I'm loving my (Peace Corps) life

Since coming back to Moldova from my vacation in the States, I have been in such a good state of mind. Content, happy, feeling really good about being here and the work that I am doing. Yippee! It feels good to feel fulfilled. It was reassuring to be home and to see everyone thriving without me. It was mostly good to just see everyone, period. And now I have less than a year to serve. I know it will pass quickly, even if some days drag on forever.

While I was home I talked with family and friends about my work, and my life here, and what is good, and not so good about the Peace Corps life. I mostly only have positive things to say about my Peace Corps experience. While the initial weeks and months were a struggle for me, it was more about my personal responsibilities that I abdicated to others, than it was anything that the Peace Corps did or did not provide. Its a great organization overall. Like many big organizations, there is often the perception that there are too many layers, too much bureaucracy. I'm guessing that is true, but as a volunteer I am mostly, and blissfully, unaware of most of this bureaucratic layering. What I am aware of, and what I started to talk about was a sort of "colonialist" model that Peace Corps has. In talking with another volunteer upon my return, she corrected me. As volunteers, we are not forcing anyone to espouse American, or Western, ways of thinking. We are not trying to "take over" anyone or anything. What I came to realize in this conversation (thank you, Zan, for helping me to clarify my argument) is not that Peace Corps is "colonialist", but rather it is unilateral. There is not the sharing of experiences across cultures that there could be. It is not as collaborative an engagement as is possible. Its good, but its not great. It could be better.

So, the big question is: What will I accomplish in the coming year? In a program specific questionnaire that we received a few months ago about how to improve partner relationships, an idea began to germinate. In the coming year I would like to bring my Moldovan partner to the States to see programs and services that are designed to serve the same, or similar populations (elderly and child residential programs). I want this field trip to offer her some of the richness of experience that I have been blessed to have here in Moldova. I want to be able to help her expand her frame of reference on what is truly possible. She is visionary, but limited by resources and knowledge. To increase knowledge is to improve sustainability. I think it is a great opportunity for both of us to increase our collaborative efforts.

So here is the scheming part of my "Dreams and Schemes". I am looking to you, my friends and family, and even strangers who read this who have never met me, to contribute to this effort. I understand that Peace Corps, as a taxpayer funded organization, cannot use any of its funds to pay for our host country friends and partners in any way. I generally agree with that stance. What that position does mean, though, is that I cannot use any Peace Corps money in furtherance of this goal. So I am looking to you, your church organizations, scout troops, community service projects, whomever you are, to help me make this dream happen. My parents, who have power of attorney, can deposit checks to help off-set expenses. Their name/address: James and Beverly Kelly, PO Box 1205, Wolfeboro, NH 03894. Thank you and I miss you all. xoxo, Jami

"I used to assume that the direction of 'progress' was somehow inevitable, not to be questioned. I passively accepted a new road through the middle of the park, a steel-and-glass bank where a 200 year old church had stood...and the fact that life seemed to get harder and faster with each day. I do not anymore...I have learned that there is more than one path into the future and I have had the privilege to witness another, saner way of life - a pattern of existence based on the co-evolution between human beings and the earth...Community and a close relationship with the land can enrich human life beyond all comparison with material wealth or technological sophistication. I have learned that another way is possible."

Helena Norberg-Hodge in Ancient Futures, found in Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I just finished Three Cups of Tea, and found it really inspirational. Maybe its where my head is at....

Memorial Day

Memorial Day. No holiday here in Moldova, but still a day of remembrance for Americans. And, of course, its the unofficial beginning of summer. Love it!! This is the last week of school here, and many kids are already spending their non-class time helping in the family gardens. There is not a lot of free time for kids here in the village.

