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August 14, 2002
Pride, PCVs in Russia
You go, gurlitchka.. Apparently there is some resistance to the Peace Corps program in Russia:
"It's one thing to send them to Africa where they need to teach at schools there. It's another thing to send them to Russia where we have special programs. We have to educate them about our teaching methods."
That's sort of the problem with Peace Corps...they don't put much focus on how their tested methods from Central America or Africa may work in new International arenas. The Peace Corps headquarters had no clue about Kazakstan when I was a volunteer, reflected by the meager allowance we recieved that did not account for the need to purchase Siberian winter-resistant clothing, and formal at that, as these former Soviets did not run around in loincloths.
The Russian government is justified in questioning the qualifications of volunteers sent to their country. They were a former 1st world country with a collapsed infrastructure. They do have some systems remaining in place, however, and that includes a pedagogical approach to teaching. Peace Corps can be rather unctuous at times.
Posted by jimbo at August 14, 2002 1:51 PM
Comments
Reason to love Jimbo #246: He can use "pedagogical" and "unctuous" in a sentence and not sound pretentious.
Posted by: Chris at August 14, 2002 6:53 PM
I totally agree with you about PC. Their policies are inflexible, their future plans ill-advised, and their volunteers can be a bit dodgy. We had one guy who slithered his way into Uzbekistan with the open intention of finding a mail order bride. Creepy.
glenn
Posted by: Glenn at August 15, 2002 10:01 PM
Eeew! We had one of those too...he was just shy of being a pedophile.
Posted by: jimbo at August 16, 2002 10:31 AM