Sunday, October 4, 2009
New Blog
Since the address and title of this blog no longer apply to my Peace Corps experience, we're going to try Take 2: http://inthelandofthesycamoretree.blogspot.com/
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Aventura Número Uno
Greetings from Turkmenistan! It’s cold and rainy, I have hot water, indoor plumbing, electricity and high-speed Internet, and my host family is AWESOME! There are three younger brothers and one older sister, and they live in a house with new cedar siding (not quite finished) and a handsome red garage.
SOUND ODDLY FAMILIAR? Perhaps because that’s my house, and my family, and I’m sitting here in Clinton as I write to you.
WHY? It’s a funny story, really. Let me tell it to you…
After months of preparation, last meals of favorite foods, early celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas, and tearful goodbyes, I arrive in Philly on Tuesday with a ridiculous amount of luggage and make my way to the hotel, meeting Volunteers in my group along the way, as well as some headed off to other places. My room isn’t ready yet, so I drop my ridiculous amount of luggage off in someone else’s room, and walk with a bunch of T-18ers a few blocks to grab a cheese steak lunch at Jim’s.
Registration for Staging (Peace Corps speak for Orientation) begins at 1:30, and we make it just in time. Unfortunately, in our haste, we must eat on the walk back, and while I struggle to unwrap the top of my cheese steak and ingest it on the go, I fail to notice that the bottom is leaking grease and whiz onto my pants. I am annoyed at the thought of hand-washing the stain out later, when I arrive in country. With no time to search through my bags for another “business casual” outfit, though, I rejoin the group, cheese whiz pants and all.
I sit and wait with fellow volunteers for the line to get smaller. We chat excitedly about lobsters and small children and beer snobbery. Eventually I reach the front, turn in my forms, am advised about loan deferment procedure, and reimbursed for my ridiculous amount of excess baggage from the one-hour domestic flight between Syracuse and Philadelphia. We take seats at round tables in the conference room, and introductions commence; in addition to the usual info, we each share a “fun fact” about Turkmenistan.
The people in charge introduce themselves. They are all returned Volunteers. They introduce their boss. He begins to speak. Yesterday, he says, the Turkmenistan government issued an e-mail Invitation for 50 U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers to begin service in September 2010. The Office in Washington assumes this is a typo, since it has 50 Volunteers ready to fly out tomorrow, who have all been issued Turkmen visas valid for their entire length of service. They follow up that line of thinking, but are assured that no, there is no mistake.
Turkmenistan does not want any Volunteers this year. The Peace Corps Program operates at the behest of the host government. We cannot go where we are not invited. Or, in this case, uninvited. The Peace Corps officials know this, but meanwhile, 50 Volunteers are on their way or have already arrived in Philly. They decide it is best to register us, since that allows them legally to reimburse us for travel expenses. They do not tell us this while we are registering, however. When they do, we sit in stunned silence, wondering if this is a joke. It is not. Some people in the group raise hands with angry questions, others cry, I feel nothing. It is not Peace Corps’ fault; why should I be mad? I do not get to go; what good is crying?
The man goes on to explain that we will all be flown home tomorrow. We have 30 days of health insurance. We will not be reimbursed for any of the costs incurred during the lengthy Peace Corps process. One older married couple has sold their family home. They have two children in college. Others have ended careers, sold condos, canceled phone plans (and consequently have no cell phone to relay the news). Our medical and dental clearances are good for one year from the date of the exam. If they expire before we are reassigned, we must go through the whole process again. Those who wish to continue with Peace Corps are advised to call Placement in a few days. Listening to those around me, I get the sense that most people want to leave as soon as possible, to wherever. Some even vow to stay packed.
Obviously, most programs leaving between now and the end of the year are already filled, but the host countries are being asked if they can accommodate more Volunteers. Even programs that had Staging groups leave already are being evaluated to see if some of us can join them in an abbreviated Training. Peace Corps is currently exploring all options, because this is an unprecedented occurrence. I actually feel sorry for them; our Desk Officer came right out and said how embarrassing this was. Programs have been canceled before, both by Peace Corps and host countries (for safety and political reasons), but never while the group is at Staging (usually either months before or months after Volunteers have begun their service). Our official status now is “Separated from Peace Corps with Interrupted Service.” We have priority over all other potential candidates for future Placements, and they will also review our files to determine on a case-by-case basis if we qualify for additional programs (for example, I qualified for the TEFL program, but now they might let me do other things as well).
Anyway, that’s my story. So now the research and the waiting begin again. I feel at least I partially accomplished the third goal of Peace Corps Service—which is to expose Americans to the host culture—just by talking so much about Turkmenistan in the past few months. Hopefully soon I’ll be doing the same for some other country. And now I can clean my cheese whiz pants in a high efficiency washing machine. Stay tuned for Kathleen’s next Peace Corps (mis)adventure!
SOUND ODDLY FAMILIAR? Perhaps because that’s my house, and my family, and I’m sitting here in Clinton as I write to you.
