Erin Wehage sets off for three months of training in Honduras and then a two-year assignment in the Peace Corps
Helping runs in the family for Peace Corps volunteer
Oak Grove's Erin Wehage, 24, sets off Sunday for three months of training in Honduras and then a two-year assignment
Thursday, August 12, 2004
DENNIS McCARTHY
OAK GROVE -- Erin Wehage says she doesn't mind getting a little dirt under her fingernails or roughing it in the great outdoors.
She'll need to maintain that attitude for the next 27 months, with at least the first three adapting to the dry, dusty villages and steamy jungles of Honduras. The 24-year-old Oak Grove woman leaves Sunday as a Peace Corps volunteer.
"I wanted to improve my Spanish-speaking skills and join a well-known structured program that deals with native cultures," said Wehage, who spent four months of her senior year at Pacific University in a work-study program in Grenada, Spain. She graduated in 2002 from Pacific with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology, with a minor in Spanish.
Wehage comes from a family with a long history of helping others. Her 17-year-old brother, Jeff, a senior at Rex Putnam High School, helps tutor students at Riverside Elementary School in Oak Grove. Older brother Tim, 28, works with a center in Gladstone that assists troubled teens. Ken Wehage, her father, has volunteered to coach youth football for years in the Rex Putnam area.
And her mother, Diane Wehage, joined the Clackamas County District Attorney's Victim Assistance program as a volunteer in 1982 and has directed the program for the past three years.
Erin Wehage said her mother has been a huge inspiration.
"Growing up, I remember our home was a place where kids could come to hang out because my mom was so deep into helping others," she said. When Wehage was a senior at Rex Putnam, her mother counseled students on drug and alcohol abuse.
"I didn't get invited to too many parties," she said.
She worked as a volunteer for her mother in the Victims Assistance program for 15 months after graduating from college. She answered the crisis line, provided victim intervention and helped law enforcement agencies find aid for victims.
Wehage said she was a tomboy growing up.
"I didn't mind getting dirty," she said. "I used to love going camping with my dad."
As a girl, she was placed on a boys soccer team because the person choosing sides thought her name was Aaron, she said. When the team's coach discovered the mistake, he switched her to a girls team, much to her chagrin.
"I hated it," she said. It wasn't as rough and tumble as she liked, so she asked the coach to put her back on the boys team. He agreed, and Wehage said she more than held her own.
She played soccer and softball in high school and was a member of the school's dance team. She also managed to work 25 to 30 hours a week at a Gladstone day-care facility.
Wehage said she is looking forward to new challenges in Honduras. After leaving Portland, she flies to Miami for three days of Peace Corps orientation before flying to Honduras Aug. 18.
Then it's three months of training before she receives her assignment for the next two years. She doesn't know where she will wind up.
"My friend, Ginaz, served two years in Paraguay, and she gave me some tips on what to expect," she said, on such things as weather, what to wear and the slow mail service.
"I'm leaving a lot of people who care about me behind," she said, but it won't be any easier on her family.
"We're going to miss her big time," said Diane Wehage. Still, Wehage said she and her husband support Erin's choice and are happy she's going into an established organization. She said the Peace Corps has assured them if there is even the slightest hint of political upheaval or danger in Honduras, the volunteers will be evacuated.
If Erin Wehage is worried, she conceals her anxiety well. She talks of teaching high school Spanish or pursuing a career in occupational therapy someday after leaving the Peace Corps.
"I'm coming back home next June to see my brother (Jeff) graduate from high school," she said determinedly.
Dennis McCarthy: 503-294-5914; dennismccarthy@news.oregonian.com
