Quito, Ecuador. Peace Corps volunteers still trek to the far edges of the New Frontier, but now they come heavily armed. Their weaponry is the accumulated psychic sediment of eight years of existence. They are supported by voluminous reports and surveys that can tell them what to look for, what to hope for and what to avoid. They are given specific jobs already mapped out before they arrive, and are thus saved from the frustration of trying to create a job out of some lonely nights in the mountains. They cannot, without clashing with their superiors, decide that the best development job is no job at all, something that old volunteers decided frequently and freely. The hard questions about the value of development have already been answered for them by their programming officers. Their job istodoit.
All this does not mean that new volunteers cannot be pioneers. But the task will be more difficult. The Peace Corps has become a safe place for the technicians, specialists and families that Joseph Blatchford, new Peace Corps Director, plans to recruit. These new volunteers will have to make the same cultural adjustments as the old ones did. Their jobs, however, are supposed to be reminiscent of work back home. They will be backstopped, staffed, projected, funded, integrated with local agencies and well-structured. That is the goal toward which the Peace Corps is steadily working.
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