RPCVs share experiences at Pasadena church event
Peace Corps marks 42nd year
Ex-volunteers share experiences at Pasadena church event
By Emanuel Parker
Staff Writer
PASADENA -- The Peace Corps turns 42 next month and the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church celebrated that fact on Sunday with its annual Peace Corps Sunday featuring displays by former Peace Corps volunteers.
On hand were volunteers who served in Bali, Honduras, Costa Rica, Senegal, Cameroon, India, Kenya, Namibia, Nepal, Bolivia and Niger, who shared their Peace Corps experiences with visitors to the church, 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd.
Ken Kramer, 42, of South Pasadena, was working with the homeless in San Francisco when he decided he wanted to go someplace where the poor didn't have the safety nets available here.
"I wanted to go someplace where being poor really meant you didn't have anything,' he said. "I wanted to experience that and see if I could help in a situation like that.'
When they told him he was going to Nepal, he was thrilled.
"It's the fifth poorest country on the planet. The average per capita income is about $200.'
As a youth development volunteer, Kramer taught Nepalese youths how to make a living in their country's meager economy. Women play a subservient role in Nepal and Kramer also worked to keep them in school. They also presented antidrug and HIV education programs to combat Nepal's massive drug and HIV problems.
The Nepalese, like many third- world citizens, "Feel that Americans are there to pour money into their economy,' Kramer said. "The thing I like about the Peace Corps is we didn't have any money to give, just ourselves.'
Natalie Berkowitz, 39, of Long Beach, served in Namibia in 1998-99 as a teacher trainer. The legacy of apartheid means that for Namibians education means memorization, not books. Berkowitz said she was working with teachers who had the equivalent of a fourth-grade American education.
But the children there were eager to learn, which is more than Berkowitz found when she returned and got a job as a substitute teacher in New York City.
"The classrooms in New York City were worse than the ones I encountered in the Peace Corps,' she said. "The Peace Corps did not prepare me for my own country. In many places we have a third-world country.'
Charles Lim, 24, formerly of South Pasadena, joined the Peace Corps and is awaiting word where in Eastern Europe he will be sent. He recently graduated from UC Berkeley, where he majored in business and English.
"I will be a business developer,' he said. "I want to get out of Los Angeles and Southern California for a while and just do something else.'
Drew Racine, 14, of Altadena, is inspired by his mother, who served in the Peace Corps in Senegal. He plans to major in political science and said after graduation the Peace Corps is one of his options.
"They always need that kind of thing (political scientists) in the Peace Corps. It's a possibility,' he said.
-- Emanuel Parker can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4475, or by e-mail at emanuel.parker@sgvn.com.
