My Parents

I have written before about my parents, and how they have supported this journey. What I haven't written is how they have always supported me, and my siblings, in every journey, and in everything that we have done. They are wonderful as individuals, and awesome as a team. For the past fifty-two years they have worked together to create a wonderful family. By their example, they have imparted the values that I hold most dear: commitment, respect, loyalty, honesty, integrity, hard-work, love of others, and compassion. It is also through their example that I have learned the importance of a good education, civic responsibility, and social justice. They have always been fair in their judgements of others, and have been respectful of others at all times. They may have sacrificed personal goals for the sake of family life, but I have never been aware of such sacrifice, for it has never been spoken of. If they have quarreled over the years, it has been a private matter, resolved between the two of them. I have never been asked to choose sides. By growing up in their loving home, I have been been blessed to know the way that love compromises for a greater good. Thank you, Mom and Dad, and Happy Anniversary! I love you, Jami

Merry Christmas 2008!

Merry Christmas, everyone, from Moldova to wherever you are! There is no Christmas here in my village today. Everyone here celebrates Christmas following the Eastern Orthodox calendar, which puts their Christmas at January 7th, and New Year's on the 14th. My co-workers and host family wished me a merry Christmas this morning, so that was nice. This morning before going to work I opened my packages which I had received earlier and saved for today. I am wearing my new long johns, drinking real hot chocolate (with mini-marshmallows) and eating Christmas cookies! Not exactly home, but not too bad, considering everything.

I just wanted to send out a quick note, and let everyone know that I am thinking about and missing you all. Tess called last night, and that was an awesome surprise, and I have heard from so many people via email. I really feel blessed this Christmas. I am lucky to have this opportunity, and even though its not the same as being home with my own family, its still a cool thing. Love you all, XOXO Jami

Snowy Solstice

The shortest day of the year, already getting dark here at 3:40. Actually, the sun hasn't been out all week. Dreary, dreary weather. This morning I went out for a walk in the fog. By the time I got home, it had changed from misty fog, to freezing rain, and then into snow, with the snow being best of all. I think it has stopped now, without too much accumulation. At least there is not as much snow here as Maine is getting right now.

There has been "real" work to do everyday now, and that is such a welcome thing. I have gotten so good at being busy at created work, that there has been a little bit of an adjustment in finding enough time to do the real work! By Wednesday morning when I went to work there was finally both heat and hot water at the Center. The residents, both the girls and the women all seem to be adjusting well. I have been spending much more time with the little girls. It is much easier to communicate with them and they like to play (and so do I!). There is Maria, Julia, Luba, Vera, Luminita, and Sveta. Maria and Julia are sisters, as are Luba and Vera. They are all so cute, and I look forward to going to work to see them everyday. This week I am planning to spend more time with the older residents. It is harder for me, as they tend to prefer to speak Russian. I am learning some Russian phrases and the Cyrillic alphabet, but it is enough of a challenge to spend the whole day speaking Romanian. I keep working it, so it gets better, but it is still one of the hardest parts of this experience for me.

Yesterday I spent the day in Chisinau. There were two meetings that I attended: One for the Model United Nations program (MUN). My partner is hoping to coach a team to send to the regional competition. This is a program that past Peace Corps volunteers have spear-headed. They also have been involved in bringing Odyssey of the Mind (OM) to Moldova, along with sport teams, mostly basketball and baseball competitions; summer camps, and a whole bunch of other "secondary" activities, like the English clubs that I have been doing here in my village. The problem with secondary activities is figuring out how to make them sustainable after the volunteer leaves a community. The MUN program is in the process of moving from being a totally Peace Corps sponsored activity to one that includes more Moldovan people in the planning and implementation of this activity. The volunteers who are organizing the competition are working with the Ministry of Education to see that it has broader support within the existing educational programs. I am not an organizer, but am willing to help support this activity in my town, with my partner as a coach. We'll see how it goes. The other meeting that I attended was for the Peer Support Network (PSN). I think Peace Corps loves acronyms more than any other organization I have ever work for! Anyway, PSN is a group of volunteers who get together to figure out ways to support the larger PC community. Overall, I think its a nice idea, and although this group is a little loose in structure, it is well-intentioned and with some interesting discussions and interpretations of what constitutes support.

