This motto has been
keeping me sane for the past 481 days. For starters, the best
part about joining Peace Corps, is that the group you swear in with
is your windows to sanity. You can call home to talk to your parents,
siblings, or friends, or talk to host country nationals, but no
one quite understands your situation as another Peace Corps
Volunteer. They understand how much you miss your family, they are
the ones who knows how frustrating it is when a project doesn't go as
planned, and they don't judge you when you meet in your shopping town
and all you want to do is drink a glass of wine (or two) at two in
the afternoon.
Take this advice to
heart, your cohort will become your best friends. They will be there
to help out with any project, celebrate with you when you complete a
grant form, and will take multiple different taxis, travel for more
than six hours, and cross over two difference provinces, just to be
there for your birthday. Do not alienate yourself from your cohort.
Pictured: PCVs after running a 10k/half marathon to raise money.
The second part of
the motto, is I know, I'm no superman. This you MUST take to
heart. I think many people think that by joining Peace Corps, that
they will change the world, and if not the world than at least their
village. If you come with that perspective, you will not make it. We
are not superheros. We are human. We are not going to save the whole
world. If I can get 80% if my students to turn in their assignments
on time it's a good day.
I stress myself out
every day wondering if I'm being a good enough teacher to my
students. I wonder if they are learning English quickly enough, and
if the English they are learning is good enough for them to go on to
University with. I worry that I am not teaching them enough about
writing essays and comprehension. I worry that I'm not providing them
with enough time to access the library. I worry that I'm not
instilling them with ideals of compassion, working hard, and dreaming big. Mostly, I worry
that I'm not giving them enough love that they need.
I get frustrated
that my girl students are dropping out because they are getting
pregnant, and I wonder if it's because I didn't teach them how to
properly use a condom last year. I want to pull my hair out when a
student drops out and my learners tell me it's because he's been
huffing glue, and I wonder if I should have spoke to him more one on
one. I want to cry when I learn that a top learner has dropped out
because they decided they needed to be the bread winner of their
family, and I cannot help but think that I should have noticed the
signs and should have done a home visit.
There's only so
much we can do as Peace Corp Volunteers. There's only so many hours
in a day. As a teacher, I only have ten hours a day to reach my
students. And I have to split that time between teaching English,
Life Orientation and Computer Class, coaching Grassroot Soccer and
Running Club, facilitating Zazi and Brothers for Life, and finally
running the library. Between those are snippets of time and there's
only so many students you can talk to one on one, and so many home
visits you can make. It's tough, and sometimes you can't even see any
progress.
I'm not trying to
say that Peace Corps doesn't accomplish anything. It does, but not
the big things. You won't get every student to be a straight “a”
student, you might not even get one straight “a” student. But you
will get a student who realizes their potential, and go from being
the class clown to working hard. You'll get a student who will come
to you and ask how to become a doctor, and you might find a better
path for him at a school in the city. You'll maybe get some students
who will tell you about the pact they made with each other and how
they've promised each other to not have sex until they matriculate.
You'll get another student who tells you how proud they were and
their family was when you gave them a medal for being a top learner.
If I were to give
you any advice as a new Peace Corps Volunteer, it would be; be sure to
become close to your cohort, and
to not expect to save the world.
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