Coming Home: Namibia
Namibia | Charles Castillo Home: Medford, New Jersey Watch the video I put together about my unfinished business as a Volunteer and you’ll see and hear me speak a few different languages. The messages all begin: “How are you? My name is Charles Castillo.” First, in American Sign Language. In Namibian Sign Language. In Oshiwambo, a language spoken in my community in Northern Namibia — where the question “How are you?” changes depending on the time of day: “Wa lala po” (morning), “Wu uhala po” (afternoon), and “Wa tokelwa po (evening) amuhe?” Edhina lyandje oShali. My name is Charlie. And in Afrikaans, also spoken in Namibia: Hoe...
Coming Home: Malawi
Malawi | Danny Herres Home: Tryon, North Carolina Danny Herres found out about the evacuation at 4:30 a.m., via group chat on WhatsApp. Malawi is a landlocked nation split by the Great Rift Valley and the massive Lake Malawi, which nearly runs the length of the entire country. Herres had been serving as a community health specialist in a village of about 1,000 people near Lilongwe since June 2019. He was the first Volunteer in the area. “No one had ever come in as a foreigner, built relationships, been a community member,” he says, “and then found other motivated individuals...
Coming Home: Madagascar
Madagascar | Danielle Montecalvo Home: Rochester, New York I had been serving since September 2018 as an English educator at University of Mahajanga. Here’s what I left behind: My 200 first-year engineering, computer science, and applied language students, as well as 275 university students returning for their second and third year. My host family: Papa, Mama, four host sisters—Vesna, Johanna, Fifa, and Anyah. My host cousins, Tafar and Zela. My counterpart, Mrs. Jemima Johnson. University colleagues and staff. Neighbors, market sellers, store vendors, and friends throughout the city. And here’s the unfinished business I’d like you to know about:...
Coming Home: Ghana
Ghana | Meg Holladay Home: Amherst, Massachusets I was serving as a Peace Corps Health Extension Volunteer in southern Ghana, in a farming community of about 1,200 people. When we were evacuated, I had been in my community for a year and had one more year to go. I was the first Peace Corps Volunteer there. I felt like I was just starting to hit my stride, to identify the projects that would be truly helpful and the people who were the most committed to working together for the long term. I was working with community members on a...
Coming Home: Kyrgyz Republic
Kyrgyz Republic | Jae Cho Home: Gloucester, Virginia Hello, my name is Jae Cho, and I'm from Gloucester, Virginia, and I've been serving as a Peace Corps volunteer since July 2019 in the Kyrgyz Republic. I've been serving as a TEFL teacher, teaching English as a foreign language at J. Mukambaev Secondary School in a small village called Kurmonty, in the Issyk-Kul oblast. There I've been working with five other counterparts or who are also English teachers and lovers of the English language: Meerim Eje, Asel Eje, Darike Eje, Symbat Eje, and Saltanat Eje. Through countless hours of training, scheduling,...
Coming Home: Mozambique
Mozambique | Stacie Scott Home: Louisville, Kentucky My community, Metangula, is in the northern province of Niassa. I was a community health services promoter for 22 months, working in the community health center organizing HIV patient files. I formed an English club, an English theater youth group, and a Grassroot Soccer youth group. I also trained high school students in HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention. When we were evacuated, I left behind my adored Mozambican family, friends, and students. I had to leave behind my two cats, whom I love dearly and planned on bringing home with me. I left behind...
Coming Home: Ukraine
Ukraine | Kevin Lawson Home: Greensboro, North Carolina “When will you come back?” I wake up more and more to this question as the days go by since evacuation. I had been serving as a youth development Volunteer since August 2018. When we were evacuated I left behind the promise to play soccer with Dima, Sasha, and Max. I was in the middle of lesson planning with my English teacher, Olena, and organizing a festival at school with my counterpart. As a youth volunteer, one-on-one connections with students were so important to me. No matter the time or place,...
Coming Home: Moldova
Nobody wanted it to happen this way. Evacuation stories and the unfinished business of Peace Corps Volunteers around the world. Moldova | Jeremy Male Home: Roswell, Georgia In a small village in the Soroca region near the Ukrainian border, Jeremy Male taught English at a secondary school alongside two Moldovan colleagues starting in 2019. “I was the first volunteer in my village,” he says. That made him an ambassador of American culture and values. And it put this self-professed introvert very much in the public eye. He quickly learned to roll with it when strangers stopped him on...
This is Not a Drill
When times are good, being a country director for Peace Corps may be the best job in foreign affairs. This has not been such a time. As told to Steven Boyd Saum Photo: Vyshyvanka Day, when schoolchildren don the traditional Ukrainian shirt — and here, pose as one. Photo by Kevin Lawson Kim Mansaray | Country Director, Mongolia JANUARY AND NEWS OF THE VIRUS came out in China. Mongolia says we’re not sending kids back to school. Our winter break became endless winter break. Then the virus exploded in China, and Mongolia went on hardcore lockdown — borders and...
Global Reentry: A Bridge between Peace Corps Service and a Lifetime of Peace Corps Ideals
Global Reentry: A Bridge between Peace Corps Service and a Lifetime of Peace Corps Ideals By Dan Baker Just days after Peace Corps Volunteers began a global evacuation in March, National Peace Corps Association officially launched a program that had long been in the works — but was suddenly urgent: the Global Reentry Program to support the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer community, especially those evacuated this spring. Global Reentry aims to connect returned Volunteers with the resources they need for personal and professional success as we also further the ideals of the Peace Corps. It’s geared to help recently evacuated Volunteers and those who...