The Trouble With Peace Corps
As an American in my adopted country of Cameroon, I’ve had some time—just over one month—to process some thoughts on the impact of my Peace Corps service, of the agency as an instrument of development and my motivations for remaining here to continue my work as an independent volunteer. “Independent volunteer” is, perhaps, a convenient if not disingenuous label. Expatriate, freelance Africanist, reluctant RPCV, or in these, the waning years of Pax Americana, “21st century refugee” might be a better moniker. Despite the dollar’s precipitous slide, $4/gallon gas at the pump and multi-billon dollar federal bailouts of US financial institutions, living in Africa remains relatively cheap and easy for a foreigner. But I digress.
I will preface this by saying that I’m grateful to Peace Corps for introducing me to Cameroon and for the support provided to me during my two years of service. That said, I must confess that I’m no longer the enthusiastic, flag-waving advocate of Peace Corps that I was when my service began in 2006. I’m proud of my service and accomplishments, particularly of the small successes. But I harbor no great illusions as to the long-term, sustainable development impact of the work I or my fellow RPCVs performed, or to how far I went in fulfilling the three goals set forth by John F. Kennedy in 1961. A question I received from last year’s Q&A post went straight to the heart of the matter: who benefits more; the PCV or the host country? I gave the best answer I could then, a qualified one, but the seeds of doubt I held about the efficacy of my service—and more so, of Peace Corps itself—had already been planted long ago.
Since I began my service in September 2006, I’ve learned a great deal about the successes and failures of international development, reflected on a number of Peace Corps memoirs from Africa (from the classic to the questionable), and kept an open mind while considering the well-publicized criticisms [2] [3] of Robert Strauss, my former country director. Also during this time, I had an opportunity to witness the workings of the agency as an insider, and to see the strengths and weaknesses of Peace Corps.
Now, as an RPCV in Cameroon, I must add my voice to the growing number of concerned individuals who see Peace Corps as being guided more by historical inertia than by a clearly articulated development strategy. This is truly unfortunate, for I believe that Peace Corps has the potential to be among the best development agencies in the world. I’ll attempt to address the latter in a follow-up post. From this post’s title proud RPCVs and supporters of the agency might take this to be a vitriol-laden polemic, or worse, an unpatriotic attack on the sanctity of mom and apple pie. In reality, it’s neither. Nor do I wish to dampen the spirits of current Volunteers in Cameroon or elsewhere. Like most things in life, Peace Corps service is what one makes of it—and there are undoubtedly many dedicated volunteers doing valuable work at their posts.
Peace Corps as a Diplomatic Tool
Recently, a number of congressmen, all former Peace Corps Volunteers, sent a letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and related agencies to request $400 million in funding for the Peace Corps in the 2009 budget. The letter, which was supported by a bipartisan group of 73 Members of Congress, makes reference to “foreign policy and national security interests” and calls Peace Corps “one of the best programs we offer…to reverse negative opinions about the value and character of the American people.” Rep. Mike Honda (RPCV El Salvador, 1965-67) said that, “the Peace Corps continues to be one of the most effective forms of American diplomacy.” Periodically, US Presidents and other political figures have echoed this phrase, nearly word-for-word, at press appearances for departures of new trainees. Few Americans, I think, would disagree with this sentiment. The agency, after all, is thought to embody the best that America has to offer.
Two years ago Niels Marquadt, the former US Ambassador to Cameroon, administered the Peace Corps oath to us at our swearing-in ceremony. The event was held on a grey August morning at the place de fête in Mbalmayo before an assembly of Cameroonian functionaries, local officials, PC/Cameroon staff, trainers, homestay families and we, the 39 newly-minted Volunteers in our matching pagne outfits. In his address, Amb. Marquadt called us “mini ambassadors” who were being dispatched to the far corners of Cameroon to represent the optimism, hard work and can-do spirit of America. We’d be doing the sort of grassroots diplomacy at the village level that embassy staff, sequestered behind their razor wire-topped compound walls in the capital, were unable to perform, he said. After a carefully measured pause, the ambassador asked us to stand and hundreds of pairs of eyes fell upon us. In the solemnity of the moment, right hand raised, repeating the words of the oath, I felt an unexpected swell of pride and patriotism. Less than an hour later I bid farewell to my homestay family, changed into a t-shirt, shouldered a backpack and boarded the first of several local busses which would eventually deposit me at my post.
