Archive - November 6, 2017

Loneliness, Libertinism, Anxiety: Recollections of a Peace Corps Volunteer by RACHEL LU (Uzbekistan 2002-04) November 6, 2017 National Review Surely we can maintain some standards of decency and decorum, even if we don’t all agree that fornication is a sin. I’d been in the United States Peace Corps for all of 48 hours when I received my first bag of taxpayer-funded condoms. In the Peace Corps, they don’t waste time with foreplay. This was in 2002, when I was stationed at a health sanatorium north of Tashkent, one of 50 Volunteers in training. After dinner on our second day, we were ordered to report to the clinic for the first of several rounds of vaccinations. First came the needles and then came the candy, but along with the sweets I was given a brown paper bag. I looked. “Oh, thanks,” I said, “but I don’t need this.” I handed it . . .