I have learned a little more of what it must be like to be a mother. The feeling of your heart dropping into your shoes when a child is missing and nearly swelling out of your chest with pride is his intelligence and talent.
For the third time in my service I took two of my boys, hours from home, to enjoy a weekend of workshops, discussions, and games with other young men and women. But this time it also included camping and snorkeling in one of the most beautiful places in this country.
My boys had never seen the inside of goggles, the animal that lives in a conch shell or a lobster in it’s habitat. Before the conference they couldn’t tell you what sea grass is, why it’s important, or how the people living all the way up in the mountains affect it. They didn’t know that coral reefs make and protect sandy beaches. They had never slept in a tent, learned on a beach or wore their bathing suits to class. No one had ever told them not to throw their trash on the ground.
Eighteen Peace Corps Volunteers changed all of that.
We taught them about rivers, coral reefs, sea grass, plate tectonics, threats to the DR’s natural environment, and inter tidal pools. We also taught them that they are smart, there are cool people with Bachelor’s degrees and that real women don’t want to marry chauvinists.
As Peace Corps Volunteers we cannot escape working with youth. They are our first friends, the ones that invite us into the community, and teach us a new language. They are the future of whatever cultural change we are hoping to impact in our two years of service. We have a 24-hour job as mentors and as the only Americans most of them will ever know. Like everyone in the United States, we make a huge impact whether we’re trying to or not.
On the final night of the conference, we took the 26 youth and set them on driftwood logs two meters from the high tide. By firelight, and above the roar of the surf, we reviewed all we had taught them with a rousing game of marine ecosystem jeopardy. The salty mist was at their faces, but we were the ones blown away…
Time after time they stood up to give detailed answers to questions we had asked blank faces three days before. The older of the two boys I had brought to the conference has never done well in school, and as I watched him carry on about the intricate relationships between us, rivers and oceans, my heart felt as if it might leave my chest.
Later, in a quiet moment, he asked me how long I would be in the United States for during my vacation in May and when the color left his face at my answer it was all I could do not to cry.
He slept on my shoulder all the way home.
I have learned a little more of what it must be like to be a mother. The feeling of your heart dropping into your shoes when a child is missing and nearly swelling out of your chest with pride is his intelligence and talent.
For the third time in my service I took two of my boys, hours from home, to enjoy a weekend of workshops, discussions, and games with other young men and women. But this time it also included camping and snorkeling in one of the most beautiful places in this country.
My boys had never seen the inside of goggles, the animal that lives in a conch shell or a lobster in it’s habitat. Before the conference they couldn’t tell you what sea grass is, why it’s important, or how the people living all the way up in the mountains affect it. They didn’t know that coral reefs make and protect sandy beaches. They had never slept in a tent, learned on a beach or wore their bathing suits to class. No one had ever told them not to throw their trash on the ground. 
Eighteen Peace Corps Volunteers changed all of that.
We taught them about rivers, coral reefs, sea grass, plate tectonics, threats to the DR’s natural environment, and inter tidal pools. We also taught them that they are smart, there are cool people with Bachelor’s degrees and that real women don’t want to marry chauvinists.
As Peace Corps Volunteers we cannot escape working with youth. They are our first friends, the ones that invite us into the community, and teach us a new language. They are the future of whatever cultural change we are hoping to impact in our two years of service. We have a 24-hour job as mentors and as the only Americans most of them will ever know. Like everyone in the United States, we make a huge impact whether we’re trying to or not. 
On the final night of the conference, we took the 26 youth and set them on driftwood logs two meters from the high tide. By firelight, and above the roar of the surf, we reviewed all we had taught them with a rousing game of marine ecosystem jeopardy. The salty mist was at their faces, but we were the ones blown away…
Time after time they stood up to give detailed answers to questions we had asked blank faces three days before. The older of the two boys I had brought to the conference has never done well in school, and as I watched him carry on about the intricate relationships between us, rivers and oceans, my heart felt as if it might leave my chest. 
Later, in a quiet moment, he asked me how long I would be in the United States for during my vacation in May and when the color left his face at my answer it was all I could do not to cry.
He slept on my shoulder all the way home. 
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