Peace Corps: Doing My Homework and Look What I Found

I've learned through mistakes and disappointments that you can never believe the hype about something. For every good story, there is a bad one. For every person who had a good experience, there is someone who has had a bad experience.

Over the past two days, I've come across such disturbing news about the Peace Corps, it's taken the wind out of my sails. The first instance of bad news was this blog written by a volunteer in Guatemala. Tarantulas on the walls, up to 16 people in the homestay house, Spanish language training in a community that speaks only a Mayan dialect. The list goes on. After 7 months, this person decided to cut the cord and is back in the U.S., and in the process, exposed some very serious issues that I find very concerning.

Death Due to Illness in Morocco
One of the comments posted to the above volunteer's blog has to do with the death of a volunteer this past November in Morocco, a death due to illness. This is the report, and it is disturbing. In his book The Insider's Guide to the Peace Corps, the author cites RPCV's and their lackluster opinions of PC medical services in-country. The death of this 23 year old woman in Morocco speaks volumes to this point.

Foreign Policy Magazine - 2008
The former Country Director of Cameroon writes this article. It's easy to speculate why a former employee of the agency would speak up like this - maybe he was fired, or maybe his conscience got to him. Either way, it's pretty close to whistleblower status.

Violence Against Volunteers
Think there's little risk to joining the PC? Think again. Here's an article, written in what seems like the early '00's, there's no date on it, that states the dangers that volunteers face while serving. Some 21 or so volunteers have been murdered while in-service, and other deaths have occurred through accidents. But putting deaths aside, this article makes very clear that volunteers are not as safe as the PC would make you believe. To the PC's credit, they do make this information available, or someone does, on peacecorpswiki.org. So perhaps I am overblowing this finding.

Lack of Transparency
Secrecy is the PC's MO apparently. This posting makes transparent the medical guidelines PC uses to defer or reject applicants. The kicker is, these had to be attained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The author, a RPCV applying for reenlistment 40 years or so after his initial service, offered the PC to post these guidelines, but they refused. Everything needs to be a secret. What's alarming is that the PC could be using outdated guidelines. The guidelines posted here are from 1993. That, and their absolute refusal to post this information for all eyes to see, says something.

Always do your homework. After reading this information, I have started looking into other options. Because you can never believe the hype. If I learn about the bad things, and I feel I can handle the bad things because perhaps they aren't all that bad, then I'm comfortable. But these articles reveal some real issues. And it's very sad. Is this an agency that really treats its volunteers as numbers, not as people? Something to really think about. I think my decision to move forward will depend largely on the nomination. Knowing full well that the nomination could change down the road.

In reality, no situation will be perfect. There will always be something behind the curtain, a devil always in the proverbial details. But the question becomes, how severe are those devils and how numerous are they?

Peace Corps Interview

I had my interview in the Peace Corp's NYC office yesterday. Went well and I enjoyed the two hours with the recruiter. I remember being in that office in November 2002, my 9th month of unemployment, but none of it, other than the building itself, looked familiar to me. In 2002, I was temping literally around the corner at Penguin Putnam Publishing. The months of unemployment were running up with no end in sight. So when I came across something about the Peace Corps, I thought it might be a good option to get myself out and doing something. After going to an information session, I concluded it wasn't the right thing to do, and certainly not something to do just to get out of unemployment.Although I now disagree with that thinking. Why pound the pavement endlessly when you can go and doing something worthwhile with your time? But at the time, I had more or less just started the MBA, so I felt I shouldn't be starting something new without finishing something else that was somewhat new.

So, here I am, really going for it this time. It looks like I'm heading for business, either advising or development, which I am not too crazy about. The recruiter tried to mitigate my distaste about doing business in the PC, in that she said it's not like being in Corporate America. I decided to let things lie at that moment, although later in the meeting I did push for NGO Development. The issue is, I don't have any real non-profit experience, although with school, I will be learning more over the next 12 months. She asked for me to complete a skills addenda for NGO Development, in which I highlighted that my for-profit skills are transferable. So I am told by the good people at the New School.

The recruiter thinks she may not be able to nominate me until November as more available spots come into focus, so the long process continues to be long. She did say she felt I would be a good volunteer, so that's promising and that keeps me hopeful. But I am really concerned about doing business, as every bone in my body wants to divorce business and leave it to the wolves.