Post-Peace Corps readjustment

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Originally uploaded by parisdelhi

Coming back to the US can be damn hard. Once you are in the States, some wonderful feelings are felt but, no doubt, with the lack understanding ears, one can certainly become mildly and temporarily depressed.

Finding the cultural continuity that I described in an earlier entry can be very helpful to recent Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), but in the interest of fellow RPCVs I would mention the possibility of collaborating to launch or further a project back in your Peace Corps country. As we know, one must have some very effective ways to insure correct use of funds but with strong contacts on the ground and in our world of cell phones and western union, I have found that possible. Co-designing and providing funds for a sustainable and growing beekeeping project has given me the opportunity to do something meaningful. I planned this project with two fellow community members from my Togolese village before I left that village and did not launch it to keep my emotions up. I helped plan it because I believed in it. I believe that this project will be effective, and that it will not create dependence, given the way we designed it. Because I believe so strongly in the effectiveness of the project and that I am doing the right thing in implementing it, it has given me a mission when my overseas Peace Corps mission has just officially ended. This project has also made me feel present in my Togolese community and happy to still be a member of that community and an active participant in its welfare. I may no longer be a Peace Corps Volunteer but I am still and will always be an Affem Boussou community member.