Peace Corps Themed 50th Anniversary Gifts Guide

I joined the Peace Corps in 1997 and was sent to Romania to help them set up Foster Care Programs for the abandoned children that had lived their lives in Orphanages during the communist regime. I was excited, nervous, and a bit scared as I had no idea what to expect. In the beginning Washington didn't even tell you where you were going, they just named a few countries that I might be assigned to, none of which I had even heard of. I had to go to the library to learn about these countries.

Later I learned how it worked; they try to match skills to volunteer openings. I had worked over 25 years with abused and neglected children as well as juvenile delinquents. I had also been a Foster Mother, so when Romania started the very first Social Services Sector to their mission they were looking for volunteers to help.

Originally I was to go to Jordon to help women learn how to sell their handmade goods as a business. I was very excited, but then the area became unstable and I was reassigned to Romania. It was a hard assignment and not everyone made it out of training. We lost about half our volunteers before the first year was up for a variety of reasons. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer in the early years after the fall of communism was more than challenging to say the least. However, for me, it was a fantastic experience-sometimes sad, sometimes happy, times of questioning why I was there, and times where I knew I had made a difference.

They say that the Peace Corps is "the toughest job you will ever love", and that most people get out of it much more than they give. I wholeheartedly agree with this. Here I wrote about Peace Corps Romania and The friendships I made. It was a tough job, but one that I would do again in a heartbeat!