Is it all just coincidence?

What is it that pulls us in one direction or another? We all have stories of coincidence. Missing the bus only to end up talking to someone who becomes a friend. Looking so hard for a job or a career only to bump into an old friend who just happens to know of a job that is perfect for you. Things like this happen all the time, and more often than not we write them off as good timing or being in the right place at the right time. Then there are the hard times as well, when we ask why me? A friend or loved one dies; the car breaks down; no matter how hard you try you just can not make ends meet. Many of look back on times like these and remember that they were hard, and uncomfortable but also see through the lens of time and realize how much we grew because of them. I can look back at my own life and see the same types of instances. And as much as I may like to at times I can not dismiss instances such as these as coincidence. So here is the question, is it all just coincidence or are there fingerprints of something greater all over our lives?

By a way of answering my question allow me to tell you about my own journey over the last year. Many of you already know some these events, but when I look back at them I am amazed and therefore I think it bears repeating.

I started my journey of joining the Peace Corps over a year ago as a step of faith. I was looking for a change; my career was stalled to say the least so I started looking at different options. Like most of us I have a huge desire to be respected for my work and as a person. So I started looking at law school because everyone loves and respects lawyers right? I took the LSAT and scored well enough to gain entry to a number of schools. When I sat down to write the essays however I froze, I didnt know what to say or how to say it. It was during this time that I also started looking into the Peace Corps. Unlike my Law School essays this application took no time at all, I was able to complete it in a night. Not exactly a shinning light from the sky, but it caused me to sit up and take notice. I decided then and there that I would see this process though till the end and leave the rest in Gods hands.

A year passed, and after a number of doctors visits to provide more information to Peace Corps I still did not have an answer. I still wanted to pursue this opportunity but I did not want to wait another year for an answer. Therefore I resolved that I would pursue the Peace Corps till the end of the 1st quarter of 2006 (March 31st that is). Things finally started moving at the beginning of March and by March 28th I knew I was accepted, by March 30th just one day before my self imposed deadline and two days before the Peace Corps deadline to leave with this group I found out I was going to Romania, and doing business development. I could not have been more excited, and that excitement continues to this day. The question was what form would this service take? Would I work with an NGO, or a Mayors Office? Would I be teaching or making copies?

Fast forward to two days agoI when I finally visited my site. I will be spending the next two years of my life in a city called Oradea a lovely little town in the Northwestern part of the county that was part of the Hungarian Empire until the end of World War II when it was given to Romania. This I am told is a bone of contention between Hungarians and Romanians but it makes for a beautiful city. I will be serving with an organization called Integra (www.integraromania.ro) whose main goal is to encourage entrepreneurship among at risk women through training and micro loans. From a business standpoint this is exactly what I wanted. I will be involved with everything from creating training materials to teaching business English. From a personal standpoint it is a faith based organization, and we started Monday off with a small Bible study. Later in the day I had a conversation with a one of the directors of the NGO who it turns out got his Masters at Wheaton College at the same time I was attending High School just a few miles away. He attended some of the same Churches and knew some of the same I did at the same time, but I had to come to Romania to meet him face to face. Later in the day I ran into a street evangelism team from America who was working with church in town. The guy doing the translation from English to Romanian turned out to be the pastors son of the church and goes to school with the daughter of the executive director of my NGO. It was at this time more than ever before that I started to feel like this was a place prepared for me.

Allow me to take a couple steps back and explain that last statement even more. First of all as Peace Corps Volunteers we have little or no say over where we go or what we do. Therefore my placement at this NGO was out of hands other than the fact I showed extreme interest in the opportunity when it was presented to me. The real kicker though is that this assignment was not even supposed to be open. A volunteer went there just last year, but after six months in the county he got married and left the country. Leaving this post open for a new volunteer. So after connecting all the dots, I was sent to Romania though really no say of my own other than a request to go to Eastern Europe. I was then placed in this town and this NGO after just showing interest in the opportunity. Not only does this opportunity match my skills from a business standpoint, but it matches my spiritual desires as well. These next two years are going to be a wild ride, and I look forward to sharing more about my experiences as time goes on.

