Ask the returned Peace Corps Volunteer

[even sven]

It's been a while since we've done this, and I'm having a slow week. Bear in mind that everything I say is my personal opinion, and does not in any way reflect the opinions of the Peace Corps or the US government.

My story is that I served in Cameroon for two years teaching in a rural high school. I enjoyed my experience, and transfered to China where I taught in a small university in an industrial city outside of Chengdu. I served for four years overall, and really kind of got the range of Peace Corps experiences out of what are two very different assignments. Also, other RPCVs- feel free to chime in.

Here are some basic facts: Peace Corps is a US government agency that uses volunteers to fill the need for skilled personell in developing countries as well as to promote cultural exchange and understanding. Volunteers serve in two-year tours, which incude around 3 months of training. After training, you are sent out to a site, often without any other volunteers in the same city or village as yourself. Once there, you work with a partner organization (school, agricultural extension, micro finance provider, etc,) providing technical assistance. You are also usually expected to do side projects, which may be of your choosing. It's common, for example, to organize youth groups, women's group, business classes, etc. There is very little direct supervision, and volunteers are expected to pro-actively assess a community's needs and develop projects to fill them.

During your service you receive a living allowance that is usually on par with what a host country national (local) in your position would make- in Cameroon, I made exactly what a Cameroonian high school teacher makes. It's enough to live comfortably but modestly. You also receive something like $200 per month of service when you finish, which is intended to ease your readjustment back to life in the States. Peace Corps pays official travel and medical expenses, but you are on your own for personal travel. You get 2 days off per month, and can travel and receive guests. But it is considered a 24/7 job and you are expected to be in your site when you are not on official leave. There are assorted other small benefits that come with service.

The application process is relatively competitive, and fairly involved. It can take up to a year to go through the process. You must be a US citizen to serve. In almost all cases, you must have a college degree and some semblance of specialized skills. You cannot have dependents, but married couples can serve together as long as each partner is accepted independently as a Peace Corps volunteer. You cannot have things like massive debt, legal complications, etc. that would make it look like you are using Peace Corps to run away from things.

If you have health problems, need special accommodation (like, say, if you are a super strict vegan), or otherwise have special needs, you may be restricted about where you can serve. Some health problems can be accommodated, some can't. A diabetic who needs insulin, for example, probably won't be placed in a remote African village without electricity. Mood disorders generally need to be resolved and stable. That said, a lot can be accommodated- for example, I worked with a volunteer who was blind (and she did great.) The idea is that they just don't want you having a major health crisis somewhere where there are poor health facilities.

After submitting your application and being interviewed, you will be nominated to a region. This can change, but usually doesn't. When an appropriate position is open, you will be sent an official invitation. You can accept or decline it, but if you decline it you may not be sent another. In practical terms, you don't get to choose where you go and it doesn't serve you to be picky. You will be placed where your skills are most useful. Usually you can rule out a region or two (i.e. "I really don't want to go to Eastern Europe") but you cannot say "I'd like to be placed on a tropical island." When you get in the country, it's the same story. You do not get to choose what city or village you are placed in, although you can express some preferences. Throughout it all, you are expected to be patient and flexible and trust that you are going where you are needed most.

What else? You can leave at any time, without any real penalties, although this is obviously discouraged. Living conditions vary by country, but they take pains to make sure nobody is in a situation that is inherently unsafe. Peace Corps does not work in dangerous, war-torn or unstable countries. Countries need to apply for a Peace Corps program, and so Peace Corps is generally a welcomed presence. Peace Corps does not force itself on a country, and doesn't operate where they are not wanted (India, for example, declines to work with Peace Corps.) Peace Corps volunteers are strictly prohibited from getting involved in any intelligence activities- they are even discouraged from casually interacting with embassy officials (a bummer for them, because embassies can be the best source of American food.) There is, I think, a 5 year moratorium before you can even think about applying to a job in intelligence.

Ok, I think that cover the basics. Feel free to ask anything about my service or the program in general!

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Do you still keep in touch with anyone of the locals you met during your years of service?

[MPB in Salt Lake]

Wow, you were in the Peace Corps?

I am surprised you haven't mentioned this before!!!

[Simmerdown]

Are you expected to be proficient/fluent in the local language? I expect it is different for each location, but for your particular situation(s), how was internet access? What did you teach, specifically? How well did your students respond to the subject matter?

[Enderw24]

Do you feel that your experiences in the Peace Corps are so unique that you are unable to relate to someone who has not had those experiences?

[hogarth]

What did you teach in China? English?

[kayaker]

Was Peace Corps volunteer actually an effective cover for intelligence gathering operations?:D

But seriously, were you ever suspected of covert ops?

[Rachellelogram]

What is the saddest memory you have of the experience?

Also curious as to whether you need to speak the local language. It would make sense that at least one Corps volunteer would need to act as a translator, at least.

Are there Peace Corps assignments in any English-speaking countries?

[Fretful Porpentine]

What sort of language training do you get? What else does the training process entail?

[even sven]

If you really just want to snark, there are whole amazing boards for doing just that! Go there! Some people might be interested in knowing something specific about Peace Corps, and you're little personal issue with me isn't helping the fight against ignorance.

Do you still keep in touch with anyone of the locals you met during your years of service?

Yes. In Cameroon it's harder, because internet access is unreliable in my village. Cell phone internet is starting to pick up, however, and I'm getting a lot of Facebook requests from Cameroonians, although not a lot of people I know quite yet.

The sad part, that I didn't expect, is people I know keep dying. It seems like most of the news I get out of Cameroon is people I cared about dying of often very preventable causes. service can be tough because you do see people you care about suffering, but I didn't comprehend that that particular challenge would continue to be one after I left as well.

I keep in touch with a few of my Chinese students on a weekly/monthly basis. It's a lot of fun, because they are seniors in college and just setting out on their lives. It's been a real joy to see where they are going. They are such a smart group of kids at such an exciting life, and it's just been a privilege to be a part of that.

Wow, you were in the Peace Corps?

I am surprised you haven't mentioned this before!!!

You really opened up the thread just to snark? I think I started an "Ask the Peace Corps volunteer" thread about five years ago. I figured there might be some new people with some questions.

Are you expected to be proficient/fluent in the local language? I expect it is different for each location, but for your particular situation(s), how was internet access? What did you teach, specifically? How well did your students respond to the subject matter?

It depends. Outside of Latin American (which you generally need to go in fluent to get- simply because so many American are fluent) you don't need to go in knowing the language (although a background- even "I took it for a year in high school" can help). The 10 or so weeks of training include some intensive, and IMHO very good language training- usually at least four hours a day in groups of three with a trainer. The focus is on practical communication skills. At the end, there is a test and you are expected to hit a minimal score. The idea is that if you can't communicate, that starts to become a safety issue. If you don't pass but made a genuine effort, they'll work out an individual plan with you. If you don't pass because you were hung over every day or something, they'll probably suggest you leave. How strict this is varies by country- nobody expected us to become fluent in Chinese in a few months. In general, most people hit their language goals without too many problems. When you arrive in your site, the first few months are pretty shaky, but usually by three months in you are quite comfortable. Peace Corps also offers funding, which varies by country (in China it was a lot) for individual tutoring if you choose to do so.

