July 7, 2004: Headlines: COS - Gabon: Black Issues: NIA Online: Marcia Parkes had a slightly different experience as a volunteer (1999 to 2001) in Gabon, a small country in central Africa. "Many people were surprised to learn that there were African-Americans--not just Caucasians--living in America," she says. "They were very curious about us." For Parkes, helping to shape the way Africans view African-Americans was a big benefit of being a Peace Corps volunteer.

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Gabon: Peace Corps Gabon : The Peace Corps in Gabon: July 7, 2004: Headlines: COS - Gabon: Black Issues: NIA Online: Marcia Parkes had a slightly different experience as a volunteer (1999 to 2001) in Gabon, a small country in central Africa. "Many people were surprised to learn that there were African-Americans--not just Caucasians--living in America," she says. "They were very curious about us." For Parkes, helping to shape the way Africans view African-Americans was a big benefit of being a Peace Corps volunteer.

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-245-37.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.245.37) on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 3:02 pm: Edit Post

Marcia Parkes had a slightly different experience as a volunteer (1999 to 2001) in Gabon, a small country in central Africa. "Many people were surprised to learn that there were African-Americans--not just Caucasians--living in America," she says. "They were very curious about us." For Parkes, helping to shape the way Africans view African-Americans was a big benefit of being a Peace Corps volunteer.

Marcia Parkes had a slightly different experience as a volunteer (1999 to 2001) in Gabon, a small country in central Africa. Many people were surprised to learn that there were African-Americans--not just Caucasians--living in America, she says. They were very curious about us. For Parkes, helping to shape the way Africans view African-Americans was a big benefit of being a Peace Corps volunteer.

Marcia Parkes had a slightly different experience as a volunteer (1999 to 2001) in Gabon, a small country in central Africa. "Many people were surprised to learn that there were African-Americans--not just Caucasians--living in America," she says. "They were very curious about us." For Parkes, helping to shape the way Africans view African-Americans was a big benefit of being a Peace Corps volunteer.

On a Mission: Sisters in the Peace Corps

Black women are in demand to represent America in the Motherland--so that's just what these two women did

Related Stories
A Tradition of Giving--and Getting--Back

If you have ever wondered how Africans feel about African-Americans, ask Peace Corps volunteers. They will tell you that many Africans know very little about us yet yearn to discuss our common ancestry.

Katrina Mathis, who fulfilled one of her keenest desires when she became a Peace Corps volunteer, spent two years (1994 to 1996) in Guinea, west Africa. Although people there were aware that many slaves taken from the west coast of Africa hundreds of years ago had ended up in America, notes Mathis, they were awestruck to see and talk to a descendant of one of those slaves--and to find out what it was like to be a Black person in America.

"One of my fondest memories was walking through the open-air market and hearing people whisper to one another, 'American noire, American noire' [Black American, Black American]," recalls Mathis, who had dreamed of serving in the Peace Corps since eighth grade. She recently moved from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., to work with Americorps, a network of national community-service programs.

[Excerpt]

Marcia Parkes had a slightly different experience as a volunteer (1999 to 2001) in Gabon, a small country in central Africa. "Many people were surprised to learn that there were African-Americans--not just Caucasians--living in America," she says. "They were very curious about us." For Parkes, helping to shape the way Africans view African-Americans was a big benefit of being a Peace Corps volunteer.

Both Mathis and Parkes belong to the Minority Peace Corps Association (MPCA), a nonprofit group founded in 2001 by volunteers who have returned from their Peace Corps service. Through special events and outreach activities, the MPCA serves to broaden awareness of the Peace Corps among people of color.

The MPCA is also working with the Peace Corps, which announced in July 2002 its goal of boosting the number of minority-group members within its ranks. Currently, 15 percent of the Peace Corps' 7,000 members are ethnic minorities. The organization is also seeking to double the total number of volunteers by 2007.

The way Parkes sees it, there isn't just a shortage of Black people serving as Peace Corps volunteers. She also points out the need for Latinas and Latinos in the Peace Corps because of the ancestry and language they share with so many of the countries served. "We are the face of America, and the rest of the world needs to see that," says Parkes, who shares her Peace Corps experience with the NiaOnline community.

Parkes first became interested in the Peace Corps as an undergraduate at the University of Buffalo in New York after reading a flyer on a campus bulletin board. She thought how exciting it must be to travel to a foreign land, learn another language, and experience a different culture.

Still not quite ready to volunteer, however, she went on to complete graduate studies in business administration at Howard University and worked a year and a half as an event planner. At that point, in 1997, Parkes, then age 32, again began considering joining the Peace Corps.

I was wrestling with whether or not it was practical for me to go into the Peace Corps. There are many of us who are minorities who don't have the luxury of taking two years out of our lives to go overseas to volunteer. Oftentimes we are the first ones in our families to graduate from college. So there are certain financial obligations to the family. We are forced to go immediately into the workforce, and our families are not always receptive to us doing otherwise. It took me almost two years to make up my mind that this is what I really wanted to do.

