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Peace Corps Turns Fifty
March 1, 2011 will mark fifty years since President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. Since then more than 200,000 volunteers have served in 139 countries. Over 13,000 of them have come from Oregon and Washington.
One of those volunteers, Chris Miller, started his tour in Ukraine a year ago. When he arrived people asked him if he was a "shpion," or spy. He's not, of course, but the questions served as a harsh reminder that despite one's best intentions, it's difficult to connect with people when you're the outsider. Things have gotten better for Chris since then. His friends have started giving him canned foods as gifts, which he says is "a real sign of appreciation."
Another volunteer, Cathy Rothenberger, served in Belize in the early nineties. At the time Belize had an extremely high youth population, so it was critical to find a way to integrate them into the economic development of the country. She organized entrepreneurial programs in schools and taught business skills to young people. Her most powerful memory, she says, was taking one of her students to a entrepreneurial competition in neighboring Honduras. "In an environment like that someone like her could go into her shell, so to speak, but she didn't. She really shined." After serving in the Peace Corps Cathy continued to work in International Development. Now an employee at Mercy Corps, she recently moved back to Portland after living abroad for most of her adult life.
But some Peace Corps volunteers say they gain more as volunteers than they give to the communities they're serving. And like many government agencies, the Peace Corps may face a tough road ahead: the House of Representatives recently voted to cut its budget by 17%.
The Peace Corps is planning events across the country to celebrate its birthday. In Portland, the Oregon Historical Society is hosting an exhibit that will feature artifacts, oral histories, and photographs, collected from Peace Corps volunteers around the Northwest.
We'll be talking to several returned Peace Corps volunteers, one current, and one who will soon depart. Their experiences span the globe from Belize City to eastern Ukraine. We'll talk about mud huts and apartments, power outages and WiFi. We'll also talk about how some Peace Corps volunteers take their experience and turn it into a career.
Have you or someone you know served in the Peace Corps? What impact did you have on the community you served? What impact did they have on you?
GUESTS:
- Melanie Forthun: Public Affairs Specialist for the Peace Corps
- Chris Miller: Peace Corps volunteer serving in Ukraine
- Connie Ross: Soon to be Peace Corps volunteer in Georgia
- Cathy Rothenberger: Director of Recruitment and Retention at Mercy Corps
Tagged as: anniversary · international · non-profit · peace corps
Photo credit: aripeskoe / Creative Commons
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While dependcy on aid is a problem worth addressing, I would like to mention 2 points in response.
Two of Peace Corps' three objectives are cross-cultural exchange, its third being technical assistance. People obviously have the intention of helping impovershed people live healthier or better lives somehow through technical assistance in some form, but Peace Corps is not USAID.
Second, while China did accomplish a major economic shift, the manner in which that happened and the human rights violations to get to that ends do not make China a model for other nations to strive for. I would point to the Three Gorges dam, a major environmental and humanitarian disaster as one example.
Kristen, Peace Corps Ecuador, 2000-2002
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Read Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux to gain an interesting perspective on the widespread corruption, apathy and failure of NGOs in Eastern Africa.
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I do not think I have a story that fits the topics you hope to hear stories about but would like to share a few comments in case you think they might fit in between caller’s stories.
My group was sent to Malaysia in 1972 as a hurried response to Indonesia suddenly calling many science teachers home. The Peace Corps and Malaysia hoped to teach experienced American science teachers Malay so they could replace the missing teachers. They weren’t sure what level of language proficiency was enough but every week delayed meant another week with no teacher.
I arrived in classrooms where no teacher had taught for 6 months. My language ability was not adequate but the students were desperate and we struggled together to improve our situation. These students must sit for an exam at the end of the year and the results determine if they continue or go home.
This is where the recruiting slogan “It’s the toughest job you’ll ever love.” is confirmed.
On the occasion of Malaysia’s 50th anniversary in 2007 several of us “Old Boys” were invited back to participate in the celebrations. I was able to meet up with several of my former students. It was a heartwarming relief to learn that many had been able to overcome incredible hurdles to go on to become doctors, teachers, business men, engineers, and representatives in parliament.
I was also powerfully reminded of their amazing hospitality and generosity which is beyond anything you could experience in the US. When they had almost nothing they would call me, a stranger, into their homes and offer me tea and fruit. When they had much they would offer it all to me for my use and offer their time as if it were free.
This is where the other recruiting slogan “You’ll get more than you give.” is confirmed.
Terimah Kasih,
Ron Myers
group 39, Malaysia 1972-1974 -
Returning to the states as a 24 year old RPCV I found that while prospective employers were always duly impressed at my service they had no idea what types of skills it had given me that would be relevant to the job I was applying for. It took me several years and much frustration to be able to accurately articulate what I learned teaching subsistence farming techniques in West Africa and how that could help me in a career in 21st century America.
