On my
way to our training program today, I ran into some volunteers in Kiev. It is a well known
fact that volunteers gossip more than just about anyone on the planet. If you
want to know the most intimate details of another volunteer's life, just ask
another volunteer. Although there was a little of that today, it was discussion
of another topic that gave me a moment of pause. News that, hearing at any
other time, would probably not have caused much more consideration other than
storing gossip for future contribution. The news today was that the 15th person
from our group since leaving Washington, DC for Ukraine
just over 16 months ago has returned home. Once you leave DC there are only
four options for ending your service. The obvious is completion, when we will
go through a "close of service" conference and make our arrangements
for leaving the last two years of our lives in the rearview mirror. Barring
that option there are only three other options for ending your service: medical
separation, administrative separation, and early termination. Medical
separation can be any medically related issue that keeps you from your site for
more than 45 days. If you break your leg and the rehabilitation is longer than
45 days, you will be medically separated. Administrative separation is just
what it sounds like. Basically, the Peace Corps administration asks you to
leave. And early termination is the term for when a volunteer says "I
quit"- and even then, the reasons can range from family issues at home to
a site issue that does not resolve to your satisfaction (although I believe
Peace Corps goes pretty far to fix those kind of issues). Luckily, this is not
like a military contract where you are locked in for a period of time. As
volunteers we are free to leave at any time. And they do.
We have
heard some really crazy stories about volunteers who get separated for a myriad
of reasons. These usually come from the medical staff in the way of warnings to
keep us from doing what they did. The other thing is that every volunteer is
having a unique experience. Your life here is dependant on so many factors that
it is just impossible for everything to be equal for two different people. We
all work for different organizations. We all have different counterparts. We
all have different living arrangements. We are all different, and the speedbump
challenges for one can be an insurmountable mountain for another. We knew that
there would be volunteers leaving. In fact, the average rate of early
termination runs between 10 and 20%, with Ukraine in the lower end of the
scale. There are countries that must really suck to work in considering their
Early Termination rates.
We had
our first casualty during training- like two weeks into it. The Peace Corps
does everything they can to weed out by way of rejection, those applicants who
they do not think will make it, but of course there are plenty of surprises,
both ways. Plenty who stick it out even though you were sure they couldn't and
those you think are solid and leave faster than you imagined. They say that
there are service milestones that act as moments that result in more Early Terminations
than others. Obviously, just arriving in country is enough to send some packing
once the reality of living with a host family that has no running hot water
hits. Their personal "we're not in Kansas
any more" moment. The next step with several terminations is once we get
to our sites. Living conditions, unfamiliar surroundings, feelings of
isolation, and host organization woes will send some running home. Once those
hurdles have been cleared, unless there is a medical or administrative
separation, chances are good that you will make it through your time here. The
next challenge though is the one year mark. It is when the people who have
lasted this long really start to experience homesickness and really start to reevaluate
their commitment to the life.
As I
learned yesterday of our latest group member to decide to leave I started think
about my own commitment and the circumstances that keep me here. I am certain
that all volunteers have their own set of reasons for staying or going and my
will to stay is way stronger than my wanting to leave. I listen to other
volunteers' stories of challenges at their sites and I can usually do nothing
but listen...not to agree or empathize, just listen, because I feel I have
little to offer in terms of commiseration. With one year down, I can honestly
say that I am still absolutely thrilled with my site placement. The worst
problems I have, well, they don't even rank on some volunteer's top ten lists
of daily challenges. There is a saying here that you shouldn't consider going
home if you have a bad day. You should wait until you have seven bad days in a
row before considering calling it quits. Truth to tell, save a couple of days
of foul moods with weak root causes, in the past year I have never once
considered leaving. Not out of principle, but because I am genuinely loving my
experience here.
So to
all of my fellow Group 41 volunteers I say: I will see you at the COS conference next March, because barring a medical
separation or some other serious issue, I fully expect to be there.
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