Let's see. In Cameroon about half of my service we had an internet cafe at my site. It was slow and very expensive, but it was sufficient for sending emails once a week. For the other half I'd have to travel to a regional office that was 2-4 hours away depending on the state of the roads. Any serious internet work, like applying for schools, would probably have to be done from the capital (at least two days away from me.)

In China, I had decent internet in my apartment. It was behind the great firewall, but otherwise perfectly adequate. I used a pay-service to neatly bypass the firewall.

In Cameroon, I taught basic computers, which was challenging. My students had never seen a computer, and it was a lot of "here is how you click a mouse." We didn't have nearly enough computers for them to work with, and overall it was just hard to teach. By the end, though, I had most of them fairly comfortable in Word and making simple spreadsheets. Because my primary job was so difficult in Cameroon, I spent a lot of time on secondary projects, mostly working with a local youth center.

In China I mostly taught spoken English, which was sort of a freeform conversational class where the goal was to build fluency by provoking discussion. It was a lot of fun, and I had a lot of freedom to develop really cool, thought provoking lesson plans that really stretched the students. Some students were disappointed that I didn't just play games, which is what most foreign teachers do. But I think the vast majority really enjoyed it and they certainly improved a lot during their time with me. I got really close to my students, and was a mentor and confident to a lot of them.

Do you feel that your experiences in the Peace Corps are so unique that you are unable to relate to someone who has not had those experiences?

I know you are just being a jerk (please, dude, go to a snarkboard for that) but I'll answer it anyway. Readjustment is tough. Peace Corps isn't like coming back from a vacation. You LIVE where you live. That's your only life. Your local friends are not your exotic foreign friends- they are your real-life friends. Often you don't have great access to media or communication home. You lose touch. Your life starts to revolve around market gossip, village intrigue, your work and your new social circles who may well be a bunch of village women who aren't even allowed to leave the house.

And then you come back. Things are mostly the same, with some changes (flat TVs everywhere and self-checkout stands got me.) You've missed a lot- I missed the Obama election, the teaparty, the economic crisis, the Virginia state shooting, Glee, Who Wants to be Millionaire...and lots of random stuff. But it doesn't really show why you aren't entirely "getting" it. When you sit in a supermarket looking glazed over and baffled, people don't really understand why this is so strange to you.

I've had some really awkward times with stuff like shopping at supermarkets or ordering at restaurants, because it's just different. It took me most of a year to stop occasionally doing something that seems like it is really out of left field. Even now, I still have the occasional crazy thoughts, like "I can't eat that fruit because it is wet!" or "Hey, a phone store. I can go there to buy phone credit!" or "I have to throw this TP in the trash, not the toilet- oh wait, ooop!"

And of course there is the threat of pissing everyone off by starting every story with "When I was in Peace Corps." You learn to manage that (or, you learn to spend a lot of time with Peace Corps people....we tend to stick together a lot) but it's an art. Basically any story I have from 2006-2010 is going to be a Peace Corps story. Any event from these years is going to be happening to me in Africa or Asia. I frankly don't have much connection to my life pre-service, much like after college you don't usually have a huge connection to your high school life. I'm starting to build new experiences and it's no longer so immediate, but for a while it is a big part of you, and it's hard to strike a balance when you are talking to others, because when you just got done with 4 years of 24/7 Peace Corps, that's really all you've got to talk about.

[pricciar]

How common is it for someone to serve two tours of Peace Corps duty? If this happens often does it always take place in different places?

[robert_columbia]

Can you apply if you have held a classified security clearance in the past? I was aware of the fact that they like to keep Intelligence separated from the Peace Corps in order to preserve the image integrity of the Peace Corps, but is ever having held a clearance an automatic lifetime disqualifier, or do they just want you to wrap up the work and do something else for a few months and agree not to go back for 5 years afterward?

Are they sensitive to religious practices of volunteers in countries that do not have full religious freedom? E.g. can a Christian or Jewish volunteer avoid going to Saudi Arabia and be assured that their denomination is 100% legal to practice openly in the country that they are assigned?

[even sven]

What did you teach in China? English?

Mostly spoken English, with some tourism and business English thrown in. Peace Corps China is a pretty rigid program, and China basically prefers us to stick to teaching and not do too much on the side. Lots of volunteers run English clubs, drama clubs, or women's groups, but nothing too ambitious. We also do some teacher training, training high school teachers and professors on Western teaching techniques. All China volunteers teach at universities, a few of which are good, but most of which are basically equivalent to community colleges. The idea of the program is to fulfill the need for native speakers, which many poor schools cannot afford on their own.

Was Peace Corps volunteer actually an effective cover for intelligence gathering operations?:D

But seriously, were you ever suspected of covert ops?

Yes, basically all of the time. I could never quite convince people that the US government actually has pretty much zero interest in what is going on in a tiny village in remote Cameroon =). I'm sure in China i had plenty of surveillance. I don't think my house was bugged (but it might have been) but for sure my phones were monitored and students reported back on what I was teaching. I always knew I'd succeeded when I taught an "edgy" class and got an unexpected teacher wanting to observe me the next day :p.

What is the saddest memory you have of the experience?

Also curious as to whether you need to speak the local language. It would make sense that at least one Corps volunteer would need to act as a translator, at least.

Are there Peace Corps assignments in any English-speaking countries?

A lot of sad stuff. I knew kids that died of eminently treatable ailments. I saw people who just couldn't make it. I had a lot of homosexual people confide in me in a culture where that just isn't acceptable. Child marriages, secluded women, HIV/AIDS, suicide...a lot of sad memories. They say a large percentage of Peace Corps volunteers end up with some level of PSTD, and I wouldn't doubt that for a second. People just...die...on you. One minute they are there, and the next they aren't. A lot of people have problems you can't even begin to fix. It's rough.

Different programs teach languages differently, but we learned the national language (French in Cameroon). I quickly discovered I'd need to know the local language as well, and worked on finding a tutor. Some programs that send people to remote areas skip the national language entirely and focus on local languages.

There are plenty of English speaking assignments- Ghana, some parts of Cameroon, Kenya...no doubt plenty of others as well. But really, they do a good job of teaching you, there is no reason to freak out about the language part.

What sort of language training do you get? What else does the training process entail?

10 weeks of 4-6 hours a day of small group (3-4 people, sometimes even 1 on 1) conversational class. Other than language, we do cultural training (everything from "how to date appropriately" to "this is the institutional organization of the public shcool system in this country), technical training (like, how to plan lessons or how to teach grammar), health training (how not to get malaria, how to treat different problems you might have,) safety and security training...a whole lot of training. In Cameroon it was 6.5 days a week from 8:00 AM to at least 5:00 at night for ten weeks. You live with a local host family, and are expected to take part in family activities, which is stressful but good for the language. During training, teachers often conduct a short summer school course that acts as practical teaching practice.

They say training is the hardest part. When I extended, nobody questioned doing another two years, but everyone asked "OMG, does that mean you'll have to do training again?!?! Are you sure about this?!?!" It's emotionally stressful, it's a lot of work, you are busy all the time and you are in this strange hothouse atmosphere with little privacy or freedom, seeing the same people all day every day, and with a lot of unanswered questions about what comes next.

