below you'll find part of an essay i sent in with my peace corps application. i'm hoping to be involved with agriculture and/or youth development in asia. the placement process seems pretty up in the air though, and there are no guarantees regarding the pertinent when/where/what scenarios.

i am now volunteering four to five long days a week at the tumaini street children centre in eldoret kenya. i have been working with the program since its inception in early january of this year. every week on monday, wednesday and friday we provide street kids with nourishment, basic healthcare and a safe place in which to rest, learn and play. my main priority has been the establishment and upkeep of a small-scale vegetable farm that neatly functions as both a method of teaching the children an important skill and a way to feed them in a sustainable way. i have also been involved with the introduction of an arts and informal education room at the centre, the construction of fences, signs and storage pens in addition to participating in countless soccer games. after three months tumaini is running as smoothly as we might have hoped and we have a core of fifty to sixty kids that regularly come to participate in what we have to offer. slowly but surely the initial dazzling effect of my whiteness or general otherness has faded and the kids now scream “mark!” instead of “mzungu!” (white person) when we meet.

my work here is challenging yet enjoyable. it is rewarding while frustrating at the same time. spending time with the kids is almost always fun. many of them are full of jokes, enthusiasm and energy. it is often hard, however, to get them to cooperate and help me with any number of work related projects i have set up for them. however, it is rewarding, when it does happen, to see them hard at work tilling the land or building a shed. then again, i am often frustrated when after they have spent the day with us learning how to farm or to do math, they go right back to huffing glue and quite literally laying in the gutter. i understand that my work here is not a quick fix. It will take many more months or even years to turn just some of these kids around. this in itself is motivation rather than a hopeless situation for me.

it is my understanding that this kind of work environment closely resembles the type of assignment a peace corps volunteer may be asked to undertake. i know now that I could handle such an assignment and would relish the opportunity. i want a chance to help, and become a part of another community in need. during my travels i have seen destitution from the caribbean to oceania to africa. clearly, there is so much work to do in so many places. i feel that i have been exceedingly lucky to have had a relatively comfortable, healthy and stable life up to this point. i want to help people less fortunate achieve some measure of such peace and stability. additionally, on a personal level, just as my current travel is doing, i think the peace corps will offer me a chance to grow as a person and further prepare me for graduate school and a future career. i have as much, and probably a great deal more, to learn from a host culture than it does from me.