E,T Go Home

Unfortunately for my site, Prilep has lost two wonderful volunteers on the same day!  Terri, MAK16, and Erin, MAK17, recently left Prilep and returned home to the USA (get it, E for Erin, T for Terri.  Sorry, I recently saw part of that movie, hence the cheesy title for this post…)  Anyway, our strong group of five has instantly been reduced to three, and as our ladies from Prilep left us muchachos all alone, it is difficult not to think how different our site will be without them.

Erin (in the middle) and Terri (on the right) making some kebabs during a BBQ in Prilep!

Terri was an all-star volunteer, and she was assigned to an NGO that worked with the Roma community in Prilep.  I think she stood out from all of the other volunteers because she was always approachable, and she developed some creative solutions to the problems she faced at work.  For example, she told us of a time when her organization had trouble immunizing babies in the Roma community.  Many times women would give birth at home, and they would avoid registering the children at the hospital in order to avoid costs and other “hassles.”  Therefore, many children failed to receive immunizations in their community, so Terri was determined to change this.  She rallied the help of some youth from the Roma community, and they knocked door to door in order to convince mothers to come to the center to immunize their children.

Erin was a TEFL volunteer who worked at the Economics high school.  Not only did she work hard at her school to teach the children English, but she also visited schools in nearby villages to provide help with English conversations.  Also, most Saturdays she would travel to Bitola in order to prepare high school students with their applications to competitive American colleges. Since she was the only volunteer in Prilep who was not from the West Coast (other than me), we found a lot in common in terms of mannerisms and our overall idea of ‘Merica.  Finally, she and I had the same host family for PST, so was could always fall back on our conversations about the quirks and good times with the Zarkov family.

Sadly for us, Erin and Terri left their service on the same day, but their manner of leaving was a bit different.  Terri had extended her service for a few months.  Like the rest of the MAK 16s, she was scheduled to leave in November 2013.  However, as all volunteers are welcome to do, she extended her service in order to continue on the work she was undertaking through the winter months.  She decided to leave this month mainly because her daughter will give birth to her first born a few months from now! 

Erin, on the other hand, decided to early terminate.  This means that her service was not scheduled to end until this November, but she decided to return home early because she had found the job that was a perfect jumping point for her career.  “Early termination” has a negative connotation in the Peace Corps world, mostly because of the guilt that ensues when one decides to leave his service early.  In some ways we are breaking our commitment to serve the people here for a full two years when we Early Terminate.  And in other ways, Peace Corps invests good time and money into bringing us here, training us, and providing us with benefits upon our return. 

However, while I would find it difficult to ET myself, I have learned that once one looks at the whole picture, the stigma with ETing really should not exist.  While there are many reasons that a person would “ET,” in this case we understood perfectly and were very supportive of Erin’s choice.  Even the Peace Corps office supported her decision to return to the US early.  Never did I think to myself that I needed to convince her to stay.  While we initially think that Peace Corps is some sort of pact that volunteers take to dedicate 27 months of our lives to bettering the world, in the end it is just a job (less than that, a volunteer position) that we can opt out of more easily than we can opt in.

Overall, the point of this post is not only to give tribute to two of the greatest volunteers to ever serve in Macedonia, but also to provide support for other and future volunteers in the Peace Corps world.  27 months is the magical time period that dictates our lives as PCVs.  However, we have the choice to make our service last longer or shorter, and the only ones who can judge us for that is ourselves.