January 1, 1997 - Rive University: Two years in a town in Liberia with no running water, electricity or any of the other amenities of civilization would be enough for most people

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Liberia: Peace Corps Liberia : The Peace Corps in Liberia: January 1, 1997 - Rive University: Two years in a town in Liberia with no running water, electricity or any of the other amenities of civilization would be enough for most people

By Admin1 (admin) on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 8:58 pm: Edit Post

Two years in a town in Liberia with no running water, electricity or any of the other amenities of civilization would be enough for most people



Two years in a town in Liberia with no running water, electricity or any of the other amenities of civilization would be enough for most people

SENIORS: UNDECIDED ON WHAT TO DO NEXT YEAR? TRY THE PEACE CORPS

The following article appeared in Saturday's Houston Chronicle:

Recruiting, volunteering in Peace Corps' 36th year

By CARLOS BYARS Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle

Two years in a town in Liberia with no running water, electricity or any of the other amenities of civilization would be enough for most people. But Peace Corps volunteer Hilary Kouhana, aHouston teacher, said she is thinking about returning to Africa under even worse conditions -- a "crisis" assignment to the Ivory Coast, working in the camps of refugees displaced by the Liberian civil war. "I'm Jewish,"she said, "so I understand about being displaced, having nowhere to go."

Kouhana recently set up shop in an alcove of the Bookstop on South Shepherd, trying to recruit Peace Corps volunteers and meet veterans of the organization as part of the corps' 36th anniversary. Kouhana said that, unlike the early days, the Peace Corps needs people with developed skills, especially single young people just out of college.

"It gives them an opportunity to serve overseas, to see the world, and it's a resume-packer," she said. "You are coming into a country with a skill, so when you leave you leave something there."

President Kennedy started the Peace Corps in 1961 to promote peace and provide assistance. From a small start in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), the Peace Corps currently has 7,000 volunteers in 94 countries, she said.

Even though Peace Corps volunteers teach and train, Kouhana said they should not be under the illusion that they are going to make major changes. Kouhana said hundreds of volunteers served in Liberia during the 1970s, yet after the death of its president, the country fell into chaos. She said volunteers usually take six months to a year just learning how to get along in environment sand cultures vastly different from home.

"It's not like the U.N. or missionaries (whose representatives often live in insular camps). Volunteers live among the people," she said.

Liberia was peaceful during her tour from 1973 to 1975. Her assignment was to teach English and, later, to help train new volunteers coming into the country. Although the basic language of Liberia is English -- the country was founded by former slaves from the United States -- Kouhana said that among the uneducated, the language has become an Africanized dialect.

She also is fluent in French, which she said would be valuable in the French-speaking Ivory Coast. In Kouhana's case, even living among the people was living better than most. She had a gasoline stove for cooking and boiling water and a kerosene-powered refrigerator. But there was no electricity, no running water and no modern plumbing.

There were aspects of the local diet that required some getting used to. "At a certain time of the year there was a little insect they would fry and eat," she said. "It gives you good survival and coping skills."

Kouhana said she also had to adjust her teaching methods. Her students just didn't relate to much of the reading material from the United States. So she devised her own, writing stories about things her students were familiar with. She said one of her stories was about two boys who had no common language but played soccer together, soccer being a universal sport.

Peace Corps volunteers have served all over the world. Kouhana said former volunteers living in Houston were in Borneo, the Philippines, South America, Africa, Russia and several places where volunteers no longer go, including Colombia and her former post, Liberia. These veterans have their own organization with about 200 members, the Gulf Coast Chapter of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. It is a chapter of the National Peace Corps Association.

She said the organization helps recruit volunteers and helps newly returned veterans readjust to life back home. They continue to serve through work with the Rotary Club of a small Mexican border town. "We may build a garden on our next trip," she said.

***Editor's note: A very enthusiastic Peace Corps alumna at Rice is Melinda Sue Hutchings, a staffer in University Relations. Ms. Hutchings volunteered for a stint in Sierra Leone after her children were grown. Anyone interested in talking to her about her experiences in the corps should e-mail her at mshutch.rice.edu.



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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Liberia; Recruitment

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