Editor's Note: After graduating from Wabash College in 2007, Sterling Carter joined the Peace Corps as an agriculture volunteer. He is living in Niger, West Africa, in a village with no electricity and no running water. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking close to last on the United Nations Development Fund index of human development. The following excerpts are from Carter's latest posting to his Internet blog. To read his entire blog, go to: http://sterlinginafrica.blogspot.co m/. According to his parents, Byron "B.C." and Wyndham Traxler Carter of Flora, he doesn't get to post as often as he would like because the closest Internet access is in the capital city, Niamey, a three-hour ride by bush taxi from his village.

Sunday, August 31, 2008 Changes

The last two months have been rough, and I'm ready for something new. It all started with the trifecta of stomach ailments I wrote about in an earlier post. My house sprung a leak, to put it nicely, shortly thereafter, which is what happens when you choose to build your house out of dirt. I had a couple of pretty good weeks after that…

While July was physically trying, August's mental exhaustion nearly wiped me out. My best friend in country left last week. She was one of my closest neighbors, my closest friend, and just generally someone with whom I wanted to finish my service. My counterpart left for the Ivory Coast two days later. This is the guy who's shown me everything in my village. He helps me in the garden, watches my house, and is one of the only reasons I stayed in country after my roof collapsed. It's hunger season though, and he needs money. A lot of guys in Niger go on "exode" to look for money in neighboring countries. Niger is so poor that they must leave the country in order to do migrant work to support their families with basics like oh...I don't know food.

So in a matter of days, I've lost my closest American friend and my closest friend in village.

The new stage (of Volunteers) swears in in two weeks. When they do, I'll have been in country for eight months. In Peace Corps, new Volunteers are obligated to stay in their villages for the first two months. They can't leave, and they are meant to spend their time integrating and learning about their communities.

This past week has been a complete transformation for me. I feel like I'm starting my service over again. My plan at the moment is to spend the next two months in village, just like that new Volunteers. I need to be away from people at this point. Too much drama and too much disillusionment. The nice thing about Niger is the ability to escape. We may have lost that in America. One is too connected, has too much of a pull toward others without feeling like any part of a larger community. I hope the next couple months will be a renewal, because I need it at this point. Eight months has flown by, and I feel like I've missed a lot of it. I've been too caught up with other people's lives and business.

And it shouldn't be too hard to stay in village at this time. Peace Corps is, for lack of a better term, financially *#&$% right now. We've had to cut basic services to Volunteers. Our administration is sweating because it's gotten to a point where we might not have the ability to run any kind of successful program in country. We've lost a lot of money due to inflation, a falling dollar, and the weak economy. You can read about this all online if you look hard enough, but it gets kind of depressing. This is especially true when you realize that Peace Corps worldwide's entire budget deficit could be paid for with one week in Iraq.

It is a rather sad state of affairs when the soft power arm of American diplomacy, the agency created to spread goodwill and American idealism, is languishing in the current political climate. We as a country seem to have given up on solving problems with anything but a missile or a gun. Peace Corps was created out of '60's idealism, and while we can debate how effective it is, it seems a darn shame that the government is failing an organization designed to help so many people in so many places.

I've posted the link to this news article. Write somebody, anybody about this. Newspapers, congressmen, your neighbor Sally. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/ 21/AR2008082103384.html?nav =rss_world

See you all in a few weeks, after that, it may be months. Kala han fo.