Background

My name is Elsa. I am 21 years old and in about 6 weeks I leave to start my service as a Youth Development Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador.

I am what I would like to call a "second generation" volunteer. My involvement in the Peace Corps started long before I decided to apply for a position this past September. My parents met while serving as PC volunteers in the 80s (my mom did maternal health in Central African Republic and my dad taught English in Zaire/the Congo). I come from a "Peace Corps" house - we have African, odd statues, and random Sango words in our vocabularies. When I was 4 my brother and I traveled back to CAR with my mom who was going to fill in as a nurse for the Peace Corps there and we got to spend a month living with the Country Director.

Regardless of this background, I resisted the Peace Corps path for a long time. I am neither crunchy nor a bleeding heart, so it didn't seem like it would be my "thing". However, over the years my knee-jerk reaction of "no way" started to fade. I realized that dedicating myself to a couple of years of service in a third world country actually is my "thing", and that it is exactly the type of thing I want to be doing after college. I also realized that, while I am not the type who would stop shaving her armpits or go without a shower by choice in the US, these are not things that I can't handle, and that the "living in hardship" barrier had fallen away. Therefore, last fall I decided to send in an application. I was granted an interview and 1 day later a nomination to serve as a Special Needs Development volunteer somewhere in Central or South America leaving in early June 2011 (they are very vague on details this early in the game). I was ecstatic - this had all been so easy! Then came the dreadful medical process.

The medical process is difficult for everyone, and it is excessively time consuming. For me, it dragged from December until May, with Peace Corps Headquarters and I volleying letters back and forth. But finally (!) I was granted medical clearance, only too late for my original nomination, which meant my fate was back up in the air.

Not only did this stink (no one likes to say they're moving back home after graduation), but it also coincided with the great budget cut of '11, which meant that Peace Corps was cutting back on the number of volunteers they were going to send. I was told I would be considered for assignment in January of 2012 and that I should sit tight until then. I was not pleased. But then, the fates stepped in. On my second day home post-graduation I received a call from my placement officer - someone was considering dropping out of their assignment and would I take it? yes yes yes yes! A week later I had my paperwork - leaving July 19 to do Youth Development in El Salvador!!