Hopes and Fears

Apia; Sunday, February 24, 2013
Currently Reading: Why We Run: A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich
I’ve spent the last three weekends in Apia. The first two were enjoyable. This weekend had some great positives that renewed my resolve as a PCV. It also had a few negatives that really got me to question my volunteer experience. I think the range of these experiences has given me fuel for my service.
The highlight of this week was a meeting that many of the PCVs had with the Peace Corps’ Regional Director for Inter-America and Pacific Regions on Saturday. We didn’t receive much notice that he was coming nor did we have a very clear idea of what the meeting was exactly going to entail, but it turned out to be a very productive, informative, and encouraging discussion. He opened with a brief introduction—he’s had a pretty amazing life having lived all over the world. Surprisingly, he isn’t an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer). Most of the staff at Peace Corps will have their dates and country of service printed on their business cards, typed at the end of emails, or told at introductions.  His introduction lacked that and he explained how he had worked for USAID in Costa Rica, later started his own consulting business which has offices around the world, and how he became a Regional Director for the Peace Corps.
Then it was our turn. We went around the room explaining who we were, where we were from, and why we joined the Peace Corps. It was refreshing to hear my fellow PCVs tell their stories. We’d told similar stories before but it seems like a bit of new information is shared with every retelling. I’m in some great company. Finally, we got down to some real business. He asked us each to share both positive and negative feelings and experience with Peace Corps in general and with our experience in Samoa. We really got a sense that he not only cared for us and our safety but also for the sustainability and productivity of the program and the well-being of the countries and people who hosted the PCVs. We had a little laugh as he questioned the placement of another PCV and me. We both speak Spanish (well, I used to anyway) and have experience living and studying/working in Latin America yet we were placed in Samoa. We both love it in Samoa, don’t get me wrong. But it does cause a bit of a raise of an eyebrow that two Spanish-speaking volunteers would be placed outside of Latin America. Being transparent about his curiosity around volunteer placement showed that he cared on an individual level as well as a program level.
After the meeting, we had lunch and did some shopping at the few stores that are open in Apia (or anywhere in Samoa) on a Saturday evening. After about 2pm on Saturday until about 7am Monday morning, Apia is a ghost town. It’s actually a bit amusing to watch the bustling—I’m not sure that’s an appropriate term for a town of about 30,000 people—city go from crowded stores, streets, and sidewalks, to a person or two every other block or so and most of the time they are palagi (“pah-LANG-y”, foreigners). I decided to stay another night. Hotels in town have hot water and often air conditioning. I was happy to absorb the luxuries for another night. However, I was missing village life and after 3 weekends in a row in the capital I was ready to leave early the next day.
My readiness was only exacerbated later on Saturday night when we went out with some former PCVs. Generally speaking, they are awesome people and know how to have a good time. But there is one little thing that gets under my skin about some of them and some of the PCVS from the previous group (all but one of whom are back in the US having finished their service). One of my biggest concerns about joining the Peace Corps was that I would end up volunteering with a bunch of people fresh out of college hoping to extend their college years a bit longer and not take the work or the responsibility of living in a host culture seriously. Some of what I’ve heard from these PCVs and from others including the Regional Director we had just met with confirmed these concerns I had. It appears that many of the people in the groups before us basically used their two years as extended spring breaks. Many of their stories related to the parties they had with each other and few of their stories were about the work they were doing or their lives in Samoa. It was evident from day one in country that our group was different from the last just in how we composed ourselves and what we talked about. Again, don’t get me wrong, many of the people in the previous group were great and I’m sure that they all had impacts at their schools. But when I hear someone say that partying is “what the Peace Corps is all about” it doesn’t make me proud to say I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer. Luckily, the Peace Corps did what the Regional Director referred to as “hitting the reset button” and there was no Peace Corps group last year. That effectively starts the program over from scratch as our group of 13 are the only PCVs in country plus one from the last group who is staying for a third year and teaching at the University. Like I said, we are a very different group with different priorities and I’m happy to be part of Group 84.