Pizza with Peace Corps

Kathmandu Pizza

Just came from a pizza dinner with a group of people who have been in and out of the Peace Corps for years, moving from country to country. Currently they are super busy setting up a new Peace Corps office in Kathmandu for the new crop of 20 volunteers coming in a few weeks. The office needs security, phones, A/C, and as far as I could tell there were only a few people to set this all up. The volunteers need immersion language training, so the Nepali tutoring staff is hired, some from years ago, some new. There has been no Peace Corps in Nepal in eight years because of Maoist unrest, so they have to start from scratch. The volunteers will be posted around Pokhara, but not where I was exactly, doing agriculture and helping secure food supplies for this country. They will live with families, as I did, and have one tutor for every four volunteers.

Popular Pizza Joint in Kathmandu

The Country Director is married to an African and has three beautiful children, who were present tonight. They were articulate, funny, sharp, and typical of American teens, sarcastic. But they also have a perspective that most American teens don't. For instance, the oldest boy, who will be in 11th grade next year, and has been in a boarding school in the States, complains that some U.S. kids are spoiled; when the mom bought the latest iPhone, the child complained it wasn't an iPhone 4S, that has Siri speak to you, but just the iPhone 4. These kids have perspective on the world that few American kids can get.

The group overall was well-traveled, literate, funny, and dedicated to helping other cultures. Quite impressive!