‘Isn’t it amazing?!’

      One of our good PCV friends recently went home, and in asking her what it was like to see her family and friends she said, “Great! Mostly great… I mean, sometimes, it’s weird.  Some people ask, ‘Isn’t it amazing?!’ and you think ‘What am I supposed to say to that? You really have no idea what it’s like to be a PCV? Because that’s what I feel like saying.’

JC member reading @ Book Club

     Let’s be clear here. Sometimes PC service is amazing… But let’s also be honest. Many times it’s not. Many times it’s hard. It’s frustrating. It’s stressful. You feel lonely. You feel underappreciated. You feel weird. You feel out of place. You feel like you want to go home where things were easier -not easy, but easier. You question why you’re here. You doubt the very beliefs that brought you here in the first place. You become cynical. You get depressed. You want to give in. You want to give up.


     PC is not this fanciful story in which you arrive to your community, everyone waiting for their hero to arrive –no Disney-true-story-movie here. We don’t regularly see the fruits of our labor, and often wonder if we’re going one step forward, two steps back -instead of the other way around. We’re not always liked, loved, or appreciated. Many times we work tirelessly on a project, and upon its completion, all anybody can do is complain. You hold meetings or workdays, and nobody shows up, even the very people who suggested the meeting or workday in the first place.

Julie with her fan club

    In Jamaica, we need to be constantly aware of violence –hearing of fellow PCVs being robbed, mugged, or harassed. We’re constantly dealing with trust issues, as stealing and lying don’t carry with them the level of immorality we’re used to. Locals are boisterous, and don’t hold back sharing any of their thoughts –even if those thoughts are misinformed or hurtful.

    It isn’t always bad. Jamaica and PC World can be a wonderful place. But it isn’t always amazing either. This is part of the PCV story, and volunteers struggle regularly in their service worldwide, as I’m reminded by a fellow PCV serving halfway across the world in Azerbaijan:


    ‘I guess the point is that there never really is a day or a month or a year where you do not question your choice of living overseas in such a situation as Peace Corps requires. Peace does not settle in your heart and every puzzle piece falls into place. I mean, if that were the case, what would be the point? This experience is not meant for the complacent, it is meant for the hearty. The ready. The willing.’