No Glory in Being Joseph

Last night Mary was lamenting that none of the boys would commit to being Joseph. Unlike the kings in their cool costumes, or Herod who gets to storm around angry, or even the choir who get to hold my way cool sparkly stars and wear snazzy plaid vests, Joseph just gets to sit and watch Mary coo to the plastic doll. Yes, alas, there is and never has been much glory in being Joseph. But let’s face it, where would Mary have been without him? And who would have raised up a little baby so well? Let’s just take a moment to be thankful for Joseph, and all the Josephs of the world.

And then let’s talk about snow. Winter has arrived in Tulcea today with all its snowy snowiness. My first reaction as I blundered about was of course this: Dear Romania, this is what we call a shovel. Here is what it is used for. Oh, and by the way, we call this a snowplow and find that it can be helpful in avoiding that spinning-wheel- stuck-in-the-ditch that is happening to your car. No? Don’t see the value? Ok, never mind.

But then I happened to be slogging down the street over on the other side of town and I heard the noon call to prayer in the snow. I know, I think of Islam as the religion of the desert, of heat waves and sand and sweat. But here is our little mosque peacefully occupying a little corner of this snowy city. And I thought, yes, Romania doesn’t handle snow so well, and they don’t always get an A for diversity issues as we see with the Roma, but for one wintry moment it struck me that they figured out a long time ago, this overwhelmingly and historically orthodox nation, that people of the Islamic faith pose no risk whatsoever to their freedom or identity. And I thought, take that New York—you of excellent snow-plow-ed-ness with your shovel-wielding minions and tons of salt and sand*.

So how does this relate to Joseph, the hero of today’s story? I think it’s about faith. The story goes that he married a woman who was pregnant with God’s baby. That’s quite a leap of faith to make. But I have to believe that he knew that erring on the side of love is always the right answer. That is my Christmas wish for all of us. Whether it’s about a shovel or a lack thereof, or about a religion of which we may be misinformed, or about single moms and Christmas pageants, when in doubt err on the side of love.

*In all fairness to my beloved Big Apple, most of the Islamic Cultural Center flak comes from afar.

The Countdown

On a day in the near future, I will awaken frightfully early and roll my big suitcase down the hill to a form of transportation that will take me to a big city whereupon I will roll down a city street to another form of transportation which will take me to the big transportation hub, the port of the air, where I will engage yet another form of transportation to a major European city where I will sip delicious coffee between legs of the journey which will continue to a major American city where I also might sip coffee before boarding the last part of the journey to visit my family. Until then, I'm going slightly mad with excitement. Yes, I have a list of things I need to get done this week. But mostly I've been relaxing and visiting with people. Yesterday I visited Adela and baby Sofia who is delightful and cheerful. I had coffee with Ionela, a young woman who still lives in the Children's home at 19 as she attends Junior College. She has received permission and funding to go on a school trip to France in February to examine rural farming methods and production of animal products. I took us out for a cake. And then on my calendar you can see very generally the remaining social engagements: bible study tonight, kids club tomorrow morning, dinner with Aurelia and Gabi tomorrow night, the pageant Saturday afternoon, and delivering gifts at the Roma community in Constanta on Sunday.

The one thing I won't get done this week is my thesis proposal. I just got back the latest round of comments with a nice complement, bless his heart. But I still have some work to do. And I need a particular style guide (Turabian, beyond Chicago) to make some of the changes. Not to worry, I'll have this book at home waiting. But I won't get it done before I go. Doesn't matter. This is the kind of work I do well on all of those forms of transportation.

And in my quiet evenings, I'm reading along on Tolstoy. I thought this would be great airplane reading, but the book is quite large. I've found a convenient stopping point coming up, at page 672, so that is my goal before I go. That, and hoping we don't get significant snow. The nightly dusting is fine, but isn't that the great Christmas dilemma? Snow, yes, but only after we've all reached home.

Safe travels out there.

Part II of the Habitat Request

Once again, I'm asking readers to consider helping out the anniversary partnership between Peace Corps and Habitat for Humanity in Romania. Evidently each Habitat chapter in the States is required to tithe ten percent of their annual funds to international Habitat projects. I've been told that a local chapter can specify a particular project overseas or donate to a general fund. This year, we are asking that local Habitat chapters choose to donate to our partnership project so that we can meet our fundraising goal.

If you are connected with your local Habitat chapter, would you talk to them about assigning their annual tithe to our project? Specifically, it is through Habitat for Humanity in Romania, the Beius local chapter. All donations are greatly appreciated.

Again, because we need to track Peace Corps generated donations, please drop me a note with the name of your local chapter if you are successful.

Thanks so much, everybody.

A Perfect Romanian Moment

Monday morning Courtney and I rose much too early to catch a 4:16 train out of Sibiu to Brasov for her and on to Bucuresti for me. The early hour was exacerbated by then being made to stand out in the crispy night air waiting too long for them to unlock the train doors and let us in. Unlike my train later home to Tulcea, though, this first train was well-heated. Needless to say, we slept a good part of the leg to Brasov.

