Government Shutdown

So a month has come and passed, and we are all integrating in our own way.  I have noticed that many of the other MAK18s have become less Peace Corps-ey.  For example, a fellow site-mate has started smoking occasionally when offered cigarettes.  I have reverted back to my work-aholic ways.  For example, this morning I woke up feeling mildly fluish.  So I went to work piling firewood, drank a glass of beer, and felt much better. 

There is a reason why we are all showing our true colors here in Macedonia.  We have discovered on Wednesday and Thursday, October 16 and 17, where will live and with whom we will work for the next two years.  We all have a better sense of what our life will be like for the next two years.  I will live in Prilep, and I am extremely excited, but I will write more on that later. 

The whole Peace Corps experience has been a series of Christmas Eve moments for the past 15 months.  After I submitted my application, I waited anxiously for an interview.  After the interview, I waited for the nomination.  After months of waiting, I finally received my invitation to discover where I would be.  Then I waited for my departure to Macedonia to discover what it would be like and what the other volunteers would be like.  Then we discovered our training site.  FINALLY, our permanent sites (for the next two years) and the organization with which we will work were revealed to us.  I now have an idea of what my life will look like for the next two years, with whom I will live, and how I can prepare myself to have a successful Peace Corps experience.  I am happy to say that I am finished with the surprises.

Thinking through these surprises, it reminds me of the big mystery back home in the States.  Although the government shutdown is over, that can has just been kicked down the road to January. (I am about to get political here, so please keep in mind the disclaimer: this blog reflects my own opinion, and not that of the Peace Corps, the USA government, etc).  I find it both frustrating and embarrassing that the USA government goes through this each year.  Many country nationals are sympathetic of the government troubles in Congress, but they also jest that American politics has finally learned something from the Balkans.

The Peace Corps had prepared for a government shutdown.  In case any of you were wondering, Peace Corps volunteers are “essential staff”.  That does not mean that what we do is “more essential” than the other government workers back home who were forced into furlough.  The simplest explanation is, any overseas officer is classified as essential staff so that, when the government shuts down, we are not shipped home and then shipped back when the government is back in order.  That would waste a lot of tax-payers’ dollars.  However, it did affect the way our Peace Corps office spent its money.  Sessions were rearranged since fuel was cut from the budget after the government shutdown.  Also, 90% of the Peace Corps staff in the USA was furloughed for the duration of the shutdown.  Otherwise, our host families were paid for the expenses incurred by us, and basic and essential services, like medical support, were continued.

In a way, we were lucky that life continued as normal despite the shutdown.  But in a way, it would be perplexing if major changes were forced on the Peace Corps volunteers.  During PST, each volunteer receives a monthly allowance of 3000 denars.  To save you a trip to Google, that is $60 for the entire month.  So yes, technically we are government employees, but despite the living allowance that is provided to our host families for food, shelter, and utilities, our salary is pretty menial.  So cutting more money from the Peace Corps budget, especially that geared toward volunteer living costs, would hardly dent any debt-reduction attempts.

Now I am not saying that the Peace Corps program deserves more resources or credit than other programs.  Nor am I implying that we deserve any sympathy.  But I will argue that PC volunteers are expected to accomplish quite a bit with very few resources.  Peace Corps tries to replicate the typical experience for PCVs by paying the PCVs the average wage for the country in which they serve.  Thus, we are paid at a much lower wage than is typical in the States.  I also wonder if Democrats and Republicans would be able to put their ideologies aside, and discuss how to make government or taxes more efficient instead of arguing over how much of the government budget should be cut, or to what extent taxes should be raised or reduced.

I also think that the politicians can learn a bit from the average Peace Corps volunteer.  In each of our communities, we are tasked to help our hosts develop their society, focusing on key development sectors like health, business, education, or agriculture.  Each volunteer is tasked with an approach, 1) to learn the needs of our community and 2) to integrate into the community and learn its culture in order to provide development assistance in a sustainable fashion.  In other words, we are not sent to a community to analyze the issues, and then decide how we will help and which projects we will pursue. More than half of our time is spent learning and listening so that we can contribute in an effective and culturally sensitive way. 

I hope I do not sound like I am lecturing a wall, but I think I am as frustrated with the Federal government as any other person.  Our country’s history is characterized by change, and the demographics have altered considerably over the past few years.  A larger portion of our population is changing, the immigrant population is coming from different parts of the world, Hispanics will soon make up a majority of US citizens, and the income inequality gap is continuing to grow.  There is no “one way” to solve these problems, but that does not mean that the solutions of the past are the best solutions for now.  None of these problems can be fixed if the government is in a standstill, so our politicians must learn to compromise in order to bring effective change.  I hope they can compromise soon.  Either way, I will continue to integrate into my host community in Macedonia and continue to serve the people here.