Why bother? There are so many voices out there already.
Well, my voice doesn't wish to manipulate your thought process, or get you to go somewhere, or make you pay for porn!
It merely wishes to tell you a story, share experiences and keep you a little updated. I was raised to share the things I love with those I love, so POFTIM, here is a little bit of my life.
(the views and opinions on this blog are my own and in no way represents Peace Corps as an organization)
Post with 17 notes
No Longer a Foreigner…
That dates are set people! Yes I am leaving Moldova on Oct the 23rd! After 2 years and 4 months without seeing my family and friends! I’m heading home!
And at the very moment when I solidified my dates of departure from the land of vineyards and sunflowers, I walked out of my house and realized I wasn’t a foreigner anymore.
I watched a man closing his gate, and he was just a man closing a gate! I wasn’t distracted by the distinct Moldovan decorations that adorned that gate, or his attire, or those pointy shoes, or the fact that he was speaking Romanian, he was just like any other person, closing their gate.
Traditional moldovan door and gate
People were just speaking outside their houses, they weren’t speaking Romanian, or maybe uuugh Russian??? They could have been my neighbors in Los Angeles, speaking to each other.
I am not an American walking down the street, an oddity, Im just Marlene, and I know exactly where I’m going!
It was like the marking of my departure date, set off a realization within me that locked into place Moldova and what I remember being home so they became one in my mind. I could see that man selling grapes on my corner in Culver City, yeah those blue Chisinau umbrellas aren’t they on the corner of Alvarado and 3rd???
This is a strange feeling indeed, all I know is that Im leaving Moldova finally feeling like this world of baba scarfs, sunflower seeds, hyper music, agriculture is no longer just out of grasp floating above me, but instead leveled, and I’m walking along in it everyday, no longer the American.
-MarMar-
Post with 3 notes
You lose so you can win again
Seeing my comfort zone, my foundation, basically all my friends close their service and leave Moldova was devastating. I was not a happy camper.
When we go through this experience, you become so raw, that the friends that stick with you and get to know you during that time become the best friends you’ve ever had.
They all left in July, and I’m just now really recovering! LOL crazy I know, but losing them in my every day life made me appreciate them a lot more. But I miss them.
I’m not going to lie in the beginning I thought “MAYBE I shouldn’t have extended eek”!
But Im so happy I did, I’ve gotten to know so many amazing people that otherwise I may not have had enough time to get to know here.
My friends’ absence left a gaping hole in my life, but now I see its ok to be that open because soon people will come to fill it in again.
I am currently hanging out with MIA in Stephan Voda, having a blast, making collages, taking glamour shots, seeing the town and finding yet another person that helps me make sense of the world!!! With her craziness of course!
And lately thats how its been, just making sense of the world by living in it again with some amazing people.
I feel like I’ve added more to my foundation! So there you go!Thats where I am right now. I’ve lost only to win again! Thanks guys.
A very happy to be in Moldova
MarMar
Matt G, Jaime, Me, and Kim!
KATIE! Get over here already!
Mia and I
Link with 18 notes
Every human being has a girl within them AND ITS AWESOME →
This link will take you to one of my most favorite talks I have heard thus far in my adult life, ENJOY!
In this passionate talk, Eve Ensler declares that there is a girl cell in us all — a cell that we have all been taught to suppress. She tells heartfelt stories of girls around the world who have overcome shocking adversity and violence to reveal the astonishing strength of being a girl.
An amazing video! If you enjoy thinking, watch this film!!!!
This video really hit home to me, as a “survivor” of the LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) I always felt something deeply injust about our educational system. I saw too many friends discouraged and left behind without so much as a blink from my teachers. I saw kids lost to the streets because they were told they did not belong in school, some even lost their lives for it.
I still feel at times a rage within me knowing that this waste continues and I continue to be an exception!
I will go back and share my life and experiences with my community, but until then I will educate myself in various ways (including watching films like this one) and live my dreams to the fullest.
PEACE OUT my friends and enjoy the watch!
-MarMar-
Post with 17 notes
Most hated insect? Mosquitoes!!!
With out a doubt, mosquitoes are the most irritating and vile insects known to man!!!
As I lay here in bed, dying to get some dearly needed sleep after 6 days of travel, all I can hear is that annoying buzzzzzzzz going past my ear, basically telling me “As soon as you go to sleep, Im going to bite any bare or exposed part of your body, (I’ll even bite your eyelid!! Mutating you into Quasimodo in seconds! I don’t care!)
Which will then result in endless itching and inflammation for days to come!!!boowahahahahahahahaha!!
I miss America the most during these times, I long for the days when I could just kill a mosquito on a wall and not have to worry about ruining my host families paint job!
When I first got here I snapped and went on a bug killing spree in my room. My host mom was mortified. See the thing is, is that if you even so much as wipe a wall tooooooooo lets say..hmm clean some bug blood off of it, it will leave a gray streak behind and not a shiny new wall.
SO you don’t kill the bugs in your room, you live with them.
At this point in my service my legs look like I’ve tripped/fallen at least 20x’s and landed on different parts of my body all at the same time! I will spare you the picture….
I have approximately 1 month and 2 weeks to go before I close my service! Fly swatters here I come.
All I can say is…its bitter sweet my friends…bitter sweet.
<3 marmar
p.s. Fun fact about mosquitoes: Only Female mosquitoes bite! The males feed off of pollen!
Quote with 20 notes
…secularism is an achievement, but also a predicament: modern Godless man, deprived of the old spirits and demons, and thrown into a world in which there is no one to appeal to outside his own mind, finds it hard to experience the spiritual “fullness” that his ancestors experienced…
…Religion assumes that they are not valid questions because it has already answered them; atheism assumes that they are not valid questions because it cannot answer them…
…the vast amount of incomprehension surrounding our existence scares the living shit out of me…
-Charles Taylor’s “A Secular Age” (2007).
-James Wood “Is that all there is?” (2011)
-Me
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