Tag: PCV

* Peace Corps

Peace Corps Third Goal Blogging: An Unofficial Guide

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PC Third Goal Blogging

Back in August 2013, we were thrilled to be able to participate in Peace Corps’ Third Goal Summit in D.C. with the other winners of the Blog It Home contest. We gained a renewed motivation to use our blog for PC’s Third Goal: to promote a better understanding back home of this new country and culture we’re experiencing.

Peace Corps HQ: Blog It Home
Peace Corps HQ: Blog It Home

The Summit also sparked a whole lot of great ideas for Third Goal blogging and allowed us to collaborate with the other blog winners from Thailand, Ethiopia, and Mexico as well as the Office of Third Goal. 

We were learning so much from each other, we decided it would be worthwhile to put all our thoughts together and create a practical resource for Volunteers who want to use their blogs for the Third Goal. 

Blogging Guide

This guide, created by volunteers, for volunteers, has already helped us become better bloggers and better Third Goal ambassadors. It is meant to be an ongoing and collaborative effort, so additional suggestions and contributions are encouraged. We hope Volunteers around the world will find it useful.

Even bloggers outside of Peace Corps will find this guide useful for sharing about cross-cultural experiences, service or mission trips, and travel.

To access the guide, start with the links below. You can also find the pages in our tabs above, under Peace Corps Info.

Blogging About Third Goal

> Includes: Why you should consider blogging about Third Goal topics, and serves as a homepage for the other resources

Resources in the guide are:

Principles for Third Goal Bloggers 

> Includes: Simple steps to improve the quality of your blog writing so that you can become a more effective ambassador of your host country’s culture and increase your readership

How To: The Nuts and Bolts

> Includes: Practical tips and tricks from blog settings to getting ideas for content, great for beginners and those wanting to up their game

Blog Post Idea Bank

> Includes: An extensive list of ideas for Third Goal-related blog posts, with examples from recent PCV blogs, so you can keep your content fresh and interesting

Again, we’d love to include tips, ideas, and examples from other Volunteer bloggers around the world, so if that’s you, don’t hesitate to provide suggestions using the comment form at the bottom of each of those resource pages.

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps, Videos

Jamaica by Jamaicans

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Peace Corps’s Third Goal Office is hosting a video challenge for this year’s Peace Corps Week. Being the wanna-be film-maker that I am (and being partial to the Office of Third Goal who awarded us a free trip to DC last summer!), I had to do something.

Peace Corps has three primary goals for its volunteers, and the third goal focuses on raising awareness about our countries of service among Americans. Hence, the contest to depict what you wish Americans knew about your country in two minutes or less.

My strategy was to let Jamaicans speak for themselves (not too many PC countries can capitalize on their English-speaking counterparts). I’ve collected a lot of great interview footage over the two years, so hopefully I’ll get motivated to share more of that eventually.

Continue reading “Jamaica by Jamaicans” →

* Peace Corps

Jamaican Culture: Top Posts

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Some grateful senior citizens recently gave Jedd the book Jamaica Fi Real!: Beauty, Vibes and Culture as a thank you for teaching them how to use computers. And it’s a keeper. The images are great; the content is relevant; the commentary is on point.Jamaica-Fi-Real-CoverThe books is fantastic and its words resonated with our experiences of this country. For example:

It’s possibly the most contradictory country on the planet. Jamaica combines a Third World standard of living with an almost First World life expectancy. It is one of earth’s most stable democracies, yet has one of its higher homicide rates. It is reputed to have both more churches per square mile, and a higher out-of-wedlock birth rate, than any other place on the globe… (pg. XVII)

Are Jamaicans happy people? Well it’s hard to say; while few people go hungry, there are pockets of real poverty, and a fair amount of physical discomfort. Polls say about half of Jamaicans would emigrate to the US if they could, and a high crime rate is not usually the sign of a contented populace. Then there is the constant complaining, for people here are world-class grumblers. Yet Jamaicans interact with such vitality and humour, that it’s hard to conceive of them as being fundamentally miserable and disgruntled. There can’t be many places where people laugh as easily or as often, and no matter how bad things get, folks here always find reasons for outbursts of merriment. (pg. 11)

Throughout our Peace Corps service, we’ve tried our best to Continue reading “Jamaican Culture: Top Posts” →

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps

Thoughts for New Peace Corps Volunteers

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Bags packed for Peace Corps
First day in Jamaica

We’ve started to hear from the incoming group of Volunteers (about 30 come to Jamaica each year) who will start their training in March. I know it’s an exciting time for them. When I was in their shoes, I was soaking up all the information I could find about Peace Corps in Jamaica. Being less than five months away from our departure, there are inevitably a good number of lessons we’ve learned on our journey. Maybe they can help the next generation of PCVs…

Continue reading “Thoughts for New Peace Corps Volunteers” →

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps, Videos

Video: A Volunteer’s Thoughts

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One of the rewards of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is getting to meet amazing people who serve alongside you and making new friends who live all over the U.S. This video is an interview with a very special woman. Although we weren’t in the same training group, we were lucky enough that our terms of service on island overlapped more than a year, giving us the opportunity to share some time together here and there. In the video, she shares some of her funny stories and serious reflections from living two years in Jamaica. I think you’ll enjoy it!

