Oh, myohmyohmy....as usual, time is flying. Maybe it is my approaching one year anniversary of Peace Corps service, but lately it particularly seems like I only blink and another week has passed.
So what have I been up to lately? I don't even know! Okay, let's take a quick glance at the dayplanner to refresh our memory...
August 2006
- Analyzed Camp GLOW statistics and wrote report on findings
- Attended GAD project leaders meeting
- Attended Gender Workgroup meeting
- Visited monastery at Orhei Vechi and Saharna
- Attended week-long conference on "Gender and Peacebuilding"
- Attended weekend of language training in Chisinau (the last one -- now I can stop studying Russian, hurray!) (Just kidding -- I already stopped studying Russian like two months ago!)
- Met with counterpart and president of organization re plans for coming year's work
- Met with Nic's counterpart re coaching Odyssey of the Mind again
Of course, I'm actually doing a lot, it just isn't the kind of work I was accustomed to in the US. It doesn't mean sitting in an office from 9 to 5 and ending the day with some sort of tangible work product in my outbox -- a fact that I'm both happy and sad about, depending on the day. I can't say I miss sitting all day (growing the dreaded "secretary butt") and feeling the office worker's lack of freedom, but there is something to be said for knowing concretely that you've achieved something. As a rule we Americans really define ourselves by our careers, and I think those of you reading this back home would be surprised just how strongly you would feel the psychological effects of not working and/or seemingly not achieving anything. (I can just see my dad, meanwhile, reading this and going, "Yeah, I'm sure I'd feel really traumatized if I couldn't go to work for the next week! How 'bout I give that a try and let me get back to you.") It is important that you understand, however, that while free time is nice, most people need to feel that they are useful, productive, or making some kind of difference. Imagine if, rather than a vacation, you still had to go to work, but that they just didn't ask you to do anything. And there was no internet, and you couldn't read books. Now do that for three months, and, just for fun, let's also say it's so cold in your office that you can see your breath.
Returning to the idea of my days being filled with "not work", to give you an idea, a work day here might involve starting the morning with a long discussion with host mom, then taking a bus ride into the center of town to the office, where as you've all heard I usually don't do much. But then a local friend calls to ask for help using the internet, or someone needs help translating a document, or there's a seminar of some kind, or a meeting I need to attend at the Peace Corps office, and then as I walk through the center of town I run into another volunteer's host sister and she would like help with her English.... And as far as meeting PC's goals, all of this "not work" is important work. It is just that sometimes for someone with an American attitude towards work and a self image that depends largly on their career (me), this often feels like far less than enough.
And those are my thoughts for today.
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