I also found that while I was away, most of my peers had continued or begun paths from college related to relationships and career, and when I came back I felt woefully behind in these areas. One of the things that is less talked about related to Peace Corps Service is how difficult it is to remove yourself completely from your circle of influence not once but twice within the span of three years. Once when leaving home and then once again when leaving your new home overseas.
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In 1990-92, I was a high school English teacher to students at an isolated, outer-island boarding school on Beru, a coral atoll in the central Pacific’s Republic of Kiribati. ‘My’ pristine white sand beach was 500 steps from my two room concrete house with its thatch-roofed, wall-less sleeping platform in the back yard. I had thick callouses on my bare feet, persistent skin infections, and my childhood slimness due to a diet of fish, rice and coconut, and not much else. I wouldn’t trade my experiences there for anything or anyone.
Best day: My singing/dancing-filled going-away party at the end of my service. The teachers told me the most valuable gift I had given them was not my conscientious, dedicated teaching, nor my library enrichment efforts, nor my curriculum-updating project. It was that I had sat a wailing, musically mournful vigil with them, on a thin pandanus leaf mat on the concrete floor of the community meeting hall, for 36 hours, when a colleague’s toddler died of dysentery. I knew then why I had come.
Worst day: I had an as-yet-undiagnosed case of giardia, but whatever it was, the symptoms were inconvenient, stinky and messy. The school principal was siphoning off tuition fees, which left 500 teenagers very hungry again. None of my students thought homework was a useful exercise, especially when the generator’s evening lighting was so weak. It rained hard and fast, as it always did, on the tin classroom roofs, drowning out my spelling quizzes and dictation paragraphs. All I had left to eat was Spam, canned peas and rock-hard ‘cabin biscuits’. No one would sell me any fresh fish, even though I’d settle for the head. The weekly 12-seater plane arrival bringing the mail hadn’t been seen for a month. Why had I come?
Best moment: Sobbing on the phone with Laurie, my grown daughter, from the San Francisco hotel, as our group was preparing to board the bus for our airport departure to begin in-country training. Suddenly I was filled with doubts, worries and uncertainty. Laurie gave me a verbal dose of fierce courage, which I knew she didn’t feel either. Off I went, never to regret any of it again.
Worst moment: Learning that one of my brightest, most motivated students had died of hepatitis while I was away for holiday. He was unconscious when they put him on the plane to the hospital on the capital island. He was alone when he died, and no one could tell me where he was buried. Acceptance was a longtime coming, and tear-filled.
In the 15 years after completing my service, I managed preservice trainings for over 400 new Volunteers in nine Peace Corps countries. What expansive, enriching opportunities.
Ms. Havard Bauer
Mount Angel, OR.
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My Peace Corps experience has shaped my life. I went in a typical consumer-driven American, and came out realizing how much can be accomplished with so little. I was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when it was Zaire, in the fisheries program. It was an extremely well-organized program with great support from the local governnment and a good reputation with my villagers (and surrounding villages). We built fish ponds, stocked and raised tilapia, harvested and sold them pondside or at market all with local materials. Most of our ponds were built with machetes and straw baskets instead of shovels and wheelbarrows, they were about 200 square meters and 1 meter deep. The fish are ominvores & plantivores, so could be fed with locallly available materials and by maintaining a plankton bloom in the ponds with a compost bin built into the pond.
It was hard, hot work, I dropped about 20% of my body weight (and I was in good shape went I started), I contracted malaria and other tropical diseases. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Not only did I learn life skills that serve me well to this day, I'm now working for the Fish and Wildlife Service as a fish pathologist and love my job. I'm certain I wouldn't be where I am today without my Peace Corps experience. Happy 50th Birthday.
Mary Peters
Zaire 89-91, Fisheries
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Like most volunteers, my Peace Corps experience was life changing. I served as an Information Technology for Education volunteer in the Dominican Republic. My position was running a computer lab in a rural high school about 50 km from the Dominican/Haitian border. The lab was set up to run off of car batteries when there were brownouts or blackouts. My "job" was to teach students and community members the basics of computer software and hardware.
When I first arrived in the country, during training, I was counseled by Peace Corps staff to change my appearance and they told me that in order to be successful I needed to essentially go back into the closet.
I did my best to change my appearance, growing out my hair and wearing skirts and feminine clothes, even though it made me feel very uncomfortable. Being a rather athletic female also made it difficult for me to fit within a very gender polarized culture.
I left the Peace Corps, “Early Terminating” after about 9 months of service. It was a devastating decision for me to quit, as being a Peace Corps Volunteer was a childhood dream.
