Me and the Peace Corps

I am going to try a little retrospect on my two different experiences with the Peace Corps. I was a PCV in Sarawak, Malaysia from 1964-66 and in Kingston, Jamaica from 1989-1991. I worked in entirely different areas. The first time in Sarawak, I was with the Dept. of Education as a Primary English Medium Scheme Supervisor; the second time in Jamaica, was with the Health Department in Kingston and I was in the Medical Social Work Deptartment. Both times, the professional level of the experiences was really good and I felt like I was earning my badge of acceptance in both areas. This is and was very improtant to me because I was in a car accident in Florida when I was 16 in Sarasota, Fl. and actually suffered severe trauma to the head. On and off, even up to now at 65, I am reminded of the trauma and how it has affected my life. The Peace Corps takes in lots of "damaged and wounded" people and lets them work on trying again. For an American Agency, they are most unusual. Anyway back to Sarawak and Kingston, the most outstanding memories and imprints are, of course, the social get togethers when we would discuss how things are going "at the Office"; and then we would really have a good time. The first time, in Sarawak, I was really a novice about educational teaching strategies, but not in working with the teachers. I did a lot of one-on-one demonstrating various things to do. I did not permit physical punishment in the classroom and, as far as I know, Peace Corps supported this value. In Kingston, I was a trained professional MSW and had the great priviledge of working in some ground breaking areas that had to do with cultural taboos and self image. I worked with Jamaican counterparts who refined their intervention skills. Of course, what you do as your assignmet is very important to the Host Country because it fills positions that might go unfilled because of no funds or no trained person. However, it might not be the heart and spirit of the Peace Corps experience. For me, my memory bank recalls the relationships with the Host Country nationals, the Peace Corps staff, the other volunteers, the other Agencies, etc. In the new world that we live in where much has collapsed down to a global village, there is a reasonable amount cultural clash as well as inter-mingling. In this world, there are no terrorists? I would have no idea; but the presence of guns is negligable.

This is just the beginning of this retrospect.

These are my thoughts for today.