My "Counterpart"

When a Peace Corps Volunteer is placed in an area, they're given a local host family, a "supervisor" and a "Counterpart." The host family is your moral support, and teaches you how to live like everyone around you. The supervisor is supposed to keep you on track with your work, and help you make important contacts (In ten months, I've had a total of two conversations with my supervisor. I don't even know if he remembers I exist). The Counterpart does... everything else. They are usually someone connected to your work (ideally) and are often one of the people who initially were involved in the request for a volunteer. In reality, they often become your first point of contact, your first friend, and your regional encyclopedia. How do I get the bus? Ask your CP. Where would I find this thing? Ask your CP. Who should I go to to get this done? Ask your CP.

You meet your Counterpart at a conference right before your site visit, about a month before you move there. It's the business-suit-attired version of an awkward playdate. I had been warned that "he" was "young" but that was all I was told beforehand. Turns out the Counterparts were told even less about the volunteers they were getting.

Peace Corps staff had wanted to do some horrible gameshow style "reveal" to match the Volunteers and their Counterparts, like they had with our training site host families, but since there were only ten of us, and ten CPs, and they had us all eat dinner at the same time, we ended up figuring each other out beforehand, ruining the "surprise." All we had to ask is where they were from, since we had already been told our new sites.

I was still in for a surprise though. My counterpart was only 17. I was going to have to depend almost entirely on a person who, by Peace Corps own rules, I wasn't even allowed to be in a room alone with. For someone already nervous about what they've gotten themselves into, this was not exactly comforting. Even less confidence inspiring, the students we were going to be working with were mostly aged 18-22. I usually don't even like asking teenagers for the time, let alone actually work with them.

A hike we went on with some students, a few days after the conference

If anyone was more apprehensive than I, it was probably my own Counterpart. During the conference, they'd been lectured without end about the expectations and rules surrounding their new roles with their Volunteers. Unfortunately, the way it was done sounded very much like a nervous helicopter-mom leaving a fragile and sickly baby with a new babysitter. At one point even I was nearly convinced that if I so much as stubbed my toe leaving my house, I'd probably die. Now this seventeen-year-old was told he'd have to take a twenty-nine-year-old back to Region Nine and keep her from wandering haplessly into death for two years. It was not a promising beginning for either of us.

The dim view continued when I got to site. The principal of the Institute spotted me at one of the assemblies, and introduced me with "We have our new Peace Corps Volunteer. We thought we were getting a man, but... we got her instead." That was the extent of my introduction.

Luckily, things have since improved. Junio (now 18) is a good friend, a dedicated teacher, a hard worker, and one of the nicest and most responsible people I have ever met. He's probably better at being a "real adult" than I am, so it's hard to make teenager jokes. I really can't say enough good things about him. After speaking to other volunteers, I realize how lucky I've been: I love my site, my host family is kind, and my Counterpart ticks all the boxes.

Here he is giving game instructions to some students

Here's a good story for you, Mom: One day I was talking about my family, and he said "it sounds like you and your parents don't agree very often." I asked "well don't you ever have a different opinion than your aunt (who raised him)?" and his response was "No, I don't think so." I can't even imagine an eighteen-year-old boy never disagreeing with his parents.

I honestly can't tell if he was posing for this