We received this information last week in our Weekly Highlights, and I thought it was interesting information about the political process here. As you may remember, after the election on April 5, there was rioting in Chişinău. From Jeffrey Goveia, our acting Country Director:

I got a request from a Volunteer to give a quick review of the election. While, I’ll admit that this is a confusing process to explain, I’d prefer trying to explain this process to you than trying to explain the Electoral College to anybody. Let me try to sort through what I’ve been told. As you probably know, the President here is elected by Parliament by a minimally-required, super-majority vote of 61 (greater than a 3/5ths majority) members of parliament. The Party of Communists currently holds 60 votes in Parliament…one vote shy of the needed super majority. At this point, all three opposition parties have stated that they will boycott the vote for President. The vote for President is by secret ballot, BUT…the fact that a person votes is NOT a secret. The members of Parliament must leave the chambers, walk into the hallways, get a ballot from a registrar, walk into a voting booth, and then deposit his or her vote into a voting box. As such while any given vote is private, it does not appear possible for any given opposition party member to decide to vote without this being known. This provides a very public mechanism to help ensure party “discipline”.

At this point, the first attempt to elect a President will be held on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009. The Party of Communists has submitted two names for consideration. The first is outgoing Prime Minister Zinaida Greceanii and the second is an academic, Stanislav Gropa. As the opposition parties are boycotting the vote, there are no opposition candidates under consideration.

If no candidate receives sufficient votes in the first round of voting on May 20th, a second round of voting must be held within 15 days. If no President can be elected within three rounds or by June 7th, then the acting President (former President and current Speaker of Parliament, Vladimir Voronin) must dissolve Parliament and announce new elections. I’ve not yet succeeded in tracking down the time given for the new elections to be held. Assuming new elections are called, it appears that Vladimir Voronin will continue to serve as Acting President and Head of Government until a new President can be elected.

An update to this is that there was no President elected this past week, and a second round of voting is scheduled for next week. I think its interesting information, even though we are not involved in the internal electoral process here in any way.

Other than this political news, and my return to village life from my mini-vacation in Cahul, its back to work and focus on the day to day routine. I hope you are all well and enjoying the holiday. I miss you all. xoxo, Jami

Cahul

Today I am writing from an Internet cafe in the city of Cahul. Why am I here, you ask? I've only been back for a little over a week. Shouldn't I be staying in my village? Well, yes, the short answer is that I should be there, but sometimes life involves the longer answer.

Last Tuesday I was in Chisinau for the day, really only taking the time to meet with the doctor (no rabies booster, yay!) and have a nice lunch with Teresa. Together we also went shopping for a small gift for Ana. A nice day. Wednesday and Thursday were spent uneventfully at work. The party for Ana was scheduled for Friday, and I had already made plans to return to Chisinau on Friday. The doctor needed to meet with me to "read" the TB shot in 72 hours, and the plan always was to return to Chisinau at the end of the week. As I looked at my calendar, and thought about what my plans would be for the summer, I realized that I have not done a lot of traveling to visit other parts of Moldova, and have not seen the work that my colleagues are doing. Two of the places that I really want to travel to this summer include Cahul in the southwest part of Moldova, and Balti, in the north. I have been to see the villages of some of the others in my original training group: I have been to Teresa's many times, and I have also traveled to the village where Veronica lives, and also to Toumil's village. These two small towns are not really so different from my village in many ways. Village life is village life pretty much. The other two women that I trained with in PST (Pre-Service Training) are Jamie and Na'Ima. Jamie lives in a small village, and Na'Ima lives in Cahul. Sort of on a whim I gave Na'Ima a call on Thursday evening to see if she would be open to some company. And here I am.

Friday after the very brief doctor appontment, and a nice party for Ana, a group of us had an apartment for the night and spend some fun time together going out for dinner and karaoke. No, I did not sing. Its enough fun to watch this silliness. Saturday and Sunday were spent in our last language IST (In-Service Training) and a language exam on Sunday afternoon. The previous two times that I have had my language tested my physical health has not been so good. I'm not sure how I did on the exam this time, but at least I felt good. I know last time I was surprised that I had improved a level when I felt so bad. I am not expecting to improve another level, but we'll see.

