In this interview, we hear from Ian Lane. Ian is a Peace Corps Education volunteer in Colombia. What Ian shares gives us a better understanding of the work volunteers do. We learn about the challenges, rewards, and personal growth that happens from volunteering in a new place. Ian talks about living in a different country, working with local people, and dealing with surprise situations. Join us as we learn about Ian’s journey and see how volunteering with Peace Corps can change lives.
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. Can you tell us more about serving as an Education volunteer in Colombia?
School schedule
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I work at a public school in my town, mostly with 10th and 11th graders. I’ll occasionally do an hour with the 5th grade when my schedule allows, mostly because they’re so cute.
Conversation Clubs
I host two conversation clubs, one is in person on Wednesday evenings at my town’s library, and the other is online on Thursday evenings through a U.S.-government-sponsored English institute in Bogotá. Both are for advanced speakers (B1–C1) and will typically have four to eight participants, which is a nice size to give everyone a chance to speak. I generally eschew explicit instruction for these clubs, as I see it more as a space for the participants to practice. I usually bring some sort of topic or activity to get the conversation going and let it flow from there—and if the conversation dries up, 20 Questions is always fun.
Other than the online conversation club in the evening, I try to keep my Thursdays open to work on other projects, run errands, and catch up on sleep.
Teaching at SENA
On Fridays, I teach all day at SENA, which is a trade school/community college. It’s a fantastic institution, and I enjoy working there a lot because the students are a little bit older and more motivated. This year I’ve been creating workshops for English instructors at SENA about how they can use artificial intelligence to incorporate more job-specific vocabulary in their lesson planning and materials, since with the way the school is organized they’re might be teaching a class of 3D animation students one day and a class of industrial machine repair students the next, and there often aren’t any level appropriate, career-specific TEFL resources out there.
I do want to be clear that this is wholly too much work.
2. What motivated you to join the Peace Corps and choose Colombia?
I applied to the Peace Corps as a therapy homework. I’ve always wanted to live and work in another country, and we figured this was a good place to start. The application deadline was a motivation to get my resume and cover letter in order. I applied to go anywhere and do anything (in large part because I am a type 1 diabetic and didn’t know where I could even serve) and was originally slotted for CED (Community Economic Development) in Paraguay. Then I waited a year or more to hear anything back, at which point I was much more interested in the opportunity.
The Paraguay cohort was filled with pre-COVID Volunteers and applicants, so they moved me over to Colombia CED, which is what I ended up interviewing for and for which I received an invitation. I had to decline that invitation as I would’ve had to miss my sister’s wedding during PST (Pre-Service Training), and I moved my application over to TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), which left later, and I was accepted for that.
I’m glad it worked out the way it did. While my background in environmental consulting and business development matches better with CED (and I have zero teaching background), the structure of the school calendar has been helpful, and I love working with my students. Likewise, Colombia is a wonderfully diverse country with tons of beautiful landscapes and delightful people.
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. Tell us more about your home situation
My community
I’m in a bedroom community outside the capital, so it’s definitely posh corps. The last decade has seen a lot of people move there from Bogota and commute into the city for school or work. It’s a very nice town with plenty of gyms and amenities that I ought to have taken more advantage of.
The community center offers tons of classes like dance, poetry, photography, orchestra, and my conversation club, of course. There are also two public sports centers in town that offer different sports like karate, chess, and tennis. I didn’t expect to be playing tennis in the Peace Corps, but when I found that out, I had my mom bring my racket down when she visited.
Recently, I’ve been running more, and I did a half-marathon back in June with other PCVs and my mom, who was visiting. Running out amongst the farms is nice, but I’ve been bitten by dogs three times so far, so now I run with a broken broomstick I found in my backyard.
My new home
I lived with a host family for the first 15 months at the site in a fully modern townhouse that was substantially nicer than my last apartment in Los Angeles. I ended up moving out because I wanted my own space and found a little farmhouse above my town where I can sit outside and enjoy the view of the valley below with my landlord’s two labs, Max and Lucy.
The only downside of my current place is that it is a 20-minute walk up a very steep hill to get there from town. I’m talking so steep that most of the taxis in my town will refuse to take me up there. I’ve taken to calling the hill “The Beast,” but I recently learned that it already has a name in the Bogotá cycling community, “el Come Hombre,” which is Spanish for “The Man Eater.”
Surprises and Challenges
4. What has surprised you most about Education challenges in Colombia?
It’s not surprising if I think about it for more than a second, but man, the kids use AI for everything. It’s hard to blame them—I was doing the same thing in Spanish class with Google Translate back in my day—but I worry about the future of education.
5. Could you share some of the secondary projects you have been involved?
I was an editor at OÍSTE, the Peace Corps Colombia Volunteer magazine! It was so much fun to work with my fellow Volunteers on their pieces and promote their voices. We’ve published a ton of amazing articles, and I am very proud of the work we’ve done. Check us out on Substack and Instagram!
Advice and Support
6. What advice would you give to someone considering serving as an Education volunteer in Colombia?
Don’t be in a hurry to be a hero on your first day. Let that grow gradually, and it will be more lasting. I am virtually certain that you will show up to your site with sky-high ambitions, but there’s a reason that the second year is usually better than the first. It takes time to learn how things work and, more importantly, what work you want to do. So for god’s sake, go easy on yourself.
My best teaching-specific advice comes from Fr. Gregory Boyle in his book Tattoos on the Heart, where he shared the advice that he received on his first day as a teacher: “One: know all their names by tomorrow. Two: It’s more important that they know you than that they know what you know.”
7. What skills or qualities do you think are most important for a Education volunteer?
Patience, flexibility, and open-mindedness. I apologize for being banal, but it turns out the advice you find on the Peace Corps website is actually right. Everyone’s experience is unique, but we’re all facing the same sorts of challenges. They know what they’re talking about.
8. How has the Peace Corps training helped you during your service?
PST (Pre-Service Training) sucks, everyone is having a hard time with the adjustment, and no one is their best self. You have to sit through all the sessions anyway, so you might as well try to get the most out of it. I wish I’d taken better notes during some of the classroom activity modules.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
9. Anything that you packed or didn’t pack that you’d like to tell future Colombia volunteers?
The single best piece of advice I got before coming was to bring a pillow. You won’t have much of an opportunity to buy a new one during PST, and you’ll be stuck with whatever your host family provides you, which might not be to your preference. But in general, you don’t need to overthink it. The malls in the big cities have everything you need, and if you need something really specific, Amazon takes like two weeks, and shipping on orders over US$35 is free with Prime.
10. How has learning the language been?
I came in with some background in Spanish, and I want to say I was Intermediate High at the start of PST, which was already above the minimum requirement to complete training. PST was tough because of the volume and because they have a thick accent and use a lot of slang on the Coast. Once I got to my permanent site in the interior, things got easier, and the Spanish was a lot closer to what I learned back in high school.
Definitely do what you can before staging, just to make your life easier. But don’t freak out if you don’t know anything. The LCFs (Language and Cultural Facilitators) are good at their jobs, and we had people in my cohort who came in with zero Spanish and did totally fine. I would also recommend continuing your studies after PST. I mean, I didn’t, but you’re never going to have another opportunity to learn something in the morning and use it with your friends in the afternoon. Another PCV told me that “the more uncomfortable you are, the more comfortable you’ll get,” and that’s what it’s all about.
Final Thoughts
11. Any last comments you’d like to pass on to future Colombia volunteers?
The Peace Corps is dope. Hard as hell, but dope. It’s worth it.
The content of this post does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or Colombia Government.
