Peace Corps Volunteer Shares Experiences From Abroad

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Throughout my service Ive had to redefine success. Peace Corps volunteers experience many accomplishments, but they tend to be smaller and slower-coming, notes Rice.
Throughout my service Ive had to redefine success. Peace Corps volunteers experience many accomplishments, but they tend to be smaller and slower-coming, notes Rice.

On the afternoon of Dec.28, Glenise Rice will sit on a diversity panel at Rainbow PUSH Headquarters made up of returned Peace Corps volunteers to discuss the importance of international service and its role in creating global citizens.

Rice, a native of Glenwood, Ill. is a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama. She departed for Panama in April 2010 to begin Peace Corps pre-service language and cultural training. After graduating from volunteer training in July 2010, Rice was assigned to a local community in Panama where she is currently working as a community economic development Peace Corps volunteer, helping to build the capacity of the local people, in addition to improving business opportunities.

Her desire to learn about other cultures and share her culture with others is what inspired Rice to apply to Peace Corps. In Panama, she is currently involved in a variety of local projects, but focuses on education and development. Rice offers non-formal English classes and educational workshops to adults that focus on business and leadership topics in order to provide local entrepreneurs with sustainable development practices.

Rices Peace Corps experience has been rewarding thus far and she is looking forward to sharing her stories of living and working abroad, recognizing that Peace Corps volunteers should strive to bring their knowledge and understanding of new cultures back home to their U.S. communities.

During her visit home, Rice is looking forward to experiencing certain comforts that arent available in Panama, where she lives on an island with a population of less than 100 people that is only accessible by boat. I have been a city girl all of my life so it was quite an adjustment to live in a community without all of the amenities that I was accustomed to. It has been a very humbling experience and makes me appreciate the things that I have, says Rice. But the thing I miss most is not having hot water so the first thing I will do when I get home is take a hot bath.

And while Rice is excited to visit home and see family and friends, she is also looking forward to her remaining time in Panama. Throughout my service Ive had to redefine success. Peace Corps volunteers experience many accomplishments, but they tend to be smaller and slower-coming, notes Rice. Success has become something as simple as a smile and a thank you, or having my counterparts use an agenda in a meeting, or watching a student figure out how to do a mathematical calculation to see if their business is making money. These things may not change the world, but they do touch and improve the life of that person.

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