Eight years after the end of our Peace Corps service, my wife Kris Holloway and I returned to Mali, West Africa. While there, we reunited with Madou Mariko, who trained with me to repair wells.

In Mali, wells are life. But they are dangerous. Diggers can die from falling objects, poisonous snakes, and invisible gases. Over time, a well erodes at the bottom and the walls collapse, making it harder to get clean water. Over time, the top erodes and caves in, creating a funnel that makes it easier for people and animals to tumble in.

Madou walked us through the village, showing well after well that he had fixed. Not only did the work bring in money (Mali’s average annual individual earnings at the time was $315/year), but his work likely kept his neighbors healthier and alive.

Madou was just one of the many people that Kris and I worked with. There have been over 240,000 Peace Corps volunteers since 1961. How many people have been helped directly by Peace Corps work or subsequently by people like Madou?

Training is the first goal of Peace Corps, and from my experience, it works very well.

The second Peace Corps goal is to bring an understanding of America overseas. While we worked together, Madou asked many questions. No, cowboys don’t shoot up bars all the time. Yes, we let dogs sleep in our homes. No, most Americans are not in arranged marriages. Yes, many older Americans live in communities without their families.

The third goal of the Peace Corps is to bring an understanding of other countries to Americans. Kris and I have delivered hundreds of presentations about Mali since returning, and I am taking advantage of the recent Peace Corps advocacy week to write this column. I love to talk about Peace Corps for the simple and powerful reason that it was the smartest decision of my life.

But I believe there is a fourth outcome of Peace Corps that has never been more needed than today. That is the understanding that only comes from working side-by-side with people different from us. Work is the perfect lubricant for conversation and understanding. You pass the time on a shared project while you learn to trust each other.

Education and straight-up conversation is helpful, but in experience they don’t rival the insight and growth that comes from sweating — literally and figuratively — with another. We are not just sharing words and ideas. We are sharing an accomplishment, no matter our differences.

I encourage everybody to get out of their communities and work in different ones. This is vital to our nation’s healing. Although our country is more diverse than ever, it is less integrated. Americans are moving less than ever, to a historic low of 8.7%, down from about 20% in the 1960s, according to the Brookings Institute. We may feel safer in our communities, but it comes at the growing expense of feeling less safe in others.

Leaving your nest doesn’t have to be forever — I was gone for two years. It doesn’t have to involve a permanent move — I returned home — but it does require effort, because the default is that we are all birds of some feather, and we do flock together.

The payoffs of working together are not new. The military has understood this for generations as diverse men and women are required to get beyond themselves for a greater cause. Knowing the challenges of getting diverse people together, I champion mandatory national service. It need not be the military; it can be the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps, or the like.

For now, I urge you to volunteer outside of your comfort zone. Our region is remarkably diverse and needs volunteers. When did somebody from Northampton last volunteer in Huntington, or vice versa? How many people from Amherst visit a church in Holyoke or Springfield? How many from south of the Tofu Curtain venture north to Greenfield?

In the last few months, we all have heard a lot of talk about healing our country. One answer is more volunteer and work-oriented mingling. This mixing has always been vital to our country. Whether you subscribe to the melting pot or salad bowl metaphor, the effect has been the same. You rub shoulders with people different than you. You break bread together. You sweat together. You work for common goals.

There is no promise that you will like each other, but I can guarantee your tolerance, understanding and respect, even if begrudging, will increase.

John Bidwell lives in Florence and is the chief development officer at Way Finders, a regional affordable housing organization headquartered in Springfield. If you interested in volunteering in a new community, reach out to any nonprofit or religious organization.