From Lasts to Firsts

Here I am in Chisinau, Moldova, and it has been a week of last things and first things...Last meal in the US, Chili's in Philly; last night in a hotel in Philly, where the hotel had a water main break on the last night and practically no one had a hot shower before we headed out for 30 hours of travel. The only word that comes to mind is ripe!! It was also the time of seeing friends and family for the last time, and so many other sad things within the frame of "last of things".

And now here I am, far away and learning all sorts of new things. The trip was uneventful and long. There really isn't much to write about the flight from Philly to Frankfort or from Frankfort to Chisinau. We have been kept incredibly busy and "on" for days. Maybe it is to avert second thoughts, or homesickness, but the pace has been busy. We have started language lessons, and they are moving along as well as can be expected after two days. The hotel is basic and close to the Corpul Pacii office. The staff and language coaches are really supportive. I am exhausted but in an okay place. Tomorrow we move to our first village where we will live for the next ten weeks, until the beginning of May. I will be living with a single woman who has 3 daughters. It won't be like living with Linnea, but it won't be totally unfamiliar. either. The oldest daughter is 21 and lives in Italy, there is a 19 year old, who studies in Chisinau, and a 9 year old daughter who lives at home.

The group has gotten along well, and we really are pretty supportive of each other. So far we are all still here and more or less working together. I can't believe it has only been five days, it feels like forever.....

Peace Corps Eve

Just now we have finished our time at staging. Staging is when we gather for the first time and begin to learn all about the Peace Corps, and what will be expected of us, and what we can expect, in a general kind of way. This staging was all afternoon yesterday, and all day today held in downtown Philadelphia. We take a bus tomorrow afternoon to JFK airport on Long Island, and fly out tomorrow evening at 9:30 at night. We fly through Frankfort, in the Deutschland.

Staging has been a very organized training, and has covered most of what my questions were. I still have tons of questions, but the whole picture is starting to come together. There are 29 of us in this training class, 15 women and 14 men. Most of the group is under 30, but there are 5 of us who are older. There is one older couple who have signed on together, and every one else is here alone. We have had icebreakers and getting to know each other exercises. I have been sharing a room with Teresa, who is a lovely young woman from Indiana. It has been nice to have someone in the room to "process" the process with at the end of time together. Today for lunch we went to the Reading Terminal for lunch; A real Pennsylvania hoagie seems like a great meal for our last US day. It has been nice to finish up our time in such familiar territory for me. It has been extra special to spend some extra time more accessible to Linnea. We have no special plans for tonight, our last time stateside for a while. I am hoping to just relax and make some phone calls.

I will carry each of you with me as I move forward into the world. Thank you to each of you have supported me in your own ways, whether with words of encouragement, listening to me as I have worked through medical tests, helped me clean my home, move, or whatever. I could not be doing this without your support.

Today is the day

Today is Sunday, February 24, 2008, and the day I am leaving to start my work with the Peace Corps. For those of you who have been reading this for a while, you know how long this process has been. This morning feels a bit like Christmas morning, or probably more like the morning of the first day of the school year in September: filled with anticipation for all of the new and interesting things ahead, and sadness about leaving so many people behind. I will miss family and friends, my home and familiar routines, and will have to hone my adaptive skills, and be even more flexible in the new life than I have tried to be all along. Linnea and her BFF, Nicki, along with my sister-in-law, Brenda, will be taking me to Philadelphia this afternoon for two days of orientation. I fly out to Moldova on Tuesday evening, and will arrive in Chisinau on Wednesday evening, 2/27. I do have the address for the Peace Corps in Chrisinau so please write to me anytime. I will have my laptop and hope to be online later this week, I have been taking pictures, but I haven't yet figured out how to send them or post them, but that will be a part of my new learning.

My address is:

Jami Ream (PCV-M22)
Corpul Pacii Moldova
12 Grigore Ureche St
Chisinau, Moldova 2001

Peace. Jami

Friday evening

Just a little over a week to go, and still so much to do. I have been back and forth between PA and Maine twice now, and one more trip to Maine to go this weekend. Since I last posted, Linnea and I worked at a feverish pace, for February, to paint rooms in her house and prepare for the last of the furniture to come down from Maine to be placed into her house in Reading. It was quite challenging to get as much as we did. Prior to my coming down, she completed work in her bathroom, and her bedroom is all painted and finished. She had also placed furniture into the middle bedroom. I had painted that room on a previous trip, and while she didn't really care for the color scheme, it is staying as is for a while. We worked to paint the back bedroom and did a Venetian Plaster finish on the walls of the dining room. Linnea also tiled the floor with some ceramic looking stick tiles. It looks like a completely different room! She has really begun to make it look and feel like her own home. I am so proud of her.

I had to be in Brunswick for the dentist on Monday, 2/11, so we went back to Brunswick last weekend and started packing. I know I have a lot of stuff, but I continues to amaze me how much stuff accumulates. I gotten rid of so much stuff when I moved to Brunswick eight years ago, I can't believe how much I have to move back to Pa. As my Dad used to say, "I spend my time loading and unloading...load and unload"...It was more than a little overwhelming. It didn't help that I am also so disorganized around everything else that I am having to do, and really disorganized about the whole moving process. I have resigned myself to knowing that I can only do as much as I can do, and that there is a deadline d to get everything done. The deadline is fast approaching. So the van was loaded on Monday evening, and we drove down overnight on Monday. Tuesday morning I called a plumber to address the water in the basement in Linnea's house, and $5000 later, I think that problem will be resolved. If it not raining, its pouring...brings up the issues with the roof. The house needs to be sealed from water, and we had over an inch of rain on Wednesday. Too much. I am trying to get things done, and relax a little bit in the process and enjoy these last few days with Linnea. I am going back to Brunswick this weekend for the last time to sign my taxes and pack up the very last parts of my life. I am getting sadder by the day, and nervousness hasn't even begun to sink in.

Done with Sweetser, but still working hard

Friday, the first of February was my last day at work. I have been winding down since October, but it is now official. I am really and truly unemployed. It feels great! I had such a wonderful last couple of days in Maine. There was the lovely martini night at MJ's, with Lisa, Amy, Adrienne and JD, Nicki who was sick and Sarah with a sick baby, Tess and Gail. Tess, whom I will miss so much, gave a lovely toast to our friendship. It was a really nice time, and only two martinis. Sometimes it is a good thing to be a good girl! Friday morning I was at the office early, and handed in my cell phone, laptop and key and headed to So. Portland to meet the crew from Portland/Saco. What a fun time! From breakfast to Pennsylvania all in the same day! It was a long, but fortunately an uneventful trip. There was lots of freezing rain through Massachusetts and Connecticut and I did pass some cars that were off the road, but not me!

Since I have been here, Linnea and I have been busy painting and fixing up her house. She has done so much, but there is always more that can be done. Her room, and the bathroom are done, but we did some fancy Venetian plaster in the dining room, and painted the back bedroom. We should finish most of it before the end of the week. Saturday we are planning to drive back to Maine, and load up the U-Haul and bring everything down to this house. Then back to Maine on the 18th or so. Lots of working, painting, and driving this week. Not much has changed in my life so far! I have taken lots of pictures with my new camera, so they will be up on here soon.