Peace Corps

[char]

I've been entertaining thoughts of applying for the Peace Corps for over a year now and I've finally decided to do it. This is just a general call out to the collective for stories, experiences, foreign duck-drownings, etc about the Peace Corps, good or bad.

[Skip Dooley]

space reserved for later post.

[Telekóptero]

still dreamin' about it. next, after the ski dream.

tons of friends have had good to excellent experiences. be super-up on your immunizations, etc. get em done, "financed" early etc. they spendy, yo. ..

have you been abroad before? i'd almost suggest being abroad for a shorter period first, like study abroad, if you're one of the lucky ones to have that chance. and make sure it's more than 5-6 months, the time it takes most to adjust and start loving the culture they're in.

I'll be good and ready to have a wonderful time when i go, after cutting my teeth elsewhere. it was pretty hard adjusting at times, but i've never regretted it. i know everyone says that, but it's oddly true. You don't.

[shamrockpow]

Yeah, I'd love to hear more about Peace Corps or similar experiences from the various maginions, or even just what you did when you finished college. I'm finishing school in the spring with no technical degrees and as of now, no set plans. Not too worried b/c I always have a pretty sweet option to fall back on (Alta), but I'm kind of a do-gooder and would be interested in working somewhere in Latin America doing something to help people...

[Tippster]

I never served in the Peace Corps, but a good friend of mine did. He did two years in Senegal, helping a doctor take care of his patients. No, my buddy isn't medically educated, he merely helped out with paperwork, cleaning the office, driving him all over, and other things. He LOVED it, but then again he lived in the biggest house of the richest man in the small coastal village that the practice was centered on. He'll admit he had the cushiest PC job of anyone he knows. Hell, they let you come home for a break after a few months, at which time you decide if you want to go back. He bought a surfboard.

He went to work for the PC headquarters here in DC after he got back. I got to meet many of his colleagues who had a much different experience... especially those who thought they were getting a cake assignment by choosing the Caribbean. Those poor schmucks were digging ditches, building huts for ungrateful bastards, or trying to avoid drug lords half the time.

One guy chose Africa and spent two years digging wells in Tanzania. He got Malaria twice, was bitten by a poisonous snake, and was kidnapped and held blindfolded for a few days. (He was freed when the rest of the villagers found out where he was and beat the shit outta the brothers who kidnapped him for ransom.)

Despite the hardships they faced, they firmly believe that they were truly helping people who needed it. To a man (and Woman) they repeat the slogan of the Peace Corps with utter conviction:

It's the hardest job you'll ever love.

[Cornholio]

My sister applied, but pulled her ap after realizing that the PC as an organization was disorganized, underfunded, and poorly run. Also, she got a reality check from a good friend who had just returned. Basically, our friend told her not to go.

She's not lacking in political or social motivation, but "there are some things that aren't in the brochure." And when the brochure includes things like malaria, snake bites, and ungrateful bastards, that says a lot.

Like everyone else has said, I'm sure this varies by experience. There's no question it would change your perspective a bit!

Good luck!

[char]

Thought I'd bump this one as I will be filing my app within a week.

Thanks for the replies so far.

[funkendrenchman]

Email from my friend in Malawi:

Hello family and friends. You are about to be entertained and eduamacated by my first - but definitely not my last - email from Malawi, "the warm heart of Africa."



This is the first chance I have had to send out emails. I am eight weeks into training, and this has been the most amazing experience of my life. I have been training at Dedza College and Kasina village (Check it out on the map, it is an hour South of the capital Lilongwe). I am not just training in Kasina but living there as well. I am with a family of nine children, numerous cousins and my amayi and abambo. The whole family lives in huts adjacent to one another. I had my own hut. Thatch roof, mud floors, outdoor bath - these are what make up my humble nyumba. The hut has two rooms. The one room is just barely big enough for my twin bed (and mosquito net of course.) and the other room is just a little larger and is where I eat, get dressed and talk to friends in the village. My amayi brings me hot water every morning for my bucket bath, and I look out across the valley near our village at the mountains in the distance. Besides the three days of sickness early on, I have had no problems with the food. My fellow Peace Corps Trainees (PCT’s) and I call the effects of the food the kutsegula m’mimba or “open stomach.� You can only guess as to how not so fun that is when you are going to the bathroom in a chimbuzi or pit in your backyard. I do like a lot of the food, however. In the morning: chippies (french fries), phala (porridge that is actually really good) ntochie (bananas) and bread are what I have on any given day. Chakudya masana (lunch) and chakudya mazdulo (dinner) is usually chicken, masamba (vege greens), soy meat, or, my favorite, dzira (eggs) on any given day. Of course, there is always nsima. Nsima, nsima, nsima! It is simply flour and water and it tastes like nothing.



