Reminesces of the Peace Corps

OK, I am going to try and do this again because the first one this morning got lost. I am going to try to contrast and compare my two (2) experniences with the Peace Corps. The first experience was in Sarawak and at the beginning of Peace Corps. The experience was mind boggling because everybody was enthused and up-beat. The second experience was in Kingston, Jamaica. The Peace Corps was now an established and respected Agency; the volunteers were still enthused, but it was a different kind. My two (2) experiences were quite different also. I guess in the the initial stages when there is still a lot of experimenting going on, the volunteer feels more a part of it; in the later on phases, like mine inKingston, volunteers tended to be a lot more laid back, less enthused and thinking they were trained and skilled enough to do a good job. They say from beginning to the end, the Peace Corps wants to recruit the same kind of "volunteer" over and over again. I am not at all sure this can be done. In Jamaica, people were more friendly with one and another and had socials on the week-end. In Sarawak, the living room of the house was always filled with Standard 12 students from all over Sibu and we would visit all of the time. I was not so friendly with other volunteers as I was with my friends from Sarawak; in Jamaica, this was turned around as I was more friendly with Jamaicans than with fellow volunteers. In both experiences, I was plenty experienced and worked comfortably with the host country nationals. One difference was in Jamaica, I worked in a taboo area; but I worked in taboo areas in Sarawak too. Maybe host country nationals were beginning to see that a volunteer will work in any designated area, and most are not put off by a "culturally sensitive" designation. This is not true for all countries. A consequence of working in two(2)differently designated areas will impact each volunteer differently. This working in "taboo" areas does, to a certain degree, create different volunteer expierences. If placed in one of the areas, I, myself, think it is wise to inform at least one from the immediate family.