It’s a loaded question with an even heavier answer, to be quite honest, but I felt like it needed some clarification. When people would ask me what drove me to go into the Peace Corps or even when fellow volunteers ask what my story is, I usually give a Cliff Notes version, or depending on the situation and who’s around at the time, I might make light of it all, playing it down to a desire to travel and see another part of the world, which I don’t deny as truth. However, for whatever reason, cowardliness, you might call it, I never fully explain my convictions. It’s much easier for me to write them down; furthermore, to extend these personal emotions from the security of continents separation, hiding behind a computer screen. I’m sorry for withholding that honesty from everyone, for fear that I might be judged, God forbid.
For as long as I can remember, when a commercial would come on tv for an aid organization or a post-disaster relief fund, I got a lump in my throat. The same lump I force down when I’m afraid to cry & give myself a brief, internal prep talk to ‘man up.’ It’s like this: when I’m faced with the opportunity to lend a humanitarian hand, I envision a tiny thread of string tied around my heart with a force, God maybe, at the other end tugging gently, consistently, but not constantly; enough for me to notice a pattern. The voice in my head would say “you’re able,” or just “can,” sometimes the clichéd “to whom much is given…” and I always knew something, some organization, some career, some ___ was in store for my future that involved being a part of something bigger than myself. That something appeared to me in the form of the Peace Corps. Now, do I think Peace Corps is the cookie cutter answer for anyone with a desire to help people? No. Do I think it was the only answer for my life post-college? No, but it fits. I’m sure I could have found another organization that fit all of my requirements, but something about Peace Corps, its prestige, connections, and platform all appealed to me. Which brings me to why we, as an organization, a part of the U.S. government, are here, serving in so many countries all over the world. The Peace Corps’ 3 goals, as proposed by JFK in a speech to college students 50 years ago, urging them to serve, are: to help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women, to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served, and to help Americans have a better understanding of other countries' peoples.
I’ve been semi-frustrated with people who don’t understand the Peace Corps’ purpose or intentions, or simply why I’m here, specifically. My answer is this: 2 of the 3 goals are merely about cultural exchange. That’s it. Simply put, we want to learn about other cultures so that we can share that information with Americans back at home and we want people from other countries to have a better idea of what America is like, other than what they see on tv, which, often times, is the only exposure these host country nationals have to what Americans or the U.S. is all about. We aim to share that, to learn about each other. The other goal is what most people think we’re all about: our actual “jobs” here. For Health Education Volunteers (me!), it’s educating people, sensitizing them on better practices to help them and their children live longer and healthier lives and hopefully educating them well enough so that they can educate others, the generations that follow. Now, I’m not saying we, single-handedly are going to put an end to malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, and sickness here in Mali. Hell, I can try, but realistically, it's one person at a time. I could go on forever, but I won’t bore you or myself with that. We have other sectors as well: Small Enterprise Development, doing things like promoting she butter production, teaching marketing strategies, helping businesses apply for and follow up with loans; Environment Volunteers, planting and educating people on the benefits of the meringue tree (packed full of great nutrients), proper soil fertilization, erosion techniques; Water and Sanitation Volunteers who work with wells, pumps, latrines – construction, and maintenance. We’re just trying to educate people who haven’t the resources to educate themselves, but so deserve that help. And all of us are just trying to get people to wash their hands for crying out loud. Try explaining a germ to an illiterate person in their mid-40s who has never heard of one before. Now, this is all just me rambling from memory, but what I’m trying to convey here is that we’ve got a lot to offer with a lot of people from all different backgrounds who know their shit, and if they don’t, we’ve been in training for almost 3 months on all of this jazz with very well qualified trainers, staff, and previous volunteers teaching us how to do what we’re about to do and how to do it well.
To sum things up and play a little defense for a minute, Peace Corps exists in countries who have specifically asked for us to be there, submitted requests for specific volunteers and who prepare for years for us to live with them and teach them for 2 years at a time, so that they might develop and learn to sustain themselves. Whew. Okay. I don’t know what it is with me; maybe I feel criticized, maybe I’m still trying to justify being here, leaving my family and friends, who didn’t exactly push me on the plane to come here. I guess it was my Dad telling me a few months before I left, “I don’t want you to change” that secured my decision. Because I wanted to and I wanted him to see that the change could be for the better. Thank you for saying that to me, really.
All of these opinions could change, but for the time being, this is how I feel and it may seem like I’m standing on a soap box right now, but from talking to friends and family alone, I know there was a lot I had been holding back. Thanks for listening. In my future life, I’ll be more short-winded. Cross your fingers.
P.S. - apparently the U.S. government is shutting down today temporarily? Awesome.
beautiful post!
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