After these two meetings, the PSN group sponsored a little holiday gathering, which I did not stick around for. I gathered up my package, (thanks, Mom and Dad!) visited briefly with Rian and had some home-made chili, went to the piata for some oranges and hot chocolate and was on the bus home at 5. The difference in daylight between June and now is probably close to 8 hours. This summer it was light in the mornings when I got on the bus at 5 am, and was still light long after I would get home after 8 pm. Yesterday it was just getting light when I arrived in Chisinau after 8:30 am, and was dark before I got on the bus to come back to my village at 5 pm. Oh well. Now they are getting longer, and that's what I hold on to.

This week I will be working all week. No Christmas here until January, and no plans to do anything special, except open my packages. That will be special enough. I am thinking of you all, and hope that everyone has a really wonderful and special holiday. Miss you and will be with you all in spirit, XOXO Jami

Finally!

Finally, after two weeks without a computer, I think I am finally back online and the computer is working the way it is supposed to. I had my Internet service upgraded, but like many things here, the process was much more involved and time-consuming than I expected. There were a couple of days where I was very frustrated, to say the least. The Internet "cafe" in town is not really a cafe, and is filled with adolescent boys playing video games. There are 7 computers, and three of them are hooked up to the Internet. A wait of anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to check email. Again, my patience has been tested, and I have made it through another test...

Since I last wrote, the Center has really moved forward in a very positive way. The first week of December, there was a lot of entertaining of local community members, the funders, and then some dignitaries/funders from the World Bank. They had come from Kiev and Chisinau, and were offered traditional Moldovan cuisine, which they seemed to enjoy. There were lots of questions, and emails were exchanged. Last week was spent doing home visits with the social workers to some of the elderly residents of village who might be interested in moving into the Center for the Winter, along with visits to families who have orphan children. These children might only have both parents working outside of the country, and be living with other relatives, or one or both parents might not be able to care for their children, not necessarily orphans in the sense that both parents are deceased. I went along to visit some of the elderly, and the conditions under which some people live here are indescribably bad. Just so sad, worse than anything I have ever seen. And, I've seen a lot. Today, some children and elderly people began to move in, most with just with a bag of clothing. That's all they brought, and maybe all they have. Again, so sad. And, today the heat and water in the building did not work. It was cold. I am sure nicer and warmer than where these folks may have been living, but cold. I hope everything is working the way it is supposed to by tomorrow. **Note on Tuesday: We have 4 elderly women, and 6 little girls living at the Center. Lots and lots of females in my life now...It's a good time! I think I speak at the level of a 3 or 4 year old, so I am in good company.

Another thing that has been talked about in town, is another death of a young person from the village. This is the fourth death of a young person since I have been here. There were the two that I wrote about in June, and then in September there was a beating of a young man along the road where I walk. It was late at night and two other men from a neighboring village beat him, and he died. This young man, 25, was killed in a car accident in Chisinau. His father was working in Russia and his mother is in Italy. She was not able to come home, as she is there illegally, and would not be able to return. I did hear that his father did come home. As a mother, that is one of the saddest circumstances that I have heard in a long time.

With the colder weather, I am still walking, but finding more time to read. It is dark so early, and so I am reading more. I have finished 1001 Arabian Nights; 750 pages, with 150 pages of end notes! I have been reading a lot of historical fiction: First, War and Peace, then two novels of the Tudor reign, The Queen's Fool about Queen Mary, The Virgin's Lover, about the early years of Queen Elizabeth, both by Phillipa Gregory; Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak; Two books sent by my mom: October Sky, by Homer Hickam, Jr. and The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. This week I have read Between Two Worlds by Sadhana Banerjee, and two books by David Sedaris: Barrel Fever and Naked.

The weather is definitely December weather. Not the icy mess that has been in Maine this past week, but cold and damp. This past weekend was the brightest full moon I can remember for a long time. I traveled with some of the other volunteers to just north of Orhei to visit with Toumil in her village. We had a nice slumber party, Thai food and sappy movies. Just four girls, hanging out in Telenesti. It was a nice getaway. There is no holiday hustle and bustle. Following the Orthodox calendar, Christmas is celebrated here on January 7, and New Year's is on January 14th. It sure will be quiet here on the 25th. I'm glad I have saved a package to open! Birthday greetings, some of them late because of not being online, to: Mike, Adena, Shawn, Aleece, Martha, Michele's grandson, who just celebrated his first birthday, Emile and Robin. Hope you have/had great birthdays! Now that I'm re-connected, I hope to write more regularly. Miss you all. XOXO, Jami

PS. A funny note aside. I typed this yesterday, and then lost service until just about an hour ago when I got home from work! Thank goodness Blogger auto saves stuff, and I didn't have to re-create everything!