So I wrote this post August 28, 2011 and it may or may not have actually gotten published on the blog, but for whatever reason, I can't find it. So here it is:
Here's an interesting article that came in my weekly Google Alert for Peace Corps: Peace Corps vs Posh Corps. It's written by a current Botswana PCV who is also/has been a writer for the Huffington Post. I've been reading his entries and it's always interesting to hear what someone else's PC experience is, and how they relate that to the greater public (Peace Corps' famous Third Goal).
I thought it would be interesting to take the questions posed about Botswana in terms of my own PC service, especially since I had a very "stereotypical" Peace Corps experience (and wouldn't have wanted it any other way!).
What did the application process require for you?
I started my online application in November 2006, paused it for a few months while I freaked out about the 2 year commitment and finally submitted it on April 8, 2007. A month later, I had my interview in Virginia, was nominated (though never told when, where, or what sector) and spent the entire summer going through the obnoxiously important medical and dental clearance, while working 2 jobs and experiencing the young adult life in DC. I was cleared in late September (after getting 2 wisdom teeth removed), invited to Morocco in November (declined), re-invited to Senegal in early December, and started Staging on March 10, 2008. All in all, 11 months from submission to plane ticket!
During PST, I lived in a room in a house with my small host family. For the two years of my Service, I lived in a 9 by 12ft clay and cement hut with a grass roof in a compound with 50+ people. No electricity, no running water. My headlamp, mosquito net, and private douche (pit latrine) were some of the best things about my hut (next to the bright colors and sunlight). That and the 4 lucaena trees I planted when I moved and that quickly grew to be 15+ feet each (ok, one died as I was COSing). My hut was my space and while I would occasionally invite the kids in to help with mosquito lotion or to color, or others to help with animal infestations and other such things, it was mostly a private space which I desperately needed with so many people running around our compound. My family was awesome and took care of all of my meals. Breakfast was usually millet and milk in my room, lunch was rice with peanut butter sauce with each side of the family, and dinner was millet with spicy fish water or leaf sauce with the family.
Around my village or to Djilor: feet all of the way! I was known in the area as "fast walking Khady" because I could regularly walk faster than most people (except the teenage boys hurrying to Djilor so they wouldn't be late for 8am class...). The path from Djilor to my village was deep sand 8 months of the year and flooded the rest of the time so bikes never made sense. The vehicle of choice along the path was a donkey or horse cart called a sharet (which many will remember I took a terrible fall from one during my first 10 days in the village). To my weekly market town and old post office, or to Kaolack, we would take an ancient overloaded bus type thing called a Diagan Ndiaye (or Alhum or mini cars, depending who you ask).
How did you report the work you were doing?
Here's an interesting article that came in my weekly Google Alert for Peace Corps: Peace Corps vs Posh Corps. It's written by a current Botswana PCV who is also/has been a writer for the Huffington Post. I've been reading his entries and it's always interesting to hear what someone else's PC experience is, and how they relate that to the greater public (Peace Corps' famous Third Goal).
I thought it would be interesting to take the questions posed about Botswana in terms of my own PC service, especially since I had a very "stereotypical" Peace Corps experience (and wouldn't have wanted it any other way!).
What did the application process require for you?
I started my online application in November 2006, paused it for a few months while I freaked out about the 2 year commitment and finally submitted it on April 8, 2007. A month later, I had my interview in Virginia, was nominated (though never told when, where, or what sector) and spent the entire summer going through the obnoxiously important medical and dental clearance, while working 2 jobs and experiencing the young adult life in DC. I was cleared in late September (after getting 2 wisdom teeth removed), invited to Morocco in November (declined), re-invited to Senegal in early December, and started Staging on March 10, 2008. All in all, 11 months from submission to plane ticket!
What did you do during your pre-service training?
Our PST was an 8.5 week exhausting and disastrous experience as PCSenegal transferred between two different training styles, from Center-based to village-based and my Stage (group) was stuck in the middle of the two. The main goal of PST is to get Trainees/new PCVs capable of functioning in terms of language, safety, cross culture, and medical needs, plus some technical skills as possible. From 8am-5:30 M-F and Saturday 8am-12:45pm we were in class, mostly language so it was myself, Chris, and our language trainer Fatou running Serere drills all day. Med taught us how to take care of ourselves when we got sick and we also received some intro health education training for our sights.
How was the housing situation?
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| Back of my hut when I moved out |
What were the food options for you?