In the ensuing months of my service, a much different picture than the one painted by the ambassador began to form. The vast majority of Cameroonians I met in Buea (better than 90%) knew something of Peace Corps, or at least professed some familiarity with the agency. With rare exceptions, however, almost no Cameroonian (or European, or anyone else, for that matter) was aware that the Peace Corps was an organization sponsored by the US government, or even vaguely associated with Americans. An all-too-typical exchange, either in French, English or Pidgin, went something like this:
Cameroonian: So, what has brought you here to Cameroon?
Me: I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer. I teach computers.
Cameroonian: Ah, yes—Peace Corps. Mr./Ms. [insert name here] taught me English/math/science in secondary school. So…you come from which country?
I was surprised to find that, of the 90% or more who knew something of the agency, fewer than 10% made any connection whatsoever with the United States. What astonished me most, perhaps, was not merely how common this exchange was in Buea, but that this profound disconnect seemed to cross social, demographic and geographic lines. Over the course of my two years of service, I’ve explained the American origin of the agency to a diverse lot of village farmers, students, teachers, university professors, journalists, prefets, district officers, police commissioners, provincial delegates, mayors, parliamentarians and various Cameroonian functionaries in nine (of the ten total) of Cameroon’s provinces I visited during my service. In the case of government officials, one might expect these people—at least through peripheral contact via official channels—to have some inkling of the national origin of the agency which has served their country for nearly half a century. In reality, almost none did.
Instead, what I later discovered was that “Peace Corps” is a generic label typically applied to predominantly white, Western foreigners who come to Africa performing various acts of volunteerism. All too often, upon hearing I was a PCV, a Cameroonian would respond by saying that they once knew a Peace Corps who started a Baptist mission in their village, ran an orphanage, arrived in a plane to distribute relief supplies, or (best of all) assisted in training their military. All of these acts, of course, fall completely outside the functions of the agency. Equally nonsensically, I once attended a send-off for a Japanese volunteer who was remembered fondly as “their Peace Corps.” It was at this same occasion that, after a second glass of champagne, a Cameroonian shared with me the public knowledge that “all Peace Corps are spies for the CIA” whether they know it or not. After a time I learned to bow to the absurd and gave up trying to correct Cameroonians on these misconceptions. In the presence of other PCVs during these moments, we’d exchange glances and subtly shrug our shoulders as if to say, “oh well.” So much for diplomacy.
If, after 46 years of service to Cameroon (among the longest continuously running Peace Corps programs in the world) the average Cameroonian hasn’t the vaguest notion that Peace Corps is even an American agency, I have to cast serious doubt on the value of its diplomatic mission. Best and most effective? Not by a long shot. I’ve often wondered how the public (mis)conception of Peace Corps here in Cameroon compares with the agency’s efforts elsewhere in the world. Am I alone in this assessment? Part of me wishes it were so. The better part of me, however, has no choice but to conclude that the Congressman’s and Ambassador’s assertions of Peace Corps as a diplomatic tool falls terribly short of their vision.
Comments are welcome. More to follow soon.
Wow. That was an incredibly well written piece. Where to start.
Firstly, to put it in context, I am a VSO volunteer starting in Cameroon in a month. I will be there for two years.
Previously I did two years VSO in Vietnam (funny…no Peace Corps there) and I also worked in Nicaragua where there appeared to be Peace Corps everywhere.
