Describe your time spent serving as a member of the Peace Corps

1. 73

   jdaviswritesposted 13 years ago

   Describe your time spent serving as a member of the Peace Corps
   
   What brought you to the decision to apply to the Peace Corps and eventually ship out? What were your emotions in the first few months compared to the end of the two years? Where did you serve and what kind of work did you take on? etc.

   replyreport
2. 60

   White Sapphireposted 13 years ago

   I had always wanted to travel as a teenager but never had the resources.  Then during college I was able to study abroad in London and got bit hard by the travel bug.  I was determined that first thing I would do after college was live overseas for a long period of time.  I also didn't like my major of fashion business anymore and was considering teaching so the Peace Corps was a free way to see if I would like teaching as a long term career.  Plus out of all of the teach English overseas opportunities the Peace Corps offered the longest contract and the best benefits package.
   
   Training was very difficult because there were several adjustments that had to be made during a short period of time.  Some of the stress-inducing circumstances were the heat, different food, different language, paying attention in 6-7 hours/day of language class, and frequent diarrhea.  Adjusting to my site was even more difficult than training because I had become attached to my training site and the culture of the training site was very different from the culture of my permanent site.  At the end of the two years I was glad that I had done it and had learned how to function in a society that is very different from American society.  But I also had had enough of the country and was ready to move back to the US.  For me I think it was a combination of homesickness and falling in love with another volunteer that made me want to go home.  Had I not fallen in love I think I would've applied to do an additional two years in China.
   
   I served in the West African country of Mauritania and I was an English Education volunteer.
   
   Funny thing about the Peace Corps is even though I served from 2006 - 2008 my husband and I still have regrets about things that we should've done differently while we were there.

   replyreport
3. 72

   JT Waltersposted 12 years ago

   I didn't actually spend time in the peae corp but dated someone who finished their Master's Degree while serving in the peace corp in a third world country to develop drinkable clean water  and it was really hard for him.  I have heard the stories and I can tell you he was glad ot get out.

   replyreport