I'm looking for experiences or thoughts about the Peace Corps.

Specifically, has anyone here joined?


I know this doesn't really belong in N&D, but it'd get buried so quick in GD.

my oldest brother joined the Peace Corps in the early 70s. Went to Botswana, Africa for two years to work at stopping the drought by raising grasshoppers that ate a specific kind of plant that clogged the waters there.
He loved it and would have joined for another two year stint in China (I think) except my mom told him he was grounded.
heh.

I think you have to have a very open attitude to do that kind of travel and work. You can't be bothered by local foods or whatever (My brother would tell stories of eating dried catapillars while 'out in the bush' with the local tribes there, etc). I don't think I could do it, myself.

I have a ton of respect for him for going and I think the most noticable personality trait it helped to encourage in him was a sense of worldliness that serves him to this day- he's never really bothered or irritated by the differences in cultures, etc, he likes to jump right in to whatever's thought of as normal.

my friend joined out of college and has spent most of his time down south working on the coast post-katrina. he loves it and told me i should do it.