The Peace Corps was created by the U.S. to bring help to countries less fortunate. Clearly it has done that to many people all over the world. For example, I have a friend who brought Tilapia farming to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica almost 30 years ago. On the other side, the volunteers learn about other cultures, other places and other people and bring that knowledge back with them. Or, in the case of my friend, what she found in Costa Rica inspired her to stay.

Other than a bit of face-to-face time talking to a Peace Corps volunteer working near Condega, Nicaragua a couple of years ago, I have no direct input about today's Peace Corps but what I am hearing from others sounds like a possible problem. The way one person put it, today's Peace Corps is more like well-off white foreigners bringing what they think is needed to the third world. Or, put in a friendlier way, Peace Corps volunteers are bringing what they think is needed to the third world but not bringing back/recycling the knowledge they gain.

I confess that I am a techno-geek but, after almost seven years in Central America with zero trips back to the U.S., I have learned a lot. I have certainly brought useful knowledge to the locals here but I have also learned from the locals. The fact that I see families of happy people living on close to nothing is one clue that they have a skill that I don't. How much are we talking about? For families living on their own land, $100/mo would be on the high end. Even living in the city, $100/person/month can offer decent living conditions.

Money

How does a family live on $100/mo? Let's toss out some numbers.

• Food: You grow it. Where I live, about the only thing that people eat that they don't grow is rice. But, it is produced nearby and selling some of your beans, corn or cattle can buy all the rice you need. As there is no freezing weather, you have year-round growing seasons. That means two or three crops of beans and corn a year, and different kinds of fresh fruit year round. Additional crops include tomatoes, chiltoma (similar to a bell pepper but smaller), potatoes, cabbage, squash, cassava, taro and, well, just about anything you want. Chickens provide eggs and meat. Milk from cows is used to make cuajada, a home-made fresh cheese. Also, those animals provide fertilizer.
• Clothing. While there are many fabric stores and some people make clothing, the most common source of clothing are second-hand stores. Much of their stock comes from the "overflow" of US-based thrift stores. Some US-based charities don't even bother to run a thrift store anymore--they just collect, package and ship to countries such as Nicaragua.
• Education and health care are government-supplied. There are incidental costs in both but, once again, selling a bit of extra food buys school supplies.
• Cooking with wood is the norm. Trimmings can supply all the wood you need.
• Many, possibly most, rural houses don't have electricity.. While candles, flashlights and kerosene lamps may be used to "extend the day" in some cases, the most common approach is to just go to bed. While darkness is longer than most need for sleep, people get up when it starts to get light in order to fully utilize the "free light".

Skills

Clearly there is more to living on so little money than growing your food and wearing used clothes. A lot of that comes from the skills people have. Here are some of those skills.

• Cutting down a tree with a machete.
• Building a house with not much more than a hammer, a ball of string and a machete.
• Butchering animals for meat and making cuajada from milk.
• For folks with electricity, knowing how to weld.
• Recycling.

One other thing to realize is that unlike U.S. city life, you know your neighbors. If, for example, you have never built a house, you go talk to your neighbor who has. He helps you build your house knowing that, in return, he will have someone new to help him when he needs to do an addition. You acquire the needed skills.

Where You Can Help

• Burning plastic. The plastic bag is everywhere. I am sure in what "our" influence that brought it to Nicaragua. Unfortunately, local creativity turned it into lots of good things but, unfortunately, one very bad thing: a fire starter. Addressing the dangers of toxic fumes is one thing but finding an alternative is the best contribution you can make. In the pre-plastic bag era, how did people start fires?
• Introduce people to alternative technology that makes sense in the third world. For example, efficient LED lights. In fact, a handful of LED bulbs for flashlights could immediately make a significant dent in battery usage.
• Water issues. Water pollution is an issue as in re-use of water. Figure out what works locally to address these issues.

In general terms, when looking for changes to improve local conditions that are sustainable. Adding a water filter that requires a monthly cartridge replacement, for example, isn't sustainable. Adding a sand filter that needs to be washed out once a month is.

What You Should Bring Back

No matter what you brought to the local people, what you bring back to the U.S. may be the most important part of your work. If you joined the Peace Corps because you knew what you could do to help these "backward" people, the first thing you need to bring back is personal enlightenment. The first piece of that change should be realizing that per capita income is not a good way to measure happiness.

Put another way, The way the average person lives in the US is not sustainable. The resources of the planet are not infinite and every time you increase the resource consumption level of someone, you move us further away from sustainability.. You certainly can improve people's lives but if environmental cost is a big consideration, you can probably bring back ways to sustain the standard of living in the U.S. at a lower environmental cost.

Here are some things to think about.

• What does recycling really mean? There is a big difference between "I separate my trash the way the government program requires" and thinking about not buying things you don't need, reuse of things you bought and generally building the best program for yourself.
• Does buying packages of hybrid seeds make any sense over saving your seed?
• Does a room need bright, uniform light so one person can read a book?
• The environmental costs of "all driving to the club" vs. getting together with the neighbors.