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Decision to Join Peace Corps
How did I get to Mauritania? Good question. When the plane landed and I first stepped off, I took a deep breath. I had reached my destination. The air was hot and muggy, which I anticipated, although it had a certain scent that was very unfamiliar– the smell of poverty. I asked myself if this was really the country I had accepted for my Peace Corps assignment. Was this the place I was going to spend twenty-seven months, with hopes not of reforming the entire country but of making a difference is just a few lives? It appeared to be so. There had been no mistake – we had, in fact, landed in Mauritania. This land was to become my first ‘office’; these people were to become my first colleagues. Two weeks earlier I had graduated from college, and I was now out in what people like to call “the real world”. I don’t think it gets much more real than this.When I arrived in Mauritania, my travels elsewhere provided me with very little in terms of preparation for what I have experienced since my arrival in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. All throughout my childhood, we traveled as a family – clear down to the southern tip of Florida and up to our Canadian neighbors in the North. After high school, I spent eleven months in Belgium as a Rotary exchange student before beginning my studies at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. My junior year was spent studying in Lausanne, Switzerland, and I traveled about with friends I met during my year there. I fearlessly flew to California to visit an amazing friend I made in Switzerland, and I had no doubts this is how I wanted to spend my life: traveling, seeing the world, experiencing cultures and participating in other people’s lives.
I had long-before decided I wanted to join Peace Corps. I had my moments of doubt, but deep-down, I knew this grassroots experience was one that genuinely interested me. It seemed it was the logical ‘next step’ for me post-college, but then September 11th became a date to be remembered in our history. The reality that life – even in America- was unpredictable and could instantly change from one day to the next scared me. Throughout my life, I had met people who challenged me and my views, as an American, although I never anticipated an attack such as the one that shocked us all in September 2001. I know that because of the 9-11 events, many people disapproved of my decision to join Peace Corps. They objected – sometimes silently- out of fear, uncertainty, love, and hope. Likewise, I joined out of fear, uncertainty, love, and hope: fear for the tensions I might experience while abroad and fear for the possibility of war; uncertainty of the changes that might occur while I am gone – in myself, in my family, in my homeland – and uncertainty of what hardships I would encounter in Mauritania; love for cultures, understanding, exchanges, and travel, all parts of who I grown to be; and hope for making even a marginal difference in the lives of the people I came into contact with, be it an American or a Mauritania and hope to give insight about the misconceptions we have about Africans and Muslims.
I did not join Peace Corps in reaction to September 11th. I did not join to be a ‘hero’ of sorts. I did not join to make my family or friends worry or to cause them anguish. I joined because inside I felt this was what I needed to do and wanted to do. I realize that even today, I might not have the support of everyone I wish to have the support from, and I realize that even after it is all said and done, some people still might not understand why I came here. Honestly, I am not certain that after two years I will know why I came here either. Words might not be sufficient enough to explain my decision, but I hope they are enough to relay a bit of my life here as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa. I hope that through these articles, I can share with you a piece of Mauritania and increase your interest of the land of nomads, rolling dunes, and enchanting cups of mint tea.