Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed—doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language.
But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps—who works in a foreign land—will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace.
- John F. Kennedy, former U.S. President and founder of Peace Corps
Although I am doing many things right now which keep me busy, Peace Corps is always on my mind. I try to relax and not worry about the letter that is coming a few weeks to tell me where I will spending the next two years of my life, but it is very exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. Will it be Mongolia, a place I get more excited about every time I think about it? Or will it be another country in Asia or Central Asia which I haven't thought of? Time, and a letter from Peace Corps, will tell I suppose. Until then I'm learning a lot of lessons, including patience, and I imagine those will be very helpful when I am in the "life not so easy" called Peace Corps.