Although I was only in-country for 9 months, I grew significantly as a person and gained technical skills that I have used to further my career. Entering and leaving the Peace Corps was one of the most defining events in my life. I loved the Dominicans I lived and worked with, I still keep in touch with a few of the students through Facebook.
The only wish I have is that the Peace Corps office and staff would have been more supportive and helpful in finding me a placement where I could be successful and provided additional support for gay and lesbian volunteers.
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Peace corps has three basic tenets, two of which relate to cultural exchange and one which relates to development work. As a peace corps volunteer in Guatemala from 2003-2005, I found that it depended on the peace corps country director, program leader, and the individual volunteers on which of those tenets was most emphasized. Some of the criticism of peace corps relates directly to its mission. Peace corps volunteers are eager and willing to implement the peace corps mission. If congress feels that volunteers focus too much on cultural exchange, then they should alter the mission/tenets.
If congress would like peace crops to function more like other countries' development organizations, like Cooperacion Espanola or the UN program, then congress needs to offer better professional training or hire only volunteers with schooling or experience in specific skills or professions. For example, I was the only experienced professional city/town planner of the 20 volunteers brought into my class in Guatemala to implement the 1996 Peace Accords requirement to decentralize the governement by small town elections, training of municipal councils, and support the newly formed town planning offices.
Peace Corps is called the toughest job you'll ever love... which is true, but one tends to love it more the longer one has been back from that experience. My site and work assignment required enormous amounts of self-motivation and research in order to help the community the most. As most peace corps volunteers, I was dropped into a community with little direction, a couple of vague contacts, and vague notion of my work assignment. When there and through talking with community members, I discovered the actual needs of the community and went to work. I came home exhausted from the effort. Now I look back at that work experience with awe and I look back at the friendships and community and country with nostalgia.
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I served in Tanzania in 1995-1998. I taught Math & Physics in Zanzibar.
I say I got more out of it than I gave. I got to experience and undestand such a different culture. Zanzibar is 99% Muslim. The main town is fairly developed and the rural towns range from well water and no electricity to intermittent electricity and intermittent running water. I witnessed so much kindness and interwoven support. Family is so important and for the most part ownership was different. It was more collective (however changing). One student would buy a book for class but it would change hands through out the year as people borrowed it and studied it.
The students did perform better on the national exams while I was there. I won't claim it was a functioning of my teaching skills, I hope it was, but it could have simply been the students I had. I also like to think that I did open up their minds to different ways to approach problems and solve challenges.
I think the measure of personal success a Peace Corp Volunteer experiences during their time is dependent on how far they progress through what I call the 5 stages of understanding.
5 Stages of Understanding
Fear
Will I get sick? What will I eat? How rustic will the conditions be?
Pride
I can't believe they do this. Don't they know it's better if they do this? ...
Questioning
Why do they do things this way? How did they develop this?
Experiementation
The Locals do it, I'll give it a try.
Understanding
This is when you blend your knowledge of the culture and the people with your own comfort zones. Respecting what is theirs, but also knowing the line where you are comfortable.
After Peace Corps, I too had problems conveying the skills I learned and how it translated in to the "real world". An example: as I was being interviewed by the president of a company, he said, "It is nice for you that you were in Africa helping people, but you are competing against people who worked for Ford and GM for this job."
Peace Corps experience translates very well to corporate America. It's a global economy now, I came in with understanding and curiousity of other cultures with which I worked. I understood what it is like to work in an environment in a second language, and was able to communicate more effectively with my foreign co-workers. Peace Corps taught me the value of humility & teamwork, and this translates well into getting things done (even when it is beneath you). This is just a couple of ways I see Peace Corps coming into play in my professional life.
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The Peace Corps have had a significant impact in the Northwest, especially in our private colleges and universities. Three of Oregon's private schools - Willamette Universtiy, Lewis & Clark College and University of Portland - are all among the top 15 "small schools" whose graduates become volunteers for the Peace Corps after graduation.
In addition, the Peace Corps have an established Fellows/USA program for returnees, which establishes partnerships with graduate and professional programs. Peace Corps volunteers benefit from scholarship assistance at Fellows programs and are assured that the school meets certain criteria where their unique skills will be utilized and applied as they pursue a graduate degree.
Willamette University's MBA program (which is accredited for business, government and not-for-profit management) is the newest Fellows USA program in Oregon (and the only MBA program in the area). Peace Corps volunteers pair their unique experiences with the management knowledge they are learning to impact government and not-for-profit organizations through experiential projects. This assists in the volunteer's transition from their Peace Corps experience back into the job market. The Fellows/USA program is a wonderful benefit for returning Peace Corps volunteers.
