Why the Peace Corps?

I was introduced to the Peace Corps in 5th grade. At that time, the idea of traveling was all that I really cared about. I've always wanted to travel and if someone was going to pay me to travel, "oooh heck yahhh I've hit jack pot!"

It wasn't until many years down the road that I'd realized why I really wanted to be a  Peace Corps volunteer. To fully explain this I'll have to share a little of my background.

I was born in a refugee camp called Ban Vinai in Thailand. I have some memories here and there but life in the refugee camps, as you can imagine, was very different from my life today. The refugee camps had boundaries which  were fenced in with thin sheets of metal and barbed wires.  Families were in constant fear of Thai refugee camp officers and the food ration was barely enough . Children played outside in the dirt with anything they could find like grass, rocks, garbage and plastic rappers. One of my favorite was rubber bands. If you had collected enough rubber bands you could make a jump rope out of it, which was a popular game among the kids in the refugee camps.

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