Long term side effects

30 November 2012


I am the first volunteer in my small town but I commonly meet people who are familiar with Peace Corps volunteers. Teachers tell me stories about their PC teachers who invited them to dinner, took them hiking and loved them unconditionally. Several times I have had adult men sing to me English songs that they learned from their previous volunteers. Once a store merchant asked how long I was going to live in Ethiopia and when I replied “for two years” without hesitation he responded “Oh yes, I had a Peace Corps volunteer from America 40 years ago!” They always remember the volunteers’ first and last names and a physical description. Through their stories you can see their mind wandering backwards to those memorable years though they occurred decades long before. At these moments I am especially proud to be a part of this legacy, and I hope to spark the same smile and conjure up stories many years after I leave Ethiopia.

At the end of November we had a mid-service conference and one of our sessions was led by two horticulturists who taught us how to graft fruit trees. As one gentleman introduced himself he told us his own story about a young PC volunteer from more than 40 years before. He mentioned that she was always playing with the kids, and even carried them long distances to receive medical care in different emergencies. She was compassionate, she was selfless and he remembered. As he collected his thoughts and shared his story he became overwhelmed with tears, his words interrupted as he rested his face in his hands. We all feared the worst that the story would end in tragedy, but then he lifted his head only to say “I loved her very much.” It wasn’t sadness that made him cry, but love and happiness to recall such memories.

After 11 months I will finish my volunteer service in Ethiopia. Almost daily somebody from my town asks me about that fateful day. Am I really going to just pack up and leave? Will I ever return? Will I telephone my friends in Ethiopia? Am I interested in taking their child back with me? Can’t my family just move to Ethiopia so I don’t have an excuse to leave? I would like to think that they are not counting down the days until I leave so that they can loot my house, but that my absence will be felt because I made a difference in their lives. That someday one of the kids on my street will tell a story about Bridget, the Peace Corps volunteer who helped plant all those trees at the schools, who helped Gammachu finish his last two years of school, who helped plant gardens and taught about nutrition, who played soccer with the boys, taught students about natural resource conservation. The girl we went hiking with and who danced in the streets with the kids. My day-to-day work keeps me busy in Ethiopia, but a perk would be if these projects regardless of their degrees of success had positive long term side effects.