Russell Yost - Salem, OR
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They say in the Peace Corps that volunteers who go to South America come back as rebels, volunteers who go to Asia come back as mystics, and volunteers who go to Africa come back laughing. My three years in Niger, West Africa were some of the richest years of my life thus far, and the people I lived with taught me so much more than I brought to them. They are some of the poorest people of the world, and were also some of the happiest I have ever met. I still miss my family there and look forward to visiting again some day.
Jenn Brenner, Portland, OR
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I came from an Arab country. here is what a lot of people think of Peace Corps volunteers: although the volunteers themeselves have good intentions, all the info they collect and send in form of reports or other is used the US government for inteligence purposes...
The second idea is, we need to stop claiming that PC helps people of the world, it helps Americans learn new thing and get excited but their impact where they go is almost inexistent. How are you going to help youth to integrate in a society you yourself don't know ( I am refering to the lady in Bulgaria) Americans struggle having their own youth in Ghettos integrated in society...It's doubtful they can achieve that abroad...
I remember one PC volunteer in the past telling that she thaught kids in remote areas in Africa to build a garden...It sounded to me like something out of Kafka...total disconnect...do you think the children in Africa care about gardens the way suburban people do here???
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one might suppose that garden was for veggies and food - silly you, you thought it was for a flower for your lapel -
that's what is called a disconnect
so for some, it is good to go abroad - to show ourselves as an open and idealistic people - others should never be seen, even on the street here they are a bad example - folks who would be duplicitous, misguided, harbor suspicions, think themselves so much better that they are unwilling to help others
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Hello TOL,
I was a PCV in Jamaica, WI from 1979-81, and worked on a soil conservation and forestry project in a remote highland village in that country.
I think like most volunteers I feel I got much more out of the experience than what I was able to accomplish. Also, I feel I have carried out one of the goals of PC service to let others know what it is like to live and work in a third world country.
After Peace Corps I went on to work for a public interest group, a state assemblyman, got a graduate degree in public administration, and then worked for seven years on international projects in Eastern Europe and Africa.
I have benefited greatly from my Peace Corps experience and know it shaped me signifcantly as a person and the career path that I have followed.
I have reestablished a friendship with a fellow Jamaica volunteer who currently is living in Jacksonville, OR. It is significant that 30 years later, my Peace Corps experience is still active through this relationship. In 2009 we reconnected with another fellow volunteer from the midwest for a mini-reunion near Palo Alto, CA.
I am hoping to check out the Oregon Historical Society exhibit on the Peace Corps experience sometime later this month. I am sure it will bring back some interesting memories and feelings.
John Bloss
N Portland
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I served in Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso from 1967-1969. We were the first Peace Corps program in the country and were assigned to three sectors- well digging, agriculture and public health. Our program began with intensive language traing at Dartmouth and then at the Peace Corps training Center in the Virgin Islands. By the time we arrived in Ouagadougou all of us spoke French at a Foreign Service level 3 (scale of 6), and local languages depending on the region we were assigned to. As a well digger I was responsible for proving materials and impetus for creating wide diameter wells in villages throughout my region.
The impact on my life has been imeasureable. In 1986 I founded Friends of Burkina Faso, a non-profit that supports development in BF and connections among returned volunrteers and the country. In 1993 as President of FBF I was invited to return to BF by the government as part of their effort to improve relations with the US, and in 1994 led a group of friends of Burkina on a return trip, where we visited villages where we had worked, visited with old friends and built a school.
Today Friends of Burkina Faso supports a number of local grass roots projects focused on girls education and village development.
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Peace Corps is an incredible experience and opportunity to learn about yourself, America, and your host community. It is one of America's greatest resources to give perspective to its citizens. Hardly a day goes by that I don't think of something related to my Peace Corps experience. There are so many opportunities to pass on the patience and open mindedness that I gained.
Zambia 2006-08
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I forgot to this: I would like a response about whether the info is used for inteligence purposes or not?
Again pay attention to how when PC volunteers speak, there is always more focus on their own personal satisfaction, they rarely or never say in concrete terms what they achieved in the place where they were. Usually they use vague terms when describing the experience words used: "communities" "a lot" "positive" "healthy" Tell us how: in examples and stories not just vague terms. Don't say results, say what it is...and how
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I taught my communities specific health information about the six major health thrusts developed by the Ministry of Health. I helped facilitate gender training, leadership, and planning to community groups including teachers, women's groups, and school children.
That specific enought for you? I could go on, as could many volunteers.
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Like most federal agencies the Peace Corps has become, over its lifetime, a bureaucracy filled with cronyism and enormous waste. Having served in 2004-2005 I found the majority of those in my "class" acknowledged they were there to make sure their future applications to law or business schools were viewed favorably.
