Building Bridges: Women in the Peace Corps with Tomoe

In our Women’s History Month series, ‘Building Bridges,’ we explore the amazing adventures of women in the Peace Corps who made a big difference by serving as volunteers. Today, we’re lucky to hear from Tomoe Matsumoto-Hervol, who is currently serving in Nepal. Tomoe’s story tells us about why she joined and the special things women bring to the Peace Corps.

• Introduction:
• Motivation and Inspiration:
• Service Experience:
• Challenges and Triumphs:
• Empowerment and Impact:
• Cultural Exchange:
• Women’s Empowerment Initiatives:
• Personal Growth:
• Advice for Aspiring Volunteers:
• Legacy and Impact:

Introduction:

Can you please introduce yourself, where you are serving, and share a bit about your background?

My name is Tomoe Matsumoto-Hervol and I am serving as a food security volunteer in Nepal. Before the Peace Corps, I lived and worked in Washington State. I grew up in the suburbs on the west side of the state and after high school moved to rural Washington to study biology and agriculture at university. After that, I worked on a commercial hop farm for about 4 years before deciding to serve.

Motivation and Inspiration:

What inspired you to become a Peace Corps volunteer? Were there specific women who influenced or inspired your decision to join the Peace Corps?

I believe my first inkling of the Peace Corps came from a high school presentation – the details elude me but it struck me as an interesting opportunity which then lived in my head for close to a decade. I wanted to experience life in a non-Westernized country, broaden my perspective, and live alongside people elsewhere in the world. The idea of development appealed to me as well – working with communities to improve their livelihoods. It seemed really fun, and it has been.

Service Experience:

Can you describe your service experience and the type of projects you are working on? How has your gender impacted your service experience in the community?

Describing the experience of my service succinctly is a challenge. Service is invigorating, stressful, delightful, emotional, and uncomfortable all at the same time. For many volunteers it requires hiding parts of themselves or sometimes assuming a persona; for me, it requires a lot of social energy that I often struggle to possess. But service has been a great experience overall and I feel like I made the right choice to be here.

Right now, I and the 4 other volunteers in my district are working on a big grant to provide professional beekeeping training and subsidized beehives to interested households. I am planning out a series of mushroom cultivating workshops that will begin mid-March and have a pen pal program getting started at the local high school as well. We have a lot of flexibility in the projects we can do which is really nice.

Another volunteer lived in my village during his service 10 years ago. He interacted with my host sisters who would occasionally come to visit the village from the big city. Shortly after I arrived one of my host sisters (now 23) told me, “When I heard my parents were hosting a volunteer, I hoped they would be female.” I asked her why and she laughed. She commented that while the last volunteer was nice, there was a gender gap in their relationship and she would feel much closer to a female volunteer. So I definitely have more draw, influence, and stronger connections with the women and girls in the village than any male volunteer would have.

I can really appreciate the strength and bond of women as a community here – it is front and center. Gendered communion was not something I really participated in after primary school. In the States it is more of a choice – here it is life. There is something special about it, in its comfort, depth, and unadulterated maternity, that I can’t exactly state in words. So it has impacted me, too 😊

Challenges and Triumphs:

What challenges have you faced during your Peace Corps service, especially as a woman, and how did you overcome them?

Stigmas on menstruation in Nepal are very challenging. There is a religious and cultural idea that menstruating makes women impure – the word for impurities like this is jutho. In my host family household, for the first few days of my period, people will not touch me and will not touch objects that I am touching. I cannot enter the kitchen, touch cabinets that store dishware or food, or touch communal water sources – including my own water filter. I have to use a “less pure” set of dishware and at social functions I am served as far away from other people as possible. It can be an isolating and demoralizing experience.

I try to challenge this idea where I can without being disrespectful. I talk openly about the way menstruation is treated in the United States. I remind myself that the way I am treated is not personally directed at me – rather, is directed at my identity as a woman – which is a shared experience between hundreds of thousands of other Nepali women, and in turn makes things feel much less isolating. I bought an electric kettle and have a store of snacks so I can help myself if I need food or water during these times.

Empowerment and Impact:

How do you believe your presence as a female volunteer positively has impacted the community? In what ways do you think the Peace Corps empowers women in the communities it serves?

As a PCV it is difficult to answer this question because that answer lies in the hearts and minds of my community members. I have also only lived in my village for 6 months. I will say that I have a habit of wandering the village, walking through the jungle, and traveling alone without fear – which is not at all normal and a common topic of conversation.

