4 minute read
Service in Action A Peace Corps Volunteer’s Story
Service in Action
A PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER’S STORY
Advertisement
“WHEN I’M OLDER, I WANT TO JOIN THE PEACE CORPS.” HER UNCLE’S STORIES OF THE PEACE CORPS, LIVING IN A FARAWAY PLACE CALLED TOGO (WEST AFRICA) AMONG PEOPLE VERY DIFFERENT FROM HIM YET WHO BECAME HIS LIFELONG FRIENDS, HAD CAPTURED THE IMAGINATION OF ALICE POTTER, A PRECOCIOUS FOUR-YEAR-OLD. IT WAS IN HER BLOOD.
Potter and her family grew up in California while her father worked as a software engineer, and they also spent years living abroad in Italy, Germany and France. Returning to the United States for college was never part of Potter’s plan; however, her mother did an internet search for colleges in the U.S. “with a good record of acceptance and graduation rates,” and Chaminade University of Honolulu popped up. The positive reviews about Chaminade’s student-to-faculty ratio, affordable tuition and overall quality, coupled with its location and Hawai'i’s mild weather, all sounded very appealing. Her mother told her that if she got in, she would be going to the Marianist university. And to Potter’s surprise, the acceptance letter came. She was anxious to be going back to the U.S., and of all places the most remote 50th state.
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HAWAI'I
Intimidated at first, she soon made new friends and began thriving in Chaminade’s customized learning environment. She also shared its values of serving the community by volunteering at the Waikīkī Aquarium. Aside from her studies, Potter also fell in love with Hawai'i’s marine life and flora and enjoyed learning about the Islands’ rich history. “Never before had I encountered a place so profoundly connected to its people like in Hawai'i,” she says.
LIVING HER DREAM OF JOINING THE PEACE CORPS
Potter graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Communication in 2018. At age 23, ready for a new adventure, she jumped at the opportunity to live her dream and join the Peace Corps. Because she spoke conversational French, Potter had hoped to be assigned to Africa, specifically in Senegal; however, there was an opening to teach English in Southeast Asia. She had lived in a variety of places, yet she remembers experiencing culture shock when arriving in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country with more than 267 million people and a Muslim majority. She was immediately struck by the language barrier and the lack of personal space in this bustling yet conservative, spiritual society.
The Peace Corps helps new volunteers acclimate to their new country through an intensive two- to three-month pre-service training (PST) program. Potter explains this included language lessons and cultural classes, as well as learning about Peace Corps procedures and the country’s rules and local customs, providing the skills and knowledge trainees need to thrive on their own. During this time, she lived with the first of three host families.
“My host family during PST was especially kind, patient, helpful and accepting, and I became very close to them,” Potter says. Her host family warmly welcomed her into their home, introducing Potter to many delicious Indonesian dishes, such as sate (marinated meat skewers), cap cai (stir-fried vegetables sometimes mixed with meat), nasi goring (fried rice) and rawon (beef soup), which became her favorite. Potter was relieved that one of her host twin sisters, Dhea, spoke English, helping her with the transition and translating for her twin, Adhe, and their parents.
Once her assignment began, Potter lived with two other host families: a single mother with grown children, a driven career woman who worked as a caterer for weddings and funerals, as well as a seamstress and a makeup artist; and a young couple who introduced her to carp rearing, bird catching and “coffee time.” A neighboring family acted as her “mom and dad” when Potter needed adult assistance, and they took her on day trips.
TEACHING IS LEARNING
Potter was assigned to a vocational training high school near East Java, where she taught English to 15- to 18-year-old students, 85 percent of them male. School was held seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with extracurricular activities held on Saturdays. Potter says she taught two or three classes each day; class periods were two hours long for sophomores and juniors and one hour for seniors. The school offered career paths for students in fields such as auto mechanics, electrical work, computer work and broadcasting.
“Most of the time my students called me ‘Mister,’ or ‘mbak’ or ‘kak,’ which is equivalent to saying young miss or older sibling,” explains Potter. “I was the youngest teacher at the school,” she adds.
Halfway through her service, Potter was riding her bicycle back to school after a lunch break when she was hit by a motorcycle from behind. “Even though I was wearing a helmet, I had a pretty serious concussion. A piece of
