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From: putnam@steinmetz.UUCP (jefu)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.africa
Subject: Re: Liberia and the Peace Corps
Message-ID: <329@steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 24-Nov-85 10:34:26 EST
Article-I.D.: steinmet.329
Posted: Sun Nov 24 10:34:26 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Nov-85 05:40:37 EST
References: <177@isieng.UUCP>
Reply-To: putnam@kbsvax.UUCP (jefu)
Distribution: net.nlang.africa
Organization: GE CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 89

I cant speak for Liberia, except from what i heard on the rumor mill, but i 
spent four years in Zaire in the peace corps.  Since my experiences will
not translate easily (Liberia was often cited as a real picnic compared to
Zaire, with volunteers close together -- i spent a year with one other
volunteer, and the next closest americans were 250 miles away -- yes, its nice
to get to know the locals, and we did, but its also nice to talk to someone
from your culture from time to time), i will instead make a couple quick
recommendations on what to take that might be helpful.

1) whatever your speciality is, take reference material on it.  Its also nice
   to arrange for someone (family or friends are ok, but someone who knows the 
   subject is better) to be able to mail you things on it over the course
   of your stint.  If mail is reliable, splurge and arrange for journals, 
   magazines... to be sent to you.  Air mail.  Sea mail takes years.  (I got
   my christmas present from one year, two years later.  There had been food
   in it).  It might be best to have this done through someone (they get the
   stuff, pack it and forward it).

2) Take a good pair of walking shoes.  Liberia may have good transportation, 
   but then again...  Good shoes were very hard to find, and very hard to
   do without.  Good socks are nice too.  

3) If i were going again, i would find a good portable short wave radio that
   runs on D size batteries.  (Other sizes were often hard to find)  I bought
   a radio there.  Overpriced!  But a lifesaver.  

4) Take a can opener.  I was at my first post when i discovered that i had
   no can opener and couldnt find one at the market or store for a long time.
   I did have a pocket knife with what the manufacturers called a can opener, 
   and bore the scars on my hands for months.  Liberia may have can openers, 
   i'd buy a good one and take it -- they are small.

5) Good toothbrushes can be hard to find.  Take extra.

6) Find out what the local language is and if the Peace Corps intends to 
   teach it to you.  If not (and it may be a good thing in any case) find out
   if the Foreign Service Institute has a book or books on it.  If so, (and if
   the peace corps isnt going to give it to you) get it.

7) get the Michelin maps of africa (i found mine in the paris airport).  Very
   good maps.  

8) Get a good camera, preferably one that does not require loads of batteries.
   Get extra batteries.  Film.  Splurge.  (Hmmm, on second thought, check to 
   be sure that the political climate will allow photography.  I was almost
   arrested once for having a photograph of a monument of something).
  
9) Take pictures of your home, family.  If you live in a chilly climate, take
   pictures of snow.  Take maps of your home state.  (One of those horrible
   road atlases will do quite well).

10) If you intend to travel, find out about visas to countries you may want
   to travel to.  It may seem possible to do this in Africa, but belive me,
   its much easier here - even with long distance phone calls.  It may not
   be best to actually get the visa in your passport yet, as they sometimes
   expire more quickly than you would like.  But you should know about such 
   things.  If you are well prepared, it may be the case that you will 
   know more about the visa than the embassy officials that you will have to
   deal with (but dont show it).

11) Make sure your family and friends understand what mail and communications
   may be like.  Make sure YOU understand.  (It may not be that bad in Liberia,
   but we totally lost communications for three months for a while -- finally
   i got a radio message through the catholic radio net that the peace corps 
   wanted to know if i was still alive and if i had had my gamma globulin 
   shot -- but the gamma gobulin was in the mail -- i think).

12) Finally (and perhaps most important) be ready for the culture shock.  The
   one going over can be pretty bad.  If you are intending to reform the world
   or do earth shaking things to make things better for the poor benighted 
   peoples of Africa, reconsider, it doesnt work that way, and your realization
   of that can be pretty traumatic.  There is also a culture shock coming back
   which can be even worse....   (On the expressway out of Boston on my way
   home, i was almost petrified by the cars -- so big, so fast, so many....)


Thats enough.  The peace corps can be a great thing, tremendous fun, lots of
learning, all around good stuff... 

But it can also be a real pain, boring, frustrating, even dangerous.  

On the whole, i would go for the positive side.  I would even like to 
do it again.


-- 
               O                   -- jefu
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