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By Miriam Raftery
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| Aneesha Silvels |
President-elect Barack Obama has called for a major expansion of the Peace
Corps and other public service programs, adding, "This will be a cause of my
presidency." Obama's plan aims to double the size of the Peace Corps
from 7,800 to 16,000 volunteers by the organization's 50th anniversary in 2012. "JFK
made their service a bridge to the developing world," Obama said of President
John F. Kennedy, whose administration founded the Peace Corps.
What's it like to serve overseas as a Peace Corps volunteer? An increasing
number of East County residents are finding out--and some have shared their
stories with East County Magazine.
More than 195,000 volunteers have served in the Peace Corps since its inception,
volunteering to help the poor and underprivileged in 76 countries worldwide.
Applications to join the Peace Corps have increased 19% nationally in the past
year due to heightened media attention and the sagging economy. In San
Diego County, applications are up 9%. Already, San Diego County residents
account for 106 of California's 911 Peace Corps members.
"Since before my teen years, Peace Corps has always been in my thoughts. Peace
corps has a deaf education program in Kenya and being an interpreter for the
deaf couldn't be more perfect, so I applied,†said Aneesah Afrika Silvels,
27, a graduate of Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley, who departed for
Kenya on November 10th to begin training as a deaf education Peace Corp Volunteer. Formerly
a sign language interpreter for deaf students at Cuyamaca and Grossmont College,
She holds a bachelor's degree from California State University, Northridge
and has also worked as a United States Marine Corps Reservist before enlisting
in the Peace Corps.
During her first three months of service, Silvels will live with a host family
in Kenya to become fully immersed in the country's language and culture. Later,
she will serve for two years in Kenya, living in a manner similar to people
in her host country. Volunteers in this East African nation work in the
areas of business development, girls' education, health, HIV/AIDS awareness
and prevention, information technology, and youth development in addition to
deaf education.
Caroline Anderson, valedictorian at Ramona High School in 2002 and a graduate
of the University of California, Berkeley, is now in her third year of service
in Cameroon. She spent her first year working on microfinance projects
and will now work with the United Nations Development Programme.
Spring Valley resident and Cuyamaca College ornamental horticultural instructor
Don Schultz served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala in the 1980s. He
credits the Peace Corps with influencing his career path and also giving him
Spanish language skills that have helped him in his career.
For Schultz, the most memorable part of his service was "living in a community
where the people were very poor and basically living subsistence lifestyles
and observing what they did to survive," he recalled. "Sometimes I would
sit with them and have them tell me, `How do you live on $50 a year with a
family of five kids?'" he said, adding that villagers would sometimes invite
him into homes made of corn maze to sit on a dirt floor and drink atole,
a drink made from corn. "The very poorest people would use every part
of the corn plant in the Mayan tradition," he recalled. "The old Mayan
religion is hombre de maiz; they believe that God made man from corn,
so they really worship it."
Some Peace Corps volunteers drop out during their training, unable to cope
with the culture shock and language barriers. "A lot of people don't
like seeing the poverty and in the case of Guatemala, the war orphans—kids
begging in the streets. It's heartbreaking," Scultz said.
He helped teach farmers how to grow coffee and avocado as cash crops, also
organizing nurseries. "Poco a poco is an old Spanish expression.
Even if you do the smallest bit of change, two years of one person's influence,
you have to consider that a success."
Schultz enjoyed traveling around South America and also savored the camaraderie
among fellow Peace Corps volunteers. "I made some pretty good friendships,
and it's about as adventurous as you can get."
Coming home proved culture shock in reverse. "When I first came back,
for a period of time I actually looked at life in America and Americans as
a foreigner," he said, recalling feeling dysfunctional in a grocery store and
overwhelmed by traffic on freeways. "I had this sensation that this is
how a lot of immigrants probably looked at America when they first arrived." He
went on to become a landscape supervisor and work in a water conservation garden,
a position that required Spanish language skills, before ultimately becoming
an instructure at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon.
Schultz's father laughed upon finding him washing and reusing plastic bags,
informing him that his grandmother did the same thing during the Depression. Schultz
developed a greater appreciation for life in America after serving in the Peace
Corps. "Without a doubt," he concluded, "you come back and it's a permanent
change in how you look at life here."
For more information on the Peace Corps, visit www.peacecorps.gov. To
find a Peace Corps event near you, see www.peacecorps.gov/events.
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