Goodbye to the Peace Corps and Goodbye to Hawaii

      Along with our Filipino instructors, there were a handful of ex-Peace Corps volunteers who were teaching us.  The two who I respected most, told me that the Peace Corps should be out of the Philippines; it had already done most of what it could do for the people in real need. However, the Peace Corps still remained there, as a sweetener, to balance all of the US military base expansion because of the Vietnam War.   Hearing that didn’t do much for my motivation and certainly didn’t encourage me to stay in the Peace Corps, since I was already having my doubts due to my difficulties in learning and trying to understand and speak Tagalog.

    In the middle of September, our Peace Corps training was coming to an end, and I figured I should just stick it out until it finished, before deciding my future.  Fortunately, the Peace Corps was set up in such a way that at the end of the training, the volunteers had to make the choice to either to go “in country” or not.  There was no shame in choosing the “not” option, as the Peace Corps would rather see you quit, if you were having doubts, rather than have you go into country and then quit.

    At the end of training, I made the choice to bale.  It was hard to say good-bye to Charlene and all of the other volunteers and staff who I had gotten so close to, during my month and a half in Hawaii.  My decision left my future blank.  I hated to leave Hawaii, but the Peace Corps gave me a ticket back to Indiana, and I had no money, so that is where I headed.

    I knew that leaving the Peace Corps would end the deferment I had received from the Selective Service System for being in the Peace Corps.  With no deferment, I knew they would try to draft me into the military.  That was a fight I knew would come, and I decided that once I was back in Evansville, I would take a more active role in pushing for an end to the terrible slaughter taking place in Vietnam.

    With a duffle bag draped over my shoulder and only a dime in my pocket (I needed to save it so I could use a pay phone to call my parents once I had arrived at the Evansville airport).  I boarded the plane, sadly said goodbye to Hawaii as I flew over it, and returned home to the corn fields of Indiana.

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