昨年の9月11日、ダーシー・ニールさんはヨルダンでのボランティア活動に参加するため、ヨルダンに旅立つ直前でした。ニューヨークは彼女の故郷。彼女がそのとき何を考え、そして今ヨルダンの地でどのような活動をしているのでしょう？ ボランティア活動。キャリアを維持しながらボランティア活動に参加するという土壌がまだまだ日本にはありません。 しかし、それはわたしたちができる取り組みの一つなのかも知れません。

NYC, My Hometown!

On the evening of September 11, as I was sorting belongings and packing those last few boxes to ship from Hong Kong to Jordan in preparation for taking up my new position as Peace Corps Director there, I turned on the TV to distract myself. I glanced up to see what I thought was a movie...it was, in fact, the first plane flying into the World Trade Center! I sat surrounded by cartons for the next twelve hours unable to take my eyes off the small screen. Given the time difference, I had, quite by coincidence, turned on the TV within moments of the actual events unfolding in NY, my hometown!

Next Few Days

The next few days were madness. A roller coaster of emotions! A mixture of horror at what had happened to my hometown, my fellow New Yorkers and attempts to contact family and friends to confirm that all were well. (Fortunately my personal world was intact: my niece who lives in the area had been out walking her infant son, saw the first plane strike and ran full speed back to her apartment; one of my best friends, who worked on the 86th floor of Tower One, had called in sick moments earlier). But as an undertone to all of that, my mind was consumed with the possible implications for my impending move to the Middle East!

Peace Corps and My Activities

Although my departure was delayed somewhat, my assignment now seems more meaningful than ever. If there was ever a time when Peace Corps could make a difference in this part of the world, it is Post 9/11. The three goals of PC have remained the same for more than forty years (I served as a Volunteer in Africa in the late sixties):

• to support interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women;
• to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served; and
• to promote a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans.

We currently have fifty Peace Corps Volunteers serving in rural and provincial sites throughout the Kingdom of Jordan...about half of them teaching English (which remains one of the skills which holds the most promise for advancement and access to further education and job opportunities) and the others working with young men and women at youth centers, working with local NGOs, and also with physically and mentally challenged children and adults in residential centers.

Between Palestine and Iraq

While we are often challenged on America's foreign policy (in Palestine to our west and in Iraq to our east), most Jordanians distinguish between the individual citizens who are here to contribute to Jordan's development goals and the government and it's positions and politics. It is this humanitarian, apolitical stance which facilitates our opportunity to work in partnership and challenge stereotypes and generalizations...in both directions.

My hope

My career has swung like a pendulum between the private and public sectors. My hope is that I can relay the strengths of each to the other...and have some opportunity, myself, to learn and to give. I think the two have different sets of skills and responsibilities...and different approaches. However, a healthy balance of the pragmatic and the idealistic holds the most promise for changing the world (or at least my small part of it).

Collaboration with Japanese in Jordan.

JICA is quite active here, and we have had occasion to meet a number of the Japanese staff and volunteers and explore avenues for collaboration (and for me a chance to practice my few words of niihongo!).

For those of you interested in volunteering or learning more about your own country's perspective and contribution to the developing world, I suggest that you contact JICA and learn how you can directly, or indirectly, make your own contribution to the kind of world we all “dream of”...

Who knows, maybe some day we'll meet in Jordan!