Editor’s Note: Briana Arnold was raised in Hoquiam and has written periodic pieces for The Daily World about her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama.

Over the last year I’ve been providing Harborites with stories of my life abroad, always in 1,000 word articles. But truthfully, I couldn’t describe my two-year experience as a Sustainable Agriculture Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama in 1,000 words or 100,000 words. Now I am officially a Returned PC Volunteer and this is my final piece. I successfully closed my service in August and am now enjoying the turning of the leaves and drizzly weather of the Harbor before I move to Portland to begin a new job.

I’ve learned over the past two years that you can’t be a Peace Corps volunteer and not be changed, for the bad and good. Coming back home I have made many a memorable cultural faux pas (I can no longer discuss the details of my bowel movements in public because everybody speaks English and understands “funky colored diarrhea”) and I tend to throw all food waste out the window instead of in the trash. I’ve become more sociable with strangers, and to their bewilderment chat up folks walking down the street and, most importantly, I’ve realized the direction of my life has changed forever.

Before entering Peace Corps I saw myself one day becoming an international rockstar, travelling the globe doing some type of meaningful work and taking awesome photos in front of famous monuments. Graduate school was in my future and eventually a non-traditional career that put me living in Ibiza or Dubai. Peace Corps seemed like the perfect stepping stone to all of my unbridled dreams.

And I’d recommend it as a stepping stone for anybody of any age interested in not only learning but living another culture, wanting to speak a new language fluently, is interested in working in development work and can use the two years constructively to become a better person.

Living for two years with the loving people of an indigenous community taught me that and more; to do meaningful work, I don’t have to travel all over the world to be fulfilled, but must invest deeply in a few people who want to work hard to create a better living condition for themselves. Learning to speak Spanish fluently has allowed me to bridge barriers due to cultural misunderstanding I had always observed as an outsider. I was rewarded by dedicating my life to development work for two years, helping (just a few) farmers improve their agriculture sustainability practices to produce more food for their families. These two years have matured me into a woman I hadn’t envisioned before.

Leaving my indigenous Ngöbe community, I knew I would miss my friends that had become my family over the last two years, I’d miss my home and garden, and the simplicity of life in the Panamanian jungle. But I was to a point in the last two months of my service where I was tired of being sick with amoebas, giardia, abscesses, etc., etc., etc., tired of an indigenous language barrier that I could never quite break, tired of being a woman in a patriarchal society. So no, leaving for me wasn’t as hard as it is for some volunteers, and while I wouldn’t do Peace Corps again in this lifetime, I would definitely do it over again in another lifetime.

Beyond all the good and trying experiences, I’ve gained more personally from the life I led than any other time in my life. I have become a more focused, responsible and passionate individual.

After all of these lessons, the end of my time in Panama was highlighted by a whirlwind of activity. With two work counterparts from the community I went to a sustainable agriculture training, which led to the construction of a brick eco-stove for the community. Some of the ladies and I planned a killer despedida to celebrate my last week in site, which is a big going away party with a lot of food. And, my best friend had a new baby boy.

The agriculture training was a cap to all of the hard manual labor I put in and agriculture practices I tried teaching over the last two years. Over the weekend trip, I watched two of the most active farmers from my community share some of their knowledge they learned from Peace Corps with another farmer and bring new organic agriculture practices back to the community they learned from him, and once back helped with the construction of an eco-stove we learned about on the trip.

After the hard work, the community and I feasted at my going away party with a smoked pig, goat, chickens, and ducks while the kids painted nails and played with toys sent from the United States. It was a bittersweet time to say goodbye to all my friends and community members that made Panama land feel like home. And in the last few days, my best friend had a baby. It was an amazing time that allowed me to become closer with the family by helping take care of the once again mom and the baby as she recovered. It also reminded me that while I was about to move on and leave the community, the lives of people there would continue on as before, maybe a little bit improved in the terms of development but much richer in the memories we’d shared.

In the next stepping stone of my life, which takes the form of a new job with Pacific Natural Foods in Oregon, I will be able to apply sustainability practices I learned in Peace Corps. I will be working on small sustainable organic agricultural projects within the company.

While I am nervous to begin a job that will hold me accountable and responsible for all of my actions (PC Volunteers receive little supervision while living in remote communities) in a fast-paced American life, I will be using the next couple of years to catch up with friends and family that I have missed dearly, and I will continue to learn about myself and mature.

What is important to me now is knowing if working in development work is important enough to get a degree in it. Before Peace Corps I romanticized a world of constant travel and miraculously changing poor people’s lives. Peace Corps taught me development workers can’t work miracles like Jesus. Improving living conditions for impoverished people comes from a combined effort of the patience of the development worker, passion on the part of the people to improve their own lives and the local government.

I don’t know if, after holding a traditional job, I will miss the meaningful and morally rewarding work Peace Corps provided me with. Maybe I will be happy working for a private company living in middleclass suburbia with a decent car and potable water. Right now I don’t know what work will be more important to me, but what I decide will determine the course of my future.

For now I am missing my Panamanian friends but happy and content being close to my American friends and family and excited to take the next step forward.

If you have any questions about Peace Corps or further resources for interested individuals, feel free to contact Briana at arnold.briana02@gmail.com