A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PEACE CORPS DIRECTOR

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PEACE CORPS DIRECTOR

Xenia Kisselincheva

“Ask not what your country can do for you,
but what you can do for your country”

Do you know that these words belong to the legendary John Kennedy who uttered them when initiating the Peace Corps way back in 1961. They were addressed to its thousands of volunteers who were ready to selflessly serve another country in need, no matter what the risks, the inconveniences or the hardships were. They were promptly recruited upon the country’s request: “Send us engineers”, “Send us nurses or...send us teachers” and off they went to a completely unknown spot at the other end of the world. They are of all ages and walks of life, but what unites them all is their dedication to the values of the Peace Corps, funded by the Congress but independent of foreign policy and interacting with NGO’s. These values have stood the test of time and they seem particularly pertinent in the global village of today, torn by local conflicts and sectarian divisions. What do these values imply? The better you know another culture, the better you understand the people who belong to it. The more you are prone to share the common humanity with them and the less you are prone to be in conflict with them.

 Here I am at the new headquarters of the Peace Corps in Sofia, a stately late Baroque house in Tzar Assen street, with a spacious inner yard and gates, finely decorated with wrought-iron patterns. Here I am at the office of Mrs Perdita Huston, who has been PC director for the last six months. A journalist and a social worker by vocation, she is the author of a number of books, dealing with issues of social justice. More specifically, as far back as the 70’s, she has been passionately involved with women’s rights in less developed countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through her keen and moving interviews with ordinary women, she makes their authentic voices be heard by the American public at large. She reveals how they perceive the changes, taking place in their lives, what are the things to be done.

Perdita is tall and vivacious, charmingly spontaneous and warm, brimming with ideas and enthusiasm. She is distinctively American and, at the same time, she is definitely “a citizen of the world”. At the age of nineteen, she chose to do her university studies in Paris, where life is “an immovable feast”, where everybody takes great delight in arguing and disputing about things big and small,  where she met a medical student who later became her husband.  Soon after their marriage, he was drafted as a young doctor in the French army during the Algerian war. Still quite young, Perdita had a brush with the raw horror of war at the field hospital... Or she struggled to put together the shattered lives of refugees at the resettlement center where she was working as a social worker. She learned about life the hard way, but the experience and insights helped her tremendously later on, when she worked for the UN, for various NGO’s like Amnesty International and as a regional director for the Peace Corps under the Carter administration. In between jobs, she has been writing and publishing her books. Her books came to the attention of the Peace Corps people, they thought she had a special touch with people from various cultures in times of trials and tribulations. That’s how she was offered her latest assignment in Sofia.

 Once more far from home, far from her family. Her three grown up children, two daughters and a son, are presently living  in the US, she keeps continually in touch with them through e-mail and phone. Her eldest daughter, a TV producer for European networks is currently working for “Project 2000”, in which Bulgaria is also takingart. It involves a 24-hour satellite coverage of the celebrations across the globe, as the century turns and the new millennium dawns. Perdita tells me she has “a special weakness” for her son and she is expecting him to come over for Christmas. He is quite happy with his acting career with the Denver Center Theater Company. Like Perdita, he adores skiing, so they hope to have a go on the Vitosha ski runs. Holidays come and go, but most of the time she is religiously dedicated to the Peace Corps mission, traveling around the country, meeting the volunteers, sharing their experience at the grass root level.

 “The Peace Corps” has been working in Bulgaria since 1990. The volunteers spend the first three months, staying with Bulgarian families. Learning the language and culture in their natural context helps them better integrate into the communities where they are expected to stay for two years. Here, we have been requested so far to offer assistance in three main sectors-environment and tourism, business opportunities and know-how at municipality level and English language teaching. This is our largest program, there are over 60 volunteers, teaching English in the school system throughout the country at primary or secondary school level. Our ‘can do’ mentality, which is historically grounded, helps the local people deal better with the numerous challenges of a fast-changing environment. When they go back, they are the best “ambassadors” of your country, they open the eyes of Americans to the idiosyncrasies of the local culture and customs, to the great potential of the people and of the natural resources. In 10 years’ time, Bulgaria will be well-known on the tourist circuit and I hope our ecologists will contribute to better preserving the natural beauty, which is striking in its variety. I also hope you will treasure and preserve your rich cultural and artistic traditions, another asset of yours which could attract foreign visitors in the future...”

Perdita shows me some pictures of a gathering of former volunteers in Mali, who called her and wanted to share with her their insights and concerns” when she was named the director of Mali. There were people of all walks of life - doctors, lawyers, engineers - they stayed together and loved to tell of their unusual and powerful African experience. Among the 180 000 ex-PC “missionaries” who had lived in towns and villages throughout the world, there are some very influential people in high places, some of them members of Congress or the Senate. They all contribute in their way to the better understanding of inscrutable foreign cultures, washing down prejudice and hostility.

A lot has been accomplished but there is a lot more to do. Mrs. Huston has to guide the volunteers in their whole-hearted efforts to fulfill their primary assignment, whether it be a project in one of the national reservations or starting a small business, producing peanut butter. But her ambition is to keep them as busy, creative and fruitful as possible. Very often, they find something completely different to do in their spare time- perhaps working with an orphanage, a women’s center or some other NGO. For instance, the intensive training of mayors in English, which was such a side-line initiative turned out to be very successful. It was a creative response of some volunteers to the specific needs of the community.

 “Imagine all the people, sharing all the world...” I can hear John Lennon’s song, quietly sounding on the radio in the secretary’s office next door. Suddenly the bard’s words strike me as prophetic and yet strangely utopian in the troubled reality of today’s world. Still, I realize that thanks to the unfailing and selfless efforts of such organizations as the American Peace Corps, we all can get an inch closer to turning the bard’s dream into reality, we all can follow its example and try to serve our community in a creative and distinctly individual way.    

                  

Sofia Western News monthly, 1999