The Peace Corps assigned volunteers to the same favorite agencies every year in a cooperative spirit of "you be good to me, we will assign you another volunteer". Many volunteers did almost nothing once assigned to their site, while others partied with co-volunteers every weekend. One volunteer lived in a high rise apt. bldg., was picked up each morning and driven to the high rise office bldg. to which he was assigned and driven back to his apt (TV and all) each evening.
The world is indeed flat and with today's technology allowing immediate and constant world wide communications it no longer serves to have individual Americans representing the services offered by the Peace Corps. Far better this country spends its budget and human resources to serve the very needy communities here at home. The Teach for America program should be given a huge financial increases. The notion of an international Peace Corps is romantic, but not at all what it is presented to be.
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Whoa! I am sorry that your experience was not everything that you hoped, but I strongly disagree with your accusation that everyone is going to the PC to pad their resume. Plenty of volunteers where I was sent, myself included, worked our butts off to do the best possible work and influence our communities to make behaviour changes and learn new skills.
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I am a RPCV that served from 2004 through 2006. When I say I am a Return Volunteer I often get one question: How was it? This is a question that seemingly should be answered with one word; however there is no way to put all the wonderful and all the terrible into one word, one sentence or even one conversation. What I can say is that it removes the numbness that many of us in America tend to find comfortable to operate within every day. For example, the low points of service feel like some of the lowest and loneliest lows of your life and the high points feel like no other good feeling I have ever felt before. I also find that males and females tend to have completely different experiences even within the same country and that safety was always a concern (this is probably country dependent) and this aspect feed some of my lowest lows while in service. However as the years go by I find that I would not change my experiences for anything and how I see those experiences continues to evolve.
For example, a scholarship project I started within my community started our first year with 10 kids and this year more than 75 rural and impoverished kids were given full ride scholarships for middle school and high school. The most successful projects I had are the ones that no longer can be contributed to my actions because local people were integral in the development and are what has taken the project forward. This project has become the community’s project. If you want to check it out you can go to: http://www.becasuspantan.com/
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Almost 30 years ago, my father died suddenly in his 40's, and my mother, desperate to find a job, decided to join the Peace Corps! Not only were we incredibly proud of her, but the long-lasting benefits could not have been foreseen. She had been raised by a rather bigoted Southern mother, and my mother had been notibly prejudiced herself. As she began teaching in her assignment in Antigua in the Caribbean, we noticed an amazing change in her. She was sending home pictures of her new Black students and friends, she was sending little Black dolls to my children, she was embracing Caribbean music. As I look by now, as she turns 84 this week, I see the Peace Corps as a gift not only to the world but to each family involved. The experience created a new legacy for our family, breaking a long-held tradition of bias and bigotry and instilling in us all an unbreakable determination of acceptance, curiosity in the new and unexplored, and bigger, broader view of our ever-shrinking world.
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Thank you for his moving account.
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There were organizations before the Peace Corp, upon which the Peace Corp was modelled. Note the "permanent" in John F. Kennedy's announcement about starting a "Peace Corp." I was active in the international 4-H program and went abroad in the Eisenhower program "People to People" with a Future Farmers of America group.
I went though many countries in Europe, both in western Europe and "behind" the Iron Curtain--think 1964 and "Checkpoint Charlie" times. I met many folks who had not seen an American since WWII. I had a wonderful moment in one area, a 5,000 hectar commune, when I found WWII Lend Lease tractors that had been bought from the British after the war. There were up to seven folks running one tractor built in the 1930s. Because my father owned a John Deere Dealership then, I knew you could still get spare parts for that tractor. So an hour conversation lead to the first John Deere sale behind the Iron Curtain.
My pay off for all this was knowing how not an enemy "communists" were, an unpopular view when I came back. I was unable to secure a Top Secret clearance because of my trip when I was in the US Army headed for Viet Nam. That is how far ahead People to People was of the official culture.
Over the years, I have been active in the Rotary Internation exchange programs (high school and on the college level) and Portland Sister City. So folks wanting to volunteer, there are programs right here beyond spending two years in the Peace Corp.
And my current rants include that while the Peace Corp is still going, look what happened to Americorps budget this month! You think PBS is in trouble, look at what the lack of Americorp will do here at home.
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I agree, losing Americorps (and JobCorps) will be a great loss for our country and I truly hope that it doesn't happen. I can't even understand why the house of representatives would cut Americorps.
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I can't even understand why the house of representatives would cut Americorps. -- CoastyWife — Tue March 1st 10:08a.m.
I'll tell you why the House of Representatives would do that: It is controlled by the Republican't Party, the Party of HELL, NO!, the party that doesn't see the value of something unless it benefits the wealthy and the powerful. Does anyone honestly believe that the GOP gives a d@mn about the middle class or the working class?
