Dear Person Contemplating Joining Peace Corps,
I imagine that you’re at a transition point in your life.
Perhaps you’ve just graduated, perhaps you’re going through a career change,
perhaps you have an itch for something more that can’t be scratched. Whatever
the reason, here you are: contemplating joining Peace Corps.
But should you? Is it right for you?
Honestly, you might not know that until you’ve arrived. You can
research by reading books and official publications or by talking with
current/returned volunteers, but everything you read and hear will probably
tell you the same thing: every person’s experience is different. Your Peace
Corps life will be uniquely shaped by your country, program, and site.
I’d like to think, though, that there are a few things that are
universal throughout the Peace Corps world, and those things tend all to
revolve around how you yourself will change - for the better and for the worse
- because of your time in Peace Corps.
‘Sanitary’ will become an obsolete concept. You will eat on mats
that you know are saturated in urine. You will prepare food on
counters that also serve as chicken roosts. You will not have
consistent/frequent access to soap. You will eat street food that is
undoubtedly questionable. You will be dirty, dusty, and sweaty at all times. You
will have mind over body battles to force yourself to bucket shower in the
winter. Bugs, lizards, chickens, ducks, and mice will crap on everything. These
things will be ok. You’ll adjust. The sterile environment of the States will
become a distant odd memory or a constant fantasy.
Your body, though, might not adjust as quickly. You will have
parasites and infections and illnesses that you had never heard of before
training. You will be constantly constipated. Or go the opposite extreme. I
hate to say it, but you will probably poop in your pants at least once. You
will learn to vomit over a squat toilet and into a plastic bag during a bus
ride. You will discuss your bodily functions openly and enthusiastically with
other volunteers. No topic will be taboo.
The way you communicate will completely transform. Learning a
language from scratch through immersion is a powerful experience. You will
learn to have complex communications though expressions, gestures, and basic
vocabulary. You will learn to bond with another human being through silence.
You will answer the same basic questions over and over and over again. You may
never achieve the ability to discuss ideas and concepts. You will develop a new
English language which consists of pared down vocabulary and grammatical
structures. You will actively think of each word before you speak. Your speech
patterns will slow. You will have to define words whose meanings you had always
taken for granted. You will learn to listen.
Your concept of money will entirely alter. Paying more than $1 for
anything will cause you to pause and question your purchase. You will
understand value in the context of a different economic system. You will learn
to barter, even on cheaper items. You will consistently feel as though you have
been cheated on the price. You will be enraged by all prices upon returning to
the States.
You will embrace the thrilling dichotomies of thrift versus
splurge and ration versus binge. No one knows how to budget like a Peace Corps
volunteer. And no one can binge like one.
You will be discontented with your work. You will wonder – and
scream to the heavens – about the benefit of your presence. You will feel lost
in unstructured expectations and crushed by promising ideas fallen to the side.
Your expectations will fade into an unexpected reality. You will learn to
celebrate small victories. You will look at mountains and see mole hills. You
will try to tackle the impossible. Maybe you’ll succeed. Maybe you’ll just pick
yourself up and take aim at another impossibility.
You will learn to do all of this through pure self-motivation. You
will be the one to drag yourself out of bed and out the door. You won’t have
anyone holding your hand or pushing your forward. Just you. You will become a
stronger person for yourself, by yourself.
You will be a celebrity in your community. That status comes will
hardships and benefits that will ineradicably change you. You will be the
exception to the societal rules. You will be the foreigner, the one set apart.
You will receive privileges and have special attention/status because of your
nationality. You will always have eyes on you. You will have joined as an agent
of culture exchange and understanding, but you will still find yourself falling
into an ‘us versus them’ mentality. Use it. Consider it. Contemplate the value
we place on people because of arbitrary characteristics. You will come away
from your experience more attune to your own merits, to those that are deserved
and to those that are given.
Your culture of personal space, one that maybe you have always
taken for granted, will be challenged. You will wonder why you need an entire
room to yourself while no one else even has a bed to himself. You still won’t
want to give your room up. Privacy will be a privilege or a rarity, not a
right.
You will lose all control of your emotions and be on an
unpredictable roller coaster of extreme ups and downs. You will go from happy
and confident to sullen and tearful by things as simple as ants in your candy
or yet another child saying ‘Hello!’ Your highs will be high, but they will be
fragile. Your lows will feel inescapable. Your family and friends in the States
probably won’t understand this. Your isolation will force you to become your
own support system. You will become aware of yourself in the context of solely
being yourself.
Your government-issued friends will be your reprieve. The love and
closeness you share with people back in the States won’t change, but it will be
your fellow volunteers who understand. They will be friendships forged from
necessity, and they will be deep and fervent.
You will witness a whole new way of life, and you will question
your notion of necessity. You will consider your personal wealth, and people
will constantly remind you of it. You will discover what your ‘needs’ are to
live a productive, satisfied life. I hope you will remember that when you
return to a culture of plenty.
You will be the biggest product of your Peace Corps work. You will
change. And you will bring that change back with you.
Reposted from: http://peacecorps.tumblr.com/
http://thesharpiemarkerapproach.tumblr.com/post/42420977797/an-open-letter
All credit goes to the amazing RPCV that wrote this as clearly as anyone could have said it.