Can you tell me your European Peace Corps experience? (percentage, work, interest)
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I'm thinking of joining Peace Corps somewhere in Europe, in relatively remote future. Can you please share your personal experience with this program?
What was your most essential discovery, most valuable conclusion you came up after joining the PC?
Would you do it again?
Is it important to be religious to have a good experience, or it doesn't matter?
Are living conditions tolerable?
What did you do?
Did you feel you achieved something for the host community?
Do evenings and weekends belong to you, or you are expected to work longer than normal hours?
What was most shocking?
When I applied for the Peace Corps back in 2003, I had two choices, either do agriculture in Africa or teach high school chemistry in Asia (probably in China) and I turned both down. I wanted to do agriculture in Asia, but didn't have that option.
The thing about the Peace Corps, unless you have some very specific skill set, i.e. working in health care or economics or business, where they might need you in a specific role in Europe, you really can't go to a recruiter and say I want to volunteer in this specific European country the Peace Corps is in. And even then, they might send you to Africa to do finance or Asia.
They will try to match your skill set with various openings they need around the world, and your choices might be choosing between, Africa and Asia, or Asia and South America, so be prepared to not have Europe as a choice!
Good luck in the process and let us know how it turns out.
When I applied for the Peace Corps back in 2003, I had two choices, either do agriculture in Africa or teach high school chemistry in Asia (probably in China) and I turned both down. I wanted to do agriculture in Asia, but didn't have that option.
The thing about the Peace Corps, unless you have some very specific skill set, i.e. working in health care or economics or business, where they might need you in a specific role in Europe, you really can't go to a recruiter and say I want to volunteer in this specific European country the Peace Corps is in. And even then, they might send you to Africa to do finance or Asia.
They will try to match your skill set with various openings they need around the world, and your choices might be choosing between, Africa and Asia, or Asia and South America, so be prepared to not have Europe as a choice!
Good luck in the process and let us know how it turns out.
Looking at the Peace Corps website, the only European countries they are in now or will be in, are:
Ukraine (Education, Community Economic Development, Youth in Development) Moldova (Education, Community Economic Development, Health) Kosovo (Education, Community Economic Development) Montenegro (Education) North Macedonia (Education, Community Economic Development) Albania (Education, Community Economic Development, Health)
Looking at the Peace Corps website, the only European countries they are in now or will be in, are:
Ukraine (Education, Community Economic Development, Youth in Development) Moldova (Education, Community Economic Development, Health) Kosovo (Education, Community Economic Development) Montenegro (Education) North Macedonia (Education, Community Economic Development) Albania (Education, Community Economic Development, Health)
I'm fine with any of these countries. I was just interested in people's personal experience with Peace Corpse work. Looks like either nobody wants to share, or wrong forum area.
I'm fine with any of these countries. I was just interested in people's personal experience with Peace Corpse work. Looks like either nobody wants to share, or wrong forum area.
I understand, while I do know people that served in the Peace Corps, all served in either Africa or South America. Even going back to the 60's when the Peace Corps started, a would guess only a small percentage of total volunteers (10-15% maybe) got to volunteer in Europe for 2+ years.
Of course, someone's experience volunteering in the Peace Corps say in the 90's in places like Poland or Romania or Russia or the Czech Republic or Hungary is probably totally different than volunteering in the 6 European countries the Peace Corps is in now.
There are probably other message boards or forums out there or maybe even reddit, where you could find Peace Corps alums who served in eastern Europe, maybe even recently?
Another thing you can try is if you have been in contact with a local Peace Corps recruiter where you live now, they might be able to put you in touch with people that might have volunteered in Europe and you could possibly "pick their brain" about the experience.
Good Luck!
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