Greetings
my dear family and friends:
Monday,
August 31, 2015 was my last day as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was not by
choice but by what is called “early termination.” I know this is a bit bizarre
that I should use such a public forum for this announcement, but since there
are a few out there following my adventures, I felt I owed you an explanation. This
will also serve, I think, to do some good for future volunteers: do not ignore
the application instructions to include all information required. I omitted two
events which I considered minuscule – and which were also considered such by many
of my fellows and local staff here. In the course of the application, if I had even
taken the time to think about them, neither would have disqualified me from
service.
Just
so your brain doesn’t go into overtime I’ll tell you one: A few years ago I was
charged with shop-lifting. I know, as the guy in Princess Bride would say,
“inconceivable!”
Fortunately,
the twenty-something kid was caught on the store video – but it took months
before someone would look at me, the kid, and then come to the obvious. Stolen
identity, charges dropped. Now, the three-digit IQs out there might conclude
that “charges dropped” would translate to “no charges.” Keep in mind I’m just pushing
three digits myself, and I did not include this and another event, just as
bizarre, on my application. So, the inconceivable happened.
I
especially liked Inigo Montoya’s line: “You keep using that word; I don’t think
it means what you think it means” – evidently so, because in the estimation of
top (top) people my failure to include the charge gave cause for my end of
service. And despite my Country Director’s best efforts, alas, it was
determined that these omissions violated the letter of the law and the rules
and regulations which the Peace Corps must require in order to validate its
volunteers (“list all charges”). A dear friend of mine here has used a phrase in
other situations which I think can apply to my actions: I was simply a foolish
“son of a mother flower.”
As
to what’s next for me, in the few short months I have lived in Albania I have grown
incredibly attached to the country: it is a land of wonderful, good-hearted
people and the kind and generous affection has been reciprocal. I don’t know
when I was ever this happy.
Thankfully,
this will not negatively affect my relationship with the university here in
Elbasan: they still want me to co-teach in the fall term and my own class in
the spring. All my work with ELTA (English Language Teachers Association) is
intact, too. Ymer (my former Peace Corps counterpart) still wants me as his
right-hand American academic in place.
So,
all in all, I’m still going to be able to do the good I had set out to do as a
Peace Corps volunteer. A bit more of a financial sacrifice in not having the
Peace Corps resources on this stuff, but that’s of little concern in light of
the big picture. I wish all of my former companion volunteers the very best
(thanks for the good words and the heart-to-hearts). Let’s face it, retiring in
the Mediterranean is not that bad.
I’ll
open up a new blog: “Teaching and Living in Albania,” so anyone interested can
keep track, and especially my kids who have been a great support to me as I’ve
dealt with this, yet, another life event. At the close of my video conversation when I broke the news to my kids, my daughter, Alexis, got off a most memorable line. We had visited for about an hour or so, very difficult for everyone in the first fifteen, twenty minutes, but then quite upbeat - they were all relieved how I was dealing with it. Anyway, toward the end Alexis starts laughing, when I asked she said, "Well, Dad, you won't have to worry about being too cautious on being politically correct anymore - you were never very good at that!" Funny.
My
very best to all of you. XOXO
