Recently, Peace Corps volunteers all over the world took an
extensive online survey which measured work life and personal life
satisfaction, areas for improvement, and that revealing question: if you could
do it all over again, would you have still made the decision to join the Peace
Corps? 90% of volunteers in Burkina Faso, which is notably the poorest country
that the Peace Corps serves in, said yes. Including me.
People join the Peace Corps for a lot of reasons. I won’t
rehash my own reasons for joining, but if you’re interested you can read the
first post of this blog. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Peace
Corps volunteers are not slackers on a free vacation. Most are highly
ambitious, type-A people (you’d have to be to get through the medical section
of the application alone). No one joins for solely selfless reasons; we all
seek to gain something personally, professionally, or both from committing two
years of our lives to a developing country. At the end of their service, most
volunteers feel that they’ve gained much more than they’ve given to their host
country.
I’ve been living in Burkina for 23 months now and will be
coming home late this summer. Although my service is not yet over, and I’m sure
a lot of reflection will necessarily take place when I return to America, I can
already witness the personal growth engendered by this experience. I’ve gained
patience and perspective that I believe I could not have possibly gained
through continued schooling or entering the workforce or starting a family. I
understand better what’s important and what’s not. Overcoming the daily
challenges of living in a culture so fundamentally different from my own has
also instilled in me incredible self-confidence. Just being exposed to a new
way of life has made me aware of how my own culture has shaped me, in both
positive and negative ways. I’ve learned to keep going even when I fail
miserably, because even when I fail I wake up every day knowing that this is an
incredible opportunity: to be someone’s first American friend, to help a
student who is struggling at school, to advise a mother on how to best nourish
her baby. What we do does make a difference, albeit on an individual level
which is difficult to measure. I’ve learned to just be with people, without a
work-related motive, without any purpose at all.
If this sounds rosy, I’ve witnessed horrific things, too: a
woman who was beaten to death by her husband buried while her three-month-old
looked on, my own best friend abused by her husband, violence against children
in schools, mothers and babies dying due to inadequate healthcare, and forced
marriages. But I’ve also witnessed kindness and hope beyond measure: families
sharing food with those in need, teachers going out of their way to make sure
students succeed, fathers encouraging their daughters to do well in school, and
mothers working strenuously to build a better future for themselves and their
children. Through all of this, good and bad, I’ve come to the realization that
all Peace Corps volunteers come to: people everywhere across countries,
cultures, and socioeconomic differences, want the same thing. It sounds simple
and it is, but it takes being submerged in another culture to honestly believe
it.
I don’t know where else life will take me but I know that
Peace Corps was an invaluable stop along the way because it prepared me for
everything else that will follow. It has made me more adaptable, mature,
self-aware and confident in my abilities. And I have a greater understanding of
the world at large than most can claim at 23 years old.
Professionally, the benefits of the Peace Corps might not be
so clear. Of course, most employers rightly view returned PCV’s as adaptable
and highly motivated. But in terms of having a professional, functioning work
environment during their two years abroad many volunteers are disillusioned.
Those volunteers who are allied with associations or schools may have more
guidance and resources at their disposal, but some work sectors necessitate
that volunteers essentially create their own job. This can be difficult when
community motivation is lacking and/or community members do not understand the
role of the Peace Corps and its participatory development philosophy (the Peace
Corps is unlike many other development organizations in that it provides human
resources and capacity building, rather than financial and material resources).
Despite these challenges, many volunteers come to enjoy the
flexibility of creating their own job and learn to thrive in a cross-cultural
work setting. Although they may sometimes fret that the work they are doing is
not truly sustainable, they inevitably have a positive impact on at least a few
of their host country colleagues. Positive influences such as these should not
be discounted when analyzing the effect that volunteers have on local
development efforts. These relationships also explain why many volunteers would
choose to do the Peace Corps again if they could do it over.
I’ve experienced more failure in my two years here than I
have in all of the other years of my life combined; accepting failure is also
the best lesson I’ve ever learned. Many of my projects are unsustainable—in a
village of only 1,000 people and zero adults with more than a middle school
education, the majority of whom are also illiterate and/or don’t speak French,
I did a lot of work on my own without the help of a counterpart. For example,
my life skills club which taught boys and girls about disease prevention,
gender equality, and reproductive health, will not continue when I leave. But
after only two years, I’ve witnessed the positive effects that these skills and
knowledge have had on the individual lives of my students. Ultimately, the
decisions that they make will change their own lives and the lives of their
future children, and that is no small feat.
Overall, I feel satisfied personally and professionally and
I think many of the hardships are necessary in order to attain the delayed
satisfaction which characterizes being a PCV. I also feel that I’ve contributed
meaningfully to the development of Burkina and that I’ve served my own country
in an important way—by fostering positive American sentiment.
My advice to those
considering the Peace Corps: do it.
But keep in mind that what you get out of this experience is directly
proportional to what you put in. If you feel yourself withdrawing, make a
conscious effort to get back out there. Walk around your village and just say
hi to your neighbors—you’ll be quickly reminded how much your presence means to
them. Two-thirds of our job as volunteers is to engage in cross cultural
exchange. This is also the most rewarding aspect of the job, in my own
experience. You might be the first, or only, American that someone interacts
with so make a positive impression. You’re not missing out on anything at
home—trust me. If you visit home this will be confirmed by seeing your friends
who are working the same jobs, hanging out with the same people, and doing the
same things they were when you left. True friends will keep in touch with you
and you will find an incredible support system in your fellow volunteers. Have
an open mind. Be aware that, at the end of the day, it will be the meaningful
relationships you forge which define your service, not the number of successful
projects.
Marlow