In 1999, Parkes was the only African-American in her group of 14 people to travel to Gabon--a scenario that is way too common, she says. She served in the area of agricultural marketing, working with rural farmers, whom she notes were very welcoming and nurturing.

I was stationed in the city but worked in the fields, traveling from village to village. Peace Corps has a slogan: "It's the toughest job you'll ever love." It's so true. It was a very challenging job, but it was so good for me to get out of my element. It was a dream of mine, and I know I would have regretted not going.

Parkes, who lives in the nation's capital, now works for the U.S. General Services Administration, the administrative-services and real estate arm of the federal government. Her experience in the Peace Corps, she says, helped her to become a better communicator and liaison between her agency and the general public.

Want to learn more about the Peace Corps, or find out whether you have what it takes? Check out the Related Story "A Tradition of Giving--and Getting--Back," above.

Have you or anyone you know volunteered with the Peace Corps? What was the experience like? Tell us in the comments section below.

--Carolyn M. Brown is a New Jersey-based writer





When this story was posted in April 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:


Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
The Peace Corps Library Date: March 27 2005 No: 536 The Peace Corps Library
Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

Top Stories and Breaking News PCOL Magazine Peace Corps Library RPCV Directory Sign Up

RPCVs and Friends remember Pope John Paul II Date: April 3 2005 No: 550 RPCVs and Friends remember Pope John Paul II
Tony Hall found the pope to be courageous and capable of forgiving the man who shot him in 1981, Mark Gearan said the pope was as dynamic in person as he appears on television, Maria Shriver said he was a beacon of virtue, strength and goodness, and an RPCV who met the pope while serving in the Solomon Islands said he possessed the holiness of a man filled with a deep love and concern for humanity. Leave your thoughts here.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000  strong Date: April 2 2005 No: 543 Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong
170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

This Month's Feature Stories - only on PCOL Date: March 27 2005 No: 537 This Month's Feature Stories - only on PCOL
Dream Come True - Revisiting India after 34 years
The Coyne Column: Read Winning Vanity Fair PCV Essay
Tomas Belsky's paintings inspired by service in Brazil
RPCV reunites with friend after 40 years
RPCV reviews "Los Heraldos Negros" by Cesar Vallejo
Photo Essay: Taking it to the Streets


April 3, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Date: April 3 2005 No: 548 April 3, 2005: This Week's Top Stories
Ralph White suspended for opening locked gates 2 Apr
The Coyne Column: Events in Kyrgyzstan 2 Apr
Timothy J. O’Brien suggests Korea increase publicity 1 Apr
Danielle Wain deals with dry areas in Uganda 1 Apr
Chris Matthews says Schiavo's Dad having "Good Time" 1 Apr
Chris Dodd to reintroduce workers protection act 1 Apr
Steven Lawry named president of Antioch College 31 Mar
Matt Sesow shines light on grief and pain of war 31 Mar
Kinky Friedman Preps for Gubernatorial Run 30 Mar
Police travel to Tonga with RPCV 28 Mar
Randall L. Tobias speaks at PC Headquarters 28 Mar
NBC apologizes to Turkey for West Wing episode 28 Mar
Jim Doyle proposes domestic partner benefit 27 Mar
University to name library auditorium for Elaine Chao 26 Mar
Rockefeller says every young American should serve 26 Mar
Chris Shays calls Republicans "party of theocracy" 25 Mar
Norm Coleman to visit South America 25 Mar

April 3, 2005: RPCV Groups in the News Date: April 3 2005 No: 545 April 3, 2005: RPCV Groups in the News
Houston RPCVs sponsor "Around the World in a Day"on April 6 25 Mar
Vasquez to visit DePaul University on April 6 22 Mar
Henry McKoy speaks at Clemson University April 6 1 Apr
Minnesota RPCVs need Photos for Exhibition 24 Mar
Maryland RPCVs eat crab cakes in Annapolis 17 Mar
Connecticut RPCVs held fundraiser on March 5 3 Mar
RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.

Crisis Corps arrives in Thailand Date: March 20 2005 No: 530 Crisis Corps arrives in Thailand
After the Tsunami in Southeast Asia last December, Peace Corps issued an appeal for Crisis Corps Volunteers and over 200 RPCVs responded. The first team of 8 Crisis Corps volunteers departed for Thailand on March 18 to join RPCVs who are already supporting relief efforts in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and India with other agencies and NGO's.

RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC Date: March 5 2005 No: 482 RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC
RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter.

Add your info now to the RPCV Directory Date: March 13 2005 No: 489 Add your info now to the RPCV Directory
Call Harris Publishing at 800-414-4608 right away to add your name or make changes to your listing in the newest edition of the NPCA's Directory of Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff. Then read our story on how you can get access to the book after it is published. The deadline for inclusion is May 16 so call now.

March 1: National Day of Action Date: February 28 2005 No: 471 March 1: National Day of Action
Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.


Read the stories and leave your comments.






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Story Source: NIA Online

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Gabon; Black Issues

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