is in the peace corp right now in nicaragua teaching science to little kids. she has been there a year and seems to be enjoying it after getting past the homesick phase. she is living with a host family and speaks nothing but spanish over there.

My son knows some Spanish and was thinking that would help! He has been learning Swahili, but he said he basically knows vocabulary and not so much conversational.

We probably drive our son nuts enough that he may not be home sick!

Yes, it was scary and exciting for me too. It changed my life completely. I grew up in a small town with little experience outside my local area. The Peace Corps opened the world to me. BTW, I think Tanzania is a great location. I know people who have worked there on USAID projects. They loved it.

Peace Corps Volunteers work in all sorts of settings.. some in the city, some in the bush and many in between. Regardless its a great experience for those who are able to cope and adapt and dont give up!

Bob

so he has some experience outside of our town, but this is a whole new level! I am glad he chose this route (although I will be even gladder when he is home to tell us stories of the world we don't know!). My grandsons, his nephews, already think the world of their uncle, and this is going to lift that image!

I like that people have a chance to see the world and help teach others and hopefully show that not everyone in America is a rich, gun toting person!

Thanks for the reply! And thanks for your service!

I agree with your sentiments about it changing your life. I, too, had never been outside the country until then. It changed the way I look at myself and the way I view the world and people from other countries.

As for advice for logosoco, one does need to be flexible and willing to adapt, but most understand that going in. If you are willing to do those things, you learn more about yourself than you can imagine.

I lived in the Manila metro area. How about you?

I was in Ilagan in Isabela province (Cagayan valley) for 1 year then in a remote small town about an hour from there.

I still have connections there. In fact I married a wonderful lady from Cebu about 4 years ago and I plan to move back there at some point.

I stayed for a couple of years afterwards to go to grad school at UP and met my wife in class there. Her family is all still there. We go back every couple of years.

My Tagalog is slipping but still functional.

I still enjoy goong back there.. despite the hassles. The country is changing quite a bit with the global economy.. good and bad.

These posts make me feel even more positive about my son's future in the PC and the people here at DU!

I like to see the PC as one of Kennedy's best legacies, and, in that way, something positive from the Democrats that continues and helps our world standing.

My son was always the more rigid one as a kid, but he is also extremely smart and learned that life is made up of many different types of people. The last two years he was at college he lived with my mom (she is about 2 miles from the university), so me and my sister joke that living in a completely different culture should be a piece of cake for him.

And i am glad to know he will be connected in a way to all PCVs forever!

But over time she realized this was something I needed to do.

It was 40 million in the early 1970's.