hahahaha i am so happy that i can be of such life changing insperation  ^-^

PeaceCorp projects can be ill-conceived.

This is true. I can't speak for the Peace Corps as a whole, but I can say based on my sister's experience that it's not always all that it's cracked up to be. It turns out that 2 of the 3 goals of the PC is cultural exchange, which is great and all, but not what most people think of when they think of the Peace Corps. The stated goals are:
  1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
  2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
  3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
And it really seems like the first goal takes a back seat sometimes. My sister was supposed to do environmental education in Itapúa Poty, Paraguay, and trust me, it was never her choice to go to South America's only landlocked country. She was pretty fluent in Spanish so they put her in a country that is Spanish speaking but she also had to learn the other official language, Guaraní, which is certainly not the most useful language in the world, but an interesting challenge. After her 3 months of training, she moved to Itapúa Poty, where she was the only PCV. I think took about a day for her to bike to another village to see a fellow PCV, so she was really on her own. In some places there are groups of PCVs working together, which I think is much better for morale. My sister would sit outside and read and people would ask her why she was studying; they didn't understand the idea of reading for pleasure. The people were incredibly warm, but it was a very different world than the one most of us are used to.

In terms of her work there, she did some environmental education, but she spent a lot of time just trying to help teachers plan lessons and improve the general quality of the school, even though that wasn't her job. There had been numerous PCVs in the village before her, trying to improve their relationship with the environment, but they simply weren't receptive to it. They just heard the same thing year after year and didn't make changes. Imagine how frustrating that could be. My sister did get involved with an organization that was trying to save the subtropical rainforest in the area, but the PC wouldn't let her officially switch her focus to that organization even though they needed help because the forest was being burned down for cash crops, which people were growing with massive amounts of chemicals.

In terms of food, my sister is pretty much freegan, and she basically ate a lot of beans and fruits and veggies, but when she was a guest in someone's home she ate what they served, which included lots of eggs and cheese in this particular place. It was part of the cultural exchange, but you're not required to what you don't want to, of course. I think that the vegan thing would be less of a concern for me than the isolation and frustration of the job. These examples are only specific to my sister's time as a PCV of course, and she also had a lot of good experiences as well, but the difficulties nearly drove her to quit. She didn't quit, and she's one of the smartest, toughest people I know, but I was shocked at how hard it was for her to be a PCV. It probably sounds like I'm trying to deter you, which I don't mean to do, but you should know that it can be harder than you could ever imagine. Hopefully you're tougher than I am, because I sure as hell didn't want to do the peace corps anymore after my sister's experience.