I were the US government, I'd be pushing PC into more Muslim countries, even loosening the safety requirements, for this very reason. If you could get people to volunteer for assignments that dangerous, getting PCV's into schools all over Afghanistan would, I bet, have an incredibly positive effect on attitudes toward America.
I were the US government, I'd be pushing PC into more Muslim countries, even loosening the safety requirements, for this very reason. If you could get people to volunteer for assignments that dangerous, getting PCV's into schools all over Afghanistan would, I bet, have an incredibly positive effect on attitudes toward America.
My understanding is that Peace Corps will only send volunteers to places where a member of the community has requested volunteers, though I could be wrong.
Incidentally, Peace Corps has programs in Jordan and Morocco and they used to have one in Yemen, not sure whether they still do.
Oh, certainly -- they only go to countries were the government requests them, and they only go to countries that are reasonably safe and stable. And there are certainly programs in some Muslim countries. I'd just like to see a relaxation of the safety regulations, and a hard sell from us to get more volunteers into countries where we're unpopular.
My gut feeling is that you're quite right, LB, and that it is the presence of living, breathing, helpful Americans that does the most for our image abroad. When I was a student and very involved in queer rights activism, conventional wisdom was that we sh/could march all we wanted but that real change happened in person-to-person relationships, thus the strong emphasis on coming out to friends/family/etc. I imagine this is largely true for all those who would bridge cultural gaps. Stereotypes and other second-hand information may seem to work just fine when it comes to filling in the knowledge gaps a person has regarding what differentiates them from Those People, whoever they are - and I would argue that to a degree stereotypes serve a very useful purpose when it comes to organizing information - but it is in personal relationships that we learn what we have in common, and that's where the bridges get built.
I feel bad that this post isn't getting many comments because I think it's very good. I just wanted to say the reason I'm not commenting on it is because I think you get it exactly right and I don't have anything to add. Didn't want LB to think it wasn't appreciated. Yay LB!
Would like to especially emphasize that it seems wrong that so many Peace Corps volunteers are assigned to be teachers in a classroom setting. This is a job that roughly zero percent of people who just graduated from college are good at, and the percentage actually goes down when those people are teaching students with a completely alien cultural/educational background.
I had a friend whose Peace Corps job was to teach chemistry in Cameroon. It took her about three months to decide that she would never be able to explain anything to a single one of her students, for reasons she couldn't quite explain.
Heh. I wasn't that badly off -- I'd say that a solid 20% of my students got something out of my classes, and 3 or 4 kids learned a fair amount. Those three or four were really sort of heartbreaking -- anyone who was successfully learning calculus from me, given all the obstacles, was awfully, awfully smart, but they weren't heading for any serious future education.
Still, smart is always useful. They're probably all doing well for themselves.
I met a couple who were on vacation after a year of Peace Corps duty in a tiny remote village in Senegal. They said they did absolutely nothing while there were there. They would come up with various projects for the village but because people were either herding or farming or taking care of children all day, no one had time to participate. This couple found it very demoralizing and were considering leaving before the end of the two years.
12, 14: Cultural issues are very difficult, and very specific. I could interview a dozen people, and tell you which would be likely to be successful teaching Samoan kids (I would not be one of those). It's combination of body type and personality that help you fit in, or not, with the local culture. I'm sure it's the same with other countries. I'd bet the PC Sengal couple would have been able to connect with the locals someplace else, and the PC Tanzania teacher would have been unable to get through to her students in a different country.
A girl I used to work with is currently a PCV in Namibia teaching kids (one room schoolhouse for something like 6-12 grade) art, math and computer skills, along with anyone in her village who wants to learn. She said it's the most rewarding work she's ever done and her students soak up the info. like a sponge.
Tangentially, all of my friends who were in the Peace Corps had a terribly difficult time readjusting to life in America afterwards. Even the one who had a miserable PC experience (in Jamaica). Especially her, actually.
