Edwin J. Kay and his wife served in the Peace Corps in Cameroon from June of 1995 to June of 1997. Although most volunteers exemplify the stereotype of being young and idealistic, we were in our 50s during our service



Edwin J. Kay and his wife served in the Peace Corps in Cameroon from June of 1995 to June of 1997. Although most volunteers exemplify the stereotype of being young and idealistic, we were in our 50s during our service

Peace Corps anniversary is chance to learn about world

On March 1, 1961, after only two months in office, President Kennedy signed the law creating the Peace Corps, whose aims are threefold: 1. Educate the foreign peoples about America; 2. Help to improve the lives of foreign people; and 3. Educate Americans about foreign people. I write this on the 44th anniversary of the founding of Peace Corps, when returned volunteers make a special effort to further the third aim.

My wife and I served in the Peace Corps in Cameroon from June of 1995 to June of 1997. Although most volunteers exemplify the stereotype of being young and idealistic, we were in our 50s during our service. I taught mathematics at the University of Buea. Janice taught cooking in a vocational-technical high school and at Opportunities Industrialization Center, an offshoot of the Rev. Leon Sullivan's organization of the same name in Philadelphia.

We are not young, but we still are idealistic, so that our joining Peace Corps was partly motivated by our wanting to help a developing country, but it also fulfilled our long term aim to learn about ourselves and our own country by living in another culture for at least a year. Of the 43 volunteers who started with us in Cameroon, about a dozen left early, one leaving after only three days of training. Although they left for a number of reasons, some were highly idealistic but perceived that their presence in Cameroon would have little, if any, effect. As we look back on our service, we think that we did many good things for Cameroon, but it was not so obvious at the time. Fortunately, that was not our sole focus.

Cameroon stretches north from the Bight of Biafra, where the west coast of Africa makes its big bend to the south, to the edge of the Sahara on Lake Chad. On the crudest map of Africa I can put my finger on my house, which was on Mount Cameroon, overlooking the bight. Cameroon is a bilingual country, reflecting its history as British and French mandates of the League of Nations. Typical educated Cameroonians are quadrilingual. As members of one of the 250 linguistically distinct tribes, they first learn their tribal dialect, then pidgin, and then French and English. We lived in the anglophone part of Cameroon, where students speak an excellent English in the classroom, despite their preference for pidgin.

Cameroon is a ''one-man democracy.'' The long-term president is Paul Biya, who opened the political process to opposition political parties in 1990. Despite loosening the reins of power, he has steadfastly remained in control.

Probably due to the economic difficulties in the last decade, Cameroon has earned a reputation as one of the world's most corrupt countries. This reputation saps the willingness of outside donors who might want to provide aid to Cameroon, because the donors can never be sure the money will be spent for its intended purposes. The presence of Peace Corps in Cameroon, dating from 1963, is an example of such aid. In that sense, Janice and I were donors.

We knew that our services were reaching their intended target. Although we wondered why Peace Corps had remained in Cameroon so long and had not been effective enough to be able to leave, we do know that every educated Cameroonian we met fondly remembered at least one Peace Corps volunteer teacher. We also had a mild economic effect in our village because we spent our Peace Corps salary there. The combined economic effect of the approximately 140 volunteers in Cameroon, in that sense, is substantial.

The summer of 2002, generously supported by Rotary International Foundation, Janice and I returned to Cameroon for two months, bringing with us funds donated by a number of philanthropic individuals. While I brought a container of used computers to the University of Buea and taught classes in computer science, Janice patiently investigated how to donate the funds to worthy institutions so that we could be fairly sure the funds would not be diverted.

In the end, we feel we got a lot of bang for relatively few bucks, contributing to the construction of two health clinics, to an orphanage, to a primary school, and to an anti-AIDS campaign.

Edwin J. Kay of Bethlehem is professor of computer science and engineering at Lehigh University.

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory.

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February 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Folk-Singer Steve Schuch releases "Trees of Life" 26 Feb Christopher Bartlett maintains Marine Protected Area 25 Feb Joseph Frey uses amputation experience to help others 25 Feb James McCann concerned by maize in Ethiopia 25 Feb Sen. Obama says PC can help improve diplomacy 24 Feb PCVs help remove batteries in Belize 24 Feb Jimmy Carter praises mother's PC service 24 Feb Craig D. Wandke's lunar passion began in Honduras 23 Feb Char Andrews discusses her experience with cancer 23 Feb Beverly Seckinger tells stories through film 23 Feb J. Tyler Dickovick: As Togo goes, so may go Africa 23 Feb Andres Hernandez searches for PCV for 40 years 23 Feb Bulgaria is now like second home to Aaron Wills 22 Feb Bernadette Roberts to serve as diplomat in Albania 22 Feb USA Freedom Corps downgraded at White House 22 Feb Tom Skeldon seeks to control pit bull trade 21 Feb Gabriela Lena Frank writes music on Dad's PCV service 21 Feb

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Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

Read the stories and leave your comments.