April 7, 2004 - The Grand Rapids Press: While R.J. Laukitis will end his tour in Dominica with no regrets, he isn't sure he can recommend the Peace Corps experience to others. The organization launched by President John F. Kennedy isn't doing enough to protect its volunteers, he believes.

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Dominica: Peace Corps Dominica: The Peace Corps in Dominica: April 7, 2004 - The Grand Rapids Press: While R.J. Laukitis will end his tour in Dominica with no regrets, he isn't sure he can recommend the Peace Corps experience to others. The organization launched by President John F. Kennedy isn't doing enough to protect its volunteers, he believes.

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-178-137.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.178.137) on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 6:29 pm: Edit Post

While R.J. Laukitis will end his tour in Dominica with no regrets, he isn't sure he can recommend the Peace Corps experience to others. The organization launched by President John F. Kennedy isn't doing enough to protect its volunteers, he believes.

While R.J. Laukitis will end his tour in Dominica with no regrets, he isn't sure he can recommend the Peace Corps experience to others. The organization launched by President John F. Kennedy isn't doing enough to protect its volunteers, he believes.

While R.J. Laukitis will end his tour in Dominica with no regrets, he isn't sure he can recommend the Peace Corps experience to others. The organization launched by President John F. Kennedy isn't doing enough to protect its volunteers, he believes.

ISLAND ASSIST: Holland High grad helps U.N. volunteer efforts in Dominica

Wednesday, April 07, 2004
By Shandra Martinez
The Grand Rapids Press


HOLLAND -- The Commonwealth of Dominica, an island in the West Indies, was given its name by Christopher Columbus, who landed on the island on a Sunday during his second voyage to the New World.

For the past 18 months, Dominica has been the home of R.J. Laukitis, another sort of explorer and a 1998 Holland High School graduate. He will be completing his 27-month tour in Dominica with the Peace Corps in August.

It has been an experience unlike anything he had growing up in Holland or attending college in St. Paul, Minn.

"The No. 1 lesson I've learned from this is finding what makes you happy. If you can wake up excited about what you do everyday, you've found something special," said 24-year-old Lauikitis, who was recently home for a few days visiting his mother, Sally.

While Laukitis will end his tour with no regrets, he isn't sure he can recommend the Peace Corps experience to others. The organization launched by President John F. Kennedy isn't doing enough to protect its volunteers, he believes. He saw the problem up close when one of his Peace Corps colleagues on the island and a visiting female friend were robbed and assaulted by three men.

Troubled by the incident and others, Laukitis wrote a letter to his superiors recommending several changes to the Peace Corps policy, including allowing volunteers to live together, providing temporary cell phones for emergency calls and establishing work site histories so new volunteers are aware of previous incidents.

Laukitis wasn't the only person expressing concern. This month, a bill was passed by the House International Relations Committee which would make changes to the U.S. Peace Corps, including establishing an ombudsman for the organization and creating an independent watchdog for the agency that has 7,500 volunteers in more than 70 countries. "The whole experience has been bittersweet, but I'm glad I did it," Laukitis said.

When he arrived, Laukitis lived with a family for six weeks to help him acclimate to the island. Now, he lives in his own little house nestled among banana trees overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

His focus has been youth and community development.

Although only 30 miles wide, crossing the island can take hours because of the rocky terrain, the result of the seven volcanoes that make up the island.

Between 60,000 to 70,000 people live on the island, but its population fluctuates because many leave for months at a time or longer to find work on other, larger neighboring islands.

The effects of Sept. 11 and globalization have pushed Dominica into deeper poverty and desperation. Its main crop, bananas, has lost much of its slice of the market to the larger bananas Dole grows in Central and South America.

"It's sort of like the plight of the American farmer. They can still sell them, but the price is low," Laukitis, said.

Outside the banana farms, the No. 1 employer is the government. But the island is trying to make tourism a bigger revenue generator. Somewhere between 100 to 150 cruise ships dock each year at the island. One popular island destination is Boiling Lake, the second-largest thermally active lake in the world.

Laukitis arrived in Dominica two months after graduating from Macalester, a small liberal arts college in St. Paul, Minn., where he earned a degrees in history and religious studies. Being accepted in the international volunteer program was a seven-month application process that included interviews, essay questions and a physical.

"I really wanted to do some meaningful volunteer work. I felt the Peace Corps mission really appealed to me," Laukitis said.

His first nine months were spent in the island's second-poorest village, a community without running water or electricity where 150 Dominicans live. He was assigned to work with the village council and set up an after-school program for teenagers.

"I would have to say (the village leaders) were easy to work with, but we never had any meetings," Laukitis said. "That's tough for a kid coming out of college."

Feeling underutilized, he was much happier with his second assignment: working with the local governments of southern Dominica, which gave him a bigger and more complex task to focus on.

For the past nine months, he has helped write grant proposals, mediate conflicts and do public perception surveys to gauge the effectiveness of the village council. He has been spending two days a week at a primary school, teaching the students to use computers and organizing the school's library.

"I felt this was better suited to me," Laukitis said.

Dominica can seem like a contradiction to an outsider. The people pride themselves on dressing professionally in ties, pants or uniforms, running meetings adhering strictly to Roberts Rules of Order and treating others very courteously. But their sense of time is more casual. Meetings often begin 30 to 45 minutes late.

Sally Laukitis says has learned a lot about Dominica from her son. She has visited the island twice and plans to return for another visit in June.

"I had never been to a country like that. The poverty is staggering to me," said Laukitis, executive director of the Holland Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We are so spoiled up here. It's hard to imagine living there as a Dominican. The people are so happy. They are beautiful. Everybody knows everyone. The other thing that really stayed with me is the beauty of the island. It's absolutely gorgeous; so green and so lush."

While he has some frustrations about the Peace Corps experience, Laukitis treasures the friendships he has made with the people of Dominica.

"That's going to be tough to leave," Laukitis said. "I'm extremely glad where I ended up. It's a part of the world where I can see myself going back, and a lot of it is because of the relationships I have built up."


© 2004 Grand Rapids Press. Used with permission




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Story Source: The Grand Rapids Press

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Dominica; Safety and Security of Volunteers

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