Peace Corps Vols Share Stories

By Molly Binion
May 1, 2009

The ideal Peace Corps candidate is someone who is flexible, open to new experiences, and prepared for the strangest situations life may throw at them in a foreign culture.

This was one of the key points made by returned volunteers from the Peace Corps who gathered at Virginia Tech on Wednesday to share their stories, experiences, and challenges with interested students.  This open panel was organized by the Peace Corps at Virginia Tech and held in the Graduate Life Center.

Five former Peace Corps volunteers of all ages shared their unique stories with the students attending the panel and allowed all attendees to ask questions for discussion.

The volunteers had each traveled to different countries, worked in different areas, and experienced very different situations.  None of them knew quite what to expect, even following three months of training to prepare for two years in their respective countries.

Peace Corps volunteers can work in a variety of areas, including education, sanitation, agriculture, and economics.  It is made up of volunteers of many different ages, races, and both genders.

One volunteer and current Virginia Tech student, Alex Frane, had multiple stories to tell about the surprising ways people treated him in China, where he worked in environmental education.

"You can get put in these unexpected situations that you have to adapt to," Frane said at the conclusion of one story.

Emily Van Houweling, also a current Virginia Tech student, spoke not only about her experiences in Mali working in water and sanitation, but about the unexpected culture shock that set in upon her return to the United States.  Her first thought as she was returning home was how amazing the airplane food seemed to her after being in Africa for so long.

Frane experienced a similar culture shock.  "Being in China made me see how American I am," he said.  "When I got back to the States, I realized how Chinese I had become."

Both explained the difficulty in getting others in the United States to relate to what they went through in the Peace Corps.  "When you first return, everyone wants to hear all about it...but they can't relate to it after a while," said Van Houweling.

John Kern, the self-proclaimed "old guy" in the group, brought back physical evidence of his journey.  Kern, who worked in North Africa in a government orphanage, showed the group artifacts he had recovered from the Atlas Mountains during his stay.  "They're not valuable," he said of his souvenirs as he explained that they were Roman building materials.

"I learned a true sense of poverty," Kern said.  "I had an experience of a completely different culture."

Josh Gambrel, a Virginia Tech staff member, passed around pictures of his adventures in Mongolia, where he worked as an education volunteer.

When asked why they joined the Peace Corps, Kern, who referred to himself as "anti-authoritarian" honestly explained that he was attempting to avoid military duty before Vietnam and complete graduate school.

Joe Hunnings, who worked in the Dominican Republic in agriculture, explained "I was looking for adventure."

All five panel members gave advice to any who may be seeking a future with the Peace Corps.  The volunteers recommended that potential candidates be open to just about anything and prepare themselves however they can for life in a foreign country.  The volunteers also calmed any fears about security scares that may occur abroad.

"I would study the language as intensely as you can here," advised Kern.

No matter where a student's talent lies, the panel assured the students that there could be a place in the Peace Corps for them.