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The safety training for women that Peace Corps provided in 1992 in Botswana was horrid. It came down to "avoiding" any situation that might be problematic - which is impossible. It was tantamount to "blaming the victim". Young women, especially those would did not grow up in a city and learn "street smarts" were especially vulnerable. I advise any woman who is interested in becoming a PC volunteer to take self-defense classes in the states before leaving, to make sure your home is secure - which means getting PC to buy you appropriate locks and bars, if necessary - be alert, and to carry a knife and/or pepper spray. [In fact, PC should issue pepper spray to every woman.]
A secure home would have prevented a fellow volunteer from a sexual assault, and my alertness and knife protected me from a daytime mugging. I was walking with a friend - who paid no attention to surroundings. I noticed two men who may have been following us. Sure enough, I suggested we stop - at which point, they stopped near us. I stood up on a large rock, rested the palm of my hand on my knife, which was in its sheath (unsnapped), and just steadily looked at them, while calmly saying "Hello" in a firm voice. Their "surprise" was that they were not able to surprise us, and they turned back from where they had come.
Being alert and looking assertive is half the battle. But, don't expect PC to teach you that.
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I have never been in the Peace Corps, but my mother and my youngest brother both were at the same time. I believe that they set a record for being the oldest member of the Peace Corps and the youngest member of the Peace Corps from the same family at the same time. My mother, Marilyn Ambrose, was assigned to Lithuania (our family is of Lithuanian heritage), and taught English, and developed incredibly close relationships with Lithuanian residents, to the point of actually arranging several years ago to bring a Lithuanian folk singing group to the US (all of whom had never been in the US before), and took them to various parts of the West Coast, doing presentations of Lithuanian folk music, including one in Portland. Indeed, there was a reunion of those from the Peace Corps who served in the Baltic Countries in Portland just in the latter part of 2010, which my mother attended.
My youngest brother, Anthony Ambrose, was assigned to Tonga, where he worked on assisting the local residents on improving farming operations.
It was, according to them, an experience they will each never forget.
David Ambrose
503.467.7217
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My husband and I served in the Peace Corps in Nigeria in 1961-64, and again in Bolivia in 1966-69. We were secondary school science teachers in Benin, Nigeria, and our oldest daughter was born there in 1962, the first Peace Corps baby. In Bolivia my husband worked in public health and I was a community craftsperson cooperative organizer, as well as birthing our third child.
We were in the first cadre of PCVs, and had a wonderful training program at UCLA for 3 months. Africa was an immediate shock in its "differentness", climatically and sociologically, but I soon came to love it. One of the most poignant and tragic moments there was when 2 Nigerian friends knocked on our door in Benin to tell us, crying, that Kennedy had been assasinated. The whole town was in mourning for days.
I got much more than I gave from my Peace Corps experience, in many ways throughout my life. It was a wonderful experience.
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Hmm..I just called in and was disappointed that the interviewee in Ukraine kind of missed my point. The Peace Corps does a fine job of providing technical training, but I felt that it does a rather poor job of providing support on a personal level-- at least in the early 90's in the Third World for volunteers straight out of college before the Internet age. I think they would do a lot better at creating effective, well-adjusted volunteers if they provided more training upfront, ongoing support during assignments, and opportunities for RPCV's coming home to readjust. It's really hard to leave your culture and jump into a completely different one and then back when you are young and don't really know who you are yet! I hope PC is doing a better job these days of drawing on education and psychology theory and letting folks know that it's OK to have trouble adjusting, that it's normal, and that they are there to help.
Don't get me wrong, my PC service was very valuable and was the springboard for a very satisfying federal career. I'm just not hearing much substantive conversation on the air about the tough stuff:-Does PC do enough to help volunteers adjust on a personal level?
-Are the projects volunteers do really effective?
-Is our money best spent on PC programs vs. Americorps at home or alternative programs overseas?
-Does PC do enough to prepare and support non-traditional vols, like the lesbian woman above?-Does PC deal effectively with the threat of violence and sexual violence?
We all have our great stories to tell- but it doesn't serve anyone well, especially those considering joining, to gloss over the really tough stuff that a big bureaucracy is not very effective at dealing with.
Kristin
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Hi Kristin.
Sorry If I didn't fully address your point. Regarding PC providing personal support, I believe - at least in my case here in Ukraine - they do. For example, we have grant committees for VAST grants and SPA grants that provide coaches for those writing project grants. We have a number of specialized working groups (technoloy w.g., healthy lifestyles w.g., special needs w.g., small business w.g., etc.) that provide training to PCVs in need of specific skills. And these resources are available all the time. I can't speak for RPCVs, but I've heard mixed opinions. In that area I wouldn't say everything's peachy. Perhaps it's an area that could use some improvement.
