Continuing to build the understanding

Naturally, even things from organizations like the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) tend to arrive at post a little late. I'm sipping on some instant-brew right now, while flipping through the winter 2009 edition of the NPCA's Worldview Magazine. This issue is all about revitalizing the agency, as we inch closer to and beyond the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. 

There is a short excerpt I'd like to share from a piece titled "Peace Corps for Life: Reinvigorating the Agency by Reframing the Experience" by Joby Taylor, Ph.D. Taylor, according to the magazine, served as a PCV in Gabon from 1991-93, studied as a Peace Corps Fellow from 1999-2001, and is the director of the Shriver Peaceworker Fellows Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.I want to share Taylor's words, not only because they are moving, but furthermore because they again bring to attention the mission of our work. 

“The Peace Corps, at its best, is a transformative personal experience for our own citizens and their host country counterparts; it’s a grassroots development agency offering an effective hand up (not a hand out) in thousands of communities around the world; and it’s the smartest ‘smart power’ in our international affairs portfolio. This integration of goals is the elegant genius of the Peace Corps.”

Taylor constructs a portrait of the agency's three goals in a way that reinvigorates a volunteer's passion. I can fully attest to the "transformative" power of Peace Corps service. We offer our best hands when we help others help themselves, as my colleague describes here in his two part series. And the true asset in our tool kit is the collection of idea and energy on the ground, in our communities. 

This week, my group passed the point where we now potentially have fewer days left in Moldova than have already passed since our arrival. I've spent a lot of time considering what I want to accomplish in the next year, what my community needs, and where those two intersect. Reminders about why we are here, like Taylor's, inevitably help me keep my focus. I suppose I am hoping this post will help others understand and support our work too.