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It’s Been a Wonderful Cruise
By Sean Delaney MAK 9
The way I see it, this will probably be my last group email to all of you from Macedonia. We are well inside
the 30 day mark (not that we are counting or anything), and things seem to be getting more and more
hectic every day. I’m not great at closure but I am
pretty interested in symmetry - there was a first e-mail,
so there must be a last.
I may have said this before so forgive the repetition,
but a great many people who join the Peace Corps
expect (consciously or not) that their PC service will
give them the chance to go to another country and
really make a difference by leaving something tangible
behind – whether it be, for example, a seminar which
taught community members sustainable farming practices; a new water pump for a remote village; or a
renovated community schoolhouse. One of the more
intelligent people I have met from Peace Corps Washington (and there are precious few, believe me) described this expectation as the need most of us Volunteers have “to build monuments” to ourselves, and to
our idea of what PC service should mean - regardless
of how well those "monuments" address the needs of
the communities where we serve.
Nowhere is this premise more eloquently portrayed
than in the movie Volunteers, with Tom Hanks and
John Candy. Say what you will about the movie, but it
is clear to me that someone connected to it spent some
time in the Peace Corps. In the movie, the three main
characters are all sent to one remote village somewhere in Asia and told by their Peace Corps supervisor
that they should build a bridge, which will connect
their new home with communities on the other side of
the local river. In one pivotal scene toward the end of
the movie (if such a movie can really have a pivotal
scene), it is decided that the bridge, finally completed,
must be destroyed to protect the villagers from local
thugs. The Volunteers are distraught and apologize to
the villagers. One of the villagers says (and, I may
be paraphrasing), “It’s okay – we never wanted a
bridge in the first place.” Stunned, the Volunteer then
asks why everyone in the village worked so hard to
build it in the first place, and the villager replies,
“because it seemed so important to you and your
friends.”
Exactly! Looking back at the past two years, I can’t
say that Jennifer and I managed to build any actual
monuments. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying in the
beginning – at least, on my part. I came here expecting to change this little corner of the world in profound
and visible ways. Coming to the realization that it
wasn’t going to be that easy was a painful process!
Still, I consider our Peace Corps service, and our time
in Macedonia, to be a great success. Jennifer and I
largely accomplished what we set out to do when we
started thinking about this adventure more than three
years ago: we lived in, learned about, and even adapted
to another culture outside of the United States. We
even managed to "do" a few things while we were
here. Some of the highlights:
I taught English classes to adults; Jennifer taught English and yoga classes to local kids; I wrote a successful
grant application to the American organization Engineers Without Borders (EWB) which, when implemented, will use photovoltaic energy to power street
lights and municipal buildings; Jennifer formed a youth
hiking group, and also facilitated an active Eco-Patrol
group with local kids - teaching them about the importance of cleaning up the environment, and actually getting out there to do just that; I helped our counterpart
and the Mayor of Zrnovci form a sister-city relationship
with a community in Bulgaria. Jennifer created a practical, colorful catalog for our friend, Sonja's, handicrafts business. To supplement the catalog, Jennifer
also showed Sonja how to set up an internet e-mail account, and we are now hoping to launch a website,
showcasing local crafts from Zrnovci. I helped our
counterpart write numerous grant applications (some of
which were even successful), and helped him improve
his spoken and written English in the process. Jennifer
also planned and successfully implemented two Game
Days for the 50 or so K-4 students from the small village of Morodvis, next to Zrnovci. Over the past 3
months, I have worked as the cross-cultural facilitator
for the new group of 49 Volunteers just starting out on
their journey here. Together, Jennifer and I also
worked on a number of projects in our local community, and across Macedonia, including some amazing
youth camps this past summer (thanks, in part, to your
generous contributions!)... We had lots of busy days,
and lots of quiet weeks.
In the process, we touched at least a few people's lives
in small ways, and I can confidently say that many
more people touched our lives in profound ways. If it
is a truism that Peace Corps Volunteers across the
world always get more out of service than they are ever
able to contribute, then I guess we have done things
right. During the past two years in our little village, we
have witnessed birth and death. We have participated
in the most joyous of celebrations, and we have even
shed some tears on occasion (Our final good-byes, over
the next couple of weeks, promise many more of
those). More importantly, I achieved my highest aspiration for my Peace Corps service...to start with smiles
and end with laughter.