Peace Corps Month

Peace Corps was founded on March 1^st 1961 by JFK. Think about it. March is the third month. If you subtract the date from it you get two. If you add that to 1961, you get 1963—the year Kennedy was assassinated! This has all been covered up in the larger cover up covering up the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was a disgruntled volunteer from Peace Corps France who left his post in Paris early because a local café refused to call their “French fries” freedom fries.

All that to say that March is National Peace Corps Month. Most volunteers celebrate by telling their friends back home about their host country. (Lee Harvey famously celebrated by burning a crepe in protest of all the people speaking French around him. There was a Youtube video of it, but it has long since been covered up.) We’re going to kick it up a notch. Below is a challenge of stuff you can do to make you feel like you are in Ethiopia. And there’s also a point system so you can compare yourself to your friends and even, just maybe, win a prize.

Maybe you’re feeling ascetic. Maybe you want to feel some solidarity with us. Or maybe you just want the prize. Whatever your reason, we hope you take part in our

Peace Corps Challenge!

For your ease, the challenges are listed in order of point value, least to highest (though some lower-point challenges include “For Advanced Players” opportunities):

Learn the greetings of a language that’s new to you for one week. And then greet people in that language. 5 points

For every day that you forego use of your personal vehicle, 5 points. Available options: hitching rides from others (spouses don’t count), bicycle, public transportation, “be igru” (by foot). Maximum 35 points (7 days) allowed.

Take a cold bath or shower. It’s March, you say. Okay, try it once the temps reach 50F. That was the approximate temperature of Sagure when we had to bathe cold. 10 points; for every 10 degree temperature drop below 50F, 1 point added. (Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Luttrull are not responsible for any illness incurred.)

Specialty vegetables are out! Spend one week with your only veggie options being carrots, tomatoes, onions, and potatoes—unless they come from your own garden. Think of it as opportunity to get creative. 10 points

No internet for one week. 10 points

As seen on TV: Get your own today! Try an Ethiopian Orthodox fast! For 2 weeks, be a vegan every Wednesday and Friday. No animal products whatsoever. (4 fast days total.) 10 points

Go at least three days without bathing. This must be the minimum, as it’s pretty normal and easy-peasy for us. If you want to beat our record of 11 days, we’ll be deeply impressed. And President Obama may even send you a Christmas card. (Washing of face and feet are allowed.) 10 points for 3 days; an additional 5 points for each day added. If you go the 11 days, 100 points.

Spend an entire evening after dark (minimum 5 hours) without electricity. Flashlights are allowed, but it and you are both cooler if you use candles. 15 points

For one week, you are allowed only 3 outfits. Creative rotation, my friends. We’re thinking of our Ethiopian friends and neighbors in this one. Pretend you don’t have closets full of options. 15 points

For every day that you live on a maximum of $3.50 USD per day, we’ll give you 15 points. Note that food already purchased beforehand that you consume on said day does not count against you. To make it easy, we’re just talking what you tangibly spend in one day. Maximum 3 days allowed. This particular challenge is only applicable to persons not living with their parents.

Wash an entire load of laundry by hand. (For extra points, dry them on a line in your yard). 20 points for wash; additional 5 points for dry

No television, other than the Spanish channel, for one week. 20 points

No canned foods, meat, or cheese for one week. 20 points

Use neither your oven (stove top is okay) nor your dishwasher for one week. 20 points

For one week, you can’t reap the benefits of your refrigerator (or freezer). You may indeed still fill it with groceries, if need be. But under no conditions can you eat or drink anything from its contents. (Again, we’re not asking you to turn it off. Just count it as useless furniture for 7 days.) Some tips: store foods/leftovers in a pot on a cold floor. If you want carrots or celery, keep them soaked in water to stay firm. 30 points

How would your daily life change if your water were shut off for 3 days? We’ve personally only gone 2 days. But our friend Rashad lives in a town called Wukro a few hours south of us in Tigray, and having no water is a pretty common occurrence. Ally, Thor, and Forrest in Abi Adi may have to go months without water (it’s been weeks, thus far), since the town’s new construction project has dug up all the water pipes. So how about this: For every day that you don’t use your indoor tap (no sinks, no washing machines, no shower/bath faucets) 40 points. This means collecting water in buckets/cans from your outdoor faucet, or other means. Fine, we’ll give you toilets, though know it’s a stretch. (Maximum 3 days allowed).

The Prize!

Half a pound of your choice: Ethiopian roasted coffee beans, shuro powder (a mixture of ground chickpeas and red pepper; just add water, and it's a bean paste), or mitmita (a very spicy spice blend).

Some of you may already be participating in Lenten fasts, and hence, you may start with a given 20 points if you’ve given up TV. You’re welcome. You should probably know that the above challenges don’t tend to be the “make or break it” points for the volunteers who go home early. We’ve lost 9 volunteers so far, and giving up amenities doesn’t seem to be what drives them to the airport for their return flight home; they knew they could handle these things coming in. The application process takes between 1-2 years (3 in an extreme case we know of). We sell our cars, pack up all our belongings, say our goodbyes, and pay our debts. (Let’s dispel the belief right now that Peace Corps pays off your college loans. It’s a myth.) After all these preparations, hard work, and gruesome waiting, it would have to be something major to make them give it all up.

The two main heartaches seem to be missing family and friends, and being harassed. But we realize that 1). We can’t separate you from all your loved ones and place you on an island alone for this challenge, and 2). We can’t hire people to follow you around, calling you by your skin color, calling you Money, grabbing your derrieres or breasts, catcalling, “flashing” you, cussing at you in English for the sake of practice, or speaking mock-Mandarin and mock-English at you for jokes. And there won’t be any adults feeding children offensive sexual lines in English to proposition you.

As you might guess, the points were decided upon our own educated judgment of difficulty, keeping other Peace Corps volunteers’ opinions in mind as well. For instance, our friend Tyler from Chena may say, “What? You’re letting them get tomatoes? Only vegetables that grow underground!” Many of our friends in remote towns may say, “Internet once a week would be beautiful.” Joel in Axum would call us crazy for giving you three whole outfits. And again, bathing every 3 days just makes sense—even in the dirtiest, dustiest town we’ll ever live in. What can we say? Peace Corps changes you. Are you up for the challenge?

Tally your points via the well-loved Honor System and get them into us by 11:59 PM your time April 8^th.

We not only want to know your tallied score by email (danielle.luttrull@gmail.com), but we want to know your story. Was it horrible? Do you hate us now? Or was it the easiest thing you’ve ever done and even came naturally (or were you already doing these things)? If it’s the latter two, we’ll send your Peace Corps application in the mail.

Also, we need not know the participants/winner. Tell your friends!

Here’s a Peace Corps-volunteer-original video for your enjoyment, disgust, and inspiration.