How common is it for someone to serve two tours of Peace Corps duty? If this happens often does it always take place in different places?

It's not very common. Because the Chinese government prefers more experienced volunteers, they end up with a lot of transfers. But for most programs it's very rare and very difficult to arrange. There are usually limited opportunities to stay on for a third year in the country they are in, and a lot of people do that. Third year volunteers can often get leadership positions or work on special projects.

Can you apply if you have held a classified security clearance in the past? I was aware of the fact that they like to keep Intelligence separated from the Peace Corps in order to preserve the image integrity of the Peace Corps, but is ever having held a clearance an automatic lifetime disqualifier, or do they just want you to wrap up the work and do something else for a few months and agree not to go back for 5 years afterward?

Are they sensitive to religious practices of volunteers in countries that do not have full religious freedom? E.g. can a Christian or Jewish volunteer avoid going to Saudi Arabia and be assured that their denomination is 100% legal to practice openly in the country that they are assigned?

I don't know about your first question. I know if you've ever applied for the CIA, there is a five year wait to apply for Peace Corps. I don't really know the rest, though.

During the application process, they will ask you if you have any special religious factors that need accommodation. Flexibility is always important, so if you are super serious about keeping kosher or something, you may not find a place that can accommodate that. I think most people who are well suited to be volunteers approach their religious preferences with some flexibility. You may not end up in your exact denomination every Sunday, but you may just get something out of the local churches. If you are a practicing Wiccan, well, you might need to keep that an at-home thing. You have to be ready to adapt to a lot of stuff that may not be your cup of tea, and be ready to learn from the culture you are in.

In Cameroon I lived in a Muslim influenced area that had a significant Catholic population. I did have to cover my knees, wear skirts, and dress fairly modesty. I didn't have to wear a headscarf, but I usually did since it felt strange to be the only one with an uncovered head. People were deeply religious and asked me about it a lot. I told them I was a kind of Protestent that doesn't have a church in Cameroon, and that I prayed at home on Sundays where I could talk to God in English rather than my broken French. Sometimes people asked why I wasn't Muslim, and usually I told them I was too lazy to pray twice a day and I liked it much better when I only had to pray once a week :D. Actually, I'm not religious at all, but most volunteers found it easier just to pick a religion to keep people from freaking out.

In China it wasn't an issue, but evangelism would obviously be a huge problem. I remember hearing of one volunteer who wouldn't go in during casual Buddhist temples (which struck me as strange...I doubt most Chinese believe in much of it either, it's more like throwing a coin in the wishing well) and that struck me as kind of strange. But I don't think it was a big deal.

Peace Corps isn't a great place for people with rigid needs. It's a better fit for people who can be flexible, adaptable, and are willing to make some trade-offs now and then.

[kayaker]

If you really just want to snark, there are whole amazing boards for doing just that! Go there! Some people might be interested in knowing something specific about Peace Corps, and you're little personal issue with me isn't helping the fight against ignorance.

Sorry if my question appeared "snarky". I was seriously wondering if the previous bad press the Peace Corps has received soured the relations with the local populace. I'm unaware of any prior history between us. Sorry again.

[even sven]

Sorry if my question appeared "snarky". I was seriously wondering if the previous bad press the Peace Corps has received soured the relations with the local populace. I'm unaware of any prior history between us. Sorry again.

No, ha! It's not you. Some people are not interested in hearing about this aspect of my life, and I encourage them to go find something they do like to do instead.

Your question is great. Yes, it is an issue. I think every village has some contingent that thinks the strange foreigner is surely a spy. On the national level, I think the governments are well aware that it isn't an intelligence operation. I had a friend who got in trouble for even casually mentioning a piece of public news in her region to an embassy worker at a party. It's taken pretty seriously.

I had a high school kid in my Cameroon village who was a really good artist. He took an interest in the Peace Corps volunteers in the region, and wrote a little comic book about it. In part of it, he showed villagers gossiping about us- and one of the main themes was that we were surely spies. The kid used this comic book to explain our purpose to others in the village. He did this all on his own, without any prompting from us...it was really sweet.

[Rachellelogram]

used a pay-service to neatly bypass the firewall.Hey, interesting. Is this a service only available to non-citizens of China, or can anybody buy it? What's the punishment if you get caught?

What happens to your student loans while you're peacing out?

[robert_columbia]

Were there significant rules about off-duty conduct? E.g. dating local people, or drinking or using drugs that would be illegal back home.

[robert_columbia]

Did you receive warnings about differences in the legal system (substantive or procedural) from that of the United States? E.g. "Don't insult the King, you could go to jail", "If you witness an assault, you must go immediately to a police station and report the offense, as not reporting a crime is a crime." or "If you get pulled over for speeding, you can be taken to jail and given 5 lashes summarily." Did anyone ever get in trouble because they assumed the law was similar to that in the US and they got themselves into an embarrassing situation?

[even sven]

Hey, interesting. Is this a service only available to non-citizens of China, or can anybody buy it? What's the punishment if you get caught?

What happens to your student loans while you're peacing out?

The once i know are targeted towards expats, but I'm sure there are Chinese ones as well. The Great Firewall is not meant to be an impermeable barrier. It takes all of ten seconds to get around it. What it does is make it just difficult enough to discourage idle curiosity about an iffy subject. Violations are probably not going to be punished unless you are actively posting subversive content. Mostly it's just enough to keep you from stumbling on to something unapproved.

It was always kind of fun to toy with it. If you click on something forbidden, your net stops working for a few minutes. Do it enough, and you get punished for up to an hour. I once shut down the internet for days looking at the UN Human Rights Report on China. Hahahah.

For the most part, unless you are actively planning protests or something really stupid, the worst that's going to happen to an American is that you'll get kicked out and put on the black list.

You can apply for a hardship deferral during your service. You can also use your readjustment allowance to pay off student loans as you serve.

Were there significant rules about off-duty conduct? E.g. dating local people, or drinking or using drugs that would be illegal back home.

Yes, there are a lot of rules. Safety is a big concern, and if you are doing something that significantly threatens your safety, you will be ask to leave in short order. Basically, if your dating or drinking is getting you in bad situations, that's it for you. A few of the rules are hard and fast, for example in most countries you cannot ride a motorcycle and you can never ever do so without a helmet, but most are "If you are making enough trouble that we hear about it, that's a problem." Volunteers get kicked out for stupid decisions, disorderly conduct, or just plain rule breaking relatively often. It's hard enough keeping people safe when they are on good behavior, much less when they are taking stupid risks.

The only solid dating rule is "18 and over, only, or it's a federal offense," but plenty of people get into relationships that end up making so many problems that they need to leave. Most countries have a "don't get drunk" rule that obviously gets broken a lot, but will be used as a basis for asking you to leave if you get in trouble.

Drug use was one of the few "No, procedure, you are just instantly kicked out" offenses.

