A Bend in the Road

Post by Lara

11 August 2013

There are a lot of ways to look at the 27-month commitment that Peace Corps asks of volunteers. For some, it’s 2+ years of resume-enhancing.  For others, it’s a hiatus of sorts—leave everything for a couple of years and do something totally different for a while, then get back to it.  For many (if not all), the reasons listed for joining Peace Corps change during the course of service—the focus shifts at least once.  It has certainly been that way for Kevin and me. 

For me, joining Peace Corps was the realization of a lifelong dream, going out of my home and my comfort zone to learn how to live in another culture and to create a bridge of understanding between my previous home and my new one.  That was the driving force at the beginning—very big picture.  And while there’s nothing wrong with that view, I don’t think that having a large overarching goal of “connecting with people” would have kept me here long.  Once you’re on the ground, the “big picture” becomes harder to see, crowded out by a million little pictures: the children in our town chanting our names as we walk by, our good friend suffering from several health problems, my 3 different classrooms full of students [or nearly empty, some days], my fellow teachers buying lunch for me, two of our neighbors having a fight over a lost chicken, the student whose tuition we pay… The list goes on and on—many good and inspiring things, plenty of frustrating ones.  After several months here, my goals got smaller, more measurable. I wanted to see this student figure out that. Kevin wanted to see waste management practices improved at his school.  We both wanted a lot for our schools and community, but we were focusing in on what might have the most impact and what changes might last.

After a failed attempt to dig a well, there was an opportunity for TVSS to get a trash pit!  Kevin and his counter part used stones and school funds to build a wall around it and turn it into a trash pit for the school.

Somewhere in all of this, my personal focus shifted too.  I had been moving along with the plan that after Peace Corps, I would get a master’s of education and begin teaching high school math.  That was what I had wanted before I left—it was why I was thankful to have a teaching assignment in Peace Corps. It was how I framed my classes here and how I made my experience here count toward what I would be doing next.  What I didn’t expect was that living and working here would cause me to take a giant step back—all the way back—to consider options I haven’t considered in years. 

Now let me step away for a minute and describe our town to you.  It is a district capital—the largest town for at least 30 miles in any direction.  We host a weekly market on Thursdays that brings people from a large radius together.  We have at least 2 mosques and something like a dozen churches, one community bank, 5 junior high/high schools, a whole lot of primary schools, a radio station that focuses its programming on women’s health and equality, a nursing school, and a hospital.  I’ve heard that our town holds something like 7-10 thousand residents, but if you include the outlying areas you’re up to 40 or 50 thousand people who consider our town the first stop to go to a large market, visit the hospital, or go to a “good” high school. 

When we first got here, we were education-focused. That wasn’t a decision we consciously made, so much as a reflection of our full-time jobs.  Teaching is our primary project here, so naturally, teaching and improving our schools were on our minds.  As we’ve spent more time in the community and learned about the dynamics of living here, we’ve come to see that our community needs a lot of things, better education being one among many.  We need paved roads (they’re working on it!); we need a well-staffed hospital (they’re trying to work on that, but right now there isn’t even one doctor regularly there); we need teachers and educators who are qualified and trained, which might mean incentivizing the better teachers to move out to the provinces (Engineers Without Boarders is working on that at my school); we need libraries, not just for the school but for the wider community. Our town needs a lot of things, and also needs a lot of caring people to help it accomplish those things.  We want this place to become more accessible, more attractive to good teachers, more self-sufficient…and we want to be a part of making it that way.

It was in light of all of these thoughts that I found myself one day thinking, “What if I don’t become a teacher when I leave here?”  And suddenly the game shifted.  What I thought was a fairly straightforward road from here to my future career suddenly didn’t have to be.  Did I want that?  What did I want?  The thoughts swirled around in my head for a few days before they settled down into something I could interpret.  What I realized at the end of the day was that I wanted to pursue a career that would allow me to continue to be a presence here in my town, even from far away.  I didn’t want to move here permanently, but I wanted to have the means to come here occasionally, and to contribute to the effort to develop our community after my 2 years are done.  I also wanted job and income security in the states, and I wanted to have more technical skills than I have now. 

Which technical skills? That was something to decide.   The way I saw it, engineering and health care were the two most attractive options.  As an engineer I would be able to work on water and sanitation or solar and wind power.  As a health care professional I could help with the hospital as well as local clinics, running workshops or taking part in vaccination campaigns. 

Health care won out, and here are some reasons why.  Living 180+ miles from my own doctor (we have most of our appointments by phone) and something like 50 miles (read: at least 3 hours by car) from being able to see a doctor has put healthcare at the front of my mind.  One friend of mine has an ulcer causing her constant pains, or at least she’s sure it’s an ulcer, though it’s never been diagnosed and she doesn’t have the money to go to the hospital for it.  Another friend recently had an attack from what we think are gallstones, but the only thing they could do at our hospital was give her some pain medication and encourage her to go get tested in Bo.  I have made “Where There is No Doctor” my go-to guide for all kinds of ailments, both my own and those of my friends.  When the Peace Corps medical staff gave us the book at the beginning of our time here, I assumed the title was somewhat hyperbolic—turns out I was wrong.  Furthermore, I know that health care professionals are sorely needed in parts of the states too, and having firsthand knowledge of what life is like when you live in a town with no doctor, I know that my skills would be needed in the states as well as abroad. 

Now, my Bachelor of Arts degree in math, Spanish, and International Studies is not going to get me far in a health profession, so I’m still going back to school when I return, but now I’m going with an entirely new goal in mind.  I’ve begun to scope out post-baccalaureate pre-medical programs which will prepare me for med school, a PA program, or another medical master’s program.  Right now, I think I want to work in a family practice, which I could do as a doctor or a PA.  What specific career I’m going to follow will depend on a lot of things, such as how many years of schooling or preparation I plan to put into the career change.  I’m glad to know I have at least a year or two to sort that out. 

So now I find myself a year into my Peace Corps service, trying to decide how to frame the next year, what to focus on, and what comes next.  I’m still a teacher, first and foremost.  I now share a career goal with many of my students, which I hope will enhance our classes and help us focus.  I want to contribute to my school’s success, but now I see a wider goal as well—helping my community be healthier.  I have decided to start volunteering at the hospital and/or with the local Red Cross. I plan to get a hold of my little sister’s anatomy book to be able to start some independent study before I return home next year.  Ultimately, I hope to have the skills to be an effective health worker in the US and a career which affords me the opportunity to be involved in global health efforts not just in Sierra Leone but anywhere where medical care is scarce. 

Lara's students giving a lecture during morning assembly about conjunctivitis and cleanliness after a small outbreak at the school. 

Kevin likes to joke that he views his time in Peace Corps as a “snooze button” of sorts—he was an engineer before he came and wants to get an engineering job when we return.  Some things will be different, but ultimately his time here has further settled in his mind that engineering is what he loves and what he wants to do.  I’ve come to see my own Peace Corps service as a giant bend in the road.  When I joined, I thought I knew what was on the other side. Now I’m starting to realize that I had no idea, and that whatever comes next, my two years here have forever altered the way forward.