My plan wasn’t always to serve in The Gambia.
Although it wasn’t always the plan, the now plan was way more magical than any plan I could have planned.
About 5 years ago I remember sitting alone at my gate in an airport and seeing a young woman with a Peace Corps book bag. It must have been a fabric patch that she sewed onto a book bag she already owned, or it was PC issued. It doesn’t really matter but either way it was striking and caught my eye. I had always heard about the Peace Corps, but just like a lot of those around me who are learning about it through my invitation to serve, I didn’t know much about it. Someone recently commented “Peace Corps is still around?? I thought that was just a program in the 70’s!” I digress.
I love to travel and clung to it as a young woman to learn to traverse my shyness. I’ve always believed that if you can travel alone, eat in a foreign place at a restaurant by yourself and move your body through space from strange place to unfamiliar place, there is truly nothing you cannot do. I cultivated a lot of trust for myself during those years of solo travel.
I was on one of those last minute, empowering solo trips alone when I saw her march through the airport space with such sureness. She had a presence about her. I immediately searched through my bag for my iPad and searched for “Peace Corps”. I read through the countries and the sectors and learned about its mission and vision. I read about the different projects and work that people did and I felt my heart in my throat. I had been in a career that I loved working with youth and families in a community center, at a city government organization that I really believed in. I had begun my Masters in Public Administration and knew I wanted to continue working in the public sector space.
My iPad told me that Morocco had the most competitive program for the Youth Development Sector so I decided immediately that I wanted to serve in Morocco. This is where the story gets confusing.
I’m not sure if anyone remembers, but early in 2020 Covid hit the world. 7,000 Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV’s) were pulled from 60 countries. Understandably, operations halted and countries stopped participating with the United States. The same PC website that I scrolled through daily that listed an interactive map full of countries in 2019, now listed almost none in 2020.
Most things in the world were uncertain, and it was uncertain what countries would start participating again. I still held tight to serving in Morocco so I planned a trip to Morocco in 2021. In 2022 I visited Tangier, Casablanca, Fez and Marrakech and it was incredible. I decided later that I shouldn’t be married to only serving in Morocco and that I should be more open to serving anywhere. That’s were the “Serve where needed most” application feature was most helpful. More on that soon…
