50th Anniversary

March 1st commemorates 50 years since Kennedy launched the United States Peace Corps. Since its inception, more than 200,000 Americans have served in 139 countries. And I couldn't be more proud to be a part of what I think is the strongest alumni connection to exist. Stronger than any university Alma mater, in my opinion. In celebration of the 50th anniversary, the National Peace Corps Association has been promoting Global House parties. So returned volunteers, current volunteers, parents of PCVs, current and former Peace Corps staff and the Peace Corps community in general attended and organized parties all over the world. 

I looked up the listing of parties and was surprised to find one taking place here in Islamabad. Ours was on Saturday the 26th, instead of the 1st, because it was more convenient to have it on the weekend instead. It was a potluck, where everyone brought something from their host country. There was food from Romania, Madagascar, Guatemala, Belize, Kazakhstan, Russia, Honduras and I'm forgetting a couple of places. It was a nice get together of about 15 people. It was really nice to feel like a part of the PC community again, because there's really nothing like it. It was also amazing to see that after having served so many years ago, RPCVs still wanted to celebrate so many miles away from home. 

No, I didn't make this cake =( And I'm jealous that I didn't have time to go all out like this, but I did bake!

We all decided to be cheesy and tell a story from our Peace Corps experience. Some were funny, some sad, some disturbing. One of the girls told us about the time she thought she was being abducted by a cab driver. Another guy told us about his experience with tear gas and protests when Bush was in Guatemala. Another about having to sneak across the Mexican border to get back to his host country when his passport expired on his trip home. I decided to tell them about the first time I successfully streupsed. And they tried getting me to streups the rest of the night, but I can't do it on demand. I think I might have lost the skill =(

Most of the RPCV's here are working for USAID or the embassy. I was definitely the youngest, most recent returnee. What I thought was amazing is that there were at least 5 couples there, and 3 of them were married to fellow RPCVs. One of the couples actually met on their first day of training. The other two met at alumni events similar to this I think, because they didn't serve in the same place. It makes sense, because you share something that is probably one of the most defining experiences of your life. I definitely want to join the Peace Corps again with my husband one day =)