Blog post 2 in country

Blog Post #2

James Hickling

6/26/17

            After spending 3 weeks in Zambia, I feel as though I have seen service in action. Living 4 days in Chainda with our Peace Corps volunteer Sunni, I have seen how someone can completely dedicate themselves to a cause at the cost of great personal sacrifice. True, honest sacrifice is something that is extremely rare, and I feel that it defines service.

            Sunni has chosen to give up all the amenities of the western world such as plumbing, electricity, wifi, and a thousand other small comforts, to teach AIDS advocacy and education in her Zambian community. The commitment that peace corps volunteers make is not for the faint of heart, as one lives as the locals do, for a total of two years. It is one thing to visit a country, take pictures, and leave, and another to completely immerse one’s self in the language and culture for an extended period.

            Although I feel as though I am taking part in service to a certain degree, my own work pales in comparison to that of Sunni. What we are doing is theoretically called “Service-Learning,” but I feel as though there is more learning than service. True, I am working on a research paper in the area of HIV and AIDS with the goal to shed more light on ineffective government policy, but it is unclear if this paper will make any distinct contribution to the public health movement in this country.

            What Sunni does on a day to day basis is far more in depth, interacting with individuals with HIV every day, teaching them about their disease, its transmission and prevention. She is on the ground, making a real tangible difference every day.

            I truly hope that my contribution to this country will be a positive one, and that my research will yield fruits for my research organization and, hopefully, the HIV AIDS community in Zambia, and I will work hard to that end. At the bare minimum, I hope to make a positive impact on the Zambians that I meet, representing my school, country, and family well in the international community.

            I would love to write that everyone who takes part in service is motivated by a pure, selfless desire to improve the living conditions of others with no personal benefit to themselves, but that would not be telling the truth. Although many are selfless and sacrifice much for service, including myself, the vast majority do so to some end that is not entirely selfless. This experience in Zambia is something that I am proud of and excited about, and I did it, among other reasons, to explore whether I was interested in a career in public health and/or medicine, as well as to gain experience in this field for future opportunities. Even Sunni told me of her ambitions and how peace corps field experience is a huge asset in getting a job in the public health field. To that end, perhaps my own service and the service of others is not entirely purely selfless and romantic, but nonetheless it seeks to achieve a positive impact on the community here, and that is really all that one can ask.