Alison Laing lives in the village of Soubeira, Burkina Faso where she works at a health clinic that serves about a dozen villages
Peace Corps teaches Saratogan about life
By Shari Kaplan
When volunteers sign up for the Peace Corps, they are also signing away two or three years of the privileged lives they enjoyed in their Westernized homes in exchange for a new life—and a new outlook on life—in a Third World country.
Not everyone can handle being away from family, friends and modern conveniences that long, but 25-year-old Saratogan Alison Laing is doing a fine job, says her father, John Laing, who, along with wife Liz and son Andrew, decided to visit Alison earlier this year in the west African country of Burkina Faso—formerly known as Upper Volta.
"When we visited, the parent-child relationship was totally reversed. We were dependent on Alison to take us around and sometimes even translate for us," John notes.
A graduate of Saratoga High School and the University of Oregon—having earned at the latter a bachelor's degree in international studies—Alison is one of some 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers who currently serve in more than 70 countries. Since the Corps' founding in 1961, more than 165,000 Americans have traveled to developing countries, working to eliminate hunger, disease and poverty and increase the levels of education, health and financial security for indigenous peoples.
Alison lives in the village of Soubeira, where she works at a health clinic that serves not only Soubeira but about a dozen other villages within a 15-kilometer radius.
"My part is to help with vaccinations and health education on anything from hygiene to AIDS. I help weigh babies and teach the importance of nutrition. I also help with prenatal checkups and teach about the importance of taking care of your baby," Alison wrote during a recent interview conducted via email.
Another aspect of her work, she says, entails "just kind of 'chilling' in the village, getting to know people so that they feel comfortable talking to me and telling me their concerns."
While her parents have some concerns of their own, knowing Alison is several thousand miles away, John says they also take pride in her dedication. "When she was growing up, she always had a sense of what was fair or not," John recalls. "If she saw someone not treated right, she made it her cause."
For Alison, positive experiences like meeting villagers and other Peace Corps volunteers and helping villagers improve their quality of life have outshone the negative experiences, such as struggling to learn Burkina Faso's many local language dialects or struggling to get used to a "toilet" that is a simple hole in the ground surrounded by a fence.
"For a kid who grew up shopping at Gene's Market, it was a real eye-opener for her to see how important crops are. If it doesn't rain, the people don't eat," says John, adding that that proved a learning experience for his daughter, and himself as well.
When Alison returns to Saratoga in the summer of 2003, it may not be the Laing family's last contact with the Peace Corps, as John says he and Liz are considering volunteering as a couple once they reach retirement age. "I think the Peace Corps is wonderful, and I think older people have a lot to give in terms of experiences," he says.
In the meantime, Alison is enjoying the last nine months or so of what she calls "the best thing you could ever do in your life."
"It's been a great experience—not always easy, that's for sure, but I have so many wonderful experiences and memories to bring back with me," she adds. "The best thing I've learned about myself is that there are a lot of things I would never have thought I could do, but if you just sort of burl through it, you can surprise yourself at what you can accomplish."
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