I’ve wanted to volunteer abroad for a long time. I’ve searched for the right opportunity since middle school, wasting countless DAYS bookmarking websites and collecting pamphlets. But nothing was long-term. Nothing seemed to fit. And apparently you had to pay for the privilege of volunteering. Why the Peace Corps never really occured to me, I don’t know. Something about it’s association with the US Federal Government was intimidating, and my liberal (un)sensibilities made me skeptical of anything so akin to military service (two year commitment, permanent federal record, advanced weapons training [which they cut, bummer!]). But when I really started feeling a loss of momentum, as my post-college run fizzled to an end, I went back to those old bookmarks and there amidst the clutter of 3-month $1500 “opportunities”, was Peace Corps. And honestly it seemed to intense. Everyone seemed to motivated and independent. The Returned Peace Corps Volunteers were leaders. They could work with strangers in their communities despite language barriers and cultural differences. And when the PC says go to Africa, they go to Africa. If the PC says go to Georgia, they go to Georgia. And what people kept telling me was “prepare to be abandoned.” No infrastructure. No staff support. No monetary funding. Just you, your community, and the bush. I wasn’t sure I was ready to throw myself into that current. I wanted more control, more support, more options.
But I kept reading. And then I started asking the right questions. Apparently PC wasn’t the dad who tosses his kid into the river and says, “learn to swim!” You’re not wearing floaties in the pee pool while your parent holds onto you either. Instead you come prepared with your own knowledge and training, and keep a tight grip on the line until you’re ready to let go. During the interview and application process, there is a delicate balance between being flexible, and being honest. Yes, of course Peace Corps wants volunteers who really will go anywhere that they’re placed, but the purpose of the interview and application process is to get to know you and determine where you’ll be happiest, so that they can find the perfect placement for you.
Before I applied to Peace Corps, this is what I learned and trusted. I stopped being afraid that if I told them I wanted a coastal placement, they would thing I wasn’t flexible enough. I stopped worrying that I’d be sent to landlocked Africa to teach English and Math at a school. Instead I focused their attention on my skills, and I told them truthfully that I would be happiest working with the marine environment that I intend to make into a career.
In fact, I didn’t stop repeating this fact until about month 2 of training. Because once you have your country assignment, you still have to communicate with your program director about your actual site assignment. And here in Panama, that can be as varied as some yeye city, a cold mountaintop, or the beach. So the best advice I can give to those considering Peace Corps is this: trust in your recruiter, in your regional placement officer, in your program director. Be honest with them and tell them what you want, but keep an open mind. Like they say in the Panama Office, there are no bad sites. Your site is what you make of it. Your service is what you make of it. I was worried about a lack of options, but I’ve never heard of a job with more freedom and more support in my life.
This is my opportunity to serve. Now, while I’m young, before I’ve committed myself to anything or anyone, I can commit to Peace Corps. One day I will return to school and probably enroll in a PhD program. That could be four years or more of intensive research, which leads into a Post-Doc position and from there I have to keep going to pursue an actual career in my chosen field. And what if I find myself in a committed relationship that can’t withstand two years of separation. This is an enormous event in a person’s life, and you can’t expect to emerge the same. Can you do it with someone waiting on the other side? When will I have a chance to put these things on hold? The time is now. This is my opportunity to entirely devote myself to something other, to a community that I would otherwise never encounter. This is my chance to live in a foreign country, learn a new language, and challenge myself to lead and motivate in a different culture. It will be the most exploratory experience I’ve had, and as the Peace Corps says, this will be the hardest job you’ll even love.
But regardless of where you are in your life, I encourage you to take a look at it and consider the possibility. We have only so much time, but there are so many opportunities to change our perception of time’s passing. This human concept, time, may blow us by on a road of mediocrity, or we can fill our days with intellectual and personal challenge. We have an amazing opportunity as Americans. It’s an enormous rarity in the campo of Panama to travel, let alone to be paid by your national government to do so and all in the name of helping another country without working only for monetary profit. You don’t need to be rich. You don’t even need a college education. You only need experience and a willingness to gain more. And the US Government will pay you to build the capacity of communities abroad, so they can aid their own countries. We are representatives of globalization and agents of change. But we are also story-tellers, and we will not only share American culture, but return to our country with a perspective of the world beyond us
Sushibear Goes to Panama 