February 1, 2003 - Campus California: Why I’m glad I joined CCTG/TG/Humana People to People and not the Peace Corps

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Botswana: Peace Corps Botswana : The Peace Corps in Botswana: February 1, 2003 - Campus California: Why I’m glad I joined CCTG/TG/Humana People to People and not the Peace Corps

By Admin1 (admin) on Saturday, February 01, 2003 - 7:27 pm: Edit Post

Why I’m glad I joined CCTG/TG/Humana People to People and not the Peace Corps



Why I’m glad I joined CCTG/TG/Humana People to People and not the Peace Corps

Why I’m glad I joined CCTG/TG/Humana People to People

and not the Peace Corps

(Or why I’m now happy to be typing this report than taking a cold bath)



What I’ve been thinking about lying here half asleep beneath a hut, camping in the rain on my investigation week, is that I’m so glad I got involved in this program, in Humana, in the TG, instead of the Peace Corps.

The first thing I felt in arriving in Africa was disappointment. The experience I had wanted to have, had dreamt about since I was five was simply living in an African village in a hut. I wanted to be challenged by dealing with no electricity, spending hours a day arranging the basic necessities of life—boiling water, making a fire, cooking, taking sponge baths, carrying well water in buckets, peeing in a hole in the ground, living without television, phones or computers! And I arrived in the DI house in modern Francistown with running drinkable water, electricity, a small office with computers and telephones, a television, and flushable toilets. Darn!

But lying here, thinking about this last year as a whole, I realize I was exposed to waaaayyy more through this project, exposed to more people, more cultures, more places and life situations. If I had kept to the Peace Corps I would have experienced one village and just one way of life for 2 years. 2 years!! And just within one year, I’ve lived with people from 19 different nations around the world, experienced Seattle, L.A., Boston, Malaysia, Victoria Falls now Francistown and the rest of Botswana—Chobe, the Okavango, Gaborone, the salt pans, villages of Tutu me, Mmatshumo, Kasane, Tonata, the Kalahari desert and San culture. I’ve worked here with people from all over Africa—Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Namibia, Somalia, Sudan, Angola, the DRC and Kenya!

Now I realize the challenges I had wanted to face in the Peace Corps are fairly manageable. I would have no problem meeting the daily necessities for life, I could learn to cook on an open fire for two years—no problem. I could learn to deal with large insects and sleep in a hut—no big deal. What I have faced through CCTG and Humana has been incredibly more challenging and helped me to grow personally way more than learning to kill large spiders and take cold sponge baths!

I mean how could anything compare to Seattle, fundraising in the snow and having my teammate have flashbacks from wars. To struggle with my team and make it--the seven of us to Africa! To have Patrick (one of my Team mates) break 200 in Berkeley on our last night. How could life in one village compare to living with people from around the world and discovering that working and living together with so many different cultures and peoples is more challenging than romantic. It’s not only challenging, it’s down right heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking to try and motivate these field officers who don’t want to work. Heartbreaking to listen to DIs that complain all of the time and don’t DO anything about it! I’m struggling and learning way more than if I was alone in a hut. All of this growth makes the moments of achievement as a group very sweet. I’ve learned more from these team mates and all our problems that seem so monumental at the time, than I ever could possibly on my own. It seems so obvious now, but its taken me a year to realize how much I’ve grown.

It is an exotic and wild life I get to lead, but it’s also totally normal here. It’s just as wild and exotic at CCTG! Africa is Africa and my life is only as awe-inspiring and wonderful as I create it—no matter where I am! Plus, I have also have had some “village life” experiences and I could create even more. I could work more in Tutu me, sleep out in a tent, or in someone else’s hut. But I haven’t chosen to make those experiences happen. Why? Because I’ve seen more worthwhile work somewhere else! My work, my dedication is more worthwhile helping TCM run in the Francistown office than the fruits of sleeping out in a tent!

I think that doing development work is a very special experience. If it’s through the Peace Corps, Humana or another organization—I definitely say go for it! But I believe that I have experienced more and grown more through my involvement with Humana than I could have under any other organization or situation. Africa will be more touched, I will be more touched and changed through my work in CCTG, in Humana and through the TG for two years than teaching in a remote village somewhere for that length of time. If I truly want to grow as a person and experience many cultures, if I seriously want to make a difference in Africa—than there is no doubt—I have made the right choice!



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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Botswana; Critique of the Peace Corps

PCOL2367
78

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By Tomas (adsl-47.sisqtel.net - 208.31.88.47) on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 7:32 pm: Edit Post

Campus California TG is looking for volunteers (Development Instructors) ready to work in Mozambique, Namibia or Nicaragua to:
-Fight AIDS
-Train teachers for rural schools
-Provide clean water
-Run micro credit loan program

www.cctg.org

By Anonymous (24-176-208-206.dhcp.lnbh.ca.charter.com - 24.176.208.206) on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 1:08 am: Edit Post

I would be careful of this organization.

Do a Google search on it and read some of the posts of people's experiences (not put out by Humana/People to People) or read about investigations. Or go to:

www.rickross.com/groups/tvind.html

www.tvindalert.com/humana.htm


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