PEACE CORPS IN THE 21 ST CENTURY: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

125everything I did. He slept at a noisy hostel in Nairobi, rode in uncomfortable passengervans all over Kenya, took bucket baths and even went to class to see me teach.” 224Inthese accounts, the volunteer emphasize their daily struggles, and view the visitor asdoing strange and uncomfortable things.Peace Corps volunteers are a well travelled group, both pre- and post- service.But during their service, they find ways to be quite mobile. As evidenced by the blogentries, volunteers travel throughout their country of service and into other countriesregularly while in service. As with travel to the United States, volunteers seem to havefinancial resources outside of their meagre salary. Tales of parents meeting theirvolunteer children for luxurious European vacations and backpacking trips over manycountries surface in these blogs. Volunteers seem to view their service as an opportunitynot only to work but also to travel freely. The Peace Corps grants two vacation days permonth of service and with volunteer work hours being less than full-time, they have theopportunity to travel. Lindsey left her volunteer life in Mali for a vacation, “I got back afew weeks ago from an absolutely wonderful cruise with my parents through theMediterranean. It was so fabulous and exactly what I needed to re-energize myself tocome back to Mali. I also spent a few days with my very good friend, James, inBarcelona- and that was just the icing on the already deliciously wonderful cake-of-avacation.”225And Amber writes, “It was awesome to see ma, pa, and bwad, to see moreof southern Africa, and to get a break from Peace Corps life. It was strange initially, togo from that life to a very nice vacation life” 226Post-vacation blogs generally include anappreciation for luxury and time away from volunteer life.