When I left for Romania and Peace Corps, I'd been packed to go a solid week before leaving. It is now less than 24 hours before I start my long journey back home, and I'm not packed at all. And I'm blogging instead.

I am drinking coffee however. And for whatever reason, I'm in the mood for an all nighter. So, I'll put all my valuables into 2 bags and call it a night...day...whatever time I finish.

Saying goodbye is so hard. Sometimes I try to philosophize myself out of it and convince myself that "good"bye can't be all bad. Maybe it's not, but it's certainly not all good either.

What helps me though is thinking of all the good times. Lately that's where I've been trying to steer my conversations and thoughts .."remember the time when....". Its kind of fabulous to do so because then the other person remembers things too, and you end up laughing a lot.

Last weekend I had a bbq at my place. Pretty good turnout and I think I got all of the existing traditional cultural memorabilia in my city as gifts from the Romanians in attendance. Such beautiful things. I'm having them shipped to me, so in 3-6 months (boat is the only affordable option for me right now) I'll get to relive my days in this region. I spread it all out on my bed today and got this overwhelming feeling of.... love and appreciation and joy. I've been so emotional lately that sometimes I start crying... but anymore I don't know if they are tears of saddness to leave, or tears of happiness that I've had a good 2 years.

Here are some pictures.

Here are American buddies at a BBQ the night before. The people that own the shop outside of the apt saw us and turned on the radio in his car for us to dance to.

All the sitemates:

Mmm...waiting for delicious meat:

No Romanian bbq is complete without 2 liter plastic bottles of beer.

Receiving presents is always a good thing too:

I've collected quite a few balloons over my 2 years here. We made good use of them.

There was lots of silliness had by all:

Like posing for what would be the cover of an awesome 80s cassette tape (note the shoulder pads)......

Over the past few days, I've been on many a juice date. Here are some collegues from work and I. I suggested making a funny face...but I guess I was the only one who took the request seriously

Well, I'm not sure when I'll post next. I can't wait to see everyone Stateside. I can't wait to get life updates and hang out with everyone. Life has been very good to me. I can't wait to see you all!

Ok, now it's time to actually pack.

  Hey!

May started with the American population in Camp Mo increasing by one. In Romanian, the new volunteer is described as my “succesor” (meaning the person coming after me) which makes me feel a little like royalty; the new volunteer was quick to correct me that it also made it sound like I was dying royalty (because you can’t have a successor without the first one getting the axe…). I’ll take all I can get J.

One random day we went to the local high school with my counterpart. We ended up learning how to do the traditional cultural dance in the area. Here’s some pictures.

The first weekend she was in town, we went to one of my colleagues’ summer houses and had a truly international pancake feast where we made Romanian clatite, American pancakes, and waffles bought from the big German supermarket. My colleague has relatives in Canada who sent over real maple syrup. It was a delicious cross cultural experience.

ooo, pancake flipping!

This month we also finally wrapped up all of the volunteer projects associated with the training volunteers in advocacy project started at the beginning of the year. One group of volunteers composed of teachers and students from 2 local high schools coordinated an anti-violence talent show (since violence in schools can cause mental health problems). The other group that I helped coordinate included volunteers and students from the local environmental school who planted a garden at the psychiatric hospital. Everyone worked hard and I’m happy that now he have a much larger volunteer force. We also officially wrapped up the entire project by having an awards banquet for all of the participants.

Here are some pictures.

