What I Took with Me; What I Brought Back

Students will compare items you packed to bring to your host country at the start of service with the items you brought back from your host country after completing service, and discuss the idea of change.

The items a Peace Corps Volunteer brings with them for service overseas are typically not the same items the Volunteer decides to bring back when they leave their host country. The items change. Volunteers also undergo many internal changes, some subtle and some significant, as they live through countless new experiences in a different culture and country.

This lesson plan for 6th to 8th grade students starts by examining very concrete changes, comparing the items packed by a Volunteer before and at the completion of service, and leads into a discussion of change as a more complex idea.

Objectives

After completing this activity, students should be able to:

• Provide examples of how experiencing new places, situations, or cultures can change an individual.
• Explain how challenges can impact people in positive ways.

Procedures

1. Prepare two backpacks, each containing 5 to 6 objects. The first backpack could contain objects representing your preparations for living in your host country (language dictionary, map, pictures of family/home). The second should contain objects representing what you brought back or learned from your experience (cultural expressions/artwork, a picture of a project site, a book you read in a new language, etc.)
2. Discuss how life in the Peace Corps changed your perspective. What were some unexpected challenges you faced? How did your expectations differ from reality in your host country? How can challenges impact people in positive ways?

Extension

• Ask students to consider times when they have been in new places, situations, or cultures and how they had to meet challenges and adapt.