In our last post, we offered retirees a list of things they can do. This list included volunteering at a school, joining a choir and taking a cooking class. We also mentioned joining the Peace Corps. While taking a cooking class or joining a choir would certainly be fun and rewarding, joining the Peace Corps might very well change your life.
If you really want to make a difference and enjoy the adventure of a lifetime, you should seriously consider the Peace Corps. New York Medicaid Consulting, your Medicaid planning service, offers several reasons why you should join the Peace Corps after you retire.
It’s Easier Than Ever to Join
In years past, prospective volunteers for the Peace Corps had to fill out long and complicated forms and then wait for a long time, sometimes up to a year, to see whether or not they have been accepted. You wouldn’t even know where you will be sent for much of the time either.
But all of that has changed. The Peace Corps now accepts online forms that can be completed in under an hour and you can choose the country in which you would like to volunteer. Of course, there are never any guarantees you will be sent there, but at least you have a say in the matter. You will hear back whether or not you have been accepted in less than a year.
Live a Different Culture
When you volunteer for the Peace Corps and travel to another country to work, you don’t just step back and observe their culture, you are totally immersed in their culture. Volunteering in another country for the Peace Corps doesn’t mean staying at the local Holiday Inn, renting a car from Hertz and eating at the finest five-star establishments during your stay. You will in all likelihood be living with a host family, sitting with them at dinner enjoying what they eat and being exposed to their everyday lives, for up to two years.
You will experience the country you now live in ways that are unheard of when traveling as a tourist. You will experience the highs and the lows of these people living with them every day.
Learn a New Language
While you may not have taken a single class of Hindi, after two years abroad in India, you may leave knowing their language. Full immersion in a country means you will need to pick up on their language. To prepare you for your trip, Peace Corps volunteers receive intensive language instruction to help in your volunteer duties.
Push Your Comfort Zone
As a Peace Corps volunteer, You will be living in an underdeveloped country for an extended period of time. Much of what you take for granted living here in the United States won’t exist where you are going. In the beginning, it might be rather exciting, like a camping trip in the deep forest in a tent. But then it hits you that this is how you must live for the next two years and you will have to make some adjustments.
But once you accept reality, you settle down and learn to enjoy it. You may actually like living in a hut on the side of a mountain without any internet or cell phone service. In time, you will feel liberated by your new surroundings and will be grateful for the experience.
Face Your Fears
Perhaps you hate big bugs, spiders in particular, and literally scream when spotting a small one on the ceiling at home. With your luck, you will wind up in a place where the bugs are huge, especially the spiders. Sure, at first you will be horrified when a spider the size of a baseball hops out of the jeans you had drying on the clothesline outside, but these are things you will eventually get over.
When your volunteer work is done and you head back home, that small spider you see on the ceiling will only cause you to laugh.
Build Relationships
There is no doubt about it, when you spend that much time with a family, you are sure to build some pretty solid relationships. The friends you make while volunteering for the Peace Corps are sure to last a lifetime.
Before you head out on your Peace Corps adventure, make an appointment with New York Medicaid Consulting to see what we can do for you.
