Okay so if you read the previous post (or you just know me) then you know my parents are Dominican immigrants. My father (who will be referred to as Papi from here on) was born in the 1950's in a very small village in DR. When I was applying to Peace Corps no one in my family really know what the H PC was, except for Papi because he was familiar with el Cuerpo de Paz (Peace Corps in Spanish). I asked him how he knew the organization, and he briefly mentioned that there was a volunteer in his village when he was growing up. I didn't really question him further at the time.
Fast forward about two years. There has been a lot of talk lately about the Peace Corps because of its anniversary, with many people retelling stories of their service and the communities and people they met and worked with. All this reflecting got me thinking of that conversation with Papi, and made me want to find out the story behind it. And so I got on my Gchat (free phone calls to the US and Canada!) and called up the old abode. The following is a (very loosely) translated version of his Peace Corps story (I left a few things in Spanish, deal with it!):
It was in the 70's, I was in the 7th grade. It was an American from Nebraska, named "Hall," I don't know how to spell his name. He seemed young, I think maybe he was between 35 and 40 years old, but he could have been younger, tu sabe como lo gringo envejecen ma' rapido. He was in the town of Padre Las Casas, stayed there for about two years I think, living with one of the Segura's. I remember that he stayed for two years because he even started a Boy Scout troop in the town. He got so many kids to join, Fernando, Fellín, most of the boys were in it. I wasn't in it, because it was only boys from the town and I was in Los Indios [which is a tiny village on the outskirts of Padre Las Casas]. Either way, it wasn't in the era of my youth, I was in 7th grade and the other boys were older. He also had a cinema, and they would show movies there, some Mexican movies in Spanish. Hall spoke Spanish. I think of all the people they sent there, Hall was the one that worked the most, he was a good person, very sympathetic.
One time, I think it was in the 60's, they sent 2 viejitos, maybe it was '67 or '68, they were married. Roma and Lutero were their names. They formed a group for housewives, and did other things like that. And another time too there were two volunteers, one named David and another whose name I can't remember. Those two did many things too. I couldn't participate because I was too young, but [your cousin] Urbano, [your uncles] Máximo and William took part, in the 60's. David taught them to do arts and crafts, and they made so many things. I remember that Máximo made a fish out of a cow's horn in one of the arts classes. It was so beautiful, and they exhibited all of the works everyone made. The thing is that over there [in DR] people don't know how to appreciate things, they don't save anything... that would've been something wonderful to still have.
I don't know if they have sent more people after David. I think Hall is probably still alive, he seemed so young. I think them being in Padre Las Casas was very good. They helped the youth a lot, showed them so many things, so many ideas they didn't know before. All of these things have great value, they help in the development of a community.
A lot of current PCV's have parents or family members that were Volunteers in the early days of Peace Corps -- I have the reverse. Papi and other members of my family benefited from having Peace Corps Volunteers in their poor, rural community in DR, and now almost 50 years later I get to pay it forward... in Azerbaijan. Who knows, maybe in another 40 years there will be a young Azerbaijani-American in the Peace Corps blogging about how their parents knew a Jessica! Peace Corps isn't just about the transfer of technical skills from Volunteers to members of their communities -- it's about forming connections with people, creating memories, however small, that continue to enrich and inform our lives as citizens of the world. Hopefully Peace Corps will continue to celebrate many more anniversaries.
Happy 50th Birthday Peace Corps!
adorable.
ReplyDeletelove it! this was a great story and I think you should actually get a hold of Peace Corps higher-ups and share it with them! They'd eat it up.
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