New Group of Volunteers Arrive

Dear New Volunteers to Armenia:

In February of last year I was waiting for Amazon to deliver several books written by former Peace Corps volunteers who served in Africa. This was to the site of my two years of service according to the letter I received in mid-January. The books arrived and I devoured them quickly, anxious to discover what my new life would be like. Then in the middle of April I received another letter from the Peace Corps informing me that I was really going to Armenia. I think the Universe was hinting that this was not to be a journey of the head but one of the heart.

Yet I still spend the first couple months in Armenia trying to figure it all out. My brain was working overtime sort it all out. First there was this new language with the very strange alphabet. Then this was this confusing culture that was a strange mix of medieval culture and modern technology. There were satellite dishes everywhere you looked and yet you couldn’t find a clean public toilet. During the day one could witness the high unemployment rate as men stood around cars with their friends smoking. And yet in the evening, one might be invited to a lavish banquet where heaping plates of food and lengthy vodka toasts continued until late in the evening. During the weekends I enjoyed taking long walks to enjoy the lush natural surroundings and would always come upon piles of garbage strewn along the roadside. There were cows walking amidst the roads with cars and yet I saw more grade school children using cell phones than in California.

Of course, I figured this would all sort itself out after our Pre-Service Training was completed in mid-August and we were finally be assigned to the cities where we would work for the next two years. I was still hopeful that my years of experience in business would guide me in assisting their efforts in tourism. Instead it was the Al-Anon Serenity Prayer that proved to be my guide: God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can’t and the Wisdom to know the difference. As we approached the Christmas holidays, I began to doubt if I was my efforts at my NGO (or “Non-Profits” as they say in the States) were of any value.

Over the holidays I approached last year’s group of Volunteers seeking some insight into my confusion. Some seemed oblivious to the problem and many others voiced frustrations similar to mine. While all the Volunteers worked in one of four programs, many felt were just “putting band-aids” on very serious problems. Some like me worked in Community/ Business Development and others worked in Teaching English, Health or Environmental Education. The Health Volunteers I met seemed frustrated just to find a time slot in their assigned schools which had no real health curriculum. But wasn’t this a country whose smoking population had the highest percentage in all of Europe? If the Armenian government would implement a non-smoking program for teenagers, we could serve as trainers and educators throughout the country. I saw the same lack of effectiveness with the Environmental Volunteers. We organized village “Clean-up Days” or “Green Camps” but the mindset of the citizens in general seemed the same. Nobody seemed to think twice about tossing plastic bottles or vodka bottles in the rivers and their empty cigarette packages in the streets. The situation wasn’t too different than I saw in India during my trip there in 2007, where the country couldn’t keep up with the growth of disposable consumer products.

The Community / Business Development sector where I worked had its own issues. Most of us were assigned to NGO’s where the primary focus was to obtain grant funding. The drawback here was that the focus was on the outside with little consideration of how poorly the organization functioned. I couldn’t help but think of the oft-quoted definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It seemed easier just to write another proposal than develop a more effective organization. Amidst all this I clung desperately to my basic mantra: “It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” But I could feel I was getting very low on candles.

Fortunately a shift occurred during one of our conferences. Our packet of information included some articles written “pro”: and “con” regarding the effectiveness of today’s Peace Corps. One writer said that most of the criticism of the Peace Corps is the result of evaluating our efforts in terms of being a “Development” program. He went on to say that the Peace Corps’ original mission was to function as a people-to-people program with a development component. At first this distinction just seemed liked semantics.

Then I began to reflect on those folks in my life who had made a significant contribution to me. In truth, they didn’t really change the circumstances of my life. And many probably never knew the impact they made. But they all gave me something I needed at the time: encouragement, friendship, hope or just some new skill. I now realize that when I complete my service in August of 2010, Armenia’s problems with unemployment, the environment and health won’t be any different. Yet all I can hope is that a handful of young people will be stronger and more confident to meet the challenges of their lives. And I do know I will take back to the States with me the many gifts of their friendship I have received.