[even sven]

Did you receive warnings about differences in the legal system (substantive or procedural) from that of the United States? E.g. "Don't insult the King, you could go to jail", "If you witness an assault, you must go immediately to a police station and report the offense, as not reporting a crime is a crime." or "If you get pulled over for speeding, you can be taken to jail and given 5 lashes summarily." Did anyone ever get in trouble because they assumed the law was similar to that in the US and they got themselves into an embarrassing situation?

Absolutely. There is good institutional memory, so different Peace Corps programs know a lot about common legal issues that may crop up, and they train us accordingly. For example, in Cameroon taking a picture of even innocuous government buildings, such as the train station, will quickly get you detained. We are aptly warned. In China, we had a session on what to do if we find ourselves interrogated by the police. We are warned about all of this, and training may include things like role-playing different situations involving the police. Stuff happens. Now and then a volunteer would get in a dicey situation, but it's always worked out as far as I know. Peace Corps usually pulls enough weight to resolve these problems, and nobody really wants a lot of negative publicity.

A much less clear situation was how we were trained to manage living in a place where bribery is a way of life. Basically we were told how the bribery system worked, reminded that the US government forbids paying bribes, and then left to make our own decisions since really there aren't any good answers.

[kayaker]

In China did you meet any non-PeaceCorps English teachers? (and if so, what was your impression?)

My nephew was there a few years ago teaching. It seemed strange, since he had no background in education. He had a rough time there, contracting cholera and eventually being ordered out of the country. (The company he worked for had obtained a tourist visa for him)

[Rachellelogram]

You type fast! :)

I bet the bribery thing would be really hard to get used to. Since we're on the subject, was bribery an issue you ever came up against? If so, what did you do?

Did you ever date somebody while deployed?

What did you say to the gay people who approached you? That's really sad :(

Do the locals generally always want you to be there? Do they appreciate your presence? Or do they dislike you?

Did you find that you got touched a lot by strangers? I don't know what you look like compared to the locals, but I know my boss (who is a blonde white chick) got her hair and skin touched a lot by strangers in India. It sounded kinda cute, although if that was me I'd get pretty annoyed :)

Do volunteers ever try to take on side jobs for more money?

[hogarth]

Do you have a boss that regularly checks up on you? Would they send you home for doing a poor job? (Not violating rules, just kind of slacking off.)

[robert_columbia]

What was the actual application process like in a practical sense? I know you said that mood disorders need to be stable. Did everyone have to get a psychiatric evaluation, or did this only come into play when a person is obviously unstable? What types of testing were done? Was it primarily a review of employment history and academic transcripts, or did they give you batteries of aptitude, knowledge, and personality tests?

[even sven]

In China did you meet any non-PeaceCorps English teachers? (and if so, what was your impression?)

I met lots of non-PC English teachers, and I wasn't too impressed. This was probably because we were in a remote area that offered poor wages to foreign English teachers (I think they got around $400 a month) and so it just attracted really botton-of-the-barrel people. Lots of drunks, sex tourists, fake degrees, on-the-run-from-the-laws, major mental health issues (even raging schizophrenia!) and other assorted scumbags. Honestly, I think on the best thing PC did in China was proving to these communities that not all American are shady, as Peace Corps volunteers are usually pretty legit and dedicated to their work.

It's probably a lot different in more developed areas.

You type fast! :)

I bet the bribery thing would be really hard to get used to. Since we're on the subject, was bribery an issue you ever came up against? If so, what did you do?

Did you ever date somebody while deployed?

What did you say to the gay people who approached you? That's really sad :(

Do the locals generally always want you to be there? Do they appreciate your presence? Or do they dislike you?

Did you find that you got touched a lot by strangers? I don't know what you look like compared to the locals, but I know my boss (who is a blonde white chick) got her hair and skin touched a lot by strangers in India. It sounded kinda cute, although if that was me I'd get pretty annoyed :)

Do volunteers ever try to take on side jobs for more money?

I'd get stopped a lot on the road and asked for bribes, which I could always talk my way out of. I'm sure I was asked to pay a lot of unofficial "fees" when filing various bits of paperwork, and if it wasn't outrageous I just paid without asking. Civil servants have to feed their families, too. A few times I was offered bribes, which I obviously didn't accept. There were situations I was given money in ways that I could not avoid (for example, Cameroonian schools regularly pay teachers about five or so dollars a semester for showing up...they call it "motivation," and you can't avoid taking it) I'd put it towards activities with the kids.

I dated casually in Cameroon and was in a few short relationships in China. I could never get past the "massive gossip" barrier when dating local people, so I stuck to Peace Corps volunteers. It wasn't the most romantically triumphant period of my life. There is a fair among of hooking up among Peace Corps volunteers, as you'd expect out of bored and lonely people, but people kept it pretty professional and discreet.

When I talked to gay people, and this happened quite a bit, I'd tell them that in my culture it's okay, and gay people have families and everything, and that it's not a big deal for us and things are changing and there is hope. In the meantime, they should know they are not alone, and they should probably try to get to a big city where they will find a community. It was sad- one girl who came up to me was a 16 year old Muslim village girl who was being pressed into marriage and knew, without a doubt, she was a lesbian. I really didn't have much useful to tell her, and the rest of the story is pretty sad. She spent a lot of time going to traditional healers trying to "get better."

Local reception just depends. Some people are hostile, some are overjoyed. A lot of people are just plan interested in you, and you get lots of people knocking on your door just to get a peek. In China the political situation was touchy, and you could feel some coolness from that. Really it's a mix. Learning language skills and trying to integrate into the community can go a long ways towards building that goodwill. The more you get to know people and show your respect for them, the better they will think of you.

I did get touched pretty often, sometimes groped, and nearly constantly yelled at ("OMG Foreigner! Look at the freaky foreigner!") The yelling, especially, gets really obnoxious and every year a few people leave because they just can't get used to being a freak everywhere they go. It's hard to explain the effect of people yelling at you everywhere you go. Everyone in my Cameroonian village thought I was Chinese, so they'd yell "Ehhhh Chinois! Hee-Haw!," which drove me absolutely mad. It really confused them when I spent two years trying to convince them I'm not Chinese (I'm blond, for the love of god) and then promptly went to China. The yelling in China is just as bad.

We are not allowed to take extra jobs, under the theory that if we have extra energy, we are supposed to be helping poor people rather than those who can pay for our services. That said, it was common, especially in China where a lot of people had money and our living allowances weren't really enough. Mostly people tutored English, made appearances at special events, and stuff like that. There were a few times where I was tricked in to stuff like that, and I took the money and used it to do stuff with my students.

Do you have a boss that regularly checks up on you? Would they send you home for doing a poor job? (Not violating rules, just kind of slacking off.)


You work with a local supervisor, who in theory could complain about you, although I don't think that has ever happened for just lazinesses. Honestly, some slacking off is unavoidable. A lot of volunteers don't have fixed jobs, or their plans fall through, or just strange stuff happens that makes work impossible and you may find yourself with periods of relative idleness. For example, I had a friend in a village so poor that they just weren't capable of getting it together enough to do development work- people were starving, and not really interested in her little projects. So she spent a lot of time hanging out with villagers chatting. Some volunteers figure out that their situation is such that they really don't have anything to do. It happens. Typically, they say your first year is mostly just getting to know the village and the culture and their needs anyway.

