Auburn Journal

I recently got asked to answer 9 questions for the Auburn Journal about my Peace Corps experience. I was unfortunately away from my internet for a good while, and I'm not sure if my information will get published or not...so I'm going to post it here.

1. Why did you join the Peace Corps?
2. What are you doing in (your country) currently?
3. What has been the hardest part?
4. What has been the best part?
5. What are your living conditions like?
6. What are living conditions like for the people you are helping?
7. Has your safety ever been compromised? If so, how did you handle it?
8. What are things you miss from home?
9. What are things people reading this might not know about (your country) and its people?


Thank you for your interest in Auburn raised Peace Corps volunteers. I would be happy to share my story with you and Auburn (if it's not too late...I just got my email yesterday). I am a "Community Development" volunteer in the west African island country of Cape Verde.

I have wanted to join the Peace Corps since I was in middle school. I had heard about this program where the US government sends its people to other countries to make friends with people from that country. My understanding was pretty basic at the time, but as I learned more about the Peace Corps I became more and more convinced that it was a perfect fit for me. I majored in international relations in college and this was an immediate way to apply what I had learned in university.

Being a community development volunteer is all about using your imagination. Unlike the other Peace Corps assignment areas, there are no real "set in stone" objectives, schedules, or even partners. What community development volunteers do is entirely up to them. We try to motivate locals from our communities to develop projects that create a long term benefits. I have done everything from organizing farmers to adopt more efficient drip irrigation technologies to drafting business plans for bakeries. Almost all of the projects are done on a "learn on the go" basis, since no training can cover the myriad of potential projects out there. Projects are hit and miss, but when a project does succeed its tremendously rewarding. Most volunteers, myself included, in community development assignments teach English as a way to fill the time between projects. There can be a great deal of waiting for funding to get approved, or for busy seasons to pass (such as elections, holidays, or harvesting). In addition to the assorted projects and English teaching, I lead some more recreational activities such as camping trips, breakdancing classes, and chess tournaments. In my free time I enjoy talking with my new friends, hiking, and fishing.

The hardest part of my service is certainly uncertainty. I live in the most remote Peace Corps site in Cape Verde, and there are no precedents or guidebooks to follow. The question of "what should I be doing right now" is a familiar one. I've gotten much better at answering that as the last 19 months have passed, but in the beginning in can be quite daunting. Uncertainty is also very prevalent in most Peace Corps countries where volunteers need to learn a new local language. Overcoming miscommunication is as regular a part of my day here, as waiting for a red light to change in America was.

The most rewarding part of my service has been the experience living with Cape Verdeans in a village. When you live in a city (even a small one like Auburn) you tend to live more or less anonymously outside of your group of friends, family, and aquaintences. However, in a village of less than 500 people, you come know the first name of every single person you pass on your way to buy onions. Its not uncommon to stop and chat with people from all age groups and walks of life in the town square. You really get to meet people you would never get to know otherwise. I'm only 26, but my best friend in the village became a grandfather last year.

My living conditions are not what you see on the Peace Corps posters. I live in a village over an hour away from the nearest post office, yet my house is two stories, has electricity, and running water. I'm also writing this email from my bedroom, as I have recently got internet at home. This isn't Kennedy's Peace Corps anymore, and the technology Peace Corps Volunteers have these days has really accelerated what we can do out here. Many of the volunteers, at least here in Cape Verde, share project ideas with local leaders, NGOs, and each other through the internet. Although I had signed up for Peace Corps expecting the mud hut, I'm really grateful for what I can do now that I have a working cellphone and an internet connection.

Cape Verde enjoys a higher standard of living than most of the rest of Africa, but by most people's definitions it is still poor. In 2007 it graduated from the classification of least developed country to a higher level. The results of Cape Verde's success are visible on the ground level. Most people live in cement houses, most of which have electricity at least some hours of the day. Many people have running water, and I'm not the only person in my village who has internet. Starvation, was once a part of the history of Cape Verde, but is nearly unheard of now. That said, Cape Verde has a long way to go. Most people don't graduate high school, earn less than 7 dollars a day for tough agricultural labor, and have children before they turn 21.

I have never lived anywhere safer than I do now. There is truly something to be said for the policing power of a small community. People here go to great lengths to avoid offending anyone in the village. The social implications of commiting a crime here are unimaginable. If I were to buy cheese and flour, half of the village would know I was fixing to make a pizza before nightfall. The benefit to this all being that everyone treats everyone with respect because everybody knows everything. That said, when I went to a nightclub in the capital city I experienced an attempted mugging. That's a risk you run into in a big city anywhere, whether it be Los Angeles or Sao Paulo. I managed to get out of the situation by making a lot of noise, so my attackers fled for fear of getting caught.

There is nothing I miss more from home than my friends and family. Cold bucket baths, strange foods, and lack of transportation are things that are actually relatively easy to get used to. However, being away from the people that make you who you are doesn't really change with time.

The first thing people should know about Cape Verde is that it exists, and it is in fact a country. It's very hard to find on a map, but if you go out into the Atlantic Ocean west of Senegal you should see some dots there. Cape Verde is a former Portuguese colony that was used as a waypoint during the days of the slave trade. As a result the Cape Verdean people are descended from both Portuguese and Africans. The history is also reflected in the language which is a pidgin of Portuguese.