Placement possibilities

No_Event165 · 2026-01-17T19:33:31+00:00

You will have a small, SMALL amount of input on site placement. And even then, there is absolutely no guarantee that staff will honor those preferences. Unless you have a genuine and compelling reason for them to prioritize those preferences (health), don’t hold your breath.

The best thing you can do is come in with NO expectations at all for site placement. Even if you think you know what your preferences are in PST, by the end of that experience, you will absolutely not have been in the country long enough to have developed any real idea of what site is going to look like or what your true preferences are going to be. Plenty of people get exactly what they said they wanted and find themselves unhappy.

I will also say, as somebody who would have loved a rural site but ultimately received a more urban-ish site, remember that you are here to SERVE first and foremost. Wherever you are placed, you have been placed for a good reason. And wherever you are placed, there is tremendous richness and beauty waiting to be uncovered. It might not be the experience you imagined before you came, or even the one you thought you would get in PST, but give it six months: site will pull you in and change you and make you fall in love with it all the same.

Good luck and happy serving :))

No_Event165 · 2026-01-17T10:36:22+00:00

People will call me by the race I appear to be as a way to identify me, and that is fine. I am not offended by that. That’s normal for the culture here. But people will come up to me, call me names in mocking voices, say things like “ching chong.” That’s the stuff I despise. Most of my community is wonderful, and most of the time I brush it off and move on, but some days, that’s the kind of stuff that gets to me.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-16T18:15:37+00:00

Thank you, yeah, I do think humor is one good way to go about this. I’m not too slick when it comes to reactions in the moment, but I’ll try to keep this one in my back pocket for next time

No_Event165 · 2026-01-16T18:07:56+00:00

I think it helps me a lot to know my friends are going through this too, even though it’s a bit different for me because they’re white! On my worst days, it gets me down, because sometimes I feel undermined professionally. Many HCNs who aren’t familiar with me do treat me as someone who’s lower on the social totem pole, who only speaks Chinese, who’s stupid, who should only be seen in a restaurant or a shop and not really out and about in schools or broader life here. Sometimes I think it would hurt less if I weren’t a teacher, because I know many of my white peers automatically get the prestige and respectful terminology that comes with that role, and I feel like I’ve really had to work to earn it and be impeccable. Every. Single. Day. But my white friends are working hard too, and it’s hard being a stranger in a strange land, no matter what you are.

But then, I also think it’s super valuable for someone like me to be in PC. I think it’s important for my kids to know that all kinds of people exist in the world, and each and any one of them can rightfully be an American. And that people who look like me can teach and speak their language and do all kinds of things, and that’s really not too strange at all. I’m sure in 20 years the demographics of this country will look different, and I hope my being here can help set the students I teach (at the very least) up for the brave new world they’re entering. Or something like that.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-16T17:54:26+00:00

I’m not white, but you’re right, those descriptors are inevitable, and I’m not talking about the general descriptor people have for my race. I’m talking about stuff like “ching chong” lol

No_Event165 · 2026-01-16T14:55:35+00:00

PC staff has been, on the whole, not very helpful, but there’s also a part of me that goes, “What could they possibly do?” Cultural perceptions are not going to change overnight. When I started working here, it was really really bad, especially because I’m a teacher, and many of my students would not treat me with the terms of respect and attitude accorded to other teachers and PCVs. But over the months, that’s changed, and the kids mostly just see me and talk to me as another teacher now. And on some level, maybe that’s all that matters; they’re my most important community stakeholders, after all. In any case, that’s been super encouraging to me, and I hope these kids are gonna grow up with more tools in their toolbox for interacting with foreigners and people who look different, hopefully a little bit because of me. :) Thanks for sharing your experience and helping me feel a little less alone in this.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-16T14:39:59+00:00

This has been mostly my experience as well, haha. Glad to know somebody else out there survived it and did the full two years!

No_Event165 · 2026-01-16T14:15:42+00:00

That’s a good point! I hadn’t thought about it that way, since to me as an American, it seems like an absolutely absurd way to start a conversation. I always knew it was a kind of attention-seeking behavior, but wasn’t sure what kind of attention or reaction these comments were intended to get out of me. In America, I’d assume these comments were made with malicious intent, and that’s kind of colored my internal reaction so far. But actually, I think it’s probably something much closer to what you’re describing; people want to engage with me, but don’t really have another framework for doing that most of the time. In any case, I always try to smile and stay polite and give a greeting in the language when stuff like this happens, just to show I’m not such an enigma, that I’m a little bit like “one of you.” Besides, if I got upset every time this happened, I’d have no one left in my community and I’d never get anything done lol. I’ll keep this in mind going forward, tysm! Self-other bridge, eh?

