Ross Szabo

Veterans and current soldiers are often honored for serving their country on the front lines of wars, conflicts and truly unimaginable experiences. On Memorial Day it's common to see images of soldiers in uniform, giving thanks from military bases all over the world or retired veterans marching in hometowns with...

Peace Corps Volunteers are known for their ability to adapt, succeed in spite of difficult odds and learn about themselves in the process. GLBTQ Peace Corps Volunteers definitely possess all of these traits and so many more as they serve in countries where being gay or lesbian is illegal.

Balancing...

When family and friends say goodbye to someone joining the Peace Corps they expect him or her to return in two years or longer with a lot of stories, maybe some interesting clothes, a plethora of pictures and perhaps a different view on life. It's natural to assume a Peace...

The Peace Corps Experience; Perception vs. Reality

When I was applying to the Peace Corps, I saw their ads and wondered if the stories were real. Promotional materials seem to capture the perceived stereotypical experiences of Peace Corps Volunteers. There are images of one volunteer surrounded by 40 smiling children,...

Volunteering in a foreign country can be a life altering experience. That feeling of going somewhere different, helping people and attempting to make a change provides a sense of purpose. It's you against whatever plague you're fighting. You're not sitting and watching it on TV. You got on a plane...

Getting to spend time with the highest-ranking American official in any country doesn't seem like a strong possibility to most people, but that's not the case in Botswana. U.S. Ambassador Michelle Gavin thoroughly enjoys leaving the Embassy to travel to villages and towns across the country.

She feels her...

There are a lot of ways to donate money this holiday season. However, there are very few opportunities for donations to go directly to a project in a developing country without any middleman or bureaucracy. Let me introduce you to the Peace Corps Partnership Project (PCPP).

The...

From the first day I entered Botswana as a Peace Corps Volunteer, the words "behavior change" have become ingrained in almost everything I do. Changing behavior is at the forefront of finding the best ways to deal with the scourge that has plagued the country with the second highest prevalence...

The holiday season can conjure up some of our happiest memories. In true commercial fashion most of us can smell the turkey in the oven. Hear the crisp crinkle of wrapping paper. Envision the smiles on our friends' and families' faces and dream about the deep sleep that comes after...

What does an American look like? America is home to a beautiful array of different races and ethnicities. On most city streets it's common to look around and see a plethora of people representing every region of the world. Ancestors who came to America at different times over the last...

Starting a new job includes a whole host of adjustments. The change that can bring the most questions for anyone is meeting co-workers. Who do you like? Who works hard? Who doesn't work at all? Who can you hang out with after work?

These kinds of questions can be enhanced...

When I first met other Peace Corps volunteers who had been in Botswana for over a year, every single one of them told me to just wait until the one-year mark and I would be so busy I wouldn't know what to do.

I can be pretty cynical at...

Believe it or not it's hard to escape the giant Congressional budget fights even when serving in the Peace Corps in Botswana. The debates are big news everywhere. Most of the people I work with have asked me questions about what is happening and how our government works. During one...

The concept of altruism has always had a natural fascination, from the earliest philosophers pondering why people help others to recent commercials (maybe not recent, I've been in Africa for a while) playing off the theme of paying it forward. Volunteering in the Peace Corps and seeing the work myself...

This past December, our friends Amber Tamblyn and David Cross, visited my wife and I at our Peace Corps post in Botswana. We anxiously waited for them at the tiny Maun International Airport. After 24 hours of travel they looked relieved to finally be on African soil. They were only...

I am a big fan of the saying, "No matter where you go, there you are." I have found it to be true personally, as well as in those around me. Peace Corps reminds me of this adage frequently. The experience of moving to another country to volunteer has a...

In 1961 John F. Kennedy said,

"Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of...

A lot of people have a vision of what "the Peace Corps experience" is. It usually involves some combination of living with no running water/electricity, an outhouse, maybe a mud hut, hand-washing clothes, cooking over open fires and definitely eating local foods. The jobs envisioned are building classrooms, digging a...

Meeting new people is part of the fun of being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana. When I first arrived I lived in a village for 2 months to start learning the language and culture; I stayed with a host family and met someone new almost every day. Then I...

On my last day in America, I stood in my parents' kitchen, hugging my dad as he cried and said to me, "I tried to think about the positives of the people you could help, but it didn't work. I'm going to miss you." One of the hardest parts of...