2008 | February | Rpcvw Newsletter

FEBRUARY 2008 NEWS FROM YOUR RPCVw BOARD

President’s Corner Greetings to all — During your Peace Corps service, how many of you considered how you would stay connected to other volunteers when you returned home? Were you ready to jump back into the “real world” and return to the relationships that you had known before? How had they changed? How had you changed? RPCVw is a special organization because it brings together others who have shared parts of your formative Peace Corps experience — learning a brand new language; how to eat, speak, and work with a new community. Our RPCVw Board exists for you, our members, to help create opportunities for you to meet each other and form life-giving relationships building from those unique experiences you had during your Peace Corps service. There are so many ways to make these connections — during the next five months you can look forward to more social and community service activities. As a Board, we’ve been working hard to plan diverse activities to satisfy the mosaic of preferences that we so appreciate about our members. Please come to the activities, e-mail us, talk to us and to each other. Let us know how you would like to connect with other RPCVs. In addition to communicating with you through our Listserve, there are bulletin boards on our Web site for members to pose comments and questions, and we now have a Facebook page you can join to stay informed. In this newsletter and in future e-mails you will read about past and upcoming events, and you’ll find opportunities to offer some of your self to others. We invite you to join us as you are able. We each have a story to tell. Won’t you share yours? Warm regards, Molly Mattessich Vice President, RPCVw PCV Mali, 2002-2004

This year the board of RPCV/W has been busy! Since our August retreat, we have been coordinating social events, bringing interesting new opportunities to our members and expanding our RPCV community. 2007 Holiday Party: This year's holiday party was a big success, with over 220 returned volunteers, gathered together in the beautiful Josephine Butler House. The rooms were decorated, the food was delicious and the music was rockin'. Thank you to Chefs Kyle and James from the Fix-NY Deli for outdoing themselves, yet again, on the food, and another big thank you to our volunteer DJ, Mark Alyea-Cheu. Thanks to everyone who donated or bid on an item at the silent auction. We raised about $300, which will go towards third-goal initiatives. If you have any comments about the holiday party or have suggestions for next year's festivities, please contact [email protected]. We want to keep improving it year to year! Board Retreat: We just met for our mid-year retreat on January 12th, where we discussed the highlights of the year so far, including happy hours, community service events, new members events, interesting programs and a successful holiday party. Our membership is at its highest ever! We are so happy to have so many loyal members and so many new faces. Upcoming Events: Looking ahead to the rest of the year, we will continue to bring social events and educational opportunities, and incorporate some great programs for Peace Corps Week in March. We appreciate any and all feedback, as we are here to represent our membership.

Some exciting things to look forward to include the annual wreath laying on John F. Kennedy's grave in May, and the annual picnic in July. Both have been member favorites in the past. This year our board had its annual holiday dinner at Bucco de Beppo to celebrate a great 2007. If you are interested in joining the RPCV/W board, please contact Jim Gore at [email protected]. Here's to a great 2008!

RPCV Career Event Washington, D.C. February 26-29, 2008

Couches needed!! Remember those long journeys you took as a PCV to an unknown village, city, or town, and how much it meant to have someone open up their home to you, give you a seat on which to rest? Now is your chance to return the favor. A few hundred RPCVs are coming to D.C. for a career fair and weekend of activities and many are looking for an affordable place to stay. This is a great way to meet someone new from another part of the country. If you have a spare couch, futon, air mattress, or bed to offer on any evening from Feb 26 March 3, please email Molly at [email protected] and let her know when and what you have available. Many thanks!!

The next Peace Corps RPCV Career Event in Washington, DC, is coming right up! We are now registering RPCVs for this FREE four-day event, which will take place Tuesday, February 26 through Friday, February 29. Highlights of this FREE event include hands-on interactive workshops and a career fair with over 30 international, domestic, private and public sector organizations. Pre-registration is required for all sessions, and attendees are responsible for their own travel, food, and lodging costs. Detailed information about this event, including a schedule, is at www.peacecorps.gov/rpcv/events. For more information, contact Returned Volunteer Services, 202.692.1430, [email protected]. The registration deadline for RPCVs is Thursday, February 21 at midnight. Please note that this RPCV Career Event has been planned to coincide with Peace Corps Week 2008, which will celebrate the 47th anniversary of the agency and the outstanding work of Volunteers and returned Volunteers through the years. The overlap of these two events will allow you to participate in the Third Goal of the Peace Corps and promote yourself to employers.

