Many may look the same, but they're not.
I started volunteering in the late 80's. I'll be turning 50 in a few months. My first year of Peace Corps service was during the 25th anniversary of the agency, and my last assignment was during the 50th anniversary. Over the years, I've served 5 times, once in the Peace Corps, twice in the Crisis Corps, and twice in the Peace Corps Response agency.
I was lucky to be accepted for my first term of service, because I was 21 years old and had no college experience. Typically the Peace Corps requires at least an undergraduate degree, but I gained entry on the basis of my work experience at the time. I had done a fairly sizable community organizing job, sizable enough to prove some requisite skills for my assignment, and I was interviewed by a very engaging recruiter who felt that I would be a good fit. It was a stroke of luck that changed my life forever.
When I shipped out, first to Philadelphia and then on to the desert of West Africa, I remember the rush of my world changing so rapidly. On the plane, I was surrounded by a group of fellow volunteers, from whom I felt estranged at first. These were mostly college kids, they looked a lot alike, a couple of women in our group were in their 60's, one guy was a returning volunteer in his 50's, but far and away most of the volunteers were recent college grads.
It was easy to feel different.
Over the period of my two year hitch, our group bonded tightly. Everyone was a part, including me. During our term of service, we shared among ourselves all that we could, including everyone. Some of our friendships have spanned all of these years, and we remain in touch.
They all turned out to be, surprisingly or predictably, very different people, with different life stories, different cultural influences, different ways at looking at the world, different obstacles to overcome and different personal gifts to offer.
Not all Peace Corps training groups have the experience that I had. I was lucky like that.
Along the way, a volunteer or two backed out of their service commitment. One or two had medical issues that required early departure. One or two that may have seemed unlikely to embrace the experience ended up being star players, with hugely successful development projects that elevated the lives of their African friends and neighbors. Some of us struggled against a labyrinth of unpredictable local challenges and our own personal growth. One guy, in the most remote post assignment, bought a few camels, married a local girl, and is still there in his desert village nearly 30 years later.
Among all of us, it seems as though no particular volunteer's experience was like that of the rest. There are no neat and tidy generalizations to be made, regardless of surface characteristics of statistical import.
I don't buy the sweeping characterizations and commentary that people make about "voluntourism", nor the hand-wringing over being a white (or black, or asian, or latino) American from the land of milk and honey trying to be a savior in a foreign land. That wasn't me.
I was a lucky young man coming from a background that was tougher and more challenging than most, grabbing the best opportunity that had ever come my way to learn about the world. At that time, I had no doubt at all that my volunteer service would certainly, definitely and indelibly change at least one life: my own.
I knew that I needed every bit of extra experience and learning opportunity that I could get my hands on, the same as the people I was aiming to serve, and I never saw that as a contradiction to the basic mission of being a development volunteer.
From the day that I was accepted and offered an assignment on the other side of the world, I've had no confusion that this twist of fate may have been among my luckiest.
These days, after returning four times to serve again, I think the (non)pattern has continued. My assignments have been progressively demanding and increasingly rewarding in terms of my ongoing professional growth.
I achieved a few modest successes in my program work, and touched a few lives significantly. Each assignment has been an absolutely unique challenge requiring me to my revisit core beliefs and reinvent myself in the face of the demands placed on me. Perhaps it's a bit cliche, but the Peace Corps probably was, in fact, "the toughest job I ever loved".
If I could offer one insight to an aspiring Peace Corps volunteer (of any age, race, cultural influence, socio-economic group or background) it would be this: Whatever makes you different is exactly the reason that you're a great fit, in the Peace Corps and in any community in the world where you may choose to share yourself. Listen to the stories of your friends and family who have already served, and be assured that your own experience will quite likely be completely different from theirs.
