Peer Support Training & Pieces of Home

Last Wednesday night I left my home in Oradea and made the 10 hour train trip to Bucharest for Peer Support Training. What is Peer Support you ask? While in the Peace Corps Volunteers have the opportunity to serve our fellow volunteers in a number of ways, one of them is the peer support committee. As I have written in this blog and any one of us could tell you, things are different here. As we adjust to these differences culturally, work wise, and socially it is sometimes helps to have someone to talk to, bounce ideas off of etc…. This is what the peer support committee is for; there are three of us from our group who have volunteered to serve in this way. I got into Bucharest on Thursday morning after traveling all night long on the train. This is actually not as bad as it sounds, as I take the sleeping car and sleep most of the way and wake up with just about hour to go. The only downside is that no matter how well I sleep on the train I still wind up feeling a bit tired.

After arriving Thursday morning I made my way to the Peace Corps Office and it was off to a medical appointment. Everything is ok thankfully but since I have been over here I have experienced some reoccurring medical issues and the medical office had set up some tests for me in order to get a clear picture of what may be going on. I have been so impressed with the professionalism and diligence of the medical staff over here, it many ways it is the best medical care I have every received. When the appointments were over I had the rest of the day to enjoy and explore Bucharest. I ran into another volunteer from my group who was also in town for medical care and we spent the afternoon catching up on our experiences so far. We shared some funny stories of things we have encountered and commiserated on the similarities of our service thus far.

I think one of the biggest challenges for volunteers in Romania is finding a sense of effectiveness. Romania is very advanced in a lot of ways, and the basic manual or tangible projects are harder to come by. I think when most people think of the Peace Corps they envision us hanging out in a village in Africa or the Caribbean and digging ditches, running electricity etc…. The projects I am involved with however while important are softer in nature. They revolve around education and shifting people’s views, things that are not as clear on the outside, but still very important. But I digress…

Back to the training and my weekend in Bucharest. By far the highlight of the weekend was the discovery of Dr. Pepper. You heard me right, we have Dr. Pepper here! Friday night we had American junk food night; Dr. Pepper, peanut butter, chocolate, McDonald’s and Cheeto’s. A night of pure comfort food, and movie watching, it was very enjoyable. I was in meetings the rest of the weekend ending finally on Sunday at about noon. So it was off to the train station and more fun with tickets. I had purchased a ticket for my trip back before left Oradea, but over the weekend I realized it was for the wrong time. After a little back and forth and more money I was on the correct train and headed home. This is the part of the trip that is not usually enjoyable (10 hours on a train in the middle of the day and night) but thankfully a friend of mine was traveling with me. The train was packed though so we spent most of the time in the Bar car playing cards where I was soundly whooped in Rummy. I finally got home a little after midnight, and it the start of another week.

(I have also posted some new pictures of Bucharest on my online photo album)

The Hard life of a PCV

There are times when life just gets too hard, too demanding; when you forced so far out of your comfort zone that you don’t know if you will ever feel the same again. This past weekend was not one of those times!!! It was full of late nights, dorky games, goodbyes and hellos, fast food (Romanian style) and good food, new friends and old friends (well relativity old friends) and parties that last all night long. All in all it was a weekend to remember.

I arrived in Cluj on Friday night after hitchhiking from my home town Oradea. For those of you who know me, that right there is a huge step outside my comfort zone, but here in Romania it really isn’t that big of a deal. Think about it like splitting gas money with strangers. The ride was uneventful, the driver really didn’t say a word, he was too busy driving like a maniac! I have never seen a driver swerve in and out of traffic getting so close to cars. At times I thought our front bumper would touch the back tire of the car we were passing. It was a lot like a roller coaster ride!

Cluj acts as the capital of Transylvania the area of Romania that I am living in these days. To give you a visual it is pretty much the Northwestern part of the country everything to the west of the Carpathian Mountains. This being my first visit to the city however I had absolutely no idea where I was and where I was going, but this dilemma was soon solved with a quick phone call and I was on my way. After meeting up with some more volunteers it was off to a party for a member of group 20. The reason for the party was not the best, this particular individual decided to leave Romania a little early and go back home, we call it Early Termination, or ET’ing for short. But hey it was still a chance to get together with friends, meet some new folks and just blow off some steam. And blow off steam we did, with the party lasting till 5am. Being the old man that I am I could not have made it without two HUGE cups of coffee (thanks kim).

Waking up the next morning was no fun either as no amount of sleep can really help you get over going to bed the same morning. When we finally did get up and decide to explore the city we found it was lunch time and we were hungry so we were off in search of food. We stopped at a great Italian place and while pizza was out (something to do with the oven we were told) the chicken alfredo was great! After lunch it was back to the scene of the party and time for clean up. It is amazing how quickly that can go when you have enough people. The highlight of the evening was still to come however…. As a group of us sat around at an outdoor café someone was struck by the desire for sushi. Keeping in mind that I had already prepared myself for two years without this delectable dish, the thought that good sushi was attainable here made my mouth water immediately. With a quick group consensus we were off to the sushi restaurant. It was a great time and a great meal! There were sixteen of us that took over a private room in the upstairs of the restaurant, and for the first time since I have been over here I had a truly great Japanese meal complete with miso soup, tempura and plenty of sushi.

They say that as we are over here we need to take time out every once in a while and find ways to connect with things that we know. I have mainly been doing this through books, movies and e-mails, but to have the chance to share a familiar meal with friends was a great way to remember everything I love about home. And I have ya’ll to thank for it. Your tax dollars paid for it! Know that while I miss home, the friendships and familiarity of it all I do get to enjoy little pieces of it now and then.