Can't sleep again. My house smells like green curry. My stomach is growling, mouth's watering, and it’s not the usual deep sleep drool either. Oh, how I wish...

It may be due to the spate of of discussions in the Peace Corps discussion group about volunteer safety. The October issue of Jane Magazine has a less than balanced article about the incidence of sexual assault, rape, and sickness among female Peace Corps volunteers. Yeah, I know, highly reputable and worthy reading, right? It's shoddy, biased reporting, but it got sent around to the discussion group and is scaring half the women applicants to death about serving. Family members of applicants and volunteers get a hold of this stuff and (rightfully) go off the deep end. Granted, there are significant dangers when going into war-torn, poverty-stricken regions of the world. And we should not, and for the most part, do not take the potential risk for granted when we apply. We are smart, young (save myself), adults, and not the naïve, helpless nymphs the article portrays female volunteers.
Indeed, the Peace Corps can be more responsive in mitigating risks, but no one can guarantee absolute safety in most of the locations where Peace Corps volunteers go. Women are harassed in the First World countries just as much as in the Third World. Physical assaults hidden behind closed doors and muffled by social stigma occur in our very own neighborhoods.
As for illnesses and tummy aches, I used to get sick every time I went to Bali on a 5-Star holiday, as well as on safari in Namibia. It’s the nature of the microscopic beasts! Everyone has to use his or her own judgment about these things and practice what they have been taught by the Peace Corps. It is the way of life, being a stranger to new organisms.
A returned volunteer who served in Cameroon said it best in her response to the article, "...Peace Corps Volunteers don't serve in Epcot Disneyworld". Oh, how I wish…
Now, where’s that curry?