The Seattle Area M27s Meet

It ends up that there are several Peace Corps volunteers from the Seattle area heading to Moldova with me the first of June. We've been communicating via Face Book for several weeks, and decided to get together today in Kirkland. Not everyone who is leaving with us from Western Washington showed up, but there were five us, and it was terrific to meet other great people who are setting out on the same adventure.

We had a little Moldovan wine that I was able to procure from a local bistro, and some great conversations.

The entire group of volunteers going to Moldova in June are the 27th class, so we have been dubbed by the volunteers already there as M27s.

Brittney, Rhonda, Stephanie, Yours Truly and Glen

It was an amazing experience to swap stories, find out that others were told they were going to one place and ended being invited to Moldova. Yet, not one person wasn't really excited about the up- coming experience, and just a little apprehensive about some of the unknowns (there was a lot of discussion about the lack of showers that seems to be prevalent in the villages).

Each person had unique attributes that qualified them for the job, but more important was the passion and drive that they each exhibited to be able to do this. Stephanie and I are the only two who will be teaching English. Brittney and Rhonda (on the left) will be teaching Health Education and Glen (to the far right) will be working with agriculture and business development. Glen and Rhonda (a husband and wife team) have spent a couple of years trying to make this happen, so they were particularly thrilled to finally be going.

Having read some of the thoughts and questions of other M27s on Face Book, I'm excited to see what our class will be able to accomplish.

Ready or not, here we come - about 5 weeks away!