My qualifications at the time of my application were that I had graduated with a bachelor's of science degree in Environmental Science and a specialization in International Agriculture.
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| Charlie went to college for psychology. In the Peace Corps she's a public health volunteer where she works to prevent HIV / AIDS, malaria, and many other diseases and viruses faced in this part of the world. |
Also, I’d been to Africa twice before, once as an intern on a wildlife ranch in Kenya, and I had even studied an African language for a year in college. Then after college I worked for a natural resource managing agency in Arizona. I thought I had the right stuff for this job -- on paper at least.
Currently, there are around 8,100 Peace Corps Volunteers serving in 76 countries, all of them featuring different skill sets and abilities. And although I’m sure most of them are very talented, I’m sure that none are 100 percent qualified for every aspect of this job.
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| Sometimes I think I went to school to be an agriculture volunteer in the Peace Corps. However, my work ranges over a lot of subjects - a 100 years of college would not prepare someone for life in the Peace Corps. |
You see, the job of a Peace Corps Volunteer is vast and diverse. One day I may teach a group of women about gardening; another day I’ll assist in the writing of a grant proposal; the next day I’ll plant some trees with kids, and the day after that I’ll go to the local health clinic and talk about malaria prevention. Work diversity is a main component of this job.
I once heard a volunteer that left early from Peace Corps Zambia say that he was overqualified for his job. Maybe for one aspect of it that was true. But for all? There’s just no way.
Because the work here is so diverse and widespread, all volunteers go through three months of training as soon as we come into Zambia. The training is half linguistics, half technical training (think of it as a crash course in forestry, gardening, and agronomy). And this is what I mean by a continuation of our education.
After this, we’re sent out with our prior experiences and education, our newly acquired knowledge, an armful of manuals and a whole bunch of ambition.
Throughout the two years of service, I’ll attend more trainings and receive even more education in areas like HIV/AIDS prevention, appropriate technologies, increased agricultural production and even how to facilitate meetings more efficiently.
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| Ryan went graduated with a degree in business. Now in the Peace Corps he teaches how to build, maintain, and harvest fish farms. |
Yet the one resource that is most relied upon by myself are the other volunteers. There’s a vast cache of knowledge to be found in other volunteers and the Peace Corps’ staff. So while I may be a jack of all trades, more or less, somewhere, not too far from me, is an expert that can be called upon to offer advice and assistance when needed, and that’s an enormous benefit.
This April I’ll be returning to the place where I first trained as a trainee, but this time as a trainer. I’ll be doing my best to share what I’ve learned in my first year of service and give any advice that may be sought out.
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| Talking to a new trainee, Ryeon, about some of my experiences in my first year of the Peace Corps. |
All in all, this job and its work (both development and cultural sharing) is a lot like building a house. We come to the job site with a box of tools, we’re given more and our colleagues have even more still.
It doesn’t matter which tools we use, but in the end what we’re after is that there stands a strong house, or in my case, that I leave my Zambian community better than I found it.
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| Training can teach trainees like these 4 a lot about what life may or may not be like in Zambia, as well as the types of technical knowledge they'll be expected to share, but nothing can fully prepare anyone for life in a small African village. |
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