Sunday evening

Here it is, the middle of June. The very best time of year. Plus, its my birthday! Yippee! This year it was mostly a quiet day, after five days in Chişinău with the new trainees. That was a lot of fun, filled with busy days and late nights. Wednesday and Thursday were spent shopping for small gifts, preparing events and activities, making signs to hold up at the airport. Fun stuff, but nothing too taxing.

Thursday evening the trainees arrived. Tired, excited, overwhelmed. All of us "seasoned" volunteers spent time remembering how it was for each of us as we entered this service, and this different culture. We spent a lot of time talking about how the past year and few months has changed us, and brought a different perspective to how we view ourselves and others. For me, it was a reminder of the reasons that I wanted to do this work in the first place: the enthusiasm, the pride, the belief that one person really can make a difference. It was good for me to remember.

Thursday night after getting settled there was pizza and a little time out on the town. I met Jon and passed on the greetings from his family. He gave me a big hug and literally lifted me up off my feet! What a nice young man, one who will be learning Russian instead of Romanian. It is always good to have Russian-speaking friends! Friday and yesterday were spent moving people and luggage from one location to another, organizing meals out on the town in Chişinău, buying forgotten items for the trainees, and again, late nights. Yesterday evening by 6 pm, all of the new trainees were moved from Chişinău into their training villages. Last night it was dinner with five other volunteers and then an early evening. This morning I picked up my three (!!!) packages, sat on the bus for three hours, and now I am relaxing and catching up on all that I missed here in my village. Tomorrow it is back to work.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes, especially thanks to my Mom and Dad, Linnea and Joe, Kim, Mike and Bob for the packages. Thank you all who have already made donations for my special project. It means so much for the future of the work here. I have so much to be grateful for. Happy Fahter's Day to my Dad, my brother, Nick, Joe and all my friends to whom this applies. Special thoughts this week for my friend and fellow volunteer, Justin, as he is being sent to Washington for some testing tomorrow morning. This week should be back to the quiet routine of village life. As I have learned, there really is no routine to village life, although it is usually a quiet life. I miss you all. xoxo, Jami