[Badger]

You only get to pick your preferred locations right? I recently got back from a trip where I spent 3 weeks staying on the dirt floor of a Peace Corps Volunteer's hut in Panama.

I met maybe a dozen or so PCVs on my trip and most of them were really cool. It sounded difficult at times and quite rewarding at other times. I couldn't handle the 27 month commitment, which is why I'm involved in another organization that does shorter trips. The area I was in had a high concentration of PCVs because it was rather poor. High concentration meaning from where I was there was another volunteer a 45 minute hike away and about 5 more within another 2 or so hours of hiking.

Most everyone I met was really well adapted to their surroundings. Drinking the water and getting sick was fairly routine for the volunteers. A lot of health risks that you wouldn't normally take seemed to be not a big deal given they were adjusting to their surroundings. I experienced this to a smaller degree in the short time I was there. The nearby volunteer we were working with didn't seem to get that she was in a 3rd world environment and still complained about a lot of the small things.

The community I was in was very friendly and dedicated to working on our project. A lot of the community members couldn't tell the difference between me and the volunteer I was staying with. We looked nothing alike other than we were both white.

A lot of people don't realize that one of the main goals of PC is selling America, or rather showing America works, this is how we do it. All in all though it's a really good program and there are some good people out there doing some great work.