Chris
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Please see my comment about assault below. DonnaL
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Another thing, Kristin. Here in Ukraine, we have a fairly good support system for those struggling to adjust. There is a peer counseling program that has proven to be effective, as well as support from designated PC staff. That said, I know from some PCVs that the outreach programs and other help provided isn't always enough. There's certainly room for improvement.
On the topic of gay/lesbian volunteers, given the level of homophobia that exists here in Ukraine, I like to think we do a good job of teaching about equality - at least to the youth. Our gender and development working group provides helpful materials, lessons and more to all volunteers, while also hosting a number of events.
I agree with you that in just an hour-long program we can't get to talking about the more serious issues. But if you'd like - or if anyone would like to - you can message me or email me: millerjchristopher@gmail.com. My blog is borderland-chronicles.com.
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I served in Togo West Africa, 1985-1987. Had a funny encounter with a Ghanaian couple. I was taking a walk one evening and encountered a couple also taking a walk. We greeted each other in French. The man then responded with "fine fine" in English. So I switched to English and they asked if I was an English Girl. I responded no, American. The man then said "we Ghanaians just we love Americans." What state are you from. I replied Oregon. The man, who was aware of the state law at that time that decriminalized marijuana responded. "Oregon, that is where the joint is legal."
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My white skin and red beard scared small children as my wife and I hiked 5 days through the rainforest in central Liberia in the mid seventies. We walked to areas where white people had not been to. As we hiked further into the bush less people spoke English and we didn’t know the tribal language. In each village we stayed over in we were given the best sleeping arrangements the village could offer and more food than we could ever eat. We were never asked to pay because we were guests and the tradition is to give guests the best there is to offer. This was the norm in the many villages visited in my work, great generosity from people who had very little.
As a Peace Corps Volunteer I also saw the hundreds of small obstacles that kept Liberians from living like me, an American.
Working to improve lives in the third world is hard, frustrating work. To be a Peace Corps Volunteer and given the opportunity to make a small difference in lives of these kind hearted people was an important part of my life. -
I think living in Third World Country is an education every American should experience. It would teach you gratitude. But you can get an international pen pal in about 10 minutes from a web forum.
How about a Peace Corps using unpaid Interns to ReBuild America? There are some very needy and interesting cultures even right here in America--Appalachia, The South, Southwest Border Region, Upper Midwest, Rust Belt and the Mississippi Gulf.
They even need native English speakers to teach English in America.
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I was a 30 year old PCV in the Philippines in 89-90. We were evacuated out of there due to a PCV being kidnapped. PC handled the evacuation really poorly. You may end up back on the streets of your home town with no place to live, no car, and no money (volunteer). They tried to get people reassigned but many were not. They promised us we would be able to access our complete return pay. Various volunteers had been in-country for variuos amounts of time. the PC Director came to the Manila and made a lot promises that were immediately denied when we arrived in hawaii evacuation center. In fact, they never told us why we were being pulled out until we decided to boycott their plans to ship us to our home towns. The Peace Corps is what you make of it. I'm glad I went and I was glad that I had a lot of savings before I went in. The PC eventually backed down and gave us the things the PC Director had promised. The PCVs evacuated out of Liberia and other countries were not so lucky. I hope they have formulated a better policy for such cases. I never tell people not to join the USPC but I do tell them to be prepared.
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The great value of the Peace Corps is forging personal relationships across borders and boundaries of race, religion, education, politics, and socio-economic background. No amount of foreign aid for development projects can buy the level of understanding, compassion and friendship that develops between American Peace Corps Volunteers and their host country colleagues. That has lasting positive effects and impacts on personal and community levels for many years.
Like the woman who spoke on air a few minutes ago, not a day goes by that I don't think about my Peace Corps service 25 years ago. I have maintained close ties with my country of service, Tonga, ever since. A little over a year ago I was in Tonga helping with disaster relief efforts in the wake of a devastating tsunami that levelled much of the island where I had lived as a volunteer. Walking down the streets of the capital city I was recognized and greeted warmly with hugs and tears by formers students, colleagues, evacuated tsunami survivors, and people who I'd never even met. The Peace Corps might not alleviate world poverty, eradicate malaria, or end all wars, but showing that we care counts.
Lori Osmundsen - Portland
Tonga, 1985-1989
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My husband and I were volunteers in Peru in the early 70's. It was a life changing experience that allowed us to learn another Language and begin understand the world in a very different way!! It provided us with the opportunity to spend more then 25 years working in development in South and Central America, Africa, and Malaysia. Our children grew up with amazing experiences. Of course it was not always easy but rarely was it boring. After retiring and spending another 5 years in Honduras in a wonderful little bilingual school with a non secular social mission I would say one of the most important things the PC provides is an opportunity for Americans to have a meaningful cultural experience without being attached to a religious mission.
