Peace Corps is What You Make of It

by Alanna Shaikh · 2009-08-06 09:25:00 UTC
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(A family in Mali. Photo credit: Ferdinand Reus)

Editor's note: This is a guest post from Molly Mattessich - she posted it as a comment on my Peace Corps post, but I thought it deserved its own post.

Peace Corps is what you make of it.  To echo Paul's sentiment, one's experience is determined by expectations and ability to adapt to the needs of a placement.

As Alanna says, Peace Corps never claims to be a channel to save the world, but I would argue it can help people do what the Twitterati, bloggers, and others in business and life have discovered helps them get the job done - form relationships with people that create goodwill over time - which consequently can inspire and support development.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, I admit that only one person in my family and a few close friends had even heard of the country before I lived there.  Now, they all speak about Mali as if it were their own backyard, and the concentric circles of people that they are friends with all know about my experience.  By making the world seem a little bit smaller, there may not have been direct lives saved because I lived in a village for 2 years, but the ripple effect continues because those people want to participate in causes that they know something about.

For those Peace Corps Volunteers who want a place to use some of the knowledge and insights that they gained in service, the National Peace Corps Association has built Africa Rural Connect (http://www.AfricaRuralConnect.org).  It is a space where those who lived and worked in Africa, especially volunteers and villagers themselves, or their friends, colleagues, and relatives, can talk about problems and come up with creative solutions.  In the ARC community, we want to encourage people to continue (or perhaps in some cases, begin) the positive contributions that come from their service.

Despite the tough conditions and lack of resources, Alanna has it right, volunteers can still make contributions that go beyond their two years in country.

Alanna Shaikh
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