For volunteers, our third goal of Peace Corps is to return to your home country and teach everyone you love and will come to know about your Peace Corps experience.
But how do you do that without people getting annoyed with your story?
There are a few ways you can communicate your experience with Peace Corps through the Third Goal initiative while still remaining interesting.
1. Through Food
I take this opportunity to make homemade dumplings for my loved ones and friends to bring the culture home. Food is a HUGE part of culture anywhere you go in the world.
No doubt you learned the secret recipes for some of the tastiest cuisines in your country of service, so why not use those as a way to communicate the language of your host country culture? You can use this tool during and after your service especially if you are a blogger or vlogger.
People love food, so appeal to their stomach and teach some of your host country culture at the same time!
2. Reach Out to Your High School
About a year after being home, I realized how much more my decisions could have changed if I had people with experienced lifestyles come to my school to tell me something I could do in my future. I also realized my school never talked much about what adulting would be like. So I essentially decided to pay it forward to the seniors at my former high school.
I got in touch with the current principal, proposed to give a talk to his seniors, and naturally he loved the idea so he said yes. I got to talk to over 100 seniors and several of them waited in line to speak with me afterward!
Read about how that went here!
3. Pair Up With Peace Corps Recruiters
Some recruiters in your area visit local universities on a regular basis, which could also include your university!
Recruiters may need a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer to be present at their recruitments as a reputable source of intel or something that can further encourage people to join and consider Peace Corps.
4. Write A Book or Start ABlog
I kept a blog from the application process to, well now, and it has been a fun way of sharing things I did during and after service.
It’s also a great way to share my own memories and lessons learned from them when I am experiencing a sort of nostalgia. What I love about doing a book or a blog is potential volunteers can gain so many different perspectives on the Peace Corps experience!
No single Peace Corps service is the same, so I encourage everyone to read multiple.
5. Share Your Experience on Peace Corps Stories
So maybe you don’t want to manage a blog or write 50,000 words for the sake of a book.
Maybe you just want to share a specific memory of your service that is very close to your heart. Lucky for you, Peace Corps offers a place for you to do it online. You can write a story about your Peace Corps service and they’ll post it on Peace Corps Stories where it will permanently be a part of their online archive!
These are just a few ideas you can consider when deciding how to Third Goal it. Get creative! There are always plenty of opportunities to bring home the culture you once knew and loved in the two years you volunteered!
