Happy 53rd Birthday, Peace Corps! The Peace Corps Challenge is Back Again!

 Last year we challenged you (with the enticement of prizes) to put yourself in the dusty shoes of a Peace Corps volunteer for a week. In your efforts to live ascetically, to live without some of the non-necessities that most of us naively believe to be necessities, we hoped you might experience both the joys and difficulties of what so many of your fellow Americans experience for two years of their lives. Solidarity and education at their finest.

Peace Corps was founded on March 1, 1961 by President Kennedy. Since then, 215,000 American volunteers (of all ages) have served in 139 countries, in order to offer skilled labor at no cost to developing nations, to give the rest of the world a better, more honest view of Americans, and to give Americans a better, more honest view of the people and countries we serve.

Last year, two of our favorite people on the planet, Mr. and Mrs. Cameron and Wendy Moore, blew everyone away with their Peace Corps Challenge skills. Even with a newborn, they managed to accumulate 75 points of sacrifices. So unless you have a newborn (and apparently, even if you do), you have no excuse for not competing. And you have more than a month to rack up your points!

For their prize, they chose unroasted coffee beans, which we mailed to their home. Here’s Cameron roasting the beans:

(See this year’s prize information at the bottom of the post.)

What’s new and different about this year’s competition? Glad you asked. We’ve teamed up with three other Peace Corps volunteers in our area: Todd Paynich, Christine Homan, and Lauren Troxtel—to include the opportunity to “Educate Yourself!” Every day this week we will upload an educational post pertaining to Ethiopia. Whether it’s a lesson on people with disabilities living in Ethiopia, or how to donate in an informed, wise manner so as to do more good than harm, we want you to learn about it! Look out for these daily posts; each one you read will give you 15 extra points.

And so. Below is our second-annual challenge of stuff you can do to make you feel like you are in Ethiopia. As mentioned, there’s 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 an opportunity to get creative. 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 two full hours in which you only drink coffee and talk with someone. 10 points

Read our daily Educate Yourself! posts, and hopefully, ponder them. Honor system, folks! We will post 5 entries from different volunteers, Monday-Friday. 15 points for each post you read.

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. (Please monitor candles responsibly.) 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 internet for one week. Don't let this stop you from reading our daily posts this week! You have one month to participate in this competition; so do the no-internet challenge a different week this month. 20 points

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

No canned foods, no meat, and no 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 condition 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 (thank God for Adwa’s water reservoir). But our friend Rashad lived in a town called Wukro a few hours south of us in Tigray, and having no water was a pretty common occurrence. Erin, one of our volunteers, goes 4-5 weeks at a time without water. 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!

The choice is yours: roasted ground Ethiopian coffee (it’s divine—Tomoca, the best brand in country, in our opinion); shiro powder (a mixture of ground chickpeas and red pepper; just add water, and it's a tasty bean paste meal); or berbere (the single thing we may miss most about Ethiopia: a delicious, spicy spice blend. If you choose berbere, we’ll include some of our favorite recipes.)

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 around 15 volunteers from our group 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 daily because we’re different. 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 with. Neither would we wish that on you. But, take what you can get, and imagine all these things alongside the tangible physical sacrifices. Only then will it become easier to understand why some Peace Corps volunteers ET(early terminate)-go-home.

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 Mizan 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 Hagerey Selam 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 Sunday, April 6^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, and you need not know us. Tell your friends!

Here’s a Peace Corps-volunteer-original video for your enjoyment, disgust, and inspiration: you're gonna poop in a hole.