¡Year In Year Out!

April caught me out of site for three weeks: Holy Week in the Jungle, a workshop on dry toilets, and a conference with all the volunteers I came to Ecuador with (about 31 of us left of 42). Also, April 20 marked a year that I’ve been a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) – with another year left. It felt good to pass that date. They say that the second year is when things really take off and start to happen, which is crazy. It takes half our service to integrate, learn the language, and really begin to understand what’s going on in our community. It’s appropriate, this length of time to get to know a place in a rudimentary way, but it takes one of the two years we have here! Sustainable development is rightly a slow process. In some ways, two years is hardly anything.

What we tend to overlook is that the “getting things done” component of Peace Corps service is just a part of the big picture. Peace Corps has three goals: 1) building technical capacity of host country nationals (HCNs), 2) sharing our American culture with HCNs, and 3) sharing the culture of our host country with Americans. There it is. But I think sometimes we just focus on the first goal. As Americans we want measurable results to tell us whether or not we’ve been successful and productive. When we think of going off to serve the poor, we often have the image of building houses in poverty areas (which is important work). At the end of the project, you see the house. Less frequently we think of forming relationships with the people we serve as an integral part to service. You may never see the fruits of your efforts. And as Peace Corps Volunteers it´s the same. When we initially get to site, we want to hit the ground running. We want to feel as if we’re having an immediate, tangible, positive impact on people’s lives. But oh! How hard our impotency hits us at the outset!

During training, they described PCVs from the perspective of Ecuadorians (or HCNs in whatever country). Imagine dressing up in a full-body bunny costume and running around downtown New York, going up to people, and saying, “I’m here to help you!”

In terms of our goals, two-thirds of Peace Corps service is about cultural exchange. It’s about relationships. As a PCV, it’s about opening yourself up to others and really trying to get to know them. Humility is huge.

They say that in the States we are “human doings.” Work has a huge role in our lives, and our productivity as individuals is really important. In Ecuador, people are “human beings.” The focus is more on family, community, interpersonal relationships outside of work life, and people have a more collectivistic view of their place in society. Being present.

Looking back, my first year was really was about getting to know people. I love the relationships I now have with my counterpart and co-workers, my barber, my neighbor down the street who I buy chicken from, the bakers at the panedería, the ladies at the vegetable/fruit stand at the Sunday market, the pick-up truck taxi drivers in town, the women in our women’s group, my nutty landlady, etc. In Ecuador, people really know their neighbors. A still, small voice says this is what it’s about.