The Foreign Service Journal, October 2008

from the world of PST (pre-service training), ET (early termination, or “dropping out” of Peace Corps before your scheduled end of service), and COSing (close of service, used as a verb to describe going through the administrative processes wrapping up your Peace Corps service). Perhaps more than anything else, however, I found the more mundane daily experiences of Peace Corps life the best preparation for the life of the Foreign Service employee serving overseas. Admittedly, volunteers typi- cally do not enjoy the same level of daily support as Foreign Service personnel —much the opposite, in fact, because the idea is for PCVs to live as “normal” people in-country. Unless problems arise, there is remarkably little con- tact with the office, let alone the embassy. In my whole time in Uzbekistan, I don’t recall ever meeting anybody from the Department of State. (While it’s possible that an embassy briefing was given while I was out sick one day or something, I don’t recall any contact from State Department officials with my Peace Corps group during our pre-service training, and certainly no contact after going off to our sites.) Peace Corps Volunteers are expected to be self-suffi- cient. This means that there’s no motor pool to rely on for travel needs, no work order to write up when elec- tricity goes out, no medical officer just down the hall when you contract giardiasis — which you will (fre- quent illness is only one of the hardships that typically mark Peace Corps service). In Uzbekistan, my apart- ment featured neither air conditioning nor a refrigera- tor, and the electricity seemed to be off as much as on. Still, with a private phone and running water, my abode was pretty cushy, compared to many other Peace Corps residences. Like all volunteers, I lived with a host family for much of my service; in fact, I lived with three different fami- lies. That day-to-day contact gave me a crash course on life in the former Soviet Union, a more wide-ranging education than I could have imagined. F O C U S 36 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8