Al Childers is helping Romanians learn more about how to protect and benefit from their land
Sugar Grove man joins Peace Corps
07/30/2004 By Scott Nicholson
Caption: A Romanian man idenitifed as Ioan poses with Sugar Grove resident Al Childers.
A local man is helping Romanians learn more about how to protect and benefit from their land.
Al Childers, a Sugar Grove resident, left Watauga County on Feb. 9 to serve a 27-month term in Sighet, Romania. He is currently working in the agritourism offices there with the Peace Corps after a career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Childers originally thought about the Peace Corps in 1965 when he finished high school. Then in 2002 he went to Costa Rica with a Boone United Methodist Church building team, and enjoyed the experience. Childers later talked with Jim Hamilton, a former Peace Corps volunteer and now a local agricultural extension agent.
“I talked to Jim and he talked to people in the Peace Corps, I went to a meeting at Appalachian State University to learn more, and here I am,” Childers said.
His official position is “environmental volunteer,” but he calls himself “a square peg in a round hole since I am assigned to an agritourism organization.”
His job is versatile and he often works with youth. He teaches environmental protection in schools and helps students start clubs that he hopes will continue after his time is up.
The clubs even pick up garbage as a group activity. He works with mayors of small towns to help the towns handle their garbage better. He also works on tourist recruitment and seeks customers for beds and breakfasts and other establishments.
His job isn’t all work-related, though. He also has time to introduce Romanian kids to baseball, as well as country music dancing. However, baseball takes some explaining to do.
“In Romania sometimes you may have four people on first (base) or the runner may go from first to third by way of straight across behind the pitcher. Part of the problem is my Romanian language skills and the translation and the excitement that a ball and bat can generate in a Romanian village,” Childers said.
He’s currently based in Sighet, a town of 44,000 in Transylvania, which he said is surrounded by 29 smaller villages and the only thing between it and the Ukraine is the Tisa River.
“If you are looking for something you have never seen before, this is the place,” Childers said. “There are more cherries here than I have ever seen before, along with huge chunks of sheep cheese and cow’s milk in reusable plastic liter bottles. These cows own the road all up and down the highway, along with a lot of horses, horses and wagons, sheep, goats and water buffalo.
“All the animals I have mentioned work for a living, even the dogs and cats work,” Childers said. “I have not seen a mouse or a rat since I’ve been here.”
Childers said trains and horse-drawn wagons are still important means of transportation. However, there are new stores and development, and Childers hopes to spread the word so more visitors will investigate.
“They are very hospitable and they can cook stuff that you have never eaten before and it tastes really good,” Childers said. “There are gardens and fruit trees everywhere, not to mention the grape vines.”
Childers stays with a “Gazda,” the Romanian name for the host family. He said while Sighet and Romania are very old, the current government has only been in place since 1989.
“The people are very friendly,” he continued. “They have a lot of Southern hospitality but they don’t know what to call it. The food is a taste sensation, but their diet is heavy on things that the American Heart Association has nightmares about. For example, the bacon drippings that we might throw out or use to flavor green beans or corn bread is used like a spread and eaten on bread.”
He tried making the local cuisine but he’s dubious about his kitchen skills. “I tried my hand at making the cabbage or varsa soup, but I missed the recipe that my Gazda told me,” he said. “I am thinking, ‘How hard can it be, it is only cabbage soup?’ It turns out there are 15 ingredients and five different steps. I can eat it but’s not a treat for the taste buds.”
He describes his daily routine as leaving his apartment at 7:30 a.m., then walking 20 minutes to work. He arrives early so he can check his email, and his office has modern equipment.
“I may work on a grant, I may talk to a tourist, I might take a six-mile walk to an abandoned railroad bed that appears to be a very good hook or gimmick to get tourists to visit a small village, where they are trying to improve the economic well-being of the people,” Childers said. “I might work on a pamphlet to give to schools in the fall that talks about pollution. When school is in session, I go to classes and teach English, talk about America, Right now I’m trying to figure out how to get some water sampling done.”
Childers will conclude his Peace Corps volunteer duty in 2006. He doesn’t know what he’ll do after that but said, “We will see how much energy I have when this is over. It’s hard to sit on the porch.”
• Scott Nicholson may be contacted at nicholson@wataugademocrat.com
