While the Peace Corps initially appealed to college students as a way to see the world and pad their resumes, many older adults are joining those young adults in answering the call. "Lately, we've been finding that a lot of retirees are going overseas to help, and their experience and the things they can contribute to the Peace Corps is very much valued," said Maria Lee, Peace Corps spokeswoman.
Nearly 45 years after its creation, it's clear this is not your grandfather's Peace Corps. Or maybe it is.
Volunteers for peace
Past and present community members who answered the call share tales of helping in developing countries
BY CHRISTIAN HILL
THE OLYMPIAN
It should be no surprise that the Olympia area, noted for its social activism, has many residents with ties to the Peace Corps.
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Fourteen residents are now volunteering overseas in faraway places such as Botswana, Swaziland and Togo. And there's enough of a base of past volunteers that some are forming a local chapter of the National Peace Corps Association, an independent organization that produces global education programs to promote peace.
But nearly 45 years after its creation, it's clear this is not your grandfather's Peace Corps. Or maybe it is. The genesis of the agency was a speech that then-U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy gave in 1960. He challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country and the cause of peace by working in developing countries.
The agency was established a year later. Since then, more than 182,000 Peace Corps volunteers have worked in 138 countries on issues ranging from agricultural efficiency and AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation.
While the Peace Corps initially appealed to college students as a way to see the world and pad their resumes, many older adults are joining those young adults in answering the call.
"Lately, we've been finding that a lot of retirees are going overseas to help, and their experience and the things they can contribute to the Peace Corps is very much valued," said Maria Lee, Peace Corps spokeswoman.
This has helped the Peace Corps reach a 30-year high in the number of volunteers overseas.
As the organization looks to its future, here are stories of local people who have represented its present and past:
'I'm not a grandmother yet'
At the age many are preparing for retirement, Suzy McDonald is readying for an adventure that would give those half her age pause.
McDonald, in her fifties, has accepted a two-year Peace Corps assignment teaching in Namibia, a desert nation on the southwestern coast of Africa.
"I thought this is a chance to have an adventure and make a difference in the world," she said, sitting in her parents' home that overlooks Budd Inlet.
McDonald became interested after finding herself at a crossroads in life. She was divorced and working as a substitute teacher in Minnesota. Her grown children lived on the East Coast; her family and friends were on the West Coast. She taught at Olympia's Jefferson Middle School in the late 1970s, and one of her children was born here.
She hosted numerous foreign exchange students, taught in China for three weeks and then spent a year teaching in Thailand in 2002. She considered returning to Thailand but decided on the Peace Corps.
"I'm really psyched," she said. "I hope I'm not overly confident, but to me, it's a logical progression and something I'm ready to do."
She sold her home and packed all of her belongings. She stayed with her parents until her departure earlier this month.
She is the oldest of the group headed overseas to Africa, but she isn't concerned because she considers herself a young 50-something.
"I'm not a grandmother yet," she said.
It runs in the family
In his old office at a law firm in Seattle, Amon Johnson put up a giant world map that took up an entire wall.
It was saved from his time in college, where he majored in geography. Soon, the map morphed into a warning of an unfulfilled life for someone settling into his professional career and watching his friends marry and buy homes. He panicked.
"It seemed like it would be very easy not to get out after starting that kind of stuff," said Johnson, 31, a graduate of Olympia's Capital High School.
His decision wasn't surprising. Both his mother, Diana, and grandmother, Pat Ring, volunteered in the early 1970s.
He spent two years in Guatemala, serving as an adviser to the mayor and City Council of Jocotan, a town of 5,000. He helped establish regular garbage pickup and middle schools in what had been an exclusively elementary education system.
"The level of things they were trying to fix was so basic for us because it's something we see every day," he said during a telephone call from Playa El Tunco, El Salvador, where he has accepted a one-year assignment working for a community development association promoting tourism and the environment.
Johnson chatted while supervising a project to install new water pipes that will serve 52 homes. The families that will move into the homes are each providing a family member to work on the project for $6 a day.
He said it's a different Peace Corps than it was when his mother and grandmother served. His cell phone allows him instant contact with people back home; in decades past, assignments left many volunteers out of contact for weeks and months.
"They were out of contact with the world; I'm not," he said. "I can get on a bus and go 15 minutes and have access to the Internet."
He said he's unsure what he wants to do when his assignment is finished but his desire to see the world hasn't been entirely quelled.
"It's hard not to learn something every day," he said of living in El Salvador. "It's not so hard not to learn something every day back at home."
A career step
It's been four decades since Bob Findlay first volunteered for the Peace Corps, spending two years in Colombia as an architect.
He was 22 years old at the time and working toward his graduate degree in architecture. He took a break because he was questioning going into a profession many regarded as elitist.
During his assignment, Findlay, 64, realized teaching could give him more influence than designing a building.
He spent 30 years teaching architecture at Iowa State University in Ames, then accepted shorter Peace Corps assignments in 1970, 1998 and 1999.
He retired and settled in Olympia in 2001.
"It gave me a career in education," he said of his Peace Corps experience. "I had the confidence to do that and felt clear enough in my motivation, in my values to do that."
How to join the peace corps
Residents interested in volunteering for the Peace Corps must be at least 18 years old and a U.S. citizen. Knowing a second language is not necessary. Holding a four-year college degree will help the chances of acceptance.
The application process is fairly rigorous. Applicants must write an essay, undergo an intensive interview and secure medical clearance, which local volunteers say can be involved and costly depending on the applicant's medical insurance and existing health condition. In most cases, having a pre-existing medical condition does not eliminate an applicant from consideration.
There is a strong demand for educators since many countries want volunteers to teach English as a second language. The Peace Corps also needs those who specialize in agricultural disciplines, including farming.
Those accepted are given 27-month assignments, and the Peace Corps pays for their flights to and from their assignments, provides shelter while they are there, and provides a monthly allowance for food and daily needs. Volunteers receive dental and medical insurance and 24 days of vacation a year.
Upon completing their assignments, volunteers receive $6,075 to help their transition back home. They are eligible for a health insurance plan for as many as 18 months after they return from an assignment.
Christian Hill writes for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5427 or at chill@theolympian.com.