If you didn’t know, Kennedy took the idea for PC from VSO which had already been running for some time. I may be wrong, but I believe while VSO has continued to develop PC has pretty much stayed the same.
In terms of the VSO development – now the watchword is sustainability. We do our job but also ensure, when we go that we have trained a local person to take over from us. In other words, you are unlikely to find a VSO teaching kids – more likely they will teach the teachers.
In addition, the average age of a VSO volunteer is now (I think) in their 40s. You take your real work experience with you. It is no longer a programme for young people straight out of college (although there are specific initiatives). As I said, I vounteering for a second post – I am 37 but retirees are increasingly signing up to VSO and taking a whole life time of experience with them.
One thing that always jarred with me with PC is the “ambassador” thing. It does seem to have as much to do with promoting US values overseas as it does about actually assisting. In addition, when I was in Nicaragua, every other volunteer I met was teaching Entrepreneurship. Now these were kids who had never had a job before – never mind ran a business, but I guess that being American meant they were automatically knowledgeable in this area. In a country, with a history like Nicaragua, to me it felt like what they were really teaching was capitalism.
VSO, though British in origin, now recruits from all over the world and has recruiting stations and offices in Africa, India, Canada and the Netherlands – to name but a few. I spent two years in Vietnam with an American VSO volunteer who told me she avoided PC because she didn’t like all the “swearing alliegiance” stuff.
I’ve also worked alongside the Australian Youth Ambassador scheme which, with some notable exceptions, seemed over full of young people who never seemed to actually go to work.
It was all budget driven – if there was surplus cash, even if there was no work to do, they’d send them out there anyway on a job that hadn’t been evaluated by anyone.
Oh and they paid them $1000 a month too. Ten times more than their local colleagues were getting.
In comparison, Peace Corps is extremely well run.
VSO is not perfect. It is scared stiff of technology and to my mind, it doesn’t like to stretch itself. As an example, when I was in Vietnam they scaled back the environmental volunteers because that wasn’t “where their strengths lay”. That, despite the fact that was what was needed most in an increasingly affluent country where more animals were becoming extinct every week.
There were also times when I was reminded of that Billy Bragg lyric, that I was “making the world safe for capitalism”.
Where PC does score is that is it not voluntourism – being a “real” volunteer made me appreciate just how wrong voluntourism is.
Paying to volunteer and actually undercutting local staff by giving money in return for being allowed to build a wall or paint a classrom. All of that painting murals and cum by yah is not helping anyone. Worse still when you see rich kids fundraising for their trip to Africa. People giving money, not to Africa, but to young people who will only be there for a couple of weeks before returning to their normal luxurious lives.
Either way, you’re there. From reading your blog I am sure you have made a big impact and the fact that you have doubts about your volunteer organisation ( and don’t we all) suggests that you have gone beyond their remit.
What does it matter what you are remembered as representing? You will still be remembered, and fondly, I am sure.
Okay, enough typing. Very interesting piece.
I enjoyed reading your thoughtful analysis of the Peace Corps. I’m surprised to read that so many Cameroonians have had so much experience with Peace Corps, yet don’t know Peace Corps is an American organization. I was a volunteer in China and had a very different experience. Chinese people aren’t familiar with Peace Corps (we actually use the name “U.S.-China Friendship Volunteers), but everyone knows volunteers as Americans. I was generally the only American or Westerner that people in my community had ever met and that was very significant for both me and my community.
For me personally, this whole question of whether Peace Corps is the most effective development agency is somewhat besides the point. I think the most important part of our mission is in cross-cultural exchange. And, yes, I do admit that we get more out of it than the host country, but I think our Peace Corps experience often inspires us to do tremendous good afterwards and to be better and more conscientious global citizens.
You could argue that it’s way too much money to spend on cross-cultural exchange, but $330 million is really not that much. I wish people who are passionate about development would spend more time lobbying for changes in agricultural subsidies or the way we allocate foreign aid. Those policies have the potential of positively impacting many more lives than ANY development organization because the whole development field is rather discouraging. Anyone have any significant, long-term success stories to report?
