Window dressing and POSH Corps


I woke up and got on the bus early yesterday to get to a community to help with a stenciling (painting) activity on a school courtyard.  It had been raining at my place so I thought it might be cancelled, but I’m up in the mountains.  At 6 I got word that the school was dry and so the activity was on.  I left at 7 and after about an hour spent waiting for the bus and traveling to Roseau and still having more waiting and traveling ahead - I got the message that the activity was cancelled because the concrete was too wet.  Welcome to Peace Corps.

The alternate plan was to meet some volunteers at a nice beach and relax.  There is something about serving on a tropical island.  When I arrived several volunteers were enjoying the sun, the Caribbean Sea, and the restaurant/bar.  There was a couple who will complete their service on Wednesday, travel and relax for about a year, and then go to another Peace Corps assignment – next time in China to teach English at a university.  Also present were three other volunteers who are just finishing up their first year and a Response volunteer.
Mero Beach

"Easy" to get to, but few people there on a Saturday morning


Volunteering relaxing and sharing stories.

Note – I’m volunteering for the “traditional” two year service involving primary and secondary projects while living in the local community (that could be a big city, but is frequently a village).  Response volunteers have shorter term assignments, three to twelve months, and commonly do a more traditional full time job in a bigger city.

The Response volunteer had served in Mozambique and we talked about the similarities and differences between our two African Peace Corps experiences.  We also compared our experiences on the islands.  During the casual conversations in the group between dips in the sea and sharing chocolate croissants the term “Posh Corps” came up.

“Posh Corps” is used to describe a Peace Corps country or site that has more luxuries – running water, wifi, big city shopping, whatever than the “typical”, “traditional”, “real” Peace Corps experience.

When I was in Morocco at the Peace Corps Post (headquarters) I exchanged stories with some volunteers.  Listening to my Ghana experience some said they were in Posh Corps with ready access to modern first world cities that offered everything including great coffee, excellent French pastries, and modern transportation.  Another Moroccan volunteer had a remote site in the Sahara with fewer luxuries than my site in Ghana.  She definitely didn’t think she was in Posh Corps.

I was happy to let them joke about their sites as Posh Corps.  I also enjoy my friends teasing with me about this Posh Corps assignment when I talked about the possibility of having a washing machine.  However, beyond joking with friends I don’t call other sites Posh Corps.  And in Morocco and here, I challenged the talk with my view of the “real” Peace Corps experience – all are real.

The traditional two year Peace Corps volunteer lives in the local community like an “upper middle class” villager.  We typically don’t struggle to put food on the table, but would need to use “our American money” if we want to go out often.  We live there physically, but that is the easy part.

The physical conditions – dry dusty roads, big city pollution, nice beaches, dangerous mountain roads, fine French pastries, PIT latrines, washing machines, bucket baths, and camel spiders – all the physical things are really just so much window dressing.  Don’t get me wrong – physical conditions have a big influence on the experience and the amount spent on menial work or available for secondary projects as well as the opportunities for recreational activities.

The real challenges I and other volunteers face are the mental and emotional challenges that exist in every site in every country.  We live and work in different cultures, commonly act as a grass root change agent walking bare foot in the thorny weeds.  We feel isolated from family, friends, and fellow volunteers.  There are all sorts of personal and interpersonal struggles and activities that would be present anywhere but all are compounded by working and living in another culture, in a small close knit community speaking a different language at home if not all the time.

Volunteers have different integration challenges for a variety of reasons and are different for different volunteers in the same site.  For example, in Ghana as an older male volunteer I needed to “put myself out there” but it was relatively easy for me to integrate with the male farmers and teachers in the community activities.  It was more difficult for younger female volunteers to be out in community in Mozambique because of traditional male/female roles and other factors that tended to kept women in the homes.   Religious beliefs and practices might help or hinder integration in some cultures.  And there are always so many “under the cover” factors that influence, limit, enhance our experience whether or not we recognize them.

I love talking with other Peace Corps volunteers.  We will laugh and joke about waiting for buses that never come, pooping in holes, cold bucket baths, about insects and roosters we want to kill.  We survived.  We learned to do this or that. Great stories!

But we always get more serious when will talk about the deep experiences of honor when we had a fleeting feeling of true oneness with the local people as well as remembering the nagging suffering on feeling the oneness of being alone and isolated.  We share smiles when remembering that child or old market woman who we truly helped.  We sympathize with each other recounting the struggle with a person or cultural roadblock. 

We truly survive.  We help others change for the better, and we do our part to make the world a better, more friendly, more peaceful place.  We change dramatically.  It might be POSH at times, but it is always Peace Corps.

I hope this was helpful for people thinking about Peace Corps, for those who might be struggling in an assignment, and those supporting Peace Corps volunteers.

Love always,

John

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