Fifty years ago, 65 percent of the people volunteering to join the Peace Corps were men and 35 percent were women. Today, those numbers have flipped, with 66 percent of volunteers during the 2000s women and 34 percent men. This change, gradual over the five decades, represents women’s commitment to and confidence in international work […]
Yay, Peace Corps ladiessssss!
Asshole in the comments makes me want to go facepunching though.
The Peace Corps Act - September 22, 1961
On March 1, 1961, President Kennedy signed the executive order establishing the Peace Corps. On September 22, 1961, Congress approved the legislation that formally authorized the Peace Corps. Goals of the Peace Corps included: 1) helping the people of interested countries and areas meet their needs for trained workers; 2) helping promote a better understanding of Americans in countries where volunteers served; and 3) helping promote a better understanding of peoples of other nations on the part of Americans.
Did you know March is National Reading Month?
Reading is definitely one of the more popular leisure activities for Peace Corps Volunteers. What were some of the books you read during your service? Did you bring home any books from your country? How many times did you read War and Peace during your 27 months overseas?
I read SO MUCH when I was in Peace Corps. My mom sent me a big box of books by book bag, and I raided the PC library in the basement of the PC office every time I was in Sofia. I kept track so I know that I read about 150 books during my service (80+ my first year, 60+ my second year). Some of my favorites I read in country:
I also read a lot of history books, about the Balkans and Eastern Europe, but also about a lot of other places and things as well. I read a couple books in Bulgarian: Harry Potter #3 and a collection of all of the Winnie the Pooh books (or Мечо Пух, as he is called in Bulgarian). The latter was by far the more difficult, which surprised me. Harry Potter has a lot of dialogue, which tends to be written at the same level of discourse I heard on a daily basis. Winnie the Pooh, on the other hand, has long narrative descriptions about what the sunlight looks like as it streams through the branches of the trees, etc. I was constantly looking up words that would turn out to be “thistles” or “meandering” or something like that.
Host Country Mothers, a set on Flickr.
In honor of Mother’s Day, here is a Flickr set that highlights the unique relationship between Peace Corps Volunteers and their host families!MY HOST MOM IS THE BEST HOST MOM.
Bran Castle, Bran, Romania.
Also known as Dracula’s Castle. Mwahahaha!
Peace Corps Volunteers are banned from Bran on Halloween. I have no idea what happened for this rule to be instituted, it must have been some really epically naughty behavior.
Anonymous asked:
Um, I don’t know! It’s really hard, so I don’t necessarily feel great about recommending it unreservedly. I don’t think it’s for everyone. I think the basic thing that people who are interested in Peace Corps need to keep in mind is that it is a JOB. Peace Corps sets you up with a job that you then have to go to every day, just like you would back in the US. I think a lot of people have this really idealistic and fuzzy view of what you do in Peace Corps that involves like, children thanking you for helping them. But in reality, it’s more like you have to go to work, only you might be doing a job you’ve never done before, and everyone’s talking to you in a language you can’t understand.
Personally, I found it a really really valuable experience but I spent a lot of the time I was a PCV very frustrated. My job was teaching elementary school English in a rural area. We didn’t have many materials or funding and there were a lot of social problems that interfered with education in general. So like, I went in with all these amazing ideas but a lot of them weren’t feasible because I didn’t have the physical materials necessary. On a personal level it was difficult for me to live in such a small town (pop. 3000) and emotionally it was tough in that I couldn’t communicate very well for a long time. After about a year my Bulgarian was pretty good and I could talk to people easily but that year was really lonely and isolating. I would sit in the teacher’s lounge and listen to everyone talk and it would all just go over my head. So even when I was around other people, I felt lonely. My cat seriously saved my sanity.
