Unofficial Peace Corps Volunteer Handbook Paperback – January 1, 2010

This wasn't super helpful for me during my service. In fact, I didn't really use it at all. They give you so many materials when you get there that using this feels unnecessary. I'm sure it had helpful bits, but for me I just learned as I went and didn't feel like this was very helpful in that process.

This is pretty great to have through your service. Though I do suggest you devote time to reading and writing in it. I kind of forgot about it after a year in the Peace Corps and when I came back to it, it felt a little under used.

I have just recently decided to go for Peace Corps and bought this book to prepare for the interview process. It offers a couple of pages of questions you should ask, some of which I hadn't thought to ask before. It also goes further and tells you what to expect after the interview and, if your lucky, what happens when you serve abroad. I wont know until I have actually finished surving my full two years whether the book gives an acurate description of the job ahead but, as it says, each experience is different and can never match anything else you will do.

Gave this as a gift to a friend joining Peace Corps, and immediately received positive feedback. Includes many answers to those persistent questions we have as we try to imagine life in Peace Corps.

Hellstrom's guide is of the mystical genre, much like Zen In the Art of Archery, for this is a book about acceptance. Unlike recent guides which outline application, training, service and homecoming, this book offers very few lists. It offers comfort. "The happiest Peace Corps Volunteers are the ones who make peace," explains the author.Be forewarned that if you are concerned about our voracious appetite for paper and the disappearance of forests, the format might disturb you: it contains 97 blank pages (more than one third of the book). The blank pages are for volunteers to write on. Of the pages with print, many contain less than 20 lines like a poetry book. I imagine that the author's intent is akin to poetry-to recreate an essence rather than an x-ray.Organized in a similar manner to other recent guides, it explores the mysterious selection, arduous training, work as a stranger in a strange land and readapting to the homeland. However, treatment of these topics has little to do with nuts and bolts but a state of mind "created to act as a companion on your adventure." No outline. Just a series of epiphanies for the author wrote this book while serving as a volunteer in Mongolia and the cultural osmosis is apparent. The ger (home) of this book is a wandering spirit liberated from neurotic cravings. "Be patient, be flexible and have as few expectations as possible," counsels Hellstrom.For the prospective volunteer eyeing travel posters, the first 72 pages of this book will be enlightening. Aside from sound advice about research, it includes detailed suggestions about application and interview. This may be the most authoritative source on the subject.The tone and mood of the book are heavily influenced by Tibetan Buddhism. The words "patience" and "flexible" are repeated. The plain white cover bespeaks a book devoid of commercial influences and reading it reminded me of how Peace Corps guide books have changed. The early ones like The Complete Peace Corps Guide (Hoopes, 1961) and What Does a Peace Corps Volunteer Do? (Lavine, 1964) were almost heroic Nordic sagas which explained almost nothing. More recent ones (The Insider's Guide to the Peace Corps: What to Know Before You Go, Banerier, 2004, 2009), offer much more precise instructions and lists. Hellstrom's book is like a prayer wheel to strum during trying times. "Are you connecting?" asks the author.While certainly true that numbers often create a fog around truth, sometimes a manual works better than a poem. Would you use a haiku to assemble a table? Likewise, when dealing with many topics like health, safety and welfare, the prospective (or even current) volunteer might augment this book with other sources.Proceeds from the sale of this book fund Peace Corps projects around the world via the Peace Corps Partnership Program which is a tax deductable way to help with specific good works. This review appeared on Peace Corps Worldwide.

I am currently serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer and I recently had my parents send me this book. I would feel incredibly remiss if anyone else made the same mistake. As much as I would love to support a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, I really believe that anyone who buys this is being taken advantage of. For one, more than half of the book consists of blank "notes" pages. The rest of the very sparse information scattered across its pages can all be found in official Peace Corps materials, distributed for free at their events or available on their website. Having worked at two publishing houses prior to my service, no legitimate publisher would put out this project, which amounts to little more than a large pamphlet adorned with inspirational quotes you could find at the checkout desk in Barnes and Noble. Moreover, any "profits" going to charity would be minimal after publishing costs are covered; you're better off going to the peace corps website and finding projects you would like to support directly. While I would prefer not to castigate this volunteer for what I'm sure was a well-intentioned project, I think that there are better ways to spend your service (such as integrating in your community and doing the work that you travelled halfway across the world to do) than publish this notebook.If you are interested in joining the peace corps, there are a number of better (and free) resources at your disposal-Peace Corps Wiki is an excellent site maintained and edited by volunteers-Peace Corps recruiting events feature speakers and RPCVs who would be more than willing to answer any questions (no matter how "unofficial" they may be)-Returned Peace Corps Volunteer events will always be happy to provide interested parties with more information.If you are a current volunteer, like me, I suggest you have your parents use their yearly package for something more useful