Time to Get Serious

Well at least partly serious. It has been a good two weeks since I have written and a lot has happened. Maybe not a lot in the terms that we as Americans think in, there were no great accomplishments made, and I have not changed the outlook of the Romanian people single handed (yet). What has been happening is a slow shift from feeling like a tourist and this whole trip feeling like one big party with 70 new friends, to realizing that I will be in Romania for the next two years. Two years…sometimes when I say those words I think the time will last forever. Other times I fear I will blink and the experience will all be over.

Last week was one of those weeks that flew by and before I knew it I had been in the country for two weeks. I as I write this note I now have been here for three. With 13 days of language classes under my belt I am beginning to remember that I have a job to do, and that job for the time being is to learn the language. The days of feeling like a non-stop party is going on around me are quickly coming to an end, yet I still find ways to be comfortable, and avoid the reality around me. From reading books (without TV around I find I can kill a book very quickly), to listening to music I find myself procrastinating and avoiding the reality that is at hand. That I am stranger in this land, and while my physical appearance will always make me stick out the one thing that is in my control is how I prepare myself. It is about time to get down to business on that front.

Now that I have poured my heart out so to speak about the ups and downs of being a Peace Corps Volunteer allow me to regale you with an amusing story. I mentioned before that things are “different” in Romania. Well one of these things is the elevators. I am currently interning in the Mayor’s office in Ploiesti, with the Department of International Relations. Sounds pretty cool huh? Their main goal is to raise funds for projects in the city and the county, everything from Environmental to Public Works projects. The office is located on the third floor of city hall and being a typically lazy American I along with the rest of my group 4 and a security guard to escort to the door all got in a space the size of a very small closet. I remember thinking as we stepped in, man it would suck to get stuck in this thing. Well a short minute later we were stuck. We made it the third floor and when the doors were supposed to open they didn’t. What made for more good times is that apparently cell phones do not work in elevator shafts, so after some banging and shouting we finally got someone’s attention. During this time the power to the control panel went out, no bells, no possibility of choosing another floor, and with the handy dandy safe lock doors no chance of prying open the exit.

It was during this time that I remembered how much I hate confined spaces, and flashbacks of childhood sleepovers and trapping each other in the bottom of our sleeping bags “for fun” came rushing back. I wish I could say I handled those times well and it did not bother me, but I would be lying. I hated every second of it, and now stuck in an elevator with no room to sit, 4 other people and a rising temperature I was doing all I could to remain the calm cool collected 29 year old I have become. Inside however the little kid trapped in the bottom of his sleeping bag by his friends was screaming to get out.

A very LONG 10 minutes later the elevator started again with a slight drop leaving my heart in my throat and then proceed very slowly down to the 1^st floor. We all exited and this lazy American was no longer feeling all that lazy. As we filed out the security guard informed us we could get back on, just not all of us. Apparently the weight limit on this elevator was much less than we anticipated. Needless to say I was not first in line to get back in, besides I really did need to work on those calf muscles anyway.

A Long Overdue Update

When I came over here I had a goal of updating my blog once a week and letting yall know what is going with me. When you last heard from me I was stuck in an elevator in Mayors Office here in Ploiesti. I am happy to say that I got out of that elevator and have even ventured (hesitantly) into another couple of elevators since then. I have also started to do some traveling since then as well. Since it has been so long I have broken this latest blog into a couple different sections. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures as much as I enjoyed experiencing them.

So what are you up to?

As of now I am still in Training, which means I have been learning Romanian for 4 hours each day and then attending sessions on everything from Medical Information, to how to do a SWOT analysis (business 101). As I have said before the whole thing seems like a mix between camp and high school. It has been a good experience but I am ready for the next step. This Wednesday (Mercuile) I will find out where in country I am going and what I will be doing for the next two years. While I dont know for sure there is a chance that I will be working marginalized people groups here in Romania who want to start small businesses. It would involve business training / Business Plan writing and review and possibly a micro-finance component. I have no clue where it is but from what I have heard about it so far the opportunity is exactly what I want! So for all of you that have been praying for me you can lift that one up. I will be sure to let yall know later this week what happens.

