The Peace Corps Changed My Life

In the middle of the night, almost every night, I awake from my slumber in a stupor. Half awake and half asleep, I stumble into my kitchen and blindly reach into my fridge for a bottle of water. To my brain, it is all I can comprehend in my trance, to my throat it is sweet relief, and to 663 million people; a cold and clean bottle of water would be a gift from God. Before I dedicate the rest of my essay to the 663 million people who live without safe water, I need to address my own personal conviction in writing this essay. Throughout my life, I have always considered myself a caring person. Someone who would answer a friend or even a stranger’s distress so long as I could actually make a difference. However, in my last year of high school
As I applied to Truman University this year, I had submitted my application with the information providing I wanted to study music education. However, I now have contacted the school and told them, I instead want to double major in music and agricultural sciences. “Why would you do such a thing?” has been the mass response to my big decision, but upon discovering the volunteer opportunities in the Peace Corps; I was one hundred percent ready to change the path of my life. The Peace Corps is volunteer based, government organization dedicated to the improvement and strengthening of developing countries. One area of specialization in the Peace Corps is environmental, in which I plan to apply to after I graduate from
In a collaborative visual and written article by Andrea K. Gerlak and Margaret Wilder who are affiliated with the UN Millennium Project they specifically talk about how certain groups suffer more than others. In most developing countries, the women and children are often victims to the diseases in the water supply quicker than men are. For assumptions sake, it could be because children have weaker and less developed immune systems and some may even argue this for women however this article brings a different perspective. Gerlak and Margaret say on page 5 and 6, “Often women and children are hit the hardest. Among children, 1.4 million die each year as a result of diarrhea, primarily targeting very young children under 5 years of age. Women and girls are responsible in many parts of the developing world for collecting water from distant water sources, and while this activity plays an important role in women’s social lives, studies have shown girls’ educational attainment is curtailed due to this responsibility.” As women and children face the responsibility of fetching the water supply for their family, they are around this contaminated water more than anyone else. Because of cultural standards within developing countries this another obstacle