Geer Wilcox talks on the dissatisfaction felt by fellow Peace Corps Volunteers.

Geer Wilcox talks on the dissatisfaction felt by fellow Peace Corps Volunteers.

Geer Wilcox

Peace Corps Community Archive, Geer Wilcox collection, reel 21, side a, clip.

1964

Peace Corps Volunteer job satisfaction.

Digital.

Owned by American University Library Archives and Special Collections.

Geer Wilcox, audio clip, "dissatisfaction."

American University Archives and Special Collections

24 January 2019

Peace Corps Community Archives

Audio recording.

MP3

Well, I do, at least, have something to do at any time, or all times. And this is a lot more than many of my volunteer friends have. They find themselves being bored. Many of them do a lot of reading, which I envy them; I'm not reading much, myself. And many of them just do nothing, almost. On the other hand, so much of the work is wrapped up in getting to know the people around you. And getting to know the people around you is not as easy as it sounds. First of all, you have the language barrier. And even though you can learn the language fairly well, there're all kinds of innuendos that you don't get. There are all kinds of attitudes that don't come through and the shades aren't there. And most of the people with whom we're dealing are not educated people, and hence aren't really the kind of people you can carry on a deep conversation with. And you find that your relationships to people, although friendly, is not very profound. This, too, adds to the frustration which you would normally take for outlets for not being able to accomplish what you want to accomplish in terms of having discussions with friends. You don't have too many native friends that you can really talk with about the situation. You can always get with the other Peace Corps Volunteers and discuss with them and so forth, but that, too, has a limited satisfaction.

reel-to-reel recording

2:11