Thursday, April 2, 2009

Peace Corps in the 21st century

I have a bit of Posh Corps guilt. I just finished reading “Living Poor” a chronicle of a PCV in the ‘60s in South America. It is hard not to try to compare his service with mine. In most ways it was much more difficult than mine- living in abject poverty so bad that the people (especially young children) were constantly suffering and many dieing, no running water, limited food choices and extreme emotions.

Looking at my own service so far and I think, “Isn’t this supposed to be the hard life?” I live in my own apartment that comes complete cable TV and a flush toilet. Sure, there are hard things in my life- my freezing bathroom, the 5-hour trip to the capital on bad roads, misunderstandings of language and culture, challenges of finding projects to work on- but for the most part, I feel like I’m living a pretty comfortable life. And so far, I’m happy here. I have experienced a few serious moments of homesickness, but for the most part, these are overcome by my excitement to be living someplace new. Even after a year as the newness has worn off, it has been slowly replaced by fulfillment of work and new friends.

I think that one question that people living in the Posh Corps tend to think (and get asked by others) is “what am I doing here?” This is actually something that I have though about a lot and discussed with various people. It has a lot to do with a few things: the point of the PC, the PC model of development, and the interesting position of a NIC (Newly Industrialized Country) or a CTC (Communist Transition Country) (I made up that last term, but it was the best thing I could think of, I’m sure that there is someone that already coined a term for these countries, but we’ll just use this one here for the sake of my laziness!).

So, almost 50 years ago, John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps. There have been some changes over the years (there is now much more of a focus on the safety of the volunteers, for instance), but the basic goals of the organization have been to send out motivated American citizens to countries in need in order to: assist the populations of these needy nations to fulfill basic needs for all of it’s citizens, educate the local populations about American culture and bring culture from the host nations back to America in order to educate the American population. The way that all of these goals are accomplished is by sending volunteers into communities and working with the local populations on various projects (goal 1). By working on the projects, they get to know us (goal 2) and we get to know them. When we go back to the US (or send an e-mail or blog), we tell our friends all about the people we met (goal 3). It’s not big, it’s not flashy and it’s not like any other development organization out there. The PC does not solve problems by throwing money at them or building big projects. The idea of development is: one person at a time with small successes. For both the communities and the volunteers, this concept can be a little bit hard to take. The communities want big projects and the volunteers want to do big things, but that is not always what really makes changes. Add to this, the added challenges of working in NICs and CTCs and you can get frustrated.

When most people think about PC, they tend to think in terms of mud huts. Mud huts and bringing clean water to far off villages. “Living Poor” is a perfect example of this model of PC. The author brought modern farming techniques (and foreign aid chickens and pigs) to a small coastal village in Ecuador. But the interesting thing about the Peace Corps is that every single volunteer experience is different. There are even huge differences within one country and over time. My parents didn’t even live in a mud hut when they served 30 years ago. Sure there are people that live in mud huts, but I would be willing to bet that more PC volunteers actually live in real houses (with electricity and running water) than you would guess. And the question is: “is it really Peace Corps if I’m not living in a mud hut?”

In addition to the mud hut conundrum, there is a question about the actual work. I think that many people imagine working in small villages giving vaccines to babies and building water systems. There is certainly that aspect in some parts of the world, but the projects that PC works on around the world are as varied as the countries that they serve in. Environmental protection, tourism, business development, and teaching English as a second language to name a few. My parents did teacher trainings in science and math. I am working in NGO development. This is about the PC approach to development. Is PC a development organization? Not in the way that you are thinking. PC develops capacity and people, not always countries or economies. This question is especially relevant in the context of the NICs and CTCs. Let’s take Albania for an example (since I’m here and all). There are still some serious poverty issues here: there are villages without running water or electricity, there are street children and unemployment is estimated to be over 50% in some areas. That being said, the quality of life for most Albanians has risen in recent years. Most people have at least one family member living abroad and sending home money (the whole remittance system is for a later discussion). Things are getting better: roads are being built, houses are being built, farms are producing, and people are surviving and even sometimes thriving. I do not walk down the street and see starving children with distended bellies. That doesn’t mean that there is nothing to do here. It is just different things. I am working with an NGO here that works with children. So I am working on training three or four people to improve their skills to work with many children. It is indirect development. I develop people, people develop the country.

