Finding Love In The Peace Corps

Today marks a special day. Not a special day in my Peace Corps service but, a day that marks a year of love that was found in the Peace Corps. It's funny really, the reasons we join the Peace Corps, to find greater meaning in our own life, to help the global community on a grass roots level, to foster a better understanding of our nationality abroad while developing our own sense of pride for our homeland and our new home abroad.

I had a laundry list of reasons as to why I wanted to join the Peace Corps and no where on the list was 'to find love'. I was so sure I wouldn't find love that I went out of my way to pack long-lasting, low-maintenance, frump-a-licious clothing, that would later stand in the way of my trying to find a suitable outfit for the rare occurrence of a date night.

As anyone who is in a Peace Corps relationship knows, the frills go out the window from square one. But along with the frills goes the make-up to mask insecurities, the cars that easily transport you to that person 24/7 allowing for quick-to-form dependencies, and the salary that pays for expensive lifestyles that can lead to shallow intentions. And, after all of these factors are taken out one is left with the opportunity to meet a person and get to know them in a unique environment, away from the hustle and bustle of our busy American lives.

Falling in love with an American in Moldova has been one of the best things to happen to me. Meeting that person and knowing they care for you, not because you are wearing nice make-up and own in-style clothing. But, rather share a deep and meaningful connection in the world around you, share a similar temperament and moral compass, while also sharing awesome common interests like travel, finance and delicious food, is a wonderful backdrop to the beginning of a love story.

Our love story by no means is extraordinary and, I won't sit here and ramble with our 'how we met' story. We both regard ourselves as rather average Americans, we both have plenty of flaws that make up the fabric of who we are, Peace Corps has a special way of teaching a person patients and that has helped us both in our own lives and as a couple. We just happen to be two of the lucky ones who found each other, thousands of miles away from home.

Making a two year commitment to Peace Corps is all a part of the journey. And, he had been in the country a year when I arrived. From the start we both questioned whether we were fools for letting ourselves fall in love, knowing we would be a part the following year. We decided to let our hearts command the decision, pushing our (perhaps) better judgement aside. So today, on our one year anniversary, we will sit on opposite sides of the globe. Connected by a shaky stream of internet, we will chat on skype, and play a rousing game of online scrabble. It won't be the anniversary we would wish for but, it will be unique nonetheless.

The year of skype dates has officially commenced.

...No one knows what the future holds but, I do know that I am so lucky to have found a person I love so much and if my luck doesn't run dry this year, our second anniversary together (hopefully in the same place) will be all the sweeter.

Love and peace

Summer Camp

Last week I worked with the American Council in Chisinau as they put on a summer camp for students learning English. The week was fun but very very hot (high 90s and low 100s). The campers and staff were all lodged at a local private school in the capital and from there all lessons and activities were facilitated.

The first day of the camp I was told to find my way to the school by 2:30 in the afternoon, that was when my responsibilities for the day would be kicking-in (earlier than most days). I had gotten directions to the school from a few different sources but none of them seemed all that confident in their explanation. I began to worry that finding the school might actually lead me to being late, which I hate to be. So, after finding another volunteer who had been out to the school before for a different conference I was able to persuade her that escorting me to the school was a really fun idea, and of course I would throw in her public transport costs as good measure. With my handy escort in toe we headed out at about 2pm. I was told it would take no more than twenty minutes to get to where we needed to be. We hopped on a routiera headed out to the section of town we were looking for, not paying much attention to specific numbers. This was mistake number one. We also informed the driver of where we were headed, the Science Academy. He nodded and told us we would be going there. I saw this as a great sign.

We were passing all the landmarks I was told to watch out for so I asked the driver to stop. As we were getting off he looked at us and told us this wasn't the right place to get off. The location we were going to was over a bridge and so we figured maybe the driver was going to loop back around and would drop us closer, thanks driver guy! So, we patiently sat back down waiting for him to make the loop. The loop was not made, and we turned down a little street heading in the opposite direction from where we were headed. No problem, we still had 15 minutes, we could still easily make it with a few minutes to spare, if we turned around...right now.

The driver pulled up in front of a large building and told us this was what we were looking for. I knew immediately we should have gotten off earlier when he said this. The other volunteer and I explained to the driver that, no, this was not what we were looking for. We wanted to go to the Science Academy and he was pointing to the Academy of Administration. After a long winded arguing match, where he told us to get out and check, he finally realized that we were not going to get out of his routiera. Begrudgingly he brought us to the end of his route, pulled over, and asked some of his buddies who drive the same route, if they knew where we were looking for. Of course they all finally understood, and the driver took the opportunity to tell us that we were looking for the Science Academy School, and had we said that, he would have known what we meant. (I'm sorry but I don't see how this makes a large difference, in no way is science the same thing as administration, and there were no other science schools in the area.)

I now had five minutes to get to the school. We got on one of his buddies routiera, that was headed out on his route, so that we could get off where we had originally wanted to get off, after paying another ride fee of course. Finally, we were back in the area we needed to be, but we still needed to walk to the school. We now had two minutes to somehow find the school. I knew I was going to be late, I had to face the facts. I grabbed my cell phone that had about half a minute of credit on it and dialed the number of the camp director and apologized for my tardiness, but that I would in fact be there in the next fifteen minutes. He seemed un phased by my absence, I guessed this was a good sign. After walking in the wrong direction for about five minutes my helpful escort (just kidding Katie) realized we needed to be going the other way. We turned around and finally made our way in the correct direction. What had been a planned twenty minute trip somehow turned into an hour. I hurried into the school and went in search of the campers. When I finally found them they were busy at work on a scavenger hunt. The director told me that they had changed the schedule that morning and that I wasn't needed until 5pm. I was relieved but also thought it would have been nice to know about that an hour ago. Nevertheless the rest of the day went smoothly.

My responsibility at the camp was the 'team building' portion of each day. This portion of the day came at the very end of each day, usually after dinner. I got the students when they were worn-out, tired, and all they really wanted was to lock themselves away in their rooms and speak Romanian after a long day of non-stop English. But, I was in charge of creating a couple of hours of fun in their day. Now, I don't think I would necessarily say I am great with kids which led  me to wonder how on earth I was going to keep a group of high school students engaged and participating in whatever 'fun' activities I had up my sleeve. After a rousing name game we played a couple other team building games, which to my delight seemed to be enjoyed by all the students. Clearly the rest of the day was dedicated to academics and this was their one chance to play and goof around.

They were all enthralled in the fact that I was an American who actually enjoyed living in their country and would be spending my week playing with them each day. It's comical how one becomes popular based on ones nationality over here.

The rest of the week fell into place quite easily, the students enjoyed our sessions and, I enjoyed their enthusiasm. By the end of the week we had all built that traditional 'camp bond'. They were all truly sorry to be going and they sweetly gave me hugs as we parted ways. I promised to make a surprise appearance at their lessons sometime during the year, I'm not sure how much incentive that is to continue attending the classes, but hey, maybe it is.

Just another summery week over here, wishing you sunshine wherever you are!