Global allure draws volunteer Tony Quintero to Madagascar



Global allure draws volunteer Tony Quintero to Madagascar

Global allure draws volunteer

When Tony Quintero of Richmond was a little boy, he loved to hear the stories his globe-trotting uncle, Alfredo Serrano, told. Serrano used to joke that he might put the child in his suitcase and take him on his journeys.

That may be what has inspired Quintero's love of travel.

The 22-year-old begins his own odyssey Nov. 6, with a 27-month Peace Corps stint in Madagascar. But it's hardly Quintero's first foray off the beaten track.

A 2000 graduate of Richmond High School, Quintero attended Alliant International University in Mexico City and Nairobi, Kenya. He learned about the university while attending a college fair. Alliant offers a cross-cultural view for students working toward degrees in liberal arts, education, business, or behavioral and social sciences.

Quintero learned about the Peace Corps while traveling in France, where he met a volunteer who had just finished her service in Poland and shared stories of her adventures there.

It took more than a year for the corps to complete Quintero's application process -- background search, medical and dental check-ups, skills testing and an interview -- and to get approval from Madagascar.

Because Quintero has worked in hospitals in the past, his job with the Peace Corps will be health educator, teaching HIV/AIDS awareness and condom use, and helping mothers learn how to care for their children.

"I'm looking forward to the experience," Quintero said by phone. "I love to travel, see new things, new cultures."

And he hopes to improve his French, which he studied in high school and college.

Quintero's first stop will be a three-day stay in Philadelphia, where he will meet with others going to Madagascar. They will live for three months with host families in Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital, so they can become fluent in the national languages, French and Malagasy, and learn the culture while receiving their training.

"It's not going to be easy," Quintero said.

For one thing, there is very little chance he will return home during his two-year commitment for a visit with his parents, Ana and Jose Quintero of Richmond, and his younger brother, Andres Serrano.

Still, he feels the chance to stay in a rural village, teaching and living as the locals live, is worth the sacrifice.

"What's two years being gone?" he asked. "I'll meet new people, new friends."

When this story was posted in November 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Your vote makes a difference Make a difference on November 2 - Vote. Then take our RPCV exit poll. See how RPCV's are voting and take a look at the RPCV voter demographic. Finally leave a message on why you voted for John Kerry or for George Bush. Previous poll results here.

Kerry reaches out to Returned Volunteers The Kerry campaign wants the RPCV vote. Read our interview with Dave Magnani, Massachusetts State Senator and Founder of "RPCVs for Kerry," and his answers to our questions about Kerry's plan to triple the size of the Peace Corps, should the next PC Director be an RPCV, and Safety and Security issues. Then read the "RPCVs for Kerry" statement of support and statements by Dr. Robert Pastor, Ambassador Parker Borg, and Paul Oostburg Sanz made at the "RPCVs for Kerry" Press Conference. RPCV Carl Pope says the key to winning this election is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for your candidate to actually go to the polls. Take our poll and tell us what you are doing to support your candidate. Finally read our wrap-up of the eight RPCVs in Senate and House races around the country and where the candidates are in their races.

---

Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before. Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security.

Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Peace Corps at the Republican National Convention: "We're the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children." Schwarzenegger has previously acknowledged his debt to his father-in-law, Peace Corps Founding Director Sargent Shriver, for teaching him "the joy of public service" and Arnold is encouraging volunteerism by creating California Service Corps and tapping his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead it. Leave your comments and who can come up with the best Current Events Funny?

Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and can you come up with a Political Funny?

Read the stories and leave your comments.