\t\t\t\tWhen people volunteer for the Peace Corps, they understand their role as a conduit of development and a representative of a developed nation.\u00a0 The often-overlooked factor is what they might learn from their host country.\u00a0 The four volunteers whose collections inform this article experienced regime changes in their host country, but what are more present are the changes within themselves.\u00a0 The collections show a process of: preliminary research about their host country, attempts to bring their old home to their new country, attempts to bring their host country to their old home, full and celebratory acceptance of the new culture, and finally they leave with a desire for greater understandings of global perspectives.\u00a0 Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) become global citizens through this process.<\/p>\n
Preliminary research done by a PCV comes from materials published by the Peace Corps[1]<\/a> and their host country.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 The Peace Corps publications emphasized the variety of jobs performed by the PCVs along with the work ethic and values of the American people that would aid other nations.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Yet this was not the singular characteristic of the Peace Corps mission.\u00a0 A brochure of Debby Prigal\u2019s (Ghana, 1981-83) emphasizes the mutualist nature of the Peace Corps experience, \u201cGhanaians are wide awake and have a lot to offer you for your personal development.\u00a0 Their only problem is that there is a shortage of manpower in vital areas of their economy.\u00a0 That\u2019s where you fit in.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n Peace Corps publications were useful in understanding the Peace Corps mission, but Gail Wadsworth (Uganda, 1970-72) also consulted Ugandan brochures and postcards to understand her host country better.\u00a0 These brochures advertise Uganda for foreign tourists and emphasize luxury hotels,[5]<\/a> safari and the natural wonders of Uganda,[6]<\/a> local coffee,[7]<\/a> and crafts.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 To prove Uganda\u2019s appeal to Westerners, many brochures quote Winston Churchill\u2019s My African Journey, <\/em>1908,<\/p>\n Uganda is a fairy-tale.\u00a0 You climb up a railway instead of a beanstalk and at the top there is a wonderful new world.\u00a0 The scenery is different, the vegetation is different, the climate is different and, most of all, the people are different from anything elsewhere to be seen in the whole range of Africa.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n All such curated representations did not fully represent what one would experience as a PCV.<\/p>\n In early months of service, PCVs tried to find ways to bridge the gap between American culture and the culture of their new home.\u00a0 Wadsworth wrote home unsure of her ability to relate to individuals whose experience was so far outside of her own.\u00a0 In one letter, she asked for help bringing American culture to Uganda:<\/p>\n I\u2019ve asked mother, but perhaps you & the kids could also help.\u00a0 I would like pictures (magazine, etc.) of ANYTHING.\u00a0 When one girl told me that a beaver was a bird, I realized how crucial visual aids are going to be.\u00a0 How do you tell someone about the sea or steak when they\u2019ve lived their entire life in a mud hut and eaten bananas 3 times a day?\u00a0 Also, I\u2019ll teach units in advertising so any examples of that would be appreciated\u2026Any with black people would be especially nice.\u00a0 Thanks![10]<\/a><\/p>\n This request shows both a readiness to make American cultural context readily available and accessible to the Ugandan students as well as a resistance to teaching the English language within the Ugandan cultural context.\u00a0 A month later, Wadsworth had begun to shed the notion that she needed to teach American culture along with English language.\u00a0 On 8 August 1970, she signs off a letter, \u201cTake care; take a ride on the next Tilt-a-Wheel that comes round for me. (I couldn\u2019t imagine describing that to a Ugandan!) Love, Gail.\u201d[11]<\/a><\/p>\n Eventually, PCVs experienced a reversal of this phenomenon as they realized that the people at home no longer shared their point of view.\u00a0 Volunteers responded in different ways.\u00a0 Wadsworth wrote, \u201cIt is difficult to convey much if anything about a country in writing.\u00a0 If I had only stayed here for 3 weeks I could write reams, but after 3 years I shall probably be able to say almost nothing.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Ann Hofer Holmquist (Nigeria, 1966-68) found a solution and began to send soundscapes home over reel-to-reel recordings so her family could hear her new home.