Kenya: Peace Corps Background & What I’ll be Doing
What is the Peace Corps?
The Peace Corps was created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Their mission is to promote world peace and friendship. To do this, they organize volunteers to live and work in host communities. There are service opportunities in over 60 countries. These service opportunities have been requested by the host country. Volunteers are tasked with working on local projects, developing community relationships, and exchanging ideas and cultures. Volunteers must be 18 years or older and a United States citizen. Volunteers have opportunities to serve in one of the six sectors of the Peace Corps: agriculture, education, health, community economic development, environment, and youth in development. Agriculture works to strengthen food security, community economic development helps cultivate community opportunity, education helps teach learners and support fellow educators, environment works to protect the planet and its resources, health works to progress health equity, and youth in development works to empower engagement and active citizenship in the next generation.
Being a Peace Corps volunteer is a 2-year service plus three months of pre-service training. The Peace Corps also has Peace Corps Response which is a shorter term of service, 3-12 months (I am not as familiar with this because I will be going to Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer). In addition to the benefits of working in and with a new community, being a Peace Corps volunteer comes with financial benefits, student loan benefits, travel benefits, medical and dental benefits, career benefits, Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate program, graduate school benefits, and endless networking opportunities. Prospective Peace Corps volunteers can search volunteer openings at any time. While writing this post, I went to the openings website and there were 109 openings at that time. You can sort your search based on featured openings, newest openings, earliest departures, and/or country. You can also filter your search by sector, language requirement, regions and countries, and/or couples. Not all Peace Corps volunteer opportunities support couples, so you will want to select this filter if you want to search for an opportunity in which couples are accepted.
Pre-Service Training
Pre-service training happens over the 3 months prior to the 2-year volunteer time. During this time, Peace Corps volunteers are considered trainees. Pre-service training happens in the host country and trainees live with host families. Safety and security, health, culture, language, and technical topics are covered during pre-service training. Pre-service training has varying content depending on the host country, so other than these overarching ideas, I don’t really know what to specifically expect during my Kenya pre-service training. I do know that I will need to demonstrate proficiency in all training areas before I can swear in as a Peace Corps volunteer.
My Job Title & Responsibilities
After pre-service training, I will be serving as a secondary education science teacher in the education sector for Peace Corps Kenya. The Peace Corps Kenya Science Educator program wants students and teachers to have STEM skills that enable them to be competitive in the global workforce and enhance national economic development. I will likely be placed in a rural community of the Lake Region of Western Kenya, but will not know specifically where until the end of my pre-service training. I will be teaching general science which could be chemistry, biology, and/or physics. I will be teaching 11-16 hours per week and could have up to 50 students in a class. During the rest of my time, I will be working with colleagues and community members on projects that help better the school and/or community.
What I Know to Expect
My pre-service training will be in or near Kisumu, the Lake Region capital where the Peace Corps Kenya Office resides. I will be placed in a rural community of the Lake Region in Western Kenya. My main form of transportation between different communities and to/from Kisumu will be public buses/mini-vans. I am not allowed to drive (this is a Peace Corps thing, not a reflection on my driving lol), so my main mode of transportation to/from work will be on bicycle and/or on foot. The food staple of Kenya is ugali and I’ll have access to local vegetables, beans, and meats. Texting is more reliable than sending and receiving calls and I can get internet through a local cell phone provider. To work, I will likely need to wear dresses and skirts that fall below the knee, modest tops, and closed-toed shoes.
Things I Won’t Know Until I Get to Kenya
the subject(s) I am teaching * my host family * my community * my house * my school * other Peace Corps volunteers in my community
The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.