I feel like there are all sorts of results that occurred through this project. We measured before and after attitudes toward people with disabilities and got statistically significant increase in positive attitudes. Almost all the volunteers reported that they felt more socially responsible. 250 students and 12 teachers learned about mental health problems through one of the concrete projects encouraged in this project, and that project inspired other students to want to speak out about violence in schools to other schools in a similar fashion. The foundation’s club is now open an extra day of the week and promotional material has been produced – that project was completed mostly by mental health users and shows that people with mental health problems can fulfill a civil responsibility. Students and teachers came together to inspire more than 20 students to write essays, create slideshows, and videos about anti-violence; more than 15 students from the local high school spent an afternoon creating a garden at the psychiatric hospital. The projects have inspired talk of more students visiting other high schools in the area to talk about mental health and other topics; it has also sparked ideas of having monthly meetings about important topics in the community that affect mental health; it has also gotten orizonturi’s name out at the local level; one of the volunteers now has a part time job with the hospital; one of the volunteers trained in the first session assisted us in the second session, showing sustainability of the trainings. The volunteers trained spoke in our focus group of feeling an increase in civic responsibility, self esteem, and understanding towards people with mental health problems. I’m very proud of the volunteers, my coworkers, and myself. It sounds hokey, but this project shows that when people come together, they really can make a change.

Meanwhile, election season has been in the air here, and everyday cars with loud speakers, decorated in the colors of it’s party have been driving down the street shouting political slogans. It has also meant an increase in random Romanian advertising. Here are some pictures from the campaign trail.

Here is a totem pole devoted to politics....

They like to use photoshop here. Notice any feet missing?

This guy is not only running for office, but also taking the election as a chance to advertise his summer house bed and breakfast. He also details the jobs of his wife and son….

Here is a campaign poster from the New Generation Christian Democrats. The leader of the group is Gigi Becali, the biggest “schmeker” in Romania. Buys people out, wants to rid Romania of the Hungarians, Homosexuals, Rroma, and probably any other minority and/or disadvantaged group you can imagine. I do think it’s funny that in the picture it looks like Jesus is running for office

however.

 This past weekend I went to my friend’s site where we built a bonfire and burned a lot of the Peace Corps papers we don’t need anymore. We also burned a random Walmart shirt and danced around the fire in protest. Here’s some video. Other events included walking across the crooked bridge in her town, eating sloppy joes, and hiking/hitching up a hill.  

We went shopping in her town and had a rather unusual experience. We went to the meet counter and asked for 300 grams of meat. However, when we saw that it was rather fatty, we thought that we should probably ask for 200 more grams, leaving just 100 or so grams with the seller. When asked for the 200 more grams, she yelled at us and told us it wasn’t possible to give that to us. ::sigh:: Luckily, another of us volunteers was not in the area at the time, so we commissioned her to go and ask for the meat for us. Apparently we were found out, because when the volunteer returned with the meat, she reported that the seller harassed her and stated that what she did nu e frumos (wasn’t nice). All well. Woot for Kristen for taking one for the team.

My trip there ended when I returned to site and started walking toward my house at 6 in the morning. Usually the dogs in my town are rather friendly; now, however, they are fierce! As I was walking home, one followed me, barking. Usually in this situation I just keep walking calmly thinking they are more afraid of me than I am of them. This dog’s bark, however, was a calling to his entire posse of dog friends, and 5 seconds later I find myself surrounded by 4 members of his doggie chain gang. I think fast and throw 2 imaginary rocks at them. This confuses them, but when they figure out that I’d actually thrown nothing, they start barking and following me again! Luckily I had the book Speaker for the Dead with me, which I’d been reading on the train. I threw the book at them and again, momentarily they start walking away. I realized however that I would like to finish the book, but when I walked back to pick it up, the dogs come after me once more!! Finally the second time I threw it at them they ran away, but sheesh!!  

All in all, things are going a-ok. I’m in the midst of doing paperwork to finish up this grant, trying to sell the extra horn I brought over to Romania, and writing my Description of Service (DOS) (the official document that describes what I’ve been up to for these 2 years). It’s really hard to leave here. It’s really hard Not to leave here too.

I’ve learned a lot about myself, about people, about group dynamics, about motivation, about food, about cooking, about traveling, about making fires, about Romania, about friendship, about balloon animals, about home, about relationships, about trust, about society, about change, about bureaucracy, about flexibility, about hospitality, about alcohol in many a form, about fiction books, about taking pictures, about missing people, about adaptation and transition and how sometimes what is good for you isn’t always pleasant – but sometimes it is.

