Peace Corps Bound!
Three weeks ago already, I received a phone call from a Peace Corps education placement officer informing me that I was to be invited to join the Peace Corps TEFL (Teaching English as A Foreign Language) Teacher and Trainer program in Nicaragua. As a life-long and firm believer in peace (see photo ——>), I accepted. Essentially, beginning August 31st and for the ensuing 27 months, I will be living and working in Nicaragua both teaching English and training Nicaraguan English teachers to do the same.
The phone call marked the end of a punishing two-month stretch of waiting for news about my assignment. During this time I would scamper eagerly to get the mail day after day and return, inevitably, grouchy. Although there remain a number of details to be determined/made available to me (chief among which is the place where I will be working following the completion of training) the invitation kit sent to me did clarify a number of questions that I’d been wondering such as: what will you be doing? Teaching English and training secondary school teachers to do the same (full job description here)? How much will you have to live on? 200$ per month. And are flip-flops or ponytails appropriate attire for professionals in Nicaragua? Decidedly, tragically, no.
Over the past couple of weeks I have steadily been working my way through the reading materials sent to me by the Peace Corps. Some of this material is related to my specific country and work assignment (Peace Corps Nicaragua info here) while some of it relates to all PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) everywhere doing anything, such as briefs on cross-cultural communication and immersion. I have found all of the reading fascinating not just for its content but also for how the sum of what I’ve read has had the effect of giving me what I perceive to be a much more realistic, more grounded set of expectations with which to embark upon the experience.
More interesting, however, have been the stories that have been related to me by former PCVs and people who have spent a significant amount of time in the country where I am to live. And while most of the tales that they have to tell relate at least tangentially to really big tarantulas, they also seem to emphasize a broader sense of goodwill between PCVs and the communities that they live in. Only a few nights ago I listened to a friend tell me about how, when teaching English in Japan in the late 60’s the high altitude of the assignment often prevented not only his students but also himself from remaining awake throughout lectures. Both he and his students literally fell asleep mid-lecture! Unsurprisingly, this friend of mine didn’t claim to have made great strides towards furthering English literacy in the country, but nor did he count such as the only metric by which to measure Peace Corps Success (PCS). Instead, he emphasized the relationships that he built with the members of his host community and the critical thinking skills, self-confidence and personal development that he managed to engender among the youth with whom he worked as his primary contributions.
Obviously the Peace Corps of this day and age is significantly different from that of the 60’s and 70’s and virtually every decade preceding the widespread diffusion of the Internet. One testament to this fact is the multitude of videos on YOUTUBE that comprise the Peace Corps Nicaragua Cribs Series (mimicking the MTV series that featured famous Americans, their mansions, and more often than not, a lot of rad cars). Further, sites such as Peace Corps Journals, an amalgamation of a large number of blogs written by prospective and current Volunteers, serves to underline this point. (The same friend that I mentioned earlier also tells the story of proposing to his wife via snail mail while working in Asia—“two weeks for the letter to get there and two for the reply to get back”).
My assignment will last 27 months and will begin with a three-month-long training “in-country.” Following this, I will be given my site and sent off to start working. I can honestly say that I am very excited for the experience: to be able to speak Spanish, teach, live in a new country, meet people of a new culture, travel, all the while shirking a “real job” and “grad school” strikes me as the challenge that I’m looking for (and may not have gotten working with the Census). I plan to use this time to explore Nicaragua, Central America, Pedagogy, and myself but I’m looking for co-explorers. So whether or not you find yourself in the region and want to see a friendly face or subscribe to this blog (top right of the page), I hope that you’ll enjoy.
Good description of what you know so far. But, as you well know from your other international experiences, you can expect to have it take a bit of time to adjust. Your previous experiences should give you the patience you will need to do just that. You will do America proud!
Shirley