Training

Following acceptance, the first stage of both corps is training. For Peace Corps, this means a three-day “staging” in a major city (Washington, D.C., in my case) before flying off with your fellow PCVs-to-be for more training in-country. In the case of the CTC Vista Project, it meant flying to Boston for what was also a three-day stint for pre-service orientation (PSO).

The feel for staging and PSO are very different. Staging is a sort of limbo, in which you’ve had to say goodbye to your friends and family already but haven’t yet left the States. After jam-packed days parceled in sessions about Peace Corps procedures and operations; emotional coping; saying no to alcohol in very depressed, isolated states (booze can become a problem beyond typical college drinking in Peace Corps); and seeing one another as resources, trainees are set loose to do as they please. On the first day, trainees are given temporary debit cards with a (IMHO, generously) set amount to cover all expenses including food and in-city transportation. Come evening, trainees will often gather in herds in the hotel lobby before roaming aimlessly for a place to eat.

Pre-service orientation is similar. Your roundtrip ticket and hotel room are also paid for, and more likely than not, you’ll have a roommate. You are also orientated to the history, procedures and mission of the particular program you’re under, and the setup is quite similar. Some of them I have mentioned in a past post, such as housing, transportation and supervisors. Both have goals of sustainability and capacity building. PSO also covers other items, such as in-service training and really seeing the CTC Vista class as a rainbow of skills, which are then pinned down and distributed. In addition, our class of 32 was split into two groups, each assigned to a Vista Leader (a CTC Vista who has already been in the CTC program for a year and had extended for another year with a host organization while also offering him/herself as a resource to incoming CTC Vistas).

Sangoma (traditional healer) celebrates with 'M'e Mampho, a Peace Corps language trainer

Immediately after landing in-country, Peace Corps Pre-Service Training (PST) begins. Depending on the country, training lasts 2-3 months. In my program, the regimen ran six days a week and included cultural training, language and skills training, acquaintance with government structures and NGOs, history and touring. In each of the programs that PC-Lesotho had to offer, both Community Health and Economic Development (CHED) and Education (ED) were broken down into smaller groups based on each trainee’s individual assignment and/or preferences. For CHED, this meant HIV/AIDS, Permaculture/Nutrition, Small Business/Youth. During Community-Based Training (CBT) each sector is assigned to a different village where every volunteer lives with a different host family as they situate to cultural/economic/living conditions in the country.

PST is extremely intensive. Depending on the program you’re assigned to, this might be the most structure you have in two years of service. It’s also the best chance to study up on language because picking up the language once you’re on your own goes much slower. For PC-Lesotho, In-Service Training (IST) for each program occurred at the three-month mark after “lockdown” (for the first and last three months of service, PCVs are restricted to their districts when traveling. PC-Lesotho eventually switched it out for the friendlier name of “immersion”). If your country director is really awesome, you might also have the opportunity to propose training options outside of PSO. For example, I wanted to learn more about permaculture and cultural implementation, so I proposed shadowing a permaculture volunteer who was in her second year of service several districts away. There is also a mandatory All-Volunteer conference (All-Vol) every year and an optional get-together for your program after your first year of service called Reconnect.

As for AmeriCorps, training doesn’t end when PSO does. With the CTC Vista Project, your host organization is also responsible for acquainting you to its history, providing in-house training, and laying aside a sizable chunk for a national conference that focuses on community technology. Although I’m not sure about the conference, other AmeriCorps Vista programs are probably similar. In addition, AmeriCorps provides up to $500 for in-service training, if you’re willing to do the paperwork tango. From what I understand, the CTC Vista Project is very rare in that it has an extremely active listserv. To date, I’ve received 160+ emails since service started a month ago. CTC Vistas really do use one another as resources and because of this, they are more likely to stay in touch than most other AmeriCorps Vista programs.

Both corps are relatively similar in structure, but how they play out is quite different. For me, it was mind-blowing to imagine how the same structure could have very different outcomes depending on the culture it’s set in.

The CTC Vista Robot

The awkward part of both trainings is being thrown in a room with perfect strangers. With our particular CTC Vista group, the awkwardness melted away pretty quickly and by the end, I felt very connected to several people. With staging, the awkwardness can remain. There are no pre-planned tours of the city in which trainees are forced to get to know one another, and it’s perfectly understandable for trainees to stay in for the night if, in the face of uncertainty, they want to get those last couple minutes of phone time in with loved ones. Part of the reason PSO was so conducive to bonding is probably because AmeriCorps volunteers are not carrying the emotional baggage of going overseas.

What also struck me was the diversity in the AmeriCorps crowd. For the CTC Vista Project, there are 32 people of all different socioeconomic backgrounds from poverty to wealth, some who didn’t go to college, some who are handicapped, a couple of older volunteers and various ethnicities.
Although there were a handful of us who were visible minorities, there was a certain homogeneity in our group of 21 PCVs. First, I will credit Peace Corps for its deviation from the Peace Corps stereotype: not everyone who is a PCV is a granola, outdoors type. There were definitely a couple of divas in PC-Lesotho, but that’s not an accurate measure of how successful a person will be as a PCV. It really does take all types to make a Peace Corps volunteer.

My thoughts on why PCVs tend to be cut from the same cloth is due to unequal access to wealth and familiarity with the Peace Corps name. In addition to the coveted medical clearance, the cost of applying and then gearing up for Peace Corps is huge. Not only is the medical app a financial undertaking, equipping yourself with camping equipment–a 60L pack, pack towels, headlamp, Therm-a-rest and sub-zero sleeping bag, possible solar panel, moisture wicking clothes–is hardly cheap. I really believe these two reasons combined stand in the way of many possible PCVs.

Peace Corps also has a problem recruiting minorities, and it only contributes to the impression that American = White. A considerable number of minorities in this country are children of immigrants, and are not raised with the idea of necessarily going to a Third World country and volunteering in “deprivation” when the majority of their parents came from a less-than-First World situation. This gets a bit touchy, but children of immigrants from more community-oriented cultures (versus the US, which focuses on the individual) can also be very strongly obligated to their family. When minorities do sign up for Peace Corps, it is likely they’ll have to quell many more anxieties and fears than, say a white, third generation PCV whose parents grew up with JFK.