As part of the Peace Corps 50th anniversary celebrations, Peace Corps Moldova put together a blog called "365 days of Peace and Friendship". Volunteers in Moldova are the contributors to the blog and everyday a different volunteer serves up his/her story from Moldova. There are no parameters for contributions which allows all volunteers full creative license. I posted to this blog last week and because I am at a loss for what to post I have decided to re-post what I contributed here. Feel free to explore the 365 website at this address to read the stories of my fellow volunteers in Moldova.
https://sites.google.com/a/365peaceandfriendship.com/365peaceandfriendship/home
Like many of my fellow volunteers, I joined the Peace Corps straight out of University. I came from a hyper active bubble of academia, strict deadlines, and fast paced classrooms. I had a typical college schedule filled with late nights, tons of coffee and a thirst for productivity. I kept a schedule, worked off a check-list, stressed about nearly every aspect of my life and always thought at least ten steps ahead. And so, when I decided to join the Peace Corps I thought, like most type-A volunteers do, that I would venture off to a new country, learn a language and make a meaningful impact in a community that was waiting on the edge of their seats for my arrival.
I made check-lists of all the wonderful things I wanted to accomplish, I made timelines of how I would complete project after successful project and I filed away deadlines in my mind that would allow for optimal success. I knew my planned ‘awesomeness’ could not go astray, it couldn’t, I had built such a strong Peace
Corps syllabus for myself, the classrooms I had spent four years of my life in couldn’t fail me, not if I prepared.
As the time neared to take off on this great adventure the people in my life all talked about how wonderful they thought it was that I was going to give two years of my life. I smiled, and said how I was excited for the challenge and to go get work done. It was so simple to plan, and dream, and get caught in the excitement and anticipation of my pre-departure period. I took my final exams, walked in my graduation robes, celebrated with friends and family, and packed my bags for the next 27 months. The time was going to fly by.
The M26 group, Peace Corps Moldova, landed in Chisinau on June 8 2011. We carried with us not only heavy bags filled with warm winter clothes we were warned were necessary for the cold winter months, but dreams of big change and hopes for our future in this little land locked post-soviet nation.
As I started settling in after the first two months of training, I began to realize life in Moldova was not going to be what I had expected of it. My coffee addiction was traded for tea. My list of projects were all deemed un-fit, un-sustainable or un-important. My timeline was passing deadlines with no progress. Not every person I encountered was overjoyed to have me living in their country. My life had to happen within the hours of sunlight. And ultimately, my idea of success had to be reworked. Was this what I spent over a year applying for?
At first I fought it; this wasn’t what it was supposed to be. I was supposed to be the superhero. Instead I ended most days feeling tired, confused and often utterly dejected. As time passed I began to wonder why any of us had chosen to leave our family and friends to be in this place. And then, one day I woke up and realized that my idea of success had changed. Success wasn’t the number of successful projects I completed, or the amount of money I was able to raise. Success would be my ability to live happily in this community, my ability to share in the everyday experiences. My ability to make my neighbor smile when I walked pass her on my way to work, my ability to share my little knowledge of computers with the people in my office, my ability to prepare pancakes for my host mom on a Sunday morning, my ability to simply live would be my success.
My new goal, that I try to live by everyday, is that if I am the only American that the people in my community ever come in contact with, they will think highly of the people and the country that I represent, that will be what makes me proud, that will be my success. That will be my small, unglamorous, contribution. And, that will be enough for me.
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