I think the Peace Corps is splendidly useful for human development--that is, for the development of people who go into the Peace Corps. I think it's great self-work, including the recognition that it doesn't matter if your heart grew three sizes that day, your soul is pure, and you're totally willing to shovel pig shit in order to improve the life of a single starving orphan, there isn't that much you can do to save the world. Almost everyone I know who has been in the Peace Corps has come out a better human being for it in some respect or another. But as for whether the Peace Corps does useful, sustainable work in various societies, generally no so much. I can think of a few Peace Corps projects I've seen that were really smart, extremely limited in their focus and goals, and led to sustained positive change of some kind. Mostly it's just about making connections between Americans and the wider world, and about enlightenment of various kinds. Which is no small good in and of itself.
Yeah, readjustment is slow and difficult -- say, six months until you're sane again. And Jamaica is supposed to be about the toughest posting out there: the problem is that it's a resort. In a resort, the locals hate the tourists, and a scruffy white twenty-something looks like a tourist, not a volunteer. Everyone has a hell of a time in Jamaica.
Oh, if I were going to design the perfect PC Samoa Volunteer, I'd want a stocky, very strong, physically affectionate/touchy kind of guy, with a silly practical-joke/deadpan put-on kind of sense of humor, an explosive temper that cools down quickly, and at least fair musical abilities -- guitar and singing by choice, but definitely able to carry a tune. The closer someone came to that model, the easier it was for them to get respect and communicate with the locals.
Frail, skinny, slow-burn/grudge-holding people who don't like sweaty acquaintences draped all over them did less well. (Hi!)
Hrm. Maybe volunteering just gives you an attitude about backpackers, but I read that thing where it was linked somewhere before and just thought 'whiners'. People would drift through Samoa every so often and talk about the incredible connections they were forming to the local culture, and they really didn't know jack about anything.
Just so I can look like I totally missed the point on #20, Guatemala is an awesomely complex place, well worth checking out. And, it's a lot closer than Samoa.
28: I have a hard time taking those people seriously as they wax on about how they're more in touch with Nature, God, the Earth, or Humanity. Actual volunteers are not annoying, just the 'but it was a real ethnic experience' types.
20, 28: Whoops, I just re-read it and it's great. I skimmed it before, without really reading it, and thought that he was saying that he wasn't like all those other backpackers. With a closer read, I get it, and totally agree with him.
I have Dominican relatives through a relative's marriage (ok, so maybe they're not my relatives, then) who say that the Peace Corps is roundly disliked in the Dominican Republic, mostly for just dropping in and acting, in a condescending way, like they know the best way to run things.
Interesting. I've been thinking of volunteering. I was thinking about changing employers and thinking about salary requirements, etc. I realized that what I truly need is quite low. I've neither house nor family.
I've always regretted not joining the Peace Corps when I got out of school. Then I thought it wasn't "practical". Now that I'm in my mid-40s I worry less about that.
I do wonder if I would fit the slots they tend to fill. I have experience in business, technical consulting, and government program management. PCV are doing more than just teaching in some countries, such Ukraine. Ah well, I've called my local recruiters (in metro DC that's a cinch) and when I get back from AUS I'll talk with them.
I agree with those who say the biggest benefit to the US is just getting Americans out there working with others one-to-one. In some ways this is parallel to why I favor national service within the US. I would bring back the draft—expensive and wasteful as it is—except I fear what politicans would do with a readily-available large army.
Hrm. Maybe that's the resorty problem again? I've never run into anyone from Peace Corps DR. I should ask someone from the neighborhood if they have a Peace Corps impression.
It is a condescending organization on many levels -- I was the head of the Math Department at my high school because I had the most education and taught the senior classes; this was totally culturally inappropriate, given that I was a 21-year-old unmarried (in Samoan terms, not fully adult) woman. I managed this by using the senior teacher who should have been the department head as a stalking horse; I deferred to him absolutely on anything unimportant, and wheedled him into agreement on the stuff I cared about -- he did the enforcement.
and 35: Definitely look into it. The volunteers who were any actual use in Samoa were the older volunteers (they knew stuff, and were competent, and it was much more culturally appropriate for people to listen to them), and I've heard the same about other countries.
