Law as an Instrument for Change

Law as an Instrument for Change

I remember the first time I killed a pig. It was my 23rd birthday and I had been living in Portrero Ybate for 10 months. Portrero Ybate is a small village in Paraguay where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. When I killed the pig, I was not only celebrating my birthday Paraguayan style, I was also celebrating a turning point in my service. I finally felt as though I was succeeding in my struggle to become fluent in an indigenous language, accepted in the community I was assigned, and a valued technical resource in subtropical forestry and agriculture. I had never been so challenged as I had those first ten months and I had never felt so satisfied as I had that night, as I shared beer and barbecued pig with my Paraguayan friends and neighbors.

Joining the Peace Corps was a chance for me to explore a lifestyle completely different from the urban, academic experience in which I had spent the previous four years. I remember discussing issues of third world deforestation and resource exploitation in a graduate seminar. I was in a room representing the standard of living of less than one percent of the world's population and we were debating problems that affected people living in a cycle of poverty of which we had no comprehension. I didn't want to talk about people, I wanted to talk with them. I needed a new perspective. I wanted something real. I wanted to work in the fields with a hoe and a machete, to read Ulysses by candlelight, to throw myself in a situation so unfamiliar it would be sink or swim. Learn and adapt, or be miserable for two years in a hut 2,000 miles away from home with no TV.

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...and prenatal care. The feedback was excellent. Paraguayans I met on the bus would ask me if I was the guy from the radio. I was finally able to give something back to the country from which I had learned so much.

In the Peace Corps, becoming adept at speaking an indigenous language and sustainable farming and forestry practices allowed me to educate and empower others while at the same time learning innumerable things about people and the world. Now that I have returned to my life in the United States, I want to continue to be challenged while at that same time function in a capacity where I have the power and knowledge to help others help themselves. While I realize that I am not about to save the world, empowering myself with an education in law is the best way for me to continue to serve as an instrument for change.