2006.02.28: February 28, 2006: Headlines: COS - Moldova: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Diane Hardy served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova
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2006.02.28: February 28, 2006: Headlines: COS - Moldova: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Diane Hardy served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova
Diane Hardy served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova
"When I think of my service, I do not just think about the conferences I helped run or the classes I taught. I remember making wine in the backyard or the day the family slaughtered a pig in the kitchen. I miss playing games of Uno by candlelight with my brother Vadimka. I remember endless parties, barrels of homemade wine and the hospitality of homes I visited. I remember singing poetry and dancing in circles. I remember my host father Gheorghe toasting to his three American Peace Corps daughters with pride."
Diane Hardy served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova
Be the difference — volunteer
By DIANE M. HARDY
Posted: Feb. 28, 2006
It was just another trip from the capital to my town while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova. The elderly woman next to me spoke to me in Russian.
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I replied in Romanian, the language of Moldova's ethnic majority. I said I didn't speak much Russian.
Surprised, she asked, "Are you Romanian?"
"No, American."
She looked at me quizzically. "But you speak Romanian?"
She started to cry.
I patted her hand as she expressed amazement that an American would be on her train speaking her language. She talked of her hard life in the village and life under the Soviets.
Soon her stop came, and we were sorry for the chat to end. She probably still talks about the day she met the amerikanka.
Forty-five years ago today, President Kennedy established the Peace Corps. Since 1961, it has grown into a family of 182,000 volunteers who have served in 132 countries.
In the field, the Peace Corps has two goals. One is to provide trained volunteers to assist host countries with development; the second is to provide a better understanding of Americans. A third goal is accomplished when we return home. We are to promote a better understanding of other peoples to fellow Americans.
Peace Corps' primary areas of service are education, health and HIV/AIDS education, business development and the environment.
Volunteers live as their neighbors do. We speak their language, eat their food and often dress as they dress.
Integration into the community is crucial. We listen and learn their ways, and then we see how we can take our knowledge and teach ways to improve their lives.
Learning the language was exhilarating. My sister Natasha screamed in joy when I spoke my first complete sentence. The family cried when I gave a speech in Romanian three months later at our swearing-in ceremony in front of the Moldovan president.
I studied the Russian alphabet with my sister Lenutsa. Nothing teaches humility like being at the language level of a 4-year-old.
As an English teacher and teacher trainer in Moldova, I primarily taught elementary school students. I also informally taught high school students.
I enjoyed watching the ease with which my young charges picked up English. While I'd like to say it was my dynamic teaching, they probably learned as much when they came over to play hopscotch and make pizza.
When I think of my service, I do not just think about the conferences I helped run or the classes I taught. I remember making wine in the backyard or the day the family slaughtered a pig in the kitchen. I miss playing games of Uno by candlelight with my brother Vadimka. I remember endless parties, barrels of homemade wine and the hospitality of homes I visited. I remember singing poetry and dancing in circles. I remember my host father Gheorghe toasting to his three American Peace Corps daughters with pride.
The Peace Corps family is diverse. One of the fastest-growing groups of new volunteers is retired professionals. Their experience and wisdom are appreciated by host nations.
Those who label the Peace Corps as a bastion of hippiedom would be surprised by its range of people and ideas. To be accepted in the Peace Corps, one needs specific skills as well as a desire to help others.
Milwaukee's Peace Corps Association helps returnees realize the Peace Corps' third goal. We gather to share experiences, but we also continue with education and volunteer work. We are available to help community groups and speak about our experiences.
Returned volunteers have accomplished plenty, such as journalist Chris Matthews, director Taylor Hackford or Gov. Jim Doyle.
But most of us are ordinary people who have lived an extraordinary experience. It has deepened our appreciation for our own country and our loyalty to the world community. We have learned that individuals truly do make a difference.
It is never too late for any of us to try.
Diane M. Hardy, a Milwaukee Public Schools teacher, served in the Peace Corps in Moldova from 1995-'97. Her e-mail address is talktodianehardy@yahoo.com
When this story was posted in March 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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| Re-envision Peace Corps Nicholas J. Slabbert says in his article in the Harvard International Review that an imaginatively reinvented Peace Corps could powerfully promote US interests in a period when perceptions of American motives are increasingly relevant to global realignment. His study envisions a new role for the Peace Corps in five linked areas: (1) reinventing America's international profile via a new use of soft power; (2) moving from a war-defined, non-technological, reactive theory of peace to a theory of peace as a normal, proactive component of technologically advanced democracy; (3) reappraising Peace Corps as a national strategic asset whose value remains largely untapped; (4) Peace Corps as a model for the technological reinvention of government agencies for the 21st century; (5) redefining civil society as information technology society. Read the article and leave your comments. |
| March 1, 1961: Keeping Kennedy's Promise On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order #10924, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency: "Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed--doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language. But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps--who works in a foreign land--will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. " |
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| Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject. |
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Story Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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