The Instigator's fiancee was a PCV in the DR. Definitely not a resort post. She was the only PCV for a day's ride and slept with a machete because weird guys would come by her (no lock, slept on a mat on the floor) tent in the middle of the night and harass her. She had to end her post early because she caught some horrible jungle disease and was in the hospital for 3 months.
As I understand it, the interior/mountainous parts of the Dominican Republic are not for the faint of immune system (but in temperature terms, much easier to deal with than the hot low-lying areas). I don't know what kind of Peace Corps projects my relatives had run across; I only heard a general complaint.
I've probably said all this before, here, at one time or another, but I figured I'd put it up in response to the MR reader.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 9:52 AM
I were the US government, I'd be pushing PC into more Muslim countries, even loosening the safety requirements, for this very reason. If you could get people to volunteer for assignments that dangerous, getting PCV's into schools all over Afghanistan would, I bet, have an incredibly positive effect on attitudes toward America.
I think you are absolutely right.
Posted by Idealist | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 10:04 AM
I were the US government, I'd be pushing PC into more Muslim countries, even loosening the safety requirements, for this very reason. If you could get people to volunteer for assignments that dangerous, getting PCV's into schools all over Afghanistan would, I bet, have an incredibly positive effect on attitudes toward America.
My understanding is that Peace Corps will only send volunteers to places where a member of the community has requested volunteers, though I could be wrong.
Incidentally, Peace Corps has programs in Jordan and Morocco and they used to have one in Yemen, not sure whether they still do.
Posted by dagger aleph | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 12:27 PM
Oh, certainly -- they only go to countries were the government requests them, and they only go to countries that are reasonably safe and stable. And there are certainly programs in some Muslim countries. I'd just like to see a relaxation of the safety regulations, and a hard sell from us to get more volunteers into countries where we're unpopular.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 12:32 PM
My gut feeling is that you're quite right, LB, and that it is the presence of living, breathing, helpful Americans that does the most for our image abroad. When I was a student and very involved in queer rights activism, conventional wisdom was that we sh/could march all we wanted but that real change happened in person-to-person relationships, thus the strong emphasis on coming out to friends/family/etc. I imagine this is largely true for all those who would bridge cultural gaps. Stereotypes and other second-hand information may seem to work just fine when it comes to filling in the knowledge gaps a person has regarding what differentiates them from Those People, whoever they are - and I would argue that to a degree stereotypes serve a very useful purpose when it comes to organizing information - but it is in personal relationships that we learn what we have in common, and that's where the bridges get built.
Posted by Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 12:33 PM
Right. It's not that we're so impressive in person, but we are charmingly ridiculous and eager to help -- a good image for the US overseas.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 12:49 PM
I feel bad that this post isn't getting many comments because I think it's very good. I just wanted to say the reason I'm not commenting on it is because I think you get it exactly right and I don't have anything to add. Didn't want LB to think it wasn't appreciated. Yay LB!
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 12:54 PM
I agree with #8.
Would like to especially emphasize that it seems wrong that so many Peace Corps volunteers are assigned to be teachers in a classroom setting. This is a job that roughly zero percent of people who just graduated from college are good at, and the percentage actually goes down when those people are teaching students with a completely alien cultural/educational background.
I had a friend whose Peace Corps job was to teach chemistry in Cameroon. It took her about three months to decide that she would never be able to explain anything to a single one of her students, for reasons she couldn't quite explain.
Posted by Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:01 PM
I agree with #8.
You would, wouldn't you?
Posted by teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:03 PM
Heh. I wasn't that badly off -- I'd say that a solid 20% of my students got something out of my classes, and 3 or 4 kids learned a fair amount. Those three or four were really sort of heartbreaking -- anyone who was successfully learning calculus from me, given all the obstacles, was awfully, awfully smart, but they weren't heading for any serious future education.
