For the next several Fridays, I am going to retell some of my experiences from my service in the United States Peace Corps. This is probably not obviously directly related to the aim of True Progress, but I feel that it can be instructive and I believe that the Peace Corps has a specific and valuable role to play in progress around the world. So, understanding at least one image of how it currently works and could work in the future is valuable both in correctly interpreting some of my ideas and formulating your own on how to use or not use this agency. So, Who Gave You This Idea?
I was not exactly the typical Peace Corps applicant, or at least not the stereotypical applicant. I was racing through the mechanical engineering curriculum at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in my Junior year with an internship already under my belt. In a major with practically 100% employment after graduation and high starting salaries, I expected to follow the normal career path after finishing school. At the time, I was not even aware that the Peace Corps was still an active agency, although I was vaguely aware of it from reading stories from the past.
While preparing for my job search, I did things like describe the type of position where I saw myself, the kind of goals I wanted to achieve in the near and long term. I also made a list of things that I especially wanted to do in my lifetime that were not directly related to my career goals. Those included experiences like learning another language, living in another country, and teaching high school students among other things. Rather than just set that list aside, I resolved to find a way to make it compatible with my career and focus on having a fulfilling life whether I would get to those things sooner or later.
[ad name="Adsense Small Horz Banner"] A few weeks afterwards, during an international business class (an easy elective), a recruiter from the Peace Corps made a presentation about the agency. He was looking for business students, but happened to be a former mechanical engineering student who spent two years in Kenya teaching Math in a secondary school there. I found out we had a recruiter on campus and I obtained more information about the agency and the different volunteer options and qualifications required.
Application, Interview, Invitation
I found that I qualified to volunteer to teach Math and Science, and that if I studied French in my time remaining in college, I would qualify to be posted to a position in French speaking Africa. I chose the most challenging position that I qualified for. As the Peace Corps has a competitive selection process none of this is guaranteed, however. I read as much as I could about the life of a volunteer and about the former French colonies in Africa in general. I gathered and submitted my application materials, and completed the interview process as I was beginning my senior year at university.
With no sure thing in the Peace Corps, no matter how exicting it sounded, and no way to know exactly how good an offer I might receive for an engineering position, I went after my job search as a normal engineering student. I sent out resumes, prepared, researched, suited up, and sat for dozens of interviews and a handful of second interviews. I ended up with one firm offer at the average starting salary for my profession and another potential one pending. But, in the middle of those acceptances, I received my invitation to teach Math with the Peace Corps in Guinea, West Africa. With the opportunity to do so many things that I doubted I would ever have the opportunity to do otherwise, I accepted and took the first step in what would be a long journey.
Reactions
Outside of a few individuals, most of the reactions to this course of action on my part were of the not-quite-negative to negative category. I was somewhat suprised and disheartened by this. I expected some of it, especially from those few who could think of nothing better to do with their lives than earn more money, but hearing the comments and questions continually was a morale draining experience. I tried to develop more reasons for this choice that would be inline with what I suspected other people's motives were, but it never seemed to really satisfy anyone. Looking back, I probably could have been more honest about my own perspective and motives although I lacked the words at the time that I have now to describe them. But, even without much vocal support, I was dedicated to the purposes I held as important, and was willing and eager to test myself in what I knew would be a challenging environment.
Staging
Just prior to the trip across the ocean, Peace Corps gathers all of the volunteer trainees in a city in the United States in an event they call staging, with time to give vaccinations, complete paperwork and orientation, and play silly team building games with people together with whom we're going to spend the next few months of training. We all arrived in Washington DC with our lives packed in two (large, heavy) bags for a few days of events. The interesting mix of people and accents provided a way to travel across the United States culturally while sitting in one room. I met a few individuals who would become my friends until this day. [ad name="Peace Corps In Line Banner"] Departure
A short flight to New York started us on our way to training in Senegal. There, on a short layover, I learned that my grandfather had passed away back in Houston, Texas. I faced yet another decision point when I should have been completely on my way, as I could have easily justified going back home to be with my family at this time, and probably could have been on a flight back in hours. And, I really wanted to be there, as I felt it would be comforting for me and my family to have me there. But, I knew that if I turned back at this point, I would never be down this path again. I felt my grandfather and family supported me in this, and so I went on, and boarded my flight from New York to Dakar, Senegal, where I would start this minature adventure.