Rants and Raves

Back in my America days, I was a big peruser of the website Craigslist and I seemingly utilized every category on the site save one: rants and raves. As the name implies, it's a section where people can expound on what's driving them crazy, bad or good. But since I have my own blog, I'm going to post my first rant and rave here instead.

First the rant: what is going on with American leadership?! I read the news and yes, I know the federal budget is in a bad way but the extreme tightening of the purse-strings is starting to be felt on my side of the planet. First, my group of Peace Corps volunteers who are finishing up our 2 years of service were told that, due to budget cutbacks, only a few people could do a yearlong extension. Yearlong extensions are optional but hugely beneficial--you have people who are already trained and integrated into their communities voluntarily choosing to give another year of their lives to work practically for free. My group being full of extremely dedicated and bighearted people has many would-be extendees who will be literally turned away. The annual cost of a Peace Corps volunteer is less than $50,000; the annual cost of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan: $425,000-$1 million, depending on whose figures you use. By cutting one soldier, all the extendees could be paid for and then some. I'm not trying to pick on the military but since both have corps serving overseas, it seems like not an entirely unfair comparison.

The money troubles continued when the U.S. Embassy declined to fund the Boys Leadership Camp that Peace Corps runs every summer with the Red Cross and YMCA. Oh, and did I mention we learned this less than 2 weeks before the camp is scheduled to start? In this case, for with 0.0001% of the Federal Treasury money spent on bank bailouts, we could have taught 80 young men how to be leaders in their communities and foster positive change from within. It brought me to the verge of tears to think that the boys I've been mentoring since March might be denied this capstone to their leadership training. Enough messing around, American leaders--it's time to step up and get our funding priorities in proper order.

Luckily, there's a rave: no matter what the American government does, the American people are AMAZING. Learning that the embassy funds fell through, we quickly posted a request for funds online. The call went out from me and the other volunteers here, looking to raise almost $5,000 in less than 10 days. And you know what? IT HAPPENED, and in under a week at that. I want to personally thank everyone who dug deep and made a contribution. Particular thanks to my friends who forwarded the fundraising request on to their friends--I was humbled by the generosity of people who are complete strangers and may have never heard of Macedonia before that message reached their inbox. You all represent the nation that I'm glad to call home.

We'll only be able to have half as many boys at camp as planned but I'm looking forward to meeting and working with the best and brightest from all around Macedonia. Expect more raves about these future leaders soon!