Still, smart is always useful. They're probably all doing well for themselves.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:05 PM
I agree with 6. And 11.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:06 PM
I met a couple who were on vacation after a year of Peace Corps duty in a tiny remote village in Senegal. They said they did absolutely nothing while there were there. They would come up with various projects for the village but because people were either herding or farming or taking care of children all day, no one had time to participate. This couple found it very demoralizing and were considering leaving before the end of the two years.
Posted by dagger aleph | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:07 PM
6 s/b 7 and I should just type 'Yay LB!', and wave a little flag, since that's what I meant.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:07 PM
This is a job that roughly zero percent of people who just graduated from college are good at
Weird, that graduate students are expected to be good at it, often just out of college.
A friend of mine served in Tanzania and seemed to really enjoy it; he had very eager students.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:10 PM
15 gets it exactly wrong. In Crete.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:12 PM
12, 14: Cultural issues are very difficult, and very specific. I could interview a dozen people, and tell you which would be likely to be successful teaching Samoan kids (I would not be one of those). It's combination of body type and personality that help you fit in, or not, with the local culture. I'm sure it's the same with other countries. I'd bet the PC Sengal couple would have been able to connect with the locals someplace else, and the PC Tanzania teacher would have been unable to get through to her students in a different country.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:17 PM
A girl I used to work with is currently a PCV in Namibia teaching kids (one room schoolhouse for something like 6-12 grade) art, math and computer skills, along with anyone in her village who wants to learn. She said it's the most rewarding work she's ever done and her students soak up the info. like a sponge.
Posted by cheerylilgoth | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:17 PM
Tangentially, all of my friends who were in the Peace Corps had a terribly difficult time readjusting to life in America afterwards. Even the one who had a miserable PC experience (in Jamaica). Especially her, actually.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:20 PM
I think the Peace Corps is splendidly useful for human development--that is, for the development of people who go into the Peace Corps. I think it's great self-work, including the recognition that it doesn't matter if your heart grew three sizes that day, your soul is pure, and you're totally willing to shovel pig shit in order to improve the life of a single starving orphan, there isn't that much you can do to save the world. Almost everyone I know who has been in the Peace Corps has come out a better human being for it in some respect or another. But as for whether the Peace Corps does useful, sustainable work in various societies, generally no so much. I can think of a few Peace Corps projects I've seen that were really smart, extremely limited in their focus and goals, and led to sustained positive change of some kind. Mostly it's just about making connections between Americans and the wider world, and about enlightenment of various kinds. Which is no small good in and of itself.
Posted by Timothy Burke | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:24 PM
18 -- More of a hard time than those who went backpacking?
Posted by Clownæsthesiologist | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:24 PM
Yeah, readjustment is slow and difficult -- say, six months until you're sane again. And Jamaica is supposed to be about the toughest posting out there: the problem is that it's a resort. In a resort, the locals hate the tourists, and a scruffy white twenty-something looks like a tourist, not a volunteer. Everyone has a hell of a time in Jamaica.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:25 PM
It's combination of body type and personality that help you fit in, or not, with the local culture.
Curiosity piqued.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:26 PM
21: It was partly that and partly being a female economist in a society that is deeply dismissive of women.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:29 PM
Oh, if I were going to design the perfect PC Samoa Volunteer, I'd want a stocky, very strong, physically affectionate/touchy kind of guy, with a silly practical-joke/deadpan put-on kind of sense of humor, an explosive temper that cools down quickly, and at least fair musical abilities -- guitar and singing by choice, but definitely able to carry a tune. The closer someone came to that model, the easier it was for them to get respect and communicate with the locals.
Frail, skinny, slow-burn/grudge-holding people who don't like sweaty acquaintences draped all over them did less well. (Hi!)
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:32 PM
#18: That's hardly surprising though, is it? Nothing like bashing your world view into hard truths....
Posted by soubzriquet | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:35 PM
The link in 20 is fantastic.
Posted by teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:38 PM
Yeah it's good right? Take a look at his archives too.
