I remember applying for the Peace Corps...

It was over a year and a half ago that I deceided I would apply to the Peace Corps. It was a decision based on my desire to live outside of the US for some time. There were many advantages of the Peace Corps, such as a good training program (or at least they claim) espenses paid, contacts upon arriving, and incentives upon completion of the two year stint. They would include a bonus, pay a severange of several thousand dollars, but aside from these financial benefits there were looming disadvantages as well. First of all, not being able to have much of a say where on earth I would end up. Tanzania is much different from Bolivia, there was no guerentee that I would´ve been able to land a job in a Spanish speaking country. The biggest disadvantage though, was the connection to the US governement, and utimitaly to the Defense Department, even if only in people´s mind. There are many reasons to distrust anything with a US government label these days, and having already spent three years in the heart of this military machine, I wasn´t too sure that I wanted anything that remotely was related. But of course, the Peace Corps is seperate from the military, and each situation depends on those involved. Well, this is the case now, but according to an article in the Washington Post, there is a plan on the table to incorporate military service with Peace Corps service. The move has alarmed many within the Peace Corps, and who can blame them. The idea of going from patroling the streets of Baghdad with a loaded M-16, then moving this person to a situation where they are working on a community project with locals sounds like a collision of two very different worlds. It would also make it hard for countries receiving help through the Peace Corps to rest assured that there is no other agenda at work within their borders. Altogether, sounds like a very bad move to me. My Peace Corps appication faltered at the first interview when I was told that everthing which I had applied for, well, I just wasn´t qulified for it. Teaching English on my own accord as a private citizen sounded much better, and I can say for sure now after reading about these new plans, that I indeed made the right choice.