Spent the day with my Peace Corps program manager. I am in a Teacher Collaboration and Community Outreach program as a volunteer, and the woman who is my PC suppervisor's name is Khun Siweporn. She invited me to check out a town where they may send a volunteer next year. Someone was in my town last year doing the same thing checking out if my town is suitable for a volunteer. This morning we went to the Educational office for the province. All the big wigs met us in the confrence room where we chatted and did a power point on what it's like to have a volunteer and what is expected of the host community before heading out to visit the schools.
It was really interesting to see the volunteer cycle, from before the volunteer arrives. Peace Corps only spends a day in each town, and about an hour at each school before deciding to send a volunteer. And the sponsors have so many misconceptions about what having a volunteer means. My friend who went on a site development had a woman tell her she was very lonely and hoped to get a male volunteer!
Generally they are really excited to have a volunteer in the town. It is easy to see why so many of my friends got to site and their co-teachers didn't actually want to do any work w them, they just wanted to have a whitey in town. It's a status symble.
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