Has anyone participated in Peace Corps? What was the experience like?
91898
Yep -- even extended to 3-1/2 years (the normal tour lasts two).  It was a lot of hard work but the most rewarding experience I ever had (and even married a man I met while serving!).\n\nTo join the Peace Corps you must have a college degree or an equivalent amount of experience.  It also helps if you have volunteered before.  You may not serve if you have children unless someone else has taken legal guardianship of them.  You may serve as a couple but both of you must go through the application process individually.\n\nThe greatest thing about PC is how it opens your eyes to the world and really helps you learn what is really important in life.  You may feel like you are not accomplishing much (and getting more out of it than you give) but I promise you, if you put a lot into it you will get ten times more out.  It is not a vacation, not a place to "drop out" to in between college and the "real world" of work (that's Americna real world -- the "real world" of most of the world is more like where you will serve).  I urge you to consider it in a professional manner, but live your life fully while there as it is a 24 hour job (in other words, really make an effort to become friends with the locals).\n\nYour best bet is to get in touch with the Peace Corps recruiting office in your region and also a returned Peace Corps Volunteer group in your area ("returned" becasue we are not "ex-" -- once a PCV always a PCV!).  The RPCV group or the recruiting office can arrange for you to meet some RPCVs in person, see their photos, hear their stories, etc.\n\nPeace Corps really is "THE TOUGHEST JOB YOU'LL EVER LOVE!"  (By the way, I left the world of NYC film production to join for what I thought was 2 years -- that was 16 years ago and I have continued to work in international development ever since -- and currently live in Africa!)\n\nGood luck! (see below for websites or do a search on the internet -- there are a lot of sites managed by RPCV groups or current PCVs!)
129250
The people that can help are the Peace Corps. Ask what they would like to have and work from there. You could pick culture and be most effective by prepareing. \nI am sure the second language, local customs, laws,etc.\nThen something you can offer them. English lessons, math, science, agriculture. Maybe you have someting particular for them.\nI'll list an interesting book about working in China. There is a short movie also.
593687
Easy and fun. \nGo to Peninsula de Macanao, and ask for the Provita office (is a ONG) they have several programs in the island and I guess they migth be able to assist you.\nGood luck and have fun.
1155337
I was a Canadian intern in Uganda, and was surprised at the differences between what I had been told about the country and what I learned when I got there.  The greatest things I learned were to be flexible and open to learning and challenges, let go of any ego, and let the local people teach you.  Asking many questions, I was open to meeting people and that took me further than a travel book ever could.\n\nMy readings and country orientation provided "essential" information on medications (all the meds are dangerous and fatal, they are expired drugs sent from North America and are not for human consumption), animals/pets (all animals have Rabies), culture shock (it can be unbearable) and Malaria (ALWAYS take your drugs).\n\nWhen I arrived I chose to learn as much as I could.  I lived in a non white neighbourhood, attended a non white church and learned to speak the local language.  I was surprised to meet the white people.  They lived in their own neighborhoods, and they warned me about the consquences of integration.  They complained about the Africans, and that there were so many of them.  The white people I met wanted to party with the other white people.  There was one other group of white people I met, and they had come to "help" the poor Africans.  When they realized that the Africans were doing very well (incredible amounts of knowledge, ability to identify and seek solutions to their problems), they decided they wanted to go back home to North America.\n\nBefore I left, I made sure I did the research.  I had a basic understanding of the language and culture (what you can get from a book and websites).  I got my shots, my medications and purchased climate appropriate clothing (be aware that linen and soccer shirts can give off the impression of wealth and can put you in danger), and got my visas and tickets.\n\nWhen I arrived, I got a cat (I never got Rabies), I initially took my Malaria medication (you decide how you feel about taking them, it's an ongoing debate) and I did get sick and have to go to the doctor who gave me medication (non lethal and not harmful as I had been told).  I did not have culture shock, but I had reverse culture shock or backpacker's blues (something I had heard nothing about, but it is the struggle you have in returning home).\n\nI hope this helps.  Take everything you hear with a grain of salt.  Be prepared and be open to everything.  You won't regret it.
345275
I did.  I went with a guy friend of mine.  I believe there were 10 people we each spoke to.  5 Minutes each.  It was like going on 10 job interviews.  Being interrogated 10 times in a row is tough!  One guy I spoke to kept being interrupted by his...girlfriend....calling him on his cellphone.(Jerk).\n\nMy friend felt just as frazzled as I did after wards and we had to immediately go have a couple of drinks.  \n\nI did have lunch with one of the guys later, but no sparks.   I don't think I'd ever do it again.\n\nHope this helps!!