When I really think about it, I feel as though I’ve had many a life within a relatively short lifespan. I’ve worn the student hat, the French horn player’s hat, the occupational therapist’s hat, and now over the past two years, I feel as though I’ve been wearing the Peace Corps Volunteer’s hat. It’s nice to have such a large wardrobe. I just wonder if I’ll be dressed appropriately wearing my metaphorical Peace Corps attire into American culture. Maybe the solution is to accessorize….

 I got my old aspirationa statement in the mail from the country director. It was written around May 15, 2006, just before I left for Romania. Here’s what it said:

Expectations (for Peace Corps):

Provide education and resources for a safe and healthy experience.

Provide education and resources that allow me to learn the language and culture of Romania, and enable me to share my culture and ideas with others.

Strategies for adapting to a new culture:

Patience with myself and others

Staying physically, mentally, and socially healthy

Learning the language, culture, and history of Romania

Sharing myculture and language with others

Stating my personal mantra “do what you know how to do, and learn the rest along the way”

Personal and professional goals:

Learn the Romanian language and culture

Coordinate and design projects for children with special needs and their families

Use the knowledge and skills I have obtained in occupational therapy, music, education, and the American culture to teach and encourage people to help themselves and others.

 Several people have asked about my motivation for joining the Peace Corps. In considering joining, I realized that during my life,  I have been happiest when helping others, working with people with disabilities, being creative, and going outside of my comfort zone. I believe this assignment will allow me to do all of these things. Thank you for this opportunity!

Reading this makes me feel pretty good. I think I met my personal and professional goals, at least minus the part about working with children with special needs (My project assignment was different than what I was originally told in America). It also reminds me that I don’t think I’ve changed as much in my outlook on life as much as I think I have. I still would agree with everything that I wrote above; I think now, having lived through the experience, I could add more concrete things I could do to help myself adapt, but the things I wrote are a really good start. If I were to do Peace Corps again, I still believe my main reason for doing it would be that I’m happiest doing this kind of stuff – going outside my comfort zone, learning, and working with people. I think now, having had the experience, I’d add that I’d like the opportunity to make friends who have a different way of looking at the world, to get to travel to places I’d never previously heard of, to experience fast days and excruciatingly long hours, to meet volunteers of all ages and ethnicities from across America, and to be challenged to change the views and stereotypes that I didn’t even recognize I had.

A new chapter will begin soon, and I think it’ll be another adventure.

What are my expectations:

Family and friends have changed since I’ve last seen them – so I will probably need some time to adjust

I have changed since last time I was in the states – so family and friends may need some time to adjust too

Things will not be how they were when I left; yet things won’t be completely different either

I will have a difficult time adjusting to working a 9-5 job

People will be interested in my peace corps story for about 5 minutes

I will be “homesick” for Romania

Strategies for adapting to a new culture:

“Go with it”

Journal about the differences and the emotions and changes I’m experiencing

Call peace corps friends when something random happens that other people might not get

Keep in touch via email with friends here in Romania

Be patient with myself and others

Do what I know how to do and learn the rest along the way

Read up on occupational therapy stuff concerning my job

Laugh

Realize that transitions are hard no matter what, but they also don’t last forever

Get in contact with people from school and old friends

Take pictures

Visit my sister and new nephew

Personal and Professional goals:

Share with audiences about my PC experience

Improve my english

Use some of the knowledge about culture and looking at a bigger picture in my job as an OT

Raise my future kids with an understanding of other cultures

Start living a more typical life, at least for a year while I figure out some direction

Take a service vacation

Continue to make service a part of my everyday life

Take acting classes to improve my confidence in speaking (and to improve my odds at another life-time goal -- to one day appear on Sesame Street ..... I could be the first french horn playing guest they'd ever had)

Woohoo!

PS pictures and details to come soon about COS conference and the lovely Republic of Moldova trip