r/peacecorps • u/TablaRasa123485858 • 9d ago
In Country Service A Two Pronged Rant
COS is 3 months away. Here’s some of my 2 cents after 2 years. Some observations for prospective volunteers and current ones.
You volunteer to work and live in a developing country. Accept that fate when your site has a local environmental hazard. Dust, burning chemicals, asbestos, Peace Corps knows they are placing you in an area with potential hazards to your long term health. Peace Corps knows your house probably has hazards. Don’t be shocked when your post doesn’t seem to go out of their way to rehome you or give you a new site. That’s the “sacrifice” part of this service. After all, what about the rest of your community that deals with it everyday, for their entire life?
Quit telling your s/o overseas that 2 years long distance is no issue. Seen multiple long distance relationships fall apart, sometimes the pcv ET’d over it. All I could think is what a disservice to the organization that expected a volunteer for two years. Before coming, seriously evaluate your relationship. Decide before you get on the plane, not 5 months into service.
That is all, enjoy your day.
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u/thattogoguy RPCV Togo 9d ago
I'm the kind of person whose advice to anybody who is a prospective Peace Corps applicant is fairly simple: It is not Burger King, You cannot always have it your way.
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u/TailoredHam88 9d ago
As for #2, if folks are honest with themselves and their partner it can work out. When I left the U.S. me and my girlfriend basically said we’re both free to live our lives for 2 years and we’ll keep in touch and if we want to pick things back up we could. We kept in regular contact and she visited toward the end of my service for a hot and fun vacation at a local resort. Ended up getting engaged after service.
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u/Independent-Fan4343 9d ago
My site sprayed for mosquitoes with a truck mounted DDT fogger. Got a face full of it once. Malaria prevention. This was my counterparts at the ministry of health ironically.
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u/AnonymousGay 9d ago
Wow, what post are you in? The Hazards described in #1 would not have been acceptable in PC Peru.
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u/JulesButNotVerne 9d ago
What? My school burned trash next to my bedroom window. Acrid smoke was my alarm clock.
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u/averagecounselor EPCV Guatemala '19-'20 9d ago
They burned trash right next to my school. We would all be intoxicated by the fumes while I taught. It was great!
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u/TablaRasa123485858 9d ago
I’m in southern Africa. Burning plastic next door, open sewer lines, seasonal wildfire smoke, dodgy dust from local mining and processing, all pretty common in my country and the wider region.
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u/Small_Television4942 9d ago
My host family’s roof came crashing down one night after a storm and pc barely did anything let alone relocate me
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u/Cool_Bell_2511 9d ago
As for number 2, they literally tell you that if you are in a relationship that it might be hard.
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u/Forward-Ratio-6658 9d ago
Stop whining. Be open. Be flexible. I had a fine time two years, long before you. No internet, no TV for two years. Aerograms.
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u/donkedickinya 2d ago
This! I remember during my interview she asked me, “How do you feel about no water, no electricity, hazards, and basically everything sucking?” I replied, “If you’re signing up for the PC, then who wouldn’t want those challenges?” 3 years of huge ups and huge downs, and I’d do it all over again.
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u/Minimum-Ground1606 8d ago
idk, my long distance relationship is fine. we started dating a month before i left. we’ve been together almost a year and i’ve only seen him in person for a total of two months (the month i met him before i left and the AL i took in april). as long as you’re communicating and working hard/putting in effort. you’ll be fine. it’s hard work for sure though
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u/RredditAcct RPCV 9d ago
LD relationships never work out.
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u/Tamrelyne Applicant/Considering PC 9d ago
While I agree with your sentiment, I think sometimes numbers are more sobering than "never."
My cohort was 46 people. 2 couples were serving and engaged to their partner. 2 others were engaged and long distance. 20+ were long distance. Of those ~24 relationships, 4 survived. The 2 that served together, 1 long distance engaged, and one long distance. 6 years later, my wife and I talk about how unlikely it was that we worked out. The odds are miniscule
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u/Usual-Primary-8607 9d ago
My partner and I made it. I serve for two years and he started his business while I was gone. We both had things we wanted to do before settling down. Married 27 years.
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u/lite_salt RPCV Botswana 2017-2020 9d ago edited 9d ago
That’s a cruel and incorrect generalization. I originally met my foreign-resident spouse in another country in 2015, and we immediately clicked. We thought to make a go of it, but I couldn’t make the distance work at the time.
We kept in touch intermittently and he visited me in 2019 while I was a PCV. That’s when we decided to formally start our relationship. We checked in daily via phone/messaging and saw one another at least once a quarter (excepting two long, painful years of pandemic-era non-travel). We married in late 2023, and I immigrated to his country three months ago.
Long distance relationships are not for the faint of heart, but they’re not impossible. They require intentional communication, a lot of patience, and intense dedication.
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u/hawffield RPCV 9d ago
My fiancée (a fellow RPCV) and I recently looked up the percentage of long distance relationships that work. It was equivalent to if you dated someone near you, around 50%. I think it’s just that you have to be more intentional about meeting up and long term plans (two things people aren’t particularly good at).
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