Undated photo. This is a photo from the Facebook page Mariana Memories-Micro of a Peace Corps volunteer with local children.
To care, as they care, for what they care about.
It is sharing, born of a spiritual and intellectual curiosity; a sharing that becomes an involvement in any aspect of going activity that gets you to belong, in a more meaningful way, with the people engaged in that activity.
It is not water-sealed latrines, water catchments, building schools, learning language, teaching, cooking, etc. These are means.
The ends are changes in attitude, including yours. Your actions, to have force, must reflect the thinking of the people; they must be what they want. As you become part of the activities, your needs become part of those of the people. You become a meaningful factor in the direction that community activity takes, and while you are not here to steer a community in any given direction, you are, through involvement and acceptance by the community, in a position to channel activity in a positive direction, increasing the impact on the traditional barriers to change.
Involvement is doing this, not thinking of them. The change in attitudes, the increase in dignity of people creating for themselves, is the hard core of development, the hard core of the Peace Corps. Development requires a planned and systematic approach to solving problems that still plague most island communities. Involvement is the next step, the process of getting development started. But to keep it going calls for a realistic approach to assessing community resources and, with the community, establishing obtainable goals and the means to obtain them.
Spending two delightful years “involved” with your community—or island or village—is not enough. You must contribute to progress and change. The place as well as the direction of this progress will be set by the Micronesian people, but the stimuli might well be from you. What we have in Micronesia is a basic development effort. It is not a cultural exchange nor technical assistance. You’re more than a friendly American, or a good teacher, or a solid citizen on your atoll. You are a volunteer, a force for planned and lasting change.
It is what this training program is all about.
(As published in Training Program for Peace Corps Volunteers to Serve Micronesia, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, June 26 through September 2, 1967, on the Island of Udot and Neighboring Islands in the Truk Lagoon, Truk District, Trust Territory)