The American Dream goes to Cudalbi

Article in Observator newspaper, Galati, Romania. Author: Cristina Carp, Tuesday, September 13 th 2005

For the two years to come, a young American took over a position some of the Galati graduates chose to decline: that of teaching in a rural school. Russell Shankland is 24 years old and, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, will teach English at School nr. 2 in Cudalbi, Galati County.

He has been in Romania since the end of May, when he started training in Brasov, along with other volunteers, for the time he would spend in Romania. It is then that he learned how to read and write Romanian, although, as he confesses, he can understand but cannot yet have a fluent conversation with a Romanian speaker. He arrived at Cudalbi in August. Why here, in a village in Galati? “Last year, I sent a letter to the Peace Corps office in Bucharest asking for a Volunteer”, says Iulian Ceoromila, teacher at the Cudalbi School.

Russell is one of the four Volunteers to teach in a few schools in Galati, but he is the only one to teach in a rural environment.

Although the students seem to be the ones to gain out of this direct contact with an English native speaker, Russell says he is the one to benefit from this experience. “I come from a town with a million people, Missouri, but this village is very different. Here people have to do everything by their own hands”.

On what he encountered here, Russell says Romania is “a very green country, with a lot of nature”, compared to the town he comes from. “People are open. I think Romanians maintain a balance between their family and their career. I was surprised at how much time they spend with their families”. Russell says he comes from a small family, where his mother is teaching a disability youth center and his father is a lawyer. His younger sister is an exceptional swimmer and she is still in school. “They will come to visit me next spring or summer”, Russell says nostalgically.

While he knew nothing more than the others foreigners know about our country (Dracula, the Romanian gymnasts, Ceausescu), the young American fell for the Romanian ciorba, mamaliga, sarmale and local minced meat. Ever since he arrived in Romania he hasn’t even entered a McDonald’s fast food store. He has tried to cook an American chocolate cake for the people he lives with at the moment, the village priest, Manolache, and his family. When we asked him about the American Dream, Russell answered: “The American attitude is built upon this theory. If you work hard enough, you may not end up a very rich man, but you earned more than enough. This, of course, doesn’t happen to anyone but we truly believe in the American Dream”.

Besides teaching English at school, the young American will also work with an NGO in Cudalbi, the Rural Development Association, whose President Mr. Ceoromila is. Within this association, Russell will teach English to adults. “I think it is going to be pretty difficult because I can speak very little Romanian, but I chose to teach and not perform any other Volunteer activity. I hope I can have everybody interested in learning English”, says Russell Shankland, for whom a new year at school begins today.

Translated by BonJoviette