But I've never known a volunteer to just slack out of laziness. For one, it's boring. You have no idea the level of boredom Peace Corps volunteers endure. Village life is probably the most boring thing on the entire planet, and it's especially boring when you can't understand much and aren't a part of a family. So you do a lot of projects and stuff just to keep yourself from gouging your eyes out with the boredom. Really, you are excited when there is work. You love work. You'd dig ditches (and people do) just to be doing something other than withering in the heat.

And PCVs are generally pretty ambitious people. They are generally coming from good schools and on their way to higher degrees. These people are future leaders, and they aren't going to waste such a good opportunity to run projects with credibility and resources they will not have again for a long time.

What does happen is there are people who get too into travelling and spend too much time away from their site. And they will eventually get called on it and kicked out. You are supposed to be in your village, not partying with expats in the capital.

What was the actual application process like in a practical sense? I know you said that mood disorders need to be stable. Did everyone have to get a psychiatric evaluation, or did this only come into play when a person is obviously unstable? What types of testing were done? Was it primarily a review of employment history and academic transcripts, or did they give you batteries of aptitude, knowledge, and personality tests?

You do an initial application with work history, recommendations, some essays, transcripts, stuff like that. It's much like a college application. There is also a basic medical history. Then there is an interview. After the interview, you are "nominated" into a region.

Then comes the hard part- you have to have a background check and you go through a medical process involving a whole ton of tests and forms. It took me something like five visits to get through it all. You also need to be in good shape with vision and dental care.

If you indicate something like a psychiatric condition, they will want documentation from your doctor that you have been stable for X amount of time. Basically all medical conditions are going to need extra documentation.

There are also a few other things that may need to be documented. If you are vegetarian, they give you a form asking about your reasons, your flexibility, what you'd do in a situation where someone served you meat, etc. If you are in a long-term-relationship, they give you a form asking questions about how you are going to cope with that. If you have religious concerns, will be put in an area with modesty norms, or have some other random circumstance, there are forms for those as well.

[RealityChuck]

Welcome back. My daughter completed two years in Namibia in 2009.

[Chefguy]

I've mentioned that I was with the Dept. of State for six years and spent two tours in Africa. I was friends with a PC admin officer, and talked to a number of volunteers who came in and out of Bamako. A lot of them seemed disillusioned with the work they were doing: not because it wasn't a worthwhile effort, but because of the resistance of villagers to accept modern methods or to try new things. One guy said he spent a lot of time planting saplings (much of Mali has been subject to desertification), only to find that they had all been pulled up and used for firewood while he was gone for a couple of weeks.

Did you find that you ran into similar problems in Cameroon? I sympathize with the yelling. I got so tired of hearing "MAZUNGU!!" (white person in Uganda) and "TUBOB!!!" (again, foreigner or white person in Mali). In Uganda I started shouting back "AFRICAN!!", which got me some odd looks.

[code_grey]

did you volunteer for Cameroon or were forcibly assigned? Can the not-overly-adventurous volunteers assign themselves only to China/Brazil/Eastern Europe type of civilized areas?

[even sven]

Welcome back. My daughter completed two years in Namibia in 2009.

Thanks! Thank you for being a supportive father. It's sad how many volunteers get zero support from their families- a lot of families even cut them off or refuse contact. Knowing your family is behind you makes all the difference in the world.

I've mentioned that I was with the Dept. of State for six years and spent two tours in Africa. I was friends with a PC admin officer, and talked to a number of volunteers who came in and out of Bamako. A lot of them seemed disillusioned with the work they were doing: not because it wasn't a worthwhile effort, but because of the resistance of villagers to accept modern methods or to try new things. One guy said he spent a lot of time planting saplings (much of Mali has been subject to desertification), only to find that they had all been pulled up and used for firewood while he was gone for a couple of weeks.

Yeah, it happens.

Sometimes you end up some place where you just can't do all that much- I mentioned my friend who was in a very poor village that simply didn't have the capacity for much change. When that happens, you have to pull out your flexibility and adaptability. My friend, for example, ended up teaching English at a high school a few villages over. If you get to know a community well enough, you can usually find some good to do. Short of that, you start working on a personal level- share your dinners with neighbor kids, act as a mentor to a teen, try to instill enough confidence in your female friends that they are able to get out of abusive relationships, and generally just try to be a friend and a positive force.

The volunteer who did the tree project learned something valuable- his village has a firewood problem (which is HUGE. Procuring firewood is a daily trial for women) and doesn't have a huge sense of environmentalism. There are ways to manage this involving planting productive trees (there are lots of gum arabic programs, for example, that encourage farmers to plant gum arabic trees and help them market the product), creating systems of ownership that encourage individuals to protect "their" trees, and working with things like improved cook stoves to improve fuel efficiency, It's not the village's "fault" they see firewood as a priority. You need to learn to work from there.

In short, it's true that some volunteers, for reasons not under their control, are not going to be able to do a huge life-changing project. But I do think every volunteer has the capacity to do something of value. It may not be easy, and it may not fall in your lap.

It's also normal for PCVs to go through little existential crises during their service. Everyone goes through a period of "What am I doing here? Does what I do matter at all?" During these periods, PCVs love to complain. But usually it all comes together in the end, and as you near the end of your service it really becomes apparent how much you were able to do.

did you volunteer for Cameroon or were forcibly assigned? Can the not-overly-adventurous volunteers assign themselves only to China/Brazil/Eastern Europe type of civilized areas?

You are assigned according to where you are needed, and you can't request specific areas. You have some ability to state your preferences, but there are no guarantees and if you are too picky you probably cannot be accommodated. The most you can get aways with is nixing one or two regions.

You are encouraged not to go in with a lot of expectations, because frankly even if you get exactly what you "want," the reality is that it's going to end up being totally different han how you pictured it. You are strongly encouraged to be flexible and adaptable, and to trust that you will be placed where your skills are most strongly needed.

If you are really stuck on going to a particular location, Peace Corps probably isn't for you. All Peace Corps assignments are tough. In all Peace Corps assignments, you will face the unexpected. It's not a vacation. You are there to serve, and that means you should be willing to accept your assignment wherever it should happen to be.

The reality is that most healthy young people, especially with those with any background in French at all, are going to be sent to Africa. The health requirements of those sites are so stringent that they need all the healthy people they can get. They save the "easier" sites for people with legit health concerns.

FWIW, i found China to be a hundred times harder than Cameroon. Cameroon was a physical challenge- we got sick, we had not-great living conditions, etc. But we were warmly integrated into a community and quickly made friends. China was a mental challenge. Sure, we had internet in our apartments. But becoming a part of Chinese society and making real friends is much, much harder. It's pretty common, for example, for people to actively avoid sitting next to you on a full bus- even when it's a bus of other teachers at your school. Two years of rustic warmth is much harder than two years of modern isolation, IMHO. So even if I had chosen the "best' program, it still might not have been a great program for me. It's better to be ready to adapt to whatever you get.

