How to Survive the Peace Corps in Africa

The Peace Corps has been sending young people (and often older people as well) to countries all around the world since the early 1960s (it was John F. Kennedy’s idea). There were very few rules in the beginning. You had some training with very little idea what you were training for, and you were sent off with your idealism and wide eyes. But gradually, as it was realized that some the people sent overseas were potentially in harm’s way (unexpected revolutions, small plane crashes, malaria, snake bites, Guinea worms, etc.), the government decided that it needed to protect its youth and began eliminating remote locations and dangerous situations. As the rules and regulations increased, the fun and excitement went the other way. Surviving the Peace Corps in Africa used to mean learning to live with the hooded cobra living under your hut, but now it means surviving the Peace Corps bureaucracy.

Instructions

1. Take in all the training, but humor the trainers when necessary. Remember that although you are a representative of your country, you do not have to defend policies with which you disagree. Don’t let them wash you out just because you have your own definition of patriotism. Smile and pretend that you agree with everything they are telling you to give yourself the best chance of getting through training.

2. Don’t be afraid. Get to the country to which you are assigned and begin asking questions. Determine for yourself where you want to go and what you want to see. If there is a village off the road and you want to go there, take a student or local friend and go there. Don’t stay where you are assigned without scoping out the locale and people around you.

3. Be open. Listen to others and find out what they really believe. If they have been taught by missionaries to behave a certain way in front of white people, only to revert to tribal beliefs when they are with their own kind, find out what those beliefs are and suspend your prejudices.

4. Be careful of hanging out with your own people too much. You are in a foreign culture. Don’t insulate your experience by getting drunk night after night with people from the States. Remember that you learn a lot more by letting go of your insulation.

5. Suspend judgment until you’ve been back for a while. For years after your Peace Corps experience has ended, waves of memories will reveal intense new meanings to your existence. Let it all happen.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are sent to a very remote location, keep contact with your family and friends at home by the old fashioned method of writing letters. Having your family send classic literature you never had time to read is a great way to keep from going stir crazy or homesick, and to keep your mind nurtured and open.