Challenges

I can see it now: about two years from now I will be interviewing for a job and the fact that I was a Peace Corps Volunteer will come up. The interviewer will ask, “What kinds of challenges did you face as a Peace Corps Volunteer?” Here’s the answer: May 16, 2011.

Things that I found out/had to deal with on May 16, 2011:

1. I’m recovering from a lovely 101 degree fever, all-over body ache, and diarrhea. (The euphemistic Peace Cops term for diarrhea is “homesickness.” During the first week of our training, one of the volunteers spent almost the entire evening on his host family’s local toilet. When he finally came out, his host father took one look at him and said, “You’re probably just homesick.”) Weeks upon weeks of eating essentially nothing but canned meat, grease, and salt seems to have caught up with me, and although I feel considerably better than I did yesterday, I am by no means feeling 100 percent well. I am hoping for a quiet, physically and mentally undemanding day.

2. The Peace Corps Volunteer on a neighboring island enlists my help to do something about the state of the high school which services out two islands. This high school, as it turns out, is located on my island and while neither of us teach or work there, both of us know many of the teachers there on a personal basis.

This school is not doing well. This is not the venue to discuss the shortcomings of a school, particularly a school that I do not work at, but suffice it to say that there are some serious issues. Unfortunately, I really can’t write/explain much more about this situation in this public venue but let’s just say this is an issue that’s weighing on my mind and might require some action in the near future.

3. I have just found out that one of my very good friends, a Peace Corps Volunteer on another outer island here in the FSM, may have to be pulled out of his site and sent home. This has nothing to do with his own actions, but rather a lack of support from his community and school. (In his words: “I essentially don’t have a job. I’m supposed to be a teacher but we’ve only had 5 full days of school in the last 5 weeks.”) While this does not directly affect me, I feel really bad for him because he has already moved sites once and is so close to the end of his service that it would just be a huge bummer for him to have to go home at this point. It also is not helpful to the overall status of outer island volunteers…

4. …which is challenge number four of the day. I just found out that Peace Corps officials have some serious issues to discuss about the status of outer island volunteers. While this is again not the venue to discuss these issues, the long and the short of it is that we (the outer island Volunteers) need to essentially defend the Peace Corps Program operations in the outer islands. If Peace Corps determines that the issues cannot be ignored, there is the possibility that new volunteers will not be placed in the outer islands or, worst case scenario, we will have to change sites, which is not something that I want to do.

5. Now the worst one of all: my host dad’s brother, Opich, died this morning. As you might expect, the family is devastated. I had met Opich several times and he was a great guy and a vocal leader in his community. I will come in to Weno for the funeral to support the family and show my respects. Unfortunately, this is really not a good time for me to leave Satowan. I will miss the last 3 weeks of school, final exams, and will miss all of the final planning for the summer camp that will happen in June.

All of these are on top of the everyday challenges I face: teaching, fumbling my way through a language I am still not totally comfortable with, and generally living on an island the size of a couple of city blocks. But…challenges are just part of the job. The way I see it, the toughest challenges make for the best stories later. I’m certainly going to have a lot of stories…