120437
7,533:\n\nThe Mission of the Peace Corps\nTo help the people of interested countries in\nmeeting their need for trained men and women.\nTo help promote a better understanding of Americans\non the part of the peoples served.\nTo help promote a better understanding of\nother peoples on the part of Americans.\nHistory\nPeace Corps\nofficially established: March 1, 1961\nTotal number of volunteers\nand trainees to date: 170,000\nTotal number of countries served: 137\nCurrent Director\nGaddi H. Vasquez\nCurrent Volunteers\nVolunteers\nand trainees: 7,533\nGender: 59% female, 41% male\nMarital status: 90% single, 10% married\nMinorities: 15% of volunteers\nAge: Average–28 years old\nMedian–25 years old\nVolunteers\nover 50: 6% of volunteers\n(oldest volunteer is 84)\nEducation: 83% have undergraduate degrees;\n14% have graduate studies or degrees
767879
id say google international volunteer societies or something.  also a lot of universities are big on community service, maybe you could get an organization on some campuses in ecuador or whereever to recruit and what not.\n\ngood luck
1098912
I have been there. And so have my kids. It is a frustrating and engaging experience that gives everyone a lot of hope. \n\nThe War in Iraq, the unequal distribution of wealth in this country, lack of value for human life EVERYWHERE, even in the U.S. and corruption in the political process everywhere certainly is the impetus for young people, like you to know where to start. \n\nDon't throw up your hands in despair. That would be really depressing. Now is the time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.\n\nWhen I was 18, many years ago, I didn't like it that black people couldn't go to a restaurant and have a cup of coffee like white people did. I rolled up my sleeves and I started the first coeducational dormitory in my state college where black ladies and white ladies were actually roommates.\n\nMy parents thought it was great. My parent's neighbors thought I was a crazy liberal chick who caught a dreadful disease from hanging out with black people. Today, the notion that black people have to live in separate neighborhoods or eat at separate restaurants is dreadful. But back then, it was the way things were. I made a difference by just changing my college dormitory.\n\nIn 1980 I was working in a state legislature. I had small children and a job in legislature. A group of young people came in with signs saying, "End Apartheid in South Africa" and their demonstration outside was spilling inside the state capitol. I had to throw the kids out of the building because their signs couldn't be inside the building. Later, at lunch, I ran into one of them. She said, "I know you hate me, but I have to eat lunch." I told her, "I don't hate you, but I have to do my job. If I didn't have to pay for my daughter's orthodontia, pay my house payment and get my timing chain on my car fixed, I would be out there with the same signs you are carrying. But I need to do my job so that I can raise my kids to carry on in your place in another 20 years."\n\nIn 1996 my daughter got an assignment in her World Politics class to explain the controversy in East Timor. She sat down to examine the political and economic issues surrounding the government oppression of the East Timor people and she became furious at the exploitation of the East Timor peasants at the hands of robber baron coffee magnates and the corruption in the Indonesian government. \n\nIn 1998, when the World Trade Organization met in Seattle, she was one of the demonstrators. Later she became an environmental activist. \n\nI couldn't help but remember that lady who brought the anti-apartheid poster into the capitol. \n\nSomewhere between where I helped to integrate a dorm room and where my daughter sat in a tree to stop a forest from being cut down, there was a lady that I only met once, who was holding down the fort and standing up to some issue that really ignited her passions. \n\nRoll up your sleeves. Take a stand and fight for it. Go into politics. The old geezers who are there are corrupt because they have been there so long that it is an inside job to them. \n\nChange the rules. There has got to be a better way and by your challenging the old geezers who have been there too long, you are making a difference that comes with some solutions.
892036
Check this website. www.vso.org.uk . If you have the right skills and ambition, they are more than happy to consider you. It is a very rewarding volunteering experience and you get paid money enough to live on and given accomodation in the place you are assigned. Give them a ring or email them.
1075539
The Peace Corps will give you more cultural and language training but, if you are a physician, MSF would put you to better use. You can amputate a foot blown to shreds by a land mine from the last generation's war even if you don't speak the language.\n\nThe Peace Corps doesn't usually try to recruit physicians because they tend to come out of medical school with huge loans to pay off.
