The sun will come out tomorrow

In the Peace Corps you have good days and bad. Good weeks and bad. Good months and bad. Lately I've been having a rough time of it. I've been homesick, got bronchitis, the food hasn't been that good lately, the weather is trying to hold on to winter, and I'm at the point in the year when most first year teachers start to burn out. Then you add on top of this that you're in a foreign country and your usual Ben and Jerry's pick-me-up is unavailable, and all this can make for a cranky Jessie. Actually, I've heard that a lot of volunteers have been having a rough time lately, so I guess it's just that time of year.

Teaching yesterday was hard, I hadn't slept well and was in a bad mood. My partner criticized me for drinking water in front of the students (I still haven't figured that one out). And our school director is in some sort of a funk that has put all the teachers on edge.

Yesterday was also a religious holiday. There are so many here that I don't keep track. But it was something to do with being the first day of spring. I got home and one of my host mom's friends was waiting there with a towel and home-made bread as a present for me. I thanked her profusely, went to my room and ate the bread with the peanut butter I just got in a care package from my mom. Some how that righted things. That and the Girl Scout cookies. Things are looking up.

Vice Presidental Visit

Yesterday Vice President Joe Biden visited Moldova. He gave a speech that was open to the public in front of the Opera House. The lines started early in the morning. Most of the volunteers ended up clustered in groups throughout the crowd to wait out the "line". Lines in Moldova tend to be more of clusters.


I like this picture of Mia popping up through the crowd. She's in the gray hat in the lower right.


Security was tight.

And Erin ended up carrying a lot of other people's stuff in her purse. Thanks!


Once we finally got into the event, most volunteers ended up on the stage behind Biden. Here are some shots from the platform. Although we weren't allowed to take pictures once he took the stage.

More security.



We all hung out for a few hours waiting on the platform. Lots of hurry up and wait.


Afterward we were happy to be able to sit down and get off our feet for a few minutes. Isn't that a lovely line of Americans?


After the public speech, Mr. Biden gave a private speech for just the Americans (the Embassy, Foreign Service, Peace Corps, etc.) We had to go through security again and Marlene told the nice secret service men that she couldn't find her cell phone. Their response was "don't worry, we'll find it for you" and they did (in her purse). Thanks guys!



He invited the children up on the stage with him. It reminded me of the childrens' sermon at church.


He also gave a talk just to the Peace Corps volunteers. My favorite quote was "If there was ever a time to be really engaged in world... this is the moment."



And I got a picture!





If you would like an interesting analysis of the political nature of the speech, Professor Rod Garnett has a great blog post: http://rodneygarnett.blogspot.com/