In some ways, I think that the sort of service shown in “Living Poor” is, well not easier, but clearer. He had a clear objective when he landed in Ecuador- bring modern farming techniques to the people. He wasn’t always successful, but the successes he had were clear- a chicken coop with 100 chickens producing eggs for a formerly poor farmer, pigs taken to market, a farming cooperative planting corn. The kind of development I am trying to do is harder to see- I am not going to see a new school or a water system built while I’m here. Maybe, when I come back after 30 years, then I will feel the effects of what I have done here. My parents went back to the Philippines after more than 30 years. They met children that they had taught, teachers they had worked with and people that still considered them members of their families. They met Patring, who was their housekeeper (and basically their little sister) for most of the four years that they lived in the Philippines. She even moved with them when they transferred sites and extended their service. Not only did she finish high school (thanks in large part to my parents) but also she continued her education and is now the midwife of her town. Would she have gone on to do this without my parents? Maybe, but it is sure that my parents had a positive impact on her life. I just hope that I can have a similar impact on someone’s life here.

They say it isn’t your mama’s Peace Corps- see my actual mom’s thought on the subject: a comparison of her service to mine.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Becca,

Congrats! You're the "Peace Corps Volunteer Blog of the Day" on the National Peace Corps Association's Twitter Feed (http://twitter.com/pcorpsconnect).

When you have a chance, check out our new website at http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org and sign onto the social networking area, Connected Peace Corps. It's a great way to interact with members of the Peace Corps Community. Family and friends of Peace Corps are welcome too!

Cheers,

Erica

Anonymous said...

Kudos on blog of the day. This is a terrific post. We had many of the same issues due to our urban sites,
Davao City and Tagbiliran City. We kind of started out imagining ourselves in a small rural village living in a bamboo hut on stilts, but the reality was much different and in many ways like yours, except for the computers and the cell phone.

howeird said...

Hi Becca,
Great post, and I also loved the one from your mother which you linked to. I was an early Posh Corps volunteer, posted to Bangkok, Thailand in 1975 as an audio/visual technology volunteer helping make teacher training videos and providing photo lab help for the new science & math textbooks project. Except for squat toilets and my housing allowance being barely enough for slum housing, I had all the amenities available at the time. Electric portable typewriter, warm and hot running water (ok, it needed to be boiled), and the best food on the planet for 50 cents a meal.

And it did take a Royal Decree to get an appointment to make a long distance call, which cost $12 a minute, so I never made one.

I worked in a modern office building with a bunch of Ph.D.'s, some UN reps and one other PCV. We had air conditioning, which made the office a chilly 86F. I was active as an actor and techie in the English-language community theater and the night life was amazing.

I was transferred after a year to the south, my housing improved - they put me in the former UN project director's house which had a real toilet and bidet, and cobras in the empty swimming pool. I worked on a research campus, and spent a week every month on Phuket Island, where our test plantation was located.

I work in high tech now, testing high end video-over-internet systems, but it still takes some getting used to hearing about PCVs with laptops and cell phones.

When I think about it, Peace Corps for me was much more about learning another language and culture, and trying not to be too much of an Ugly American example to the folks I worked and played with; and had little to do with how successful the projects were I worked on (they were wildly successful, and continue to be 35 years later. But I was a small cog in a big program both times).

Thanks for serving.
Howard
howeird.livejournal.com
www.flickr.com/photos/how3ird

Inday said...

Thanks for the link. I really liked your post. As your Dad said, when we went, we had visions of living in a Nipa Hut. We actually got to stay in one during our in-country training near Dumaguette City. I especially love having the gecko (lizard) living in the thatched roof (they eat the mosquitos). But not to be - we had a GI (corrugated galvanized roof) noisy during the rain but useful for collecting water. We did have the little "tiki" house lizards who live on our ceiling. I think my biggest guilt was having a helper with Patring. She was like a little sister in some ways but she still did the housework, laundry, ironing and shopping.

B. said...

Yeah, I am in "Posh Corps" too:) I definitely expected Peace Corps to be harder.

I am currently a PCV in Guatemala. For my project I write, film, and produce an educational television program for the local station. A far cry from mud huts and squat toilets!

I totally understand your desire to hopefully make an impact on some individuals. I call them my "golden nuggets"-people who genuinely have a desire to learn and improve their lives and are not just looking for a handout. Some 5000 people will see a given episode of my show, but maybe (hopefully) 5 or less will actually take the information and apply it in their lives. Small victories that I will probably never see come to fruition, but give me hope nevertheless.

Linus said...

Great post. You ability to introspect and then share it is really quite rare. Keep up the good work!