If you want to see more, this is a link to the extended, “uncensored” interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed7fA20blcA

-M

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps, Videos

Jamaica Taught Us…

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Our Peace Corps Volunteer training group took advantage of our recent reunion at the Mid-Service Conference last week to compile some of our lessons learned as volunteers in Jamaica. It’s a light-hearted, humorous perspective on the many aspects of Jamaican culture we’ve encountered so far. For your entertainment:

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps

Topics in PCJ #5: Transportation

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See past topics: Attrition, Culture and Effectiveness, Goals, Patriotism

jamaica busWhen I ask myself and others ‘what is the single greatest thing that would most change your life as a volunteer in Jamaica’, I usually get the same response. It’s not hot water or cable TV or high-speed internet at home (although that would make a difference too). In close second might be a laundry machine- for those who don’t have it. But more often than not, the answer is: a car.

People at home might not be aware of Continue reading “Topics in PCJ #5: Transportation” →

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps

Topics in PCJ #4: Patriotism

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Continued from other posts here and here on topics frequently discussed by PCVs in Jamaica

Among the many discussions we’ve had with fellow volunteers, we have also concluded that most of us have a new-found love for America. Ironically, many of us left home with criticism in our hearts for the way the U.S. imposes its will on other nations, or how Americans are so obsessed with material gain, or any other number of issues. And it’s true that, since we’ve left, there have been a number of things happening in the U.S. that we are not proud of.

our patio with country prideBut by living in Jamaica, we do see our country differently now. We are all the more grateful for the privilege of growing up in a land of opportunity, a place where success stories happen every day to all sorts of people. We are proud to identify with all the people who came (and continue to come) to America because they wanted to make life better for their families. And perhaps most of all, we are astounded simply by how well things work! From the school system and the DMV to the line at the grocery store, we have a new-found appreciation for American efficiency and reliability. Though our systems in the U.S. aren’t perfect, they’re a lot less effort to navigate than those we’ve become accustomed to as PCVs.

We’re not saying that any of these things are the fault of Jamaicans as a people- we have come to understand that there are complex historical, political, and social factors behind everything. And it’s not really about comparing Jamaica and the U.S., because they each have their roses and their thorns. Rather, it’s the age-old adage that you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. So, in the end, leaving home has given many of us an unexpected appreciation for the country we left behind and its ways.

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps

Topics in PCJ #3: Goals

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Continued from previous post(s)IMG_3660

The Peace Corps’ mission has three simple goals:

  1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

  2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

  3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

In my last post on cultural challenges, I started to mention that we as volunteers have to remember that our work is only one third of the Peace Corps’ goals. We have to turn in reports full of numbers to prove ourselves to the higher-ups and the tax payers, and there is pressure to have some tangible project to justify our presence here to people back home. I’m not saying that our work has no value in itself. But it is easy to forget that we should also find success in intangible, interpersonal ways. In fact, more likely than not, our greatest and most lasting impact as Peace Corps Volunteers will not come from our work. Continue reading “Topics in PCJ #3: Goals” →

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps

Jamaica: Second Hand (Part Two)

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A journal collage from Peace Corps materials by Michelle

Here we are with less than a month left to before departure! This past week we have been happily inundated with Peace Corps e-mails about our flights, staging in Atlanta, initial safety training, pre-service training schedule, and phone meetings with our program officers. We will officially be flying to staging on March 12 then heading to Jamaica early March 14. As many of you know, our journey toward this upcoming departure to Jamaica in March has been a long one and since I (Michelle) have not had “official employment” for several months, I’ve had lots of time to browse current PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) blogs. I thought I would take this space to share some of my favorites for those of you interested in what our lives might look like these next couple years. Keep in mind that the one piece of advice we’ve heard more than anything is that each volunteer’s community, project, and experience is completely unique:

PC Volunteers ’06/’07

Tight pants– Curious what we’re supposed to bring to Jamaica? Advice from former volunteers about packing.

Continue reading “Jamaica: Second Hand (Part Two)” →