Brad, a good friend that I grew up with (our parents have been friends ~40 years), joined Peace Corps with his wife a couple years ago. They were in a rural part of Kenya, sufficiently remote that generally only married people are sent there, as they'll be rather isolated. Even they had a cell phone though. Once every week or two they'd bike to a town where there was cell phone reception and send off/receive emails. Doing so enabled them to keep in touch with family.
Their trip ended up being cut short when riots sprung up all over the country during Kenya's elections and all Peace Corps people were evacuated. All of it had been a rather extreme experience, and Brad/his wife chose not to be reassigned elsewhere. For his wife it had been rather difficult to live in their spartan conditions, while for him it was a little more manageable since he'd grown up in the mountains with a goat and solar power.
Elle (my girlfriend) and I considered Peace Corps, but changed our minds when we realized we'd have to be married to go as a couple, and that's not something we want to worry with for several more years. So for now we're looking at volunteering locally and WWOOFing (world wide opportunities for organic farming) internationally, going to an organic farm elsewhere in the world and working for a while, just to play with plants in an interesting area while having food/housing covered.
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