<p>How selective are these progams and how safe are they? I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about PeaceCorps members contracting some rare disease in a developing country and never recovering (a family friend actually died within weeks of starting). Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel has talked about parasitic infections he’s had from visiting various countries, and that scares me because medical care in some of these countries are not up to par at all. Americans might also be prone to being victims of violence/kidnappings, etc. Some other relatives of ours (who were not part of PC) were held hostage and robbed. My aunt’s friend knows of a couple who was driving around Mexico, had their car hijacked, and the hijackers drove off with the car and the wife! She was never found again.</p>
<p>they are both pretty selective.</p>
<p>with AmeriCorps, you apply to individual positions that you want, not through the entire program, so the selectivity can vary by position. The AmeriCorps program I was with had 50+ applicants and only took a couple new people each year. Keep in mind with the economy in the crapper more college kids apply to things like Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach for America.</p>
<p>Safe is a relative term. </p>
<p>Some of the countries that have a large PeaceCorps presence may define safe differently than you do. I have a relative in the process of waiting to hear her assignment for the winter…I have known people who started, and left Peace Corps for medical reasons. I also knew someone who was paralyzed while a worker back in the 70’s or early 80’s. </p>
<p>My friend who left the Peace Corps after several months felt that the support that she was supposed to get as a teacher in the program was severely lacking. She had no books for the students. She had months of training and got there and realized that she didn’t have the tools she needed to do the job she was sent to do. Then she had an injury, for which they evacuated her back to the States. It was devastating, because she had wanted to do this for years and thought they would be more supportive. </p>
<p>Washing her clothes and body with a bucket and rag was a new experience for which she was not sorry she was leaving.</p>
<p>I think that each country and job can’t be assumed to be the same experience. If you are in Africa in Rwanda it will likely be different than in a more developed country or region. </p>
<p>If interested in joining, definitely have your eyes wide open.</p>
<p>This may help. <a href=“http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/policies/volsafety2008.pdf[/url]”>http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/policies/volsafety2008.pdf</a></p>
<p>There may be a more recent report, but this may give you a basis for judging safety.</p>
<p>I would be much more hesitant if a D wanted to serve in the Peace Corps than if a son did.</p>
<p>My brother-in-law served in the Peace Corps for 7 years in the late 70s and DH’s cousin also did for several years 10 or so years ago.</p>
<p>DD is currently in her second year and is in a country that had volunteers evacuated several years ago for political unrest. She absolutely loves it. She left here when she was 21 and had her BS and a year of grad school finished via the Master’s International program before going. </p>
<p>The physical is pretty intense and many are weeded out at that stage for various things. The Americorps physical is not quite as demanding since they have more access to care, so some end up going that route. </p>
<p>The Peace Corps has doctors in country who travel around and check on the volunteers. They are given first aid kits and medical supplies, but can call the doctor at any time. </p>
<p>She keeps her passport, etc with her at all times in case of an emergency evacuation, but is not at all worried about it. They actually had a scare (false alarm) several months ago and she was prepared to hop on the bus and head to the embassy as instructed. </p>
<p>Her house has running water a couple of hours a day, but no shower or bathtub so she takes sponge baths most of the time. The bath is outside of the main house. There is no heat, except one stove downstairs, and no a/c or even fans. The town has no stores at all.</p>
<p>My younger daughter is planning on Peace Corp after college- not sure where- perhaps Oceania. ( she would love just wearing a sarong all day)</p>
<p>hmm can parents visit?</p>
<p>I served in the Peace Corps in Botswana (southern Africa) in the mid 80s. Things sure have changed with internet, cell phones, etc. It is much easier to keep in touch–much less isolation. Seems safer, too.
IMO, you’ve got to be very flexible and open-minded about what kind of job you’ll be doing (because these are often not very well organized). You also need to be healthy/fit, and not squeamish about food and cleanliness to do well in PC. Obviously some jobs/locations are more difficult than others.
I had amoebic and bacterial dysentery when I was there and stayed at a German doctor’s house (did not want to put me in the village hospital which was for “natives”!) for a few days. I also got bitten by a dog, (I had to call the embassy for help because our doctor was out of the country) had rabies shots. . .
RE safety–it all seemed like part of the adventure at the time, but looking back, I was in a lot of very unsafe situations, and some scary stuff happened to me. I wouldn’t want my D to do what I did. It was definitely harder for female volunteers due to cultural differences. OTOH, I would do it again. PC changed my way of thinking about a lot of things, and I’m grateful for the many wonderful and also the difficult experiences.
