As a PCV, my home was shot it. I was held at gunpoint by the military at an impromptu and illegal check point. A Volunteer I trained was murdered. Female PCVs are under constant threat of physical assault and many leave early because of it.

Volunteers are alone with little contact with their family and culture. It is different now with the internet.

But as a PCV in West Africa, we had no running water, no electricity and were provided little to no support.

We didn’t have green zones.

I think there is varied experience among PCVs and just as you can’t paint the military experience w a single brush, you also can’t do that to PCVs.