My last week in America

I've finally opened my last show of the summer (Caffeine Theatre's Under Milk Wood at the DCA Storefront Theatre-- go and see it!) and am getting ready to depart September 2 for Pohnpei, Micronesia via L.A., Honolulu, Majuro, and Kwajalein (I don't know how to pronounce it, either). After a fantastic round of visitors to Chicago, I'm on a last "until we meet again" trip to Memphis, then will have four more days in Chicago and Naperville to pack up all my worldly possessions for a two-year trip to the other side of the world.

A lot of people ask me what brought me to my decision to join the Peace Corps--I've told this story to many of you, but for those of you who haven't heard it, here is the path I took to choosing Peace Corps service:

The summer after my sophomore year at Vanderbilt, I had the incredible opportunity to spend a month in London studying theatre. I saw several very incredible productions there (and some less than amazing ones, too) but one had such a profound effect on me that I started thinking almost immediately of joining the Peace Corps. This play was The Overwhelming, performed at the National Theatre of London and it took place in Rwanda at the very start of the 1994 genocide. The play was peopled with a variety of characters including Rwandans on both sides of the conflict, British ex-pats, and American vacationers. The representation of an intense hatred between two groups manifested in mass murder was horribly disturbing, but disturbing in a different way was the stereotyped representation of the ignorant and culturally insensitive American tourists.

The Peace Corps has three main objectives in its mission: to meet the need for trained men and women in countries served, to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of people served, and to promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. While I certainly hope to share my skills with the Micronesians in my community, I know that I will learn as much or more from them as I have to teach. It is the cultural exchange and dissipation of stereotypes that draws me most to the Peace Corps. From all the discussions I have had with many of you about Micronesia, its geography, and its culture, I know I am already delving into these objectives and I look forward to sharing much more with you here in this forum.