Natalie Montanaro
Volunteer: Natalie Montanaro
Bio:
Natalie earned a masters degree in languages from the College of Charleston, SC, after which she taught English in China and then joined the Peace Corps as a member of the "Kennedy Generation." She will be in Romania, teaching English and introducing other projects until the fall of 2012. She was born in Providence, RI and has been an active community member and city tour guide in Charleston since 1998.
Contributions from Natalie Montanaro
-
And the Cheese Stands Alone
“We soon reached his cave, but he was out shepherding, so we went inside and took stock of all that we could see. His cheese-racks were loaded with cheeses, and he had more lambs and kids than his pens could hold…When he had so done he sat down and milked his ewes and goats, all in due course, and then let each of them have her own young. He curdled half the milk and set it aside…” Thus is the excerpt from Homer’s Odyssey (in a translation from the Ancient Greek by Samuel Butler, the Victori...
-
Hungry for More
As I sit down to write yet another account of the unique life I’ve had here in Romania Peace Corps, it occurred to me that one of the greatest joys I’ve found has been to visit, nurture, admire, imbibe, or otherwise ingest glorious things from the gardens of my neighbors and my own. After just having finished a small, but precious bunch of early black grapes (struguri), I decided to take a seat on the wicker bench outside the home of some of my most favorite Romanian friends here in a villag...
-
On Common Ground
-Two CofC Grads Share a Peace Corps Thanksgiving Life in America is one unique experience after another. We’ve got shops on every corner selling any manner of goods and people who come from all over the globe right next door. There are languages and foods and religions galore, not to mention opinions, customs and such. It’s one of the things that we pride ourselves on and truly, it is not lost on us Peace Corps volunteers as we change our usual habitat for something bigger than ourselves...
-
Peace Corps Romania Quarterly Newsletter Excerpt
Volunteer Voices Page 11 Winter 2010 What is an American? It seems so long ago, I was sitting in a classroom on the other side of the ocean, having recited the “Pledge of Allegiance” to our flag then opening up a battered hardcover book of World Geography on another Thursday morning at Veazie Street School in Providence, Rhode Island. Back then, I thought about what other kids were doing all the way over in places like, Egypt, Panama, Fiji, or Nigeria. Did they have t...
-
Legacy of a Generation: The Peace Corps at Fifty
Where were you in 1961? It was such a long time ago and many of you weren’t even born yet. But I was. And so were many others of us who answered the call to service with the US Peace Corps. Now, we are some of us grandparents, wanting to leave our own legacies to children and grandchildren. This life has given us reason to be proud. When our American president back then, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, spoke at his inauguration to the world, he asked us to look at who we were as Americans ...
-
My Romanian Holiday
http://myromanianholiday.blogspot.com
-
A Well-th of Sunlight
Here's one of many "fontana" which I've catalogued in photos all around Romania...this one bathed in sunlight on a late day walk in Brebu.
-
Blinding Me with Kindness
In the village of Catumba, at my home in the region of Moldavia, this November sun welcomed me to begin another eventful day in Romania Peace Corps.
-
Sunset Strips
On a warm day in July, this afternoon palette was memorable over a modest home in a village outside of Hunedoara, Romania.
