This story, published in the Kyiv Post, August 19, discusses the June swearing-in of my group — Peace Corps Ukraine Group 38. The 72 of us, community development and youth development alike, took the oath more than two months ago. Hard to believe we’ve been at site for as long as we were in pre-service training. The two are vastly different experiences from one another.
Here’s a snippet from the piece:
Ukraine is home to the world’s largest contingency of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers.
They are jokingly referred to as the “Posh Corps,” but they also could be called ambassadors of peace. They carry cell phones, have running water in their homes and a McDonald’s restaurant is usually not far away.
They’re U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Ukraine, lucky enough perhaps not to dig irrigation ditches like counterparts do in less fortunate parts of the globe. Ukraine is hosting a Peace Corps contingent that is more than 300-members strong, the world’s largest group among 74 countries where the U.S. sponsored volunteers are serving.
The latest batch of them, 72 in total, recently came to Kyiv after 11 weeks of intensive in-country cross-cultural and language training. This group consists of community and youth development volunteers. They are now deployed to various parts of Ukraine, where they will spend the next two years integrating into their assigned communities.
Also, as the story develops, it explains a bit about the history of Peace Corps, and the work of some RPCVs (That’s Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) who’ve either remained in country to work or have returned for work.
You can read the full story here.