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Peace corps?
spukeesan
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Years ago, before college, I worked as a counselor for a youth outreach house. While my responsibilities were limited because of my age and experience, I've always looked back on that time as a period of enormous well-being. I think the reason why is because instead of focusing on myself, for once I was involved in helping other people and devoted to making their lives better. I'd like to do that again, in fact I'm beginning to think I'd like to make a career out of it.
Recently I realized my dream of moving up to Seattle, and found it lacking in terms of my expectations. My lease is up next April and I figure that's plenty of time to analyze the pros and cons of living and working abroad. Obviously I'll do some research on my own, but since HA is a wealth of knowledge and experience I figured I'd pose the question to anyone who's done the same at one point or another.
Long story short: I'm considering working abroad, maybe with the peace corps, and would like to hear other people's experiences doing something similar.
Recently I realized my dream of moving up to Seattle, and found it lacking in terms of my expectations. My lease is up next April and I figure that's plenty of time to analyze the pros and cons of living and working abroad. Obviously I'll do some research on my own, but since HA is a wealth of knowledge and experience I figured I'd pose the question to anyone who's done the same at one point or another.
Long story short: I'm considering working abroad, maybe with the peace corps, and would like to hear other people's experiences doing something similar.
spukeesan on
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I served in Peace Corps for 27 months in Central Asia teaching English. Was it a worthwhile experience? Yes. Would I want to do it again? No. Living abroad is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, with that fun comes a ton of responsibility and maturity needed to make the healthy impact on your local community. Boo for maturity and responsibility. And then there's a lot of self-sacrifice. This all starts when you first set foot on foreign soil and doesn't end until you've fully incorporated yourself into your community. And, well, that'll never happen because you'll always been an American in their eyes. That's just your life and job together in a nutshell.
Pros of living abroad
-good beer
-women think you're interesting!
-everything is new and different!
-you learn a new language(s)
-you gain confidence!
-you are now more worldly
-your $20 affords you tons of liquor, taxi cabs the entire night and entry into the country's hottest nightclub!
Cons of living abroad
-you'll get sick, often
-you have to learn a new language
-guys don't like you taking their girls
-can't make the 'icky face' as a guest
-I just ate what?
-not everyone showers once a day, you won't either
-their jokes aren't funny
Overall, working abroad is the single best eye-opening experience I've had. Although Peace Corps can send you into some extreme conditions (ololz hand sized spiders), they gloss over that and prey on your undying devotion to help humanity. That's ok, just be aware you have other options to find work abroad. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
Note: It takes a few months to go through the PC recruiting process. Mine took 3 months and that was fast.
Of course, she also sends letters with fun stories like "My friends latrine collapsed, so now she has to use a bucket to go to the bathroom, then throw it into the woods"...
The same thing happened a year after I was there to another chick. Sinse China's been harvesting metal from surrounding countries, the local man hole covers have gone missing. She slipped and fell into an open sewer line. She too had to be med-evac'd home. =( You're given 45 days to recover back in the States from any injury you have, any time over 45 days and you have to reapply to the program.
Granted there are satellite medical offices abroad for things like chipped teeth (denistry) and broken arms. A guy I knew had some sort of rash they couldn't explain so he went to Thailand for two weeks. His per diem was $20 a day. I made $100 a month. =( And he had the beaches.