i borrowed this one along time ago from an RPCV from a long time ago. He lives in New orleans and we've met a few times. he's agreed to talk with me about his time served soon.
he lent me two books, actually. the other was Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. He served in Ecuador before he became this hitman (true story) and tells little of his time there, so i put it down for now.
and i was surprised to find, in Mueller's work of fiction, lots of truth about PC. Here are the quotes i wanted to hold on to:
"I could tell immediately that you were Peace Corps. You are neither tourist nor native. You are Peace Corps!" (28) - the crafty padre Baez says this to the protaganist, Annie, when they meet
"My nerves were so frayed and my beliefs so shattered that it took all my energy to get through the most minor encounter." (41) - Annie, on her second year in country
"What happened to me? That was the question i asked myself all the time. Kai said it was criminal of my government to send us down there, twenty-year-olds without training into a foreign culture to do the work even experts could expect to fail at." (41) - Annie, reflecting on her german-born husband Kai's thoughts on PC
"My father beleived in circles because 'no one's better than anyone else in a circle...'" (42)
"I wasn't like the majority of volunteers, i kept telling myself, novices, from privileged backgrounds, with their liberal arts educations, who were either overwhelmed after a few months and left their neighborhoods to become English teachers of middle class boys and girls, or retreated deeply into their neoghborhoods and settled into a pattern of drinking and smoking dope, sleeping through the day, and locking themselves off from their communities." (42)
"My president had asked me to serve my country, not to take it for granted.
Then shortly after we;d arrived in country, he'd been killed. We had walked through Quito still stunned by the events...Jon's President Nixon could never elicit such passion from either PCVs or the people of this country." (129-30) - and we felt the same about Bushie
"I believe that no matter what you people see you forget it when ou arrive at your home. Is that so?" (134) - indeginous Mingo, on US visitors to the amazon
"'Why did i come? why do i stay?'...
'What i answer is, i dont think you norte americanos know. i think in your gringo naivete you have faith but no knowledge." (142) - MIngo, on gringo help. he nailed me there.
"'You'll send me somthing from america to remember you by?' maria said.
How i once hated that question! when i felt as though my total value was determined by what i could send from america." (308)
