Emily Carleton, at age 78, is on a two-year post in Namibia on the African West Coast, joining a growing number of seniors choosing to spend retirement years laboring for little pay in poor countries with few comforts of home
Never too late to 'do for your country'
Instead of retiring, seniors are creating a future in the Peace Corps
Published February 28. 2004 8:30AM
BY SUSAN SWARTZ
NYT REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS
Gerry Carleton taught school throughout the country and abroad, married and had a family, retired and loaded up on volunteer projects. She organized her 60th high school reunion last summer. Now, at age 78, her future is with the Peace Corps.
Carleton, of Santa Rosa, Calif., is on a two-year post in Namibia on the African West Coast, joining a growing number of seniors choosing to spend retirement years laboring for little pay in poor countries with few comforts of home.
"It makes me feel like I'm part of the future," said Carleton, before embarking on her journey.
Ginny Benson, 71, knows the feeling.
The Guerneville, Calif., resident is awaiting an assignment to a region in central Asia - "Gengis Khan territory" - in the former Soviet Union.
Even though the Peace Corps is often thought of as a service organization for young people, Dennis McMahon at the San Francisco regional office said the Corps has been seeing a gradual increase in average age for some time.
"It seems to be a trend," McMahon said. "People are retiring younger and healthier. A lot of them say they were drawn to the Peace Corps in the 1960s and 1970s, but it wasn't right for them then."
In his 1961 inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy said to the nation "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." On March 1 that same year, Kennedy set up the Peace Corps as a cross-cultural program with Americans voluntarily sharing their skills at the grass-roots level in developing countries. Its first director was Sargent Shriver, better known today as the father of Maria Shriver, wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Corps members teach, advise in business, work in health care and build land projects. Some 10 percent of today's Peace Corps volunteers are older than 50. By comparison, only 1 percent of volunteers were older than 50 in the 1960s and only 4 percent in the 1970s.
Peace Corps numbers in general have fluctuated through the years. At the height of its popularity there were 15,000 volunteers in one year, and at its low, 5,000.
Currently, there are approximately 7,500 Americans in the Peace Corps, said McMahon.
Carleton said what drew her to the work is that "the Peace Corps doesn't force itself on the people they serve. They don't go anywhere they're not invited, and offer those countries an inexpensive entree into the modern world."
She won't know exactly where in Namibia she'll be assigned until she completes 10 weeks of training in the capital city of Windhoek, but she is delighted with the uncertainty.
"I think I've done everything here," she said, ticking off a list that includes the American Association of University Women and numerous other activities and groups.
"I was burned out, spinning my wheels. I told myself: I've just got to move on."
Carleton was inspired to investigate the Peace Corps when she heard Benson, another AAUW member, talking about applying.
"She had gray hair, too. I thought: What a neat idea."
Benson, also a former teacher and a consultant on early childhood education for the California Department of Education before retiring in 1995, expects she'll be training teachers.
"Education is a very peaceful way of beginning a country," said Benson, who will pack along a laptop, a digital camera and her guitar. "I love teaching teachers. I retired at age 64 but kept popping back into the business."
It was after moving to Guerneville from Sacramento and elevating her house out of flood reach and burying her parents that she sat back and wondered, "Now what do I do?"
"I have a Quaker background," said Benson. "Their motto is, you do. You don't just talk about it."
Single and the mother of two sons, one of whom was in the Peace Corps in Thailand in the '70s, Benson considers her post-retirement life a learning experience.
"When I was young I was educated to work," she said, and that prepared her professionally. But it didn't teach her all she wants to know.
"Now, I'm trying to make up for that by traveling and reading."
There's no age limit in the Peace Corps and there is the precedent of Miss Lillian, the mother of President Jimmy Carter, who served with the Peace Corps in India until age 81.
An 81-year-old Washington man is now in Kenya with his 79-year-old wife. The record is held by a Honolulu man who was 87 when he finished his service in Hungary.
Older applicants have to qualify like everyone else. The basic requirements are a bachelor's degree, although years of experience with a desirable skill in fields such as business and agriculture can substitute for formal education.
Carleton has degrees in political science and English literature and a master's degree in African studies and teaching. She and her late husband, a petrochemical engineer, were world travelers and visited Namibia twice.
"When the assignment officer told me I was going to Namibia, I said, 'Hot dog,' " said Carleton.
Applicants also must pass a series of physical exams, and health screening helps determine the placement, said McMahon.
"You may have a condition that doesn't preclude you from service but limits your range of options. We want to make sure there's medical care to meet the need."
A tall woman with a presence as commanding as her deep voice, Carleton cruised through all her physical exams, including tests for AIDS, bone density, teeth and eyes.
"My doctor wrote at the bottom of my exam. "She's 78 years old. Take her."
The recruiter who met with Carleton is a former Peace Corps volunteer and teacher, Marilyn Petersen from Petaluma, who was in Uzbekistan for almost four years, going in when she was 57.
She lived with a family in Bukhoro while she taught English and helped local students publish a book on folklore. There were a few hardships, including strict water rationing in the summer and gas shortages in the winter.
"We lived close to the earth," said Petersen, who encourages older people to give the Corps a chance. "If you're not in search of a new career and winding down, this is a nice way to top off your career," she tells potential applicants.
To hear Petersen talk, living in an ancient city, mingling in streets with goats and sheep, attending Muslim weddings and washing her clothes by hand provided one of the highlights of her life.
"I got much more out of it than I would have in my 20s. It's great being an older person in Uzbekistan. Everyone defers to age there, even if you're only three years older. They consider age as having gained wisdom, and they follow you around wanting to learn from you. That's a big difference from here."
But there are risks.
A recent investigative piece on the safety of Peace Corps volunteers by the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News showed an increase in assaults over the past 10 years.
McMahon said that while there has been an increase in minor assaults - such as touching, shoving and verbal threats - major assaults, including rape and injuries, are actually down.
"The bottom line is Peace Corps is an adventure. We're constantly working to minimize the risks to volunteers, but we don't want control them," he said.
Petersen said it's possible to live comfortably. The Peace Corps pays for housing and volunteers receive an allowance that is equal to the salary of a local professional. Depending on the country, that can range from $25 to $200 a month or more.
"Coming back was harder for me than going," said Petersen, because of the cultural clash.
"The first commercial I heard when I came back was 'Does your dog have doggy breath?' Dogs in Uzbekistan are lucky to get a piece of bread to eat."
(Susan Swartz writes for The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif.)
Miss Lillian, the mother of President Jimmy Carter, Mill Lillian,o served with the Peace Corps in India until age 81.
President Jimmy Carter's mother, Miss Lillian, served until age 81