Everyone wants Peace Corps to come up with a way to measure the impact of their programs, but the truth is that many things of value can’t be measured and most of the things you can measure aren’t really that valuable (just look at America’s obssession w/standardized testing — we can’t seem to find a way to measure the value of arts and music education, so we eliminate it!).
Anyway, thanks for approaching this valuable subject in such a reflective and non-polemical way!
Steve—
Glad to hear things from the perspective of a VSO veteran. I’ve met quite a few VSO volunteers in my travels (Vietnam included) and have enjoyed hearing their stories. I’m convinced that Peace Corps can learn a lot from VSO (any why not? since JFK drew his inspiration for PC from VSO, as you noted).
You touch on a lot of valuable points, particularly on the type of volunteers VSO recruits. As a personal example, one of the board members of Link-Up I serve with, Jane Carrs, is a former VSO who prior to entering her service had worked at Barclay’s of London for twenty years. She brought to Cameroon invaluable finance and managerial experience which she used to advise banks and small businesses. After her service ended in 2000, she remained in Cameroon and is now the general manager of NFC Bank, among the largest Cameroonian-owned commercial banks in the country. She also serves on the board of Habitat for Humanity in Cameroon. We’re lucky to have her at Link-Up.
I think the contrast in the advertising campaigns of the two agencies says a lot about where each organization puts its emphasis. In its recruiting materials, PC emphasizes the volunteer experience with the “How Far Will You Go?” campaign, just as with the former “Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love” slogan. The non-American is conspicuously absent in both of these. VSO’s slogan “Sharing Skills, Changing Lives” is less about personal adventure and more about affecting change through skills transfer. These are just ads, of course, but I think the difference is telling.
It seems to me that VSO, as an organization that does recruiting worldwide and opens service to non-British citizens, is also wholly disinterested in promoting British values overseas (correct me if I’m wrong). By eliminating the diplomatic component (which is nigh impossible to measure, anyway), VSO volunteers can expend less effort playing ambassador and more on real development work.
We’ll have to chat over a beer someplace after you arrive, either in Buea or Bamenda. Looking forward to meeting up with you.
Cheers.
You’re on. Can’t wait to get there.
Kate—
I first read about the “U.S.-China Friendship Volunteers” in Peter Hessler’s outstanding memoir River Town. Perhaps it’s something to do with the sheer numbers of international volunteers (or “voluntourists” as Steve noted) that are attracted to Africa which creates the confusion with Peace Corps. With the influx of volunteers from the developed world into Cameroon—and most of the continent, I suspect—the white man here assumes something of an amorphous, generic character. I can’t blame Cameroonians for being confused about PCVs—at the moment my town is hosting short-term volunteers from a half dozen countries or more. From what I know of PC in China, volunteers are more likely to be the only Westerners at their posts, so I imagine it’s comparatively easier to be identified as an American.
I agree that the Peace Corps experience can and often does inspire RPCVs to be better global citizens. Many use their service as an entry point into careers in international development, like some of my friends who are recent college graduates and are now heading UNDP posts in Cameroon through a partnership with Peace Corps. They’ll be leaving after three years with an impressive start on their careers, not to mention access to programs like the Peace Corps Fellows.
I’m glad you opened the topic of Peace Corps as a development agency as this is a nice segue to my follow-up post. You’re right, of course, that PCVs are not professional development workers, and that cross-cultural exchange and building good will are more central to the agency’s mission. To a certain extent I think Peace Corps succeeds at these things, even if the good will generated isn’t always perceived as originating from Americans. Others have already voiced their opinions on how to improve the agency. I’ll try to add my thoughts in a separate post.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
You know I agree with you. And of course your assessment is more eloquent than anything I could provide.
