features : spring 2013 nsformed you ?
Peace Corps is a life changing experience because you start off as one person , but you end up as two . Everything is from scratch . We are like 30-40 tiny babies when we exit the plane and BAM ! We are in a new culture learning a new language , dealing with the same learning curve that babies deal with . It is refreshing and scary . We are refreshed and scared at the same time . Then we mature and eventually come to an adult-like understanding of our surroundings . After that we are two people in one body , and we are better for it .
Stephen Robinson
now
then
“ Oh Carly , you look so different ,” they said . “ You ’ ve changed so much ,” they said . Depending on how I feel , I have two responses to this statement . If I don ’ t feel like explaining myself , I just smile and thank the person . Other times , I ’ ll take their statement as a backhanded compliment , and follow it up with something like , “ When I joined Peace Corps I thought I would be working as an English teacher in a village , not entering a beauty contest as a plus size American super model on the European scene . Obviously , I was wrong , so yeah I traded in my Pre-Service Training sweatpants for some lipstick and high heels .
Does this make me a traitor ? Or maybe a sell out ? No , because I used to dress up and go out in America too , just not as often . I didn ’ t come armed with all of the preparatory tools for such occasions because , who knew where I would end up . It was much more practical to bring neutral clothes that I could wear for a wedding , work , for coffee , and to sleep in , as
Carly Jerome
opposed to bringing only prom dresses and ending up assigned to work at a school in the middle of nowhere . Thank God I didn ’ t have to spend too much money on getting my groove back , because hair extensions and tooth rhinestones aren ’ t that expensive in Macedonia .
Back home in the Midwest , if I went out wearing hot pink lipstick and heels , I would risk being called a woman who engages in risqué behavior . Now I can dress up , go out , and don ’ t have to worry about people referring to me as a lady of the night . If anything , my time in Macedonia has allowed me to be the girlygirl I am , without having to explain myself or defend my integrity . I am more confident and comfortable with the person I am . Naturally , I would have to move to an Albanian Muslim village in Eastern Europe to educate the youth of Macedonia , to learn this .
Carly Jerome
Spring 2013 – 43