RPCV Mike Goettig spent 7 years with Peace Corps in China
Read and comment on this story from the Daily Globe about RPCV Mike Goettig who has spent 7 years with Peace Corps in China. "I started seven years ago as a volunteer, and later I started working on contract with the Peace Corps," he said. "China didn"t start admitting Peace Corps volunteers until 1993, so the program is relatively new. Right now all the trips are cancelled, and we"ve been on a holding pattern since the beginning of April until the government decides it"s safe to let us back in." Goettig said that having witnessed the perception of the United States abroad, he sees his role as a representative of this country as an opportunity to smash the stereotypical myth people overseas have of Americans. "This is one way of putting a human face on the monolith called America," he said. "I saw how important it is to have Peace Corps volunteers to show people how we really are." Read the story at:
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Peace Corps ambassadors seek to destroy myths
By Juan Montoya
WORTHINGTON " While U.S. soldiers trudge through Philippine jungles seeking to destroy Muslim insurgents, Dawn Blankenship wants to instruct Filipino teachers how to communicate with deaf students.
And while diplomats talk crossways at each other, Mike Goettig tries to guide Peace Corps volunteers through the subtleties of teaching Chinese students how to communicate in English.
Never mind the SARS scare in China or the Al-Qaida links to the Philippine archipelago. The two Worthington natives and high school graduates say that serving in the Peace Corps gives them a chance to prove to the rest of the world that the United States stands for more than military might.
"I want to show the rest of the world that America means more than bombs," said Blankenship, 32, a social worker with an organization in Minneapolis which assists the hard of hearing. "I want to change how people perceive America."
Blankenship will get a chance to show Filipino teachers how to teach deaf children. Scheduled to leave in July, she said the current troubles with Islamic insurgents will not affect her stay there.
"I am not going to be in Mindanao, where they"re having those problems," she said. "I really want to learn how to do sign language in Tlalog."
Goettig, who has spent the last seven years in China with the Corps, said he started teaching Chinese students English. Just back from that country this May, he said the Peace Corps had pulled out all its volunteers and contractors in response to the SARS scare.
"I started seven years ago as a volunteer, and later I started working on contract with the Peace Corps," he said. "China didn"t start admitting Peace Corps volunteers until 1993, so the program is relatively new. Right now all the trips are cancelled, and we"ve been on a holding pattern since the beginning of April until the government decides it"s safe to let us back in."
Goettig, 30, has served in Yunnan and in Sichuan province since 1996. He said when people talk about China, they sometimes underestimate the vastness of the country and the number of people who live there.
"Everything there is done with huge numbers," he said. "Lijian has more than a million people, and it"s considered a small town."
The Chinese, he said, are avowed fanatics of video games, and take easily to the computerized world of the Internet and the World Wide Web. After teaching English as a Second Language classes, he was contracted to write programs for a Web site. During the time he was in the country, there were events that shaped the politics of the country and impacted the international stage.
"I was there when the United States bombed the Chinese embassy in Kosovo," he recalled. "And I was also there during the incident when a United States reconnaissance plane downed the Chinese jet. The government handled both very differently. In the case of the embassy, there were protests in the street almost every day. During the jet plane incident, there was hardly anyone around."
Goettig, now 30, said he joined the Peace Corps while in graduate school in Mankato. He said he joined to see the world for himself.
"I"ve always wanted to travel," he said. "But I knew I just didn"t want to pass through. When they offered me China, I just took it."
He is now able to speak Mandarin and Cantonese and can work his way through a Chinese menu.
"I"ve become something of a snob," he said. "Most of the time I know the food that is served in restaurants is nothing like authentic Chinese cooking. I also complain that I have to pay $15 instead of 25 cents for the food."
Blankenship said she joined the Corps partly as a response to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
"I wanted to show other people that Americans just don"t come and take over their country," she said. "I teach people with disabilities, and I wanted to do something with meaningful results."
Likewise, Goettig said that having witnessed the perception of the United States abroad, he sees his role as a representative of this country as an opportunity to smash the stereotypical myth people overseas have of Americans.
"This is one way of putting a human face on the monolith called America," he said. "I saw how important it is to have Peace Corps volunteers to show people how we really are." Click on a link below for more stories on PCOL
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