SAVE THE DATE! Tuesday, February 26, 2008 – Sharing Your Peace Corps Story Wednesday, February 27, 2008 – Sharing Your Qualifications Thursday, February 28, 2008 – Federal Employment and RPCV Career Fair Friday, February 29, 2008 – Employer Information Sessions

Community Service Opportunity:

Postscripts from the Field Another letter from Africa PCV

Participate in Peace Corps Week! February 25-March 1 Peace Corps Week is an opportunity for our The NPCA Scholarship was established in 2000 returned Volunteers and their extended Peace to recognize the long-standing ties between SIT Corps family — staff, friends and family of and the Peace Corps. Members of NPCA who Volunteers, of the Peace have one yearasorwell moreasoffriends significant intercultural Corps — to partake in promoting crossexperience are eligible to apply. Several awards cultural world of $10,000understanding, will be made each year.peace, NPCAand members friendshipcan byrequest shininginformation a spotlightregarding on the this exclusive scholarship opportunity at important work of our Volunteers 800-336around the 1616 802-257-7751, or online at that returned worldorand the continuing service http://www.sit.edu. Volunteers bring to communities in the United States. SAVING PEACE CORPS’ HISTORY (before it’s too late)

Peace Corps has great resources and ideas on their site astheto50th howAnniversary RPCVs canofprepare a As weWeb approach The presentation on RPCV their country service. Peace Corps, the ArchivalofProject hasThey even will send you a packet of things use in begun a renewed effort to seek out those to who your the presentation passCorps, out tovolunte your ers were pioneers ofand the to Peace from the 1960s. Year by are losing that "audience." Check outyear thiswe page cohort and their unique stories of volunteer http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=re service. The Project hopesfor to add 3000 1960s sources.former.pcweek more information. interviews to the National Archives at the John F. Click on the Speakers Match link on the right Kennedy Library in the RPCV Collection before hand side of this page to be matched with a the anniversary year; that would be about 10% of classroom or group in your those who served during that area. period.Have fun! Afterward, please tell us at what you The RPCV Archival Project is RPCVw an informal did! Send an e-mail better yet with network of RPCVs who(and work to preserve Peace Corps’ by conducting pictureslegacy attached!) of what oral youhistory did for Peace interviews of those whoKunz, have served as PCVs. In Corps Week to Amy RPCV/W Director the five years of its existen ce, more than 40 RPCV of Community Service interviewers have completed approximately 300 [email protected]

interviews [SEE <jfklibrary.org> Search: The RPCV Collection]. The Project’s basic resource is and will continue to be the unpaid voluntary efforts of those RPCVs who’ve participated, operating in cooperation with NPCA Affiliate groups. We need people to volunteer to participate by becoming interviewers; a commitment of three hours a month during 2007 could add 12 more RPCV stories to the Collection. The Project provides training and orientation through an operational guide; once started, participants work directly with the RPCV Archivist at the

Good news: I don't have malaria. Bad news: I seemed to have developed a mysterious illness that mimics all the symptoms of malaria- but which totally unidentifiable and completely untreatable. Bad news: My post-mate was reassigned to another village because she accidentally falsely accused a prominant doctor in Xxxxx of aggravated assault. Good news: Peace Corps was nice enough to allow me to stay behind to absorb all of the backlash and to fabricate elaborate stories for all of her friends and colleagues to explain her sudden and permanent absence.....in French. Bad news: My job consists of policing 270 10 to 21-year old monsters whose sole purpose in life is to transform the classroom setting into my own personal cage of eternal damnation. Good news: The director of the school is so grateful for my efforts and expertise that he introduced me to the entire staff by telling everyone how much money I saved him in payroll expenses. Bad news: Since the end of the rainy season, produce has grown limited and increasingly harder to come by. Good news: I like oranges and onions, and I am learning to like them together. Bad news: I found myself comparing this experience to the time I was hospitalized with kidney stones. Good news: Only 22 more months. Love to all, Broken in Xxxxx

Thoughts on the Return Renee Wolforth "With bi-partisan politics in the Presidential race being all the rage, and insurgencies still raging in Iraq and Afghanistan, I've been thinking about how to really support the troops — and educate RPCVs on what really goes on in a war zone. Bumper stickers emblazoned with "SUPPORT THE TROOPS" might make the person who slapped it on his or her SUV feel better, but how much "support" can a bumper sticker offer someone returning from a war zone? I've heard so many stories recently about troops who returned with no visible injuries, but who were in serious pain nonetheless. Hearing these stories, caused me to think about my return from Peace Corps. Months after my return, I was still lonely and frustrated because of a lack of understanding. Those who knew me before Peace Corps expected me to just go on with my life, as if I had just spent a week in Italy hanging out in cafes in between museum tours. People that I met after my return had no frame of reference either. They made this clear by laughing at answers I would give regarding my life in rural West Africa — or would change the subject when I answered their pat question "Peace Corps? How was that?" with my pat answer "Hot, very hot."

