Greetings, I have a few things to report this time so I’ll try to make each one as short and as sweet as possible. But as you know from previous emails, I am rather verbose. So here it goes… Friday, Nov. 22, 2002, I received an invitation to Bucharest for a chat with the Peace Corps staff and to go to the George Bush extravaganza the next day. Friday morning the director of the CED (community economic development) group that I am a part of came to Sibiu to meet with the ASTRA Museum folks to see if they are happy with my work, future projects, etc. The meeting was pretty cut and dry, which is what I expected. I wish I could tell you that the crazy director of the film department staggered into the meeting in a drunken stupor (as he usually does every morning) with tears steaming down his tuica-tinged cheeks, and his breath reeking of fermented plums. Swaying like an unsteady leaf, he confessed to robbing his staff to pay for his much needed drink. He hurled himself at our feet groveling for forgiveness. He begged to be put in a twelve step program and swore he’d never touch another drop of the plum or pinch anymore lei. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The only thing that did was the museum gave me a list of future projects that they want funding for and that they expect me to unearth a mother load of cash to keep them going. After the meeting, I loaded into the PC SUV and headed for Bucharest. Along the way, we stopped by the side of the road so that the PC staff (the driver, CED department head and her secretary) could run into the woods to urinate. It’s kind of strange watching your boss run into the woods with a fist full of toilette paper to squat by a tree and pee. All respect sort of goes out the window. They all scampered in different directions much like cockroaches when the light is turned on. As I watched them dash for cover, I noticed how the woods were filled with discarded trash and that a few stray dogs were wondering about. Jeezus H. Christ, this is one lovely country. When they piled back in the car, needless to say, I did not offer them any of my peanuts for fear their urine-stained paws would contaminate my bag. Five hours later we arrived in Bucharest. My meeting with the Peace Corps staff was a complete bust. I met with the Country Director, the CED Director (the woman who peed in the woods), and the Director of Administration. I had to meet with them about problems with settling in allowances, Peace Corps policies and the random way they are applied, corruption and ethical issues faced by volunteers writing grants, and minority issues. What was supposed to be a discussion quickly deteriorated into a bashing session. As soon as I sat down, the country director started telling me that she is pleased with my work but my attitude needs a major adjustment. She told me that I am not acting like a Peace Corps volunteer, but rather like a lawyer looking at PC policies for loopholes. To which I replied that I have not found loopholes, I have found inconsistencies in the way Peace Corps applies it’s so-called policies. As a matter of fact, I have been asking to see PC policies so that I can get an understanding of why some volunteers get one treatment and others receive another. To which they replied that PC policy is what it is and that’s that, and all volunteers get the same treatment. So I pulled out a series of emails that I had gathered from the volunteers involved and some emails from other volunteers who had received different treatment. The country director asked where I had gotten this gossip from. I explained to her that when she invited me to this meeting, I did some research and contacted volunteers directly asking for their stories. She refused to look at any of my information calling it gossip. The admin director, who had told me that PC never reimburses for furniture, got really angry when I showed him an email from a volunteer whom he had reimbursed for a couch she bought for her partially unfurnished apartment.When I realized the reimbursement/policy issues were going nowhere, I tried to move to the next item: problems with grant writing and corruption. Many volunteers have this problem because their organizations require them to find and write grants to fund their projects. But what happens is that the organizations use the money for other things, often to buy personal items to furnish their homes. One of my friends was told by a coworker that their organization offers all workers who write a successful grant a 1% kickback off the top from the grant money received. Some of these grants come from the EU and are for very large amounts. She was mad because her grant was for $2M, but she was only getting $500.00 instead of $20,000. All of this is not new and is a constant complaint of volunteers. Often, PC tells the volunteers not to say anything or get coworkers in trouble, or “this is Romania.” I went online and found an ethics code for professional fund raisers. I sent it to all the sector heads, the country director, and to all the volunteers in my CED group. When I mentioned this code and that we should translate it into Romanian and make sure that every organization that PC sends a volunteer is aware and follows it or they will lose the volunteer. The country director looked at me and said PC is not a fundraising organization so this ethics code is unnecessary. I explained to her that while PC does not fundraise, the volunteers are put in that position when they are assigned to an organization. Those organizations where a PC volunteer works should follow these rules, and if they don’t the volunteer should either be removed or will no longer assist with grants. She told me that she cannot dictate these rules to an organization. Truly fed up, I just said, “Why is Peace Corps in Romania? Are we here to make a difference or just perpetuate and fund corruption?” At that she told me the discussion was closed. That evening, I met up with a few disgruntled volunteers who wanted to hear the outcome of the meeting. Oh, I forgot to mention, when I first got the invitation to this meeting, I emailed and asked if another volunteer could sit in on the discussion. He was going to be in Bucharest at the same time . I never received a response, so he went with me. When the country director saw him, she