WHY? It’s a funny story, really. Let me tell it to you…
After months of preparation, last meals of favorite foods, early celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas, and tearful goodbyes, I arrive in Philly on Tuesday with a ridiculous amount of luggage and make my way to the hotel, meeting Volunteers in my group along the way, as well as some headed off to other places. My room isn’t ready yet, so I drop my ridiculous amount of luggage off in someone else’s room, and walk with a bunch of T-18ers a few blocks to grab a cheese steak lunch at Jim’s.
Registration for Staging (Peace Corps speak for Orientation) begins at 1:30, and we make it just in time. Unfortunately, in our haste, we must eat on the walk back, and while I struggle to unwrap the top of my cheese steak and ingest it on the go, I fail to notice that the bottom is leaking grease and whiz onto my pants. I am annoyed at the thought of hand-washing the stain out later, when I arrive in country. With no time to search through my bags for another “business casual” outfit, though, I rejoin the group, cheese whiz pants and all.
I sit and wait with fellow volunteers for the line to get smaller. We chat excitedly about lobsters and small children and beer snobbery. Eventually I reach the front, turn in my forms, am advised about loan deferment procedure, and reimbursed for my ridiculous amount of excess baggage from the one-hour domestic flight between Syracuse and Philadelphia. We take seats at round tables in the conference room, and introductions commence; in addition to the usual info, we each share a “fun fact” about Turkmenistan.
The people in charge introduce themselves. They are all returned Volunteers. They introduce their boss. He begins to speak. Yesterday, he says, the Turkmenistan government issued an e-mail Invitation for 50 U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers to begin service in September 2010. The Office in Washington assumes this is a typo, since it has 50 Volunteers ready to fly out tomorrow, who have all been issued Turkmen visas valid for their entire length of service. They follow up that line of thinking, but are assured that no, there is no mistake.
Turkmenistan does not want any Volunteers this year. The Peace Corps Program operates at the behest of the host government. We cannot go where we are not invited. Or, in this case, uninvited. The Peace Corps officials know this, but meanwhile, 50 Volunteers are on their way or have already arrived in Philly. They decide it is best to register us, since that allows them legally to reimburse us for travel expenses. They do not tell us this while we are registering, however. When they do, we sit in stunned silence, wondering if this is a joke. It is not. Some people in the group raise hands with angry questions, others cry, I feel nothing. It is not Peace Corps’ fault; why should I be mad? I do not get to go; what good is crying?
The man goes on to explain that we will all be flown home tomorrow. We have 30 days of health insurance. We will not be reimbursed for any of the costs incurred during the lengthy Peace Corps process. One older married couple has sold their family home. They have two children in college. Others have ended careers, sold condos, canceled phone plans (and consequently have no cell phone to relay the news). Our medical and dental clearances are good for one year from the date of the exam. If they expire before we are reassigned, we must go through the whole process again. Those who wish to continue with Peace Corps are advised to call Placement in a few days. Listening to those around me, I get the sense that most people want to leave as soon as possible, to wherever. Some even vow to stay packed.
Obviously, most programs leaving between now and the end of the year are already filled, but the host countries are being asked if they can accommodate more Volunteers. Even programs that had Staging groups leave already are being evaluated to see if some of us can join them in an abbreviated Training. Peace Corps is currently exploring all options, because this is an unprecedented occurrence. I actually feel sorry for them; our Desk Officer came right out and said how embarrassing this was. Programs have been canceled before, both by Peace Corps and host countries (for safety and political reasons), but never while the group is at Staging (usually either months before or months after Volunteers have begun their service). Our official status now is “Separated from Peace Corps with Interrupted Service.” We have priority over all other potential candidates for future Placements, and they will also review our files to determine on a case-by-case basis if we qualify for additional programs (for example, I qualified for the TEFL program, but now they might let me do other things as well).
Anyway, that’s my story. So now the research and the waiting begin again. I feel at least I partially accomplished the third goal of Peace Corps Service—which is to expose Americans to the host culture—just by talking so much about Turkmenistan in the past few months. Hopefully soon I’ll be doing the same for some other country. And now I can clean my cheese whiz pants in a high efficiency washing machine. Stay tuned for Kathleen’s next Peace Corps (mis)adventure!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
T-stan 101
Thanks to everyone for the great teaching supplies--there will be plenty of crayons for everybody (as long as they don't melt)! Here are some great links with info about the Peace Corps experience and Turkmen culture, for anyone who's interested.
http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Turkmenistan
http://middleeasttravel.suite101.com/article.cfm/turkmen_culture_facts
http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Turkmenistan
http://middleeasttravel.suite101.com/article.cfm/turkmen_culture_facts
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Ready, Set, GO!
Start writing to me now and your letter just might beat me there. Send me your address and I promise to write to you! If you really want to make my day, slip in a packet of ketchup, a picture o' your smiling face, instant soup or hot chocolate, spices, travel tissue packs, or any other little surprise!
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