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Tell me about the Peace Corps
ProPatriaMori
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I haven't had a job since...well. Nevermind. I graduated in May and haven't had a job since well before then. I'm doing fine monetarily, better than fine really, but work feeds the soul and I've been feeding it doing various odd jobs at a friend's ranch.
Today I looked at the Peace Corps' website and thought hell, that sounds like something I could maybe do. Apparently there's an information session coming up soon-ish so I think I'll attend that.
You guys have anything enlightening to say about them?
Today I looked at the Peace Corps' website and thought hell, that sounds like something I could maybe do. Apparently there's an information session coming up soon-ish so I think I'll attend that.
You guys have anything enlightening to say about them?
ProPatriaMori on
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I've talked to a lot of Returned Peace Corps volunteers and 99% of them have had good things to say. I've met people who've gone to starving African villages and taught them how to grow enough food to stop people from starving to death. I've meet people who while abroad, end up falling in love with a local and marrying. People who've given children an education they would never have gotten otherwise. People who've gone on to start up NGOs, work in the state department, and/or start whole new industries in these countries. It is immensely rewarding work.
That said, it's not easy work. Depending on where you're send, living conditions can be very tough. I've meet people who, on arriving, have to build their own shelters and grow their own food to eat. Malaria, dysentery, and other ills are daily facts of life for most volunteers. On top of that, you get payed only a pittance, maybe $200 a month. You may have to walk several towns over just to use a phone. Same situation if you have to see a doctor.
I plan on going the Peace Corps route myself and here's a few things I've picked up during my application process and from talking to folks in the Peace Corps:
1) It's actually really competitive. Due to the economy, a lot more people are applying to the Peace Corps, more people than they have jobs for unfortunately. So getting accepted will really come down to what sort of experience and skills set you above the rest. Speak French or Spanish? You're practically guaranteed to get in. Have a lot of experience in agriculture or teaching English? That's really going to help as well.
2) Peace Corp recruiters love people who are willing to go anywhere and do anything. Okay, teaching English in the Bahamas might be awesome, but teaching farmers in rural Africa how to better grow food is rewarding in its own ways.
3) Get some volunteer experience under your belt. Even in the most rural areas there are a ton of opportunities for this.
I work in rural Africa and I'm not with the Peace Corps. However, one guy got stationed in my village last August, and another one got posted in a village 13kms from where I am. The community is really tight knit and from what I see, it looks to be extremely well run. Great bunch of people too, though most of them are quite young, and a lot of them are here completing Masters degrees.
I still have a very high opinion of Peace Corps after having met the people who have joined though. I'm not American either, and before meeting these guys had no idea what the Peace Corps was... in fact, I thought it was a branch of the military (the 'Corps' made me think that). I'll caution you though - they really do encourage you to live as the locals do. Some people go crazy in those conditions. I helped a guy move who was pretty much living in squalor and had to be shipped back to the USA due to health reasons. Before he left he had worms visibly moving underneath his skin. When he got home they also found that he had amoebae, some kind of flesh eating disease, and some other really really nasty things that you can get very easily if you're not taking care of yourself. Of course, he definitely could have taken better care of the place he was staying.... he had mosquito larvae in his water supply for crying out loud (a simple fix) and I've been here for a year and a half with nothing more serious than Bilharzia.
I can post more if you want, but just got word I have to drive someone to the hospital, so here I go!
PSN - sumowot
Specifically, after locklock's warning, I'm wondering - I speak and read Russian fluently; is there any way I can avoid being sent there? I don't know if I want to go to Russia for Peace Corp service - I'll have plenty of opportunities to travel there in life, and I'd rather help and work with a new culture.
I know that if I tell the Peace Corp "oh yeah no I don't want to go to Russia, I'll go anywhere else, just NOT RUSSIA" they'll give me the eyebrow raise, since at that point, I could just be "Oh and Uganda. And...the Congo. But anywhere besides those 3!" Any ideas?
PSN - sumowot
You're allowed to say "No" once (maybe twice?) and they'll try to put you somewhere else. You just can't say, "I'd really like to work in the Caribbean" or some such.
My good friend who joined was delayed about two years due to her first two deployment sites being switched to places they no longer sent volunteers.
Shit.
There are plenty of volunteer organizations and groups that will take anyone. Even ones that operate outside of the US. But if you just want to do anything, then there are plenty of soup kitchens and old folks homes, etc that are always looking for help.
