Below is the article I submitted to the PC Cameroon health newsletter. Enjoy!
I'm a strong believer in the expression "old habits die hard". If volunteers before Peace Corps (B.P.C. if you will) were social butterflies and preferred crowds to calm, then those personality characteristics carry over into service. If volunteers B.P.C. were workaholics and would stay up until 3am in the library memorizing the
Krebs cycle (yours truly) then those attributes are again seen during two years here in Africa. I find work here in Cameroon becoming the biggest part of my day-to-day activities (well not so much the Krebs
cycle part). Within a given minute these are the work thoughts jumping around in my head:
vastfundingdeadlinesformationat1pmhealthclubactionplanwhatarethedateofmidservice... and the thoughts continue.
During one uneventful evening this past October after a much-eventful and activity-packed day, I took a breather to reflect on my service thus far. In such a calm and non-stressful village in the heart of the
Adamawa, why are these workaholic characteristics of my personality still showing themselves? I found myself asking: what happened to goals 2 and 3? And why am I letting goal 1 take over my existence
here?
When I applied to Peace Corps in the spring of 2010, I do not recall imagining development projects. I recall wanting to explore a new culture and live in harmony with people different than me. I wanted life to slow down for these brief two years, to be purely happy and to do some soul-searching along the way; as cliche as that sounds. However, here in PC Cameroon, I feel pressure and stress to do work and project after project related to health education. Are these workaholic characteristics within me just having a hard time dying off, or is there an outside pressure to do all of this goal 1 work? On the VRF that we all know and love, there are 31 questions to be answered for EACH activity done related to goal 1. On the other hand,
there are 3 questions related to goals two and three COMBINED. Note: yes that's right, I counted all the questions. How is it that goals 2 and 3, or 2/3 of our work, are minimized into just three questions? Does this not strike anyone as bizarre that 1/3 of our work (goal 1) is taking 91+% of the credit?
When I realized all of this last month, it worried me...and I decided to do something about it. I compiled a slideshow of photos on my computer from my home in good ol' Vermont and other states in the red-white-and-blue. I started showing people in village, and they love them. I am amazed by how many questions people have, ranging from how the healthcare system works to whether we grow corn too; things I
never would have thought of to explain. I also spoke with a French teacher from my old high school in Vermont and set up a penpal program between her students and my 4e English students here. On this end, we have sent out our first batch of letters and the my students keep asking when they'll receive theirs. I am also revamping how I interact with my WWS elementary school to help students in the US better
understand what life is like here in Cameroon. I am brainstorming other goals 2 and 3 projects to launch in village, and would love to hear what other health PCVs are doing to promote America abroad and
Cameroon in the US of A.
I hope that, at this near mid-point in service for my stage, other health volunteers in my shoes can reflect back as well on what brought them here to Cameroon. Focusing solely on goal 1 is leading me away from the things I wanted to achieve here. In my eyes, goals 2 and 3 are overlooked, but are currently where I find the most joy in my service.
I'm a strong believer in the expression "old habits die hard". If volunteers before Peace Corps (B.P.C. if you will) were social butterflies and preferred crowds to calm, then those personality characteristics carry over into service. If volunteers B.P.C. were workaholics and would stay up until 3am in the library memorizing the
Krebs cycle (yours truly) then those attributes are again seen during two years here in Africa. I find work here in Cameroon becoming the biggest part of my day-to-day activities (well not so much the Krebs
cycle part). Within a given minute these are the work thoughts jumping around in my head:
vastfundingdeadlinesformationat1pmhealthclubactionplanwhatarethedateofmidservice... and the thoughts continue.
During one uneventful evening this past October after a much-eventful and activity-packed day, I took a breather to reflect on my service thus far. In such a calm and non-stressful village in the heart of the
Adamawa, why are these workaholic characteristics of my personality still showing themselves? I found myself asking: what happened to goals 2 and 3? And why am I letting goal 1 take over my existence
here?
When I applied to Peace Corps in the spring of 2010, I do not recall imagining development projects. I recall wanting to explore a new culture and live in harmony with people different than me. I wanted life to slow down for these brief two years, to be purely happy and to do some soul-searching along the way; as cliche as that sounds. However, here in PC Cameroon, I feel pressure and stress to do work and project after project related to health education. Are these workaholic characteristics within me just having a hard time dying off, or is there an outside pressure to do all of this goal 1 work? On the VRF that we all know and love, there are 31 questions to be answered for EACH activity done related to goal 1. On the other hand,
there are 3 questions related to goals two and three COMBINED. Note: yes that's right, I counted all the questions. How is it that goals 2 and 3, or 2/3 of our work, are minimized into just three questions? Does this not strike anyone as bizarre that 1/3 of our work (goal 1) is taking 91+% of the credit?
When I realized all of this last month, it worried me...and I decided to do something about it. I compiled a slideshow of photos on my computer from my home in good ol' Vermont and other states in the red-white-and-blue. I started showing people in village, and they love them. I am amazed by how many questions people have, ranging from how the healthcare system works to whether we grow corn too; things I
never would have thought of to explain. I also spoke with a French teacher from my old high school in Vermont and set up a penpal program between her students and my 4e English students here. On this end, we have sent out our first batch of letters and the my students keep asking when they'll receive theirs. I am also revamping how I interact with my WWS elementary school to help students in the US better
understand what life is like here in Cameroon. I am brainstorming other goals 2 and 3 projects to launch in village, and would love to hear what other health PCVs are doing to promote America abroad and
Cameroon in the US of A.
I hope that, at this near mid-point in service for my stage, other health volunteers in my shoes can reflect back as well on what brought them here to Cameroon. Focusing solely on goal 1 is leading me away from the things I wanted to achieve here. In my eyes, goals 2 and 3 are overlooked, but are currently where I find the most joy in my service.
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