The Peace Corps focuses on projects that can become self-sustaining, maintained by community members long after the Americans have moved on. Volunteers themselves, meanwhile—no matter where they serve—find that the Peace Corps lives up to its reputation as "the toughest job you'll ever love." Volunteering transforms you, they say. It changes your life forever.

In Paquette's case, the Peace Corps became her life calling. When she finished her first two-year assignment as an English and biology teacher in Liberia, she took a staff position and eventually became director of the country's education program. Years went by with only occasional trips home.

When she finally returned to the United States 11 years later, Paquette struggled with severe culture shock. "It was like coming back to a different country," she says. Everywhere she went, the contrast between abundance and extreme poverty was jarring. And the social landscape had completely changed—computers, debit cards, and McDonald's had cropped up everywhere while she'd been gone. Paquette felt like a foreigner in her own country—a feeling she grew accustomed to in the years to come as she took on other Peace Corps assignments, traveling to and living in more than three dozen countries throughout the years. "The Peace Corps draws people back," she says. "It gets into your blood."

Not that it's been easy. Remembering her time in Liberia, a country that underwent a bloody coup as she was leaving, is heartbreaking for Paquette. Many of her students went on to become soldiers—and many are now dead. More recently, in Tunisia, where unrest continues, the program has been closed indefinitely. But, Paquette maintains, the challenges and failures themselves highlight the need for the Peace Corps—and the idealism that motivates so many of its volunteers.

Today, after recent assignments in Kyrgyzstan and China, Paquette is stationed again in Morocco, where she served 20 years ago, and where she welcomes new recruits who still believe in the power of "waging peace." "I always tell volunteers it's not just the teaching or the building or the development that matters," says Paquette. "It's who you are and how you've touched people. It's helping to create a sense of possibility, helping people look through a new window."

Peace Corps volunteers know that peace isn't something that happens—it's something you work for. Together. You open windows. You let in the light. Consciousness shifts. And the world tilts just slightly—towards peace. ~

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