Ambassador Speeches

Ambassador Kirby’s Speech
Peace Corps/Moldova 19 Swearing-In Ceremony

November 16, 2006

Ambassador Kirby delivers his speech at 19th Peace Corps Swering-in Ceremony

Deputy Minister Pirvan, Ambassador Tau, honored guests, Peace Corps Volunteers, host families, ladies and gentlemen:  Thank you for inviting me to take part in this ceremony.  The Peace Corps has a unique and valuable role among U.S. government programs in Moldova, and it is wonderful to welcome a new group of Volunteers to this effort.

I first met you at your training site in Ialoveni.  You have come a long way these past nine weeks.  You speak Romanian or Russian surprisingly well for such a short time.  You understand much about the Moldovan culture and about this country, and you are prepared to go out into villages and start working with local organizations.

The progress you have made is in large part a result of your talents and enthusiasm, and your dedication to making a difference here in Moldova.

But it is also thanks to the efforts of the Peace Corps training staff, and especially the language and cultural teachers who have earned such a great reputation. The families and the communities of Ialoveni, Ruseştii Noi, Bardar, Mileştii Mici and Costeşti also contributed in preparing our Volunteers for their assignments.  They took Americans into their homes, cooked sarmale and mamaliga for them, helped them with their language, and showed them how to pick grapes and make wine – and even drink some wine.

These new Volunteers are ready in large part because of countless person to person, face to face contacts—with teachers, host mothers, host children and neighbors.  Being a Volunteer is not something you can learn from a book. The best lessons are taught by host country nationals, and they are the greatest lessons you will carry with you back to America.

 Next week we commemorate the 43rd anniversary of the death of President Kennedy who founded the Peace Corps.  He was both an unbounded opportunist and a realist.  But most of all, he recognized the difference and the impact that one human being could have in this world.  Were he alive today and were he to learn about the Peace Corps program here in Moldova, I am certain that he would have been thrilled to see how much good the volunteers who have come before you have done.

Now you are heading out to villages and towns around Moldova to begin your work and to take your turn in contributing to progress in Moldova.  This is a country with great challenges before it.  Your work will not be easy.  Overall progress will seem slow.  Make no mistake: this is a country with the potential for significant improvements in the standard of living for its citizens, but a country where the right decisions need to be made for that to happen.  Success in Moldova is possible, but it is not a foregone conclusion.

The organizations where you are assigned have important roles to play in this struggle.  Non-governmental organizations are important players in the effort to develop civil society.  They perform grassroots work in communities across this country, helping farmers, small businesses, schools, local governments, and community organizations to build a better tomorrow for Moldovans.

You will, I'm sure, sometimes feel that the problems are so great that your individual efforts do not count for much.  Let me assure you that is not the case. Just as your teachers and host families had a huge impact on you, the same is true in reverse.  The most effective means of affecting lives here in Moldova, of helping people learn how to be active members of a productive society, is person-to-person, face-to-face contact.

Peace Corps is where that happens.  Every exchange with a partner, with your host brother, with children on the street corner or with a clerk at the alimentara, is a small but significant contribution to progress.

You demonstrate another point of view.  You bear witness to a different way of life. You show in a way that no other international program of ours shows that America and its people care about our fellow human beings who live here.  You are the best possible image of our great Republic.

So, thank you for being here today; thank you for volunteering.  Moldova is at an important point in its long and difficult history.  If you are a successful volunteer, your efforts will play an important role in helping individual Moldovans and even communities to contribute to moving Moldova along the path to a brighter future for Moldova and its citizens.