Peace Corps Application Process

Whyte Horse wrote: I worked in a school where they ask if you're christian(it was a christian academy). All of the teachers lied and said yes so they could get jobs. And the moral of the story is: liars win, honest people lose. If you want the job just tell them what they want to hear and move on. They just want to know if you're going to freak out when you see women mutilating their genitals.

Isn't that in direct contrast to what we encourage? And I'm not sure that genital mutilation practiced in Latin America or Morocco, although it is to a certain extent in Israel among the Bedouin and Falasha women who are a minority, but I doubt she'd be exposed to that sort of thing.

Brenna wrote:

Whyte Horse wrote: I worked in a school where they ask if you're christian(it was a christian academy). All of the teachers lied and said yes so they could get jobs. And the moral of the story is: liars win, honest people lose. If you want the job just tell them what they want to hear and move on. They just want to know if you're going to freak out when you see women mutilating their genitals.

Isn't that in direct contrast to what we encourage? And I'm not sure that genital mutilation practiced in Latin America or Morocco, although it is to a certain extent in Israel among the Bedouin and Falasha women who are a minority, but I doubt she'd be exposed to that sort of thing.

Yes and no. The basic premise of both the peace corps and Christianity is a lie. So when someone lies to you... what do you do? Be honest and get taken advantage of(e.g. lose a job opportunity)?

Here's how the peace corps really works: You get a government-subsidized travel experience, resume builder, chance to escape... they get $41k/year... the locals get a volunteer. If you solve all their problems, you lose your subsidy and the peace corps loses $41k/year and locals lose a volunteer.

I'm sorry to be so cynical but I almost fell for the peace corps schpiel myself. I did fall for the Army schpiel "be all you can be", "fight for freedom". I almost fell for the Red cross schpiel. There's big money to be made taking advantage of people like yourself and myself.

If you want to do something worthwhile, I suggest you join the Sadhana project creating a food forest in Kenya.


Peace

I am sorry that you've had an experience that has made you feel cynical and I'm glad that there are other projects that you feel are worth your time and attention, but I do not think that the peace corps is a waste. Something like that gives people the opportunity to leave their comfort zones and work at the grassroots level with communities that they would otherwise never be exposed to and it gives people a chance to serve others.

Is it not a worthwhile endevour if it helpes people develop empathy for those in need? It may be a life changing experience for some people; to help them connect with others, give them a sense of perspective and may well set them on a path of greater understanding that could afect the rest of their lives.

there are plenty of opportunities for social work, and plenty of organisations supplying that

look at your goal first ( I wanna help people)

does the organisation grant you access to that goal?

if yes, then I don't see why we can't in the least consider it

I rarely answer questions "yes" or "no" in cases like that. Were it me, I'd have expanded on my "yes", then said "in short, yes". But that's just me, I tend to clarify everything I say, lol.

I think you have to look at the purpose of the question, with the peace core they just want to make sure you're not going to freak out on the people you'll be working with just because they've never heard of jesus or something to that effect.

As far as the do you believe in jesus, you know there really asking you if you're a christian and saying yes is a lie ,but is it justified?

I say do whatever causes less harm if you want.

I personally choose to never lie because I operate on a weird honor system where I feel like I'm cheating at life if I have to be deceptive. When I'm in those situations I say to myself, "How did I get here and do I really want to be here if I have to lie to stay here?" This is a hard way of doing things and not for everyone.

My brother is in the peace core and he really enjoys it. He is helping people in Benin Africa. The peace core looks great on a job application.

To the original point, if you have reasonable evidence that saying something(it doesn't matter what the words are) will get you harmed or killed and saying them won't do anything but make you feel better about yourself before your harmed or killed, I would say don't say them. This isn't cowardice its allowing you to continue unharmed or not dead, both states of being that will help you accomplish your goals where ever you happen to be(in most cases). Otherwise, decide you are who you are and its worth being beaten and dieing for, so there world, suck it. In either case your being selfish from a certain point of view, but atleast with one there is far less physical harm to your person.