[hogarth]

What does happen is there are people who get too into travelling and spend too much time away from their site. And they will eventually get called on it and kicked out. You are supposed to be in your village, not partying with expats in the capital.
This is the sort of thing I meant by "slacking off", although I suppose it falls under the category of "breaking rules", too.

How often is your supervisor checking on you? Are there progress reports you need to fill out, or something like that? Do the locals provide your supervisor with formal feedback?

[even sven]

This is the sort of thing I meant by "slacking off", although I suppose it falls under the category of "breaking rules", too.

How often is your supervisor checking on you? Are there progress reports you need to fill out, or something like that? Do the locals provide your supervisor with formal feedback?

There are quarterly progress reports. You can expect at least a few "site visits" by your supervisors- sometimes unannounced- where they meet with the people you are working with and talk about how things are going. How your local counterparts communicate with the Peace Corps office depends on location. I don't think my Cameroon supervisor was in touch much, but my supervisor in China knew if I called in to school sick.

Honestly, if you want to just sit on your butt an do nothing, there are far more comfortable ways to do so. You'd be much better off getting a job at Starbucks and slacking off in the land of creature comforts. Sitting in a mud hut getting hot, bored to death, and alone is not something anyone wants. That's not to say some volunteers are not more dynamic than others- that happens, for sure. But I've never heard of a volunteer doing *nothing* unless they are leaving their site a lot- in which case they get caught very, very quickly and sent home.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Wow, you were in the Peace Corps?

I am surprised you haven't mentioned this before!!!


Do you feel that your experiences in the Peace Corps are so unique that you are unable to relate to someone who has not had those experiences?



MPB and Enderw24, I know what you're trying to do here. Knock it off.

[Lacunae Matata]

What was (were) your reason(s) for joining the PC? Looking back on your experiences, did your stint fulfill those reasons? (That is, if you joined for idealistic reasons, were your illusions destroyed or fulfilled? If you joined to advance your career, has that worked in your favor?)

Sorry if I'm not phrasing the question well.

[robert_columbia]

...
There are also a few other things that may need to be documented. If you are vegetarian, they give you a form asking about your reasons, your flexibility, what you'd do in a situation where someone served you meat, etc. If you are in a long-term-relationship, they give you a form asking questions about how you are going to cope with that. If you have religious concerns, will be put in an area with modesty norms, or have some other random circumstance, there are forms for those as well.

The way you phrase it, it seems to think that there are "extra" forms that only come into play if they want to put you somewhere with restrictive rules. Is this the case? E.g. if one is applying and one day, one is asked the question "Are you OK with wearing ankle-length dresses everyday?" is that a sign that you are under serious consideration for a site where that would be required, or is it just part of the regular process that everyone goes through?


I know that the investigations (legal, medical, etc.) seem fairly onerous based on what I've read and what you've said. At the end of the day, what kinds of things do people actually get rejected for? E.g. "Sorry, you're blood pressure is 5 points higher than the cutoff, no Peace Corps for you." Are there actually hard and fast rules with lots of things that cause automatic rejection, or is there a totality of the person evaluation? "E.g. yeah, he has high blood pressure and a weak knee, and he once went to prison for armed robbery, but he's fluent in Swahili, Arabic, Amharic, AND French, and he's the very model of a modern Major General!"

[even sven]

What was (were) your reason(s) for joining the PC? Looking back on your experiences, did your stint fulfill those reasons? (That is, if you joined for idealistic reasons, were your illusions destroyed or fulfilled? If you joined to advance your career, has that worked in your favor?)

Sorry if I'm not phrasing the question well.

I got a lot more out of it than I ever imagined I would. I joined basically as a chance to have an adventure. Well, I more than got that, and along the way I discovered a career, an amazing bunch of friends (who are also a solid career network), a LOT more confidence and know-how, and while I'm certainly realistic, I wouldn't say I'm disillusioned. If you are interested in development, Peace Corps is a nearly essential career move. You can get into without PC, but it's much harder and most of the people you meet will be returned Peace Corps volunteers.


The way you phrase it, it seems to think that there are "extra" forms that only come into play if they want to put you somewhere with restrictive rules. Is this the case? E.g. if one is applying and one day, one is asked the question "Are you OK with wearing ankle-length dresses everyday?" is that a sign that you are under serious consideration for a site where that would be required, or is it just part of the regular process that everyone goes through?

I know that the investigations (legal, medical, etc.) seem fairly onerous based on what I've read and what you've said. At the end of the day, what kinds of things do people actually get rejected for? E.g. "Sorry, you're blood pressure is 5 points higher than the cutoff, no Peace Corps for you." Are there actually hard and fast rules with lots of things that cause automatic rejection, or is there a totality of the person evaluation? "E.g. yeah, he has high blood pressure and a weak knee, and he once went to prison for armed robbery, but he's fluent in Swahili, Arabic, Amharic, AND French, and he's the very model of a modern Major General!"


I think there are some things that they ask everyone, and others that are related to specific regions. I couldn't tell you which is which.

There are a few things that will cause pretty much automatic rejection- major degenerative diseases, major cancers, serious heart conditions, major psychological disorders (biopoler, schizophrenia, reoccurring depression), and things like that. There is another list of things that need to be resolved for a certain amount of time before you are eligible- for example, drinking problems need to be at least 5 years in the past. Some disorders have preconditions- for example, anemia is fine, but you need have identified a cause.

I'm sure with legal problems it's basically the same. They are often able to make exceptions, but there are frameworks that they have to work in. And they aren't just being arbitrary- they are responsible for all of your health care- including expensive emergency airlifts and the like, and if you fall ill during your service, whatever you got sick with is covered for life. So they really want to make sure you are at least minimally health.

[robert_columbia]

Does the Peace Corps engage in a lot of (or a little) cooperation with other agencies or charitable organizations, or does the PC like to stake it out and go directly to the point of need on their own? E.g. do Peace Corps workers ever share a classroom or school with Mormon Missionaries (say) and cooperate in teaching English together?

E.g.:

"Peace Corps worker, welcome to your site. You will be teaching English here in classroom 105, alongside John and Bill, two Mormon Missionaries. Y'all should coordinate your curriculum with Mary, Beth, and Harold in room 106, who are also here teaching English. Harold is also with the Peace Corps and Mary and Beth are from UNICEF."

[Rachellelogram]

So, say you've got a condition that they say is allowed in the program. Anemia, for the example you gave. How do you go about handling the medication (iron pills, or whatever)? Does your doctor write you a prescription for 2 years worth and you take it with you? What happens if you get robbed and your medication is stolen? It obviously isn't feasible to just run to the wawa in a remote African village.

[Chefguy]

I noticed a quirk with former PC field workers who became "lifers". They seemed to shun improvements to their lives, even though they were readily available and highly advisable. An example: the admin officer I mentioned above was living in a decent house in Bamako, leased by the embassy. They had the usual accessories, which included a water purifier, which, in my opinion and experience in Africa, is an essential and extremely advisable thing to have. Well, it broke. Rather than call for a new one, they just started drinking tap water, with the predictable result. I asked the wife (who had been out for weeks with a particularly virulent stomach bug) what the hell she was thinking, what with the health advisories, etc. She just shrugged and said it was a "Peace Corps thing". To me it was irresponsible, since they had children in the house.

