As 50 volunteer teachers from the U.S. Peace Corps descended on Ghana last August, even the most sympathetic of observers in Africa were skeptical. Recalls one foreign-service veteran: "I was convinced that the Peace Corps would be just another hit-and-run set of do-gooders in Bermuda shorts and button-down shirts." But in Ghana, where it is undergoing one of its first real field tests, the Peace Corps so far has been a most pleasant surprise.
One of the seven corps groups now abroad,* the Ghana contingent went well prepared. Before departure, the young teachers (21 of them women) spent eight hard weeks...