This summer was quite a struggle. In June we unexpectedly had to say “bon voyage” to a close friend, and then we watched Peace Corps completely botch everything about her departure. Then, we were thrown into the middle of a “situation” with one of the local businesses. Next, we returned from the Kayengel trip in June and the entire brigade of volunteers in Palau was accused of being chronic rule breakers. And when the staff came to visit Palau they were shocked – SHOCKED to find out there were home-stay problems with two of the volunteers. Then in July we lost a local staff member to budget cuts. I think it’s fair to say that by the end of July we had a pretty sour taste in our mouths regarding Peace Corps in general.
Here are a couple of analogies to help you put the struggle into perspective. One of our friends had been reading a bunch of literary non-fiction about Russian history and he proposed an interesting metaphor. He said it’s like we’re a military unit with a rogue leader, so we have all banded together. And, God help you, if you attack one of us you attack all of us. We won’t leave a man down. I have my own metaphor to add. Back in training, on our water safety day, we had to do a little exercise where we all linked arms and formed a circle to help keep everyone afloat. When I think back on this summer, that’s what I think of. It was a summer of volunteer bonding as we linked arms and tried to help each other keep our heads above water.
(I think this also explains why all of the photos I have from this summer are of white people. ha.)
You’ll be happy to know that we’ve all (staff and volunteers) been able to come together and work everything out, so things are on the up and up now.
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