Mauritania RPCV Edina Butler finds peace, and a husband, in overseas adventure
Caption: Peace Corps member Edina Butler, left, with friends in Mauritania.
Read and comment on this story from the Daily Astorian on Mauritania RPCV Edina Butler who returned to the United States last summer with renewed appreciation for family, skepticism over material possessions – and a new husband. A native of Los Angeles, Butler chose Astoria as her new home after her Peace Corps stint ended last summer, because she felt the slower pace of small-town life would provide less of a culture shock after two years in Africa. Read the story at:
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EDP: Edina Butler: Finding peace, and a husband, in overseas adventure
By TOM BENNETT The Daily Astorian tbennett@dailyastorian.com
Edina Butler was searching for a “drastic, dramatic change in my life” when she signed up for a two-year stint with the Peace Corps teaching health education in the west African nation of Mauritania. But she wasn’t expecting her adventure to include marriage.
Butler returned to the United States last summer with renewed appreciation for family, skepticism over material possessions – and a new husband.
Laroussi Ouldahmed was visiting from Morocco when the two were introduced, but to Butler, her future husband-to-be “fell from the sky,” and six months later they wed.
A native of Los Angeles, Butler chose Astoria as her new home after her Peace Corps stint ended last summer, both because her mother, Claudia Harper, recently moved here, and because she felt the slower pace of small-town life would provide less of a culture shock after two years in Africa.
Butler missed the trees and flowers of home in the arid West African country, but she grew to appreciate the great value that the Mauritanians, with their material possessions so meager, put on personal bonds with family and friends.
“For Americans, life is very fast, and people feel pressure to make money and pay their bills,” she said. “I learned you can be really happy without money if you learn to appreciate the small things, and appreciate the people in your life you really love.”
Her husband has adapted to his new home well, she said, and already has made many friends. A college graduate in Morocco and former marketing director for a car wholesaler there, Ouldahmed attends classes at Clatsop Community College. He hopes to earn a business degree at an American university.
Butler works in administrative support for the Clatsop County Health and Human Services Department, checking in patients and helping coordinate the department’s bioterrorism response plan. She plans to return to school and earn a master’s degree in public health.
In Mauritania, Butler trained local educators in maternal and infant health, and offered workshops on AIDS prevention, a delicate subject in the Muslim country. But the former Planned Parenthood worker said she’s a strong believer in educating people, particularly young people, about their reproductive health, and empowering them to make choices about their lives.
“Just to get them to think about it – they can figure it out for themselves, that’s the magic of it, and that’s why I got into the Peace Corps.”
— Tom Bennett
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