In Nepal, and many other Peace-Corps-serving countries, women live a life of inequality. They may face discrimination. They may be barricaded from opportunities that men enjoy because of cultural rules, obligations, and expectations. And while that does exist in the US it is much less severe. As Peace Corps volunteers in Nepal, we are required to work with women. We encourage self-reliance and good decision-making as much as it is possible within the bounds of cultural norms. For example, although a woman may be able to decide what to cook for the family on any given day, her options may be contingent on what her husband buys at the market or what vegetable seeds he buys that are planted in the family garden. So even if women don’t have the freedom to make every decision, we work with them to encourage healthier choices, cooking methods, recipes, etc. with the resources they do have.

Beyond that, simply sharing our experiences in the United States, which sometimes means defying Nepali cultural norms, serves as an example of what is possible. For many Nepali women, it will never be possible to live life as freely as a woman can in the United States; but I think the awareness and example of other perspectives, practices, and the inspiration that can follow can be important.

Cultural Exchange:

How do you navigate cultural differences and gender dynamics during your service? Are there specific cultural aspects related to being a woman that you find particularly interesting or challenging?

Nepali culture is patriarchal and extremely gender binary by tradition. Division of labor is likewise stratified: there are jobs that women do and jobs that men do with little room for deviation (though in the cities this is becoming more flexible). Women usually do all the cooking and cleaning. They wash all the clothes of the household by hand; men leave their dirty dishes for the women to wash, also by hand, after eating or drinking anything, because washing dishes is women’s work. It can be hard to watch this every day.

On the other hand, the Nepali people, especially women, are extremely quick to form emotional attachments and bonds. They bring strangers into their homes and feed and care for them deeply and without hesitation. They can never have enough quality time with you, phone/call constantly, and complain about your lack of visitation. The extent and ubiquity of genuine affection they emanate sometimes feels unbelievable to someone who grew up in an American suburb. It is really sweet.

Something else I find interesting is marriage, which is extremely important in Nepali life. Typically a woman will live with her family until the moment she is married. After this point, she lives with her husband’s family – including his parents and siblings if they are unmarried – in their house and is expected to serve the family, abide by their rules, and assume the responsibility of household caretaker under the supervision of the husband’s mother.

In an arranged marriage (which still happens all the time), the bride usually has very little exposure to the husband or his family. Marriage, therefore, for the bride and her family, can be a sad and stressful time. This is in sharp contrast to the image of marriage that we grow up with in Western society and has been a really interesting cultural revelation.

Women’s Empowerment Initiatives:

Were there specific projects or initiatives related to women’s empowerment that you are involved in? How is the local community responding to these initiatives?

I have not planned any empowerment-specific programming yet but I have entertained the idea of a girl’s club in the village where we can talk about menstrual and other topics of women’s health, self-love, confidence, and leadership – things that all girls should cultivate, but that could be particularly educational in Nepal.

Personal Growth:

In what ways do you think your Peace Corps service is contributing to your personal and professional growth? Do you think your perception of women’s roles and rights has changed during your time in the Peace Corps?

It is hard to explain how humbling the experience is. For women’s roles and rights specifically, I thought they were bad in the United States – and of course, was aware of women’s issues around the world – but seeing them in Nepal so plainly in everyday life has no comparison. My awareness and capacity for understanding them has broadened immensely.

What contributions my service will have on my professional growth I can’t say. I think it depends on what comes next, and I’m not completely sure what that is yet.

Advice for Aspiring Volunteers:

What advice would you give to other women considering joining the Peace Corps? How can future volunteers contribute to women’s empowerment through their service?

I would say to any women who are concerned about gender issues, gender disparity, or personal safety: talk to female RPCVs who have served in the country or countries you are interested in and see what their experience was like, ask about their discomforts and the challenges of being a woman in their country of service. 

I’d also recommend researching and testing out different types of reusable menstrual products before service if you don’t use them already. Single-use pads are not available here in the villages and, when used, are buried in the ground. I brought reusable pads with me, then learned about menstrual discs from a fellow PCV and had one sent to me from the US. It has been an absolute life changer.

Legacy and Impact:

Reflecting on your time in the Peace Corps so far, what do you hope your legacy will be in the community?

I hope my presence will dispel some stereotypes about Americans and bring some cultural awareness to the people in my village (on the other hand, the animal lover stereotype will be highly reinforced… oops!). I hope my legacy will have a lasting impact on someone. Even if that means just one farmer who prospers after the work we do together, I will be happy.

Thanks for reading 😊

---

---

The content of this post does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or the Nepali government.