Marching with Peace Corps at the Inaugural Parade

I’m from Texas and, as I frequently tell my partner, “I don’t do cold weather.” So when I first got the email from the National Peace Corps Association looking for Country of Service flag bearers to march in the inaugural parade, I chuckled and passed it by. Freezing my you-know-what all day just to carry a flag, are you kidding? Yeah I have always thrived in hot weather, like I did two tours with the Peace Corps on tropical islands, first on an island in Honduras 1984-85 and later in Sri Lanka, 1993-94. But I started thinking on the inaugural invite and how proud I am right now, with my rainbow Obama bumper sticker, as well as how cool it would be to tell the high school students I teach ESL in Montgomery County, Maryland. Also, I would love to tell my Sri Lankan or Honduran friends that I represented their beautiful countries in front of THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! I did an about-face, registered for the lottery (tons of RPCVs wanted to march) and then waited for the weather gods to decide my fate. Meanwhile, I started bragging, like a true Texan, that I could do it, just like I climbed Sri Pada and Mt. Fuji.

The good news is my partner’s from Long Island and she taught me about layering, among other things. Well, long story short, I was the most bundled-up marcher of the some 175 RPCVs who carried the 139 flags of countries of service. So, if you see us on C-Span, look for the one with the puffy green down ski jacket, pink ski gloves and ski hat. Yep, there were quite a few under-dressed RPCV’s out there, and I sure felt sorry for them ‘cause the wind chill was about 10 degrees by the time we marched.

The morning of, I put on all my garb, pocketed some big bold HRC beads that I planned to wear just in case the Obamas got a closer look at me, and metro-ed to Pentagon City about 6AM. There, former Peace Corps volunteers trickled in, all chatty with the usual questions: Where were you in the Peace Corps and when? Then on the bus, everyone was a-buzz with getting-to-know-you questions. After a half hour or so, it struck me that most conversations changed directions. People were on their cell phones talking to loved ones, including the girl who sat next to me. Well, my loved one likes to sleep late, so I just sat there and pretended to check my cell phone. (And Texas is one hour behind DC so there was no way I was gonna call anyone there…)

Eventually we rolled onto and through a security check in the parking lot of the Pentagon, among a long line of chartered buses stuffed with marching bands and military groups. We were gifted by friendly Peace Corps Headquarters staff with gray scarves marked with the Peace Corps emblem and lunch boxes. For me as a teacher, it was déjà vu, like I was on a school field trip. By the time we got to the tents near the Ellipse where we waited (and waited) for parade time, many of us were on a first name or nickname basis, like I called one girl from San Antonio “Texas” and a few others I referred to by the name of their country of service, “Hey Poland! Can you watch my stuff while I visit the Port-o-Potty?” “Pose with me for a picture, Mongolia.”

Honestly, that day I realized how much I missed being around the Peace Corps “type”, gregarious people with lots of adventures to share, risk-takers who often find humor in small, everyday events. Makes Peace Corps “after-life” seem somewhat mundane. Well, take-that-back. Now that I’m reflecting, the GLBT community and the Peace Corps community have many similar characteristics such as the very ones I just mentioned.Yeah, I love “my GLBT peeps” here in the DC Metro area too. But perhaps it’s the Peace Corps within me that helps me deal with coming out over and over again with new people, the people skills I developed living in different worlds, different cultures. In Honduras and Sri Lanka, of course I didn’t really fit in with the village people who lived day-to-day without all the so-called modern conveniences I grew up with like linoleum floors, flushing toilets and hot water. In the rural, agrarian communities where I founded women’s handicraft businesses and where I also began to question my sexual orientation, I developed a keen awareness of how gender roles and expectations influence just about everything. However even though I talked, walked and looked different, I learned that through random and not so random acts of kindness and humor, just about anybody can earn the respect and friendship of any/many-a-one.

Well, you can watch my short video to get a better picture, but a few special moments in the day really made this event something to “write Texas about.” There was that first glimpse we got of the hordes of people on the mall. Wow! Everyone was straining to get pictures from the bus windows when we passed the Washington Monument. Later in the tent, it was the reverent hush as we watched Obama’s acceptance speech on a small TV, then the wild cheering when he completed the oath. And of course during the parade, every few blocks when our group was announced on loud speakers, we would all go, “Whooaa!” and “Yeeaahh!” Each time, I’d get a little choked up and hoist my flag higher. I felt a part of something way bigger than me and bigger than say Texas. We marchers represented almost fifty years of global change on the part of the Peace Corps and some 200,000 volunteers who returned, like me, “touched” by the experience. And gosh-darn-it, we marched for change in the way Obama stated in his speech, that we will work alongside other countries to build a future together.