Discovering Commonalities
Like Young, Oliver Gaines ’08 was also selected as a business development officer. Across the Sahara to the south, Gaines was posted in Senegal. Fueled by a thirst for adventure and a desire to get to know another culture “on a more intimate level,” Gaines went directly from Trinity into the Peace Corps. After leaving Trinity’s vibrant campus, he gradually adjusted to the unhurried pace of Ngaye Makhe, his Senegalese village. Gaines was then faced with a saturated market of well-qualified artisans all making the same product. Working with an association of 250 women, Gaines started a partnership with an organization in Oregon to export hand-woven baskets, and he also identified specific village women to lead operations once he left. As he observed the operation, Gaines noticed that the plastic used for the baskets, broken down from colorful prayer mats, could be purchased directly from the facto-
of the U.S. government, Gaines misses the up-closeand-personal view that Peace Corps allowed him. With his new title, security protocol prevents him from the completely immersive experience he enjoyed in Senegal. Nevertheless, Gaines is happy escorting Americans from tight spots. Although more than five years have passed since his service, Gaines says his Peace Corps friends are still some of the closest in his life. Akin to Young, he admits that a certain amount of what happens to a volunteer during his or her service is out of the volunteer’s control, a feeling that can be both liberating and frightening. No matter the country, Gaines says he can find commonalities in the service of any Peace Corps volunteer. “There is a certain aspect of that person that you automatically understand if they have served in the Peace Corps,” Gaines says. “You can identify with them on so many levels, and that’s really very cool.”
Watch a Peace Corps video one year into Gaines' service at gotu.us/gaines
I learned to appreciate being with people, drinking coffee, and doing laundry. Now, even among the busyness of American life, I have learned to just be. ries. Putting his finance and economics double major to work, Gaines helped the association save valuable time and money. All profits were used to support community service projects, from restocking medical supplies to purchasing materials for the local school. Although Senegalese and American culture are vastly different, Gaines came to comprehend how certain aspects of human nature are consistent across seemingly separate societies. While his host family were all devout Muslims and his host father had four wives and 30 children, Gaines saw how they, like parents in the U.S., simply wanted the best for their children—for them to be safe, to attend good schools, and to be well fed. He also recognizes that while the women’s association and its basket export business are thriving, many Peace Corps projects are not able to stand the test of time. “A lot of times, it is hard to get sustainable work done,” Gaines says. “Volunteers do great projects, but it can be difficult to continue that work once you are out of the country. In that sense, volunteers get more out of the experience than the community does, because you are thrust into a world so different from your own that will change you in many ways.” Today, Gaines is a consular officer with the U.S. Foreign Service working in the U.S. Embassy in Luanda, Angola. It is his first assignment, and Gaines is kept busy handling visa applications, helping Americans who have lost their passports, conducting economic reporting, and anything else that comes his way. As a representative
Valuing Relationships
Kristi Quillen ’03, who served three years in Costa Rica, feels the exact same way. “When I talk to other Peace Corps volunteers, even people who have served 30 years ago or in a totally different country, there are still so many elements about their experience that I relate to,” Quillen says. “It is such an impactful experience that is hard to articulate sometimes what it was or what came from it.” Quillen, an assistant editor at Mother Earth News magazine, joined the Peace Corps at age 29 after working as a high school English teacher. She was a member of the new English teaching program in Costa Rica and helped train local teachers, some of whom had never interacted with a native English speaker before. Quillen organized workshops at high schools to teach language learning skills, such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. She also collaborated with the regional adviseor on rubrics and administering student feedback. Similar to Gaines and Young, Quillen, an English major, noticed that life in Santa Rosa, Costa Rica, was more leisurely and that business was conducted at a much gentler rate. Whether it was convening a meeting or trying to organize an English camp, Quillen came to see that success was achieved not through set meetings, but through relationships and, often, through chance conversations on the street. “Life was about being versus doing, and that has
In Costa Rica, Quillen used a chorreador to make coffee.
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