Now More than Ever

Next Tuesday, I will be flying to Philly for our one day staging event, then on to Mozambique! I have to say I am getting pretty excited. This weekend, I am going rafting for the first time with a group of girls who I will really miss while I am gone. It is a great distraction, but makes the time left seem even shorter.

Obviously, a move like this comes with a certain amount of stress and anxiety - there is a whole lot that is unknown at this point. But I can't think of another time in my life when something has felt so right. A number of people have asked if the recent unrest in the Middle East is making me nervous about traveling to Africa, but I can't say that it is. Primarily because there isn't any indication that the unrest will spread to southern Africa. But also because the Peace Corps has been sending volunteers around the world for 51 years now, and my experience so far has given me the impression that they know what they are doing. (Besides the fact that they are holding our staging event at a Holiday Inn in Philadelphia and then busing us to NYC for our flight.)

I also know a volunteer who was placed in a country that experienced political unrest during his service and he and the other PCV's were pulled and reassigned at the very first sign of possible danger. Basically, I have confidence that the Peace Corps has a vested interest in keeping me and the other volunteers safe and will do its part to accomplish that. 

If anything, the recent protests in the Middle East make me happier to be a part of the Peace Corps. It is now more important than ever to have Americans traveling throughout the world and engaging with other countries in a positive way. So much of what people think of America comes from negative sources: military engagement, political or economic meddling to serve our own interests, TV shows and movies that leave us looking pretty shallow. Or even worse, crackpots like "Sam Bacile" and Terry Jones.

While USAID specifically has furthering US interests abroad written into its mission statement, the Peace Corps' mission is stated on its website as follows:

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship. The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Naive or over-simplified? Maybe. I'm sure that politics enters in - at the very least when the organization decides whether or not to work in a given country. But this mission statement still makes me feel good, and it's the one that I'll be holding to on a personal level while I am serving.