Paramendra Bhagat
July 31, 2002
Jody Duncan: In Exile In Russia With Style
Paramendra Bhagat
July 31, 2002
"Hello again all.� It's been quite some time since I've subjected everyone in my address book to some unsolicited news from me.� I felt it was about time, partly for the sake of anyone who has sent me a letter any time since mid June (if you did, I don't have it), and partly b/c I've actually got something new to talk about............."
Lara had lost or misplaced her keys, as she realized Monday morning. The keys to home were no big deal: I could make copies. The key to her office at work would be a problem. We looked for the keys all over the kitchen, the living room; on Tuesday I even cleaned up our room. In the evening, we cleaned up our bags, and found our lost or misplaced Greyhound tickets that we would need for our ride back to Indianapolis Friday evening, but not the keys. She had had to ask two different people to unlock her door in the morning on Monday and Tuesday.
"............The reason I don't have any mail is b/c I haven't been home in a month.� Our Russian visas expired July 6, so on July 5, the 24 of us working as PCVs in the RFE flew to China to get new ones (Russian law...foreigners must leave the country to renew a visa. Not always enforced in every corner of the country; enforced in our corner this year).� We spent a few days in Harbin while a staff member took our passports on to Shenyang (Russian Embassy there). What was SUPPOSED to happen is the following:� Moscow sends a fax to the Embassy in Shenyang with all our names on it, allowing us to receive new visas for the coming year.� We kill a few days in Harbin, train to Shenyang, pick up our passports on a Monday, fly out of China two days later..........."
Two of our roommates told us yesterday they had seen some keys in the living room: "Have you talked to Walter?" Walter, a one time Vice President of the Howard University Student Government Association, a Detroit native, and like other people from Detroit like Eminem and Madonna, a music person, was one person we had not seen in a few days, and he told us later he had not read the notice we had put on the refrigerator door. So this morning, when I am in the bathroom, I hear Lara's jubilant voice down in the kitchen. For someone who usually talks in soft tones, I got the happy feeling she might have found the keys, and it was Walter! Walter had picked up the keys Sunday evening because they looked just like the ones he had! And I walked with Lara to her work, and half way, decided to take the Vermont Avenue route to the Howard Science Library, and I log into my Hotmail account, and there is a message from Jody Duncan, the second piece of good news for a Wednesday morning, after the keys.
"...............What HAPPENED was this:� We arrived in Shenyang and there was no fax from Moscow, which meant no visas.� In brief, there were many, many phone calls and questions (most of which went unanswered), and the following week there was a fax with 8 people's names on it.� Those 8 went back to Russia, and the rest of us eventually found out that our visas had been denied by Moscow (again, through many more phone calls, questions, waiting, etc...)..........."
After sending a quick e-mail to Lara at her work address, saying, hey, send your two word files of summer work, so I can put them online, I make space to jot down a few words on Jody. Of course, his e-mail has been sent to a mailing list of about 70 people: he has touched many lives, obviously. It is the newsletter from Vladivostok I have been privy to. He used to send them more regularly when he had been there only a few weeks. Now they are few and far between. He is perhaps preparing to settle down.
".........Then a series of meetings in Moscow began, highlighted by a letter from Colin Powell apparently on our behalf, and a visit to Moscow from the PC staff member out of DC in charge of all the counries in this region (Asia/Far East). These meetings took place last week, and at the present we still haven't heard the results. So, the 16 of us stuck here are eating lots of Chinese food, pulling our hair out, renewing our Chinese visas (we only took out 1-month visas for our trip here), and hoping to hear some good news out of Moscow soon(as we have been doing every day for the past three weeks).........."
I met him after I graduated from college. I was on my way to Baltimore. I had come to Lexington, Kentucky, from Berea for a Friday evening party. And my friend - she graduated my freshman year - who had invited me took me to her house, and at that house was Jody Duncan: the street musician Sam, "an overall nice guy," was also there. It so happens to be that I ended up moving into Jody's room, instead of going to Baltimore, and I had already purchased my Greyhound ticket to Baltimore. Jody sold me my first car for a nominal 300 dollars, a 1988 Ford Mustang. He taught me how to drive. The two things just mentioned happened in the reverse order, of course. And then he was gone off to Russia. But before that I also got to meet his girlfriend. And of course there were the Flower House alumni and the Yello House occupants.
"............� It's hard to complain...PeaceCorps is taking good care of us: Our hotel is very nice, and our perdiem is more than sufficient.� However, in light of the fact that we all left our homes expecting to return after 10 days and get on with our lives (not to mention our summer plans), facing the prospect of not getting to go back at all kinda puts a damper on things.........."
After Jody learned a year or so later that I had been driving an 18-wheeler all over the United States for the prior six months, he sent me a quick e-mail: "Just tell me how!" He was the first person to have seen me drive. My first road test I had run a stop sign, besides other things.
".........So, in the meantime, we continue to wait, hoping that one of these days we're going to wake up to the news that another fax has come from Moscow and it actually has all our names on it.� On the upside, if none of this had happened, I never would have eaten eggs with chopsticks, learned how to say "I'm not Chinese" in Chinese (the humor in that is subtle, and lost on most of the Chinese people I've tried it on), or worn a Speedo in public (as good as law here in China...we tried many times to convince many different people that our knee-length swimming trunks were just as good as the Speedo, but we weren't getting anywhere near a pool or water park until we caved in and sported the spandex; much to my chagrin). Alright, enough from me.� I hope to update you all again some day from back inside the country I've called home for the past year...sans Speedo. take care, jody d."
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