh, you know, the ambassador, at the first celebration of the Cahul University English program alumnae association. (I’m leaving for Cahul as soon as I send this email.) Another volunteer organized it.  And what does she want me to perform?

A little thing called MC Hamlet.  Can you say gold mine?

(MC Hamlet was written by me during college, based on an idea I got from Dave Barry’s Guide to Guys.  In a footnote in that book, on a page in which he is describing the power of his underused computer, he gives an example of what Shakespeare translated in to rap would be.  “To be or not?  I gots to know.  Might kill myself by the end of the show.”  That line is in there, nestled within the 15 minutes of solo performance that wins talent shows and already brought me to the Chisinau State University to give a lecture/demo.  I am in demand.)

Then we have our 4 July party.  Maybe after that I'll make it back to my village.  You know, to pack. (I already started packing.) Because I only have nine weeks until my close of service. (Seven.) It's going to go pretty quick. (Definitely.)

This email was sent to you by Evan Brashier, who is even more impressive in person.

 

HAIDUCII

 

The men of HAIDUCII cordially invite you to attend a HAIDUCII evolution.  If you think you can handle the HAIDUCII, you are welcome to join us at one of our scheduled experiences to observe HAIDUCII as it happens.  Our only request is that you contact a HAIDUCII representative before joining us so we can prepare the fatted calf.

 

(This is the invitation I sent to the Peace Corps staff welcoming them to a bonfire.  BYOL.)

 

(Bring your own loincloth.)

 

THE  MEN  OF  HAIDUCII

 

Who is HAIDUCII?

 

Name	Site	Power Number	Team Name	Magic Power
Evan Brashier	(cannot disclose)	10	Catharsis	Phoenix
Chris Daly	(cannot disclose)	4	Raconteur	Guitar
Greg Janes	(cannot disclose)	7	Protagonist	Sabre
Patrick Metz	(cannot disclose)	5	The Solution	Mandolin
RoK Teasley	(cannot disclose)	13	Pathos	Orb

 

(Sometimes I make up silly stuff for fun, because I can.  Thank you for all of your support during the past two years.  I hope you have enjoyed the vicarious ride.  And now, the Bonfire King.)

 

(Those of you reading the blog version should know that there was a picture of me here.  I put it as my profile picture, because you're special, and you deserve that.)

 

That pretty much says it all.

 

Evan Brashier