Lucky me...

I was told before I joined Peace Corps that you need to expect nothing (to avoid being disappointed) and accept that you won’t change the world. I did my best. I did however expect to be in a warmer climate …not sitting here in a sweatshirt and jeans really wishing I brought my fingerless gloves with me and dreading the walk back in pouring rain.

But a miracle did happen. Of the four engineers in my group of 55, I was the only one lucky enough to get an organized, cooperative (speaking relatively here), and productive community to work with.

There is a nifty little graph here to show the percentages of PCVs (in all countries) to get through each step of the process. The first is those who apply, then get medically cleared, nominated, then placed, the show up to staging (the two days in DC before leaving for the country), swearing in as a volunteer, one year point and then the finishers.



Only 22% of people who apply make it all the way. And 68% of people who show up to leave the country make it to the end. Wow.

And that percentage has to be less when observing the technical volunteers. My friends and I have talked about this a lot. Of the IT and engineering volunteers in my group, half have quit already. They were either placed in sites that did not allow them to use their skills or they were offered a better position in the US or other parts of the world or got into law school.

Honestly if I were put in some of the situations my companeros were put in…I wouldn’t still be here. Even in my nice little site that has potential, I have had my weak moments. I always told myself that I could not quit on a whim and that I would have to wait at least until April (the one year point) to quit. Whelp I made it to April and see no chance of quiting unless something extreme happens.

I did come here with a few other random goals…some achieved and some not.

• Learn Spanish
o Check and I still have a year to improve

• Live abroad
o Check.

• Learn to play the guitar
o Fail. I gave up on this goal…

• Learn to knit/sew
o I can now know how to knit but am not patient enough to actually make anything and I knew how to sew by hand and I still would like to know how to with a machine. But I don't plan on buying one.

• Run a Marathon
o Date set: July 3rd, when would I ever have the time to train like this again.

• Take the GRE
o Done, I learned a lot of useful English words too…

• Figure out life
o Fail. Ha…Bahaha…I still have no clue.

• Build a piece of furniture
o Check…I built a very rudimentary, over-designed futon

• Read many books
o Not as much I would have liked

• Enjoy life without technology
o Fail. Turns out we have lots of technology here and that is part of the distraction from reading.

• Learn about Agriculture
o Check, I love it really.

• Grow a garden
o Fail. I know, I know...I love Ag but don't have a green thumb.

• Integrate into a different culture
o Check.

• Make friends from all over
o Check.