27 Luni

Early in the morning on November 5^th the day after my daylong Wine, Museum, and Church extravaganza, I received an expected text message from our Peace Corps Romania Safety and Security Coordinator.  The message was a call to action to initiate a simulation of our countrywide evacuation plan.  Our mission was a simple one: get to your assigned consolidation point by noon that day.  Otherwise the Black Hawks are leaving without you.

Since this was simply a simulation we were given advanced warning so as to not unnecessarily ruin otherwise well placed plans with our Counterparts and Community Members.  Fortunately for me, the commute from my village outside of Ploiești to București is an easy one, a trip that I have made several times and actually rather enjoy.  My typical route involves the following:

1. Picking up a Maxi-Taxi from Valea Călugărească to Ploiești:  With a little luck the Maxi-Taxi for 2.50 RON will take me all the way to Gara de Sud, the train station on the south side of Ploiești.  From here I can grab either a train or bus to Buc.  If the Maxi-Taxi doesn’t go to the train station, it will let off at Bucov Barieră.  From there I can either cab it for 5 RON and 5 minutes or walk for 30 minutes through the city and some really nice parks.  Time and weather permitting, I prefer the latter.
2. Bus from Ploiești to București:  Although I used to take the train when making this trip I now opt for the bus.  Generally I prefer to travel by train in Romania, but the bus on this particular leg is easier.  The price of 14 RON on the bus is the same all the time because there basically isn’t a difference in class and the schedule, with a few exceptions, essentially has the bus leaving every thirty minutes.  Plus, the ticket buying process is easier and you can hop on the bus and relax a lot longer before departure than you can with the train.
3. Gara de Nord to the Peace Corps Headquarters:  The bus from Ploiești lets off just a block from the main train station in București, Gara de Nord.  The metro picks up on the same block as the bus lets off and is only 4 RON for a round trip card.  With a metro card in hand, I take two tracks the M1 Yellow to the M2 Blue, for a total of three stops.  Or it’s about a forty-five-minute walk through the city.
4. Hoof it to the office: Once off the Metro it’s a five-minute walk through the twists and turns of the București back streets.

All in all, from door to door, the trip takes about an hour and thirty minutes, including waiting time for Maxi-Taxis, Metros etc and the roundtrip only costs about thirty-seven RON or eleven dollars.  I consider this lucky because for other volunteers it can take upwards of fifteen hours to reach HQ.  Having said that, it is important to point out that each group of volunteers has their own consolidation point for evacuation, simulated or real.  In other words, for safety reasons, all volunteers are placed within a reasonable distance to an extraction point.

Once in București, we hung out waiting for other volunteers to finish their respective journeys.  At around noon, two designated “Wardens” held a training seminar on safe travel through Romania.  We discussed what to look out for and what to do in a situation where you find yourself stranded.  In one exercise we were required to come up with alternative routes from our sites to the consolidation point.  In a worst-case scenario I could technically ride my bike.  Kind of a joke and kind of not; if there was no other option at least I know I can make it out on my own power, although I probably wouldn’t be able to walk the following week.  Heck, according to Google Maps, I could walk it in 14 hours.  One of our wardens actually related a story to us from a former Peace Corps post on the other side of the Black Sea.  Some unexpected unrest had kicked in and Peace Corps made the call to evacuate its staff and volunteers.  The US Government went to great lengths to ensure the safe extraction of everyone, including the use of Marine Black Hawk helicopters.

Following the consolidation point exercise, many of us in București went for a victory lunch of Mexican food.  Pricey as all get out, but the food was actually pretty good.  At the end of the day, I was left with a very full belly and the confidence that if the government ever collapsed and chaos ensued, I would know how to make it out safely.

Yesterday I learned that the Peace Corps community lost a couple of great volunteers.  My thoughts are with the families of Alden and Lena.