The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love

Hello everyone! In today's post, I am going to address some of the misconceptions that many people have about the Peace Corps! Please take note that this post is NOT intended to discourage anyone from applying, but rather to inform people of the realities of Peace Corps. 

Most people who research the Peace Corps (from now on I'm abbreviating, so PC) and who take their application seriously understand that once they join, their life will become very different for the next 27 months.

But not does everybody in the US know that the Peace Corps is, in fact, a commitment rather than an "I want to save the world" stint for naive young graduates. I remember when I was younger that when I heard the words "Peace Corps" my mental image was always of some jolly hipster-looking dude in shorts and flip flops; hair untrimmed and living in a grass hut near a tropical forest somewhere nobody has ever seen a phone or laptop. 

The reality is not. even. close.

Dress Code

Sorry Sparky, but even if you wind up someplace right on the equator, you will be subjected to PC's standards of dress. The name of the game is "business casual". As someone who grew up in a world where most standards of dress fell under the "clothes you can get dirty" category, I'm still grateful we don't have to go the whole way, which some volunteers actually do! During training sessions, I saw suit jackets and ties, and once a bolero! For these individuals looking nice is obviously important to them, which I respect even though I don't share their passion for it. I prefer feeling comfortable, and what's comfortable to me is jeans, cowboy boots and tennis shoes. Sure I've attended formal functions with the proper outfits, but all of the jobs I've worked either provided a uniform or there was no dress code at all, aside from common sense! I had to ask my mom for help to find the right clothing (thanks, Mom!). 

No

Yes

So yeah, no flip flops, no tank tops, and keep it modest - both men and women. The dress code itself aside, the US is almost uniquely casual in it's day to day styles of dress. I have seen my students here cleaning their shoes more than once! During training, we were constantly reminded by PC staff to keep our shoes shining! I'd actually had experience from polishing my nicer pairs of cowboy boots before, so I was kind of prepared, although I didn't pack any polish with me. It seemed most of my cohort - not all, but most - were a little taken aback by this since in the US we're generally not raised to think about how clean our shoes look to others. Mongolians will often stop and brush off their shoes and pants before entering a room, and they're not afraid to comment on how nice or ruffled your appearance is. During IST (In-service training, December) we had an anonymous group discussion between Mongolian CPs (Counterparts; the locals we work with) with questions written on pieces of paper, and one of the Mongolians asked why American women don't wear more elegant shirts. Ouch!

Work

So the PC is a volunteer organization; we don't get paid, we receive a monthly stipend for food, sundries and rent. Essentially though, we're still working. We are associated with an HCA, or Host Country Agency. Aside from our main duties to our HCA, we often help to facilitate grassroot projects in our communities. These projects vary in kind and scope and are intended to be sustainable for the benefit of the community members. 

Funnily enough, PC volunteers the world over report that they have more free time than they could've ever imagined. It's not at all unusual for volunteers to pick up several new hobbies throughout their service! You'd think all this free time would be considered a major perk by volunteers, and while I'm not complaining, it can be a challenge, especially after training...

PST

PST, Pre Service Training, happens the week after volunteers arrive in country, but during the first week we are immediately kept busy. For five days straight we woke up at dawn, ate breakfast and then immediately we had back-to-back sessions on health, safety, who the staff are, what the expectations of the trainees are and probably more subjects that I don't remember. At noon we had a 15 minute tea break, a time that quickly became sacred after sitting, standing to stay awake, and then sitting some more. Lunch was around 1:30 or so. Sessions stopped around 5:30. 

As soon as the weekend hit, we were bussed out to separate training sites. From then on it was a regular 9 to 5 schedule, with Mongolian language in the morning and technical training after lunch with our host families. Some of us walked about a mile and a half to and from the schools where we trained. I averaged about 3 miles a day, walking to school in the morning, then back to my host family for lunch; back to the school after lunch and then back home. All that plus living with a host family plus culture shock plus homesickness equaled all kinds of stress levels! And the PC intentionally makes training strenuous; the goal is to have resilient (the staff continue to use that word so much that trainees avoid using at all costs), capable volunteers before they're sent off to live in a foreign community for more than two years. 

I really surprised myself because I found that I loved the challenge of PST. Don't get me wrong, I cried plenty of times during training, but at the end of each week I found that I was thoroughly enjoying the experience.There were even times when I thought they should make training even more challenging! PC management will throw in curveballs throughout the training process with no warning; they do this to throw off the schedule the trainees have grown accustomed to. Why? Because during service the schedules, plans and projects which volunteers have worked hard to maintain do not always go as planned; this is a common source of frustration for volunteers. The PC wants to know if trainees are able and ready to commit to two years of service, and they do test us to that effect. For me, personally I'm glad they do that because there were times when I would have to sit and think about how I was reacting to certain things, how I was coping with any issues I had and whatnot.  

What I'd like for readers to take away from this post is that the Peace Corps is a commitment. There are lots of fun moments of goofing off, exploring a different culture, and you definitely discover things about yourself. Volunteers make an effort at what they do; the awesome instagram posts on their accounts are only snapshots of their daily lives, just like in the states. Yes, many of us have fun figuring out how to haul water like a pro, eat strange food and communicate in a different language, but these same things also can be frustrating and stress inducing. Oddly enough, that seems to be what attracted us to volunteer in the first place!