Chris Alecia

Dear All, Happy New Year! And belated happy holidays! I will skip the obvious "it has been ages" and get to what we are here for - all the juicy gossip you have been craving about the where and when and how of America's finest redheaded couple who used to be volunteers in Romania, specifically Odorhei. That is correct - used to be for you who are out of the gossip loop, we are RPCVs. Unlike all those others who get to say the R before the Peace Corps Volunteer means Returned, in our case it means Retired as we have not returned. Alecia and I are solidly ensconced in our lives in central Transylvania and are working hard on our endeavors. Since we last emailed, Alecia has set up a small fruit experiment to test ... read more

Greetings one and all, so the big update is that we are staying in Romania post-peace corps. We have decided to take a leap and start some new things on this side of the pond. Alecia will start a small business in wild gathered products, Chris will manage the community foundation he started and we will both do some editing and consulting on the side. More on all that in the next blog but in the meantime, Wish us luck! Once again we’ve let our blog go into hibernation… I’d blame it on a busy schedule, but who doesn’t have one of those? So, here’s a rough over view of what we’ve been up to over the past few months. Back in February, we took a break from our rigorous work schedules and attempted to have ... read more

Hello again all, below is a reprint of an article we have submitted for publication regarding Chris' experiment in social-entrepreneurism with Agora... Recently, a group of 11 American and British volunteers gripped sticks and cheese graters with a mix of anticipation and consternation as blackened loaves of sourdough potato bread emerged from a traditional wood fired oven. A couple of grandmothers handed a loaf to each volunteer and stood back smiling… This somewhat surreal scene occurred on a late July day in a small village in Transylvania - though the idea was born nearly 9 months earlier in a slightly more mundane strategic planning meeting. At that meeting, Peace Corps Volunteers Chris Worman and Alecia Ball, and partner organization Agora, were discussing the future. Agora, like many Romanian NGOs was facing an uncertain funding future due ... read more

Dear All, It has been a while since our last update but in retrospect the pictures, until recently have been rather dull. But now that the dark and stormy months seem to be passing into a spring time we are coming out of hibernation and have some pictures and stories to share. For the most part, life in Odorhei/Undvarhely is increasingly busy. Alecia is deep into the fruit project with Agora and we have had several meetings with various folks in the villages regarding re-vitalizing traditional fruit drying practices and creating some traditional product focused cooperatives. People have seemed quite excited. A cynic might say just because there is a promise of income (though even if this were the only case, who could blame folks subsisting on less than $140/month?) but I think the reality ... read more

Dearest one and all - Happy New Year! We hope your holidays were pleasant and that 2007 will bring you a year full of happiness and success, peace and interest. Well as you might imagine, spending the holidays in Sicily was great. Not just great - stupendous, scrumptious, delightful and just about any other positive adjective you’d like to tack on. Granted the trains didn’t run on time, the weather didn’t always cooperate and we didn’t get to visit their famous volcano (Mt. Etna) but you can’t have everything can you? Our trip started off in Catania, one of the larger cities on the island. It is a bit industrial but not lacking in charm. We stayed in a really lovely hostel type guest house in the historic part of town that I would highly recommend ... read more