I have been learning Chichewa, which is coming slowly, but I hit intermediate-low which is the level I need to be at in two weeks to become a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). I also taught for the last four weeks. Social and Development Studies. Listen to some of the stuff this school has to put up with: Hardly any books in the library, five textbooks (maybe) for the class, drunk teachers, and 300 to a teacher at primary level (about 50 at secondary level, although I got real lucky with 26.) Sometimes the teachers walk into class, write notes on the board, and leave. In addition, the winds were so strong one day last week that the tin roof was taken off the school. Instead of the teachers repairing the roof, they made the students do it, on the first day of finals. When describing women's rights and the negative results of prostitution, the textbook had a drawing of a woman giving a man money. Underneath the picture was the incaption, “Sugar Daddy in Action.� What the hell! (You will get pictures next time, I promise.) Oh yeah, girls are taken out of class to make the teachers tea and biscuits. They also wake up at 4:30 to draw water, make breakfast, and attend the babies. These are the problems I am going to be dealing with as a teacher trainer.



Last week I hiked to the top of the tallest mountain in Kasina with my friend Dan. It was gorgeous. On the way down, I was looking for monkeys when I heard a rustling in the woods. I asked our guide if it was a monkey, and he said it was a man. A little ways down the mountain, I heard more rustling in the thick underbrush. This time, our guide said it was an animal. He threw a rock, and the animal bolted through the green foliage. It was faster than any animal I had ever seen. It was a Naze or small crocodile that can live on land. I asked our guide if they bit humans, and calmly answered yes. “It creates much painful.� I am sure it would…the thing was five feet long!



Each week, the Guliwankuli, an obscure secret society, do their ceremonial dances. (Once again, pictures coming next time. National Geographic would be jealous.) These dancers wear women’s cloths, put something in their pants to elongate the look of their genitals, and wear ghoulish masks. They then dance with gyrations like I have never seen before, spouting dust into the air. The poor villagers place kwatcha (money) in their hands as they dance. It is fascinating. I attended a funeral of a local chief, and they were there as well. Usually their costumes represent some animal. Guliwankuli actually means “big animal.� At the funeral they danced to calm the gods on that sad day.



I hope you have enjoyed just some of my stories, and I will certainly write another email in two weeks when I am back in Lilongwe for swearing in. As for now, I am leaving tomorrow for Mvera in Dowa District to visit my site that I will be at for the next two years. It is an hour or less from Lilongwe the capital. (So, please continue to send emails, for I will start checking and replying every other week. Training was just crazy, and the internet connection in my hut is not so fast. Ha!) I will also be an hour from the beaches of Lake Malawi (the third biggest lake in Africa, but if I swim I take the risk of catching bilharzias. Oh well, it will be worth the risk). You could not possibly write too often. If you write me an email I will really be happy, but if you write me snail mail I would be ecstatic. It is so fun getting mail from family.


(Name deleted for privacy)

Peace Corps

Lilongwe, Malawi

Southern Africa

Par Avion/Air Mail

[char]

Thanks man, I"m pretty psyched about doing this and can't wait to hear where I am going.

[LAN]

Not to burst the bubble, 'cause I think the PC does great things ...

But what about helping out in our own fucked up country?

[char]

Not to burst the bubble, 'cause I think the PC does great things ...

But what about helping out in our own fucked up country?

Good question.

I'm a forest resources major for starters. So, I think I am in a unique position to help educate people who don't know how to manage their resources to manage them sustainably. We know what to do here, we just don't do it. I don't currently see my degree as something to use to make money. Thats not why I went to school, and certainly not why I am in my field. It's also part of how I was raised, my parents had me doing community service from a young age and I think it has just stuck with me.

Second, I think that the US isn't nearly as fucked up as some of us like to pretend it is. Especially compared to places in Africa. (Which is where I would like to work.)

Third, just so I don't sound too altruistic, I have something to gain out of PC. I have a desire to travel, for the last 4 years I haven't lived in the same place for more than 8 months (the length of the school year). The PeaceCorps is a good way for me to go visit and live in a culture that I would probably never experience otherwise.

[lemon boy]

Really LAN, as many problems as we do have (and they are legion), it hardly compares to places with real needs. The amount of personal change that can be effected in the US = miniscule, in a real 3rd world country = great.







After all there are places like vancouver where you can't even buy a handgun. Who will help the hosers?