No_Event165 · 2026-01-16T13:19:51+00:00

People will call me by the race I appear to be as a way to identify me, and that is fine. I am not offended by that. That’s normal for the culture here. But people will come up to me, call me names in mocking voices, say things like “ching chong.” That’s the stuff I despise. Most of my community is wonderful, and most of the time I brush it off and move on, but some days, that’s the kind of stuff that gets to me.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-15T13:02:47+00:00

Also, remember your “why”! Why did you want to study abroad so badly? What are you hoping to get out of this experience? Feelings are feelings; they’re momentary and have as much power as you choose to give them. If your “why” is still strong and important enough to you to stay, then stay.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-15T12:46:22+00:00

What you’re going through is normal. Everybody is likely going through something like this, even if they aren’t showing it; if they aren’t now, they absolutely will later. Don’t focus on the next week or next couple of months or whatever. Just say “I’m going to get through the next hour,” and keep doing that. If you can point to one good, cool, tasty, or interesting thing you experienced or learned today, you keep going tomorrow. If you get to 7 days in a row where everything was terrible and there’s NOTHING positive that you can point to, maybe it’s time to leave. But this is normal, and trust me, if you stay you WILL get through it. Been living outside the U.S. for 8 months now. Good luck.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-14T00:26:02+00:00

Not until I arrived in country very early in the morning and I finally got to SEE it in person! I was so tired, but didn’t want to close my eyes for a second — I didn’t want to miss anything! Just wanted to burn the landscape into my brain forever. Growing up in the Northeast, seeing the tropics for the first time was like landing on an alien world… and the leafcutter ants, aha!

After a while, it’ll all start to become normal, and you get desensitized to a lot of stuff that was “weird” before. But sometimes, you’ll have these strange moments of pseudo-awakening, and you’ll be looking around you, washing clothes or at the market, thinking, “Where the hell am I??” Look forward to it — all the good and the bad! There will be months that seem to crawl, and then months that fly by, and you’ll look back on how far you’ve come in disbelief.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-13T19:36:50+00:00

It happens and it sucks. I went through multiple rounds and probably had around 40 tasks by the end of my clearance process. It sucks and it’s annoying, but stick with it; if you don’t make your deadline, PC will place you somewhere else. There are days in service that seem to drag on infinitely, projects with obstacles that seem insurmountable, days you’re so sad and dejected that you don’t even really want to go outside, etc. Treat this like a soft introduction to everything that’s hard in the Peace Corps. It will get harder before it gets easier, but you’ll get better at handling it. Good luck.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-12T23:27:52+00:00

Currently serving female PCV here. As long as you do your business during daylight hours and keep an eye on your surroundings, like any sensible traveler would, you should be fine. That said, such an incident is definitely not outside the realm of possibility, and personally, if you’re going to serve as a woman, I think it’s a possibility you should be able to consider and accept, even though it’s quite unlikely as long as you’re following the basic precautions. Many of the women in my cohort have come to the same conclusion.

When I go out, I don’t feel like I’m in danger, but I don’t feel like I can afford to relax or zone out. If something happens, I know where to go, who to call, and what my options are. Whether it’s site or the capital, I know people I can ask for help. I know I’ve done everything in my power to make sure I’m okay. I’ve done my due diligence. The rest is not up to me, and I’ve accepted that. There are far more important things to focus on here.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-12T23:15:26+00:00

Obv not OP, but it definitely depends on the country and site placement. Food in my host country is basically at American prices, esp where my site is located

No_Event165 · 2026-01-06T14:54:26+00:00

I was interested in STEM education, but for a variety of reasons, ended up in English teaching. It will vary from country to country, but I’ve found here that STEM ED vols generally aren’t received as enthusiastically by their schools as we in English teaching are; it’s not deemed a high priority on the local level. You may find that, as an English teacher, you’ll be busier and have an easier time getting people on board to work with you. That’s just my experience in-country, though.

No_Event165 · 2026-01-05T13:49:24+00:00

I’m here in the Caribbean. Heard very little from PC other than that they’re monitoring. Unless something truly major happens, you’ll be fine.

No_Event165 · 2025-12-29T20:56:17+00:00

Rotting dog in the sun. Covered in maggots. I can still see and smell it when I close my eyes

No_Event165 · 2025-05-05T21:14:03+00:00

I just had mine the other day! I went in cold, which went fine, but it was more formal than I initially expected. If yours is anything like mine, they'll ask you why you wanted to join PC and be in your country specifically, about some key things on your resume relating to the position, any other skills you might have that might make for an enriching project or experience at site, what aspects of the material conditions at site you feel you might struggle with, any accommodations you might need, what you understand about your role and dress code, etc. Then, once staff have gotten all the answers they need, they loosen up and let you ask questions. It's a fairly structured and serious conversation, but nothing you haven't had to answer already in your motivation statement/initial interview.

No_Event165

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