I guess the question is: is this a normal mindset for people in the field, even when they return to 'civilization'?

[Amasia]

If you are interested in development, Peace Corps is a nearly essential career move. You can get into without PC, but it's much harder and most of the people you meet will be returned Peace Corps volunteers.



What do you think about PC becoming, in your opinion, "nearly essential" for working in development? PC does appeal to a certain type of person with a certain amount of freedom and independence, and it seems that limiting development work largely to those people could greatly reduce the ability of development agencies and orgs to be flexible and independent. Also, with the shared experience of PC, there are sure to be some biases that the group has as a whole.

Separately, I know many, many PC volunteers- some with overall positive experiences and some with more neutral- "meh" experiences. Regardless of the outcome of their experience, many chose to enter PC because of a general lack of direction in their lives. They knew they wanted to do something, but were unsure of it. Almost every single person I have known that has done PC went to either a large public university or expensive private school, got a liberal arts degree and then realized that their employment options were minimal. So while there are many things about PC and the experience that I think are positive (of which you've spoken), should PC really provide aimless 23-26 year olds a long-term break from decision making?

Finally, I have heard stories from my RPCV friends about how a large percentage of their cohorts that left early were due to women in PC returning to the US (or other nearby country) to get abortions from consensual encounters. In your estimation, were people on birth control in PC? Did PC help women have access to birth control if they wanted it? That they would not is unimaginable to me.

[even sven]

Does the Peace Corps engage in a lot of (or a little) cooperation with other agencies or charitable organizations, or does the PC like to stake it out and go directly to the point of need on their own? E.g. do Peace Corps workers ever share a classroom or school with Mormon Missionaries (say) and cooperate in teaching English together?

E.g.:

"Peace Corps worker, welcome to your site. You will be teaching English here in classroom 105, alongside John and Bill, two Mormon Missionaries. Y'all should coordinate your curriculum with Mary, Beth, and Harold in room 106, who are also here teaching English. Harold is also with the Peace Corps and Mary and Beth are from UNICEF."

It depends a lot on the situation, but it's almost never a situation like you described. Probably the largest area of inter-agency coordination is on the part of individual Peace Corps volunteers. We regularly use funding and expertise from different organizations in our own projects. On a larger level, Peace Corps country programs may have partnerships with organizations. For example in Cameroon when I left there was a joint position where Peace Corps third year volunteers could be placed in a UN Development Program office. That said, I think peace Corps prefers to work with local NGOS and national governments when possible. The idea is to build the strengths of local institutions whenever possible, rather than having foreigners come in and do all the work. Most of what we do is in some way training, and it's better to train local orgs. Common placements are schools, mayor's offices, clinics, local banks, etc.

As for working with foreigners, it depends. If you are in a big Chinese city, there are probably some random foreigners doing cool stuff that you may choose to work with. My Chinese university had a few paid foreign teachers and sometimes we'd collaborate. In Cameroon, there weren't any foreigners for miles. The situation you mentioned would be very unusual, but it might happen now and then if you get placed with a mission school or something.

Another factor is that for the most part, other organizations just don't work like Peace Corps. They will have a staff in a capital or secondary city, and anything in remote areas is going to be a short visit. Foreign staff, especially, rarely lives or works in remote areas. In many sites, beyond the stray missionary and maybe some technical workers on a large aid project, PCVs are the only expat community around.

So, say you've got a condition that they say is allowed in the program. Anemia, for the example you gave. How do you go about handling the medication (iron pills, or whatever)? Does your doctor write you a prescription for 2 years worth and you take it with you? What happens if you get robbed and your medication is stolen? It obviously isn't feasible to just run to the wawa in a remote African village.

You bring three months worth of medication to get you through training. After training, Peace Corps will provide your medication, and if they've accepted you to a program then that means they have some way of procuring it. I'd imagine it comes from the States via diplomatic pouch. We never had a problem getting medication, although sometimes there would be little things like our brand of birth control being switched due to availability. Generally you'd just pick up whatever medicine you needed when you were in the Peace Corps office (I'd be there maybe once every two months.) You could also get it mailed to you.

If you have an absolutely lifesaving medication, they will probably make sure you are within easy travel of a place where it is available. I think we had a few people who were restricted to cities within an easy bus ride to the capital because of medication.

[even sven]

I noticed a quirk with former PC field workers who became "lifers". They seemed to shun improvements to their lives, even though they were readily available and highly advisable. An example: the admin officer I mentioned above was living in a decent house in Bamako, leased by the embassy. They had the usual accessories, which included a water purifier, which, in my opinion and experience in Africa, is an essential and extremely advisable thing to have. Well, it broke. Rather than call for a new one, they just started drinking tap water, with the predictable result. I asked the wife (who had been out for weeks with a particularly virulent stomach bug) what the hell she was thinking, what with the health advisories, etc. She just shrugged and said it was a "Peace Corps thing". To me it was irresponsible, since they had children in the house.

I guess the question is: is this a normal mindset for people in the field, even when they return to 'civilization'?

Yes and no. I think it'd be unusual to that extreme, but I do know that returned PCVs can get a little uncomfortable with the "swimming pool, fleet of maids, and a white Landcruiser" situation that comes with things like foreign service positions. One the big philosophies of Peace Corps is that to really understand a community's needs (and thus design good programs for them) you need to become a part of the community, which is almost impossible if you live in an air-conditioned mansion behind a big gate. I think it's also pretty common for PCVs to feel embarrassed by their riches. I knew one PCV who slept on a mat, because she didn't want to be the only one in her village with a bed. It just becomes really awkward when you are obviously so much richer than everyone you know.

Many Peace Corps volunteers eventually come to use the perks provided by working with larger, less grassroots organizations. But I think most of them miss their free-wheeling days in the mud hut, chatting with the village ladies and taking public transport. Sitting in an air-conditioned office with bureaucrats and other Americans is rarely what their passion is.

What do you think about PC becoming, in your opinion, "nearly essential" for working in development? PC does appeal to a certain type of person with a certain amount of freedom and independence, and it seems that limiting development work largely to those people could greatly reduce the ability of development agencies and orgs to be flexible and independent. Also, with the shared experience of PC, there are sure to be some biases that the group has as a whole.

If you don't have a lot of freedom and independence, you are going to have trouble in this particular field. The guy who can pack up on Tuesday and be in Somalia on Wednesday is going to have a huge career edge over the man with three kids and a hearth condition. It's not a particularly family-friendly field, nor is it great for introverts, people with small comfort zones, or people with a lot of stuff tying them down. Peace Corps is usually done pretty soon after college. If you've managed to get yourself tied down or whatever by then, that's probably a good sign that development isn't a great match for you.

In terms of experience, what you get out of Peace Corps simply cannot be found elsewhere. There is no greater body of knowledge in the world about Cameroon (besides the population of Cameroon itself) anywhere near as complete as a Peace Corp's volunteer. A group of five of us probably knows more about Cameroon than the entire embassy. You know the country and the cultural intimately, from the inside out. The language acquisition, the cultural immersion, the opportunity for leadership...there is not other way to get so much so quickly. It's the biggest one-stop career boost you can get at that age. The Peace Corps bias is not just nepotism or a buzzword- when people hear you are a Peace Corps volunteer, they know you have a depth of knowledge and skills that is usual for that skill level.

