This is not a Peace Corps blog. I rarely mention the name of the agency, and my writings deal more with stories and experiences than with vaunted ideals or hyped-up mission statements. Still, I figured it was time to give the Toughest Job it’s due, so lets look at the basics. Unlike Fight Club, the Peace Corps only has three rules:
1) Provide 2-3 years of free labor for a worthwhile organization or agency in a developing country that could use a little help.
2) Try not to make a royal ass of yourself or your country. You don’t have to love the flag, but you should try to respect it, and give others a reason to do the same.
3) Go home, take the lessons you learned abroad and try spreading them around. Talk about the world beyond the tour books. Open people’s eyes to the bigger picture.
The third goal is in effect forever. Jamaica will always be a chapter in my life, and though the story has already been written, there’s no limit to the number of ways I can tell it. I’ve been doing that a lot lately, speaking informally in various venues, finding truths I’d often overlooked before. We live in a world of unmitigated artificiality, and for those who yearn to see what much of the world is like, the opportunity is there, but you need to be ready for anything, have a clear mind unclouded with baseless ideology and possess a generous capacity for change.
I never thought of myself as a passionate proponent of anything. I’m hopelessly cynical, I lack direction, and I have a hard time seeing humanity as something more than a narcissistic anomaly occupying a speck of matter in the universe which delights in trivialities and increasingly viral behavior. I have a shadowy sense of humor and a hard time trusting others. My politics are cryptic and subject to interpretation. I’m not exactly the archetypal Peace Corps Volunteer.
But then again, there is no typical volunteer. That salient fact was evident as I got to know the other good souls who passed through Miami International with me on July 4th, 2007. Yeah, they shipped us out on Independence day. Though many of us didn’t make it the whole way, we all wanted to be there at the time, and we shared a basic idea that the opportunity to serve your own nation by helping another was a pretty good deal. Though we thought differently and fashioned our lives accordingly, we were united on the bigger picture and working together toward a worthy cause. That, in my opinion, is the essence of progress.
Peace Corps provided an excellent opening for my adult life. Anyone who knows me, and most everyone who reads this probably knows me, knows that the last 2 years were the most substantial time of my life, and I will forever relay my stories to any schmuck who will listen, in the hopes of sparking adventure and purpose in others.