Posted by Clownæsthesiologist | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:46 PM
Hrm. Maybe volunteering just gives you an attitude about backpackers, but I read that thing where it was linked somewhere before and just thought 'whiners'. People would drift through Samoa every so often and talk about the incredible connections they were forming to the local culture, and they really didn't know jack about anything.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 1:57 PM
After reading about all these happy PCV teachers, I now disagree with #8.
Posted by Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 2:14 PM
Just so I can look like I totally missed the point on #20, Guatemala is an awesomely complex place, well worth checking out. And, it's a lot closer than Samoa.
Posted by mike d | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 2:28 PM
28: That's pretty much what I read the linked post as saying.
Posted by teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 2:28 PM
28: I have a hard time taking those people seriously as they wax on about how they're more in touch with Nature, God, the Earth, or Humanity. Actual volunteers are not annoying, just the 'but it was a real ethnic experience' types.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 2:32 PM
20, 28: Whoops, I just re-read it and it's great. I skimmed it before, without really reading it, and thought that he was saying that he wasn't like all those other backpackers. With a closer read, I get it, and totally agree with him.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 2:46 PM
I have Dominican relatives through a relative's marriage (ok, so maybe they're not my relatives, then) who say that the Peace Corps is roundly disliked in the Dominican Republic, mostly for just dropping in and acting, in a condescending way, like they know the best way to run things.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 2:53 PM
Interesting. I've been thinking of volunteering. I was thinking about changing employers and thinking about salary requirements, etc. I realized that what I truly need is quite low. I've neither house nor family.
I've always regretted not joining the Peace Corps when I got out of school. Then I thought it wasn't "practical". Now that I'm in my mid-40s I worry less about that.
I do wonder if I would fit the slots they tend to fill. I have experience in business, technical consulting, and government program management. PCV are doing more than just teaching in some countries, such Ukraine. Ah well, I've called my local recruiters (in metro DC that's a cinch) and when I get back from AUS I'll talk with them.
I agree with those who say the biggest benefit to the US is just getting Americans out there working with others one-to-one. In some ways this is parallel to why I favor national service within the US. I would bring back the draft—expensive and wasteful as it is—except I fear what politicans would do with a readily-available large army.
Posted by md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 2:55 PM
Hrm. Maybe that's the resorty problem again? I've never run into anyone from Peace Corps DR. I should ask someone from the neighborhood if they have a Peace Corps impression.
It is a condescending organization on many levels -- I was the head of the Math Department at my high school because I had the most education and taught the senior classes; this was totally culturally inappropriate, given that I was a 21-year-old unmarried (in Samoan terms, not fully adult) woman. I managed this by using the senior teacher who should have been the department head as a stalking horse; I deferred to him absolutely on anything unimportant, and wheedled him into agreement on the stuff I cared about -- he did the enforcement.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 2:58 PM
and 35: Definitely look into it. The volunteers who were any actual use in Samoa were the older volunteers (they knew stuff, and were competent, and it was much more culturally appropriate for people to listen to them), and I've heard the same about other countries.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 3:02 PM
The Instigator's fiancee was a PCV in the DR. Definitely not a resort post. She was the only PCV for a day's ride and slept with a machete because weird guys would come by her (no lock, slept on a mat on the floor) tent in the middle of the night and harass her. She had to end her post early because she caught some horrible jungle disease and was in the hospital for 3 months.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 3:34 PM
some horrible jungle disease
Racist.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 3:40 PM
Racist.
Facist rapist.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 3:41 PM
The disease was presumably jungle fever.
Posted by teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 3:44 PM
As I understand it, the interior/mountainous parts of the Dominican Republic are not for the faint of immune system (but in temperature terms, much easier to deal with than the hot low-lying areas). I don't know what kind of Peace Corps projects my relatives had run across; I only heard a general complaint.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 4:02 PM
Actually, it may be the other way around. More diseases in the tropical areas.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 08-15-06 4:07 PM