On my flight from Lome to Accra last week the plane was a little prop job with two seats on either side of the aisle. I was in the aisle seat and next to me, at the window, was an African woman in a beautifully printed dress, obviously from West Africa.

As we were preparing to take off I was enjoying a Kit Kat bar I had bought in the Lome airport. I broke off a piece and offered it to her with no words. Now, this is standard and expected behavior in West Africa - anytime you eat something you always offer it to your neighbors, the people walking by, the taxi driver, etc. And they (nearly) always say no, thank you. If this person next to me had NOT been an obviously West African Woman I wouldn't have offered, but it felt completely natural.

When I offered it to her, she said No, Thank You. And then she said, "You're a Peace Corps volunteer?" Now, I was NOT wearing Peace Corps gear, nor did I have PC tags on my luggage or backpack or anything. So I said yes, how did you know? She said, "You are one of us."

We continued talking about how she travels often from Accra to other parts of Africa (she was the director of a NGO in Accra) and she can always tell who the Peace Corps Volunteers are. Little things like offering food, no tourist would ever do something like that, and even people who live in the cities but don't know the people well probably wouldn't do that. But Peace Corps volunteers, we become one of them... and they see that. And I agree. I am, and will always be, one of them.

K