Oops, well I guess I already answered this, but I'll elaborate. I mostly ate with my family. Many PCVs do breakfast on their own, whether it be bean sandwiches down the street or in the road town, or oatmeal in their huts, my family had almost year-round fresh from the cow amazing milk which I LOVED, so I didn't develop my own breakfast habit. Lunch was mostly rice with peanut butter sauce, but occasionally we would have a delicious onion sauce called Yassa or the national plate, Thieb u jen (rice and fish, a meal that was very rare in my village because of the rice and vegetables necessary to cook the dish). Dinner was millet couscous (resembling wet sand) with some type of sauce, beit spicy fish water, leaf sauce, or a peanut butter bean sauce. There wasn't much variety but being in the Delta we had more regular access to fish (even if it was tiny and not always that great) than people farther inland, so the protein was greatly appreciated! I mostly loved eating with my family but would occasionally make an egg and veggie sandwich or cook some home grown zucchini to give myself a break and consume much-needed vitamins. In Kaolack, I mostly subsisted on bean sandwiches for breakfast and fresh yogurt with bananas for lunch and dinner, with an occasional Senegalese-style hamburger. My mouth is salivating just thinking about these meals, yum!
What did you do for transportation?
Did you get sick?
Yes, many a times and many strange things that weren’t necessarily illnesses but infections, parasites, or other things that just wanted to attack my body for all it was worth. The PC Med Staff were pretty responsive and we were given medical kits with all sorts of meds and antibiotics for various types of illnesses, infections, and GI issues, so I was never that worried, though laying on my floor with a fever and serious diarrhea was always a terrible feeling, especially on major religious holidays in the vil.
How was the social life?
So this question in the article seems to focus mostly on dating and relationships...A fair amount of PCVs date locals and there's typically at least one Senegal PCV in each Stage who marries a Senegalese by the end of her service (because let's be honest, they are almost all female PCVs who locals). Peace Corps social life is full of scheduled holiday parties, Regional House social time, road town hangout (especially at Farba's after picking up mail in Djilor), or spending time socializing with the people in your community. In my opinion, the social time with the people in my village was the most important and memorable, followed by hanging out with nearby fellow PCVs (but in a way where you are also hanging out with locals, so in the middle of your compound, at a school fete, etc). The Sereres love to sing, dance, wrestle, and just generally celebrate life, so there was a plethora of social things to do, just perhaps not quite as "exciting" as college or big city social life, but whatever!
As for dating, check this out. Brand new, perfect timing! (Well, it was brand new when I first started this post a month and a half ago)
As for dating, check this out. Brand new, perfect timing! (Well, it was brand new when I first started this post a month and a half ago)
What did you do to communicate with people at home and were there any modern types of entertainment?
Mostly through email though my parents would call about once a week or once every other week via skype to my cell and a handful of friends figured out Skype enough when I was in a city with internet. Gchat was awesome and I especially appreciated friends and family who sent care packages.
The HuffPost article talks about movies and movie theaters as modern types of entertainment. Well, until after I COSed in May 2010, Senegal didn't even have a movie theater! Ok, they used to in the 1990's in a few cities and then they fell into disrepair (the one in Thies in part due to Wade and politics). In July 2010, Wade opened a Western style shopping mall complete with a bowling alley and movie theater that was showing Harry Potter the last weekend I was in country before flying back to America a few weeks ago. There's radio and TV that work to varying qualities, and in cities students have access to internet and Facebook
How did you report the work you were doing?
We had things known as quarterly reports which were basically word documents we filled out about our work over a 3 month period and emailed to our supervisors. As I was leaving, PC Worldwide was implementing digital reports but had some bugs. I loved turning in my QRs because my supervisor would then give encouraging feedback and comment on my projects, and really I just liked knowing that someone knew what I was up to in my vil.
I must admit, if you read the original article, I feel like my service had more in common with the Bostwana RPCV from the 1960s than the current one, ha! This post wasn't quite as interesting and insightful as I had originally envisioned, but almost 2 months later, it's time to finally post it.
Here's also a reality check on Why NOT to Join the Peace Corps
And a little side comment, stolen from a friend's facebook:
A man falls down a well and calls for help. A passing missionary hears his pleas and drops a Bible down the well. Next an aid worker stops and drops down some money. A Peace Corps Volunteer hears the man screaming, drops down a bag, then leaps into the well. “What are you doing?” asks the startled man at the bottom of the well. “I’ve come to live with you,” the PCV replies.
A man falls down a well and calls for help. A passing missionary hears his pleas and drops a Bible down the well. Next an aid worker stops and drops down some money. A Peace Corps Volunteer hears the man screaming, drops down a bag, then leaps into the well. “What are you doing?” asks the startled man at the bottom of the well. “I’ve come to live with you,” the PCV replies.