screamed, “no way!” and closed the door in his face. So we decided to go to dinner. Needless to say, we were more disgruntled but decided to to let it go. Who cares if PC policies or PC doesn’t improve. We’re here for an adventure and by god, PC ain’t gonna ruin that! The hunchback of corpal pacii can kiss all our asses! The country director is a hideous woman with flaming red, frizzy hair and a rather large hump. She sounds like Joan Rivers when she talks. After dinner, we all went out and did a little gambling. I played poker and ended up winning 100,000 lei (which is only about $3.50). It was a lot of fun. The next morning was the George Bush extravaganza. It was cold and rainy. By the time I made it to the first security check point at 12:00pm (the speech was scheduled for 6:00pm), the area was mobbed. The police would not let us through. They told us it would be at least another hour before we could make it to the 2nd check point (there were a total of 4). As he is not my president, I did not feel the need to stand in the rain and get soaked. So, my friend Andy and I decided to go to the coffe shop around the corner and watch it on television. We sat and drank capucinos while airforce one landed in front of us. Andy took photos of the television and a few of me standing next to GW as he read his speech. About an hour later, more voluteers joined us and we had a little celebration of our own. It was kind of exciting to watch the DC plates on the limos drive through the streets of Bucuresti. It reminded me of when I saw Clinton’s limo drive through the streets of Saigon a few years ago. Although the Romanians seemed fired up to see Bush, afterwards the coversations I overheard about getting into NATO and possibly EU tell another story. Most people are concerned that getting in will just raise taxes. They don’t see any benefits coming to them and feel it’s just another avenue for the rich polititians to scam more money and the poor people to pay for it. It’s sad, but probably true. I met a man from the city gov’t in Dobreta where a friend of mine is stationed. I was told that the reason why there is a McDonald’s in Dobreta is because McDonald’s refused to pay off the council members. I chuckled for four reasons: (a) these people have no shame…corruption and payoffs are like the red badge of courage; (b) old Ronald McDonald has ethics; (c) one town on this lonely planet is free of the golden arches; and (d) it’s too bad because in Romania Mc Donald’s food is actually healthier than eating at home. Thanksgiving was fun. Two friends came to stay with me and we had a great time. We just sat around laughing and sharing stories from our past. Given that we are over 35, it was great fun because I never expected to make good friends this late in life. I am sure that after the two years we will stay in touch. It’s hard to establish lasting friendships after college or grad school because you just don’t have the opportunity to spend a lot of time getting to know a person. Sure, you form work relationships, but most people have families to attend to instead of shooting the shit with coworkers. Anyway, Peace Corps has given me a great opportunity and I am happy to have it. I felt like a teenager at a slumber party. We stayed up late, eating and laughing and watching movies. Thank go our moms didn’t come in to tell us to be quiet. Instead of turkey, I cooked sliced chicken breast in a Thai yellow curry sauce with basmati rice. Peggy made stuffing because she said we had to have something traditional. We started off with deviled eggs and chips. We also made floating islands for dessert. My other friend, Rebecca, who does not cook, washed the dishes and made the drinks (frozen daqs). We also taught Rebecca how to fry an egg so she can start making breakfast for herself. I had a great Thanksgiving and I hope you all did too! Friday afternoon there was an opening of an exhibit at my museum (not very interesting, just more crafts), and Friday evening we went to the opening of an international exhibit/competition at the local school of architecture. It was great because the houses were inspired by the work of Albrecht Durer. Each architect submitted a dream house for Durer, hence the name of the exhibit was “A House for Durer.” My favorite so far was this mobile home that folded out of a large truck. They had to postpone the judging of the entries because many were stuck at the post office because they arrived mid-week so I have to go back to see the rest of the entries. As I explained in earlier emails, packages can only be picked up on Mondays. So the packages that arrived afterwards for the exposition were stuck in the post office until the following week. I guess they’ll have to schedule a second opening for the late arrivals. Saturday, I went and met with a man who works with USAID in Macedonia. He owns a house in Sibiu and wanted to meet me. We talked and he showed me his home, which he is trying to rent. It was quite lovely and he did a great job restoring it. I think he was trying to set me up with his friend. The friend was Romanian, but looked like Eric Estrada sans some canines and bicuspids. No thanks! Saturday evening, I went to a birthday party for another volunteer. It was really boring and many of the volunteers were laughing about how they don’t do any work and just stay home watching TV. I hope I don’t end up becoming one of those slugs. Another woman was saying how her class wanted to do a play, so she decided to have them do the Odd Couple b/c she did it in high school. She didn’t want to search for a new one. The unfortunate thing is, besides having trouble with the language, they do not get the jokes, which center around 1950s politics, not to mention the play is 2 1/2 hours long. What an idiot!!!!! She tells me this while she twists her hair and giggles at how she didn’t feel like looking for the one acts that I suggested for them to do. She said it would have been too hard for her to figure it out. I guess it would take too much time from her TV watching. Remember Mighty Joe Young? Well imagine him as a 22-year old white woman with very short red hair and a high-pitched voice, and you have an idea of what this idiot looks like. They share the same shaped head, face and nose. Although, I do believe her arms are a bit shorter.Asta e! vicki