Brasov

The first trip I took while in Romania was to Brasov, a beautiful mountain city in the southern part of Transylvania. Unlike most of the country the city remained pretty much untouched during the communist era and much of the buildings were preserved instead of being torn down and rebuilt as bloc housing. It also houses the Black Church, a massive structure that took over 100 years to build. It sits in the center of the old city and dominates the landscape. Standing next to it you can not help but feel small as I am sure this was the intent. I went with a group of 6 people and began to experience the joy of public transportation and navigation with limited knowledge. It was actually a lot of fun. We took an accelerant train to Brasov from Ploiesti which took about 2 & ½ hours. The nice thing was that we had a cabin to ourselves and were able to talk, move around and be comfortable the entire way there. It seems to me that the secret to traveling here is to do it in a group if at all possible. As we are all traveling on the cheap we also crammed into the hotel room and real comfortable on twin size beds. When you are tired enough however just about any sleeping arrangement seems blissful. It was during this trip that I was able my first stand-up shower since leaving the hotel soon after my arrival in Ploiesti. It was everything I remembered it could be! I didnt even care that it was a shared bathroom for the entire floor. The sheer bliss of standing up and showering under hot high pressure water was enough to bring a tear to my eye.

We arrived in Brasov on Saturday afternoon and walked around the town a bit. A few of us even stumbled upon an Irish Tavern complete with Pizza and dulce ketchup (they serve ketchup as sweet or spicy here in Romania) and of course GUINNESS!!! So for the second time since I have been in Romania I got to experience the awesome goodness that is a pint of Guinness with all of it frothy goodness. I am sorry to say that because of the price it is the last one I have had. We continued to explore the town the rest of the day which included watching the World Cup in a completely deserted bar and having an honest to goodness cheeseburger for dinner with sweet ketchup of course.

The next morning we got up bright and early and had breakfast in bed. And because breakfast consisted of bread and cheese most of breakfast remained in the bed in the form of crumbs. It would be safe to assume that the cleaning lady was not our biggest fan after that little performance. After breakfast we headed up the mountain behind Brasov called Mt. Tampa. It was nice little 3000 ft hike with plenty of switchbacks. The view from the top was amazing as well! You could see for miles or kilometers whichever you prefer. They had a little restaurant on the top where we had a wonderful lunch of peanuts and chocolate along with some drinks, just what was needed after a nice long hike. A friend and I ended up taking the tram down the mountain due to her asthma kicking up and spent a few more hours exploring the town in search of Romanian patch and or sticker. Amazingly enough there were none to be found. It seems that tourist items such as stickers and patches are harder to come by then one might think. I suppose it is has to do with the development of the country but I am finding that little trinkets and the like are not found in the abundance that they are in the states. Another 2 ½ hour train ride back and we were home.

I have included some pictures of this trip on my online album at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jgoodell00/Brasov

Pitesti

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Pitesti with a group of Peace Corps Volunteers to do some work with Habitat for Humanity. It was an unbelievable time and for once in my life I got paid to work with Habitat. The Peace Corps put us up in a hotel for two nights, and gave us money for travel there and back as well a good chunk of money for food and beverages. Talk about a rewarding experience! In all seriousness though, it was just nice to get out in the air and do some real physical labor. We had to dig a ditch around an apartment building for a new septic system, 2 feet wide and 3 feet deep from the foundation. The fact that there were mounds of trash another 2 feet high around the foundation just added to the fun. Nothing like a doll crawling with maggots to get your juices flowing. Aside from the maggots and the other creepy crawlers we unearthed the project went off without a hitch. That is until the heavens opened up and started to fill our newly made ditch with rain and the mud we just shoveled out. All in all it was a great trip and a lot of fun. With the extra money in my pocket I also got to enjoy a great meal and learn a little Romanian lesson. They sell liquor by the milliliter here and while I thought I knew what I was doing it turned out I didnt. I ordered a Jack and Coke thinking I was getting one shot of 20 ml. Turns out a jack and coke calls for 2 shots of 20 ml so my drink doubled in price. There are worse things that could have happened, but I could not help but feel that I was taken advantage of. I guess I had to learn sometime.

You can find more pictures at:

(Insert link here)

That is it for now. I will be posting another message in a couple of days once I know where I will be going and what I will be doing.