"If we don't do this now, we may never do it," Dewing says, sitting recently next to her husband at a picnic table behind their Elm Street home. "It's not that staying here would be wrong. But life is short, and I want to live it as much as possible and experience things that are very different from what I'm used to."
Curt McCormack and Nicole Dewing will sell their home, join the Peace Corps and head off to Senegal
Montpelier couple gives up Vermont comforts for Senegal service
Burlington Free Press
Burlington, Vt.
July 10. 2005
Curt McCormack and Nicole Dewing have a good thing going in Vermont. McCormack, a former seven-term legislator and Rutland mayoral candidate, is an advocate for environmental and low-income issues. Dewing, a former Montpelier city councilor, is a lobbyist and spokeswoman for the Vermont State Employees Association.
They live in a nice house in Montpelier. They have a good marriage, successful careers and a wide circle of friends. McCormack also has two grown children from a first marriage. In two months, McCormack, 53, and Dewing, 40, will leave it all behind. They will sell their home, join the Peace Corps and head off to Senegal.
Why?
"If we don't do this now, we may never do it," Dewing says, sitting recently next to her husband at a picnic table behind their Elm Street home. "It's not that staying here would be wrong. But life is short, and I want to live it as much as possible and experience things that are very different from what I'm used to.
McCormack nods. He believes in being a global citizen and says it troubles him the world is no closer to becoming a true global community despite advances in communication and travel. He also says change is good for the soul.
"You know when you have that bad feeling that life is going by too quickly?" he asks. "Usually, you feel that way because you haven't changed things, you're stuck on a treadmill." Dewing and McCormick are part of a trend of older volunteers working for the Peace Corps. Six percent of Peace Corps volunteers are older than 50, compared to 1 percent 25 years ago. The average age of volunteers is now 28, compared to 23 then. There are 7,733 Peace Corps volunteers working in 72 countries.
McCormack and Dewing say they began to think about unplugging from Vermont and joining the Peace Corps in early 2004 after learning that Dewing would be unable to bear children.
Both are experienced travelers -- Dewing's early childhood was spent in Holland and France -- but their two-year hitch in Senegal will be different from what they've done before. By Peace Corps rules, each can bring only 80 pounds of belongings.
"That forces you to decide what's really important to you," McCormack says. Dewing says she expects there will be times she'll wonder if they made the right choice. "There will be days when I ask, 'Why am I here when I could be back in Montpelier with my friends, sipping iced tea and having a barbecue?'"
In Senegal, McCormack will work as a small-business development adviser; Dewing, as an eco-tourism consultant. The country of 10.5 million people on the western tip of Africa is a former French colony. Peanuts are its biggest export. Malaria and deforestation are major problems. The United Nations classifies Senegal as one of the world's needier countries.
Being in the Peace Corps means McCormack and Dewing will be American goodwill emissaries, a role they say they are comfortable with despite their disapproval for President Bush and his policies. "It's like being in a family," Dewing says. "I can criticize my mother all I want, but damn it, don't you say anything bad about her."
