The Description of Service

One of our main responsibilities by the time we leave is to put together a Description of Service (DOS), an overview of everything we have done in the last two years fit onto about one page. This is also the only documentation that you get from Peace Corps that proves that you were a volunteer, and it's your only official record of your work. For the rest of your life. So it's kind of a big thing.

I've been hard at work on my DOS but writing about what I've done is difficult for two reasons: First, I'm tempted to use jargon and buzz-words, so I'll write something like, "Sensitized youths and vulnerable children on children's rights issues," when I really just yelled at a few straggling kids to get to school. Second, after I completed my first draft it really didn't look like I did a whole lot. Maybe it's perspective.

Also, most of what happens here is impossible to sum up in one sentence and falls outside of typical "work." For example, I can say that I trained 25 farmers in food security, or that I organized a workshop to train 25 farmers on improved agriculture (without specifics those statement could mean anything), but I can't say that I yelled at some kids to go to class. One of those happens once or twice, the other happens nearly every day. Which has more impact?

Here are some excerpts from one draft of my DOS:

- Read 54 novels of varying length, both fiction and non-fiction.
- Studied for 3 months for the GRE, learning over 100 new vocabulary words.
- Improved haggling skills, obtaining a price reduction of an average of 50% for all transactions.
- Suffered through less than 8 bouts of gastro-intestinal issues obtained from poorly prepared food and contaminated drinking water, among others.
- Managed to not get malaria.
- Maintained a relatively healthy diet and mastered cooking 3-pot meals on 1 burner.

The other draft looks more like this:

Project Development and Organizational Support

• Advised 4 organizations on program design and management for small enterprise projects.
• Developed a comprehensive coffee cooperative plan which included over 1,000 farmers in 35 farmer groups and increased farmer incomes by 200%, and established a village microfinance scheme.
• Networked with 3 international organizations resulting in strong partnerships and access to over $150,000 of capital in the form of loans and grants.
• Increased farmer profits of pineapple by 500% by introducing a value-addition scheme.

Educational Support and Training Facilitation

• Developed a comprehensive curriculum for teaching business and entrepreneurship at a rural vocational school and taught 24 students in business and entrepreneurship through formal classroom teaching, assignments, and field work.
• Mentored staff, teachers, and community members in bookkeeping and recordkeeping skills.
• Conducted 3 trainings on building fuel-efficient stoves with community partners.
• Trained 25 villagers in improved organic agriculture techniques, including composting and crop rotation, resulting in a 250% increase of bean yields over traditional methods.

Community Health

• Led 3 trainings on constructing and using improved fuel-efficient cook stoves.
• Linked 12 communities with the local NGO HeWaSa (Health through Water and Sanitation) and lobbied local government to upgrade, fix, and improve water sources in 12 villages.
• Trained 25 farmers and 65 youths in 3 communities in nutrition and food security.

Specialized Training

• Life Skills training – Peace Corps Uganda (one week).
• Program Design, Management, and Monitoring and Evaluation training – Peace Corps Uganda (4 days).
• Sales and Marketing Workshop – USAID Uganda, Sustainable Tourism in the Albertine Rift (2 days).

Leadership in Peace Corps Uganda

• Chairman of the Volunteer Advisory Committee (18 months).
• Led pre-service training activities with new volunteers.
• Obtained a Peace Corps grant worth $5800 to facilitate a three-day farmer’s workshop.
• Participated in redeveloping the Economic Development program, including identifying and establishing new goals, objectives, and indicators for the program.
• Helped organize Peace Corps Uganda’s 50^th Anniversary Service Day celebration and managed 120 people engaged in 7 activities during the event.