There are a lot of useful, work-related skills you gain (or, at
least, have the opportunity to gain) as a Peace Corps Volunteer. There are even
more that really have nothing to do with the reality of what most of us live
like and work like in America. With only 10-months left of service, I’ve been
finding myself thinking a lot about the “logical next step” and how to get
there from where I am right now. I’m a little out-of-shape in the department of
résumé-making and job applications, but right now, mine is looking a little
like this:
Stephanie
Gasior
Youth Development Volunteer: Peace
Corps, 2011-2013
B.P. 39 Batouri, East Region, Cameroon
·
Making Croissants and Pains au
Chocolat
o
Volunteer is able to, with assistance
and without the use of an oven or conventional tools, create edible,
butter-filled deliciousness to be enjoyed at any hour of the day.
·
Filling Polypots
o
Volunteer quickly, knowledgably, and
capably can fill polypots in preparation for Moringa Trees.
§ Volunteer
can explain the benefit of Moringa Trees and distribute grown samples to a
loud, pushing group of Host Country Nationals
·
Texting in French Abbreviations
o
Volunteer can effectively communicate
a message through a short SMS by utilizing French abbreviations including
“dmn,” “bjr,” and “ajd’hui.”
o
Volunteer can understand texting
abbreviations and lingo…most of the time.
·
Using a Machete for Yard-Work
o
When time permits, volunteer is able
to do her own yard-work with a machete without inflicting bodily injury to
herself or others.
·
Reading Mercury Thermometers
o
When wondering if she’s sick,
volunteer is able to clearly read and clear a mercury thermometer in either
Celsius or Farenheit.
·
Explaining the Purpose of the
Electoral College
o
In either French or English, volunteer
is able to explain the function and purpose of the Electoral College while
maintaining that the existence of an Electoral College does not annul the
American democratic system.
·
Making Tofu
o
Given certain materials including soy
beans and vinegar, volunteer is able to create tofu adhering to the taste sets
of both Americans and Cameroonians as well as to preach to the importance of
protein for youth and pregnant women.
·
Saying “No” to Marriage Proposals
o
Without being phased, volunteer is
able to say “NO!” to marriage proposals including by asking horrendous dowries,
explaining that she’s already married to numerous men, explaining the
importance of love in a marriage, explaining the demanding nature of American
women, ignoring the question, and forcefully responding in the negative.
·
Eating Food with Hands
o
Without the use of utensils, volunteer
can quickly clean all fish-meat from bones. Volunteer successfully uses
couscous of a types (except corn when avoidable) to mop up sauces of all types
without making too much of a mess out of herself.
§ Volunteer
has retained the ability to use a fork and spoon when necessary, and excels at
using knives when cutting food out of the palm of the hand rather than on a
plate or flat service.
·
Early Morning Productivity
o
With or without the aid of
early-morning rooster crowing, volunteer is able to drag herself out of bed
early, make coffee, eat breakfast, work-out, shower, plan/schedule five
different work meetings, and finish all her shopping at the market before
nine-thirty am.
·
Riding Motorcycles
o
Volunteer is able to strap on a
helmet, mount a motorcycle from the left side, give directions loudly from
underneath a helmet, dismount from the left side, and pay a moto-taxi-man the
correct fare.
·
Using a Bucket-Flush Toilet or Pit
Latrine
o
Volunteer has mastered the use of all
forms of toilets and latrines.
·
Hand-Washing Jeans
o
Without the use of a brush or other
abrasive surface, volunteer can hand-wash a pair of jeans to be cleaner than
the washing machine at the office in Yaounde.
·
Cleaning Vegetables
o
Volunteer knows and practices proper
vegetable-cleaning methods including bleaching, scrubbing, and peeling. When
boiling, volunteer actually lets the water come to a boil.
·
Waiting Patiently
o
Volunteer is able to calmly sit
through long, repetitive work meetings as well as breakdowns on the side of the
road without compromising personal opinions on timeliness or being prepared for
inevitabilities.
Other non-descript skills: tearing into packages in about 4
seconds flat, cleaning and preparing beans, washing dishes, holding babies,
entertaining small children with weird facial expressions, organizing coloring
books, avoiding bush meat
Yep, hear that sound? Those are all the job offers for a new age, politically-minded
chef/house-keeper rolling in. So many practical job skills!
I should say that I feel like I’ve gained practical, marketable
skills, too, and that I actually have an idea of what the “next step” is, which
I didn’t before I came here. But, it’s been these more un-tangible,
un-marketable skills that have defined my experience and pushed my boundaries. There’s
training for work, partners on the ground to teach you along the way, and
resources to consult that can help you define your work, but the only way to
learn how to deal with going without (insert favorite American good here,) or
to learn to manage a household, or to be comfortable in your own skin is to
learn through your individual experience. It’s been almost seventeen months in
Cameroon, fourteen of which I’ve been living as one of three or four Americans
in a city of 40,000 Cameroonians. Those experiences can’t be boiled down to a
short bullet-point on a piece of paper, they become a part of a person. And
that’s where I am now, trying to figure out what the niche in the American job
market is for a cockroach-killing, bean-sorting, fidelity-encouraging, female
French-speaker….
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