An Afterthought about the PC

Another thought about the Peace Corps.

I've talked to a few fellow trainees about the Peace Corps and they reminded me of a few things that I'd forgotten to mention in a former post...

The PC program only goes to countries where it is *invited* to work in. The countries themselves request that PC volunteers come assist them in certain areas, usually education, business, health, environment and agriculture. At that point, before volunteers are sent over, the PC Staff will meet with the government officials to find out the best way for PCV human resources to be best utilized and helpful to that country.

Peace Corps works with local people in the communities, so it is starting from a grass roots level. Each PC volunteer has a counterpart, a Host Country National, that they collaborate with, so it is a team effort for things to be worked on and improved together.

Peace Corps provides cross cultural training, so that we, as volunteers can collaborate with the locals with a sensitivity to the cultural differences that occur, often on a subtle or invisible level.

It can be argued, at times, that local people can be trained to do the same job that a PC volunteer does. If I felt that were true in my case, then I would see if there is another way that I can be useful because I don't want to put a local person out of a job, especially since unemployment is very high in Macedonia. However, being a native English speaker is not something a local person can provide. In fact, when I met with my teacher today, she asked a few questions about saying some phrases in English and receptive to working with me, which I am really grateful for.