PEACE CORPS WEEK 2024
Twenty years since I had seen the stunning vistas and walked on historical ground where communities have existed for centuries. Twenty years since I had conversed with people who had starring roles during a pivotal period on my life’s timeline. Twenty years since I had been back to Armenia, where I served in the U.S. Peace Corps from 2001 to 2003.
Last summer, I experienced an extraordinarily epic journey to this swath of land no larger than Maryland but steeped in mountainous beauty and fierce hospitality. My volunteer experience in this former Soviet republic may have ended two decades ago but the impact it has had over the trajectory of my existence is endless.
It is front of mind for me as I celebrate Peace Corps Week from Feb. 25 to March 2.
It has been 63 years since President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. For the first time in years, both chambers of Congress are proposing less overall funding for the Peace Corps Reauthorization Act, which helps ensure volunteer safety, staff accountability and increased diversity.
The organization exists on a very small budget, less than 1% of 1% of our overall federal budget. Despite this, the funding for the Peace Corps has become an increasingly smaller share over the years. When adjusting for inflation, the Peace Corps was given the equivalent of $549 million in 2010; it was funded at $410 million last year.
The timing surprises me as volunteers are welcomed back into countries around the globe following the pandemic and the need for Americans to engage in cultural exchanges continues to matter. Since the agency’s birth, about 2,300 volunteers from New Mexico have served.
One story at a time, every cent dedicated to the Peace Corps provides legacies that change lives, both for those who serve and the countries in which they serve. It is imperative to maintain and even boost the funding so that stories like mine continue to flourish.
I entered Peace Corps life in my 30s, leaving behind journalism to embark on a career in teaching. It was not an easy decision; my two years and three months were marked with both the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Never in my life did I feel more alive, more raw, more exposed.
I taught English, worked with children at an orphanage and started language and exercise clubs. I helped facilitate ecology and girls’ camps. I even starred on a country-wide television show geared to help children learn conversational English.
I hiked and explored. I sipped cup after cup of coffee with Armenians fascinated with the English lady and eager to tell her fortune in the grounds at the bottom of the tiny cup.
I listened, learned and evolved.
When I returned to Armenia this summer, I marveled at how at home I still felt. Progress certainly had penetrated. I watched people in the capital city of Yerevan do what people do everywhere: interact with their phones as they walked, sit in cafes and parks, and go about their daily lives.
But I also saw things that evoked memories that I thought were forgotten. Halted traffic so cows and sheep could cross the road. Friendly Armenians beckoning us over to enjoy a picnic complete with vodka toasts in what seemed to be the middle of picturesque nowhere.
Every day that has passed since my volunteer experience ended has left me grateful, thoroughly thankful for Armenia and its warm people.
The Peace Corps made me a better person with a broader perspective of the world.
Congress, particularly New Mexico Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and Rep. Gabe Vasquez, please continue to make this possible for those who come after me. They deserve it; our globe deserves it.
Happy Peace Corps Week 2024!