Separately, I know many, many PC volunteers- some with overall positive experiences and some with more neutral- "meh" experiences. Regardless of the outcome of their experience, many chose to enter PC because of a general lack of direction in their lives. They knew they wanted to do something, but were unsure of it. Almost every single person I have known that has done PC went to either a large public university or expensive private school, got a liberal arts degree and then realized that their employment options were minimal. So while there are many things about PC and the experience that I think are positive (of which you've spoken), should PC really provide aimless 23-26 year olds a long-term break from decision making?

What would you rather they do? Do you think they ought to be suffering more for their aimlessness, or something?

Looking at the people i went to Cameroon with- one is in Mauritania working on food security, one is in DRC developing a mobile justice program, one started a tech incubator that finds venture capital to fund African tech ventures, one travels around Africa doing micro-finance training, a few work in various US government agencies doing professional level work, a number of them are at various sites in Africa doing fellowships with Catholic Relief Services, a few work for Peace Corps, another does HIV/AIDS prevention, one runs a fair-trade store marketing village handicrafts in the US....almost all of the China cohort is teaching (they recruited a lot of English and Education MAs), often at inner-city public schools...one is running an ESL school, another counsels autistic youth, one does business relations in China, one does education consulting for charter schools....

In other words, if you go in aimless, you probably don't come out aimless. Peace Corps is the number one training ground for future leaders in development, and provides a lot of skilled personel for various US government agencies. Our country and its programs would be much, much, much less effective without their expertise and leadership.

I do wish Peace Corps could attract a better spread of aimless young people, because it is skewed pretty heavily towards the upper middle class. But no, I don't see any particular problem that Peace Corps takes bright, educated young people and puts them on a track to success and contributing to society. I wish even more people had access to this!

[even sven]

Finally, I have heard stories from my RPCV friends about how a large percentage of their cohorts that left early were due to women in PC returning to the US (or other nearby country) to get abortions from consensual encounters. In your estimation, were people on birth control in PC? Did PC help women have access to birth control if they wanted it? That they would not is unimaginable to me.

Birth control is available and heavily promoted by the Peace Corps health office. Additionally, every volunteer is sent into the field with a lifetime's worth of condoms.

That sounds unusual for me. I think in my four years I'd head of one person going home for a few weeks for an abortion. Normally you will return after an abortion (unless you want to stay home, of course, and complete your service. You only get one shot at that, though, and you have to pay for the actual procedure yourself.) One in the group right after me went home to have a baby, and I know two people who got knocked up with a long-term partner near the end of their service and kept their babies. Anyway, abortions certainly are not a routine thing.

Like any group of people, Peace Corps has X percent flakes, wierdos and idiots. The vast majority of PCVs are not these things, however, and I don't really think the rate is any higher than you'd find in any similar group of people.

[robert_columbia]

To what extent do receiving countries get to pick and choose Peace Corps workers, or specify the desired attributes of Peace Corps workers?

E.g. can a country say "Give us the list of candidates, we will chose 10.", "For our Rural Outreach program, we want men between the ages of 20 and 30, no Jews or Hispanics.", or does the US Government say "You get who we send you, deal with it or you get nothing."

[Zsofia]

My cousin is a PCV in Mexico - she isn't in the "traditional Peace Corps" mud hut style setting, though. She's working with a university in San Luis Potosi. We went to see her a few months ago and were impressed with a) Mexico, which wasn't what we were expecting, and b) the amazing PCVs we met there, most of whom were gathered in one place for a Peace Corps anniversary 5K in Queretaro. They weren't at all the stereotypical 'I don't know what to do with my life now' young people, that's for sure. Extremely driven and accomplished, and much more varied in age and background than I expected. (My cousin isn't your fresh out of college liberal arts major either - she has her Ph.D. in environmental chemistry.) All women, oddly, although she mentioned several male volunteers in country.

Anyway, is it common for volunteers to stay abroad after their tours? Is it possible to continue working as a free agent with the same organizations? Does everybody come back to America, or is it like teaching English in Japan where a certain percentage of people become permanent expats?

My aunt refused to come with us for a whole host of made-up reasons, which shocked my mom (her sister) and I to no end. Seriously, it wasn't even a long flight to the Third World, it was the country next door, and your sister and her daughter are going and have done all the work... and you won't go see your daughter? So, is it usual for family to come visit? (Obviously, it's much harder to go to Africa or China.) I know we were allowed, and we planned it for a break in the university schedule so she'd be able to travel with us and be our pet interpreter. Did your parents or friends ever come see you? What about the other volunteers you knew?

[even sven]

To what extent do receiving countries get to pick and choose Peace Corps workers, or specify the desired attributes of Peace Corps workers?

E.g. can a country say "Give us the list of candidates, we will chose 10.", "For our Rural Outreach program, we want men between the ages of 20 and 30, no Jews or Hispanics.", or does the US Government say "You get who we send you, deal with it or you get nothing."

It really depends on the program. I'm pretty sure really high-level programs, like China and Mexico, get first pick of the more skilled volunteers, since their needs are so more specialized. China, for example, gets people with MAs or extensive teaching experience.

Other programs get a little less sway. If you are sending someone to a remote village to, say, teach basic sanitation, you probably don't need an engineer. I think for most programs, they have to accept who they are offered.


Anyway, is it common for volunteers to stay abroad after their tours? Is it possible to continue working as a free agent with the same organizations? Does everybody come back to America, or is it like teaching English in Japan where a certain percentage of people become permanent expats?

My aunt refused to come with us for a whole host of made-up reasons, which shocked my mom (her sister) and I to no end. Seriously, it wasn't even a long flight to the Third World, it was the country next door, and your sister and her daughter are going and have done all the work... and you won't go see your daughter? So, is it usual for family to come visit? (Obviously, it's much harder to go to Africa or China.) I know we were allowed, and we planned it for a break in the university schedule so she'd be able to travel with us and be our pet interpreter. Did your parents or friends ever come see you? What about the other volunteers you knew?

A lot of China volunteers stick around, because it's pretty easy to get a lucrative job in China if you are already there. In places like Cameroon, there just aren't any jobs for foreigners. Now and then someone would find a special post at the embassy or something like that, but it was tough to stick around. I'm not sure about other countries- it probably varies a lot.

I think most people have at least one family member visit. My mom came to Cameroon for a month, and to China for a month. It was so good to have her there- when you get back, it's tough because you've had this huge experience that most people don't understand and really don't care about. When you have a family member visit, you have at least one person who can relate.

It can be tough on the parents. For most parents coming to Cameroon, it wasn't a pleasant experience. They get uncomfortable with stuff like open-air slaughterhouses (one person's parents refused to eat for a week!), riding motorcycles and packed-full busses, and dealing with the very hot weather. My mom was a champ, though, and she ended up having a lot of fun. She especially enjoyed seeing me teach, and seeing me speak in these crazy languages. I think it's just something she never imagined seeing me do, and she was pretty proud.