Peace Corps advice: Don't 'get drunk and fall down in a ditch'

Posted By Blake Hounshell Thursday, April 24, 2008 - 6:00 PM Share

FP reader MC weighs in on "Think Again: The Peace Corps":

As a recently returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Ukraine, I would tend to agree with some of what Mr. Strauss argued in his article... while still seeing Peace Corps as serving a useful purpose. Peace Corps is in some ways the post-college study and party abroad opportunity for those with little or no work experience. In one of our training sessions, we were told half-jokingly that the only thing we could do wrong in our two years of service was to get drunk and fall down in a ditch. I believe that the comment was based on an incident that happened earlier in the year.

On the other hand, it is also a great chance for motivated young adults to gain much-needed experience in the international development field that can serve as a stepping stone to a future career. During my time in Peace Corps, I witnessed both types of volunteers: those that over-drank and generally embarrassed the United States of America, and those whose service truly made a difference in the world. I found that the best volunteers were those who were able to find small successes despite the cultural, linguistic, and bureaucratic obstacles.

There are indeed aspects of the Peace Corps that need to be reevaluated. The site placement process to determine where volunteers will serve definitely needs to be adjusted. Many times, volunteers seem to be assigned to sites at random with little input from the person affected most by the placement decision -- the volunteer.

Overall, the Peace Corps volunteer receives much more from the experience than he/she does for the country of service... In the end, the volunteer's attitude (along with a little luck) determines whether it's worth the taxpayer dollars spent and the volunteer's time.

You can check out previously posted letters here and here, or send in your own thoughts.

EXPLORE:DEVELOPMENT, PEACE CORPS, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
 

PCVRO

1:22 PM ET

May 2, 2008

Peace Corps cost effective

A few facts:

The cost of ONE YEAR of Peace Corps, all 8,000 volunteers, all staff worldwide, etc. is equal to 12 hours of funding for the Iraq war.

50 YEARS of Peace Corps, with nearly 200,000 volunteers serving in 139 countries is equal to less than 25 DAYS cost of the Iraq war.

Which has won more hearts and minds worldwide, and done more to promote America, Americans and the greatness of our country?

Thank you President Kennedy, and each President thereafter for Peace Corps. I wish Congress was as generous with funding as each President has tried to be.

We are serving the American taxpayer well, I believe, and the world believes so too.

 

HERCHENB

5:08 PM ET

August 7, 2008

Having been a volunteer who served under Robert Strauss...

I can see where he's coming from. There are certainly a number of people who join the Peace Corps right out of college, with little or no skills to offer the host country. Many of whom are using the Peace Corps to avoid the working world for another two years. I was one of the very few mid-career volunteers (I was 26 and had been working as a software engineer for five years before joining) in my group. There were a few older (50+) and two other mid-career volunteer, but the vast majority were straight out of college. It's not that the Peace Corps doesn't try to recruit more qualified individuals. But rather that you can't get a qualified person to do something crazy like move to Africa for two years. "Hey Bob: You wanna leave your wife, kids and $90,000 a year job to go live in a shack in Mali?" The only people you can get to even consider something so nuts are just out of college people who don't know what to do with their life. You want more qualified, skilled, individuals? Those people go to USAID. When people congratulate me on having "gotten into" the Peace Corps, which they assume must have been difficult since there's a 1 in 3 acceptance rate, I always shrug it off. "You should have seen some of the jackasses that got in." I say. "If they're the 1 in 3 that got accepted, the two that got denied must have been retarded chimpanzees." I taught a little bit of computer literacy when I was over there. And sure, there's probably a few Cameroonians who are slightly better off because of it. But I certainly gained more than I gave. In terms of life experience and what have you. The Peace Corps should continue to be funded. Not because volunteers really do much or change the world, but it's the cheapest way the for our government to give U.S. citizens experience abroad. If we're willing to spend billions on killing people and blowing up stuff in the Middle East, the few hundred million we spend on the Peace Corps should be a no brainer.
 

Passport, FP’s flagship blog, brings you news and hidden angles on the biggest stories of the day, as well as insights and under-the-radar gems from around the world.

Read More