635459
The absolute best thing you could do would be to graduate from a good college with a degree in Civil Engineering and an emphasis on hydraulics. You could then install drinking water and sewage systems in places around the world. You’d feel good. You’d save the eldest daughter in each family in each village 2 hours a day; she would not have to go to the river for drinking water, then boil it. Because the risk of cholera and about 14 other water-borne diseases would go down, your work would save 40 – 50 lives a year. You’d help preserve the rain forest, too, since the villagers wouldn’t have to chop down trees to get wood for Eldest D. boil their drinking water.\n\nHaving a general desire to do good is one thing; most developing countries have lots of those kind of people themselves. Being able to build foot bridges, water systems, rural health clinics or accounting systems; knowing how to teach English, science and math is another.\n\nThe Peace Corps is a little like a computer dating service. Developing countries ask for people with specific skills. Applicants have certain skills. The PC has to match the skills the countries asked for with the skills the applicants have. A graduate in Civil Engineering, straight out of college, can start at $60,000 a year in California. Very few of them join the Peace Corps, but most developing countries would LOVE to have a dozen of them. On the other hand, these developing countries rarely ask for 18-year olds with no skills but good hearts.\n\nThe Peace Corps doesn’t have to choose between person “A”, with no skills but a tremendous desire to serve, and person “B”, with tremendous skills and no desire to serve. Person “B” would not apply to the Peace Corps, and even if he did, he’d quit the first time he had to eat rice with his fingers or use a squat toilet without running water. They really like people with great skills and a great desire to serve. Their second choice is someone with tremendous skills and an acceptable desire to serve.\n\nContact the United Way in your town. They will know of lots of agencies who are looking for volunteers. \n\nThe 18-year olds in the Peace Corps have enormous skills. They may be able to teach small engine repair because they can take apart small engines with their eyes closed and put them back together. They may have been a 4-H leader and can advise farmers on how to increase their crop yield 12%, or run a chicken farm.\n\nI taught English for two years in the Peace Corps, 30 years ago. One of my former students is now a lawyer. Another is an engineer.\n\nWrite if you'd like to know more.
315485
i met someone who went to Ukraine. \n  he told me that it was hard, but rewarding. \n     there was a man that he didn't get along with, but he was tough. \nps. you have to be a US citizen to do PeaceCorps.
419335
i voluteered with a religious program that gave us americorp credit.  i lived in a rough area of town and walked around to the places where i volunteered at.  no one messed with me.\n\nthe hardest part was leaving a college town to live in the ghetto where i basically didn't have any friends.  social and house life was tougher than working with people at the soup kitchen, health clinic, school, etc...
839312
The best way, in my experience, is go to one of those total immersion programs (many universities over this type of program during the summer), or better yet, spend a couple of years in a country where the language is primarily spoken. \n\nThere are lots of ways to do this, to name just a few: Peace Corps, colleges and university programs, missionary organizations.\n\nNothing else will ever get you to the point where you are really comfortable with the language, unless you live with a native speaker of the language. Even then it's tough!
571039
i went to job corps in sept 2001, it was an experience. i attended Flatwoods in Coeburn west virginia. i was a 21 high school graduate and some college and a three year old. i went to get away from everything that was going on in my life to find some directions and sort out what i wanted to do with my future. well it is really a "what you make it" kind of situation.  because there is kids there from all types of areas, family background, and dealing with different situations. it is kind of structured. i mean if you dont have a high school diploma then you go to school then to your trade. if you have a high school diploma then you go to your trade all day, and/or college. you go to lunch at certian times, but breakfast and dinner is all at once and by choice. you do have liberty on weekends to stay up late and go to other job corps for dances or to the movies or skating. you have to pay for this out of your allowance. the worse part is the interaction from some of th e students is not always positive. there is a lot of fights and arguements some times. i had to fight twice to prove myself and after that i didnt have to anymore. so just keep in contact with your boys, send them monthly items like magazines a little money, snacks, and personal items so that they dont have to spend save up 30 dollar checks every two weeks or borrow.
524275
yeh once but looking for more and more.. its awesome great experience that you can have in your life..!!!\n\nthey up to do anyting any sound any hard..wow.. you can .... her as long as you can . is ther anyone?\n\nerotni@
880344
Yes, and I have. I was in a program called Semester at Sea and we traveled on a ship around the world on a "Voyage of Discovery" for 108 days, just over 3 months. My voyage left from Vancouver and made stops in Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Tanzania, South Africa, Brazil, and Cuba and returned to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I went in Fall 2003.\n\nIt was the best experience of my life and I had a phenomenal time. I learned so much and cannot wait to travel again.\n\nI will be graduating in 27 days (YAY!) and am actually going to be registering for a recruiting fair to teach overseas. I am sooo excited!