In four days, Brian and Heather Awsumb will pack up the car, kiss their relatives goodbye and drive to the airport. The couple has joined the Peace Corps and will be traveling to Botswana, Africa, where they will work with local and international groups to help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS



In four days, Brian and Heather Awsumb will pack up the car, kiss their relatives goodbye and drive to the airport. The couple has joined the Peace Corps and will be traveling to Botswana, Africa, where they will work with local and international groups to help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS

Couple prepares for Peace Corps mission

by Elizabeth Coe
Special to The Gazette
Mar. 9, 2005

Caption: Heather and Brian Awsumb prepare to embark on a two-year Peace Corps mission to Botswana, Africa where they will work with local and international groups to help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.

In four days, Brian and Heather Awsumb will pack up the car, kiss their relatives goodbye and drive to the airport. They won't return for more than two years.

They're carrying on a legacy of volunteers that began 44 years ago in the mind of President John F. Kennedy, and today, has become a reality for more than 178,000 Americans.

The couple has joined the Peace Corps and will be traveling to Botswana, Africa, where they will work with local and international groups to help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.

"This is going to completely change my life," said Brian, 25. "You divide your life into everything that happened before the Peace Corps and then everything that happened afterwards."

Botswana is one of the areas in the world with the highest HIV rate, Brian said, and although the government is doing all it can, volunteers are needed to help train infected mothers and take care of abandoned children.

"This is something we've wanted to do for a while," he said. "We've been reading about the AIDS crisis in Africa and we decided we want to help people and make a difference."

Brian, a former legislative assistant for U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), said he has never known someone infected with HIV or AIDS, but he and his wife want to do all they can to help fight the disease.

He said he worked with someone who joined the Peace Corps in Armenia, which made him think more about the process. Heather, 27, worked as a spokeswoman for Professional Airways System Specialists, and said she also knew a co-worker who spent time with the Peace Corps.

Former Peace Corps volunteers told them it would be a positive experience, the Awsumbs said.

Today, about 20 percent of all work completed by the Peace Corps involves HIV or AIDS, said Peace Corps spokesman Lyn Bell.

The Peace Corps has intensified its role in the global effort to fight HIV and AIDS by training volunteers as educators and advocates of prevention and education, he said.

When it first began in the '60s, the focus was on education, agriculture and the environment, Bell said, but the Peace Corps' initiatives have grown to include business and health issues.

The Awsumbs will train in Africa with about 30 others and once they learn about the technical aspects of their job and some of the native language, Setswana, they'll be taken to their site in Botswana.

While living in Africa, the Awsumbs will live like the people they are serving -- they will immerse themselves in the culture, Heather said.

Neither of them have experienced a trip like this, Heather said, and they are a little bit nervous about the adjustments.

"It will be hard living without the day-to-day normal things that we take for granted," she said. "I think everything will be challenging, but I'm trying to go in with no expectations about what it will be like."

In order to have success as a Peace Corps volunteer, Brian said, you need to have an adventurous spirit and you need to be open-minded and willing to follow your dreams.

The Awsumbs have lived in the Washington, D.C., for about four years and met while living in Utah as students of Southern Utah University. They say they are ready for the adventure and plan to take as much as they can away from their experience.

"Most of all, I want to learn to be flexible," Heather said. "With the Peace Corps, that's the number one thing you do. It makes you open to anything and it teaches you about other cultures and how to get along with other people."

Brian said he wants to learn to become more resourceful and flexible as well as learn to adapt to a different culture.

Heather said her family will definitely be worried, but they are completely supportive of the couple's decision.

Although they both acknowledge they'll miss their family and the comforts of living at home, the Awsumbs say the trip will be worth it for the benefit they'll bring to those in need.

"It's rewarding to be able to go just to serve the people who need help," Heather said. "And also when we come back, it will have given us a lot of experiences and skills that we'll be able to use in the future."

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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RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter.

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March 5, 2005: RPCV Groups in the News San Diego RPCVs host reception with Gaddi Vasquez on March 6 4 Mar Alaska RPCVs speak for dividend 4 Mar Western North Carolina's RPCVs sponsor Africa Night on March 6 3 Mar Maryland RPCVs lobby their Senators for Peace Corps 3 Mar Connecticut RPCVs hold fundraiser on March 5 3 Mar Charles Baquet speaks at Louisiana PC Breakfast on March 4 28 Feb RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.

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March 5, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Senate FR Committee approves $345 M PC budget 4 Mar RPCV's "Kennedy's Kitchen" records second CD 4 Mar Sam Farr asks Army to reconsider burial policy 3 Mar Bayanihan jewelry designed by Philippines RPCV 2 Mar Todd Vetter receives calling during PC service 2 Mar Sargent Shriver still on Washington's A-list 2 Mar Photographer Bill Owens publishes new book 2 Mar Crisis Corps to open new program in Sri Lanka 28 Feb PC wants new stories for "The Great Adventure" 28 Feb Ukraine PCV asks "Is Bush right on Iraq?" 28 Feb Carol Bellamy defends "feminism" in aiding children 28 Feb John Bridgeland discusses role as Bush assistant 28 Feb Paul Theroux recalls high times with Hunter Thompson 28 Feb Elaine Chao Leads Delegation to Uruguay 28 Feb RPCV reunites with friend after 40 years 27 Feb Kay Muldoon-Ibrahim's photography on exhibit 27 Feb Jim Doyle displays political brilliance on tax cuts 26 Feb

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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.

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.

Read the stories and leave your comments.