[13]<\/a>\u00a0 She supplemented these with photographs, though not many.\u00a0 Things like the Niger desert, she explained, had to be experienced rather than seen in a photograph.[14]<\/a>\u00a0 Geer Wilcox (Dominican Republic, 1963-65) had a similar experience with political ideologies.\u00a0 Through his stay, he warmed to the idea of communism, something that would be difficult to explain to Americans back home and something he decided to explore further in his own travels to Cuba.[15]<\/a><\/p>\n This shift in perspective was a part of a larger phenomenon of integrating with the host culture. One of Wadsworth\u2019s last letters included a beautiful and affirming description of coming-of-age ceremony that she had attended.[16]<\/a> [17]<\/a>\u00a0 Prigal also grew to appreciate and embrace local culture.\u00a0 She wrote home, \u201cOne of my students\u2019 mother, who is also my seamstress, was made Queen Mother of her hometown and they invited me.\u00a0 I had a great time.\u00a0 There was dancing, drumming\u2026\u201d[18]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0Holmquist made similarly open-minded observations towards the end of her service about the nature of honesty in different countries.\u00a0 Nigerian willingness to trust others and the consistency with which they lived up to that trust pleasantly surprised her.[19]<\/a>\u00a0 She said that if she dropped money in the market, it was likely that someone would hand it back to her, rather than pocket it.[20]<\/a>\u00a0 If one merchant could not make change for her, he allowed her to carry her groceries as she finished her shopping because he trusted her to come back with the right amount.[21]<\/a>\u00a0 So, she figured, if they charged her twice as much because she did not know to bargain, that was fair, too.[22]<\/a>\u00a0 These accounts show an appreciation for the other culture and the other ways of understanding that were different from American, yet just as legitimate and important.<\/p>\n The greatest development seen in these collections are the personal journeys as the PCVs underwent the process of becoming global citizens.\u00a0 Their day-to-day lives changed incrementally, but, by the end of their service, they learned the value of experiencing and internalizing another culture.\u00a0 By the end of Wilcox\u2019s stay in the Dominican Republic, he had begun to question the role of American anti-communist propaganda and planned to travel to Cuba to learn more about its people and culture.[23]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0Holmquist showed, during a debate regarding the validity of warfare, an immense interest in foreign perspectives.[24]<\/a> \u00a0Like Wilcox, Prigal\u2019s post-PCV plans involved travel; her closing remarks were, \u201cWell, this is it!\u00a0 I\u2019m leaving for London tomorrow\u2026My plans are to see Julia and others and then travel, perhaps to Greece.\u201d[25]<\/a> \u00a0This process of becoming more globally minded began with letting go of certain aspects of American culture and accepting the logics and customs of their hosts.\u00a0 Curiosity and the desire to continue to learn other cultures calcified this personal journey.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Sargent Shriver, The Peace Corps <\/em>(Washington: Peace Corps) Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 1: Application Materials Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Publicity Services Ltd. on behalf of Uganda Hotels Limited, UGANDA: Hotels Limited <\/em>(England: Brown Knight & Truscott Ltd.)\u00a0 Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 2: Brochures & Postcards Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Shriver, The Peace Corps.<\/em><\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Peace Corps, Peace Corps in Ghana <\/em>(Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office) 1979.\u00a0 Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 2: Brochures & Postcards Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Publicity Services Ltd. UGANDA.<\/em><\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Uganda Hotels, Ltd., PARAA: Safari Lodge Murchison Falls National Park Uganda<\/em> (Kampala: Uganda Hotels, Ltd.) Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 2: Brochures & Postcards Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Publicity Services, Ltd., Uganda Coffee<\/em> (England: Brown Knight & Truscott Ltd.) Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 2: Brochures & Postcards Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Uganda Crafts, Uganda Crafts <\/em>(Kampala: Uganda Crafts) Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 2: Brochures & Postcards Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Publicity Services Ltd., UGANDA.