The toughest job you'll ever love - as I see it

The toughest job you’ll ever love.

This is the motto of the Peace Corps.

And I think I am beginning to understand why.

It’s not necessarily the “job” that is tough. We actually have a pretty sweet schedule. It is not a typical 9 to 5, with rush hour and the rat race. Sometimes, it doesn’t even feel like a job, in the traditional sense. Depending on what’s happening in town you can usually set the times of your meetings, events, and projects. In addition to a rather flexible schedule, “La Hora Peruana” (The Peruvian Hour) allows for even more flexibility as it is culturally acceptable to arrive at a meeting an hour and a half late because that is actually the time it will start. The work itself is not terribly complex either. Teaching healthy hygiene and nutritional habits are almost second nature. Building improved stoves and latrines is more demanding, but not very complicated. Working with children is pretty involved, but it is also fun. Whatever work it may be, to me it has been more stress-free than most jobs I’ve had in the US.

Ironically, though, what can make this work tough is exactly the stress-free characteristic of it all. Figuring out how to initiate and complete the work, in itself, is a challenge. Deciding where funding will come from and acquiring it is another. Discovering ways to inspire and motivate those you work with and collaborate with them is an ongoing campaign. Yet, probably the biggest contender at battle here is the aforementioned “Hora Peruana”. While flexible, this casual attitude toward punctuality can try your patience, as meetings start and end late, and leave you frustrated, when only a few, or sometimes none, of the people show up. It is a barrier, in a lot of ways, to the realization of said “simple” projects. Therefore, the work of a PCV, while often simple, is not always easy.

However, the really tough part is the lifestyle. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer is not a 40 hour a week job; it is a 24 hour a day job. A Peace Corps Volunteer’s job is their life; their life in the city, town, or village. Adjusting to a different way of living and becoming an accepted member of the community in order to successfully complete projects, is at the core of the work. Living in a place where there are so many human similarities, yet so many cultural differences can feel like a parallel universe. Learning to adapt to things, as an American, you probably never imagined living with or living without all the while trying to navigate through this new world while speaking, quite brokenly, another language creates a whole new type of stress.

There is a lot of surrender and acceptance involved to do this successfully. Surrender of your own cultural perspectives and expectations of “how things should be” and learning the reality of how things really are. Relinquishment of a level of independence that a typical young American is accustomed to, in order to successfully integrate into a host family and community and avoid violating (too many) cultural norms and gender roles. Acceptance of eating unusual foods, lack of variety, changes in routine, not having all the creature comforts of hot water, or for that matter even running water; lack of dependable electricity, living with dirt floors, getting used to chickens walking through your house, the rooster waking you up at 4am, rainy seasons full of mud and mold on everything, cloudy days, isolated locations, and lack of phone and internet access. Changing your frame of reference to try to understand verbal and non-verbal expressions and conversations to avoid causing misunderstandings which, when they do occur must be resolved diplomatically. For some, this adjustment may come quickly but for others it is a long process which can lead to doubts and uncertainties in one’s own purpose for being a PCV.

Nevertheless, there comes the part of which you love. The part that you end up loving is the people in your village that you live and work with. The memories you take with you of the children who yell your name from across the street and run up to give you hugs, the family who loves you like their own, and the people you taught something to and learned something from. The part you love is your fellow volunteers, who “get” you in a way that no one else ever will. The feeling of community shared with strangers who have suddenly become more than a group of friends, but almost like a family. People with who you may not always stay in contact with afterward, but will forever be bonded to because of the experiences you have shared while living very different, yet very comparable, lives for 2 years. The part you love is the person you grow into because of what you’ve done and where you’ve been. Additionally, there is a love and appreciation that develops for where you came from and for who and what you left back home.

The PC is almost like a test of your character. This, if you let it, will build you up and make you a stronger, more insightful, patient, and even different person. Just as any experience can influence who you are and who you become, the Peace Corps, whether you stay for a day or for 2 years, does so in a very profound way: by exposing yourself to who you are, and showing that “self” just who you can become. This, as I see it, is the toughest job that you will ever love.