At one point I awoke, must have been around seven, to look out the window at a perfect winter scene: the ground was covered in fresh, clean snow with some vegetation still sticking out, the trees were lined in thick snow since evidently there had been no breeze. I looked out at a small and very close hillside that allowed no view of civilization, in fact no view but a farther tree and snow-covered hill. The sky was the light clear blue of dawn with pale pink clouds and wan winter light. Everything was clear and clean and new. As I’d been reading Tolstoy on the trip, I thought of Russia and the troops going off to Austria to fight Napoleon, although I think I’m getting it confused with the snowy scenes of Dr. Zhivago. Well... Our train rattled along in the cold dawn as I imagined a snowy, windless night in Transylvania in the northern foothills of the Carpathians.

I fell back to sleep, awakening briefly to hug Courtney goodbye at her stop, then continuing on. After a three hour layover at Gara de Nord in Buc, I boarded my little train home to Tulcea. Although the heat was acting up, and then pretty much nil, I was able to get off partway and get a coffee and a snack. Then I put my long underwear and my parka on and read my Tolstoy all the way home. I’m now nearly 400 pages in and deeply enjoying it. It’s pretty action-packed, really quite an enjoyable read. Especially inspired by snow on trees and dawn-lit clouds.

A Most Wonderful and Tax Deductable Christmas Expenditure

Dear Friends, Family, and Random Readers of WBW,

As the end of 2010 approaches, those of us with Peace Corps Romania have a lot to celebrate: delicious pork-filled holiday treats, reuniting with family and friends, children singing beautiful colinde (carols), and the doubly special anniversary coming up in 2011 of 50 years of Peace Corps worldwide and 20 years of Peace Corps Romania.

We have accomplished much in the last 20 years: over 1000 in total and currently 87 volunteers serve across the country; largely in rural communities and small to medium sized cities teaching English, working in the environmental sector, and with local NGOs and government agencies. PCVs also participate in many community based activities helping to strengthen local capacity. Volunteers have spear-headed projects such as G.L.O.W. Camps - educational camps for teenage girls, EcoRuralis - representing the interests of small scale traditional and organic farmers, and EcoWeb - a national database providing access to over 250 lessons on environmental protection.

Much more is planned for our 20th anniversary year. One of the highlights is PCRO's alliance with Habitat for Humanity Romania to build a house for a homeless family in the village of Beius. Construction is set to begin May 30 and scheduled to complete June 6th - an ambitious yet realistic goal of building a home in just six days! To do this, we need to raise $30,000 by the end of April.

That's where you come in. As a Peace Corps supporter/former volunteer, you know the difference PCRO has made--and will continue to make. And you know that our success depends on dedicated individuals working together. Can you join in our 20th anniversary celebration by contributing $50 to our housing fund?

Of course, we'll take larger (and smaller) contributions, too. Your year-end, tax-deductible donation can be securely transmitted through the Habitat website. Toward the bottom left of the page, click on: “Designate your gift” choose “Local Affiliate”, select “Romania” for the country, “Search”, and the Beius affiliate will appear. If you would like to donate via check, please send it to:

Habitat for Humanity
121 Habitat Street
Americus, GA 31709-3498
with "HFH Beius, Romania-813902" in the memo line.

Now, here's the weird part. If you donate, you need to tell me so that I can let our financial tracker know. We need to keep track of money raised by Peace Corps volunteers so that it is credited properly to our project. Just shoot me an email telling me the exact name that you donated under (don't need to tell me the amount) at gretelenck@hotmail.com or post a comment here.

Thanks so much everybody!

Those Wyoming Gals

Tulcea received its first dusting of snow two nights ago (and its second last night) as well as suffering a severe drop in temperature. So yesterday, for the first time in months, I pulled out the ol’ down parka. There in the pockets, waiting patiently for cold weather, were my wonderful Holly-made wool mittens. Fitting since I’ve been sporting my Holly-made wool cable-knit beanie pretty much since I cut my hair. Holly, as you may remember, is my parkie friend who works dispatch at the Tetons. In addition to being a talented knitter (and an amazing chef, especially soups, and a stunning singer, and a sweet pet mom, but who’s keeping score?), Holly’s creativity extends to watercolor and oil painting and all kinds of crafty goodness.

Then there’s Erin who graced us with her warm spirit for a while at Manzanar. She became a Wyomingite too, and has turned into a knitting and felting monster (in a very, very good way!). She and her husband are avid outdoor enthusiasts—he likes to spend his days flyfishing a river, while Erin sits and knits and enjoys the view.

I suppose it doesn’t hurt that Wyoming has long, dark winters that are conducive to knitty/crafty projects. So if you are in need of a special holiday gift this year, please consider supporting a local artist in your neighborhood. Or call up Blue Sky Gifts for an Ewee-Made (Erin) felted clutch. Holly, are your bags still available on your website? I can’t find them.

Ladies, thank you for sharing your talents. Especially when they are oh so cozy!Erin's felted wonders, available now!A sampling of Holly's bags