P a g e
6
P A U 3 A !
Love and Romance: In Peace Corps, it seems,
love is always in the air. But, compared to Macedonia’s PCVs, we were real slackers. In Macedonia, if you’re not engaged by your Mid-service
Conference, you’re either already married or not
really trying. What we had were the more traditional Peace Corps romances which consisted of
two Volunteers getting into a passionate romance
until one of them COSed and then that was the end
of that. Few relationships survived the border and
those that did usually fizzled in short order.
We had one PCV during my two years that stayed
and married a Swazi. This was more or less cancelled out by the PCV married couple that split up
in country and left at different times and in different directions.
Everything Else: So, was anything the same
as it is today? Absolutely, and these similarities are what really matter. Everything I’ve
written above gives you an idea of how we
lived and what some of the conditions of our
service were. But they say nothing about the
service itself. What has truly remained the
same is that PCVs are courageous, adventurous, competent people who bring energy, enthusiasm and ideas to welcoming countries
where they change the lives of others as well
as their own. They change lives and communities in small meaningful ways that aren’t
earth shaking but nonetheless important.
They sacrifice, they improvise, and they persevere.
Communications: Holy cell phone, here’s an area
where change has been truly dramatic. We had no
mobile phones (neither did anybody else), no
email, no television and not much in the way of
radio either. I did not see TV for two years nor did
I talk on a telephone. I only knew one person who
even had a phone (not a PCV), his phone number
was 6, which will tell you how big the network
was.
And in the end, they have each made a contribution, however small and incremental, to the
huge impact that the world has felt from the
combined service of over 182,000 Peace
Corps Volunteers. That’s 182,000 people
who decided it was more important to make a
difference than to just make a living. It has
always taken the right attitude and strength of
character to be a PCV and hopefully this will
never change. I believe that this attitude is
embodied in one of the things I learned as a
Volunteer - When life gives you lemons, stand
up and say, “Yeah, lemons are okay….but
what else ya got?”
What we did have was surface mail and air letters.
Air letters are these little blue tissue paper thingies
that you write on and then fold into an envelope,
nothing can be enclosed or added. Such letters
could be expected to reach an address in the US in
about 2 weeks. A letter sent by surface mail could
take up to 4 to 6 weeks so almost nobody bothered.
And packages, hah! I only had one person try to
send me a package in 2 years, and for good reason.
It took about 4 months and when it did arrive, the
poorly wrapped cookies had crumbled and dried to
the point of resembling sand while the well
wrapped brownies would have been more appropriately called “greenies.” They looked like somebody’s high school science project.
Living and Other Allowances: The combined
total of our living and leave allowance was about
$120. End of story. We got no other allowances
or reimbursements. This could be another reason
why everybody hitch-hiked so much. But, in all
fairness, $120 was plenty and I don’t remember
anyone complaining. Everyone managed vacation
trips all over southern and central Africa.
Safety and Security: See everything above.
What do you think?