Sunday afternoon I left Chisinau with Na'Ima to come to Cahul. It is a nice, small city. The population is maybe about 40,000, and there are many amenities that are not available in the village. It is still easy to navigate by foot, and it seems that many or most residents do not own cars. There are more cars here, for sure, and tractors in town, but still, many people walk. Right now there are two voluteers in Cahul, Na'Ima and Jen. Jen is ending her service this summer, so I wanted to be sure to visit before she left. Even though I am not so far in distance from my village to Cahul, there is no easy way to cross this country, and travel is most efficient through the capital. It made sense to do this visit now, while I already was in Chisinau, and I am so glad that I decided to come now. Na'Ima has been a great hostess and I have joined her at work yesterday and today. Today there is a seminar that her organization is sponsoring. It is in Russian, so we understand very little. It is a presentation that is offered by two consultants from Latvia and Russian is the unifying language. Since there is little to understand, we have come to the internet cafe, but now it is time for lunch. Gotta go back for that! I hope everyone is well. I miss you all. xoxo, Jami

Back in Moldova

It was a great vacation. I got to everything that I wanted to do for three weeks. Even though there were people that I didn't get to see, I got to see many of the people that I wanted to. Now I am back. It was not nearly as hard to leave this time as it was last year. Now there is less than a year to serve. I more or less know what to expect of the remainder of my time here, its not so scary and crazy as it was starting out. I have friends here. Life goes on.

Some of the highlights of my time home include the time I got to spend with Linnea, my parents, my brother and sister and their families, my grandparents, my new son-in-law, Joe, my step-grandson, Joey, Joe's family, meeting my new friend, Kim, seeing Bob, and Mike, and too many other family and friends to mention...you know who you are! Really, just seeing people that I love was my main reason for coming home. It was so worth it.

And now I am back. The flight back was much more uneventful than the flight home. For those of you who do not know, I got a case of food poisoning right before I flew out of Moldova. As someone said to me..."What a crappy way to start your vacation, no pun intended". Accurate, but not pleasant. I did spend the first night back here in the Medical apartment and the doctor very graciously came in on Saturday morning to talk with me about it. She said that after three weeks I was probably over everything, and had cured myself, but I am scheduled to come back to Chisinau tomorrow for them to double-check me, give me a TB and a B12 shot, and believe it or not, today, my very first day back in the village, I got bit by a dog again! That makes three. The second one didn't break skin, so I may not have written of it. This bite hurts, but I don't think they will give me another booster. We'll see. I don't know what it is with the dogs here. They are a source of curiosity for me, on so many levels.

It was good to spend a nice warm late Spring weekend in Chisinau. I was supposed to have a language training this past weekend, but while I was home it was postponed until this coming weekend. We will be having our last language exam until we finish service. Because they were not expecting me until Sunday afternoon I decided to spend the weekend in the city before re-integrating back to village life. Sort of slow things down a bit...get used to Moldova urban life before going back to the village life...which is, as I have shared, extremely slow. Saturday was a fun time. There were lots of volunteers in Chisinau, and Saturday night was a dinner at a Mexican restaurant for about twelve of us. It was Andrea's 24th birthday, and she joined the group, which was nice. Andrea is the volunteer who lives in the village closest to me. Her mother is coming for a visit this weekend, and I know she is looking forward to that. She has been having a rough week, and family visits always help.

Today when I went into work everyone, but especially the kids, all seemed so happy to see me. That was really, really great, and just what I needed to feel like this work matters. Maybe some days it only matters to one little kid, but it matters. So, with that feeling this afternoon, I left work, and went for a walk, only to end up getting bitten by that pesky mutt. Some days it is up one and back two. Today it felt like up two, and back one, so I'm still ahead. It really is okay being back here. I wasn't sure how I would feel after being home, and I'm guessing there will still be hard (lonely) days ahead, but right now I am on a "home visit high". Its sort of funny to me that while I was home there were things that were overwhelming to me (the mess in the attic, Walmart, traffic, thinking about next year when I am really home for good). Not the visiting, ever, but some of the things about our way of life are just so hectic/commercial, and I guess I had forgotten, or took for granted that everything at home would feel natural. Not always so, and a little surprising to me. I wonder if there is a middle ground? I wonder if it is just me? I wonder what's next...after tomorrow, of course.

Belated Mother's Day greetings to my mother, my grandmother, Linnea, and to all of my friends to whom this applies. Betsy's mother, Sarah, is back living at home, Michele is home from the hospital, doing well, and getting ready for a family cruise. My thoughts go out to Kim who has recently lost her father. The sun is warm, and the days are long. Spring! I miss you all. xoxo, Jami