Crossing Cultures: Stories of the Peace Corps Experience

Peace Corps volunteers experience adventure and challenge every day as they serve in communities around the world. They leave a legacy and a better understanding of the United States in their host countries, and they come back home as changed persons. As volunteers share their experiences back home, they change us as well, helping Americans better understand other cultures and peoples. In telling their stories, Peace Corps volunteers also convey the essence of community service. Not only are volunteers trained professionals, but they are also dedicated Americans who share a spirit of service and a commitment to making a difference in the lives of the people they serve. Peace Corps volunteers wrote the stories in this book to an audience of classroom students in the United States. The letters are intended to help U.S. students get to know and understand other cultures. Peace Corps volunteers agree to serve in order to meet the three goals of the agency: to provide assistance to the peoples of other countries, to help the people of other countries better understand Americans, and to help Americans better understand other peoples. This book helps fulfil the agency’s third goal through remarkable stories by volunteers in the field. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.