On Russia: The Peace Corps actually no longer works in Russia. The Peace Corp only serves in countries it's invited into, and the Russian government decided it no longer wanted the Peace Corps in its country. However, The Peace Corp still has a heavy presence in Ukraine, which has a large Russian speaking population.
And the main I tell you not to go to Russia is that it is very dangerous. Lots of stories of volunteers getting raped, mugged or kidnapped.
Also, you're allowed to say no to the offer they give you. For example, my friend is fluent in Spanish, so she turned down the posting in Africa so she could wait until there's an opening in South America.
Lastly! If you have medicine you have to take, usually the Peace Corp will assign you to work in a major city so you have access to medical care. So don't let that discourage you from applying. Just be honest with them about your medical concerns and they'll work with you in finding a place that suits your needs and well as theirs.
I was placed on the beautiful Island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, in the Eastern Caribbean. Sometimes were called the beach corps (it's kind of an insult to us so it's annoying when people call us that, but we can use it for ourselves).
I'll answer some of the specific questions already placed first, then tell you about my own experience a bit.
This one really varies from person to person. Most of the volunteers in my group were in the application process for nearly two years before we left. From the time I opened my application to the time I landed in country was almost two years exactly. But I took my sweet time (several months) filling out the application. I have heard of some people doing the process in 8 months, but I don't personally know them.
You do have some choice in where you go, but not tons. You can request which regions you would like to be in, but that doesn't guarantee you'll go there. I wanted to go to either the Pacific or Asia, but during my interview my recruiter asked if I would rather go to Eastern Europe or the Eastern Caribbean (guess which I picked?) because those were the most available locations for my skillset.
Pretty accurate. For some of the volunteers on my island, they are busy all the time, but it's only because they chose to be that way. I am personally bored most of the time and have very little to do, but that's because I want to be careful about which project i'm involved in and not get over loaded.
Diseases are a part of daily life. I have yet to catch anything, but I'm pretty sure i'll get dengue fever at some point. I'm surprised I haven't caught it yet.
Your monthly allowance is based on local living costs. On my island we get about $850 USD a month, which covers rent and everything else. I believe our allowance is more than any other Peace Corps post in the world. My personal goal is to save $75 USD a month while I'm here, but so far that's been hard because food is REALLY expensive. The islands economy is mostly based on tourism, which means that practically everything is imported.
We don't have to walk anywhere to use a phone. Every volunteer on our island has a cell phone, and they are pay as you go style, so you can last a long time on a few bucks if you never call anyone. Peace Corps doesn't technically pay for the phone, but we were able to sweet talk our way into free phones. Peace Corps also gives you a small amount of money to call your home when you get here, so we were able to use that money as credit in our cell phones.
This varies by location, but is true for my post. My specific volunteer group is very close with one another and are pretty much best friends. Because the island is so small (6th small country in the world), we see each other a LOT, which is great as a support system. Our staff is also amazing as is our country director. They run a tight ship, and I think it shows.
It's not so much competitive as it is they just want to weed out the people who aren't committed. I think the application/medical/everything else process that you have to go through is difficult because if you can't make it through the application process, then you won't be able to last two years.
Nope, you don't need to stop. They'll ask you to bring X months supply when you first get here, but then they'll take care of everything after that. They take care of EVERYTHING medically, from bandaids to benedryl to condoms to flying you to another country if your in-country hospital can't help you. It's really nice.
They are accommodating to many medical conditions, but they do reject people because of some things. It seems that a lot of people with pre-existing medical conditions end up in the Eastern Caribbean as almost everything in my group has something wrong with them.
Ok, that was pretty long as it is. I hope I was able to answer most of the questions already asked.
If anyone has any specific questions about what life as a volunteer is like (such as how far am I from the nearest nice beach? 45 minute walk, 5 minute bus ride. Have I had an easy time making local friends? No, it's been very difficult as a male. Do I have a nice apartment? yes, it's rather large and my backyard is the ocean), please ask away. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions. I have a lot of spare time to do so.
Don't do this simply because you are unemployed. This has to be something you want to do above all else. If you're having second thoughts, I wouldn't pursue it any further.
Based on my qualifications, I was offered the job of guy-who-educates-people-about-AIDS...in Somalia, or some other God-forsaken location.
They've become even more selective since then.