PC has a very nice website where you can get tons of info about all the different countries they go to. </p>
<p>My niece applied to Teach for America, but didn’t get hired. I think it is pretty selective and has a lot of applicants.
It pays better than PC, and doesn’t have the physical hardships. Doesn’t have the “adventure potential” that PC has, though. But not everyone wants those kinds of adventures. </p>
<p>BTW, not sure if it is still like this, but the Pacific region (while it looks attractive) was considered very difficult, mentally, because of the isolation–a lot of people quit.</p>
<p>I recall that overall, about 1/4 of PCVs quit before their two year tour is finished. Not sure if that has improved over the years.</p>
<p>My younger daughter is planning on Peace Corp after college- not sure where- perhaps Oceania. ( she would love just wearing a sarong all day)>></p>
<p>You don’t really get to pick where you will serve. During the interviews, they do ask but there are no guarantees. DD did not get the region she requested, nor did her friend. The friend ended up in the Mideast instead of South American and quit a month or so into her time.</p>
<p>They send you where you are needed at that particular time.</p>
<p>Have things changed since 2003, when this investigative report came out?</p>
<p>[Casualties</a> of Peace | A Dayton Daily News Special Report](<a href=“http://www.daytondailynews.com/project/content/project/peacecorps/index.html]Casualties”>http://www.daytondailynews.com/project/content/project/peacecorps/index.html)</p>
<p>I’d like to add one thing–you can state preferences for the PC, but you may not get them. </p>
<p>One of my young neighors, who is white, is very interested in Africa. Spent time there during a gap year and again while in college. Speaks an African language fluently.
She got assigned to Central Asia.</p>
<p>I wondered if PC had gotten any better about assigning people according to language skills.
Apparently not.</p>
<p>H and I had studied French in college and asked for a French speaking country.
We were both sent to an English speaking country. There were two guys in my training group who were fluent in Spanish and had asked for a Spanish speaking country. </p>
<p>I remember meeting another volunteer who was traveling–she had never studied French.
She was sent to Zaire and after about six weeks of training was supposed to teach agriculture in French!</p>
<p>In the end, I was glad I was in an English speaking country–certainly made things easier!
Also, I was south of the malaria line (colder/drier climate), so I did not have to take anti malarial drugs.</p>
<p>(I remember that investigative report–from my hometown paper. I also recall several rapes, a murder, death from rabies, suicide, etc. in my country/region while I was a volunteer.)</p>
<p>My relative is still waiting to hear her assignment. She speaks fluent French…so will probably end up in a Spanish-speaking country, based on these posts!</p>
<p>It does seem smarter to me to match the talents and skills with the volunteer, but it doesn’t always seem to be the case.</p>
<p>I did notice that, in my group, among volunteers doing the same type of job, PC seemed to give the women the “easier” assignments–ones closer to the capital, in bigger or less remote villages, closer to other volunteers or with other volunteers in the same village, for example. And retirees who were not as physically fit were usually assigned to bigger cities/towns with more amenities.
Another thing that new volunteers might not be considering is how many other foreigners are doing volunteer work in that country (just in “my” village/town there were Brits, Germans, Dutch, Canadians, Swedes, Norwegians, Australians, etc.) You go there to work with the natives of the country–but you’re working with all these other folks as well–which makes it even more interesting. You will find some strange and unexpected cultural mixes.</p>
<p>Our recent observation has been, the volunteer picks the region/continent- but their particular strengths are compared with others who are being assigned.
Someone who wants Georgia, was assigned to Azerbijian- but still the same region.
Another wants Africa, & work in the environment, assigned to Kenya to work with Aids care.</p>
<p>My daughter has experience from her gap year time in rural India ( working in education & farming), as well as rural Africa- & this before college- altogether about 6 months, but enough to give her a good perspective of how rough she can take it.
Apparently pretty rough. ( from her moms pov- I don’t like the heat so much & not having running water would not be easy to get used to)</p>
<p>CAP - Would you mind talking about your daughter’s experience as a grad student? My daughter is currently a junior and is studying abroad (Sweden) this school year. She will return to the US in June and graduate in December. She is an environmental studies major and wants to do the grad school route through peace corp. What has been your daughter’s experience with that? Would you mind telling me what school she went to? If you would rather PM me that would be fine.</p>
<p>My daughter has wanted to do this since high school. But now with studying abroad her entire junior year, she is not sure how it would work out timing wise. She won’t be able to study/prepare for the GRE until next summer. I am almost thinking another volunteer opportunity maybe a better idea. But she is wanting the grad school option.</p>