I’m having problems expressing these feelings to friends & family back home who seem to think “You just suffered two years in Peace Corps; you must be a saint & have done wonderful things for those people” when I can honestly admit to myself that I am not and did not.
It’s humbling and unpleasant, but it’s true. Now, how to convince Peace Corps that its mission will be better served by admitting its shortcomings & improving it?
P.S. You owe me an email!
I’ve been wanting to write something about this ‘depuis!’
good points, but since we are more government workers than development workers, even if we are volunteers and poorly paid ones, our main goal is the advancement of the American industrial complex.
If development in Cameroon helps this goal, then more the better.
Like you said, we’re individuals here, and I we get enough leeway to make our own world here.
If I leave Cameroon better off than the people I’ve encountered here it is because helping people is such a fulfilling job and what I get out of it is in direct proportion to what I put in.
There are ways to improve the Peace Corps as a development agency, but lets be honest, it will never be a true development agency as long as it is funded by American tax dollars.
As for all the stuff about people not knowing PC/that PC is an American Agency, I’ve haven’t found that to be true at all, although I am in the west province where there is a higher density of volunteers and staging has been held often, and I haven’t been in country or traveled as extensively as you have.
hi to all of you,i was smiling ever since i started reading from you.To begin with i wsih to thank all the pc vunlonteers and say welcome to those who will be coming very soon.I have a great knowledge of the pc for being a vonlunteer myself on another bases.In a as much I still do not understand how the pc stratifies cameroon before sending in workers.My concern is that Buea does not really need pc but remote areas like Bagangte,dschang.Anyway there most always be a way forward.
Just incase persons are interested in working in Cameroo as pc I will be ready to lead them through on cultural exchanges in the west of cameroon.
I’m interested in your criticism of the Peace Corps but am unsure what fault it is of the Peace Corps. It is not exceedingly rare that people, especially in countries where education is chronically underfunded and understaffed, are not well aware of national/international organizations. Most Americans cannot name the three branches of government or identify the Bill of Rights, they think 24% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid (less than 1%), and a recent poll said 39% of Americans want government ‘to stay out of Medicare’. So would I be surprised if rural people in a 3rd world country misidentify the Peace Corps? No, and it’s your job as a PCV to inform people who ask! Volunteers are out there with the people and I’d rather them simply tell people that ask about the Peace Corps than the Peace Corps rolling out expensive/unnecessary awareness campaigns or something. I think the Peace Corps also likes to be a partner, and one that gives the Host Country the credit for most projects rather than showering the praise upon itself.
I’m sure it’s frustrating, but at least you can set people straight and tell them exactly what the Peace Corps is and is not. My friend went to UPenn and when he says where he went, most people think he’s talking about Penn State. Yes, it’s not ideal but it only changes if people like yourself spread accurate information.
I’m a newly returned VSO who worked in Guyana over the past year and a half, and while I was there we had many discussions about the differences between the strategies of VSO and of the Peace Corps and how they work.
You can tell a lot by the way the two volunteer agencies recruit. VSO takes people with at least five years’ experience in their field, and matches them with a partner agency in the host country; volunteers are matched with their partner organizations on the basis of skill and need. These matches also work within the context of a larger program administered by the VSO country office that outlines long-term strategies for sustainable change.
I don’t want to misrepresent Peace Corps, but from my conversations with PC volunteers in Guyana, I’m told that the PC country office took them around the country for a month, at which point they were asked to write an essay about where they wanted to be placed and what they wanted to do. While their initiative is commendable, a lot of them ended up working in fields they knew nothing about: we had quite a number of untrained instructors serving as teachers in schools, for example. Another PC volunteer had a job as a television presenter.
In the meantime, while we had some freedom in drawing up our own personal work plans and strategies, we certainly didn’t make up our own placement or define personal goals. That said, I don’t think the volunteering experience was no less rich for me as it would have been if the focus were on that instead of the work that I was doing.