I wrote this in the airport on August 21st
Staging is over and we are all camped out in the Miami airport waiting for our flight to the DR. It has been a whirlwind of new faces and names and first impressions. While everyone seems to be high quality and very genuine people, there are a particular few with whom I feel I have already connected. Tonight we will go to some sort of retreat and then the following night we will be staying with our host families.
Here are some fun facts about the Peace Corps…..
It began in 1961 and has been in the DR (without interruption) since 1962.
JFk said: "It is designed to permit our people to exercise more fully their responsibilities in the great common cause of world development"
The three goals of the Peace Corps (in Katie’s paraphrased version) are:
1. To meet the needs for trained manpower, particularly in meeting basic human needs of those living in the poorest areas
2. To help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of people served
3. To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on part of the American people
Among the many prestigious Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV), a few that were surprising to me were Bob Villa, the guy who started Netflix, and Jimmy Carter’s mom.
There are 157 Peace Corps volunteers in the DR, 3% are over 50, the oldest volunteer is 72, and the average age of volunteers is 26.
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