BUT despite all those negatives, I’m really glad I did it. I had a lot of great students whom I just adored. They’re all still young but I hope that one day they can look back at me fondly and think of their goofy American teacher who taught them how to play Simon Says. I DID eventually learn to speak Bulgarian and I made some good friends. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would be on a plane to Bulgaria the next day. I really miss it a lot. The old Peace Corps motto that it’s “the toughest job you’ll ever love” is totally accurate.
So I’m sorry for rambling so much, but I feel like only you can really decide if it’s the right choice. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask.
my first home cooked meal at site. it truly represents who i am. the lawrey’s seasoning salt represents the american in me, the серење represents the macedonian in me and the fact that i could not afford ketchup it the peace corps in me [:
пържени картофи с сирене!
това е какво ядем в балканите. :D
Anonymous asked:
Sure…I don’t know what you’re interested in exactly, but the basics: I served as an education volunteer in a very small town in central Bulgaria. My regular job was teaching English as a Foreign Language in a public elementary school (my students were ages 8 to 14). It was pretty difficult and frustrating a lot of the time, but I had some really great kids who made it worth it. I also had some side projects, like teaching at a summer camp one summer, doing summer school classes, and teaching an English class for adults in the community.
Let’s see. I think one thing people don’t understand about Peace Corps is that volunteers only do what the host country asks of them, and that in-country, PC is largely run by host country nationals. There’s a rule that each country office has to have 3 Americans, and at least in Bulgaria, there are ONLY 3 Americans. The other 50 or so employees are all Bulgarians. My program managers, the teacher trainers, and my language trainer were all Bulgarian. So they are definitely not interested in passing along US cultural norms or anything like that.
People ask me a lot if I would recommend Peace Corps, but I can’t answer that. It’s not for everyone. If you’re thinking of applying, I recommend discussing the pros and cons with a recruiter to see if it’s right for you.
Personally, I’m really glad I did it, but I’m also glad it’s over. I have a lot of love for Bulgaria, but living in such a small rural town was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. I would definitely return to Bulgaria if I got a good job offer there, but it’d have to be in Sofia or Plovdiv or Varna. (On the other hand my Bulgarian is way better than it’d be if I’d lived in a big city because NO ONE in my town spoke English. I could go weeks and weeks without speaking English to anyone but my students in class or my cat.)
So I’ve been looking into joining the peace corps. This wasn’t just some “ehh, I’ll give it a shot” type of thing. I’ve been wanting to for a long time. Even last year I wasn’t really feeling college and I started seriously considering volunteering. After being put down by everyone I told, I...
Not to pick on this girl, but I see this sort of thing a LOT in Peace Corps communities online - someone annoyed that you have to be a college graduate or have a massive amount of non-college experience in order to join up.
Here’s the thing:
Peace Corps is not a vacation. It is not two years of fun-times. Peace Corps is a job. A really, really difficult job. Peace Corps arranges for you to have a full-time, professional-level job for two years. You work as a teacher in a public school, or as a health educator, or as youth development worker at an NGO, or for a municipality, or as an agricultural specialist, etc.
These are jobs that require a formal education or lots of experience. No one wants a teacher with only a high school education. If you’re nineteen and have a year of college under your belt, what makes you think you’re qualified to work for a city government?
Get the education, do the volunteer work, then apply. Peace Corps will still be around.
(13, RPCV, Bulgaria 2006-2008)
Celebrating my one year mark with a picture of a project that’s come a long way! I’ve been working on this with two women from the NGO and some of the trees will be planted soon.
good luck with the project!
historical-nonfiction
The International Center of Photography in New York and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday announced the joint creation of a digital database to facilitate access to photographer Roman Vishniac’s archive.
Vishniac was a Russian-born Jew who moved to Berlin in 1920. He documented the rise of Nazi power and its effect on Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe. He is one of the only known photographers working exclusively with Jews, and his collection is the largest known of Jewish life before the war. Most of his 9,000 negatives have never before been seen.
The museum and photography center are asking scholars and the public to help with identifying the people and places in the photos. And of course, this will help make a major and under-appreciated 20th-century photographer more widely known.
