So, You Want to Join the Peace Corps: What to Know Before You Go - Softcover

DILLON BANERJEE served as an agro-forestry volunteer in the Peace Corps from 1994 to 1996 in Belo, Cameroon. He currently works for the US Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal.THE AUTHOR SCOOP

Read any good books lately? I was on a roll a while back with books like Blindness, Bel Canto, Life of Pi, Perfume, and The Road. I just started The Friends of the Earth by T.C. Boyle and am hopeful.What was the hardest thing about writing a book?Having it edited. After laboring for endless hours over the manuscript, my initial reaction to recommended changes was usually denial. Nothing could be changed because it was so obviously perfect. Between my wife and the top-notch editors at Ten Speed, however, I came to accept that too many cooks can’t spoil the broth when it comes to polishing a book manuscript.  Revisions usually translate to improvements.          What's the first concert you ever attended?Tenth grade, Siouxsie and the Banshees at Warner Theater in Washington, DC. I had my black jeans, black sneakers, and black concert-T on, but felt like a preppie as I watched grown men in ballroom gowns scaling the stage speakers and jumping into the crowd below.   Know any good jokes?My five-year-old son loves to tell this knock-knock joke:Knock knockWho’s there?Nobody.Nobody who?...(silence)...Don’t know why, but it still kind of cracks me up.What's the farthest you've ever traveled?My second assignment in the Foreign Service was to Moscow, Russia, where I served as a Commercial Officer at the Embassy for two years. About halfway through my tour, I was asked to lead a business delegation to the capital city in Siberia – Novosibirsk. Russia is an enormous country with 11 time zones; it’s shorter to fly from Moscow to Boston than Moscow to Vladivostok (in the far east). My flight to Novosibirsk carried me over vast expanses of nothingness, and when I landed, I spammed friends and family in the States with SMS’s just to tell them that I was in Siberia. In truth, Novosibirsk is a nice town with over a million people, replete with a metro system, opera house, cafes, university, and a huge manmade lake (the Ob Sea). Still, it felt way off the beaten path.

When Banerjee decided to join the Peace Corps, he looked for books that would tell him about the experience but found very little. So he decided, after returning from his stint in Cameroon, to write his own book. The result is this very interesting work, which tackles a variety of questions prospective Peace Corps applicants might have. Banerjee covers the steps in the application process; what to take along; the training process; returning home; drugs, sex, illness, and money; how to get mail sent to you; what happens if there is a government uprising; and what happens if someone gets pregnant or falls in love with a member of the local community. He also provides extensive information on what sorts of programs currently exist, what sort of experience they require, and what schools accept the Peace Corps experience toward a masters degree, among other things. This useful and very readable book will a find a home in career development centers and public libraries.
-Danna C. Bell-Russel, Lib. of Congress, Washington DC
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