Mentoring Returning Peace Corps Volunteers The National Peace Corps Association signed a Cooperative Agreement with Peace Corps to design and develop a program linking returning Volunteers with RPCV mentors. The goal of this mentoring relationship is to facilitate returning Volunteers’ ability to find desired employment or educational opportunities, and their adjustment back home. The project is being nationalized after last year’s successful pilot phase in Miami, FL; Chicago, IL; and Portland, OR. To find out how you can get involved, visit www.rpcv.org/mentoring!

While our experiences are vastly different, there are some similarities in the experiences of RPCVs and returned veterans. So, what about connecting recently returned volunteers and recently returned vets - and possibly beyond that period as well? We suffer from our own shell-shock, though to a much lesser degree and in a different way. I've heard so much about vets not having people to talk to who can understand the readjustment, having serious issues readjusting, etc... It might be one more way for them to deal with what they have gone through. It's a totally different kind of readjustment, but volunteers might be able to offer certain amount of understanding that people who've never lived in developing countries or war zones lack. Also, it might help volunteers to better understand what's really going on in these war zones and vets might have an idea what it's like going in without a gun?"

Peace Corps Week: Spicing Up My Presentation By Liz McEntee Third graders are learning about Africa. Newlyconfirmed Catholic eighth-graders are learning about volunteer service opportunities. Formerly homeless and incarcerated men and women are expanding their general knowledge. Middle school students are learning about what their school’s graduates have done after college. Those are all outcomes of presentations I’ve made about my Peace Corps experience since I COSed. Each of my audiences has influenced me differently, and no two presentations have been alike. However, they all have been able to give me a “natural high” while giving my audience an “aha!” moment. It just takes a bit of variety to convey my Peace Corps experience to people from all walks of life. Being my normal keepsake-ish self, I tried to bring home as much of Namibia as I could when I left. Taking pictures and getting traditional items (like clothing, straw baskets, and wood carvings) was top priority before I COSed. As it turned out, those artifacts were helpful in doing my presentations. Putting on my traditional dress got a laugh out of the different audiences, and bringing along my leftover Namibian dollars got some very big “oohs” and “ahhs.” Showing my pictures allowed the audiences to see where I worked, where I lived and what animals I saw, as well as proved that KFC does exist “even in Africa!” When a computer was available, I showed my pictures in a slideshow set to Namibian kwaito music, but for less technological presentations I brought along a photo album or two. While I was in Namibia, I had one of my visitors from home bring over my old video camera. I taught some of my students in each class how to use it, and while I was away for my COS medical process, I gave each class the assignment to “film things that you don’t want Ms. McEntee to forget…and it has to be all in English.” Almost all of my classes included footage of them dancing, cooking traditional food (and explaining what it is), wearing traditional clothes, and playing games. When I returned to the U.S., I plugged my video camera into my family’s VCR and transferred certain parts of it onto a video tape. It was very amateur-looking, but it got the point across. During a presentation, I would ask my students to explain it. Of course, they all wanted my students to explain it, and then I would show my video. They loved watching the footage because it made my experience seem even more real to them. The best parts of the presentations were those when I was interacting with the audience. In Namibia, people often talk about geography by making their hand into

the shape of Namibia and using it as a map. This is done by aligning your fingers together, point your fingers downward, and bend in your index finger. Coincidentally, that gesture is the official sign for “Namibia” in sign language. I taught it to all of my audiences and it was great seeing the thrill on their faces when they were able to replicate the sign. I even saw some of them doing it again after the presentation was over! Question-and-answer sessions also helped pass time quickly and constructively. I found that there can never be too much time allotted for answering questions, and it’s the part of the presentation where you find out where your audience’s interest really lies. In the future, I wouldn’t mind doing a presentation where the majority of it is in question-and-answer format. I think my audiences’ favorite form of interaction was when I gave them Peace Corps-related bookmarks and stickers, courtesy of the folks who run Peace Corps Week. I even received some maps of all the countries where PCVs have served, so after using a map in a presentation I would donate it to the school or organization. Every time I had a presentation coming up, I would e-mail the Peace Corps Week staff and they would send me a packet with a plethora of goodies to give out – who doesn’t like receiving free stuff? Just as it was important to share American culture with people in our host countries, it’s also important to share our host country’s culture with people in the U.S., which is the Peace Corps’ third goal. There are an endless number of audiences that you can speak to, and in turn, there’s a variety of different spins that you can put on your basic presentation. No matter how you do it, your audience is guaranteed to leave with more knowledge about Peace Corps and about your host country. My audiences left knowing more about Namibia than that “it was the country where Brad and Angelina had their baby.” That said, I consider my presentations to be successful! Liz is a computer teacher with The Doe Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization in New York City with a work-based program to help formerly homeless and incarcerated people turn their lives around. She taught computers to grades 8-10 while serving as an IT Volunteer in Namibia from 2004 to 2006.

Peace Corps Week, Feb. 25-Mar. 3, 2008. Register online now and make plans to celebrate our 47th anniversary at www.peacecorps.gov/pcweek