Peace Corps?

23rd February 2012

Post reblogged from FSU Feminist with 10 notes

Peace Corps?

siempre-palante:

My immediate connotations with the Peace Corps are definitely that icky feeling of white people saving the world and all of that. & I get that, and it is a valid and a very real mindset/occurence that doesn’t do any good for anybody.

I’ve looked into the projects that PCVs engage in, and whether they seem sustainable. Most do. Some folks teach English abroad, and I think that is a valid form of volunteerism as well.

Things like “service” and “volunteering” have a lot of negative connotations to me, and as an activist, I really want to challenge myself to consider the communities where the PC exists/”helps,” as well as what a recent college grad can really do to benefit others in a foreign country (and not just themselves/have a fun/life changing experience).

I’ve spent the better part of my work shift reading a lot of blogs by current PCVs, and still am just not sure. The work seems sustainable, and the PCVs undergo some pretty intense training before they are even sent out to the community they are assigned to serve (including intense language training - I would want to be placed in a Latin American country so I could keep working on Spanish, plus having a background in it I think would be helpful).

Aside from the moral question of whether or not Peace Corps really DOES help through sustainable projects, and whether or not I am overstepping via all of my western privileges by participating in it, there’s also the question of whether I can put my life on hold for two years. The appeal obviously lies in living in a foreign country and the cultural exchange that would go along with it, as well as potentially making some positive change in the community I would serve. But it would mean postponing law school, something I am 100% sure my parents would disapprove of.

I would have to apply relatively soon in order to serve around when I will be graduating. I think I’m going to apply, see what happens and keep thinking on it.

In the meantime, if anyone has any advice/thoughts on this, feel free to drop them in my ask or whatever.

Pashmina wrote everything I was thinking. If anyone has advice/pros/cons about the Peace Corps, hit us up!

A lot of it depends on what country you’re in and what you’re doing, I think, as far as whether or not it’s worthwhile. A big mantra of the PC is that they don’t do systemic change. Obviously, their budget won’t allow it(dropping bombs is more efficient), but sometimes, systemic change is needed, and is more important than influencing individuals. When you don’t get that, what you’re left with is struggling to change a couple lives within a broken system, and the feeling of being ignored when you try to point out the problems.

I’m not sure how much of it is sustainable, cause when they’re in a particular country for 50 years(like the one I went to), and are still doing the same things they were doing 50 years ago, and little has gotten better with the systemic problems… I’d start to wonder. Some people are benefited by the program, to be sure, but I have my doubts that those handful are actually making huge impacts in the country or the world around them(sort of thing that’s tough to measure).

But I think there are a lot of benefits to cultural exchange. There are dying languages now spoken by only 1000 or so people from one tribe… plus one peace corps volunteer. If they get that sort of thing recorded(which is a current project), that’s a huge part of a culture that doesn’t get lost due to globalization. Whether or not it’s a good investment/use of one’s time depends on what we hope to accomplish in a country and what an individual wants to gain. If nothing else, any experience is an opportunity to learn new things.

Source: siempre-palante

Shades of Gray

Peace Corps?