A very common topic for discussion amongst volunteers in Romania is "why are we here?" I'm sure I've already touched on this before, but with our washers, our internet connections, our TVs, our European Union funds, our fast food, our electronic billboards, our flushing toilets and our lofty offices with ArcGIS, it's tough to say "I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer", and really feel it. Feel like you belong to that community which, two years ago, sounded so hard core and selfless and true. But you take what you get and you make something out of it. So what if my projects don't involve building latrines in my neighborhood? Or educating mothers about AIDs? Or establishing the first library in my village? If I was in a place that needed it, I'd like to think that I'd be working on it. But it's difficult to say to the volunteers who did those things, "I teach English to adults at the Environmental Protection Agency and hold a drama club with teenagers", and feel like you've been involved in the same Peace Corps or have had any sort of comparable impact. Every assignment is different, no doubt about that. And every volunteer would handle each assignment differently. That's the beauty and the pain in Peace Corps. It's an experience that leaves me constantly questioning everything about it. What if I had gone to Africa instead? Would I be feeling more fulfilled or would I have already ET'd? What if I was placed in that tiny village up north? Would I be speaking fluently and eating dinner with a little old bunica each night and really feeling it? Feeling like a PCV? Who the hell knows. These are questions I am sick of asking myself and the answers are impossible to know and pointless to fathom. Romania and peace corps still see a need for us to be here, so I'm here to help and that's all there is to it, babies saved and libraries built or not.
Well, mini rant over. I just wanted to post a link to this story cause I thought it was interesting: http://www.thirdgoal.com/ottojones/2005/12/12/posh-corps/
Been a year since I saw Reno. I was in a plane preparing to land in Philadelphia at this exact moment. One year ago.
6 comments:
I'm proud of you Bear... your presence makes a place better whether the place is a booming metropolis, a small village in Africa or at a cafe in Reno.
Congratulations on making the year!!! That is huge in and of itself.
Love ya
~R
That link was really interesting. I'm going to pass it on to Adam. It seems like almost any job people brag about how they have it worse than others - I know we do it in grad school. I've done it myself, though I shouldn't have.
Ace
It is wonderful that you are brave enough to venture out into a new culture. There is a very small percentage of people who ever do. Love, Mom & Ozzie
You are amazing Erin and don't you forget it!
Love,
Lyns
Hey Erin, when I was in the PC we had a running joke that we were in Peace Corps Light because the Dominican Republic is so close to the U.S. and I lived in a village with no electricity and mud shacks. Until you get pretty far down the chain, there is always someone who has it rougher than you. Whenever someone asks what the PC is "like" I want to say, it is completely different for everyone and so it isn't "like" anything, it's just your experience. :)
Interesting posts! Been in Romania, first time in '98 when there was so little in any of the stores and if you found something to buy you had to have almost correct change as no one had anything in the till. It's come up in the world!
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