Take a Pass on Hotel Ripcrow

1997 > Peace Corps

Lets just say calling it a Hotel was stretching the truth

Here Jacquie and I chill out after a day dealing with Moscow.

Life in the gastanitza
We are volunteers now! After a beautiful ceremony at
the US Ambassador’s residence, we officially became volunteers and then
reality hit us. We were not going to be leaving for our sites
anytime soon, so we had to wait at a hotel the Peace Corps found for us,
the Hotel ‘Ripcrow’, which we quickly changed to
‘Ripcord,’ cuz that is what you want to pull as you jump
out of the window.

All of us lived together in the hotel for a month, bonding and
irritating each other. We all were glad when the majority of the
people left for their sites. Now there are only three of us left
here to wait and rot, without phones, mail, and sometimes hot water or
heat. I can’t wait to have my own room again!