A Salute to the Peacemakers

By Amy Coward

As America celebrates the Fourth of July with hot dogs, picnics and fireworks, the military gets its well-deserved salute for making our freedom possible. But I have a salute of my own today and it goes to those who never carry a gun.

On Independence Day this year, my daughter will leave Cambodia after serving two years in the Peace Corps. Two years ago, after a brief training period and some language instruction, she stepped off a bus in a small town in Cambodia all alone to begin her service. There was no buddy system, no barracks full of pals from back home, just her. She was alone in this place.

A local family hosted my daughter (once she found their home).They spoke no English. My daughter had learned Khmer (the Cambodian language) as required by the Peace Corps well enough to do her job which was to teach English in a high school there. As a mom, I was relieved that she would have a family to turn to, if needed. While this was mostly a financial arrangement, her family helped her with the language and kept her safe. For that, I’m eternally grateful.

It’s hard to be the mom of a Peace Corps volunteer much like it is to be the mom of a soldier. Your child is on the other side of the world. You have intermittent electricity or internet so communication is not reliable. Your child gets sick. They get sad. They get lonely. And here you are, so very far away. So helpless.

I know you’re probably saying it’s not the same for Peace Corps parents. Peace Corps volunteers are not in battle. That’s true. But to say they’re always safe is naïve. As the mom of a 26-year-old daughter alone in a foreign village, I can assure you I had many a sleepless night worrying about her safety.

All in all, Peace Corps volunteers are not recognized much for all they do. They sell or give away most of their possessions as they leave the comforts of home to serve in remote parts of the world. Forget creature comforts, they seldom have power, clean water or a comfortable bed to sleep on. My daughter’s bed looked (and felt) more like a table with a thin mat on top and was covered, of course, by a mosquito net to prevent Dengue Fever and malaria. Her bathroom consisted of a large bucket of water for bucket baths and a squat toilet. She had to boil her water (or use government-issued filters) as the water was very impure and her bouts with intestinal parasites were ferocious and frequent despite her efforts.

Camaraderie is difficult in the Peace Corps. Unlike the military, the Peace Corps volunteers are not deployed in groups, but as individuals. While they train together and attend occasional meetings together, their day-to-day existence is solitary. At times, the isolation from other Americans is the toughest part of the service. Imagine going for weeks, even months, with no conversation with another English-speaking person that knows anything about you or your home country? Even friendships formed with local people are hampered by the cultural divide they face. Cambodians do not travel much other than from village to village. The ordinary villager does not go to American movies or read books just for pleasure (they find that activity puzzling). They work long hours (most in family businesses) and care for their families. A social life for the Peace Corps volunteer is almost non-existent.

Despite all the challenges, my daughter, like so many others, found her service to be very rewarding. She taught English as required by her assignment, but because of her training in art education, she also developed art programs and camps for children who are never exposed to art education. She made friends with her counterparts, despite their differences, and will no doubt have an emotional day on departure day.

For all of this, she and the other volunteers, will return home pretty much unnoticed. They will have served their country and represented us well. They will have taught people, healed people and befriended people who would otherwise never have met an American. And they will come home to no parade.

There is no USO in the airport for Peace Corps volunteers. There is no media coverage of their arrival back in the states. No heartwarming videos of their reunions with families or pets. They have given up their life for two years in order to help mankind – all in the name of peace. My fireworks tonight are for them.

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