What Kind of Impact can a Peace Corps Volunteer Actually Have?

What impact could a Peace Corps Volunteer really hold in the long run?

 

Prior to beginning service I was asked a couple times a very daunting question:  “Do you really think it helps these countries for you to go do stuff for them for two years and then come back?” After an initial moment of defensiveness I would usually respond with a “you should do some research on the Peace Corps and their history.”

 I must admit, no I don’t think Peace Corps would be of any benefit if we did just come to these countries “do stuff for them”, take some pictures and leave. 

            Peace Corps has established three main goals and 10 standards that come along with service. However, even with these in place, there will always be critics and that’s okay. Good actually. I’d be lying if I didn't admit there has been a couple times I’ve laid in bed questioning, am I doing this right? Am I making an impact?

          Well a couple weeks ago another volunteer and I jumped into a taxi in our shopping town. In Namibia taxis work a bit differently. Taxis pile in as many people as they can into the vehicle, and make various stops in route.  So in the typical fashion we more so stuffed ourselves in taxi. A woman asked if we were Peace Corps Volunteers and with a big smile told us about how a few years back, when she was in school they had a Peace Corps Volunteer and he taught them a really funny Christmas song with a penguin. “I still remember that song.” And as we quickly got to her stop she jumped out, excitedly waved and said bye. It was a sweet to say the least.

         The real moment that stopped me in my tracks though was in yet another taxi on my way to town.  Being that we were in the village riding into town the car only had the driver, an older woman and myself.  Greeting is very important in the culture here, so I gave the standard “Morokeni” greeting to the two in the vehicle when the older woman gave a little smirk and asked “Are you a Peace Corps Volunteer?” “Yes I am”. She explained she could tell by accent, which made us both giggle. My accent does need work. Rukwangali is hard! “At my school when I was in grade 7 in 1996 we had a Peace Corps Volunteer as our English teacher from Virginia and she always smiled.” I was impressed, 20 years later and still so many vivid memories. She continued to ask me a couple questions about myself and we shared some small chat. The car got quiet for a couple minutes when she said “I was the first girl leader in my class in grade 8” as she sat a little taller and smiled. “Really? That’s awesome!” I said sharing her excitement. “Yes, she picked me and another boy learner to be the two captains. Some of the other learners were mad and even a teacher told her both captains must be boys but she said a girl and a boy earned this year so she’s running an experiment. And then after that in grade 9, 4 classes had a boy and girl captain.” Namibia is a very young country so to have a country, not even in double digits of age embrace a concept such as gender equality is HUGE! Not only that, but also that one opportunity the volunteer gave this woman is something dear the woman has held onto ever since. She was so proud to tell me the story. Just showing up in a country and “doing stuff for them” doesn’t do something like that.

 Serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer won’t make you empower every person experiencing oppression for any which reason such as gender, sexuality, disability, age, religion etc. You probably won’t solve world hunger. Unfortunately, after you complete service there will probably still be domestic violence and diseases being spread. We can’t solve every issue in the world, but we sure can try to give at least one positive opportunity to even one person, or give any sort of positive impact at that. Whether than impact be helping a community plant gardens to feed its people, building a library, making someone the first female class captain, or teaching a fun Christmas song, our lives our made up of domino sequences. If each volunteer can go through service and impact even one person during that time in such a positive way that that person in return uplifts another as well; well then thank you to the over 226,000 volunteers who have served and are currently serving because that’s lot of people world wide who just may share their story in a taxi with another volunteer some day.