An Intention.

Ever since I applied to the Peace Corps, and more recently since I accepted the invitation to Botswana, I have been thinking a lot about my intention for my time here. Why do I want to spend over two years of my life in another country and immersed in an unfamiliar culture, far removed from my comfort zone and my support system? To some people that might sound completely absurd and undesirable. But for those who know me, it is a perfect fit. It’s not often that I feel called to do something. I felt it when I first heard about Joseph’s House, where I spent my last year serving through Americorps. And I felt it when I made the commitment to the Peace Corps. It was a terrifying decision, one that I grappled a great deal with, but I believe that it will prove to be the right one.

                I realized over the past year how much value I place in service work. It has been a distinct and defining part of my life for as long as I can remember, but I don’t think I truly recognized its importance in my values and priorities until the past year. For me, service work is so much more than just “doing good” and feeling good about yourself as a result of it. Because that, in itself, seems selfish to me. Service work is less about me, the server, and more about the population and individuals being served. It is about accompaniment, and that is what I am striving for.

                I have been really pleased so far with how much the Peace Corps’ approach to development work lines up with my own views. As a Peace Corps volunteer, my approach to development is first and foremost person-to-person centered. By nature, it is a bottom-up strategy that focuses on capacity building as defined by the community, not my own agenda. Even if I think I have identified a need in the community, without local buy-in it is already a failed idea. The PC approach promotes sustainable projects and initiatives that involve community stakeholders as trainers, mentors, co-facilitators, etc. It's an approach that I really believe is not accomplishable unless you totally immerse yourself into the village and culture you are in... something I don't think I could do working with pretty much any other development agency.

                Over the course of the next 2+ years, I don’t want to just initiate projects, train community members, and spread health education messages. Rather, I want to foster relationships. Accompaniment through this type of work is about mutual growth and development. It is not about an agenda or a work plan. It is not about making as big an impact as I can in two short years. It is not about adding accomplishments to a resume. Service through accompaniment is about walking alongside and matching your stride with the people you are serving. It is about following their bumpy, dirt path, even though your paved and unpitted one may have branched off a while back. I’m not sure what my Peace Corps service has in store for me, but I do know how I want to approach this experience.

To accept everything and push away nothing.

To serve with an open heart.