May 31, 2004: Headlines: COS - Mongolia: Music: Gay Issues: Press Republican: Jen Carter-Kelly is moving to Mongolia with her partner, Staci Carter-Kelly, and their 3-year-old daughter, Amelia. Staci has recently joined the Peace Corps and, as a medical officer, will be taking care of volunteers. The Peace Corps is paying for Staci and Amelia to move, but not for Jen. The civil union Jen and Staci celebrated in Vermont isn’t recognized by the Peace Corps.

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Mongolia: Peace Corps Mongolia : The Peace Corps in Mongolia: May 31, 2004: Headlines: COS - Mongolia: Music: Gay Issues: Press Republican: Jen Carter-Kelly is moving to Mongolia with her partner, Staci Carter-Kelly, and their 3-year-old daughter, Amelia. Staci has recently joined the Peace Corps and, as a medical officer, will be taking care of volunteers. The Peace Corps is paying for Staci and Amelia to move, but not for Jen. The civil union Jen and Staci celebrated in Vermont isn’t recognized by the Peace Corps.

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-45-115.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.45.115) on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 8:24 am: Edit Post

Jen Carter-Kelly is moving to Mongolia with her partner, Staci Carter-Kelly, and their 3-year-old daughter, Amelia. Staci has recently joined the Peace Corps and, as a medical officer, will be taking care of volunteers. The Peace Corps is paying for Staci and Amelia to move, but not for Jen. The civil union Jen and Staci celebrated in Vermont isn’t recognized by the Peace Corps.

Jen Carter-Kelly is moving to Mongolia with her partner, Staci Carter-Kelly, and their 3-year-old daughter, Amelia. Staci has recently joined the Peace Corps and, as a medical officer, will be taking care of volunteers. The Peace Corps is paying for Staci and Amelia to move, but not for Jen. The civil union Jen and Staci celebrated in Vermont isn’t recognized by the Peace Corps.

Jen Carter-Kelly is moving to Mongolia with her partner, Staci Carter-Kelly, and their 3-year-old daughter, Amelia. Staci has recently joined the Peace Corps and, as a medical officer, will be taking care of volunteers. The Peace Corps is paying for Staci and Amelia to move, but not for Jen. The civil union Jen and Staci celebrated in Vermont isn’t recognized by the Peace Corps.

Crossing continents

Peace Corps takes family to Mongolia for two-year experience

By KATIE HOLSCHER, Contributing Writer

PLATTSBURGH — As local folk duo, Crossing North, celebrate the release of their first album, they are also saying good-bye as singer Jen Carter-Kelly prepares for the trip of a lifetime.

Jen is moving to Mongolia with her partner, Staci Carter-Kelly, and their 3-year-old daughter, Amelia. Staci has recently joined the Peace Corps and, as a medical officer, will be taking care of volunteers. The family will be away for two years.

"It seems like a good time (to go) because, even by the time we get back, (Amelia) would just be starting kindergarten," Jen said.

Staci said the trip will be a good learning experience for their little girl.

"Part of it has to do with exposing Amelia to foreign culture, and a lot of struggle about how do you bring up an American child without a huge sense of entitlement," she said. "I’m not sure that you can do that and stay here and have a fairly limited exposure to how the rest of the majority of the world lives."

The Peace Corps is paying for Staci and Amelia to move, but not for Jen. The civil union Jen and Staci celebrated in Vermont isn’t recognized by the Peace Corps.

"Technically, I’m not a legally married spouse so they don’t pay for me to get over there," Jen said.

As the move date grows near, Bruce Lawson, guitarist and singer for Crossing North, is excited and nervous about the trip.

"Now I love doing music with Jen ... To have her (leave) now, just as we have a CD coming out, just as we finished a couple of years of artwork and playing concerts and festivals, it’s hard to say good-bye."

Bruce had been very active with music years ago, but had grown away from playing. Jen helped to get him excited about it again.

She moved to Plattsburgh and joined the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in 2001. That Christmas, she asked Bruce to play a song with her for the church’s annual holiday celebration.

Bruce said, "We did it, and, I’ve done this enough that I can see when people are moved by something you’ve done, and people were moved by this song that we did."

That spark began a two-year fire of playing music together. As new song after new song was written, the two developed quite a repertoire and decided to officially form "Crossing North."

Jen said, "I hadn’t done music with someone or in public in so long ... I was excited to have opportunities to go over to his house and play some music that we both enjoyed to play."

To stay "musically sharp," Bruce will play bass with the Too Tall String Band, another local folk group.

"It’s been very energizing for me to become more serious about songwriting. I don’t need Jen for that, although I’ll tell you she inspires me. But I think she can still inspire me from Mongolia."

With Jen, Staci and Amelia set to leave on Wednesday, there is little time to promote the new album. Both Bruce and Jen are hopeful that they will pick up where they left off upon Jen’s return.

In Mongolia, Jen plans to take care of Amelia and the apartment while playing music and seeing what opportunities come her way.

"I’m interested to see what indigenous and folk music has come out in Mongolia," she said. "For my own material, I will undoubtedly come up with something from just experiences that I have or missing Plattsburgh."




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Story Source: Press Republican

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Mongolia; Music; Gay Issues

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