I'd like to preface this by saying that not being busy all the time was one of the hardest adjustments I've had to deal with. As an American I've lived with the concept that "idle hands are the devils workshop", and if i"m not working 40 hours a week i'm being lazy and unproductive. This is certainly not the case in the Peace Corps. Things happen very slowly here, and it's expected that you will not get too involved for probably your first six months of service. A few of the volunteers in my group jumped into projects very quickly and became overwhelmed with all they had to do. So taking it slowly is for your own sanity. You are not only working a new job, but you are learning how to live a new life at the same time.
As background, my role here is as a Youth Developer. I am working at a local primary school in the library and helping some kids learn how to read. As of last week I was maybe working 16 hours a week between the school and my after-school programs and other Peace Corps related stuff. I have plans to add more projects which will help me become busier in the next few months.
Most of my spare time in my house is spent on the internet, reading, watching TV, or practicing the guitar.
Neighborhood children come by frequently and want me to play with them. All the schools are out for the rest of the month (Carnival is coming up, which is an important part of the year for locals), and because the schools are out I am basically on "vacation" until schools start again in January. I'm expecting the bored neighborhood kids will be coming around a lot wanting me to play with them. I've already planned a swim day with some of them at some local tidal pools.
There is usually at least one event happening on the island every week. It's a tiny island so I can get to attend pretty much any event that is happening. Unfortunately transportation can be an issue after midnights (were not allowed to drive, so we rely on buses, friends and hitchhiking to get us places) so sometimes we don't want to go somewhere if we don't know how were going to get back home. Other factors determine what we can do. Today there is an event at the new Horse racing track in a nearby town, but I've had an upset stomach today and didn't want to be far away from a toilet... especially on sundays when you sometimes have to wait up to an hour for a bus.
We also spend a fair amount of time with other volunteers. Give us a half hour and every single volunteer could meet up in town. i I don't think Peace Corps really wants us to spend too much time with one another because it makes it more difficult to integrate into our communities. But I think we all feel justified in doing things with one another at the frequency we do. If you're interested I can get into those reasons.
There is a lot more stuff that we do, so if you want to hear about it let me know.
I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you have.
There are other kinds of Corps.
The Ameri variety comes to mind.
I was an AmeriCorps volunteer last year as a time-off between college and med school, and there are all kinds of awesome programs out there that you can apply to be a part of. I was a City Year volunteer, so I spent my year working with youth, but my roommate from last year has gone on to do some kind of crazy environmental thing in California with a different AmeriCorps program.
if you've got the free time i'd definitely recommend it, it's something i'm considering once i finish my masters, and as i've been unemployed for a little over a year now.
My house mate applied last year and they asked him a number of questions about his relationships, family and otherwise. Most strikingly they asked about the health of his eldest family members and how his family as a whole would handle him being away from home for two to three years without coming back.
I think we all need to remember that while some locations of operation may have cell phone access or even a telephone, there are without doubts many places that will have neither. So while it may be a 'cool' experience and you may meet cool people I have friends who said they were totally alone in villages in Africa with no other Corps members around and only mail going back to the States.
Not to say it is a bad thing, most of the people I know had a great time and learned to speak the language of the country they lived in fluently before they returned home. I am just trying to point out that there are drastic changes you will have to face going elsewhere and you will have to bend to the customs and lifestyle of the area you would be serving in, which isn't always easy.
When I first arrived here we had no cell reception, no internet, and town was an hour away where we could send mail out. And we used typewriters
It's something the North American mind can't really comprehend before experiencing it. I\m very thankful that we have cell phone coverage and internet now.
PSN - sumowot
Do you have time to get your EMT license? Or go into nursing and you can go anywhere in the world.
This sounds cool. Will have to look into it.
@Megaman: Me + medicine ~= violation of Hippocratic oath.
As does the US Army... or the National Guard.
I'm gonna buck the trend on this one and say that if you think the Peace Corps are right for you from a "this sounds right for me", "learning life lessons", and "developing yourself" perspective... enlist. The army takes way, way better care of its own then the service corps do. You get three square (or occasionally brick shaped) meals a day and they give you a helmet and a gun before the send you off to someplace you probably shouldn't be going.
Biggest thing is that when you get back from the peace corps and look for a job...
"I was in the peace corps." "Yeah, great."
"I was in the army, and you get a tax rebate for hiring me." "You're hired."