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I was a Peace Corps volunteer, in my mid twenties, in Colombia, South America, 1975-76, . I was a head nurse in a regional hospital in Tamalameque, Cesar, in the Magdalena River Valley. The people of Colombia were always gracious, but surprised that I was an American. I am Japanese American and sometimes had difficulty explaining that I was a gringa. My experience there was rewarding and challenging and definitely an eye opener.
The materials and opportunities to learn about advancements in medicine were not available there in that remote area. We often lacked running water and electricity--this was in the hospital. There were some patients that would have survived if we had the same technologies and medicines that were available in the US. I realized that we take so much for granted and how wasteful we are in the US.
The patients and townspeople appreciated my presence in the hospital and attempts at teaching health classes, by inviting me to their homes. I never declined an invitation, but found myself getting ill from eating or drinking contaminated food or water. My next class was on the importance of boiling water for drinking and cooking and to wash hands with clean water before handling food! I am not sure who was more appreciative, though, I, for being invited into their homes, or they, for having the honor of me being in their homes (it was explained to me that it was an honor to have the Head Nurse visit your home).
The amount of violence that was prevalent in that region was not a factor that the Peace Corps informed volunteers of. It was unsettling to me to have many patients with stab or gunshot wounds, and I participated in autopsies of apparent murder victims by machetes or drug cartel style executions. Perhaps if my prior experience had been in ERs, it would not have been so disturbing. But what was more disturbing, was that the Peace Corps did not warn volunteers that the Magdalena River Valley was an area with high drug cartel activity.
I was to be replaced by a Colombian national nurse after being there a little more than a year, so I had arranged to leave early to return to the states. Just before I left, I was disappointed, as was the Medical Director of my hospital, to learn that the Colombian nurse decided against coming to such a remote area. Everything that was accomplished up to that point would hopefully maintain until they found another replacement.
The graciousness of the Colombian people that I had met was overwhelming. I enjoyed socializing with the people in Tamalameque and will remember the many experiences I had exploring another culture and country. It was difficult returning to the states and readjusting to the differences in cultures and the language. I was still thinking in Spanish and had to pause before replying in English.
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The Peace Corps was founded in the 1960's to eradicate poverty, promote global health and promote free trade and sustainability. Its volunteers went to the Third World and a major site was Sub Saharan Africa. In 1960 Africa was hopeful, recently abandoning Colonial rule and establishing democracies. And there was a lot of resources--including oil, diamonds, gold, minerals-- fertile land, and a receptive population that wanted to learn new technology.
In 1960 China was poorer per capita than Sub Saharan Africa. It was overpopulated. Did not have any valuable natural resources. Had overfarmed and had major enviormental disasters. It was running out of food, water, and hope. Yet it rejected any American Peace Corps, WHO Assistance, and UN Humanitarian Aid.
China was ravaged by earthquakes more devastating than Haiti 2010. And Floods. And Disease Epidemics. And Starvation. And Droughts--but catastrophes were kept quiet in the Middle Kingdom. Thus there was more aid for Africa.
China saw combating poverty involved developing trade, infrastructure and their economy--not being dependent on chronic handouts and relief.
The GREATEST SOCIAL PROGRAM OF THE 20th CENTURY was the lifting of 300 million Chinese out of dire abject poverty, into a working and middle class. It defied all programs of UN Aid, Non Governmental Organizations(NGO) Aid and Education programs like the Peace Corps.
Now China is richer than any African Country and moving up from the 3rd world to the 2nd and now the 1st world in wealth and technology. China is now projected to surpass the American economy within a decade.
Being dependent on NGO, the UN and Ethiopian Famine Relief Concerts has made Africa into a chronic, dependent state begging the West for crumbs. Instead of Africa phoning for help, China makes your iPhone.
Now Africa is racked by droughts, civil war, coup-de-tat, raping and pillaging, instability, piracy, terrorism, overpopulation, AIDs,Tribal violence, Malaria, world class corruption, Mass Genocide, and Revolution. YES, PLEASE SEND YOUR DOLLARS TODAY! And in a generation: the message will still be, SEND MORE MONEY!
Kumbaya 'Feel Good Projects' are a signature of Boorish, Naive Western Do-Gooders who want visit orphanages and say "There, there'. Food Aid itself is turning out to be a farm subsidy for rich Midwestern farmers.
Africa may be worst off than in the 1960's BEFORE all these Aid Programs started. Maybe the old tactics of poverty reducation by well meaning aid is on the long term unsustainable and unhelpful.
....INSTEAD TRY TRADE AND COMMERECE.