Peace Corps

It’s Thursday afternoon in Berdyansk, Ukraine and the English club is discussing “Bread and Roses,” a poem honoring female strikers of the early 20th century. One young woman is reading aloud and her voice grows in intensity with each word. Upon reaching the final line, she declares proudly, “Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread but give us roses!” She smiles when I ask her about the meaning of the poem. “I think the author wants more than what is basic. To have not only food but also art and love.”

One of the things I love about my job is that I get to see the world through other people’s eyes. When exchange participants arrive in the US and encounter new things on campus for the first time, I get to see how my country looks to them and hear about what Americans are like from an outside perspective. When they return home, I hear about what they notice at home now – after their time in the US – that they never noticed before.

Some of the American, oil-company-based engineers with whom I play basketball in Atyrau, Kazakhstan understand what “Peace Corps” service means—thanks in part to its exceptional reputation and marketing—but have a tougher time understanding IREX’s international development work. “So do you get paid now?” is a question I’ve heard. But really, how much should Peace Corps service and international development differ in the perceptions of others or even me?

Working in the Field Operations department at the headquarters of an international development organization like IREX is always a great challenge. By the time I load my email in the morning, my day’s schedule is already half booked with the need to address dozens of emails from more twenty field offices overseas. There is always constant activity as we help manage all the financial, administrative, logistical, and legal aspects of operating development projects across multiple countries.

Not many students come to the library at the University of Cape Verde in the late afternoon on weekdays. The 2nd and 3rd years are in their classes and the 1st years have already gone home for the day. But Monica comes to the library most afternoons to do research and design the visuals for her class. She is doing her thesis on using Cape Verdean folktales as authentic materials to teach English.

We added the day’s receipts again and counted the money in the cash box one more time. They were equal. This was a milestone. For the past 12 months as a Small Business Volunteer with the United States Peace Corps in Kaffrine, Senegal, I had worked with the Treasurer to tailor an accounting system for this female-owned juice and jelly business. Nearly every time we reconciled the expenses and sales with the cash box there had been a discrepancy, but today they were equal. Our accounting system had finally worked, and it would continue to work.

I’ve been back in the US for almost four years now, but the lessons and memories from 27 months in Ukraine continue to influence my perspective on life and my approach to development work. I had traveled prior to becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer, but had never really lived in another culture. I lived in Antratsyt, a coal-mining town in eastern Ukraine, characterized by a difficult economic environment and declining infrastructure.

On this day in 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed the Executive Order establishing Peace Corps. On behalf of IREX, I would like to extend our congratulations to Peace Corps on its 50^th Anniversary of promoting peace and friendship around the world. We share common values and goals in our work to make a better world. IREX benefits greatly from the experience and enthusiasm of more than two dozen returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) on our staff.

Maybe it was just luck that my bicycle tire blew out right in front of the bike repair stand in the Freedom Compound shanty town. I took that same road every time I travelled between my village and the town of Monze during my Peace Corps service in Zambia. I usually pedaled as quickly as I could through Freedom Compound in order to avoid all the beckoning calls of “Mzungu”, white person or foreigner. This time I had no choice but to stop. As soon as I slowed down I was rushed by people trying to help me. “No, no, it’s fine, I can manage myself” I told them.

There are 33.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS throughout the world. Today is World AIDS Day - a day of opportunity to raise awareness and educate about the disease which affects all nations at the most local level.