So, I know several people who were in the Peace Corps. My friend Jim, joined in the early 1960s, when both he and the Corps were quite young. He was stationed in Madras (now called Chenai) in the south of India in the state of Tamil Nadu. He worked hard with the locals and they treated him kindly. His hut was right next to the jungle. He wouldn’t go outside at night because he never knew what he might encounter. He eventually was bitten by something and developed a type of encephalitis and had to be taken to Germany for treatment.
I know of a woman, Lucera, who was at a crossroads in her life and didn’t know what to do, so she joined the Peace Corps. She made it to her assigned country, took one look at the conditions she was to live in and said - no. I believe she lasted less than 1 month. I imagine the scene to be something like Private Benjamin, “This isn’t the Peace Corps I signed up for. Where are the palm trees and the ocean view?”
Sam, spent his time in the Peace Corps in Senegal. He did good work and felt enriched by the experience. He told me the following stories:
Jeff was stationed in Uganda. His supervisor came to his small village to do a spot check. The supervisor was astonished to see that Jeff had the whole village treat him as a king, bowing to him and doing his bidding. Jeff even had the locals fanning him with great leaves. This young man was quickly removed from his post.
Jenn, a young woman was stationed in Uganda. She’d been in the Corps for about a year and everything was fine. One day the Village Elder contacted the Peace Corps and said, you must see about your person, she needs attending to. Apparently the young woman reached a point where all she did was make doughnuts. The doughnuts filled her hut. When there was no more room, she placed them in great piles around her hut. And then beyond that, until the entire land around her hut had pillars and pillars of doughnuts. She too was removed from her post.
Peace Corps certainly does a lot of good in the world. It just seems that not everyone is cut out for it.