<\/em><\/p>\n [10]<\/a> Letter, Gail Wadsworth to Mrs. Leroy Allport, 13 July 1970, Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 4: Correspondence 1969-71 (1\/2) Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Letter, Gail Wadsworth to Mr. & Mrs. C. M. Wadsworth, 8 August 1970, Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 4: Correspondence 1969-71 (1\/2) Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [12]<\/a> Letter, Gail Wadsworth to Dr. Milton M. Shulman, December 1970, Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 4: Correspondence 1969-71 (1\/2) Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [13]<\/a> Audio recording, Hofer Holmquist, Peace Corps Community Archives: Hofer Holmquist, Box 1, Reel 9724, Side 1, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [14]<\/a> Audio recording, Hofer Holmquist, Peace Corps Community Archives: Hofer Holmquist, Box 1, Reel 9727, Side 1, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [15]<\/a> Audio recording, Geer Wilcox, Peace Corps Community Archives: Geer Wilcox, Box 1, 38b, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [16]<\/a> Letter, Gail Wadsworth to Mr. & Mrs. C. M. Wadsworth, 19 August 1972, Peace Corps Community Archives: Gail Wadsworth, Box 1, Folder 5: Correspondence 1971-72 (2\/2) Uganda 1970-72, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [17]<\/a> This being an even numbered year, as I have told you before, the Bagishu tribe of the Mbale area are having circumcision of boys, and yesterday I went to a circumcision ceremony\u2026For two nights before, the boys wouldn\u2019t have slept, but would have been dancing and running.\u00a0 They, as well as anyone else, is smeared over face and arms with millet flour and yeast paste.\u00a0 The boys have strings of beads around the neck and under each armpit, fur headpieces, cowrie shell belts, and bells on their legs.\u00a0 At the very place we were waiting two boys were to be done although several others would be at about the same time at various points along the mountain.<\/p>\n A few minutes before we arrived the boys and a huge group of people had been there after running up<\/u>.\u00a0 Then they went off racing down<\/u> the mountain as they had to go to a certain stream at the bottom to be smeared with mud.\u00a0 There are such a lot of people that destroy crops in running down but they don\u2019t mind.\u00a0 They are not allowed to slip and fall down and they don\u2019t.\u00a0 as I said it took us over an hour of climbing \u2013 well they raced down and<\/u> up again through the mud in a matter of minutes.\u00a0 While we were waiting the circumciser showed us the \u2018very sharp\u2019 knife.\u00a0 What surprised me particularly was that the circumcisers are nervous and somewhat afraid.\u00a0 I was standing next to the man just before and he was very tense.\u00a0 One who was going to do some boys down was polishing the knife on some leaves and then suddenly leapt up with a shout and went racing down the hill to find them.<\/p>\n Anyway, they came racing back up and people began crowding into the makeshift area but the man in charge told us to come in and stood us right in front.\u00a0 The first boy came in, planted his feet firmly on the ground and clasped a short pole over his shoulders.\u00a0 He then has to stand looking straight ahead without showing any pain.\u00a0 The circumciser then steps in quickly, pulls the skin forward and cuts.\u00a0 When he has cut completely, eh holds the knife in the air and everyone shouts and someone throws handfuls of malwa (thick, yeasty millet beer) over their heads.\u00a0 Immediately after the cutting, some powder is rubbed on to curb the blood dropping down.\u00a0 The second boy was then done.\u00a0 After some minutes they are allowed to take off the beads and sit down.\u00a0 That is actually the end although the boys will be nursed and fed very well.\u00a0 For the next week or so they wear a cloth which is shorter than the knees wrapped round rather than any type of trousers (obviously).<\/p>\n [18]<\/a> Letter, Debby Prigal to Mom & Dad, 20 July 1982, Peace Corps Community Archives: Debby Prigal, Box 1, Folder 7: Ghana 1981-1983 Letters to Debby\u2019s Parents 9\/17\/81-5\/15\/83, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [19]<\/a> Audio recording, Hofer Holmquist, Peace Corps Community Archives: Hofer Holmquist, Box 1, Reel 9726, Side 1, American University Archives and Special Collections, American University Library.<\/p>\n [20]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n [21]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n [22]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n [23]<\/a> Audio recording, Geer Wilcox, 38b.<\/p>\n