• 2008.11.03: November 3, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: COS - Gambia: Blogs - Bolivia: Blogs - Gambia: Personal Web Site: Peace Corps Volunteer Life with Evo writes: I am one of two former Bolivia volunteers who chose to continue service in Africa but the Peace Corps experience continues to be very similar  Wednesday, November 05, 2008 - 4:45 pm [1]

• 2008.10.10: October 10, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Safety: Blogs - Bolivia: Personal Web Site: Peace Corps Volunteer Wanderings writes: After traveling through Southern Peru on our way home, my face literally hurt from smiling when I reached La Paz  Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 12:58 pm [1]

• 2008.09.23: September 23, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Safety: Personal Web Site: Peace Corps Volunteer Marcos writes: Not until our Country Director finally announced that Bolivia and Peru had approved our flight plan and the C-130 had left La Paz did I begin to accept that this phase of my life was over.  Wednesday, October 01, 2008 - 2:40 pm [1]

• 2008.09.29: September 29, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Blogs - Bolivia: safety: Personal Web Site: Peace Corps Volunteer peas corps finds the beet writes: So for those wondering, yes I am still in Peace Corps, but have moved to Peru, the northern province of Piura  Wednesday, October 01, 2008 - 2:38 pm [1]

• 2008.09.24: September 24, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Safety: Blogs - Bolivia: Personal Web site: Peace Corps Volunteer Andrew writes: Uncertain Roads  Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 1:00 pm [1]

• 2008.09.24: September 24, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Safety: Blogs - Bolivia: Personal Web Site: Peace Corps Volunteer You must be the change writes: Me voy. Que lastima, pero adios... Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 12:59 pm [1]

• 2008.09.19: September 19, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Blogs - Bolivia: Safety: Personal Web site: Peace Corps Volunteer Wanderings writes: The view from the shore…  Friday, September 19, 2008 - 5:56 pm [1]

• 2008.09.19: September 19, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Blogs - Bolivia: Safety: Personal Web site: Peace Corps Volunteers Living in Bolivia writes: Our evacuation out of Bolivia  Friday, September 19, 2008 - 11:35 am [1]

• 2008.09.17: September 17, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Blogs - Bolivia: Safety: Personal Web Site: Peace Corps Volunteer Erica writes: Leavin' on a Propeller Plane  Friday, September 19, 2008 - 10:48 am [1]

• 2008.09.18: September 18, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Safety: Blogs - Bolivia: Personal Web site: Peace Corps Volunteers John and Sarah writes: Evacuación  Friday, September 19, 2008 - 10:47 am [1]

• 2008.09.16: September 16, 2008: Headlines: COS - Bolivia: Safety: COS - Peru: Personal Web site: Peace Corps Volunteer Life with Evo writes: Refugee Status  Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 2:06 pm [2]

Peace Corps Volunteer Lost and Found in Bolivia writes: safe, not necessarily happy



"So first we were consolidated into one city, then the decision was made to evacuate us to Lima, Peru, and recently they decided to temporarily suspend the program in Bolivia. So I´m safely in Peru, but emotionally a mess trying to figure out what I´m doing next. I´ll have several options: leaving Peace Corps and being considered a returned volunteer (which has several benefits in terms of jobs and health insurance), or transferring to another country to do more service. I´m hoping I can transfer to another spanish-speaking Latin American country (wonder how they´ll feel about my cruceño accent) and do another year and a half or so, but the accepting countries tend to dictate what they want in terms of skills and time commitment. I hope it can work out that way though, I don´t feel like I´ve accomplished my Peace Corps goals yet."

Peace Corps Volunteer Lost and Found in Bolivia writes: safe, not necessarily happy

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

safe, not necessarily happy

Caption: A view from the Peace Corps office in Cochabomba.

Hi All,

You may have been seeing the news about Bolivia (like, the 5 seconds CNN plays between Hurricane Ike and Wall Street)...but the situations between East and West and City and Campo and Evo and the US were all deteriorating really fast. So first we were consolidated into one city, then the decision was made to evacuate us to Lima, Peru, and recently they decided to temporarily suspend the program in Bolivia. So I´m safely in Peru, but emotionally a mess trying to figure out what I´m doing next. I´ll have several options: leaving Peace Corps and being considered a returned volunteer (which has several benefits in terms of jobs and health insurance), or transferring to another country to do more service. I´m hoping I can transfer to another spanish-speaking Latin American country (wonder how they´ll feel about my cruceño accent) and do another year and a half or so, but the accepting countries tend to dictate what they want in terms of skills and time commitment. I hope it can work out that way though, I don´t feel like I´ve accomplished my Peace Corps goals yet.

I´m so sad that this is happening to Bolivia. I feel guilty that I can leave but the Bolivians are still in the midst of serious turmoil. All my friends in site will probably be safe, but this could be the beginning of harder times. And like many of us have expressed, we felt that we were doing important and useful things in our communities, which were very hard to leave. Personally, I barely knew what was going on, other than gas wasn´t arriving to my site, and that things suddenly were doubling in price. So I really left loose ends because I thought I´d be going back in a week or so. We had many tearful goodbyes with our staff, who were so incredibly supportive to us even while their own home country was going through this and as they knew they were mostly about to be without work. I could never thank them enough. Our country director and the second-in-command (I hope you´re reading this!) were so honest and patient with us and our millions of freak-out questions, how could we ever thank them enough?

I´ll keep this updated as much as possible (hopefully find a way to put pictures up from the sweet military plane we took, etc), please don´t worry about me...but keep Bolivia in your thoughts and prayers if that´s your thing. They need the good vibes more than I do.

Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: September, 2008; Peace Corps Bolivia; Directory of Bolivia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Bolivia RPCVs; Safety and Security of Volunteers; Peace Corps Peru; Directory of Peru RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Peru RPCVs

When this story was posted in September 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

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