PC Director Visit

A lovely - and expensive - lunch at El Piloto

PC Director Carrie Hessler visits my site

Goodness, what a week. All of my community partners have been wonderful and patient with a seemingly endless stream of visitors of all sorts. They have demonstrated and explained biodigesters, improved cooking stoves, composting toilets, “bottle bulbs” and the new solar water pump system, with only minimal prompting from me. Visitors included a group from the Peruvian Catholic charity “Caritas”, Town Council member Angel, a high-level Peace Corps delegation and a group of 30 PCVs and their community partners from all over Peru. I am so gratified by their pride in their new technologies and willingness and ability to explain it all (well, the solar panel still seems like pure magic ). And many thanks go also to my dear Medical Socios, Gloria and Esther and the energetic Regidore Angel, for their willingness to discus their Peace Corps training experiences and their continued hard work on our HIV/STD and Kids Parks projects.

The PC “Brass” treated at a lunch at the famous “El Piloto” restaurant on the PanAm Hwy in San Luis. I’ve walked or biked past this place a hundred times, but this was my first visit as a guest. The Piloto parking lot is always filled with big SUVs, Mercedes, Jaguars and BMWs, which seem strangely out of place in my little town. Prices for lunch run about 45 soles (about US$17) per person, far above the standard 5 sole (US$2) lunch or 20 cent sandwiches “pancitas” that San Luisians normally enjoy. The food was excellent and the service superb. What was most amazing was that the place was packed with over 50 folks in addition to our group.

The lunch was a great opportunity to appreciate the interests and concerns between the admin types and PCVs. I think we gave them some good and practical ideas to take home to Washington. It was also nice to spend some more time with Sanjay, our Country Director here in Peru. He was such a pleasure to work with on the Bike Policy and seemed absolutely delighted to have some time away from the Office in Lima. I also enjoyed a discussion with Carrie, the Deputy Director about service by “older” Volunteers. We could both see a future role for me in the promotion of service for retired folks. We really do have a lot to offer – here are my draft notes:

Advantages of “older” Peace Corps Volunteers

1-   “Real World” business skills and experience – we bring years of special abilities, skills and expertise to the table

2-   Accumulated life experience and people skills – older Volunteers have worked with hundreds of co-workers, customers and governments. This translated into an ability to rapidly assess situations and solve problems.

3-   Age = Respect. This simple equation is very true in many of the developing countries, where Peace Corps works. Younger Volunteers, especially the women, have a much harder time earning that respect, which comes automatically to the “older” Volunteer.

4-   Ability to focus on tasks at hand. There is not the worry about “What will I do after Peace Corps?”, which can be distracting.

5-   Confidence – Older Volunteers know their strengths and weaknesses – they’ve been fire tested. Many talented younger Volunteers are just discovering how good they are.

6-   Lack of dependence on electronic media. We grew up in a world before the iPod, iPad and Kindle. This better frees us to interact with the Communities which we serve.

7-   No need to “Party Hardy”. We got over the College / Fraternity culture of heavy drinking years ago.

8-   Older Volunteers need not worry about age - related illness. The Peace Corps Medical Office provides the Best Medical Services you will ever have, including all medications and pharmacy needs.

9-   Older Volunteers fit-in just fine with the 20-something PCV majority. You can learn about their culture and share yours.

10-                   Peace Corps service could also provide some Very High Quality time with your spouse – Married couples are some of the best PCV’s and serve together.

11-                   Serving the people of the World with the Peace Corps is far more satisfying, educational and fun than “retirement”.

So, if you are of “a certain age”, maybe give some thought to serving with the Peace Corps or some other community volunteer group. This may mean a step outside your “Comfort Zone”, but it will also provide access to the “Adventure Zone” and a chance to improve “Quality of Life” and promote friendship and World Peace in a real and direct way.

On a medical note, I’ve decided to go ahead with cortisone injections in my shoulders. I’ve done the stretching exercises every day, which has helped, but I’m still not back to 100% range of motion and still require NSAIDs to keep the pain down. The turning point was a talk with two of my fellow PCVs, whose fathers had both had the same problem and both had complete recoveries after the treatment. So, I guess I’ll find out what all the Steroid fuss is about first-hand.

My friend and Town Council member Angel was largely responsible for a new mural wall at the southern entrance to our little town. Photos are attached. We’ll be submitting a tree planting and paving job to make our “entrada” even better. Peru has an amazing program where millions of soles are made available for local projects directly from the federal government (which is running a serious budget surplus this year). Much of this money goes unused because towns just don’t ask for it. That’s not happening on our watch.