MSC Part 1: Lessons Learned

Two weeks ago we had what is called our Mid-Service Conference (though it was held past the mid-point). More than anything this is a time for volunteers from all over the country to get together and exchange experiences, successes and failures. It's the first time since we swore in that our entire group has been together.

One of the highlights of the conference was a man from Turkey who came to tell us about the impact Peace Corps Volunteers had on him as a child. He had two teachers who were PCVs and talked less about what they actually taught but more about how everything about them challenged his perspective-their hair, the way they walked, the way they interacted with the students. He pointed out the young women volunteers and how radical it is in a culture where women really don't leave the security of the home to see a young, unmarried woman working thousands of miles away from home confidently. He talked about how his view of what is possible changed; how he has raised his daughter to be independent and a world traveller.

I think that this was exactly what a lot of us needed to hear. In terms of "changing the world" few PCVs witness anything akin to change and progress. The modern Peace Corps in a lot of countries is not building wells or planting trees, they are teaching computer skills and English. Many of our English students will never be proficient enough to use it in their careers; some of the girls who are will be married to men who won't allow them to work or travel. There still won't be trash pick-up or reliable electricity. So in the end it really is about the relationships we are building more than anything we can see. We got to see and hear about the impact those two volunteers back in the seventies may never know they had (the former student never learned their first names). Needless to say after a year of hard work in a country that doesn't understand volunteerism ("your country sent you here to work for free? What did you do wrong!?") there wasn't a dry eye in the room.